Continental Monthly, Vol. I, No. V, May, 1862 by Various

V >> Various >> Continental Monthly, Vol. I, No. V, May, 1862

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The editor of the pamphlet has good grounds for asserting that the
K.G.C. embraces among its members thousands of secretly disloyal men in
the North, and that these are of all grades of society. Let it, however,
be remembered that previous to the breaking out of this war there were
many who did not see Disunion as they now view it, and that their ties
with the South were often of the most brotherly kind. Indeed, when
Secession was first openly agitated, and until Sumter fired the Northern
heart, myriads who would now gladly disown those words were wont to say:
'Well, if they are determined to go, I suppose we must lose them.' Would
Fernando Wood have ever _dared_ at that time to publish a proclamation
recommending the secession of New-York as a free city had there not then
existed a singular apathy, or rather a strange blindness, to the
horrible results which must flow from disunion? In those days the
country _was_ blind--it has seen many an old error and delusion
dispelled since then--unfortunately too many among us have still much to
learn! Let those who still oppose _Emancipation_ remember that a day
will come when they, too, will unavoidably appear as the tories of the
great Revolution now in progress!

Our informant declared that should he write an exposition of the K.G.C.,
it would differ in many respects from that given in the _Journal_,
forgetting apparently, that Mr. Prentice had already explicitly stated
that since the great question of Disunion sprung up, the K.G.C. had
materially changed its character, and must unavoidably, from its very
nature, continue to change and modify details to suit new exigencies.
The whole history of _secret society_, whether in its forms Masonic,
Templar, Illuminee, Carbonari, Philadelphian, or Marianne; whether
universal, political, social, military, or revolutionary, is a history
of modifications of mere detail, compelled by circumstances. The mere
forms of initiation, the Ritual of the Order, pass-words, grips, and
signs, are of comparatively small importance, in fact, they appear
supremely silly; and were it not undoubtedly true that the mass of the
initiated were correspondingly silly, though very wicked, fellows, we
might almost wonder that such rococo nonsense should be deemed essential
to the management of a powerful political organization. The weaker
brethren, unable to penetrate by the strong will and by 'spontaneous
secresy,' to cooeperation with the leaders and to the arcana, have always
required the tomfoolery of ceremony, and among the K.G.C. it has not
been spared. Those desirous of learning what the forms were or are in
which the action of the Order has been enveloped, we refer to pamphlet
itself, premising that, of its kind, it is quite curious, ingenious, and
interesting. The formula of the Obligation of the First Degree, as given
by Mr. Prentice, shows that the first field of operation, as originally
intended, was Mexico, but that it is also held to be a duty to offer
service to any Southern State to aid in repelling a Northern army.
'Whether the Union is reconstructed or not, the Southern States must
foster any scheme having for its object the Americanization and
Southernization of Mexico, so that, in either case, our success will be
certain.' The initiation of the Second Degree is unimportant, save that
it declares that the head-quarters of the Organization are at Monterey.
From the Third Degree we learn that 'candidates must be familiar with
the work of the two former degrees; must have been born in '58,'
(meaning a slave State,) or if in 59, (a free State,) he must be a
citizen; 60, (a Protestant,) and 61, (a slaveholder.) A candidate who
was born in 58, (a slave State,) need not be 61, (a slaveholder,)
provided he can give 62, (evidence of character as a Southern man.)' The
'object' of it all is 'to form a council for the K.G.C., and organize a
government for Mexico.' It is to be remarked that a stanch '57,' or
knight of the Golden Circle, is made to swear that he will never
dishonor the wife or daughter of a brother K.G.C., _knowing them to be
such_, that he be made to kneel and say his prayers to God, and
immediately after is requested to pay ten dollars, and to declare that
he will to the utmost of his ability oppose the admission of any
confirmed drunkard, professional gambler, rowdy, convict, felon,
abolitionist, negro, Indian, minor, or foreigner to membership in any
department of the Circle.

Abolitionists are to be found out, and reported to George Bickley, a
miserable quack and 'confidence man,' a person long familiarly spoken of
by the press as a mere Jeremy Diddler, but who has been a useful tool to
shrewder men in managing for them this precious Order. The member is to
do all in his power to 'build up a public sentiment in his State
favorable to the K.G.C., and to aid in the expulsion of free negroes
from the South, that they may be sent to Mexico.' Roman Catholics,
foreigners, abolitionists, and Yankee teachers are all to be watched and
reported. In ease of success in conquering Mexico, every thing possible
is to be done in order to prevent any Roman Catholic from being
appointed to any office of profit or trust. 'I will endeavor to cause to
be opened to the public all nunneries, monasteries, or convents. Any
minister, holding any place under government, must be Protestant.' When
we reflect on the fact that the Southern system aims at a perfectly
oligarchic unity and consolidation of power, this dread of any external
possible influence, whether religious or civic, will appear natural
enough. Mexico is, however, to be the great field of future action, and
Mexico must be cleared of its priests. The _peon_ system is to be
reduced to '89,' (perpetual slavery.) The successor of 'quack and
confidence Bickley' has a most unenviable task. For this Coming Man--the
present incumbent being occupied with other duties--is expected to
extend slavery over the whole of Central America, with the judicious
saving clause, 'if it be in his power;' to, acquire Cuba, and to control
the Gulf of Mexico. Having sworn himself to all this, and much other
nonsense, and last--not by any means least--also taken oath to forward
to Confidence Bickley all the fees of every candidate whom he may
initiate, the new Knight listens to the following specimen of elegant
oratory from the Secretary:

'You had better hear the whole degree, and then sign; for unless
we have your entire approbation, we do not wish to commit you to
any thing. I am well aware that this whole scheme is a bold and
daring one, that can but surprise you at first, as it did me, and
for this reason I beg to state a few facts for your consideration.
In the rise and progress of democracy in America, we have seen its
highest attainment. In the very outset it was based on high
religious principles, and adopted as a refuge from despotism. In
the North, Puritanism molded it, and went so far as to leave out
the natural conservative element of all democracies--domestic
slavery. As a result, we have presented now social, religious, and
domestic anarchy. From Millerism, and Spiritualism, every Utopian
idea has numerous advocates. The manufacturer is an aristocrat,
while the working-man is a serf. The latter class, constantly
goaded by poverty, seek a change--they care not what it may be.
Democracy unrestrained by domestic slavery, multiplies the
laboring classes indefinitely, but it debases the mechanic.
Whoever knew a practical shoemaker, or a maker of pin-heads, to
have a _man's_ ambition? They own neither land nor property, and
have no ties to the institutions of the country. The Irishman
emigrates, and the Frenchman stays at home. The one hates his
country, the other adores his. The Frenchman, is a slaveholder and
a _man_--the Irishman is a serf and an outcast. The South is
naturally agricultural; and the farmer being most of the time in
the midst of his growing crops, seeing the open operation of
nature, his mind expands, he grows proud and ambitious of all
around, and feels himself a man. He wants no change, either in
civil, religious, or political affairs. He cultivates the soil,
and it yields him means to purchase labor. He becomes attached to
home and its associations, and remains forever a restrained
Democrat, restrained by moral and civil laws from any and all
overt acts. He needs and makes a centralized government, because
his property is at stake when anarchy prevails.'

The reader is doubtless by this time well weary of this vulgar trash of
the K.G.C., which is only not absolutely ridiculous, because so nearly
connected with most sanguinary aims. Be it borne in mind that the
Southern character has always been eminently receptive of the puerile
and nonsensical, while the vast proportion of semi-savage,
semi-sophomorical minds in Dixie, half-educated and altogether idle and
debauched, has made their land a fertile field for quack Bickleys,
brutal and arrogant Pikes, and other petty tools of greater and more
powerful knaves. The Order becomes, however, a matter for more serious
consideration, when we reflect on the number of Northern men who, to
testify their Southern principles, have become 'Knights,' 'There is
ample and positive proof that the order of K.G.C. is thoroughly
organized in every Northern State as auxiliary to the Southern
rebellion.' It has acted here, as is well known, directly or indirectly,
under different names, such as the Peace Society, the Union Party, the
Constitutional Party, the Democratic Society, Club, or Association, the
Mutual Protection and Self Protection. For much information relative to
these traitors among us, who, whether sworn to the K.G.C. or not, are
working continually to further its aims, we refer our readers to the
pamphlet itself. There can be little doubt that those self-styled
democrats who continually inveigh against Emancipation in every form,
even to the condemning of the moderate and judicious Message of
President Lincoln, are all either the foolish dupes or allies of this
widespread Southern league, many being desirous of directly reinstating
the old Southern tyranny, while the mass simply hope to keep their
record clear of accusation as Abolitionists, in case Secession should
succeed. 'I was a K.G.C. during the war,' would in such case be a most
valuable evidence of fidelity for these bat-like birds-among-birds and
beasts-among-beasts. Deluded by the hope of being all right, no matter
which side may conquer, thousands have sought to pay the initiation fee,
and we need not state have been most gladly received. It is at least
safe to beware of all men who, in times like these, impudently avow
principles identically the same with those which constitute the _real_
basis of Secession. We refer to all who continually inveigh against
_Abolition_ as though that were the great cause of all our troubles, who
cry out that Abolitionists must be put down ere the war can come to an
end, and clamor for the immediate imprisonment of all who are opposed to
slavery.

And while on this subject, we venture to speak a few words on this
oft-reiterated accusation, that the Abolitionists have directly caused
this war, and from which they themselves by no means shrink. Whatever
influence or aid they may have given, it is now becoming clear as day
that no opposition to slavery was ever half so conducive to Secession
and rebellion as _Slavery itself_. Had there never been an Abolitionist
in the North, the self-generated arrogance of the 'institution' must
have spontaneously impelled the Southern party to treason. The exuberant
insolence which induced the most biting expressions of contempt for
labor and serfs, was fully developed in the South long before the days
of Garrison; long even before the Quakers of Pennsylvania put forth
their protest against slavery, a full century ago. The North was accused
by the Southern wolf of troubling the stream, though its course was
directly toward the wished-for victim. It is time that the absurd cry
ceased, and that the South be made to bear its own load of guilt. Ever
arrogant, chafing at the intellectual supremacy of the North, envious of
its prosperity, despising with all the rancor of a lawless 'chivalry'
our regard for the rights of persons, prone to dissipation, and densely
ignorant of the great tendencies to progress which characterize the
civilization of the nineteenth century, the Southerner has ever felt the
same tendency to break away, and be off, which a raw, fiery, conceited
youth feels to sunder wholesome domestic ties. The stimulus was within,
not from without.

It is to be regretted that the editor of this, in so many respects
valuable, pamphlet, in speaking of Northern men of influence who belong
to the K.G.C., or its other aids, should have cited under the vague
heading of 'said to be,' the New-York _Herald, Journal of Commerce,
Express_, 'and a French newspaper' in New-York City, the Boston _Courier
and Post_, the Hartford _Times_, the Albany _Atlas and Argus_, the
Rochester _Union_, the Buffalo _Courier_, the Cincinnati _Enquirer_, the
Detroit _Free Press_, the Chicago _Times_, and the Milwaukee _News_.
While we entertain no doubt that among the editors of these newspapers
are men who are at heart as traitorous and as Southern as their
colleagues of any Richmond journal, [we have ourself seen a small
Secession flag paraded on the desk of an editor of one of the
above-mentioned publications,] we must still protest against any other
than _definite_ charges, even against men whose daily deeds and
utterances of treason have been of more real service to the South than
all the trash and trickery of Quack Bickley himself. It is indeed
charged that 'these are the principal names on the lists of traveling
messengers for those States,' but it should be remembered that such
accusation requires clear proof. With this single exception, we commend
the pamphlet in question as a document well worth perusal and
investigation. The subject, as it stands, appears trashy and
melodramatic; but be it remembered the Southern mind is prone to trash
and romance, and quacks and adventurers would be more likely to be found
actively working to aid treason founded on folly than would men of real
ability.

* * * * *

COLUMBIA'S SAFETY.

Where lies thy strength, my Country--where alone?
Let ages past declare--
Nay, let thine own brief history make known,
Thy sure dependence, where.

'Tis not in boasting--that's the poltroon's wit,
The coward's shield of glass,
A coin whose surface, silver's counterfeit,
With fools alone shall pass.

'Tis not in threats--these are the weapons light
Of brutes, and not of men:
A barking dog's despised; but if he bite,
Wo to his clamors then!

'Tis not in bargains made to cover wrong!
There open weakness lies;
A righteous cause is in itself most strong,
And needs no compromise.

Ten thousand bulwarks which should mock the might
Of armies compassing,
Secure not those, who hold one human right
A secondary thing.

There are some souls so fearful to offend,
They lay their courage low;
And sooner trample o'er a prostrate friend,
Than fail t' embrace a foe.

Safety proceeds from Him alone who lays
Foundations formed to last:
This simple truth concentres all the rays
Of all the ages past.

Th' omnipotence of right, its own shall save,
Though hell itself oppose;
One faithful Abdiel may fearless brave
Unnumbered rebel foes.

Faith, Freedom, Conscience--these are words which give
The true metallic ring!
For these to _die_, were evermore to _live_--
Man's noblest offering.

Rise, then! Columbia's sacred rights restore!
Bid all her foes to flee,
Or perish! Then shall Washington once more
His country's Father be.

* * * * *

URSA MAJOR.

'Once, I went with a giant and a dwarf, to see a bear.'

'Fiddlestick! what a story to tell!' retorted Aunt Hepsibah, 'and these
children, just as like's not, will believe every word of it.'

'O cousin Dick!' chirped those innocents, [_strepitu avido, multum nido
minuriente_], 'tell us all about it; it sounds just like a fairy-tale!'

'Why, there isn't much to tell. Late one evening, not in a great wood,
but a great city, I fell in with an old couple, a huge, hulking fellow,
nearly eight feet high, with a heavy, loutish air, and the most pitiful
little woman you ever saw, hardly taller than his knee. Her arms were
not longer, than a baby's, and her poor little legs trotted along as
fast as they could, to keep up with his sluggish stride. In a clownish,
lubberly sort of way, he seemed to be taking good, kind care of her.
They were on exhibition, it appeared, and (their own show being over for
the night) were going, poor things, to see a certain famous performing
bear.

'Of course, I went with them. We found the showroom nearly deserted. The
bear, a monstrous fellow, bigger than Samson by half, lay on his back,
his huge, hairy chest heaved up like a bullock's, and a great paw,
holding lazily on to one of his bars. His owner, quite fatigued, and
apparently a trifle in liquor, brightened up when he saw his strange
audience, and at once volunteered to repeat the performance.

''This animal, gentlemen,' said he, 'is considerable tired, for I've
been a workin' on him mighty hard to-day. He knows that he's done his
work for the night, and I wouldn't go in with him again for a
fifty-dollar bill, but I shall do it, seeing I've got such distinguished
company,' and he made a sweeping obeisance, comprehending the giant, the
dwarf, and my humble person.

'The performance was really quite remarkable; but I was more interested
in observing my fellow visitors. The dwarf looked up with her bright
little eyes, and the giant looked down with his great leaden ones, while
the bear jumped over the man's head, and pretended to fight him and hug
him, and finally, walking on his hind-feet, stooped down, and took his
head into the horrid cavern of those great jaws. Out of breath, and red
in the face, the enthusiastic operator wound up by plucking a handful of
long hair from the flank of the much-enduring creature, and presented it
to us, as a souvenir of our visit.'

'I say, when he had him in his mouth, it was 'bear and forbear,' wasn't
it?' put in that scapegrace, Tom, who is always doing something of the
sort.

'Silence! and don't interrupt the court, unless you can say something
better than that. Well, let me tell you, I have been in very genteel
society, without feeling any thing so human, so catholic, so
pantheistical, (in the right sense,) as I did in making one of that
queer company. The great lout of a giant, with not soul enough in him to
fill out his circumference; the sad little dwarf, with not room enough
for hers; the poor, patient, necromanted savage of a bear; the smart,
steely, grog-loving, praise-loving keeper; the curious, bookish,
indolent traveler. Expressions, all of the grand, never-weary
Life-Intention, how widely variant! yet all children, and equally
beloved, of the Infinite Father.

'In four of the five cases, it should seem, the creative energy had set
about to fashion its supposed ultimate and perfect work, and with what
result? At first blush, the failure seemed most conspicuous in my
companions, especially the big and the little one; but a small
introspection might, perhaps, have disclosed a deeper disappointment in
a nobler aim. The bear was the only success among us. He was perfect in
his line, though sadly at a disadvantage; ravished from his
forest-world, and bedeviled with alien civilization. And note (as that
splendid prig, Ruskin, would say) with what mathematical accuracy
nature, in her less ambitious essays, goes to the proposed end. The
bee's flight--a specimen wonder--is not straighter than her course. In
her lower business, she needs no backers. Meddling only monsters her. It
is only when she comes to the grand, resulting combination, for which
she has so long been fussing and preparing--when she tries her hand
('her 'prentice han', I fear,) on man, that she falters, hesitates, and
lastly compromises for something lamentably less than she bargained for.

'Her apparent purpose seems almost inevitably thwarted by some
influence--shall we call it malign? or rather shall we consider (as
perhaps we should in all short-comings) that 'tis only a matter of time
and the comparative degree? a piece of circuition needed for variety of
development, and, of necessity, to eventuate in forms fresher, more
_prononces_, nearer perfect than any thing we now wot or conceive of.

'To my thinking, the hitch is, that just at this point, she has got
complicated with the wills and motions of intelligences already
individualized and eliminated, and forever alienated from her immediate
impulse. And if this be so, depend on it, the _onus_ of the attempted
perfection comes a good deal upon us. The mighty Mother, unsatisfied in
her fantastic longings, and troubled generally [_Greek: dia to
tiktein_], should be helped and not bothered by her children. We can
remove vexations, can arrange conditions, keep the house quiet
generally. At any rate, we can take such care as may be of the smaller
young ones, help them up-stairs, or at least keep them from tumbling
down again--we bigger babies that have crawled or been pushed a few
steps up the awful stairway of the Inconceivable Ascending-Spiral.'

'I say, Dick, stop your metaphysics.'

'You are quite right, Tom, they are threadbare enough; but these happen
to be _physics_. I don't mean such as you had to take last week, after
that sleigh-ride. Well, I remember feeling this intense communism, this
voltaic _rapport_ with nature in a like way once before, on seeing a
covey of strange creatures, Aztecs, Albinos, wild Africans, busied, by
chance, in a game of romps together, the pure overflow of animal
spirits. It was a curious scene. They made eerie faces at each other;
they feigned assaults; they wove a maze, more fantastic and bizarre than
any thing in _Faust_ or _Freysehutz_. It was the mirth of Fauns, the
mischief of Elves and Brownies. The glee, that lighted up those strange
faces was not of this earth; but a thrill, pulsated through infinitude,
of that joy of life which wells forever from the exhaustless fountain of
the Central Heart; a scintillation, from how afar off! of the
Immeasurable Love, of the Eternal Pity; though it seemed hardly more
human than the play of kits and puppies, or than the _anerithmon
gelasma_ (the soulless, uncontrollable titter) of the tossed spring
spray, or the blue, breezy ripple, for which overhaul your _Prometheus_,
master Tom, and when found, make a note of it.'

'Well, that's not so bad,' allowed Hepsibah, a good deal mollified.
Greek, I have observed, always has an excellent effect upon her.

'And it has a good moral, my dears,' said grandmother, 'I always like a
good moral.'

'And was the bear always good to him?'

'Well, my dear, I am sorry to say that he had once bitten off three of
his fingers. You may think this was proceeding to extremities; but, on
the whole, I give him credit for great moderation. They will bite
sometimes, however--_me teste_, who once in my proper person verified
the old proverb, which I had always taken for a bit of unnatural
history.'

'I know; 'been a bear, 'twould a bit you,' eh?'

'Your customary sagacity, Tom, is not at fault. Yes, the bear bit me.'

'Dick,' said my uncle, 'it strikes me, all this wouldn't make a bad
magazine article, if you'd only leave out your confounded speculations;
and Tom, as your cousin says, I wish you _would_ stick a little closer
to your classics.'

'Cousin Dick!'

'Well, little No-no!'

'You tell a real good story.'

'Do I? then come and pay me for it.'

'No-o! you sha-a-ant! aeou!! there now, tell us another; tell us about
the bear that bit you?'

'There isn't much to tell about that either. It was on a steamer, in the
Gulf. On the forecastle lay a stout oaken box, and in it--all his
troubles to come--was a young bear. In the top of it was an inch
auger-hole, and at this small port the poor devil used to keep his eye
all day so pitifully, that I had compassion on him, saw he would get
etiolated, and besought the captain to let him out.

''Not if I know it,' responded Dux, severely, 'he'd clear the decks in a
minute! We had one aboard once before--a big rascal, in a cage, 'tween
decks--and one dark, stormy night, he broke adrift and stowed himself
away so snug that we never found him till next day. You may judge what a
hurrah's nest there was, every body knowing this d----d bear was
_somewhere_ aboard, and afraid of running foul of him in the dark. No,
no, better let him alone!'

'Howbeit, I over-persuaded him. We managed to get hold of a bit of chain
fastened to his collar, bent a line on to it, gave him reasonable scope,
belayed the bight, and knocked off one end of his box. Out he bolted! It
was a change from that dark den to the glaring tropical sunshine, the
blue sea foaming under the trades, the rolling masts, and the hundreds
of curious eyes that surrounded him. Sensible to the last, he tried to
go aloft, but the line soon brought him up. Down he came, and steered
for'ard. The cooks and stewards, their hands on the combing, filled the
fore-hatch. He made a dive for them, and they tumbled ignominiously down
the hatchway. We laughed consumedly. Then he cruised aft, the
dress-circle considerately widening. He came up to me, as if knowing his
benefactor by instinct, looking curiously about him, and curling and
retracting his flexile snout and lip, after the manner of his kind. Now,
I had often dealt with bears, tame and semi-tame, had 'held Sackerson by
the chain,' as often as Master Slender, had known them sometimes to
strike or hug, (which they always do standing,) but had never known one
to bite. So I didn't take the trouble to move, and--the first I
knew--the villain had me by the leg!'

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