University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER VII.

March 30th.—Descended into the barber's shop off the
hall of the hotel; all the operators, men of color, mostly mulattoes,
or yellow lads, good-looking, dressed in clean white
jackets and aprons, were smart, quick, and attentive. Some
seven or eight shaving chairs were occupied by gentlemen intent
on early morning calls. Shaving is carried in all its accessories
to a high degree of publicity, if not of perfection, in
America; and as the poorest, or as I may call them without
offence, the lowest orders in England have their easy shaving
for a penny, so the highest, if there be any in America, submit
themselves in public to the inexpensive operations of the negro
barber. It must be admitted that the chairs are easy and well-arranged,
the fingers nimble, sure, and light; but the affectation
of French names, and the corruption of foreign languages,
in which the hairdressers and barbers delight, are exceedingly
amusing. On my way down a small street near the Capitol,
I observed in a shop window, "Rowland's make easier paste,"
which I attribute to an imperfect view of the etymology of
the great "Macassar;" on another occasion I was asked to
try Somebody's "Curious Elison," which I am afraid was an
attempt to adapt to a shaving paste, an address not at all suited
to profane uses. It appears that the trade of barber is almost
the birthright of the free negro or colored man in the United
States. There is a striking exemplification of natural equality
in the use of brushes, and the senator flops down in the seat,
and has his noble nose seized by the same fingers which the
moment before were occupied by the person and chin of an
unmistakable rowdy.

In the midst of the divine calm produced by hard hand

rubbing of my head, I was aroused by a stout gentleman who
sat in a chair directly opposite. Through the door which
opened into the hall of the hotel, one could see the great
crowd passing to and fro, thronging the passage as though it
had been the entrance to the Forum, or the "Salle de pas
perdus." I had observed my friend's eye gazing fixedly
through the opening on the outer world. Suddenly, with his
face half-covered with lather, and a bib tucked under his chin,
he got up from his seat exclaiming, "Senator! Senator!
hallo!" and made a dive into the passage—whether he received
a stern rebuke, or became aware of his impropriety, I
know not, but in an instant he came back again, and submitted
quietly, till the work of the barber was completed.

The great employment of four fifths of the people at Willard's
at present seems to be to hunt senators and congressmen
through the lobbies. Every man is heavy with documents—
those which he cannot carry in his pockets and hat, occupy
his hands, or are thrust under his arms. In the hall are advertisements
announcing that certificates, and letters of testimonial,
and such documents, are printed with expedition and
neatness. From paper collars, and cards of address to carriages,
and new suits of clothes, and long hotel bills, nothing
is left untried or uninvigorated. The whole city is placarded
with announcements of facilities for assaulting the powers that
be, among which must not be forgotten the claims of the "excelsior
card-writer," at Willard's, who prepares names, addresses,
styles, and titles, in superior penmanship. The men
who have got places, having been elected by the people, must
submit to the people, who think they have established a claim
on them by their favors. The majority confer power, but they
seem to forget that it is only the minority who can enjoy the
first fruits of success. It is as if the whole constituency of
Marylebone insisted on getting some office under the Crown
the moment a member was returned to Parliament. There
are men at Willard's who have come literally thousands of
miles to seek for places which can only be theirs for four
years, and who with true American facility have abandoned
the calling and pursuits of a lifetime for this doubtful canvass;
and I was told of one gentleman, who having been informed
that he could not get a judgeship, condescended to seek a place
in the Post-Office, and finally applied to Mr. Chase to be appointed
keeper of a "lighthouse," he was not particular where.
In the forenoon I drove to the Washington Navy Yard, in

company with Lieutenant Nelson and two friends. It is
about two miles outside the city, situated on a fork of land
projecting between a creek and the Potomac River, which is
here three quarters of a mile broad. If the French had a
Navy Yard at Paris it could scarcely be contended that English,
Russians, or Austrians would not have been justified in
destroying it in case they got possession of the city by force
of arms, after a pitched battle fought outside its gates. I confess
I would not give much for Deptford and Woolwich if
an American fleet succeeded in forcing its way up the
Thames; but our American cousins,—a little more than kin
and less than kind, who speak with pride of Paul Jones and
of their exploits on the Lakes,—affect to regard the burning
of the Washington Navy Yard by us, in the last war, as an
unpardonable outrage on the law of nations, and an atrocious
exercise of power. For all the good it did, for my own part,
I think it were as well had it never happened, but no jurisconsult
will for a moment deny that it was a legitimate, even
if extreme, exercise of a belligerent right in the case of an
enemy who did not seek terms from the conqueror; and who,
after battle lost, fled and abandoned the property of their state,
which might be useful to them in war, to the power of the
victor. Notwithstanding all the unreasonableness of the American
people in reference to their relations with foreign powers,
it is deplorable such scenes should ever have been enacted
between members of the human family so closely allied by all
that shall make them of the same household.

The Navy Yard is surrounded by high brick walls; in the
gateway stood two sentries in dark blue tunics, yellow facings,
with eagle buttons, brightly polished arms, and white Berlin
gloves, wearing a cap something like a French kepi, all very
clean and creditable. Inside are some few trophies of guns
taken from us at Yorktown, and from the Mexicans in the
land of Cortez. The interior inclosure is surrounded by red
brick houses, and stores and magazines, picked out with white
stone; and two or three green glass-plots, fenced in by pillars
and chains and bordered by trees, give an air of agreeable
freshness to the place. Close to the river are the workshops:
of course there is smoke and noise of steam and
machinery. In a modest office, surrounded by books, papers,
drawings, and models, as well as by shell and shot and racks
of arms of different descriptions, we found Capt. Dahlgren,
the acting superintendent of the yard, and the inventor of the

famous gun which bears his name, and is the favorite armament
of the American navy. By our own sailors they are
irreverently termed "soda-water bottles," owing to their
shape. Capt. Dahlgren contends that guns capable of throwing
the heaviest shot may be constructed of cast-iron, carefully
prepared and moulded so that the greatest thickness of metal
may be placed at the points of resistance, at the base of the
gun, the muzzle and forward portions being of very moderate
thickness.

All inventors, or even adapters of systems, must be earnest
self-reliant persons, full of confidence, and, above all, impressive,
or they will make little way in the conservative, status-quo-loving
world. Captain Dahlgren has certainly most of
these characteristics, but he has to fight with his navy department,
with the army, with boards and with commissioners,—
in fact, with all sorts of obstructors. When I was going over
the yard, he deplored the parsimony of the department, which
refused to yield to his urgent entreaties for additional furnaces
to cast guns.

No large guns are cast at Washington. The foundries are
only capable of turning out brass field-pieces and boat-guns.
Capt. Dahlgren obligingly got one of the latter out to practise
for us—a 12-pounder howitzer, which can be carried in a
boat, run on land on its carriage, which is provided with
wheels, and is so light that the gun can be drawn readily
about by the crew. He made some good practice with shrapnel
at a target 1200 yards distant, firing so rapidly as to keep
three shells in the air at the same time. Compared with our
establishments, this dockyard is a mere toy, and but few
hands are employed in it. One steam sloop, the "Pawnee,"
was under the shears, nearly ready for sea: the frame of
another was under the building-shed. There are no facilities
for making iron ships, or putting on plate-armor here. Everything
was shown to us with the utmost frankness. The fuse
of the Dahlgren shell is constructed on the vis inertiæ prin
ciple, and is not unlike that of the Armstrong.

On returning to the hotel, I found a magnificent bouquet of
flowers, with a card attached to them, with Mrs. Lincoln's compliments,
and another card announcing that she had a "reception"
at three o'clock. It was rather late before I could get to
the White House, and there were only two or three ladies
in the drawing-room when I arrived. I was informed afterwards
that the attendance was very scanty. The Washington

ladies have not yet made up their minds that Mrs. Lincoln is
the fashion. They miss their Southern friends, and constantly
draw comparisons between them and the vulgar Yankee
women and men who are now in power. I do not know
enough to say whether the affectation of superiority be justified;
but assuredly if New York be Yankee, there is nothing
in which it does not far surpass this preposterous capital.
The impression of homeliness produced by Mrs. Lincoln on
first sight, is not diminished by closer acquaintance. Few
women not to the manner born there are, whose heads would
not be disordered, and circulation disturbed, by a rapid transition,
almost instantaneous, from a condition of obscurity in a
country town to be mistress of the White House. Her smiles
and her frowns become a matter of consequence to the whole
American world. As the wife of the country lawyer, or even
of the congressman, her movements were of no consequence.
The journals of Springfield would not have wasted a line upon
them. Now, if she but drive down Pennsylvania Avenue,
the electric wire thrills the news to every hamlet in the Union
which has a newspaper; and fortunate is the correspondent
who, in a special despatch, can give authentic particulars of
her destination and of her dress. The lady is surrounded by
flatterers and intriguers, seeking for influence or such places
as she can give. As Selden says, "Those who wish to set a
house on fire begin with the thatch."

March 31st, Easter Sunday.—I dined with Lord Lyons
and the members of the Legation; the only stranger present
being Senator Sumner. Politics were of course eschewed,
for Mr. Sumner is Chairman of the Committee on Foreign
Relations of the Senate, and Lord Lyons is a very discreet
Minister; but still there crept in a word of Pickens and Sumter,
and that was all. Mr. Fox, formerly of the United States
Navy, and since that a master of a steamer in the commercial
marine, who is related to Mr. Blair, has been sent on some
mission to Fort Sumter, and has been allowed to visit Major
Anderson by the authorities at Charleston; but it is not
known what was the object of his mission. Everywhere there
is Secession resignation, in a military sense of the word. The
Southern Commissioners declare they will soon retire to
Montgomery, and that any attempt to reinforce or supply the
forts will be a casus belli. There is the utmost anxiety to
know what Virginia will do. General Scott belongs to the
State, and it is feared he may be shaken, if the State goes out.

Already the authorities of Richmond have intimated they will
not allow the foundry to furnish guns to the seaboard forts,
such as Monroe and Norfolk in Virginia. This concession
of an autonomy is really a recognition of States' Rights.
For if a State can vote itself in or out of the Union, why can
it not make war or peace, and accept or refuse the Federal
Government? In fact, the Federal system is radically defective
against internal convulsion, however excellent it is or
may be for purposes of external polity. I walked home with
Mr. Sumner to his rooms, and heard some of his views, which
were not so sanguine as those of Mr. Seward, and I thought
I detected a desire to let the Southern States go out with
their slavery, if they so desired it. Mr. Chase, by the way,
expressed sentiments of the same kind more decidedly the
other day.

April 1st.—On Easter Monday, after breakfast with Mr.
Olmsted, I drove over to visit Senator Douglas. Originally
engaged in some mechanical avocation, by his ability and eloquence
he has raised himself to the highest position in the
State short of the Presidency, which might have been his but
for the extraordinary success of his opponent in a fortuitous
suffrage scramble. He is called the Little Giant, being modo
bipedali staturâ, but his head entitles him to some recognition
of intellectual height. His sketch of the causes which have
led to the present disruption of parties, and the hazard of
civil war, was most vivid and able; and for more than an hour
he spoke with a vigor of thought and terseness of phrase
which, even on such dreary and uninviting themes as squatter
sovereignty and the Kansas-Nebraska question, interested a
foreigner in the man and the subject. Although his sympathies
seemed to go with the South on the question of slavery
and territorial extension, he condemned altogether the attempt
to destroy the Union.

April 2d.—The following day I started early, and performed
my pilgrimage to "the shrine of St. Washington," at
Mount Vernon, as a foreigner on board called the place. Mr.
Bancroft has in his possession a letter of the General's mother,
in which she expresses her gratification at his leaving the
British army in a manner which implies that he had been
either extravagant in his expenses or wild in his manner of
living. But if he had any human frailties in after life, they
neither offended the morality of his age, nor shocked the susceptibility
of his countrymen; and from the time that the

much maligned and unfortunate Braddock gave scope to his
ability, down to his retirement into private life, after a career
of singular trials and extraordinary successes, his character
acquired each day greater altitude, strength, and lustre. Had
his work failed, had the Republic broken up into small anarchical
states, we should hear now little of Washington. But
the principles of liberty founded in the original Constitution
of the colonies themselves, and in no degree derived from or
dependent on the Revolution, combined with the sufferings of
the Old and the bounty of nature in the New World to carry
to an unprecedented degree the material prosperity, which
Americans have mistaken for good government, and the physical
comforts which have made some States in the Union the
nearest approach to Utopia. The Federal Government hitherto
"let the people alone," and they went on their way singing
and praising their Washington as the author of so much
greatness and happiness. To doubt his superiority to any
man of woman born, is to insult the American people. They
are not content with his being great—or even greater than
the great: he must be greatest of all;—"first in peace, and
first in war." The rest of the world cannot find fault with
the assertion, that he is "first in the hearts of his countrymen."
But he was not possessed of the highest military
qualities, if we are to judge from most of the regular actions,
in which the British had the best of it; and the final blow,
when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, was struck by the
arm of France, by Rochambeau and the French fleet, rather
than by Washington and his Americans. He had all the
qualities for the work for which he was designed, and is fairly
entitled to the position his countrymen have given him as the
immortal czar of the United States. His pictures are visible
everywhere—in the humblest inn, in the Minister's bureau,
in the millionnaire's gallery. There are far more engravings
of Washington in America than there are of Napoleon in
France, and that is saying a good deal.

What have we here? The steamer which has been paddling
down the gentle current of the Potomac, here a mile
and more in breadth, banked in by forest, through which can
be seen homesteads and white farm-houses, in the midst of
large clearings and corn-fields—has moved in towards a
high bluff, covered with trees, on the summit of which is visible
the trace of some sort of building—a ruined summer-house,
rustic temple—whatever it may be; and the bell on

deck begins to toll solemnly, and some of the pilgrims uncover
their heads for a moment. The boat stops at a rotten, tumbledown
little pier, which leads to a waste of mud, and a path
rudely cut through the wilderness of briers on the hill-side.
The pilgrims, of whom there are some thirty or forty, of both
sexes, mostly belonging to the lower classes of citizens, and
comprising a few foreigners like myself, proceed to climb this
steep, which seemed in a state of nature covered with primeval
forest, and tangled weeds and briers, till the plateau, on
which stands the house of Washington and the domestic offices
around it, is reached. It is an oblong wooden house, of
two stories in height, with a colonnade towards the river face,
and a small balcony on the top and on the level of the roof,
over which rises a little paltry gazebo. There are two windows,
a glass door at one end of the oblong, and a wooden alcove
extending towards the slave quarters, which are very
small sentry-box huts, that have been recently painted, and
stand at right angles to the end of the house, with dog-houses
and poultry-hutches attached to them. There is no attempt
at neatness or order about the place; though the exterior of
the house is undergoing repair, the grass is unkempt, the
shrubs untrimmed,—neglect, squalor, and chicken feathers
have marked the lawn for their own. The house is in keeping,
and threatens to fall to ruin. I entered the door, and
found myself in a small hall, stained with tobacco juice. An
iron railing ran across the entrance to the stairs. Here stood
a man at a gate, who presented a book to the visitors, and
pointed out the notice therein, that "no person is permitted
to inscribe his name in this book who does not contribute to
the Washington Fund, and that any name put down without
money would be erased." Notwithstanding the warning, some
patriots succeeded in recording their names without any pecuniary
mulct, and others did so at a most reasonable rate.
When I had contributed in a manner which must have represented
an immense amount of Washingtoniolatry, estimated
by the standard of the day, I was informed I could not go
up-stairs as the rooms above were closed to the public, and
thus the most interesting portion of the house was shut from
the strangers. The lower rooms presented nothing worthy of
notice—some lumbering, dusty, decayed furniture; a broken
harpsichord, dust, cobwebs—no remnant of the man himself.
But over the door of one room hung the key of the Bastille.[1]
The gardens, too, were tabooed; but through the gate I could
see a wilderness of neglected trees and shrubs, not unmingled
with a suspicion of a present kitchen-ground. Let us pass to
the Tomb, which is some distance from the house, beneath the
shade of some fine trees. It is a plain brick mausoleum, with
a pointed arch, barred by an iron grating, through which the
light penetrates a chamber or small room containing two sarcophagi
of stone. Over the arch, on a slab let into the brick,
are the words: "Within this enclosure rest the remains of
Gen. George Washington." The fallen leaves which had
drifted into the chamber rested thickly on the floor, and were
piled up on the sarcophagi, and it was difficult to determine
which was the hero's grave without the aid of an expert, but
there was neither guide nor guardian on the spot. Some four
or five gravestones, of various members of the family, stand in
the ground outside the little mausoleum. The place was most
depressing. One felt angry with a people whose lip service
was accompanied by so little of actual respect. The owner
of this property, inherited from the "Pater Patriæ," has been
abused in good set terms because he asked its value from the
country which has been so very mindful of the services of his
ancestor, and which is now erecting by slow stages the overgrown
Cleopatra's needle that is to be a Washington Monument
when it is finished. Mr. Everett has been lecturing,
the Ladies' Mount Vernon Association has been working, and
every one has been adjuring everybody else to give liberally;
but the result so lately achieved is by no means worthy of
the object. Perhaps the Americans think it is enough to say
—"Si monumentum quœris, circumspice." But, at all events,
there is a St. Paul's round those words.

On the return of the steamer I visited Fort Washington,
which is situated on the left bank of the Potomac. I found
everything in a state of neglect—gun-carriages rotten, shot
piles rusty, furnaces tumbling to pieces. The place might be
made strong enough on the river front, but the rear is weak,
though there is low marshy land at the back. A company of
regulars were on duty. The sentries took no precautions
against surprise. Twenty determined men, armed with revolvers,
could have taken the whole work; and, for all the

authorities knew, we might have had that number of Virginians
and the famous Ben McCullough himself on board. Afterwards,
when I ventured to make a remark to General
Scott as to the carelessness of the garrison, he said: "A few
weeks ago it might have been taken by a bottle of whiskey.
The whole garrison consisted of an old Irish pensioner." Now
at this very moment Washington is full of rumors of desperate
descents on the capital, and an attack on the President
and his Cabinet. The long bridge across the Potomac into
Virginia is guarded, and the militia and volunteers of the District
of Columbia are to be called out to resist McCullough
and his Richmond desperadoes.

April 3d.—I had an interview with the Southern Commissioners
to-day, at their hotel. For more than an hour I heard,
from men of position and of different sections in the South,
expressions which satisfied me the Union could never be restored,
if they truly represented the feelings and opinions of
their fellow-citizens. They have the idea they are ministers
of a foreign power treating with Yankeedom, and their indignation
is moved by the refusal of Government to negotiate
with them, armed as they are with full authority to arrange
all questions arising out of an amicable separation—such as
the adjustment of Federal claims for property, forts, stores,
public works, debts, land purchases, and the like. One of the
Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, Mr.
Campbell, is their intermediary, and of course it is not known
what hopes Mr. Seward has held out to him; but there is
some imputation of Punic faith against the Government on
account of recent acts, and there is no doubt the Commissioners
hear, as I do, that there are preparations at the Navy Yard
and at New York to relieve Sumter, at any rate, with provisions,
and that Pickens has actually been reinforced by sea.
In the evening I dined at the British Legation, and went over
to the house of the Russian Minister, M. de Stoeckl, in the
evening. The diplomatic body in Washington constitute a
small and very agreeable society of their own, in which few
Americans mingle except at the receptions and large evening
assemblies. As the people now in power are novi homines,
the wives and daughters of ministers and attachés are deprived
of their friends who belonged to the old society in Washington,
and who have either gone off to Secession, or sympathize
so deeply with the Southern States that it is scarcely becoming
to hold very intimate relations with them in the face of

Government. From the house of M. de Stoeckl I went to a
party at the residence of M. Tassara, the Spanish Minister,
where there was a crowd of diplomats, young and old.
Diplomatists seldom or never talk politics, and so Pickens
and Sumter were unheard of; but it is stated nevertheless
that Virginia is on the eve of secession, and will certainly go
if the President attempts to use force in relieving and strengthening
the Federal forts.

April 4th.—I had a long interview with Mr. Seward today
at the State Department. He set forth at great length
the helpless condition in which the President and the Cabinet
found themselves when they began the conduct of public affairs
at Washington. The last cabinet had tampered with
treason, and had contained traitors; a miserable imbecility
had encouraged the leaders of the South to mature their plans,
and had furnished them with the means of carrying out their
design. One Minister had purposely sent away the navy of
the United States to distant and scattered stations; another
had purposely placed the arms, ordnance, and munitions of
war in undue proportions in the Southern States, and had
weakened the Federal Government so that they might easily
fall into the hands of the traitors and enable them to secure the
war materiel of the Union; a Minister had stolen the public
funds for traitorous purposes—in every port, in every department
of the State, at home and abroad, on sea and by
land, men were placed who were engaged in this deep conspiracy
—and when the voice of the people declared Mr. Lincoln
President of the United States, they set to work as one man to
destroy the Union under the most flimsy pretexts. The President's
duty was clearly defined by the Constitution. He had
to guard what he had, and to regain, if possible, what he had
lost. He would not consent to any dismemberment of the
Union nor to the abandonment of one iota of Federal property
—nor could he do so if he desired.

These and many more topics were presented to me to show
that the Cabinet was not accountable for the temporizing policy
of inaction, which was forced upon them by circumstances,
and that they would deal vigorously with the Secession movement
—as vigorously as Jackson did with nullification in South
Carolina, if they had the means. But what could they do
when such a man as Twiggs surrendered his trust and sacrificed
the troop to a crowd of Texans; or when naval and military
officers resigned en masse, that they might accept service in the

rebel forces? All this excitement would come right in a very
short time—it was a brief madness, which would pass away
when the people had opportunity for reflection. Meantime
the danger was that foreign powers would be led to imagine
the Federal Government was too weak to defend its rights,
and that the attempt to destroy the Union and to set up a
Southern Confederacy was successful. In other words, again,
Mr. Seward fears that, in this transition state between their
forced inaction and the coup by which they intend to strike
down Secession, Great Britain may recognize the Government
established at Montgomery, and is ready, if needs be, to
threaten Great Britain with war as the consequence of such
recognition. But he certainly assumed the existence of strong
Union sentiments in many of the seceded States, as a basis for
his remarks, and admitted that it would not become the spirit
of the American Government, or of the Federal system, to use
armed force in subjugating the Southern States against the
will of the majority of the people. Therefore if the majority
desire Secession, Mr. Seward would let them have it—but he
cannot believe in anything so monstrous, for to him the Federal
Government and Constitution, as interpreted by his party, are
divine, heaven-born. He is fond of repeating that the Federal
Government never yet sacrificed any man's life on account
of his political opinions; but if this struggle goes on, it will
sacrifice thousands—tens of thousands, to the idea of a Federal
Union. "Any attempt against us," he said, "would revolt
the good men of the South, and arm all men in the North to
defend their Government."

But I had seen that day an assemblage of men doing a
goose-step march forth dressed in blue tunics and gray
trousers, shakoes and cross-belts, armed with musket and
bayonet, cheering and hurrahing in the square before the War
Department, who were, I am told, the District of Columbia
volunteers and militia. They had indeed been visible in various
forms parading, marching, and trumpeting about the town
with a poor imitation of French pas and élan, but they did
not, to the eye of a soldier, give any appearance of military
efficiency, or to the eye of the anxious statesman any indication
of the animus pugnandi. Starved, washed-out creatures
most of them, interpolated with Irish and flat-footed, stumpy
Germans. It was matter for wonderment that the Foreign
Minister of a nation which was in such imminent danger in
its very capital, and which, with its chief and his cabinet, was

almost at the mercy of the enemy, should hold the language
I was aware he had transmitted to the most powerful nations
of Europe. Was it consciousness of the strength of a great
people, who would be united by the first apprehension of
foreign interference, or was it the peculiar emptiness of a
bombast which is called Buncombe? In all sincerity I think
Mr. Seward meant it as it was written.

When I arrived at the hotel, I found our young artist waiting
for me, to entreat I would permit him to accompany me
to the South. I had been annoyed by a paragraph which had
appeared in several papers, to the effect that "The talented
young artist, our gifted countryman, Mr. Deodore F. Moses,
was about to accompany Mr. &c. &c., in his tour through the
South." I had informed the young gentleman that I could
not sanction such an announcement, whereupon he assured me
he had not in any way authorized it, but having mentioned incidentally
to a person connected with the press that he was
going to travel southwards with me, the injudicious zeal of his
friend had led him to think he would do a service to the youth
by making the most of the very trifling circumstance.

I dined with Senator Douglas, where there was a large
party, among whom were Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury;
Mr. Smith, Secretary of the Interior; Mr. Forsyth,
Southern Commissioner; and several members of the Senate
and Congress. Mrs. Douglas did the honors of her house
with grace and charming good-nature. I observe a great tendency
to abstract speculation and theorizing among Americans,
and their after-dinner conversation is apt to become didactic
and sententious. Few men speak better than Senator Douglas;
his words are well chosen, the flow of his ideas even and
constant, his intellect vigorous, and thoughts well cut, precise,
and vigorous—he seems a man of great ambition, and he told
me he is engaged in preparing a sort of Zollverein scheme for
the North American continent, including Canada, which will
fix public attention everywhere, and may lead to a settlement
of the Northern and Southern controversies. For his mind,
as for that of many Americans, the aristocratic idea embodied
in Russia is very seductive; and he dwelt with pleasure on
the courtesies he had received at the court of the Czar, implying
that he had been treated differently in England, and perhaps
France. And yet, had Mr. Douglas become President
of the United States, his good-will towards Great Britain might
have been invaluable, and surely it had been cheaply purchased

by a little civility and attention to a distinguished citizen
and statesman of the Republic. Our Galleos very often
care for none of these things.

April 5th.—Dined with the Southern Commissioners and
a small party at Gautier's, a French restaurateur in Pennsylvania
Avenue. The gentlemen present were, I need not say,
all of one way of thinking; but as these leaves will see the
light before the civil war is at an end, it is advisable not to
give their names, for it would expose persons resident in
Washington, who may not be suspected by the Government,
to those marks of attention which they have not yet ceased to
pay to their political enemies. Although I confess that in my
judgment too much stress has been laid in England on the severity
with which the Federal authorities have acted towards
their political enemies, who were seeking their destruction,
it may be candidly admitted, that they have forfeited all
claim to the lofty position they once occupied as a Government
existing by moral force, and by the consent of the governed,
to which Bastilles and lettrès de cachêt, arbitrary arrests, and
doubtful, illegal, if not altogether unconstitutional, suspension
of habeas corpus and of trial by jury were unknown.

As Col. Pickett and Mr. Banks are notorious Secessionists,
and Mr. Phillips has since gone South, after the arrest of his
wife on account of her anti-federal tendencies, it may be permitted
to mention that they were among the guests. I had pleasure
in making the acquaintance of Governor Roman. Mr. Crawford,
his brother commissioner, is a much younger man, of
considerably greater energy and determination, but probably
of less judgment. The third commissioner, Mr. Forsyth,
is fanatical in his opposition to any suggestions of compromise
or reconstruction; but, indeed, upon that point, there is little
difference of opinion amongst any of the real adherents of the
South. Mr. Lincoln they spoke of with contempt; Mr. Seward
they evidently regarded as the ablest and most unscrupulous
of their enemies; but the tone in which they alluded to
the whole of the Northern people indicated the clear conviction
that trade, commerce, the pursuit of gain, manufacture,
and the base mechanical arts, had so degraded the whole race,
they would never attempt to strike a blow in fair fight for
what they prized so highly in theory and in words. Whether
it be in consequence of some secret influence which slavery
has upon the minds of men, or that the aggression of the North
upon their institutions has been of a nature to excite the deepest

animosity and most vindictive hate, certain it is there is a
degree of something like ferocity in the Southern mind towards
New England which exceeds belief. I am persuaded
that these feelings of contempt are extended towards England.
They believe that we, too, have had the canker of peace upon
us. One evidence of this, according to Southern men, is the
abolition of duelling. This practice, according to them, is
highly wholesome and meritorious; and, indeed, it may be
admitted that in the state of society which is reported to exist
in the Southern States, it is a useful check on such men as it
restrained in our own islands in the last century. In the
course of conversation, one gentleman remarked that he considered
it disgraceful for any man to take money for the dishonor
of his wife or his daughter. "With us," he said, "there
is but one mode of dealing known. The man who dares tamper
with the honor of a white woman, knows what he has to
expect. We shoot him down like a dog, and no jury in the
South will ever find any man guilty of murder for punishing
such a scoundrel." An argument which can scarcely be alluded
to was used by them, to show that these offences in Slave
States had not the excuse which might be adduced to diminish
their gravity when they occurred in States where all the population
were white. Indeed, in this, as in some other matters
of a similar character, slavery is their summum bonum of morality,
physical excellence, and social purity. I was inclined
to question the correctness of the standard which they had set
up, and to inquire whether the virtue which needed this murderous
use of the pistol and the dagger to defend it, was not
open to some doubt; but I found there was very little sympathy
with my views among the company.

The gentlemen at table asserted that the white men in
the Slave States are physically superior to the men of the
Free States; and indulged in curious theories in morals and
physics to which I was a stranger. Disbelief of anything a
Northern man—that is, a Republican—can say, is a fixed
principle in their minds. I could not help remarking, when
the conversation turned on the duplicity of Mr. Seward, and
the wickedness of the Federal Government in refusing to give
the assurance Sumter would not be relieved by force of arms,
that it must be of very little consequence what promises Mr.
Seward made, as, according to them, not the least reliance was
to be placed on his word. The notion that the Northern men
are cowards is justified by instances in which congressmen

have been insulted by Southern men without calling them out,
and Mr. Sumner's case was quoted as the type of the affairs
of the kind between the two sides.

I happened to say that I always understood Mr. Sumner
had been attacked suddenly and unexpectedly, and struck
down before he could rise from his desk to defend himself;
whereupon a warm refutation of that version of the story
was given, and I was assured that Mr. Brooks, who was a
very slight man, and much inferior in height to Mr. Sumner,
struck him a slight blow at first, and only inflicted the heavier
strokes when irritated by the Senator's cowardly demeanor
In reference to some remark made about the cavaliers and
their connection with the South, I reminded the gentleman
that, after all, the descendants of the Puritans were not to be
despised in battle: and that the best gentry in England were
worsted at last by the train-bands of London, and the "rabbledom"
of Cromwell's Independents.

Mr., or Colonel, Pickett, is a tall good-looking man, of
pleasant manners, and well-educated. But this gentleman
was a professed buccaneer, a friend of Walker, the gray-eyed
man of destiny—his comrade in his most dangerous razzie.
He was a newspaper writer, a soldier, a filibuster; and he
now threw himself into the cause of the South with vehemence;
it was not difficult to imagine he saw in that cause
the realization of the dreams of empire in the south of the
Gulf, and of conquest in the islands of the sea, which have
such a fascinating influence over the imagination of a large
portion of the American people. He referred to Walker's
fate with much bitterness, and insinuated he was betrayed by
the British officer who ought to have protected him.

The acts of Mr. Floyd and Mr. Howell Cobb, which must
be esteemed of doubtful morality, are here justified by the
States' Rights doctrine. If the States had a right to go out,
they were quite right in obtaining their quota of the national
property which would not have been given to them by the
Lincolnites. Therefore, their friends were not to be censured
because they had sent arms and money to the South.

Altogether the evening, notwithstanding the occasional
warmth of the controversy, was exceedingly instructive; one
could understand from the vehemence and force of the speakers
the full meaning of the phrase of "firing the Southern
heart," so often quoted as an illustration of the peculiar force
of political passion to be brought to bear against the Republicans

in the Secession contest. Mr. Forsyth, struck me as
being the most astute, and perhaps most capable, of the gentlemen
whose mission to Washington seems likely to be so
abortive. His name is historical in America—his father
filled high office, and his son has also exercised diplomatic
function. Despotisms and Republics of the American model
approach each other closely. In Turkey the Pasha unemployed
sinks into insignificance, and the son of the Pasha
deceased is literally nobody. Mr. Forsyth was not selected
as Southern Commissioner on account of the political status
acquired by his father; but the position gained by his own
ability, as editor of "The Mobile Register," induced the
Confederate authorities to select him for the post. It is quite
possible to have made a mistake in such matters, but I am
almost certain that the colored waiters who attended us at
table looked as sour and discontented as could be, and seemed
to give their service with a sort of protest. I am told that
the tradespeople of Washington are strongly inclined to favor
the Southern side.

April 6th.—To-day I paid a second visit to General Scott,
who received me very kindly, and made many inquiries
respecting the events in the Crimea and the Indian mutiny
and rebellion. He professed to have no apprehension for the
safety of the capital; but in reality there are only some 700
or 800 regulars to protect it and the Navy Yard, and two field-batteries,
commanded by an officer of very doubtful attachment
to the Union. The head of the Navy Yard is openly
accused of treasonable sympathies.

Mr. Seward has definitively refused to hold any intercourse
whatever with the Southern Commissioners, and they will retire
almost immediately from the capital. As matters look
very threatening, I must go South and see with my own eyes
how affairs stand there, before the two sections come to open
rupture. Mr. Seward, the other day, in talking of the South,
described them as being in every respect behind the age, with
fashions, habits, level of thought, and modes of life, belonging
to the worst part of the last century. But still he never has
been there himself! The Southern men come up to the
Northern cities and springs, but the Northerner rarely travels
southwards. Indeed, I am informed, that if he were a well-known
Abolitionist, it would not be safe for him to appear in a
Southern city. I quite agree with my thoughtful and earnest
friend, Olmsted, that the United States can never be considered

as a free country till a man can speak as freely in
Charleston as he can in New York or Boston.

I dined with Mr. Riggs, the banker, who had an agreeable
party to meet me. Mr. Corcoran, his former partner, who
was present, erected at his own cost, and presented to the city,
a fine building, to be used as an art-gallery and museum; but
as yet the arts which are to be found in Washington are political
and feminine only. Mr. Corcoran has a private gallery of
pictures, and a collection, in which is the much-praised Greek
Slave of Hiram Powers. The gentry of Columbia are
thoroughly Virginian in sentiment, and look rather south than
north of the Potomac for political results. The President, I
hear this evening, is alarmed lest Virginia should become hostile,
and his policy, if he has any, is temporizing and timid. It
is perfectly wonderful to hear people using the word "Government"
at all, as applied to the President and his cabinet—
a body which has no power "according to the constitution" to
save the country governed or itself from destruction. In fact,
from the circumstances under which the constitution was
framed, it was natural that the principal point kept in view
should be the exhibition of a strong front to foreign powers,
combined with the least possible amount of constriction on the
internal relations of the different States.

In the hotel the roar of office-seekers is unabated. Train
after train adds to their numbers. They cumber the passages.
The hall is crowded to such a degree that suffocation might
describe the degree to which the pressure reaches, were it not
that tobacco-smoke invigorates and sustains the constitution.
As to the condition of the floor it is beyond description.