University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER X.

April 12th.—This morning I received an intimation that
the Government had resolved on taking decisive steps which
would lead to a development of events in the South and test
the sincerity of Secession. The Confederate general at
Charleston, Beauregard, has sent to the Federal officer in
command at Sumter, Major Anderson, to say, that all communication
between his garrison and the city must cease; and,
at the same time, or probably before it, the Government at
Washington informed the Confederate authorities that they
intended to forward supplies to Major Anderson, peaceably if
permitted, but at all hazards to send them. The Charleston
people are manning the batteries they have erected against
Sumter, have fired on a vessel under the United States flag,
endeavoring to communicate with the fort, and have called out
and organized a large force in the islands opposite the place
and in the city of Charleston.

I resolved, therefore, to start for the Southern States to-day,
proceeding by Baltimore to Norfolk instead of going by Richmond,
which was cut off by the floods. Before leaving, I
visited Lord Lyons, Mr. Seward, the French and Russian
Ministers; left cards on the President, Mrs. Lincoln, General
Scott, Mr. Douglas, Mr. Sumner, and others. There was no
appearance of any excitement in Washington, but Lord Lyons
mentioned, as an unusual circumstance, that he had received
no telegraphic communication from Mr. Bunch, the British
Consul at Charleston. Some ladies said to me that when I
came back I would find some nice people at Washington, and
that the rail-splitter, his wife, the Sewards, and all the rest of
them, would be driven to the place where they ought to be:
"Varina Davis is a lady, at all events, not like the other.

We can't put up with such people as these! "A naval officer
whom I met, told me, "if the Government are really going
to try force at Charleston, you'll see they'll be beaten, and
we'll have a war between the gentlemen and the Yankee rowdies;
if they attempt violence, you know how that will end."
The Government are so uneasy that they have put soldiers
into the Capitol, and are preparing it for defence.

At 6 P. M. I drove to the Baltimore station in a storm of
rain, accompanied by Mr. Warre, of the British Legation.
In the train there was a crowd of people, many of them disappointed
place-hunters, and much discussion took place respecting
the propriety of giving supplies to Sumter by force,
the weight of opinion being against the propriety of such a
step. The tone in which the President and his cabinet were
spoken of was very disrespectful. One big man, in a fur coat,
who was sitting near me, said, "Well, darn me if I wouldn't
draw a bead on Old Abe, Seward—aye, or General Scott
himself, though I've got a perty good thing out of them, if
they due try to use their soldiers and sailors to beat down
States' Rights. If they want to go they've a right to go."
To which many said, "That's so! That's true!"

When we arrived at Baltimore, at 8 P. M., the streets were
deep in water. A coachman, seeing I was a stranger, asked
me two dollars, or 8s. 4d, to drive to the Eutaw House, a
quarter of a mile distance; but I was not surprised, as I had
paid three-and-a-half and four dollars to go to dinner and return
to the hotel in Washington. On my arrival, the landlord,
no less a person than a major or colonel, took me aside,
and asked me if I had heard the news. "No, what is it?"
" The President of the Telegraph Company tells me he has
received a message from his clerk at Charleston that the batteries
have opened fire on Sumter because the Government
has sent down a fleet to force in supplies." The news had,
however, spread. The hall and bar of the hotel were full,
and I was asked by many people whom I had never seen in
my life, what my opinions were as to the authenticity of the
rumor. There was nothing surprising in the fact that the
Charleston people had resented any attempt to reinforce the
forts, as I was aware, from the language of the Southern
Commissioners, that they would resist any such attempt to the
last, and make it a casus and causa belli.

April 14th.—The Eutaw House is not a very good specimen
of an American hotel, but the landlord does his best to

make his guests comfortable, when he likes them. The
American landlord is a despot who regulates his dominions by
ukases affixed to the walls, by certain state departments called
"offices" and "bars," and who generally is represented, whilst
he is away on some military, political, or commercial undertaking,
by a lieutenant; the deputy being, if possible, a
greater man than the chief. It requires so much capital to
establish a large hotel, that there is little fear of external competition
in the towns. And Americans are so gregarious that
they will not patronize small establishments.

I was the more complimented by the landlord's attention
this morning when he came to the room, and in much excitement
informed me the news of Fort Sumter being bombarded
by the Charleston batteries was confirmed, "And now," said
he, "there's no saying where it will all end."

After breakfast I was visited by some gentlemen of Baltimore
who were highly delighted with the news, and I learned
from them there was a probability of their State joining those
which had seceded. The whole feeling of the landed and
respectable classes is with the South. The dislike to the
Federal Government at Washington is largely spiced with
personal ridicule and contempt of Mr. Lincoln. Your Marylander
is very tenacious about being a gentleman, and what he
does not consider gentlemanly is simply unfit for any thing, far
less for place and authority.

The young draftsman, of whom I spoke, turned up this
morning, having pursued me from Washington. He asked
me whether I would still let him accompany me. I observed
that I had no objection, but that I could not permit such paragraphs
in the papers again, and suggested there would be no
difficulty in his travelling by himself, if he pleased. He replied
that his former connection with a Black Republican
paper might lead to his detention or molestation in the South,
but that if he was allowed to come with me, no one would
doubt that he was employed by an illustrated London paper.
The young gentleman will certainly never lose any thing for
the want of asking.

At the black barber's I was meekly interrogated by my
attendant as to my belief in the story of the bombardment.
He was astonished to find a stranger could think the event
was probable. "De gen'lemen of Baltimore will be quite
glad ov it. But maybe it'll come bad after all." I discovered
my barber had strong ideas that the days of slavery were

drawing to an end. "And what will take place then, do you
think?" "Wall, sare, 'spose colored men will be good as
white men." That is it. They do not understand what a
vast gulf flows between them and the equality of position with
the white race which most of those who have aspirations
imagine to be meant by emancipation. He said the town
slave-owners were very severe and harsh in demanding
larger sums than the slaves could earn. The slaves are sent
out to do jobs, to stand for hire, to work on the quays and
docks. Their earnings go to the master, who punishes them
if they do not bring home enough. Sometimes the master is
content with a fixed sum, and all over that amount which the
slave can get may be retained for his private purposes.

Baltimore looks more ancient and respectable than the
towns I have passed through, and the site on which it stands
is undulating, so that the houses have not that flatness and
uniformity of height which make the streets of New York
and Philadelphia resemble those of a toy city magnified.
Why Baltimore should be called the "Monumental City"
could not be divined by a stranger. He would never think
that a great town of 250,000 inhabitants could derive its
name from an obelisk cased in white marble to George
Washington, even though it be more than 200 feet high, nor
from the grotesque column called "Battle Monument,"
erected to the memory of those who fell in the skirmish outside
the city in which the British were repulsed in 1814. I
could not procure any guide to the city worth reading, and
strolled about at discretion, after a visit to the Maryland
Club, of which I was made an honorary member. At dark I
started for Norfolk in the steamer "Georgiana."