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Civil War Harper's Weekly, October 19, 1861

This WEB site features online, readable issues of Harper's Weekly Civil War newspapers. These newspapers are full of incredible content including stories and pictures of the defining moments of the Civil War. We are hopeful that you found this resource of value in your studies and research. These newspapers allow a more in depth understanding of the issues associated with the war, and they are interesting reading.

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Lexington

Lexington, Virginia

Colonel Mulligan

Colonel Mulligan

War News

War News

Red White and Blue

Red, White and Blue

Lebanon Junction

Lebanon Junction, Missouri

Louisville

Louisville, Kentucky

Gun Boat

Iron Clad Gun Boat

Kentucky

Kentucky Civil War News

Cannons

Army of the Potomac Cannons

Capitol Square

Capitol Square, Richmond VA

Kentucky Battle Map

Kentucky Battle Map

Missouri Battle Map

Missouri Battle Map

The United States Treasury

Steamer

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OCTOBER 19, 1861.]

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

659

(Previous Page) organ, the London Post, says : " If the theory of the Government is to be observed, Slavery has nothing whatever to do with the question." Of course that statement is " meant to mean" that emancipation is not the object of the war, which is strictly true. On the other hand, nothing is truer than that emancipation may become an incident of the war.

The suspension of the habeas corpus is not the object of the war; but it has legitimately become an incident of it. So with the arrest of talkers of treason and the suppression of treasonable papers. Emancipation may, in like manner, very easily become an incident of the war.

This may happen in two ways. In the first place, if the rebels are sorely pressed they may free the slaves to save themselves ; because they know that the danger of servile insurrection is not among free men but slaves. In the second place, if the Government is sorely pressed it may make it the interest of four millions of people in the very heart of the rebellious section to be its active friends.

Does any body deny the right of the Government to confiscate the property of the rebels ? The slaves are either property or persons. If the Government may properly take the horse and the grain which he is carrying, why may it not with equal propriety take the animal which has sowed and raised the grain, and loaded and driven the horse ? Why take one part of the property and leave the other ? Is there such special sacredness in property in men that it is to be exempted from the liabilities of all other property ? But if the slaves are persons, then they may be found to be lending such active aid to the rebellion that necessity will compel the Government to deprive the rebellion of their services. Why not? Why should the nation paralyze the efforts of Pierce Butler to destroy the Government, and yet allow Pierce Butler's slaves to do all the harm they can to the Government?

But will not a confiscation of this property, or a release of their persons, lead to horrible massacres and fearful outrages, it may be asked. It may be; but this rebellion which the slaveholders are prosecuting has already led to massacre and outrage. The people of this country have said pretty distinctly, " Slavery is dangerous to the common peace ; keep your slaves at home." The slave-holders reply, "You think slavery dangerous, do you, and you won't let us multiply and aggravate the danger ?—very well, take that !" And forthwith, with fire and sword and theft and treachery of every basest kind, they fall upon the justest and most equable Government in the world, and try to smother it in the blood of its citizens. And when those citizens, seeing more suddenly than they thought the danger of slavery, declare that they will paralyze the sting by killing the wasp, the slaveholders cry out, "Take care ; you'll hurt us if you do that !" In the name of the God of Justice, who is responsible for the consequences? For every drop of blood that might be shed—for every cry of outraged honor—the men who compelled the Government to defend itself at all hazards would be strictly accountable.

If the rebellion chooses to ask the simple question, Which is the more precious, the Government of the United States or the system of Chattel Slavery ? it must abide by the answer.

JOHN BULL AS A PRACTICAL MAN.

JOHN BULL is a practical man. He has no nonsense about him. He neither eats frogs nor wears wooden shoes, as Frenchmen do ; nor drawls through his nose and wears long straps to his trowsers, as Yankees do ; nor eats sauer-kraut and beer soup, as the Germans do; nor garlic, as the Spaniards do; nor oil, as the Italians do. John Bull despises them all, and eats roast beef and talks the English language, as all honest Christian people do. His church is the best church—his manners are the best manners—his ways of trade the best ways—his men the best men—his government the best government—and his tea-pot the best tea-pot in the world. Nobody else knows any thing. There are no soldiers, sailors, or states-men but John Bull's; and the secret of his superiority is, that he is such an eminently practical person; he has his eyes and ears open ; he knows what he is about ; he gets twenty shillings to every pound ; and how can he help it if God has seen fit to make him so much bigger and better than other people ? He acknowledges the divine regard in the politest manner by making his church establishment as respectable as any thing human can be. What more or better could heaven or earth desire than John Bull?

Every now and then—as the nasal Yankees say —John Bull illustrates his practical genius with peculiar splendor. For instance, about a hundred and thirty years ago, Sir John Blount, one of John Bull's gentlemen, persuaded John Bull's Chancellor of the Exchequer, that the debt of England might be paid off by opening new branches of trade in the South seas. The subscription to the stock was opened, but languished. Thereupon Blount circulated rumors that Gibraltar and Port Mahon would be exchanged for some places in Peru. John Bull, who has no nonsense about him, rushed to the books, and the first subscription was more than two millions of pounds—ten millions of dollars. In a few days the stock leaped up—such an eminently practical person is John Bull—and sold for double the price of the first payment. Finally, by cheating, lying, and swearing—such an ideal business man is John Bull—the stock was raised to a thousand pounds per cent. ; and John Bull every where plunged into stock-jobbing. One morning it turned out that Sir John Blount was Sir Jeremy Diddler, and the eminently practical person was left sucking his thumb for comfort.

It is not many years ago, also—quite within the range of modern memories—that King Hudson chucked under the chin our friend who always gets twenty shillings to the pound, and persuaded him to subscribe to railways. The fine old English gentleman replied to King Hudson, "But

you're a snob, aren't you ?" King Hudson responded by clinking golden guineas in his pocket. " Ah ! in that case," rejoined the honest upholder of the Protestant succession, " your very humble servant." So from the chin King Hudson raised his hand to the nose, and led John, like other Bulls, by that member. And when he had cleaned out the pockets of the gentleman who has his eyes and ears open, King Hudson, like Robert Macaire, disappeared.

A few years later, in testimony of his eminently practical genius, John Bull laid several hundred thousand pounds at the bottom of the sea in the shape of an Atlantic telegraph. But sagaciously thinking that investment in sea-water not sufficient, he built a big ship, that he might possess an adequate monument on the top of the ocean of his enterprise at the bottom. In the ship the full force of his practical genius came into play. It was big in idea; big upon the stocks ; much too big to launch safely ; big in the stream ; big in the mud; too big to manage; sadly big in its tragical trial trip ; big in its delays ; big in its voyage across the ocean ; big in the mistakes of management ; big in its excursions ; with a big want of water and comfort; big in its disappointment ; frightfully big in its total failure and enormous expense. It is the last big thing of our eminently practical genius, John Bull.

Happy the man who has no nonsense about him : who does not eat frogs nor wear long straps : and of whom his cleverest reviewer, himself a most eminent John Bull, could truly paint this picture : "Taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under the foot ; taxes upon every thing which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste ; taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion; taxes on every thing on earth and the waters under the earth—on every thing that comes from abroad or is grown at home ; taxes on the raw material; taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man ; taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite and the drug that restores him to health—on the ermine which decorates the judge and the rope which hangs the criminal—on the poor man's salt and the rich man's spice—on the brass nails of the coffin and the ribbons of the bride—at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay. The school-boy whips his taxed top ; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road ; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine which has paid ten per cent. into a spoon that has paid fifteen per cent., flings himself back upon his chintz bed which has paid twenty-two per cent., and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from two to ten per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel ; his virtues are handed down to posterity upon taxed marble, and he is then gathered to his fathers to be taxed no more."

Is it wonderful that with this splendid result of his practical genius, John Bull should scornfully trample and toss all other nations, provided always that they are weak or that calamity has befallen them ?

THE NATIONAL HYMNS.

MR. WHITE, one of the members of the National Hymn Committee, has written a note to the papers, which is interesting to all who sent poems to the Committee. A volume has been advertised entitled "The National Hymns, how they were written, and how not written : edited by Richard Grant White." The object of Mr. White's note is to say " that no such book is to be published, either with the consent of the National Hymn Committee, or with either my knowledge or consent. Nor have I 'edited' any book upon the subject. I have written a little book entitled 'National Hymns, how they are written, and how they are not written ; a Lyric and National Study for the Times,' which Messrs. Rudd & Carleton are to publish in a few days; and in two sections of this a few of the hymns sent in to the Committee are quoted by way of illustration ; but none are presented as 'the best' or as 'the worst.' I should not trouble you with this note, but the announcement in question is in direct contrariety with assurances which I have given to some of the gentlemen who have permitted me to use their hymns."

HUMORS OF THE DAY.

MRS. ROCHEFOUCAULD'S MAXIMS.

WOMEN'S feelings are more intense than those of men. We are happy or miserable : at a ball or at home. A woman hates a question, but loves to ask one.

The female mind is too poetical to be tamely methodical. Who would marry a woman who punctuated her love-letters?

Cupid is blind to every thing—save pin-money.

In society compliments are loans, which the lenders expect to be repaid with heavy interest.

Praise a woman's taste, and you may attack her sense with impunity.

Your candid friend has never any thing pleasant to say to you. He reminds you of his pet virtue, by wounding you with it.

If you want to know a woman's true character, linger after the guests have gone, and listen to what she has to say about them.

A woman wins an old man by listening to him, and a young man by talking to him.

Enjoy today, for tomorrow the first gray hair may come.   

Hymen is only Cupid in curl papers.

Women confess little faults, that their candor may cover great ones.

There are no reasons which explain love; but a thousand which explain marriage.

Age is venerable in man—and would be in woman--if she ever became old.

When a woman vows that she never flirts—she is flirting.

MATERNAL ADVICE.—A daughter is almost always right when she endeavors to imitate her mother; but we do not think the mother is equally right, when, at a certain period of life, she tries all she can to imitate her daughter.

ONE TO THE DOSE.--When a Holloway omnibus "goes down," may not the mishap be described as a Holloway spill?

 

ASTRONOMICAL INSECTS.—At one of the late Meetings of the British Association, a philosopher read a paper "On Geometrical Nets in Space." Another delivered a lecture on the habits of Spiders, of which insects a well-known variety is accustomed to make geometric nets in any convenient space between twigs or in palings. Are the geometrical nets which exist in absolute space constructed by any spiders which exist there, and are those spiders as big as the Scorpion in the Zodiac?

RATHER DOWN IN THE MOUTH.--We see that a cheap advertising Dentist offers to "stop teeth at a shilling apiece." The force of cheapness can scarcely go much lower. There is a class of purchasers so ravenous after cheapness that it is only necessary to offer a thing cheaply for them instantly to avail themselves of it. Let one of those peripatetic merchants, whose shop consists of a tray slung round his neck, offer them a sovereign for a penny, and they will eagerly snatch at it. The above remedy, however, is so unusually cheap and proportionately nasty, that we should say that it must almost be " too filling" at the price.

NON-INTERVENTION.—There is a talk of the Salt Lake joining the Confederates. We think the Mormon Capital is wrong. Let it secede, if it will; but it is not fair to join either party. It should be true to its own name, and consistently prove that it only wishes to remain, equally on both sides, an Utah (a neuter).

A DANGEROUS PRACTICE.—The young gentleman who took an overdose of conceit has experienced no ill effects from it. On the contrary, he says he never felt better in all his life. It is very strange, for decidedly the dose was strong enough for any six pet parsons. Still, we should not advise this young gentleman to repeat the dose too often, or else his friends will be distressed some day by having to resort to some very cruel experiments for the purpose of taking the conceit out of him. The cure, let us tell him, is often a trying and very distressing one. We know of one poor young man who had to be sent on the Stock Exchange before he was completely cured.

DRAWING-ROOM BALLADS.

IMPROVISED BY A GENTLEMAN WITH A GOOD MEMORY. 'Twere vain to tell thee all I feel, Indeed, 'twere vain to tell, I would not, if I could, conceal, Oh! yes, yet, 'tis a spell; Oh, lullaby, poor Lucy Neal, That sleeps in convent cell.

I'll not beguile thee from thy home, Take back those gems you gave; I've heard it said some love to roam All by the sad sea wave;

The Wolf! or, better, Pope of Rome, Dog Tray, Dunois the brave.

In this old chair my father sat, He was a man of might;

The owl sits by the tree, the bat In happy moments quite,

Sings tra, la, la, all round my hat, My native land, good-night.

Oh, maid of Athens, ere we part

A hunting we will go;

Upon the hill he turned,—so smart Are girls of Buffalo;

Take now this ring, 'tis thine; the heart Bow'd down :—Row, brothers, row.

THE DEFUNCT DRAMMER.—The disease which generally carries off dram-drinkers is half-quartern ague.

What musical house should exclusively publish Bacchanalian ditties?—Boosey.

THE LIGHTEST FISH DINNER POSSIBLE.--A pair of Cork Soles.

Why do refugee foreign noblemen, who dispense with linen but can not do without cheap cigars and garlic, prefer a small weekly bill to a large one ?—Because it's less to square.

THE RING.—On his next visit to the metropolis, Mr. T. Sayers intends, we hear, to put up at Mawley's Hotel.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT.—Rainbows are not made of watered silk.

CONUNDRUM FOR WARM WEATHER.—Jones tried very hard to obtain forty winks, but failed, in consequence of an irritating fly. Why was that fly Jones's deadliest enemy?—Because it was his bit o' rest foe.

HIBERNIAN CONUNDRUM.—Why is the Daily News like a black eye?—Because it is a mourning peeper.

DO YOU GIVE IT UP?

Why are two young ladies kissing each other an emblem of Christianity?

Because they are doing unto each other as they would men should do unto them.

Why is a man writing a play-bill like a water-fowl? Because he's a puffin (puffing).

When my first is broken

It stands in need of my second:

My third makes part of every lady's dress. Rib-band.

Why is the letter N like a pig?

Because it makes a sty nasty.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

AFFAIRS IN MISSOURI.

LEXINGTON, Missouri, has been evacuated by the rebels, and additional intelligence reaches us to the effect that General Sturgis has probably occupied the place. It appears that the rebels left Lexington on Monday afternoon, the intention of Price being, as it is supposed, to march on Georgetown, where a part of the national force is stationed. Just as they left Lexington, General Sturgis appeared on the other side of the river, firing shells upon them, and the report came to them that General Siegel, with 40,000 men, was advancing. Price, on receipt of this intelligence, changed his plan, and moved westward toward Independence. It is stated that his effective force numbered 25,000 men. The national troops are mostly stationed at Otteville, Sedalia, and Georgetown, the distance from Otteville to Sedalia being twelve miles, and from Sedalia to Georgetown four miles; General Pope, at Boonville, twenty-five miles northeast of Sedalia, has also a force of some strength, though the numbers are in no case definitely specified. General Fremont and his army are between Jefferson City and Lexington.

AFFAIRS IN KENTUCKY.

General Buckner is reported to have passed through Hopkinsville, Greenville, and other places, with a part of his troops, collecting arms on his route. The troops at Bowling Green say that 30,000 more men are ready at an hour's notice to enter Kentucky. About 1000 rebels are reported to have taken possession of Hopkinsville, Christian County, on Monday. Four hundred Union troops, under Captain Jackson, were falling back on Henderson. Reports were current that Buckner, with 5000 men, would attack Spottsviile, Henderson County, on Thursday. Zollicoffer was reported to be retreating toward Barboursville.

NEW ORDERS OF THE DAY.

General McClellan has issued some important orders.

Among others is one referring to the late depredations committed by the Union troops at the village of Fall's Church. These excesses he denounces as atrocious, and feels convinced that they have been the work of a few bad men, and that the officers and soldiers of the army generally will unite in the suppression of practices which disgrace the

whole army. He orders that in future the penalty of death shall be enforced upon all parties convicted of such outrages. In another order General McClellan designates all the forts and works in the vicinity of Washington, to the number of thirty-two, by special names, by which they shall be known hereafter.

THE BATTERIES ON THE POTOMAC.

A gun-boat reconnoissance down the Potomac results in the report that the whole line of the river from Occoquan to Matthias Point is defended by rebel batteries, which completely command the river.

FIGHT IN WESTERN VIRGINIA.

We have a report via Cincinnati of a fight in Western Virginia, in which the Union troops, consisting of four companies of the Thirty-fourth Ohio and five companies of the First Kentucky regiments, and one company of the Fifth Virginia, under Lieutenant-Colonel Enyart, surrounded and defeated the rebels at Chapmansville, killing sixty and taking seventy prisoners. On endeavoring to escape the rebels were intercepted by Colonel Platt, who killed forty of them and took a large number prisoners.

GENERAL LEE DEFEATED.

The authorities at Washington received information on 4th that General Reynolds had made a reconnoissance in force from his position at Cheat Mountain and met the rebels under General Lee, that he scattered them and drove them from the ground, with a very small loss on our side, but it was supposed with considerable damage to the enemy.

FATE OF THE MUTINEERS.

The fate of the mutinous prisoners condemned by General M'Clellan to hard labor at Tortugas has been generously mitigated upon their arrival at the Rip Raps. General Wool had them drawn up in line, and addressed them on the serious dereliction of duty for which they had been condemned. He stated that General McClellan would have been justified in shooting them for mutiny in face of the enemy, but he had a merciful proposition to make to them, If they would place themselves in his hands, all those who were willing might step forward three paces. Those who were not content to do so would be sent to Tortugas to expiate their crime. The entire number, 150, at once stepped forward with shouts and some with tears of joy. They were then taken to Newport News and drafted into a New York regiment.

THE PIRATE "SUMTER."

The privateer steamer Sumter left Surinam on the 5th ult. for Brazil. Some short distance from Surinam she met a vessel laden with coal, took 150 tons from her, and continued on her way. The Powhatan was in pursuit.

SOUTHERN SHINPLASTERS.

The Southern papers continue their complaints against the shinplaster currency, and the Richmond Dispatch says if prompt measures are not immediately taken to suppress the circulation of such illegal issues the whole South will be flooded with them, as every individual who chooses will force his worthless due bills on the community.

REPORTED ATTACK UPON NEW ORLEANS.

A startling report reaches us from New Orleans by way of St. Louis—published in the Republican of the latter city. It states that a letter has been received from New Orleans—the date of which, however, is not given—announcing that a fleet of seventy National vessels was coming up the Balize to capture the place.

THE CHEROKEES JOIN THE REBELS.

John Ross, the Chief of the Cherokee Nation, has finally succumbed to rebel pressure. On the 20th of August, as we learn from Rev. Mr. Robinson, late a missionary teacher among the Cherokees, who has recently arrived in St. Louis, Ross called a Council, and sent in a message recommending a severance from the United States and an alliance with the Southern Confederacy. The Council adopted the recommendation, and Commissioners were appointed to make a treaty of alliance with the Jeff Davis Government.

PERSONAL.

General Wool has gone to Washington for consultation with the Cabinet, and General Mansfield has taken his place at Fortress Monroe.

Gustavus W. Smith, formerly Superintendent of Streets in this City, has been appointed a General in the rebel army. He has been appointed to command the army heretofore led by General Johnston, who assumes general command of both that and the column commanded by Beauregard. Smith is a graduate of West Point, and was in the same class with General M'Clellan. Colonel Van Dorn, of Texas, has also been appointed a Major-General in the rebel service.

Colonel Taylor, late Assistant Commissary-General, was last week appointed Commissary-General, in place of General Gibson, deceased. The appointment is in the regular line of promotion, and Colonel Taylor has shown by his ability and energy while Acting Commissary-General an eminent fitness for the office.

The Hon. Charles Sumner delivered a speech at the Republican Convention at Worcester, Massachusetts. He took the ground that the overthrow of Slavery will at once make an end of the war, and justified that policy by many historic examples.

FOREIGN NEWS.

ENGLAND.

THE COTTON QUESTION.

MR. LAING, Financial Secretary of India, made a stirring appeal to the Manchester spinners and capitalists to continue their exertions to obtain a supply of cotton independent of the Southern rebel States, declaring that the question was of a range of importance more elevated than those requiring a merely commercial consideration.

THE ACCIDENT TO THE "GREAT EASTERN."

The Great Eastern reached Queenstown on the 17th ultimo, having sustained very great damage, during a terrific gale, when on her passage to New York. The storm overtook the leviathan when she was two days out, and standing two hundred and twenty miles west of Cape Clear. She broke her rudder pin, and for a time it was expected she would go down. The scene on board was fearful in the extreme. All her boats were washed away, all the furniture which could be broken was destroyed, twenty-five of the passengers sustained fractures of bones, and the cuts and bruises inflicted are reported as "innumerable." The paddle heels were carried away, and the ship made port by means of a temporarily rigged steering gear. The luggage of the passengers was reduced, according to the reports from London, to a heap of rags and wood splinters left floating in water in the luggage hold.

FRANCE.

FRENCH OFFICERS NOT ALLOWED TO SERVE
IN FOREIGN ARMIES.

It is reported that a number of French army officers, particularly in the artillerist arm of the service, were anxious to enter the United States Army, and had reason to hope that an Imperial permission to do so would have been accorded; but on making application at the War Office in Paris, their request was refused by the Minister in the name of the Emperor, who had forbidden his officers from accepting commissions in the Federal army.

SPAIN.

AN EXPEDITION AGAINST MEXICO.

It is currently reported and believed that a Spanish expedition against Mexico is being organized in Cuba; and it is alleged that five thousand of the Queen's soldiers, supported by a strong naval force, will soon be landed at Vera Cruz and commence a direct march on the city of Mexico.

THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE SPANISH
COLONIES.

The Queen of Spain has proclaimed in Porto Rico that whenever a slave touched the Spanish soil he was free, despite any claim of his former master or owner.


 

 

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