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Civil War Harper's Weekly, November 8, 1862

You are viewing an issue of Harper's Weekly from our online archive. We have posted the entire run of Harper's Weekly newspapers published during the Civil War. These papers are rich with eye-witness illustrations and news reports written as the events unfolded.

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General Rosecrans

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Second Battle of Pea Ridge

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NOVEMBER 8, 1862.]

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

707

(Previous Page) the one right for the other. His proposition would then read thus: "If it is true that life must be taken to save this Union, then the people of the South should be allotted to withdraw themselves from that Government which can not give them the protection guaranteed by its terms."

BRETHREN.

THE meetings and speeches of the gentlemen whom Mr. Daniel S. Dickinson, a tolerable democratic authority, declares to have been the mendicants, office-seekers, and camp-followers of the old Democratic party—crippled Democrats, who have been carried for life in the ambulances of the party and attached to its commissariat—have been the source of so much satisfaction to the rebels that no honest man can doubt that every vote for Mr. Seymour, the candidate of those meetings, will be hailed with true delight by the same "erring brethren."

Mr. John Van Buren, as we have elsewhere said, has been the speaker of chief importance, because he has spoken explicitly. Mr. Seymour has confined himself to generalities, some safe, some not so safe, as he will find. Upon receipt of the speeches the rebel papers burst into a chorus of joy. The letter of General Scott, which was read by Mr. Van Buren, and was aimed in the orator's intention against the fair patriotic fame of Scott, against the Government and the war, in the opinion of the Richmond Dispatch, "exalts General Scott from the abyss into which he has been dragged by Seward." Mr. Van Buren meant to give the rebels the aid and comfort of knowing that Scott, at the time of the inauguration, wanted to let them go. He has succeeded. He has delighted the enemies of his country. They break into vehement applause.

The Dispatch declares that it appreciates "the superior chivalry and magnanimity of Van Buren and his friends to the Black Republicans," and says that it agrees with him that taking Richmond would not end the war, and therefore does not see why its friend Van Buren suggests taking it.

Meanwhile, will any candid man show the difference of sentiment between the following from the Richmond Whig and the speech of Mr. Van Buren, the spokesman of Horatio Seymour?

"Nor, after the sacrifices which the South has suffered at Northern hands," says the Whig, "could she ever consent, of her own free-will, to live under the same government with that people."

Mr. John Van Buren, speaking for Mr. Seymour, says: "And if they won't consent, then I know that I am in favor of so amending the Constitution as to let them go, saying to them, in the language of the gallant Scott, 'Wayward sisters, depart in peace!"

If there is any practical difference between Seymourism, as thus expounded by Mr. Van Buren, and Secessionism, as set forth by the Richmond Whig, it can only be discerned by eyes sharp enough to see the decency of reading without authority a private letter to a public meeting.

THE FRUIT OF THE OLIVE.

WHEN Mr. Seymour says that the Union may slide if it can not be saved without abolishing slavery, and when his followers echo, "Amen, let the wayward sisters go!" is it because they are really willing the Union should be dissolved and the Government destroyed forever? Are they totally insensible to the achievement of the Past and the hope of the Future? Do they seriously suppose that a Government like this, a nation like this, with the vast complex system of society that depends upon it, and the enormous interests that are ruined by its destruction, can be broken up by an airy wave of the hand and a flippant farewell? Or is there something behind? Their war policy is peace. But what do they mean by peace?

Suppose their plan should prevail. Suppose there should be an armistice, a negotiation, and a separation. Then, what? The South would be a political unit upon slavery; and, as an independent power, slavery would he its fundamental law, as Mr. Stephens declared. But as the necessity of union among these States is a vital and prime necessity, what would happen at the North? Mr. Seymour and his friends would insist upon that necessity. Having insisted upon disunion for peace, they would clamor for union for peace. The reaction from the war would, under the supposition, have brought them into power. The politics of the North would be simply reconstruction and opposition to it. But reconstruction would be possible only by our consent to slavery in the fundamental law. By the pressure of obvious considerations that consent might be obtained by a majority vote. Then the Union would be re-formed under a Constitution which would not refuse to admit the doctrine which James Madison declared that our Constitution should not admit—the doctrine of property in man.

Nothing but a practical despotism could keep the country quiet under such a Constitution. But the people have learned war and after a brief and delusive lull another rebellion would inevitably break out. The political predominance of the slave power would come into irresistible conflict with the rights of free labor. Troubles, disaster, blood must needs follow. We should be entirely Mexicanized, and either heave in tumultuous revolution indefinitely or sink into abject despotism.

Meanwhile, as Mr. Seymour waves a white handkerchief to the enemies of his country begging them to be conciliated, and while this is a plain picture of the results of Seymourism or dishonorable peace, it is refreshing to read the clear sentences of Mr. Seward's letter to the West New Jersey Baptist Association:

"You may further rest assured that the President is looking for a restoration of peace on no other basis than that of the unconditional acquiescence by the people of all the States in the Constitutional authority of the Federal Government.

"Whatever policy will lead to that result will be pursued whatever interest shall stand in the way of it will he disregarded."

SECESSION SYMPATHY.

MR. SEYMOUR and his friends prefer not to be called sympathizers with the rebellion. They declare that it is a slander to call them so. Now that many persons may vote for him who really do not wish the Union dissolved is very true. But it will be merely because they do not know his real position. Should any candid man, who expects to vote for Mr. Seymour because he can not see that the sympathizes with the purpose of the rebellion, happen to see this paragraph, let him reflect upon the entire harmony of the views expressed by Mr. Seymour and those of the Richmond Examiner.

The Examiner says: "As the war originated, and is carried out in great part, for the defense of the slaveholder in his property, rights, and the perpetuation of the institution, it is reasonable to suppose that he ought to be first and foremost in aiding and assisting, by every means in his power, the triumph and success of our arms."

Horatio Seymour says: "If it is true that slavery must be abolished to save this Union, then the people of the South should be allowed to withdraw themselves from that Government which can not give them the protection guaranteed by its terms."

The war, says the Examiner, is made to save slavery. If we can not succeed in the war, says Mr. Seymour, without hurting slavery, we ought to give it up.

When you vote for Mr. Seymour you vote for this doctrine and all its consequences.

AN INSTRUCTIVE FACT.

IT is an instructive fact that all the newspapers in this City and State which were presented by the Grand Jury as dangerous to the peace of the country—which were in danger of suppression by the authorities for aiding the rebellion—which were compelled by the indignant people to show some outward sign of loyalty and obedience to the best Government over established among men—and which have continued in every way to paralyze the hand of the authorities in striking the rebellion to the heart—are the most strenuous supporters of Mr. Seymour and the most malignant defamers of General Wadsworth. All these papers are for a vigorous submission of the Government to the rebels. Were their power equal to their will, they would throw the loyal masses of the North at the feet of the rebellion, like a lump of dough, to be moulded into the form that best suits Davis, Wigfall, Toombs, and Slidell.

A BLUNDER AND A TRICK.

IT is a favorite device of swindlers, when they see that they hold a hopelessly losing hand, to throw up the cards and cry out that there is cheating. But more delightfully transparent is the dodge of this political gamblers who are excusing their defeat in advance by declaring that there is danger of violence at the polls.

Violence from whom, please? Violence for what, pray? This State will give Wadsworth an unprecedented majority simply because he represents the Union cause and the support of the Administration, not because he has been a Republican, nor from any party reason whatever. There is not a man who will vote for him but knows that he will vote with the enormous mass of the people. Is any such man likely to do harm to the infrequent voter for Seymour and sympathy with rebellion? No, no; such men are good-natured. They will insist upon protecting the ballot-box that the full glory of the victory may appear.

Who then is to show violence? Is it the meek and lowly Dead Rabbits who are to be oppressed? Is it the representatives of the Subterraneans who fear blows? Is it Mackerelville that dreads a fight? Is it the Coal Hole that trembles? When has there ever been any kind, or hint, or suspicion of serious violence at elections that it has not sprung from these very gentry in whose interest it is now announced that there may be trouble at the polls?

The trick is pleasant but transparent. It is not violence which is feared at the polls, but a minority. It is not the sound of blows, but of ballots, that is so fearful in anticipation. In a word, the destruction of parties in the country is so radical and complete that the political shysters who have held on so stoutly to the last chip of a purely party platform, even when to do so was to give the most open comfort to the rebellion, are now in mortal terror lest their weakness should appear, and are casting about for any excuse to avoid the annihilating result of the election.

Old party issues are gone, and old party names will follow. The organization of each continues, and should continue, for it is a necessary machinery that can be transferred much more easily than reconstructed. While the war lasts the rebellion will be the only grounds upon which parties are possible. By inevitable laws they will be but two: the party of uncompromising, and the party of conditional support of the Government. When the war is over there will be yet further reconstruction of parties upon grounds which may be surmised, but which are not yet reached. The nomination of Mr. Seymour was the most enormous political blunder ever committed in this State. It is to evade the proof of that enormity at the polls that the cry is raised of violence at the election.

HUMORS OF THE DAY.

BARGAIN.—A ludicrous transaction, in which each party thinks he has cheated the other.

The young lady who promises one gentleman and marries another hasn't "the right ring" about her.

A queer old gentleman being asked what he wished for dinner, replied, "An appetite, good company, something to eat, and a napkin!"

Jones says he loves two charming girls—Jenny Rosity and Annie Mation.

A good soldier may die, but he "never says die."

NOT AN UNCOMMON INCIDENT.—The lady and gentleman who lately fell in love have fallen out.

ADVICE TO THE UNCLEANLY.—Go to Bath.

A woman offering to sign a deed, the judge asked her whether her husband compelled her to sign? "He compel me!" said the lady; "no, nor twenty like him."

"My affairs tend downward," as the oyster said when about to be swallowed.

A lady well advanced in maidenhood at her marriage requested the choir to sing the hymn commencing

"This is the way I long have sought,

And mourned because I found it not."

A gentleman from Boston chanced to find himself among a little party of ladies, away down East, this summer, in the enjoyment of some innocent social play. He carelessly placed his arm about the slender waist of as pretty a damsel as Maine can boast of, when she started and exclaimed, "Begone, Sir! don't insult me!" The gentleman instantly apologized for his seeming rudeness, and assured the half-offended fair one that he did not mean to insult her. "No?" she replied, archly; "well, if you didn't, you may do it again."

A silk-dyer placed on his sign the following parody on Goldsmith's familiar lines, "When lovely woman stoops to folly:"

"When lovely woman tilts her saucer,

And finds too late that tea will stain,

What ever made a lady crosser?

What art can wash all white again?

The only art the stain to cover,

To hide the spot from every eye,

And wear an unsoiled dress above her

Of proper color, is—to dye!"

A man with a scolding wife, when inquired of respecting his occupation, said he kept a hot-house.

Why is the letter k like a pig's tail? Because it is the end of pork.

If a clock were to speak to a parrot, what would it say? Poll I ticks.

It was said of a rich miser that he died of great want—

the want of more money.

The friendship of some people is like our shadow, keeping close while we are walking in the sunshine, but deserting us the moment we enter the shade.

Why does an engraver suffer less in drowning than other people? Because he is used to die-sinking.

The difference between a carriage-wheel and a carriage-horse is, that one goes best when it is tired, and the other doesn't.

We should round every day of stirring action with an evening of thought. We learn nothing from our experience unless we muse upon it.

Rank and fashion maybe all very fine in time of peace, but rank and file must have precedence of them in time of war.

Authors do not always shine in conversation; although they possess its gold they frequently have not its small change.

SPOUTING WRETCHES.—A pawnbroker's customers.

To terminate a lawsuit speedily is the next best thing to never having commenced it.

A wag has truly said, that if some men could come out of their coffins, and read the inscriptions on their tombstones, they would think they had got into the wrong grave.

A BO'SAN'S MATE.—His wife.

Cream may be frozen by simply putting it into a glass vessel, and then putting the whole in an old bachelor's bosom.

Can a person speak the truth when he lies in bed? DIRECT FROM BEDLAM.—When is a man most like a bird?—When he's a raven.

When is a tooth equal to four roods of land?—When it's an acre.

STARTLING PARADOX.—However rich a man may be, by giving away a couple of half pence, he becomes penny-less.

What is taken from you before you get it?—Your portrait.

What is that which works when it plays, and plays when it works?—A fountain.

REMEDY FOR DEFECTIVE SIGHT.—Eyes in glass.

THE BEST WAY OF PRESERVING MEAT.—Invite none but vegetarians to dine with you.

"Too much of a good thing," as the kitten said when she fell into the milk-pail.

What word may be pronounced quicker by adding a syllable to it?—Quick.

A good many men are in the best health when they are out of spirits.

"I'll put that in my trunk," as the elephant observed to the orange.

A public writer thinks that much might be gained if speakers would observe the miller's method—always to shut the gate when the grist is out.

What is that which is ever before us, can never be seen, and yet all are looking toward it? To-morrow.

Little girls believe in a man in the moon; young ladies in a man in the honey-moon.

"What is the best attitude for self-defense?" asked a pupil of a well-known pugilist. "Keep a civil tongue in your head," was the reply.

What is that which makes all women equally pretty? Putting the candle out.

The charities of a good many rich people seem altogether indispensable.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

ADVANCE OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.

GENERAL McCLELLAN moved his head-quarters on 27th to the Virginia side of the Potomac. At daylight on 26th General Pleasanton's cavalry crossed the river at Berlin and pushed on to Lovettsviile, in the direction of Leesburg, which point he was supposed to have occupied immediately. General Burnside followed with his corps, and took up a position near Lovettsville. No battle appears to have occurred. Up to the evening of 27th every thing was quiet. General Pleasanton was said to be within a few hours' march of the rebel Longstreet's forces.

ANOTHER BATTLE AT PEA RIDGES.

The following dispatch has been published:

ST. LOUIS MISSOURI, Oct. 25, 1862.

Major-General Halleck, General-in-Chief, Washington:

Our arms are entirely successful again in Northwest Arkansas.

General Schofield, finding that the enemy had camped at Pea Ridge, sent General Blunt with the First Division westward, and moved toward Huntsville with the rest of his forces.

General Blunt, by making a hard night's march, reached and attacked the rebel force at Maysville, near the northwest corner of Arkansas, at seven o'clock on the morning of the 22d inst.

The enemy were estimated at from five to seven thousand strong.

The engagement lasted about an hour, and resulted in the total rout of the enemy, with the loss of all his artillery—a battery of 6-pounders—a large number of horses, and a portion of their transportation and garrison equipments.

Our cavalry and light howitzers were still in pursuit of their scattered forces when the messenger left.

Our loss was small.

General Schofield pursued General Hindman beyond Huntsville, coming close upon him, when his forces precipitately fled beyond the Boston Mountain.

All the organized forces of the rebels have thus been driven back to the Valley of the Arkansas River, and the Army of the Frontier has gallantly and successfully accomplished its mission.

S. R. CURTIS, Major-General Commanding.

THE REBEL FAILURE IN KENTUCKY.

The Richmond papers admit the complete failure of General Bragg to accomplish any thing in Kentucky. The Whig says that his attempt was "a complete fizzle." Thus by rebel authorities themselves the utter defeat of two of their generals—Van Dorn in Mississippi and Bragg in Kentucky—is acknowledged.

BATTLE NEAR CHARLESTON.

The Richmond Dispatch has an official report from General Beauregard announcing an attack by the Union troops on the Charleston and Savannah Railroad at Coosawatchie and Pocotaligo, on 22d, and were "gallantly repulsed" by the rebel forces. The enemy, he says, had come in thirteen transports and gun-boats. The Charleston Railroad is uninjured. The "abolitionists" left their dead and wounded on the field.

BATTLE AT WAVERLEY.

A desperate fight took place at Waverley, in Tennessee, on 23d. It appears that a rebel force 800 strong attacked a party of 200 Union troops at that place, which is located about twenty miles southwest of Fort Donelson. After a severe fight our men, though greatly inferior in numbers, completely routed the enemy, killing twenty-four and capturing twenty-five of them.

GALVESTON TAKEN.

The city of Galveston, Texas, has been evacuated by the rebels, and was occupied by our troops on the 5th instant.

CONDITION OF THE REBEL ARMY.

Governor Vance, of North Caroline, makes a pathetic appeal to the generosity of the people to assist in clothing the rebel soldiers before the winter sets in. He describes them as already suffering from want of socks, slags, and blankets. He calls upon the farmers who are tanning hides to supply the shoes, the mothers of North Carolina to knit the socks, and the wealthy to give their parlor carpets for blankets.

AN IMPORTANT SIGN.

Brigadier-General Edwin Price, son of Major-General Price, of the Confederate army, has taken the oath of allegiance to the United States. He was captured near Warsaw, Missouri, last winter, and since that time has been on parole. He was recently exchanged for General Prentiss, and after visiting the rebel camp at Granada, Mississippi, returned to St. Louis. He gives it as his opinion that the rebellion is nearly broken, and that the Confederate army can exist but a short time longer. He visited General Curtis's head-quarters and immediately on his return resigned his position under the Richmond government, and gave his commission to Gen. Curtis for the latter to send through the lines. After subscribing to the oath of allegiance, he announced his determination to observe it in both letter and spirit.

THE DRAFT IN PENNSYLVANIA.

Some little difficulty occurred in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, the great coal district, last week, in consequence of the draft. An immense force of miners turned out in arms of various kinds to resist the draft, and for a time created much disturbance. At last accounts, however, the trouble was adjusted, and the resistant miners had resumed work.   .

AN ANTI-SLAVERY PAPER IN NEW ORLEANS.

A thoroughly Anti-Slavery paper, in the French language, has just been started in New Orleans. It is called L' Union, and addresses itself, in particular, to the French people of color, to whom it appeals, in stirring articles, to join the Union troops and aid them in the establishment of a "Republican system without stain, of a democracy without fetters." The first number reproduces a letter addressed two years ago by Victor Hugo to a Haytian poet.

FOREIGN NEWS.

ENGLAND.

MR. GLADSTONE IN FAVOR OF NEUTRALITY.

IN a recent speech at Newcastle Mr.Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said:

"I must confess, for reasons that I need not now explain, that I do not think that England has had any interest in the disruption of that Union; my own private opinion is that it watt rather the interest of England that the Union should continue. I know that it is not an opinion generally shared; but at any rate, gentlemen, whatever view we may take of that, I think we all feel that the course which her Majesty's Ministers have endeavored to pursue —namely, that of maintaining a strict neutrality under all circumstances that have heretofore passed—has been a right course, and has been the expression of the general sense of the community.

BUT HE IS SURE THE SOUTH WILL WIN.

"We may have our own opinions about Slavery—we may be for the South or against the South: but there is no doubt, I think, about this: Jefferson Davis and the other leader,, of the South have made an army—they are making, it appears, a navy—and they have made what is more than either—they have made a nation. We may anticipate with certainty the success of the Southern States, so far as regents effecting their separation from the North. I, for my own part, can not but believe that
that event is co certain as any event yet future and contingent can be. But it is from feeling that that great event is likely to arise, and that the North will have to suffer that mortification, that I earnestly hope that England will do nothing to inflict additional shame, sorrow, or pain upon those who have already suffered much, and who will probably have to suffer more."

OTHER OPINIONS.

Sir John Pakington asserted, in Worcestershire, that the time had arrived when her Majesty's Government, in conjunction with the governments of other countries, ought to offer to mediate between the Northern and Southern States of America, on this basis of a separation of the contending sections of the republic, and with a clear understanding that the non-success of such an effort to stay the horrors of the civil war would be followed immediately by the recognition of the Southern Confederacy.

Equally strong views have been expressed by Mr. Locke King and Mr. Alcock, members for East Surrey.

Sir E. B. Lytton, in the course of his speech said: "No dispassionate by-stander can believe that the Union will be restored, and no far-sighted politician can suppose that the curse of slavery will long survive the sepatation, of which it is the most ostensible, though it is neither the only nor perhaps the most powerful cause."


 

 

  

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