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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1861.
THE GREAT NAVAL EXPEDITION.
BY the time these lines are read
by the public the GREAT NAVAL EXPEDITION will have reached its destination, and
we therefore violate no duty to the Government in illustrating its departure on
pages 696 and 697. What precise point it is intended to attack no one knows but
its leaders and the members of the Administration ; but we may rest assured that
it will deal a blow where it will be felt, and that the rebel army on the
Potomac will not hear of its landing without emotions of very lively concern.
Annapolis and Fortress Monroe to convey the
troops, supplies, and munitions of war. It is believed that these vessels have
departed with an army of not less than 30,000 men, with due proportions of
cavalry and artillery, the whole commanded by
Major-General Sherman, late of
Sherman's Battery. The Great Republic alone,
which was towed by the Vanderbilt, took over 900 horses, besides a large
quantity of stores and forage. Two other vessels also carried horses for the
artillery. We illustrate their embarkation and
their quarters on board ship on pages 696 and 697. Other vessels in the fleet
were laden with timber, bricks, houses all ready built, and tools of all kinds
for the erection of fortifications ; so that it may safely be assumed that the
expeditionary force is likely to remain some time where it lands.
The landing will be effected
under cover of the fire of a powerful fleet of men-of-war. No one knows what
vessels will constitute this fleet. It is whispered, however, that not less than
300 guns of heavy y calibre will be brought to bear on the landing-place—enough to
overpower any resistance that can fairly be anticipated.
OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS.
CONSIDERABLE alarm was created
last week by the publication of a letter from the Secretary of State to the
Governor of the State of New York, urging the State Legislature to strengthen
the coast and frontier defenses of the State, so as to be prepared for foreign
wars. People wondered for a day or two whether we were on the brink of actual
trouble with Europe. .
Mr. Lincoln, though newspapers published in
London have abused and maligned us in a very remarkable manner. Finally, no
cause for war exists. The real trouble with both England and France at present
is not the
Southern blockade or the stoppage of the cotton
supply, but the Morrill tariff, which shuts out their manufactured goods from
the markets of the North. This is a very grievous injury to them, undoubtedly.
But it is not an injury which justifies an appeal to arms, nor is it one which a
war could cure. England can not bombard us into buying British woolens, nor can
France bayonet us into wearing French silks. They can do nothing but wait and
watch. By-and-by, when the war is over, we shall gladly revert to our old policy
of raising money by revenue tariffs, and then Europe will recover the market she
has temporarily lost—unless, meanwhile, she should have exasperated our people
It is asked why the letter was
published if it was merely a measure of prudent precaution ?
Mr. Seward's object in giving to the press a
letter which, in the ordinary course of affairs, should have been kept secret,
was probably to "head off" Messrs.
Slidell, who are by this time
arriving in Europe as the accredited Commissioners of the Rebel States to France
and England. Whether the publication of a letter which, under the circumstances,
implied a threat was the best way of achieving this object, is a question which
may possibly involve some doubt. But Mr. Seward's fondness for coups-d'etat and
startling manifestoes is well known.
In connection with this subject,
we may observe that much misapprehension exists in the papers on the subject of
the combined French,
British, and Spanish expedition
against Mexico. This expedition will do immense good, and has, we doubt not,
received the hearty assent of our Government. Its object is to put down the
robbers and bandits who for many years have rendered all government impossible
in Mexico; to enable the Mexican people freely and fairly to choose their own
rulers ; and to give to those rulers, after they have been chosen, armed support
for a sufficient length of time to enable them to gain a solid footing in the
country. The accomplishment of these objects will be as beneficial to the United
States and the world at large as to Mexico herself. They would have been
accomplished some years ago, but for the ambitious schemes of certain British
politicians in Mexico on the one hand, and on the other the pro-slavery dreams
of the Southern Junta at
Washington. The time has now arrived when the right
thing can be safely done, and it is going to be at least attempted.
THE CLOSING OF THE POTOMAC.
IT is known that the rebels have
some fifteen miles of batteries on the south shore of the Potomac, and that
every vessel which tries to pass is fired upon. Hence general alarm is felt
throughout the North at the " closing of the Potomac," and loyal citizens are
asking each other what
General McClellan will do for fodder.
If General McClellan has been
taken by surprise by the erection of hostile batteries on the Potomac, he is not
the man the people take him for. At least six weeks ago, it was apparent that
the rebels had the power to plant
cannon on the Virginia bank of the river, in
such positions as to seriously menace passing craft. If General McClellan be the
far-sighted general people believe him to be, he was prepared for what has
happened, and is provided with a remedy.
But there is no reason why the
erection of batteries on the Potomac should be regarded as closing that river.
Balls and shells are unpleasant things to come into contact with, no doubt. It
is, however, the business of vessels of war to encounter them, and their
captains can no more complain of being under fire than private soldiers. With
one or two exceptions, the rebel batteries are a mile from the channel. At this
distance the most experienced gunners will not sink one craft in twenty. It will
be time enough to consider the Potomac closed when every other craft which tries
to pass the batteries is sure of being sunk or destroyed.
A PRECIOUS PAIR.
MR. JAMES M. MASON and
SLIDELL have slipped off to England and France as Commissioners to implore the
recognition of a Government of which the second in command declares the
corner-stone to be Slavery.
It is to be hoped that every
gentleman in this country who has correspondents in either England or France
will carefully inform them that these persons have each been Senators of the
United States, and that each of them has one distinction, and one only. They are
both old men ; they have been all their lives professional politicians ; and
there is but a single act identified with the name of each.
Mr. John Slidell is known to the
nation solely in connection with the Plaquemine election frauds in Louisiana, in
Mr. James M. Mason is the author
of the Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850. He is fitly chosen by the rebellion to
represent their essential principle and purpose at the Court of Victoria.
" That the institution of Slavery
is abominable in the eyes of Englishmen ..... is not for a moment to be doubted," says
a late London Times. And how will Earl Russell, the Foreign Secretary, the
descendant of Lord William Russell, who died for striking for liberty against a
despotic English Government, look upon this man who strikes for slavery against
the free and beneficent Government of the United States ?
These gentlemen are not likely to
be overtaken by the steamers which our Government has sent after them. But in
sending them the Administration shows its disposition to take every step. To
maintain an absolute blockade is simply impossible; and when an important vessel
escapes, the only possible measure is to dispatch another after it.
LAST spring, after
more dismal a story was, the more readily we believed it. So after
there were those who really thought this Government was gone. But since our
peaceful encampment along the Potomac our spirits have been gradually rising,
taking stocks with them, until at last we turn such a smiling face and so
buoyant a heart to the war that a man might believe that all his neighbors had
in his pocket conclusive news of the overthrow of the rebellion.
Four bad reports came together
Wilson's Zouaves had been cut up upon
Santa Rosa Island. Pooh ! pooh
! Hollins had sunk the Preble and peppered the fleet at the mouth of the
Mississippi. Stuff! Hollins is a bragster. The Nashville had gone to sea with
Mason and Slidell. Don't believe any such story. The Saranac went ashore in a
It was truly refreshing to
observe the airy way in which these stories were set aside, and the lie
cheerfully given to Madame Rumor. " Dear Madame," said the public incredulity,
"if you wish
to be believed to our
disadvantage, you will please speak through some other mouth-piece than a rebel
Fas est et ab hoste doceri, as
the Latin Grammar justly remarks. There is no harm in being taught by the enemy
in any way. There is especially no harm in believing the worst he says. Above
all things, it is of the utmost use to remember that the chances of war must
often go against us. The rebels will sometimes run the blockade ; they will
sometimes surprise and overpower unwary and inferior numbers of our men ; they
will suddenly unmask batteries; they will occasionally sink and pepper our
ships; they will unquestionably poison wells and food which are likely to fall
into our hands, whenever they, can. We are very resolved, very united, and of
overwhelming numbers and means. But the rebels will for a long time seem to live
without food and buy without money. They will make forays and ambuscades. They
will stop a train in Missouri; run the blockade at
Charleston ; make a dash at
Hatteras, or fire from a battery on
These things we must expect, and
we must anticipate a various fortune in them. But the central point to observe
is that they make no very threatening general movement, nor do their motions
indicate any grand design. Thus far it is fierce guerrilla skirmishing upon
their part, except at Bull Run, where we were both beaten.
Civil wars do not end
in a few months, nor are the victories all on one side. Let us keep an even
mind, not supposing that a report is " a lie" because it is disagreeable ; nor
that Hollins can not drive a vessel ashore because he is a braggart ; nor that
Mason and Slidell can not escape to Europe because we do not wish them to.
WHILE we are engaged in a great
civil war occasioned by a few conspirators who saw that the political power of
Slavery was rapidly passing away—a war made by them originally to found a new
government, and now waged of necessity to destroy this one-it is interesting to
mark the movements of the rest of the world in relation to the original cause of
this war. That cause is simply the old quarrel between Despotism and Liberty. It
reappears in the history of every nation. In European nations it has often come
to open war because the rights of all the people were assailed—as in England,
and France, and Italy. But more agreeable is the spectacle of a Government
yielding to the deepening sentiment of justice, upon which alone permanent peace
It is in this light that the
recent abolition of serfdom in Russia is seen to be an act of profound political
sagacity. In the same light the expressed intention of the Southern leaders of
our rebellion is sheer fatuity. A republic resting upon slavery is as absurd as
a Papacy resting upon private judgment. And while the rebellion solicits the
sympathy of the world,
Mr. Stephens frankly confesses that Jefferson and the
fathers of the Constitution held slavery to be an evil, but that they were
mistaken, and he now asks aid and countenance for a Government superior to
theirs because slavery is its " corner-stone." No loyal citizen should forget
these facts for a moment. Mr. Stephens openly says slavery, is " the immediate
cause of the late rupture and present revolution." That a single
unconstitutional act had been done, neither he nor any of the leaders assert. On
the contrary, when he said this in March, his lips were yet warm with the words
he had spoken in November, after Mr. Lincoln's election, that this Government
was the best in the world. Four months afterward he had discovered that a better
Government would be one based upon slavery.
It is humiliating that such
things should have been said by an American to-day. Does it not sorely touch our
honor that while Russia is emancipating, we are waging a terrible war to prevent
the destruction of the Government by a far worse slavery than the serfdom of
Russia ? The most barbarous of civilized powers entreats that which called
itself the most enlightened not to fall a prey to despotism : and while the
Russian Government makes the direct appeal, Spain, with expressive silence
toward us, announces, by the letter of Marshal O'Donnell, Minister of War and
the Colonies, to the Governor of Porto Rico, " that her Majesty has been
graciously pleased to declare that slaves coming from that island and from Cuba
into Spain with their masters must consider themselves emancipated without the
consent of their owners being indispensable ; that the freedom granted to said
slaves, in virtue of the decision of the 25th March, 1836, is not revocable; and
that they acquire by their arrival in the Mother Country, without any other act
being necessary to confirm it, the quality of freemen, even should they return
to a country where slavery is authorized by the laws."
So says Spain, the blue blood of
national honor mantling once more in her withered cheeks. Hear now Alexander H.
Stephens : "'This, our new Government, is the first in the history of the world
based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth [of slavery].
This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other
truths in the various departments of science."
Very slow, Mr. Stephens, but
never quite so slow as at this present moment.
OLD TREASON WITH A NEW FACE.
ALL efforts to make partisan
political capital during the war are open aid and comfort to the enemy. No
service is so grateful to a foe as sowing division in the hostile camp. If he
can divide or dispirit his enemy, he can conquer them. That is precisely what
Jeff Davis would like to see among the friends of the Government at the North.
It would cheer his melancholy soul, if he could see us so intent upon deciding
what party is chiefly responsible for the war, that we forget to fight; or
fighting, secretly wish him to conquer, that the party opponent may be made to
Simple justice requires any
observer of the times
to admit that the Republican
party and papers have not been forward in this kind of treason. They have
accepted the war, and have forborne to explore its proximate causes in our own
neighborhood. They have frankly taken the ground that the Union was to be
defended at all costs, and if emancipation should become a military necessity,
then men and women held as property should not be allowed to help the rebellion
any more than horses, grain, or any other property.
While this is true of their
papers, Mr. Sumner is the only leading Republican statesman who advocates
universal emancipation as the truest policy of the Government. And he takes care
only to state his view, and to add that he defers to the Administration as to
the method in which, and the time when, the object he seeks shall be
Still further, the party at large
have been first to repudiate party divisions, and their offer of union being
refused in this State by the Committee of the other great party, the people of
both parties repudiated the Committee, held a Convention, and named candidates
of all parties which, with one exception, and that exception based mainly upon
personal grounds, the Republican Convention immediately approved, although it
had undoubtedly a clear majority of fifty thousand in the State. The patriotic
policy of Syracuse has been followed in the county and local nominations; and if
party-spirit rages any where, it is certainly not due to the action of the
THAT others are aware of the
approach of the Lecture Season is evident enough from the following letter,
which the Lounger commends to the careful deliberations of Committees and
" KISKATOM, October, 1861.
"DEAR MR. LOUNGER,-I wish to say
a few words to you in the fullest confidence. I do not write this because I have
doubts of my own ability, but for the reason that I desire an opportunity to
make my powers widely known. A friend of yours, I understand, has had some
experience in public lecturing. Will you have the kindness to ask him to send me
a list of the 'Associations' paying the best prices?
"During the summer I have
prepared a lecture upon the ' Internal Convulsions of Nature, and their
Relations to the Progress of Mankind.' I think I am in a state of intellectual
rarefaction to produce a profound sensation upon a refined audience. I do not
wish to lecture in small towns or before shilling audiences. I do not desire to
be invited out to ' tea,' and shown around the town like a caged animal. I do
not wish to write my name and a few sentiments' in the album of every young lady
and gentleman in the town. I do not wish to be coughed down when I say
'oppression' and do not mean 'slavery.' I do not wish to be called an 'infidel'
when my religion does not chime with the bell of every church. I have delivered
the lecture before a select circle of friends, and they pronounced it sublime.
Our newspaper has a flattering article on my lecture (written by myself), and
says that Beecher, Chapin, and Gough are small candles compared to me.
Yours, T. HARRISON BUGHUM."
THE LYCEUM LECTURES.
THE Lyceum, or our system of
popular lectures, will doubtless feel the pressure of the times. But it is
understood that in most of the cities the usual course will be given. The
lecturers ought to remember that the times are earnest, and that they should
speak to the times. There was probably never a sincerer interest in topics which
are necessarily important to every American citizen, and never a greater
willingness to listen to considerate discussion.
The Lyceum is, on the one hand,
not merely a theatre, or opera, or circus; and, on the other, it is not exactly
a pulpit. Its range is as wide as human interest and thought. Its influence is
as deep as its sincerity. The experience of ten years should show the newer
lecturers that those speakers are permanently preferred who do something more
than tickle the audience, and who are not afraid to treat them as if they had
minds and consciences. It is not the difference of opinion which exasperates a
hearer; it is the fierce manner in which the difference is expressed. An orator
is a man who not only states the truth, but states it persuasively. There are
many speakers who harm their cause much more than they help it, because they
malign motives and unfairly generalize until the listener is not only out of
conceit with the speaker, but becomes averse to hearing the subject mentioned.