Diary ...: From March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862Lee and Shepard, 1862 - Slavery |
Common terms and phrases
administration affairs Africo-Americans American assert aulic council battle belligerents Blair blockade brains brave Cabinet called campaign cause Charles Sumner Chickahominy chief civil Clellan coln command Congress Dayton democratic diplomats emancipation enemy England English Europe European evacuation fight forces foreign France Fremont French genuine Halleck Heintzelman honor Hooker human humbug ignorant imbeciles incapacity intriguers James river leaders Lincoln Lord John Russell Lord Lyons Louis Napoleon Manassas McClel McClellan McDowell military Minister nation never noble North numbers officers party patriotic perhaps political politicians position Potomac President proclamation public opinion rebel army rebellion regiments Republican Richmond Scott secesh Senator Seward Sigel slavery soldiers South Southern speak staff Stanton statesmen strategian strategy Sumner sure terrible Thurlow Weed tion traitors treason Trent affair troops true Union victories Wadsworth Washington West Point White House whole wiseacres wish worse York Herald Yorktown
Popular passages
Page 136 - He will again resume his position as the first military authority in the country, confuse the judgment of Lincoln, of the press, and of the people, and again push the country into mire. The Congress appointed a War Investigating Committee, Senator Wade at the head. There is hope that the committee will quickly find out what a terrible mistake this McClellan is, and warn the nation of him. But Lincoln, Seward, and the Blairs, will not give up their idol. Louis Napoleon said his word about the Trent...
Page 259 - The people's honor is stained — the country's cause on the verge of the grave. Will this outraged people avenge itself on the four or five diggers ? Old as I am, I feel a more rending pain now than I felt thirty years ago when Poland was entombed. Here are at stake the highest interests of humanity, of progress, of civilization. I find no words to utter my feelings ; my mind staggers. It is filled with darkness, pain, and blood. Mr. Lincoln is the standard-bearer of the policy of the New York Herald.
Page 166 - The Africo-Americans are the true producers of the Southern wealth — cotton, rice, tobacco, etc. When emancipated and transformed into small farmers, these laborious men will increase and ameliorate the culture of the land ; and they will produce by far more when the white shams and drones shall be taken out of their way. In the South, bristling with Africo-American villages, will almost disappear fillibusterism, murder, and the bowie knife, and other supreme manifestations of Southern chivalrous...
Page 90 - In the long run the blame for eventual disasters will be put at Mr. Lincoln's door. Thank heaven ! the area ' for action and the powers of McClellan are extended and increased. The administration seems to understand the exigencies of the day. I am told that the patriotic and brave Senator Wade, disgusted with the slowness and inanity of the administration, exclaimed, " I do not wonder that people desert to Jeff. Davis, as he shows brains ; I may desert myself.
Page 21 - I do not know him, but will try to become nearer acquainted. But for the New York radical Republicans, already named, neither Chase nor Blair would have entered the Cabinet. But for them Seward would have had it totally his own way. Members of Congress acted less than did the New Yorkers. The South, or the rebels, slave-drivers, slavebreeders, constitute the most corrosive social decompositions and impurities ; what the human race throughout countless ages successively toiled to purify itself from...
Page 313 - Yauceys, in the South ; the poor Africo-Americans are, if not the truest Christians in this country, at any rate their Christianity is sublime when compared with the pro-Romanism. 0, for civic intrepidity, or all is lost ! High-minded, intrepid, self-forgetful civism and abnegation alone can avert the catastrophe. Such is the mass of the people — but its leaders ! Nov. 8. Hooker has the military instinct in him which lights the fire, and the inspiration of the god of battles ; as Halleck has nothing...
Page 61 - Being tete-a-tete with McDowell, I saw him do things of details which in any, even half-way organized army, belong to the speciality of a chief of the staff. I, of course, wondered at it. McDowell, who commands what in Europe would be called a large corps, told me that General Scott allowed him not to form a complete staff, such a one as he, McDowell, wished. And all this, so to speak, on the eve of a battle, when the army faces the enemy. It seems that genuine staff duties are something altogether...
Page 145 - I hope he is the man for the events ; perhaps he may turn out to be my statesman. I wish I could get convinced of the real superiority of Fremont. It is true that he was treated badly and had natural and artificial difficulties to over come ; it is true that to him belongs the credit of having started the construction of the mortar fleet ; but likewise it is true that he was, at the mildest, unsurpassingly reckless in contracts and expenditures, and I shall never believe him a general.
Page 24 - ... refused to take such a certificate, we having had no occasion to fight. The President issued a proclamation for the blockade of the Southern revolted ports. Do they not know better ? How can the Minister of Foreign Affairs advise the President to resort to such a measure ? Is the Minister of Foreign Affairs so willing to call in foreign nations by this blockade, thus transforming a purely domestic and municipal question into an international...
Page 278 - written in the meanest and the most dry routine style; not a word to evoke a generous thrill, not a word reflecting the warm and lofty . . . feelings of . . . the people.