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 J 
 
 H. Si,Ui-« 
 
 YANKEELAND IN HER TROUBLE. 
 
 AN ENGLISHMAN'S CORRESPONDENICE 
 DURING THE WAR. 
 
 The following letters were addressed by Mr. Siddons, in October, 
 1864, to Mr. John Bright's newspaper, the Star. They incontestably 
 prove that an Englishman could heartily sympathise with " Yankee- 
 land " in her trouble, as a republican to the back-bone. Mr, Sid- 
 dons had boeji a resident of the United States for four years and 
 a half when the letters were written. Soon afterwards he was in 
 England procuring skilled laborers for the Union foundries, factories 
 and ship yards, and to tliat end wrote and published a " History of the 
 United States," the " Emigrant's Friend," and other works: 
 To the Editor of the St ar: 
 
 Sm: It is high time that some Englishman who understands the 
 Yankee character, and has neither been specially commissioned to 
 abuse the Republicans nor butter ti!e Southerners in a Democratic 
 garb, should enter upon the task of setting his countrymen right re- 
 garding the aspe6ts of the war, and the real nature of the noble people 
 who are strugghng to preserve their cherished Union. I could wish, 
 as the honorable gentleman says when a toast has been intrusted to 
 him, that the ofhce had devolved upon an abler hand than myself, 
 but the truth is there are no Englishmen in America (except Goldwin 
 Smith, who has judged American institutions aright,) from whom an 
 intelligible sketch of the people and the country can be derived. 
 Excepting the merchants and then* clerks, who from prudential — -say, 
 commercial and interested — motives as sedulously eschew politics as 
 they would avoid the purchase of any other unmarketable goods, 
 there is hardly an Englishman in Yankeeland who can be called an 
 educated gentleman. Of course, I do not include the aliens who left 
 their country for their country's good, and who swarm in the streets 
 of New York, tryii.g, like so many Jean Valjeans, to conceal their 
 names and make their peace with God. The education of many of 
 these poor fellows has been, perhaps, too good for their principles, 
 and their struggles for bread amidst a smart people who can beat them 
 in their own tine, are too absorbing to give them time or opportunity 
 'o study character or meddle with politics. Moreover, they bave nu 
 etter means of getting at the hearts of the brave Yankees than any 
 ' the " correspondents " who hve at hotels, liquor with all manner 
 
 
of rough people who call lliemselvespolitieiuiiF!, (they either pull wires 
 or swarm the lohbies of Congress,) and are avoided and detested l>y 
 the better classes, because, mistaking the surface for the depth, they 
 devote their energies to a slap-dash abuse of everything to which they 
 are unaccustomed, and the rational causes of which they do not attempt 
 t'o penetrate. I cannot give you a better notion of the impressions 
 which Americans generally have received of Englishmen than by tell- 
 ing you that they firmly believe it is a part of our religion to aspirate 
 our Its, and that not one of us knows anything of the historj^ or even 
 of the geography of the United States. And this impression, as de- 
 duced from the ('ockneys and Lancashire people who come out here, 
 strengthened by tlie malevolence of Irish misrepresentation, is about 
 correct. Hence my reason for breaking the ice. I may add — and 
 then aAvay for good with egotism — that I have passed several years 
 in the JSTorthern and Western States, neither engaged in commerce 
 nor lighting for bread, enjoying the best society, though seeing much 
 of the worst, and am now residing in one of the most charming and 
 picturesque towns in brave old Massachusetts. A sense of justice 
 alone, and the conviction that, in the cohmms of the Star, I should 
 obtain an impartial hearing, induce me to depart from a previously 
 settled determination to sit quietly down and see this monstrous 
 game of chess played out. 
 
 The present mail will bring you s(jme account of Yankee reverses 
 and checks. A 2)ropos I use the word " Yankee" — and shall always 
 use it — in its In'oadest and least offensive sense. It is almost needless 
 to tell you that the term originated in the Indian mispronunciation 
 of the word "• Eiiglish," and was applied by them to the first settlers. 
 There is nothing more disgraceful in it than the word " Feringee," 
 which my old friends, the Hindoos, apply indiscriminately to the 
 " lord saheb" who rules the roost, and the " common European," 
 whom the Qui/des used to regard as ''interlopers." Besides, the 
 Southerners have exalted the title " Yankee" by employing it to de- 
 scribe the opposite of themselves. It is the type of ever^'thing that is 
 brave, earnest, thoughtful, liberal, and kind. If that particular Con- 
 necticut peddler Avho devised the wooden nutmegs had not brought 
 disgrace upon the Yankee trader, no one would ever have been, 
 ashamed of the term. 
 
 AV^ell, the Yankees have had some slight reverses, and of course 
 they will influence the price of gold here, and send up Confederal" 
 bonds in your disordered market. But these reverses will neither 
 affect Mr. Lincoln's prospects in Xew England, nor chill the hearts oi 
 the Republicans. On the conti-ary^ every little check seems to ani- 
 mate the people to greater exertions and to a more lil)eral opening of 
 their purse-strings. I see a great deal in the Enghsh j)apers aboni 
 the exhaustive cliaracter of this war — the impoverishment of the 
 country— the impossibility of getting recruits, &c. Undoubtedly war 
 has its mischievous influences upon society here as it had in England 
 when Wellington was fighting our battles in the I'eninsula. I am old 
 eiM)Ugh to remember how stocks went up and down when good or 
 
3 
 
 bad news reached England. How the people stormed and raved after 
 the victory at Vimeiro had been tarnished l)y the Cintra Convention ! 
 How. the Common Council putted with a determination to have 
 " that fellow " removed after the sanguinary fight at Talavera ! 
 How moody and despairing all England became when we heard of 
 the retreat from Burgos ! How the Opposition treml)led, or attected 
 to tremble, as the national debt increased its terrible proportions ! 
 And yet we survived the war of twenty years, and came out of it a 
 greater, a better, and a more prosperous people. The lesson 'has not 
 been lost upon the Yankees. As we fought and hoped against hope, 
 so will they fight and fight with something more than hope to sustain 
 them in their good cause. 
 
 You hear a great deal in England about the trouble of getting 
 recruits, and of the tricks resorted to by kidnappers to swell the ranks 
 of the Federals. Of course, if Irishmen will get drunk upon vile 
 whiskey and stupifying infusions, they must not be surprised if they 
 wake up and find themselves either in a barrack-yard or a station-house. 
 Hodge, ere now, has been tricked by iSergeant Kite into the British 
 service in a similar manner. But the authorities sanction no such un- 
 due means of obtaining soldiers, and if it were only hinted to them 
 that in the British army men are allowed four days between the hour 
 of enlistment and thut of attestation to think about the m itter they 
 would so modify the laws as to check the chicanery which has had so 
 serious an eflect on immigration. The real difficuUy in obtaining 
 recruits consists in the superior attractions of commercial gain over 
 the blandishments of the romance attaching to patriotism. Thus it 
 is that you will see columns of the New York Herald and papers of 
 a similar stamp swarming with temptations to men to go as the sub- 
 stitutes of gentlemen who have been drafted. You will judge 
 of the enormous profits of trade by the fact of as much as $800 
 being given to a man who will join the army as the representative of 
 some enterprising manufacturer. The Government connives at this 
 for two reasons — in the first place it encourages enlistment without 
 putting the public to extra expense ; and, in the second place, it keeps 
 the manufacturer at his mills or his forge and furnace, and enables 
 him to contribute largely to sanitary funds, fairs, and commissions. 
 The factories are of as much importance in the successful prosecution 
 of the war as soldiers are. Grant, Sherman, Farragut, and Gilmore 
 nmst have guns and shot and shell, locomotives, monitors, ambulances 
 and a vast amount of material besides. Where is it all to be got if 
 every able-bodied man is pressed into the ranks ? When Mr. Lincoln 
 calls for " five hundred thousand more " it is not because he expects 
 to get them, but because he wishes his countrymen to see that he is 
 determined to push the war to a successful issue. He keeps alive the 
 public spirit by this assurance, that there is still much for them to do. 
 The Yankee is a nervous, excitable sort of being ; he gets tired 
 of the same game, becomes sluggish and inert if not stimulated now 
 and then by a glaring exhibition of what is yet demanded of his 
 patriotism. When the worst comes to the worst — when the rich dnd 
 
prof^perous arc not permitted to send their representatives into the 
 h"cld, you will see such a gathering as has not been approaclied since 
 the iirst call to arms. Take, as an example of what the American 
 will do when the danger is really close to his d(Jors, the conduct of 
 the riiiladelphians when Stuart made his raids into Maryland. At 
 the call of Governor Curtin 7,000 of the best blood in Pennsylvania 
 HeAV to arms in tw^enty-four hours prepared to repel the invasion. 
 And if Pennsjilvania, with some Southern proclivities in her midst, 
 will do this, what might not be expected of the grand New Englandcrs, 
 tlie tbremost to rebuke the outrage committed on the flag ? K Grant 
 by his perseverance, not by his successes, estabhshes that there is a 
 large infusion of John Bullism in his character, he will never need 
 followers. At one time all Massachusetts would have sworn by 
 McClellan and fought under him cC Voutrance. But his shilly-shally- 
 ism, with its attendant results, cast serious doubts on his sincerity as 
 well as his capacity, and now there is not one man in all the East 
 who honestly cries "^ God bless him ! " But Mr. Lincoln must be 
 steady in his confidence in Grant, and I think he will. There has 
 been too much withdrawing of generals after reverses. Hooker, 
 Butler, Hunter, Burnside, and Banks are cases in point. They have 
 all been unfortunate at some time or other. But that is no reason 
 why the President of the Republic should have treated them as Napo- 
 leon did his marshals, petting them one day, and suspending them 
 the next. If they were not Massenas, enfant gates de la victoire, 
 neither w^ere they Marmonts, toujours malhereux. Grant has kept his 
 word, and has fought for Richmond ^' all through the summer." He 
 knows the way to the hearts of his countrymen. Once acquire the 
 conlidence of the Americans by steadiness and integrity of purpose 
 and they never desert you ; once deceive their hopes, either by an 
 escapade or mischance, and they never forgive you or restore you to 
 their regard. This rule holds good in all their commercial transac- 
 tions, and may be accepted as their rule in politics and war, 
 
 I see that Millard Fillmore, the ex-President, who has been living 
 for some years past at Buffalo, and practising the law (for to this 
 necessity the paltry salary of a President reduces the magisti'ate who 
 lays down the sceptre,) has wa-itten to say that he does not make 
 speeches or write letters', but he intends to cast his vote for McClellan, 
 ()f course Mr. Pilhnore is true to his old superstitions, and the North 
 could not have a stronger proof tlia'^ McClellan goes for slavery and 
 the Union than this same vote. The nomination of the Chicago 
 convention will no more operate upon the strong minds and righteous 
 l)urpose8 of the New Englandcrs than the votes of the cily of New 
 York did upon the nomination of Mr. Lincoln. The Democrats 
 are always in the niaj ^rity in the large cities, for this simple reason: 
 the L-ish abound in them, and their votes are generally to be had 
 against any one who is supposed to be favorable to the ultimate 
 abolition of negro slavery. This has always appeared to me an 
 anomaly. If labor has been rendered disgraceful (in Yankee eyes) 
 by ijs association with slavery, the Irishman who desires to see his 
 
profession exalted should go in for a, measure which aholishes the 
 disgraceful taint. But no ; he ])elieve8 that, once free, the negro 
 would come to the North and compete with liim in the labor market, 
 and this delusion the Democrats sedulously labor to perpetuate. 
 Now, if the abolition of slavery were to operate upon the labor 
 market at all, it would be by leading the free negroes to go South, 
 and seek employment in a climate more congenial to their nature. 
 However, while the delusion lasts, and the poor elector believes that 
 if he helps his party into power he may become a pohceman at least 
 — if not, the custodian of a lighthouse — we may be sure that there 
 will be large Democratic majorities in big towns. But it is far other- 
 wise in the farming districts and among the great manufactories. 
 They love tiie Union most heartily. They are profound believers in 
 its ultimate reconstruction, and they know that, questions of large 
 capacity set apart, (and I don't think Mr. Lincoln merely a fool and 
 jester,) the present President is an honest and a brave man, true to 
 his pledges, and as disinterested (pecuniarily) as any human being can 
 possibly be. 
 
 I have said enough for the present. It is my intention to continue 
 to write until I learn that my communications are unnecessary or 
 unacceptable. ^ MUZAFIR.^ 
 
 Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 4. 
 
 To the Editor of the Star : 
 
 Sir: Wheti Sidney Smith wrote his famous lines on taxation, and 
 predicted the servile war which was to place America upon a 
 level with England in respect to financial burdens, he could never 
 have anticipated the philosophic calmness and patriotic endurance 
 which mark the acceptance of the present heavy infliction. The 
 descendants of the men who refused to drink taxed tea and allow of 
 a stamp act in the last century, are foremost to practically acknowl- 
 edge the imposts which the Government has found it necessary to 
 establish for the purposes of the war. In England we are irritated at 
 the domiciliary visits of the gentlemen who, in the name of the 
 Queen, present little strips of printed paper, containing at once a 
 demand, an intimation, and a threat. Sewer rates, church rates, 
 water rates, income tax, dog tax, property tax, are so man}' unavoid- 
 able abominations which we pay with a reluctant grunt and a growl 
 at the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Here, on the contrary, the tax- 
 gatherer is never troubled to call for the dues of the Republic. Men 
 cheerfully walk down to the comptroller's office and pay whatever 
 sum they may be assessed in without a murnmr. And this lets us a 
 little into tlie secret of the w^ealth of the Bostonians. I have been 
 surprised, on examining the tax book, to iind so many persons in pos- 
 session of "real estate," or, as we should say, fixed property, A 
 considerable number admit that they are worth £15,000, -£30,000, 
 £45,000, and upwards. Mr. Hemmenway, the richest man in Boston, 
 judging from the tax book, pays on nearly half a million sterl- 
 ing. And yet all this forms but a fractional part of the substantial 
 
6 
 
 wealth of the capital of the old Bay State. The duties on 
 her imports last year came to seven millions of dollars, and there are 
 countless millions represented by the innnense public works, buildings, 
 iron manufactories, and ship yards, stored o-oods, and the contents of 
 the retail shops. Well, not only are taxes cheerfully paid, but large 
 voluntary provision is made for the sick and wounded soldiers, the 
 widow^s and the orphans, the equiiament of new regiments, and the 
 reception of the old ones who have returned from service. And the 
 best of it is that no one yet seems to feel the burthen. My letters 
 from England are full of pity for the poor Americans, and I am con- 
 doled witli for hving amidst so mucli desolation. Desolation, quotha! 
 I wish my countrymen could just take a peep at the streets of Boston, 
 Xew York, rhiladclphia, Baltimore, and fifty other towns I could 
 name. They would ne^■er suppose that a costly war was extant. 
 Thousands of well and fashionably-dressed people swarm the streets. 
 The largest shops (stores) are crowded with customers. Silks, satins, 
 velvets, and furs, at fabulous prices, find innumerable purchasers. 
 There was a movement several months ago among some of the 
 patriotic women to encourage the use of common materials and home- 
 made garments, but it did not jump with the inchnations of the 
 younger branches of society, the newly married, and the hopeful. 
 Great, therefore, was the rejoicing when the Boston Commercial^ 
 Bulletin and the New York Herald pointed out that the interests of 
 the country would be better served by the consumption of imported 
 articles which l)ore heavy duties than by a miserable economy which 
 would discourage the trade in dry goods and minimise the receipts at 
 the Custom House. 
 
 But not alone in the ready acceptance of taxation does patriotism 
 here find development. Citizens submit uncomplainingly to every- 
 thing done by the Administration under the well-grounded plea of 
 expediency. The suspension of the Habeas Corpus, as regards military 
 matters, summary imprisonment, passpoi'ts, the suppression of news- 
 papers, and other features of martial law where that prevails, have 
 become features of the model Republic, and there are neither popular 
 gatherings, nor newspaper protests to indicate public dissatisfaction. 
 And why ? Because the people are educated to obey the suggestions 
 of reason. They have been educated to think as well as to work; and 
 wealth and good government have accrued as a matter of course. 
 I look upon this state as one of the best samples extant of self-rule. 
 Having no other mines to work, said Horace ^lann, Massachussetts 
 has mined into the human intellect, and from its limitless resources 
 she has w^on more sustainhig and enduring prosperity- and happiness 
 than if it had been founded on a stratification of silver and gold, 
 reaching deeper down than geology has yet penetrated. 
 
 The negro regiments in the field are subjects of some sohcitude to 
 the New Englanders just now, for it was here the first regiment was 
 raised. Knowing something of our West India corps, I never had 
 any doubt, from the first, that the darkies would make good .soldiers. 
 Their docility and courage, apart from the interest which they naturally 
 
felt ill a war which they firmly helieve must ultimately result in the 
 abolition of slavery, were guarantees of their obedience in garrison, and 
 their effectiveness in the field. But I think that Grant would have 
 acted wdsely if he had not sent them to the front soon after their 
 organization. The Southerner affects to love the slave,and, measuring 
 his affections by the servility of the race, abhoi-s a free negro. When 
 the chance occurs for an onslaught on these poor fellows it is seized 
 with alacrity, and if they run away it is because they fancy they are 
 too weak for their opponents, and, if made prisoners, will be treated 
 with extra barbarity. It would, probably, have been better to have 
 kept them in reserve until they had become familiar with the smell 
 of gunpowder, and had learnt that their true safety consists in maintain- 
 ing a determined front. One of their otficers tells me that they 
 make very sharp pickets, and good trench g^frds, but are not yet nufaif 
 at a charge. Guarding trenches is a responsible duty with Grant's 
 army just now. Tlie Confederates know that he is at the terrible 
 work of sapping and mining, than which no system of warfare is 
 more eflScacious for the destruction of an enemy's works. The effect 
 of sapping the works of the foe is to pulverize them, and make the assault 
 of the forlorn hope a very troublesome matter. Amine, on the other 
 hand, scatters a parapet in fragments and lumps which assist the 
 assailants in making their way into a breach 
 
 Lord Combermere tried this with Ciipital efiect at Bhnrtpore in 
 1826. I recollect the naicc remark of the Rajah Durjan Saal — "I 
 don't hke this lord's way of making war. He l)urrows like a rabbit 
 in the earth. Why don't he fight open like Lord Lake?" And if 
 the old cavalry, soldier /*/(/ fought like Lake, he would have been 
 baffled as Lake was. With all our improvements in missiles and 
 projectiles there are certain laws in civilized w^ar which admit of 
 no exceptions. Forts must be invested and mined. It will be a 
 hard matter to invest Richmond ; but, with patience, the whole of 
 the advance works may be blown to atoms W^e could not invest 
 JScbastopol — hence the longe siege ; but a, feu (Venfer nearly as effec- 
 tive as a mine carried the Malakhoff. Soldiers must not operate 
 just as their eneudes like, but according to the dictates of their own 
 good sense. Napoleon's promptitude was very distasteful to the 
 Austrians and the old Royalist officers who adhered to the Bour- 
 bons. "Ce monsieur-la, il ne comprend pas la guerre," says the old 
 Marcpiis in the play. "II acheve la victoire en trois mois. Bah ! 
 parlez-moi de la Guerre de Sept Ans — la Guerre de Trente Ans." 
 
 The poets of America are about to signaUze the anniversary of 
 William J)ryant's seventieth birthday by a festival at the Century 
 Club — the club par excrllence of the artists, lawyers, and men of let- 
 ters. This club has two weekly reunions, Wednesdays and Satur- 
 days. On other occasions it is seldom resorted to. On Saturdays 
 all the beaux esprits muster in great force. George Bancroft, the 
 historian, is now the president. Vei-planck, one of the accomplished 
 editors of Shakspeare, introduced politics of the Democratic hue, 
 and was very properly expelled. At the club, cigars, oyster soup, 
 
and mild beverages make up the refection of those who choose to 
 take siip[)ei*s, and the talk is of hteratnre and the arts. On these 
 occasions some new picture is exhil>itod by IJayes, Lonis Lang, 
 Hunt, Gignoux, Lentze, or some other artist, and in the dining-room 
 above Richard Willis and an occasional musical confrere discourse 
 sweet sounds. I know of nothing more elegant and cheerful than 
 these symposia. Brvant, wearing a long white beard, is generally 
 present, and his society is truly ei.'joyable. 
 
 William C'ullen Bryant has firm faith in the reconstruction of the 
 Union. Here are some verses from his grandest poem on the sul)- 
 ject, "Xot Yet !" 
 
 O country, marvel of the earth ! 
 
 O realm, to sudden greatness grown \ 
 
 The age that gloried in thy birth 
 
 Shall it behold thy overthrow ? 
 
 Shall traitors lay that greatness low ! 
 
 No ; land of hope and blessing. No ! 
 
 Not yet the hour is nigh when they 
 
 Who deep in Eld's dim twilight sit. 
 
 Earth's ancient kings shall rise and say, 
 
 "Proud country, welcome to the pit ! 
 
 So soon art thou, like us. brought lowV' 
 
 No, sullen group of shadoAvs, no ! 
 
 For now, beliold the arm that gave. 
 
 The victory in our fathers' day. 
 
 Strong as of old to guard and save — 
 
 That migiity arm which none can stay — 
 
 On clouds above and fields below. 
 
 Writes, in men's sight, the answer. No! 
 The Century Club was vei',^ successful with its iShakespereaTi cele- 
 bration ; but as this is a sore subject for England, I will not awaken 
 jealousies by saying how the club managed tiie matter. Cur great 
 poet is much read here, and much interest is felt in K. (4rant White's 
 forthcoming edition. It it is better than Mr. Hudson's it will be an 
 im})ortant addition toonr literature. Yours truly, 
 
 . " MUZAFIR. 
 
 CAMBRiixiE, Massachusetts, Oct. 8. 
 
 To the Editor of tlie Star: 
 
 Sir: As we approach the day fixed for the election of a new Pres- 
 ident, party fury augments its force, and every trivial event which 
 tells upon one side or the other acquires a significance and proportions 
 which would not have been assigned to it at a more tranquil period. 
 The Democrats epiploy every inuiginable engine to [)rocure the elec- 
 tion of General McCleilan, notwithstanding his avowed determination 
 to resist the Confederate endeavors to dislocate the Union, and there 
 is, of course, nothing to prevent their resorting to the foulest expe- 
 dients to blacken their oi)ponents and damage the cause of the IVes- 
 ident dc facto. Mr. Lincoln, on the other hand, can do :iothing. The 
 dignity of his position as chief magistrate of the republic demands 
 tliat he should remain quiescent. The proverbial advantage of pos- 
 session is of little avail in his case, for the law is inexorable in fixing 
 a limit to the duration of his present term of office, and it w^ould be 
 
1)0th unconstitutional and indelicate were he to employ the patronage 
 at his command to increase his chances of re-election. But there is 
 no fear of his doing anything unworthy of himself or his oifice. If a 
 l>eople whom he has served with unexampled constancy in the hour 
 of tlieir greatest tribulation are so forgetful of what is due to their 
 own character and the solid interests of their mighty republic as to 
 ignore the claims he has established to their gratitude, he at least will 
 Ije able to retire with a clear conscience and an enviable reputation. 
 If he fails to be retained in oifice, it will be because those who swear 
 by his principles, enjoy his confidence, or hold office in virtue of their 
 republicanism, are numerically inferior to the masses who expect to 
 reap profit by a change of any kind, and are swayed by a multitude 
 of interested motives, patriotism aside. The war has no doubt en- 
 riched many men, but it has also impoverished numerous trades, 
 sickened those who have lost relatives, and disturbed the whole frame- 
 work of society. These considerations, added to the influences of 
 Democratic policj' and Southern gold (for such a thing is current in 
 the Northern States,) necessarily swell McClellan's adherents. But 
 there is no doubt of the result among the Xew Englanders, in spite 
 of a frenzied repetition of the out-of-door demonstrations which dis- 
 tinguished the contest of 1860. 
 
 One of the last great efforts of the Democrats to damage Mr. Lin- 
 coln was to identify the appointment of Governor Paine, of West 
 Kentucky, with the Republican policy. I have seen a barefaced 
 statement in a provincial paper of the Democratic complexion, that 
 he \va,s, only removed from office to stave off public indignation ! 
 The real truth is, that as soon as the authorities heard of his atrocious 
 proceedings they took measures to subject his conduct to military 
 investigation, but the fellow had decamped. Mr. Lincoln is the last 
 man in the world to countenance anything in the shape of cruelty. 
 A few mouths ago he caused a man, named (I think) Taylor, to be 
 tried by court-martial for maltreating a poor negro woman until she 
 died. The court, composed of Tennesseans, hardened, if not bruti- 
 tied, by the habitual contemplation of slavery, found the monster 
 guilty, but only sentenced him to five years' imprisonment. Mr. 
 Lincoln's '' remarks " on the court-martial's finding and sentence 
 were worthy of his humanity. He denounced the members in terms 
 ot" the strongest indignation, and as the law gave him no power to 
 alter the decree, and he was indisposed to annul a decision which 
 w^ould have set Taylor at liberty, he took care that the imprisonment 
 should be carried out where he knew it would be severely felt, and 
 whence the prisoner could neither escape nor enjoy indulgences 
 through the instrumentality of his friends or his own wealth. Taylor 
 was removed from Tennessee and sent to Albany. 
 
 With all the care in the world, it is impossible for governments to 
 avoid placing bad men in responsible positions, and especially in civil 
 war it is difficult to restrain excesses. Officers are selected with ref- 
 erence, may be, to their understood capacity or their military stand- 
 ing, and at the moment, otter in their private character a guarantee 
 
10 
 
 that they will faithfully perform the duty intrusted to them. But 
 the possession of indcijendent authority, or an apprehension that 
 unless great severity is practiced some fatal consequences may ensue, 
 develops the feebler properties of a man's nature, and leads him 
 sometimes to the commission of cruelties or petty annoyances which 
 at other times he would have contemplated with horror. Upon this 
 liyj»othesis we may base a variety of acts ascribed to Napoleon, Su- 
 warrow, Augereau, Soult, Sir Hudson Lowe, General 13ntler, ancl the 
 soldiers of Oliver Cromwell. The wonder is that in this tcrribU' 
 American contest there have been so few departures from the human- 
 ities and amenities of civilized warfare. I think a solution ma}' be 
 found in the religious education of the Yankees. Whatever maybe 
 said by the correspondent of one of your contemporaries, whose strict 
 sense of justice is too often overwhelmed by the temptation to in- 
 dulge in a dysenteric vocabulary (and wdio, bye the bye, has, I per- 
 ceive by a late arrival from Liverpool, been severely castigated in 
 tlie Pust of that city,) the Americans are a God-fearing [»eople. Let 
 any man place himselt" upon an eminence near one of the great towns, 
 and he will inevitably come to the conclusion that amid all the din 
 and confusion of commerce, the corruption of politics, and the licen- 
 tiousness incidental to all cities, the Great Jehovah is fervently wor- 
 shipped. 
 
 Li every direction heaven-pointing spires announce the presence 
 of a devotional spirit. In New York there are upwards of two 
 hundred and fifty churches, chapels, synagogues, and meeting-houses. 
 A corresponding number in Boston, Brooklyn, Baltimore, and Chi- 
 cago. Fewer steeples, perhaps, are seen in Philadelphia, because the 
 old Greek architecture is in favor of the external decoration of places 
 of worship, and the Society of Friends are more numerous there than 
 elsewhere. It is true that the number of churches, etc., in the States 
 does not accommodate in the gross more than one-fourth of the popu- 
 lation, but when it is considered that a ver}- hirge proportion of the 
 })Opulation consists of infants or children too young to understand the 
 purposes of public worship ; of persons confined at home by sickness, 
 of very old people, of young men absent temporarily with the army 
 or navy ; of Germans who look upon the Sabbath as peculiarly con- 
 secrated to bucolic enjoyments ; of freo-thinkers ; of laborers wlu^ 
 devote the whole of Sunday to repose at home or in the public walks ; 
 of thousands who pass the day out of the cities in surrounding villages, 
 wdiose churches they probably attend, the accommodation will be found 
 sufficient. 
 
 The community of the States is cut up into an indefinite diversity 
 of religious sects, and there are not a few persons who implicitly 
 surrender themselves to the munmieries of that singular compound of 
 fraud, cunning, credulity, and superstition distinguished as Spiritual- 
 ism. These last have theij- newspaper as well as the rest, and a very 
 droll concern it is. The Banner of Lujht would rather astonish the 
 common sei]se of my countrymen, and some of the services or i)er- 
 formances on Sundays, in tlie name of Spiritualism, would put the 
 
11 
 
 magistracy on the alert. But in this country all are free to indulge 
 their several notions as to the most certain road to eternal beatitude. 
 Nowhere is there less of the odiiwi theologicum. The ministers of all 
 persuasions cordially co-operate when any good pul)lic work is to be 
 done. I may say of them generally that they are worthy of their 
 trust. They do not lack earnestness, nor piety, nor that regard for 
 their flocks which finds a healthy manifestation in personal commu- 
 nication with their congregations. In all churches the people mani- 
 fest a decent reverence ; the pastors enjoy a large amount of popular 
 ]'espect ; the churchwardens and deacons have no reason to complain 
 of any difficulty in collecting platefuls of contributions ; - the Sunday 
 schools are well attended; innumerable sewing societies "stitch, 
 stitch " for the service of the charities attached to many of the 
 churches ; the ministers are tolerably well paid by the voluntary 
 contriluitions of the people who elect them to the churches ; grace 
 before meat is the rule of hundreds of thousands of famihes ; the 
 funeral obsequies of departed friends are attended by large corlef/fs 
 of mourners ; and family prayer, morning and evening, sanctifies 
 many a household. Are not these evidences of a religious spirit per- 
 vading the land? But go farther, go from tbe forms of piety to the 
 aflairs of common life, and say if the integrity which distinguishes 
 the commercial operations of the Yankee, the charity which rescues 
 thousands from starvation and the perils of crime, the harmony which 
 reigns in the ordinary intercourse of society, and the wonderful pros- 
 perity which has blessed the land, may not be in some measure refer- 
 able to the guiding influ«nces of religion ? I do not care to pursue 
 the subject and establish invidious comparisons, but I should but [loorly 
 vindicate the English love of justice and fair play if I allowed sucli 
 reckless asseverations to go forth as have disfigured some of the Lon- 
 don papers, without a protest against their acceptance as unqualified 
 truths. 
 
 One of the greatest troubles at present assailing the Republic is the 
 falling oii" in the immigration of skilled laborers. There is no lack 
 of hands to do such work in the mills and factories as may not call for 
 any particular mechanical training. Ireland, Germany and Canada 
 supply a sufficiency of thews and sinews. But there is a serious dim- 
 inution in the supply of artificers, who are of so much use in iron 
 manufactories and building yards. What are called moulders and 
 puddlers command high wages. Blacksmiths and boiler-makers, 
 saw-cutters, heaters, chain-makers, screw-cutters — in fact, mechanics 
 of all kinds are in great demand. Pipe welders and socket welders 
 get from 10s. to 12s. a day of English currency. I do not know what 
 relation these rates bear to the wages now paid in England, or 
 whether there is a deficiency or a superfluity of such handsin Birm- 
 ingham, Wolverhampton, Sheffield, &c. Should there be a super- 
 abundance of such workpeople in the old country, I am only render- 
 ing a service to them and to America in making known that they 
 will find full and immediate employment in Boston, New York, 
 Philadelphia, Taunton, New Haven, Hartlord, Providence and fifty 
 
12 
 
 other placop. The contrast between the general social condition of 
 the artisan in England and the United States is so great that even if 
 tlie wages at the present moment (the price of food considered) are 
 not better here ttjau there, a man gains soniething by becoming a 
 member of a communitj' where there is elbow-room for intelligence 
 and enterprise, and where an excellent education for his children is 
 obtainable for nothing. I read the other day in a Lancashire news- 
 }>aper that at the assizes in one of the towns, there were fiftj^-two per- 
 sons for trial, and among them onl}- two could read and write well. 
 It would be a difficult matter in these States to find five in a hun- 
 dred vvho could neither read nor write, excepting among the adult 
 Irish emigrants. The portals of learning are open to all, and those 
 who have not time to stay and quaff big draughts of the Pierian spring, 
 may sip as nxnch as will carry them respectably through life. There 
 is no danger here in a little learning — the mischief lies in having 
 none at all. It is beautiful to see what good fellowship prevails in all 
 the schools. Little barefooted urchins sit in juxtaposition with the 
 well-clad children of Senators and merchants, and go ahead just in 
 ])roportion to their native talent and application. The doctrine that 
 all men are by nature free and equal finds practical admission here, 
 and now that the ^ew England women who went to North Carolina 
 to teach in the negro schools have discovered that there is as much 
 aptitude among the darkies for the acquisition of knowledge as was 
 I'ver possessed by the white children, there is no longer any cant about 
 the intellectual superiority of races. It was a convenient theory for 
 slaveholders, because, among people who kflew no better, it was re- 
 garded as justifying their treatment of the poor creatures on their 
 estates, and withholding from them the blessings of education. How- 
 ever, all that has "busted up" — thanks to the occupation of Newbern 
 by the Federal troops. 
 
 Yours faithfully, MUZAFIK. 
 
 Boston, Massaciiusktts, ikiobcr 11. 
 
 LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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