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A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS
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A CYCLE
OF ADAMS LETTERS
1861-1865
EDITED BY
WORTHINGTON CHAUNCEY FORD
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME I
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
Cfje Efoerm&e press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY WORTHINGTON C. FORD
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
TO
MARY OGDEN ADAMS
Possum donata reponere laetus.
Hor.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The series of letters printed in these volumes, in-
dividual in themselves, make an almost unique com-
bination. The time of writing, the crisis through
which not only the nation but republican institu-
tions were passing, the inheritance and position of the
writers, and the personal characteristics of each as
shown in the letters and as developed in later days,
unite to give interest to the subjects treated and the
manner of presentation. They are family letters, writ-
ten in all the freedom of family intercourse, selected
from what would fill many volumes; they are much
more than family letters, for the description of social
conditions, the discussion of public questions, and the
wide relations held by the writers, make them a con-
tribution to the social, military and diplomatic his-
tory of the War of Secession, unequalled in scope and
concentrated interest.
For nearly a century the Adams family of Massa-
chusetts had filled high public office, a succession of
students of government, of able administrators, whose
independence and upright character commanded rec-
ognition. The third generation had as its represent-
ative Charles Francis Adams, the favored son of John
Quincy Adams. On the election of Lincoln to the
Presidency Mr. Adams was nominated to be Minister
of the United States to Great Britain and was at once
confirmed by the Senate. He sailed for his post in
viii INTRODUCTORY NOTE
May, 1861, and reached England only to be met by the
Queen's proclamation recognizing the South as bellig-
erents. The act, justified in international law, was
interpreted as unfriendly, and seemed in fact to repre-
sent the feeling of suspicion and hostility of the rul-
ing class in England towards the American republic,
a feeling that found expression in sympathy for the
South, in the wish for its success and in a hope that a
divided people would remove anxiety on the growth
of a democracy that could not be confined to present
bounds, and the influence of which on old institutions
of Europe was already felt.
The almost complete isolation of the Minister for
months after his arrival in London is a strange phe-
nomenon. The requirements of official etiquette were
fulfilled, but little beyond that came to welcome the
strangers. Mr. Adams himself was, indeed, no stranger
in England. When his father held the same office,
immediately after the close of the War of 1812, the
son had been in an English school. This experience
served him well in 1861. He knew the English char-
acteristics, he had been trained in their methods, he
could divine how the English mind would think, and
so forecast the resulting action. The English reserve
and self-restraint were no greater than his own. He
could anticipate the manner of expressing a difference
of opinion, and provide against surprise by an unex-
pected performance. He was thoroughly grounded in
the history of the United States, in the relations which
had subsisted between the United States and Great
Britain, and in republican government, with its ever-
INTRODUCTORY NOTE ix
present longing to improve the world according to its
own beliefs. No man in American public life was by
inheritance, training and matured convictions, so well
fitted to occupy this office at so delicate and critical
a time. The seven years of service in London mark
the highest point of Mr. Adams' career. Facing perils
where a misstep would have involved catastrophe,
ruin to himself and destruction to his country, he made
no mistake, no surrender to temporary advantage,
no concession of right or principle. Against public
clamor at home, at times against the instructions of his
superior, the Secretary of State, and against the pres-
sure of Americans and plotting Southerners in Europe,
he calmly pursued his course. His abilities, prescience
and acts have been fully justified by time and events.
Never had American diplomacy in Europe been at as
low an ebb as in 1861; never had American policy,
domestic as well as foreign, stood as high as in 1868, and
nowhere higher than in England. To Mr. Adams the
country largely owed this change ; it was a great achieve-
ment, the greater because of the difficulties overcome.
The son, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., had graduated
from Harvard College in 1856, and was now in the
office of Richard Henry Dana studying law but grad-
ually becoming aware that law was not his proper
vocation. He had the same distaste for its practice
that had repelled his grandfather, John Quincy Adams.
He had grown up in an atmosphere of political dis-
cussion, had been accustomed to consider public ques-
tions, and was forming connections in journalism as
a possible future field for public service. Already he
x INTRODUCTORY NOTE
showed the inquiring mind which took nothing for
granted, discussed everything and recognized no lines
of disciplined obedience to party or to creed. Restive
under the inaction of a law office, he chafed under the
idea of confinement, of wasted energy and little prom-
ise of improvement. His father's service in Congress
interested him far more than anything that Kent or
Blackstone could offer, and in his communications to
the newspapers he was no more blind to the rapidly ap-
proaching crisis in the contest between the North and
the South than were his older contemporaries. Con-
scious of a certain capacity of expression he believed
the career of publicist offered him better expectations
than any other calling, and subsequent events proved
him in this to have been correct.
Thus situated when actual war began, only the
responsibilities imposed by his father's absence pre-
vented the son from at once entering the army. His
older brother, John Quincy Adams, was on the staff
of Governor Andrew, proving his capacity and aiding
in despatching to the front the regiments so speed-
ily sent from Massachusetts. He saw his college and
social companions eagerly enrolling their names and
as eagerly accepted for service. The most available
member of the family for the army, his strong sense of
duty to his father kept him back, until he felt that his
duty to his country overshadowed all other calls. Of
his service in the war he has given a bare outline in
his "Autobiography"; but his letters are far more de-
tailed, and describe, as is nowhere better described, the
daily life of a cavalry officer.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE xi
The development of character under discipline and
experience, the ripening of mind and opinions by close
contact with his fellow men and with the questions
of army administration, and the growing richness of
observation and expression, appear in his letters. He
entered the army a restive, unformed youth, without
settled ambition or recognized powers; he left it a man
of strengthened mind, of broadened views, and with a
defined future and true calling. The younger Adams
of 1865 was a far different being from the younger
Adams of 1861, and he always looked back with in-
terest on his military service as contributing to his
later success. It is rare to find a soldier capable of
giving an interesting account of his routine duties,
of narrating in a logical manner successive events, of
speculating justly on a summary of facts, or of sketch-
ing in a few words a man's character so as to present a
vivid likeness. He is usually inarticulate, or expends
the little gift he has in minor details without the needed
binding relation. Mr. Adams formed the exception.
He could write and he had, though unknown to him-
self, the best qualities of the historian.
In his "Education" Henry Adams has given a self-
drawn representation of himself as a "failure," and
in a manner that awakens astonishment and challenges
examination. To have been successful in everything
that he attempted — teaching, science, history, fiction
and criticism — would have satisfied an ordinary mor-
tal. But that was exactly what he was not, and the
various readings given to his confessions prove how
exceptional he was. He also passed through Harvard
xu INTRODUCTORY NOTE
College, had thoughts of studying law, but believed
that some years in Europe would round out his educa-
tion. What those years did for him may be traced in
his later writings. Before their effects could be felt he
passed the winter of 1860-61 in Washington, a keen
observer of passing events, forming independent judg-
ments upon them, while enjoying to the full the advan-
tage of his father's opinions and relations with public
men. The months thus spent trained his powers of
observation and analysis, so fruitful when applied to
his English experience. For he became confidential
secretary to his father in London, a position unrecog-
nized, as it was also unpaid, by the government. He
used the opportunity wisely and with advantage to the
father.
His early letters are in tone very like his "Educa-
tion." There is the same detachment, the same quality
of critic under the guise of philosopher, the same per-
sistent note of irony, the same apparent indifference
to results, the same, though less defined, gift of expres-
sion. It has been said that it was a "pose" and the
man was insincere, but those who were closest to him
in later life knew that such a charge was not true. He
was keenly interested in running a problem to earth;
once apprehended, he turned to other things, looking
upon the achievement as rather futile, unworthy of the
effort made to master it. In the wealth of his ability
he could afford to take such a position, and his letters
show that in this respect his whole life was consistent.
He had tasted of newspaper correspondence and be-
lieved he could cultivate the taste when in London.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE xiii
A few weeks of experience proved its dangers. This
threw him much upon his own resources and the result
is reflected in his letters and later writings. It cul-
tivated an independence of utterance, and strong as
must have been the influence of the father, it is not the
"official" aspect that is the more interesting.
The letters open with the Minister on his way to
London, with his son Henry as secretary; with Charles
on temporary garrison duty at Fort Independence in
Boston harbor; with the war opened and the North
partially aroused. They close with the Minister's great
triumph in diplomacy accomplished and with the son's
retirement from the army, broken in health. The let-
ters require no annotation. The history of the War of
Secession has been told and retold in its every phase,
and no letters could relate the old story in a connected
manner. Yet in the contemporary record which follows
will be found no little new history, much untold detail,
much discussion, many rumors and predictions, ex-
pressed with individuality and in a literary form. The
progress of the great conflict supplies the background,
against which stand prominently personal experiences,
hopes and fears. It is an old story, but the manner
of telling it is new, all the more remarkable because
unstudied and spontaneous.
The writing of autobiography has its dangers, the
greatest of which is the almost inevitable misjudgment
of motives and relations viewed after years of riper
attainment. It must be partial, biassed, or lose the
very quality that should be its strength or justification.
The degree of error depends upon the generosity or the
siv INTRODUCTORY NOTE
narrowness of the writer. Each of the two sons has
related his life history. The defect of partial apprecia-
tion is evident in each instance, but there is no trace
of narrowness associated with it. Disinterestedness,
magnanimity and self-control are shown in the letters
now drawn from one common source. These qualities
will not correct the impression gained from a true
reading of the "Autobiography" and the "Educa-
tion," but they will develop other and deeper attributes
natural to the writers, yet concealed almost to sup-
pression in their self-accusing memoirs.
WORTHINGTON CHAUNCEY FORD
Boston, September , 1920
ILLUSTRATIONS
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS Photogravure frontispiece
Lieutenant-Colonel Horace Binney Sargent 24
Charles Sumner 54
Caspar Crowninshield 80
John Bright 112
No. 5 Upper Portland Place, London, occupied by
the American Minister 138
General Robert Williams 156
George Brinton McClellan 194
Surgeon Lucius Manlius Sargent 218
Major Henry Lee Higginson 248
The Duke of Argyll 252
A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS
1861
A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS
Charles Francis Adams to his Mother
Fort Independence, May 12, 1861
The truth is that in garrison life, with guard duty three
times in two weeks, five hours drill a day and the neces-
sity of waiting on oneself, it is difficult either to write or
read much in a room about the size of our bed-room
in Boston in which eleven other men are quartered —
that is live, eat and sleep — besides myself. Yet I like
the life very much and am getting as rugged and hearty
as an ox, passing all my time in eating, drilling, sleeping
and chaffing. Our mess is made up of very good fellows
indeed, all friends of mine, such men as Clark and
Pratt, the two celebrated rowers, Tom Motley, Jr.,
Caspar Crowninshield, Fred d'Hauteville, etc. Our
life is one of rigid garrison duty: reveille at half past
five with breakfast at six; dress parade at seven; a
squad drill at eight and a company drill at ten; at
twelve dinner and at three a battalion drill which lasts
until half past five, when we have an evening dress-
parade, which finishes work for those off guard for the
day. At six we have tea and amuse ourselves till half
past nine, when tattoo beats and we go to bed and after
a little sky-larking quickly to sleep. When on guard,
which every man is about twice a week, it is rather
restless, as for twenty-four hours we are on guard two
4 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May 27,
hours and off four, day and night, and properly can't
leave the guard room; but as our mess are especial
friends of the sergeants rules are rather relaxed in our
favor. Food is tolerable, coarse but enough, though
devilish unclean at times. In our mess each man takes
his turn in washing up the dishes and keeping the
quarters of the mess clean. So once in ten days or so
visitors see the best blood in America, in the person
of your son, washing dishes, sweeping floors, wheeling
coal, etc., like a family servant. Meanwhile health is
superb and I never looked so browned and hearty in
my life. . . .
Outside we hear a good deal of a raging military
ardor. A good many young men we know are get-
ting commissions, especially in Gordon's regiment, and
from our mess three men went up in one day, among
them George R. Russell's son Henry; but two of them
came back, Hal only staying. Sam Quincy they say
is a Captain. Elliot Parkman has a commission of
some sort in the navy and Dick Goodwin, George
Bangs, Rufus Choate, Greely and Pelham Curtis and
others with Gordon. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Quincy, May 27, 1861
I got out here last Saturday evening, having that day
been relieved at Fort Independence by the 4th Bat-
talion of rifles. We would like to have stayed there
longer, and were certainly arriving at a state of very
considerable proficiency in drill, but our being kept
there was beginning to create some hard feeling and the
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 5
Governor was obliged to yield to the pressure. What
will be done with us now, if any thing, no one seems to
know. I hardly think they will leave such an efficient
body of men alone just now, and yet I do not see how
we can be profitably employed. That we shall not be
sent out of the State is certain; but the rumors seem
to tend towards our being sent to the State camp to
serve as a model and to furnish instructors, and ulti-
mately to be used as a supply of officers. Meanwhile
I find that I have not returned a day too early, and
that my presence is necessary in Boston for some time
to come. To me things look pretty bad. Money is
plenty, but lenders are very timid. Business is wholly
dead and the business community seems to be calcu-
lating as to whether they can five out the war or had
better go down now. For myself, I see little to change
the views I have entertained all along. We are going
into this war too heavily to have it last long, but it will
be an awful drag while it does last, and all who are not
under short sail must go down. I do not believe in
getting alarmed or in the eternal ruin of the country;
but a great deal of money has got to be lost and all who
have, have got to lose some, be it more or less. . . .
Of course all this does not at all add to the pleasure
of a reluctant return. I have become fond of military
life and I feel ashamed that I am here at home when so
many of my friends have already gone, and gone in
such a way. I do not wish to boast of what I should do
under other circumstances, but I feel, as I look at these
tedious and repulsive details [of business], that I should
tonight sleep perfectly happy if tomorrow I could hand
6 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [June 3,
them all over to anyone who would take them, and
for myself go and join my friends in camp. I could get a
commission and a good one, for only today Dana evi-
dently wanted to advise me to go and told me I ought
to have a majority if I wished it. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Mother
Boston, June 3, 1862
The war affords them [of Quincy] some diversion for
their thoughts and the clash of arms is heard even
among the Quincy exempts, who hail John Captain.
I drilled them the other evening and a funnier sight I
don't want to see. Imagine a line of pot-bellied, round-
shouldered respectabilities of fifty or thereabouts stand-
ing in two rows and trying to dance, and you have
a fair idea of this justly celebrated corps. I was in-
finitely delighted when on glancing down the ranks, as
I came the heavy military on them. I saw Mr. Robert-
son and Captain Crane side by side in the front rank,
with Mr. Gill and poor old Flint vainly struggling to
cover them in the rear. That was too much and I
almost smiled right out loud. The only man I saw who
could by any possibility be converted into a soldier
was, unfortunately, our worthy pastor, Mr. Wells, who
however in case of emergency would probably have
other duties to perform. There he was, however, with
his musket in his hand and it was so refreshing to see a
man who seemed able to bend his back that I asked
John to make him a sergeant and I believe he promised
that he would. By the way, I really do believe we have
1861] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 7
drawn quite a prize in Wells. He seems to have pleased
every one and you don't know how strange it seems to
have some one here who really takes an interest in and
means to manage the Parish. I had a short talk with
him the other evening and was much pleased. He
evidently understands the people here and is going to
make his mark, and I have little doubt that if he lives,
you '11 find the Parish a very different thing when you
come home from what it was when you went away. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, June 7, 1861
For after all that may be said, there is not and cannot
be any assimilation of manners and social habits be-
tween Americans and English people. All intercourse
with the aristocratic class is necessarily but formal.
We are invited everywhere, and dine out almost every
day, but this brings us no nearer. Everybody is civil,
but each one has his interests in England, so that a
stranger is but an outsider at best. . . .
You may be more interested to know a little about
the House of Commons. My diplomatic privilege
gives me the entree there, and I have used it twice.
The last time was at the close of the debate on the
budget, when it was generally understood that the fate
of Mr. Gladstone, if not of the whole Cabinet hung on
the decision. More than six hundred members were
present, and the array showed great equality on the
two sides of the House. I had attended on the Mon-
day before and had made up my mind that if the
8 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [June 7,
division should follow, the opposition would prevail
by a decided vote. The ministry however had influence
enough to command an adjournment, and on Thursday
the case stood differently. The attack was neither
so vigorous nor so confident, whilst the defence was
bolder and more strenuous. The first effective stroke
came from Lord John Russell, which I did not get in
time to hear. , The next was from Mr. Cobden, which
was plain, direct and evidently telling on the House.
The decisive blow came, however, from Mr. Gladstone,
who stood like a bull in the arena surrounded by dogs.
He began by tossing the very last one who had attacked
him, and he went on with every one in turn, until he
had them all sprawling on the ground. He is by all
odds the best speaker I have heard, and though I can-
not think him a very great man, I must award him
the palm as a skilful debater. Lord Palmerston is
evidently powerful more from his character, talents
and position, than from any oratorical qualities. The
ministry triumphed by fifteen majority only.
The characteristic of the House is that it is in essence
a real deliberative body, whilst our House has ceased
to be one. We speak to the people and not to the
audience. Hence we make orations and not speeches.
I know not how this can be remedied in America. Some
members of Parliament tell me that this is perceptibly
growing even here. So it must be, in proportion to
the control which the people exercise over their repre-
sentatives. . . .
1861] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 9
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Boston, June 10, 1861
I am sorry to see what you say of the possibility of your
demanding your passports. Stocks rose in New York
on Saturday owing to the reported tenor of your de-
spatches, which must however have been of a tone very
different from your letter to me. Still I can't help
thinking that the tenor of the news from this country
must create an improvement in England. Now, how-
ever, the feeling here is very bitter, and significant inti-
mations fall from some of the leading papers that the
July Congress, while it modifies the Morrill tariff so as
to assist and help France to the utmost of our power, will
indulge in no friendly legislation to England. This
is the tone of the Evening Post, a free-trade journal.
If England wants to break down the Morrill tariff, her
only course is to take the back track and conciliate our
good will. . . .
About this war business. A great change has come
over my feelings since you left, as I have told you, and
I now feel not only a strong inclination to go off, but a
conviction that from many points of view I ought to
do it. I am twenty-six years old and of course have a
right to do as I choose; but I acknowledge, as I have
done all along, that great regard is due in this matter
to you and your feelings, and now, as heretofore, I
shall not go without your consent; but I think you
ought to give that consent, if, under certain circum-
stances, I ask for it. Undoubtedly a further levy will
10 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [June 10,
soon be demanded in this war and when it comes there
will be an effort made in this state to send forth a
model regiment, and already John Palfrey is spoken of
as its colonel. I saw Governor Andrew the other eve-
ning and he promised me that, in that or any other regi-
ment to be sent from Massachusetts, if I would apply,
he would give me a company. Now if such a regiment
is raised, I wish to go in it, and I think I have a right
to almost demand your assent to my doing so. How
does the case stand? I cannot see that in a business
point of view I am very necessary to you. Your prop-
erty and mine would be just as safe and probably better
managed in the hands of a man of business, or Sam
Frothingham under John's supervision, than in mine;
and of this you must be aware. So how is my presence
here necessary to you, which is the only ground on
which I think you ought to object? If you say it is, I
will give up the idea still, but before saying so I ear-
nestly hope you will consider the matter fairly. You
will say there is small glory in a civil war, and this is
generally true; but in the civil war in England or in the
Revolution here, what should we now think of a man
who, in the hour of greatest danger, sat at home read-
ing the papers? For years our family has talked of
slavery and of the South, and been most prominent
in the contest of words, and now that it has come to
blows, does it become us to stand aloof from the con-
flict? It is not as if I were an only son, though many
such have gone; but your family is large and it seems to
me almost disgraceful that in after years we should have
it to say that of them all not one at this day stood in
1861] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 11
arms for that government with which our family his-
tory is so closely connected. I see all around me going,
but I sit in my office and read the papers, for I have
nothing else to do. I see great events going on, and a
heroic spirit everywhere flashing out, and you ask me
for no sufficient cause to stifle my own and, when sitting
here at home, I am convinced of my failure as a lawyer,
to quietly sink into a real estate agent. I hope you will
let me go, for if you should and I return, it will make a
man of me; and if I should not return — am I likely to
live to a better purpose by going on as I have begun?
Perhaps the occasion will not demand it. Perhaps no
such regiment will be raised. If it should so happen,
however, I earnestly hope for our own credit and that of
our name, that you will make no objection to my taking
this commission which now I have but to ask for, and
going forth to sustain the government and to show that
in this matter our family means what it says. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, June 14, 1861
My position here thus far has not been difficult or pain-
ful. If I had followed the course of some of my colleagues
in the diplomatic line this country might have been on
the high road to the confederate camp before now. It
did not seem to me to be expedient so to play into the
hands of our opponents. Although there has been and
is more or less of sympathy with the slaveholders in cer-
tain circles, they are not so powerful as to overbear the
general sentiment of the people. The ministry has been
12 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [June is,
placed in rather delicate circumstances, when a small
loss of power on either extreme would have thrown
them out. You can judge of this by the vote on the
Chancellor's budget which was apparently carried by
fifteen, but really by the retirement of opponents from
the division. The difficulty seems now to be removed.
No farther test vote is expected at this session. I think
they are at heart more friendly to the United States
than the Conservatives, though the question is not
raised between them. I am therefore endeavoring to
establish such relations with them as may re-establish
the confidence between the countries which has been
somewhat shaken of late. Circumstances beyond my
control will have more to do with the result for good or
for evil than any efforts of mine. I wait with patience
— but 'as yet I have not gone so far as to engage a
house for more than a month at a time. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Mother
Boston, June 18, 1861
Before this reaches you, you will have heard of the
miserable affair at Great Bethel which has made so
much noise here. You see a Quincy man was killed —
young Souther, a brother of our one-armed friend.
Our flags out there were hung at half mast for a day
and loud swearing, there as elsewhere, was heard at and
about Brigadier General Peirce. It was a bad affair
and John Palfrey writes that two companies of regu-
lars would have carried the battery with ease, but this
is the beginning of our militia generalship and, alas,
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 13
that this should have been a Massachusetts man. In
fact our good old State, which began this war so well,
is likely after going up like a rocket to come down like
a stick, and she is now rapidly falling behindhand.
While other states have sent out from one to twenty
regiments of three year men, she has sent out her first
only last week and that one under the command of
Colonel Cowdin, a notorious incompetent. In fact
Gordon's regiment is the only decent one, so far as I can
hear, yet organized in Massachusetts and the others
are so wretchedly officered and so thoroughly demoral-
ized already that it will be almost a miracle if the State
is not soon disgraced. In fact Andrew does not show
that capacity which he gave promise of and his selec-
tions of men so far have, I should say, been wretched.
I hope the next batch from here which will probably be
called for and organized in July and August will show
an improvement, and that we shall then send out some
superior men, those whom we are now sending out hav-
ing previously demonstrated their incompetence. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, June 21, 1861
With respect to his [Sumner's] language about Gov-
ernor Seward I very much regret it for the sake of the
public interest. He is sowing the seeds of discord where
we ought to have a more perfect union. He is dis-
seminating distrust in our Government when it de-
pends upon confidence. I am surprised to find how
very general the dislike of the Governor is in society
14 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [June 21.
here. The English express fear of his intentions to-
wards them and intimate suspicions of his duplicity,
whilst among Americans he finds only here and there
a defender. In one or two cases I have already traced
these impressions to their source in America, and I
think I see the channels through which they are con-
ducted. How much harm they may be doing cannot
yet be appreciated. But if by means of them we should
be plunged into a war solely from misunderstandings
of our reciprocal intentions, we might come to con-
ceive an idea of it. I believe that events are gradually
working us out of this, danger. But I suspect that the
mischief has been considerable, and that we shall feel
the effect of it in our future relations with this country
for a good while to come.- So far as I can, I have done
my best to counteract it.
The general impression here is that there will be no
war, and a little apprehension is expressed lest the re-
union may be the signal for a common crusade against
Great Britain. People do not quite understand Amer-
icans or their politics. They think this a hasty quar-
rel, the mere result of passion, which will be arranged
as soon as the cause of it shall pass off. They do not
comprehend the connection which slavery has with
it, because we do not at once preach emancipation.
Hence they go to the other extreme and argue that it
is not an element of the struggle. With the commercial
men the wish is father to the thought. They look with
some uneasiness to the condition of the operatives at
Manchester, to the downfall of Southern State stocks,
to the falling off of the exports of goods and the drain of
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 15
specie, to the exclusion from the seaports by the block-
ade, and to the bad debts of their former customers,
for all which their sole panacea is settlement, somehow,
no matter how. If it be by a recognition of two govern-
ments, that is as good a way as any other. On the
other hand I now look to something of a war. We are
in it and cannot get out. The slaveholding politicians
must go down or there will be no permanent peace.
I confess that in this sense I look with some anxiety to
the meeting of Congress. I know not who there is now
to give a right tone to its proceedings. Possibly some
of the new men may come in and contribute to help on
the work. Judge Thomas has a reputation as a lawyer,
and he has also been a little of a legislator as long ago
as when I was with him, but this is a new field. I hope
and trust he may do well. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Boston, July 2, 1861
There is little news politically, for I am no longer in
the way of getting it. There is a marked improvement
in the general feeling and in the tone of the press
towards England and my apprehensions of trouble
would have entirely subsided but that I cannot but
fear future trouble on account of this blockade. I fear
that it is not effective and that some blundering Brit-
ish admiral will undertake to raise it for that reason,
and this will surely lead to trouble. Neither do I be-
lieve that our blockade is likely to be effective in less
than a hundred days. There are rumors, and pretty
16 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [July 2,
well authenticated, that Seward is losing ground in
Washington and in New York very fast. Sumner has
been here fiercely denouncing him for designing, as he
asserts, to force the country into a foreign war, and
Mr. George Morey tells me that to checkmate this,
Sumner intends on the opening of Congress to make a
speech on our foreign relations in which he will declare
his entire satisfaction with the position of England and
France. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, Tuesday, July 2, 1861
My letters in the [New York] Times will give you
pretty much all I have to say about politics. They are
very correctly printed; at least the three first which are
all that have reached me. There is no doubt in my mind
that all the trouble with England arose from a mere
blunder of the Ministry resulting from the suddenness
of the change in affairs with us. Here it seems to have
been thought with reason that the dissolution of the
Union would go as it were by default, without much
resistance, and the Ministry and even our warmest
friends thought that this would be best for us as well as
for themselves. The English are really on our side; of
that I have no doubt whatever. But they thought that
as a dissolution seemed inevitable and as we seemed to
have made up our minds to it, that their Proclamation
was just the thing to keep them straight with both
sides, and when it turned out otherwise they did their
best to correct their mistake. America seems clean
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 17
daft. She seems to want to quarrel with all the world,
and now that England has eaten her humble-pie for
what was, I must say, a natural mistake from her point
of view, I cannot imagine why we should keep on
sarsing her. It certainly is not our interest and I have
done and shall do all I can, to bring matters straight.
As a counterpart to my letters in the Times, I am
looking round here for some good paper to take you as
its American correspondent. I don't know that I can
get one, but certainly it will be a good while before a
fair chance is likely to happen. When it does I will let
you know.
Seward's tone has improved very much since that
crazy despatch that frightened me so. If the Chief had
obeyed it literally, he would have made a war in five
minutes and annihilated our party here in no time at
all. As it is we have worried through safely and are not
likely to have much more trouble. There is nothing in
the way of particulars to give you so far as I know, for
there has been no great scene nor have I met with any
very remarkable event. Our presentation was only
memorable to my mind from having caused a relapse
for me, which frightened me nearly to death.
As to your going to the war, I will tell you plainly
how the case seems to me to stand. The Chief is un-
willing to do anything about it. His idea is that the war
will be short and that you will only destroy all your
habits of business without gaining' anything. If you
will take my advice you will say no more about it;
only make arrangements so as not to be taken by sur-
prise, and when the time comes, just write and notify
18 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [July 9.
him. He will consent to that as a fait accompli, which
he cannot take the responsibility of encouraging him-
self. ...
Send us maps of the seat of war — the best ones.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Mother
Boston, July 9, 1861
Yesterday we [the Battalion] went out to escort Gor-
don's regiment off — the one raised by the subscrip-
tion of the Boston gentlemen. There were, as I have
told you, lots of my friends in it, and I should have been,
sorry not to have bid them good-bye; but not till they
were gone did I find that the one I should most wished
to have seen was gone, and I did n't even see him as, the
train went off. For Stephen Perkins joined as a Second
Lieutenant at the last minute, and I did n't know the
fact till he was on his way to Virginia. It made me feel
quite badly and I have n't got over it yet. Off they all
went, however, and apparently in good spirits and full
of life and hope, and the last I saw of the train, Wilder
Dwight, rapidly disappearing on its last platform, was
waving his hat and dancing a saraband at me, which
I returned from the pile of gravel on which we were
drawn up, with my whole heart. Sam Quincy was
swept by me as he stood on the lower step of a platform
looking at his old friends in the cadets, but I did not
catch his eye. He looked much as usual. When Hal
Russell passed he caught my eye and went through a
war dance, with that eager look on his face which a man
has when bidding good-bye to old friends on his way
1861] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 19
to the wars, and when he only recollects pleasant things
about them; but Stephen Perkins I did n't see, even as
the train went by. They're on their way now and I
certainly envy them very much. Next comes Frank
Palfrey and then there is n't much of any one to go
after that. John Palfrey has come home, by the way,
sick — a typhoid fever, but the symptoms are said to
be mild. He was over-worked in the sun, surveying,
but they do not seem to be apprehensive. Caspar
Crowninshield has got home from Washington and
expects a commission in the regular army, and, I have
little doubt, will get it. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, July 18, 1861
• ••..«....
I have engaged a house * which will I hope be more
convenient. It is not in quite so fashionable or so noisy
a situation, but it is amply and in some respects richly
furnished, and is in a very good neighborhood. My
engagement is only for a year, and even that may be
shortened if the Earl of Derby should come into the
ministry. For my landlord, who is in Parliament,
hopes to get back to the same place he had before,
Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, in which contin-
gency he will want his house in May next. In the exact
condition of our affairs I have not considered the ar-
rangement so bad as I might otherwise have done. Our
relations with this country are now in a promising
1 No. 5 Mansfield Street, belonging to Sir William Robert Seymour
Vesey Fitzgerald.
20 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [July 18,
condition. I have no idea that anybody means war.
But a blockade which shuts up the cotton crop is not
unlikely to try the nerves of our friends a little, and to
elicit causes of difference that may prove difficult to
settle. . . .
I think I have attained a tolerable idea of the texture
of London society. I have seen most of the men of any
reputation, literary or political. The conclusion is not
favorable, so far as the comparison with other periods
is concerned. Lord Palmerston, Mr. Gladstone, Lord
John Russell and Lords Derby and Ellenborough are
the orators. Mr. D'Israeli perhaps might be included.
Thackeray, Senior, Monckton Mimes, Grote, Lord
Stanhope, and Mr. Reeve, the editor of the Edinburgh
Review, constitute pretty much the literature. Per-
haps I should include Milman. Gladstone and Corne-
wall Lewis are the scholar politicians. Intermixed with
all these are men of education, if not of eminence, who
contribute a share to the common stock of society.
But I have not yet been to a single entertainment
where there was any conversation that I should care to
remember. This is not much of a record as compared
with the early part of the present or the close of the
last century, with the days of Queen Anne, or of Eliza-
beth. The general aspect of society is profound gravity.
People look serious at a ball, at a dinner, on a ride on
horseback or in a carriage, in Parliament or at Court,
in the theatres or at the galleries. The great object in
life is social position. To this end domestic establish-
ments are sustained to rival each other. The horses
must be fine, the carriage as large and cumbrous as
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 21
possible, the servants as showy in livery as anybody's,
the dinners must be just so, the china of Sevres and
the plate of silver, the wines of the same quality and
growth, not because each person takes pleasure in the
display, but because everybody else does the same
thing. And so it is through all the economy of social
life. The difference is only in the amount of wealth
applicable to each particular instance. Yet with all
this there is a studied avoidance of all appearance of
ostentation. It is not the fashion to parade titles,
scarcely even to use them. I do not think I have heard
even the most ordinary forms of address to the nobility
resorted to more than a dozen times or so. At one
dinner I was surprised to hear a lady spoken to several
times as "Duchess" rather than "your Grace." But
etiquette is rigid. A white cravat at dinner is indis-
pensable, as well as patent leather shoes, and each per-
son has his distinct place according to the rules which
are laid down in the books, in which he must fulfil all
his duties to every other person in every, the most
exact particular.
Some people say this is true of the London season
only. When these same people go to their estates in
the country the case is altered. There they are easy
and sociable. It may be so, but I doubt it. The Eng-
lishman is formal by nature, and he is made so by
education. The only question with him is upon the
greater or the less. His kindness is all according to rule.
If he invites you to his house, he does not think it any
part of his duty to put you at your ease there. You
must work your own way to acquaintance. He will not
22 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [July 23,
help you unless you ask him to do so, and if you do, you
subject yourself to a chance of being repelled, unless
your situation is such as to make your acquaintance
deemed desirable. This is the reason why strangers
make so little headway in incorporating themselves
into society, and why they seek other countries to
dwell in. I know of many Americans in London, but
I see scarcely any in the places I am invited to, and
these owe their admission to some exceptional recom-
mendation rather than civility or good will. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Boston, July 23, 1861
I don't see any good in my saying anything of the dis-
graceful and disastrous battle of yesterday. The im-
pression here is very general that Scott's policy was
interfered with by the President in obedience to what
he calls the popular will and at the instigation of
Sumner, Greeley and others, and the advance was
ordered by Scott only after a written protest. The re-
sult was a tremendous and unaccountable panic, such
as raw troops are necessarily liable to on a field of bat-
tle in a strange country, and it all closed in the loss of
guns, colors, equipage, and even honor. Almost the
first idea that occurred to me was the disastrous effect
of this affair on you in your position. I do not see how
foreign nations can refuse to acknowledge the Con-
federacy now, for they are a government de facto and
this result looks very much as though they could main-
tain themselves as such. In any case I no longer see my
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 23
way clear. Scott's campaign is wholly destroyed and
he must now go to work and reconstruct it. While our
army is demoralised, theirs is in the same degree con-
solidated. Their ultimate independence is I think as-
sured, but this defeat tends more and more to throw
the war into the hands of the radicals, and if it lasts a
year, it will be a war of abolition. Everything is set
back for at least six months and just now, though not
at all discouraged or disheartened, we feel here much as
if we had been knocked over the head and had not yet
recovered the use of our senses. . . .
Heney Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, July 26, 1861
You say that you wanted to go off with Gordon's regi-
ment. I tell you I would give my cocked hat and knee-
breeches to be with them at this moment. I don't un-
derstand being sorry for them. I have no doubt that
barring a few lives and legs and arms lost, they'll all
like it and be the better for it. And as for the lives and
legs, if they estimate theirs as low as I do mine, the loss
won't amount to much. Pain is the only thing I should
fear, but after all, one's health is just as likely to be
benefitted as to be hurt by a campaign, bullets and all,
so that this does n't count. My own task however lies
elsewhere and I should be after all hardly the material
for a soldier; so that I do my own work and resign the
hope of becoming a hero.
My good old Nick Anderson is a Lieut. Colonel, I
see. How I'd like to see him. I suppose Rooney Lee
24 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Aug. 5,
has some command also, so it 's as likely as not that he
and Nick may come in contact. There never was any
friendship between them. Indeed they always hated
each other, so that the collision would not be so painful
to either of them as it might be. There are so many of
our friends in the army now and under fire, that I
watch with curiosity the lists of casualties. It won't
be long before something happens, I suppose. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, August 5, 1861
We received yesterday the news of our defeat at Bull's
Run, and today your letter and John's with some
papers have arrived. Though I do not see that this
check necessarily involves all the serious consequences
that you draw from it, I am still sufficiently impressed
by it to decide me to take a step that I have for some
time thought of. If you and John are detained from
taking part in the war, the same rule does not apply to
me. I am free to act as I please, and from the taste I
have had of London life, I see no reason for my sacri-
ficing four years to it. . . .
I wish you, then, on the receipt of this to go to some
one in authority and get a commission for me, if you
can; no matter what, second, third Lieutenant or En-
sign, if you can do no better. They ought to be willing
to let me have as much as that. If you can induce the
Governor to promise this, see if you can find some fellow
I know for a Captain. They say Horace Sargent is
going home immediately to raise a regiment. I would
serve under him and perhaps other Boston fellows
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL HORACE BINNEY SARGENT
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 25
would be mustered under him so as to make it pleasant.
If you decide ultimately to go in as Captain, I could
serve under you. At any rate I wish to have a commis-
sion, and if you succeed in arranging it, let me know
at once, by telegraph, if you can. I can be on the way
home in three weeks from this time, almost. A day's
notice is ample for me here, and as I know nothing of war
or drill and don't care to learn a drill here that I might
have to unlearn, it will be necessary for me to begin at
once. I don't know that I should n't start tomorrow
and march in on you with this letter, if it were n't that
I don't like to be precipitate, and that I want to watch
things here for a while. I presume there will be rest-
lessness here, though I still believe that England will
prove herself more our friend than we suppose. . . .
I wish you to understand that I am in earnest and
that if you can get me the place and don't, I shall try to
get it by other means. As for reasons for it, your own
arguments apply with double force to me. Until now
I have thought it my duty to do what I have done.
But as the reasons why I should stay decrease, the
reasons for going into the army increase, and this last
battle turns the scale. It makes no difference whether
you go or not. I am the youngest and the most inde-
pendent of all others, and I claim the right to go as
younger son, if on no other grounds.
You need not apprehend difficulty on this side. . . .
If [your reply] is favorable I shall leave here in the first
steamer, and the first positive knowledge they will
have of it here, will be simultaneous with my depar-
ture. Papa will not interfere. He never does, in cases
26 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Aug. 5,
where his sons choose to act on their own responsibil-
ity, whatever he may think. Mamma has been preach-
ing the doctrine too long to complain if it hits her at
last.
We are going on as usual here except that we have
got into our new house which is a great improvement.
I have two large rooms on the third story which I have
been making comfortable. Braggiotti is here ; dines with
us tomorrow.
P.S. August 26. After studying over the accounts of
the battle and reading Russell's letter to the Times,
I hardly know whether to laugh or cry. Of all the
ridiculous battles that ever were fought, this seems to
me the most so. To a foreigner or to any one not in-
terested in it, the account must be laughable in the
extreme. But the disgrace is frightful. The expose of
the condition of our army is not calculated to do us any-
thing but the most unmixed harm here, though it may
have the good effect at home of causing these evils to
be corrected. If this happens again, farewell to our
country for many a day. Bull's Run will be a by-word
of ridicule for all time. Our honor will be utterly gone.
But yesterday we might have stood against the world.
Now none so base to do us reverence. Let us stop our
bragging now and hence-forward. Throw Bull's Run
in the teeth of any man who dares to talk large. In
spite of my mortification, I could not help howling with
laughter over a part of Russell's letter. Such a battle
of heels. Such a bloodless, ridiculous race for disgrace,
history does not record. Unpursued, untouched, with-
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 27
out once having even crossed bayonets with the enemy,
we have run and saved our precious carcasses from a
danger that did not exist. Our flag, what has become
of it? Who will respect it? What can we ever say for
it after this?
My determination to come home is only increased
by this disgrace. I cannot stay here now to stand the
taunts of every one without being able to say a word in
defence. Unless I hear from you at once, I shall write
myself to Governor Andrew and to Mr. Dana and to
every one else I can think of, and raise Heaven and
earth to get a commission. If we must be beaten, and
it looks now as though that must ultimately be the
case, I want to do all I can not to be included among
those who ran away. Our accounts say nothing of the
Massachusetts regiments. So far as we have learned,
the Pennsylvania and foreign regiments are the only
ones known to have disgraced themselves, and the
Rhode Island ones stood well. Hurry up and send me
my commission quick.
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, August 16, 1861
We have now gone through three stages of this great
political disease. The first was the cold fit, when it
seemed as if nothing would start the country. The
second was the hot one, when it seemed almost in the
highest continual delirium. The third is the process
of waking to the awful reality before it. I do not ven-
ture to predict what the next will be. I hope anything
28 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Aug. 23,
but distraction. Thus far the favorable feature has
been union. Maintaining that, we can bear a great
deal. But unless we can have a principle to contend
for, the money question will infallibly shake us to
pieces. I am for this reason anxious to grapple with the
slave question at once. I wish to settle it in the Dis-
trict of Columbia, to dispose of it prospectively in
Maryland, and wherever else we have a hold in the
slave states. Money spent in smoothing that road is far
better used than in war. It will spread our real strength
which mere military supremacy will not. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Boston, August 23, 1861
I did n't get your letter of the 5th until the steamer of
the 21st was gone, so I telegraphed to Mr. Motley at
Halifax, as I did n't want to have you come blundering
home under the impression that I had been ordered off,
and now I will at once answer your letter. If you insist
upon coming home and getting a commission, of course
you are of age and no one can gainsay you. I don't
favor the idea myself for reasons which I will give you
presently; but still if you insist I shall be glad to aid
you and will do so. In this war some things are getting
clear every day and one is that volunteers won't do,
and another that haste makes waste. If you insist on
going, Ritchie advises that you should get a commis-
sion in the regular army and go into that. It will be
cut down at the end of the war and meanwhile you '11
escape the curse, nuisance and danger of volunteers.
If your mind is made up I will apply for you and you
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 29
can doubtless get your commission and be ready for a
winter campaign. Meanwhile you '11 gain nothing but
blunders by rushing ahead so like the devil.
So much for that; and now allow me to state some
considerations which should prevent your coming
home at all. I have three in my mind, and first one
relates to myself. I am trying, as well as I may, to do
what strikes me as my first duty at home. It is very
hard for me to stay here, and no one gives me credit for
doing it for any cause save fear; but the truth is the
Governor is abroad in the public service, and property
was never so difficult of management as it now is. . . .
Under these circumstances I concluded very reluc-
tantly I ought to stay at home if I could, and I think
you'll agree I was right.
Have n't I difficulties enough without your piling up
new ones? If you insist on this step, I have no election
but, at any sacrifice, must go too. The reason is obvi-
ous, for while I am single and robust and John remains
at home, the world cannot go into these domestic ques-
tions, and your coming home in a hurry to get a com-
mission, while I remained in Boston, would be regarded
as a most decided implication on my courage. You can't
but see this, and as for your taking a commission under
me, it's bad enough to have a hundred men you don't
care for to look after; but when it comes to looking
after a brother and having your attention taken up by
what may be occurring to him, it would be intolerable.
Besides I expect drafting will have to begin before long
and then I have made up my mind to go, and if I go,
I think the family in supplying two out of four to the
30 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Aug. 23,
public service does enough, and you ought to stay at
home.
In the next place I think decidedly you ought to stay
abroad and remain with your father and mother. No
one knows what may happen in these days — a foreign
war is possible, even an English war — and difficulties
you do not now see may any day spring up, and for one
I think most decidedly that while times are so troubled
our father and mother have got to an age when they
ought not to be deserted abroad by all of their chil-
dren.
Finally, the most weighty consideration to my mind
I reserve for the last. Of course you make this a ques-
tion of usefulness and duty. You are not particularly
well fitted for the army and your object is to be of serv-
ice to your country. As for distinction and all that sort
of thing, when the whole country is rushing into the
army it is hardly the place to look for a chance. Where
can you be most useful in this emergency? The answer
is to my mind too clear to admit of discussion. The
rush for commissions is tremendous and you can only
get one by shoving somebody equally capable with
yourself aside, and you can really do no service, if you
get one, which would not be equally well done if you
were away. Where you now are you are useful to the
whole country and, like a coward, you want to run home
because our reverses make the post abroad into which
fortune has thrown you very uncomfortable. You fight
our battle in England and let us alone to fight it here.
There are men enough here, but there your place, if
you leave it, must remain empty.
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 31
You'll say, you can't do anything and have no
opening. What could a second lieutenant in an in-
fantry regiment do that would be so immense? Is that
a prodigious opening? Go to work at once in England
with all your energy and force your way into maga-
zines and periodicals there and in America, so that you
can make yourself heard. For there is going to be
difficulty about this blockade and much bad feeling,
though, God grant, no blows. For heaven's sake try to
influence that and don't throw yourself away by rush-
ing into this mob of bruisers. Try to raise people up a
little. Look into the cotton supply question and try
to persuade the English that our blockade is their
interest. If they raise it and transfer it to our coasts,
they have the power to do so, but they ally themselves
with slavery — give it the victory, give the lie to their
own protestations and secure to the South for years
with the advantage of their system of labor and pro-
duction that monopoly of cotton under which England
groans. If the blockade lasts and forces supply, Eng-
land will purchase, at the price of one year's suffering,
freedom and plenty for ever. Touch England through
her pocket and help your country that way.
Then write to the Atlantic of the way fighting
America appears in English eyes, of her boasting and
bragging, her running and terror; tell us of the pain she
causes her children abroad and how foolish her angry
threats sound, and help your country that way. Here
is your field, right before your nose, in which you could
be of real service, and you want to rush away to do
what neither education nor nature fitted you for —
32 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Aug. 23,
what others could do as well or better, and get your
head knocked off without doing the least good. If you
have any energy use it where you are and where it can
be of value. If you have n't any keep out of the army.
Talk of backing the Governor up in the Times in these
days! We've got beyond all that, I hope. For God's
sake take a broader view and make yourself heard
where a voice is wanted. Don't talk of your connec-
tion with the legation to me; cut yourself off if neces-
sary from it and live in London as the avowed Times
correspondent and force your way into notice of the
London press that way. Wake up and look about you
and make yourself useful and don't jog on in this cart
horse way, or brag over your harness and wish your-
self a blood-horse, with McClellan, instead of a jack-
ass who can't break his traces. There, I have blown
my blast and have done, and you can do as you see fit.
Free from the legation you could earn a living by your
pen in London and be independent, busy, happy and
eminently useful. If you come home you won't be of
the slightest use to any one, and you will have deserted
your post. Now if you want a commission let me
know and I'll do my best for you; but have nothing
to say to Horace Sargent. He is n't the man and I
know him.
We've had a bad panic, but it seems to be over now
and I think they were wise in refusing the battle.
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 33
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Quincy, Sunday, August 25, 1861
In my letter I begged you to go to work and try to
make the two countries understand each other, for to
my eye our foreign relations look very formidable.
Why, when England and France are collecting fleets
in our southern waters, do we all of a sudden hear
rumors of a joint Mexican protectorate? It would be a
blessing to mankind, but how will it complicate our
relations? This cotton question is beginning to pinch
and soon, if ever, if you have any desire to be useful to
your country, backed by any energy, you can be useful
where you are.
In my letter I asked you to touch England through
her pocket. For some time past I have been turning
over in my mind an elaborate article on this cotton
supply question, but necessarily to be of any good to
any one it must be directed more to English eyes than
to ours. I touched on it in my last letter, and now I
should like to hand it over to you, to see if you can do
anything with it. I would write it for the Edinburgh
or some really influential review or magazine, but to
have effect it should appear in November, when the
cotton-shoe will begin to pinch dreadfully, and I
would force it into print by laying the plan of it be-
fore Mr. Motley or the Governor, or any other person
likely to have influence on editors. That done throw
your soul into your work and write as if you meant
what you said. You always affect in writing too much
84 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Aug. 25,
calmness and quaint philosophy. That will come to
you in time, but you do it now at the price of that
fresh enthusiasm which is the charm of young writers.
If you write now, write as if you were pleading a cause
and too much interested to be affected. Throw your
soul into your work and say what you feel. If you don't
check it, your mannerism will ruin your style in less
than five years.
However now for the subject. The books you ought
to review, or rather hang your subject on, are Mann's
Manual of Cotton, a book of about one hundred pages;
the third annual report of the Manchester Cotton
Supply Association and the numbers for May and
June of the Cotton Supply Reporter of Manchester,
and any new book dealing of the troubles in this coun-
try. If you accept the subject I have many curious
facts collected, which I will send you at once. Start
at once with the paradox that, instead of desiring to
break this blockade, England should pray it might last
for two years and if necessary assist in enforcing it, as
if enforced its inevitable result must be, after one or at
most two years of high prices, to forever break down
'the price of cotton to a reasonable profit over the cost
of its cheapest possible production. This opens the
whole question of supply. Two things are necessary
to the production of cotton — an abundance of labor
and a cotton soil. Look into the question of soil first.
A semi-tropical heat, with a distribution of rain, are
the only essentials. India has not the last and will not
do; but Central and South America, all Africa (which
is not desert), Australia and the Fiji Islands are better
1861] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 35
than our cotton states and need only organized labor.
This with all the necessary material of ships, channels
of trade, custom and experience, our planters have to
such a degree that while they would furnish a fair
supply of cotton on moderate terms, they could kill
competition. Now is England's chance to free herself
from what has been her terror for years. In India, in
Egypt, in Abyssinia and in South Africa, there is an
unlimited amount of cotton land of the finest quality
and labor is abundant, costing almost nothing, but
unorganized. Two years' competition will organize it
and once organized it can sell the South. In Australia,
the South Sea islands and Central America, there is
no labor and here the cooley question rises. Properly
regulated the trade would be a blessing, for the Chi-
nese amalgamates and California is in point as well as
Dana's reflections on Cuba. The books I have men-
tioned will give you all the information necessary on
these points. This would bring cotton down to the
cost, with a profit, of its production in cheap labor
countries, say three pence a pound. But it would also
lead to immense indirect advantages. As a missionary
scheme Africa would be opened up and Livingstone's
discoveries made of use; slavery in America would
be killed and the slave-trade closed for ever, as the
African would be more useful at home than abroad.
You will find in the first few pages of a new book
called Social Statics more curious facts and reflections
on England's efforts at the suppression of the slave-
trade, and this leads to the amount yearly expended
in its suppression in this way, and which the conse-
36 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Aug. 25,
quent withdrawal of the fleet would save that govern-
ment, and the amount England could thus afford to
pay to promote the enterprise. Finally it would open
the untold tropical f ertility of Africa to the commerce
of the world and these advantages cannot be esti-
mated. Thus cotton would be produced on both sides of
the equator all the year round in unlimited quantities,
and England would have by two years' suffering cut
the meshes which she could never have broken.
On the other hand England breaks the blockade, or
the South is victorious, England may then as well hug
her chains, for she must wear them. The Southern
confederacy will be aggressive and more slaves and
more cotton will be the cry. In spite of England the
slave-trade will flourish and their system will spread
over Mexico and Central America. Then with the
advantages of their organization, slave labor will win
the day and England may look for competition in vain.
The cotton monopoly will stifle her in the end. They
will pretend in Parliament that the recognition of the
Confederate States will not extend the area of slavery
and all that humbug. Expose this, for it will be a vic-
tory of slavery. Recognition will mean war and the
prostration at the feet of slavery of free society in
America. England can do this if she chooses, but let
her not deceive herself and let the results of her action
be patent.
Finally the importance of this struggle cannot be
overestimated. On the inviolability of the blockade
and the consequent cotton pressure throughout the
world hangs the destruction of American slavery, the
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 37
eternal suppression of the slave-trade, the emanci-
pation of England from a thraldom under which her
great industrial interest has groaned for fifty years, and
finally the civilization and awakening from Barbarism
of the great continent of Africa. Even America, de-
prived of her monopoly, would reap advantage from
the result, and this I tried to show in my article in the
Atlantic of last April. Are not these results worth the
agony of two years of half labor in Lancashire? Are
they not worth fighting for? Can England hesitate as
to which side her interest favors — as to what course
she will adopt?
Here is a general sketch of my idea. I think it would
be of service in England and if written as a man should
write who is writing for his country at such a time as
this, it would surely command attention. Any assist-
ance I can give you I gladly will; but I earnestly beg
you, even if this subject does not please you, to make
yourself useful in your present position in some way of
this kind. You can't tell how much effect here a sym-
pathetic word from England has now, and you can be
of the greatest use if you only will. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Boston, August 27, 1861
Your tone is too dull in your letters and I feel for
you sincerely in your Bull-run panic in England. Here
things certainly look much better and people feel
much better. The money market is easy and our ex-
portation of breadstuffs seems likely to continue.
38 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Sept. 3.
Finally, this steamer will advise you that at least the
government is thoroughly in earnest and that spies
and traitors can no longer enjoy immunity. Nor is this
all. Last week we were in a terrible panic and Monday
was the blackest day I ever saw; but now the Govern-
ment is working for its life. McClellan has the complete
confidence of the people, government securities are
rising, money is plenty, and finally the indications are
strong that the confederates are being ground to atoms
by the very weight of their defensive preparations.
Bull-run was a blessing to us, for it startled the people
from the conceit, arrogance and pride which must have
proved their ruin. There is a universal feeling of con-
fidence abroad, and England may refuse our loan if she
chooses to; but I don't think she will for seven and
three- tenths per cent is too much of the flesh-pots not
to be longed for, and our securities must drift to Eng-
land. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Boston, September 3, 1861
I persuaded Hale to insert a leading article about
Russell in the Advertiser, which I send to Henry. The
folly of our press in assaulting so savagely an agency so
formidable as Russell has troubled me, and I'm glad to
see that McClellan is wiser and spares a few civil words
where they can be so useful. In fact I think McClellan
is showing a tact and power of managing men which
reminds me of Seward. For already, even at this dis-
tance, I see that he has moulded Russell, Wilson and
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 39
Sumner like wax in his fingers. This is very important
and I expect before this reaches you McClellan's finger
will have been seen and wondered at in the columns
of the Times. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, September 7, 1861
The feeling here which at one time was leaning our
way has been very much changed by the disaster at
Bull's run, and by the steady operation of the press
against us. Great Britain always looks to her own in-
terest as a paramount law of her action in foreign
affairs. She might deal quite summarily with us, were
it not for the European complications which are grow-
ing more and more embarrassing. There are clouds in
the north and in the south, in the east and in the west,
which keep England and France leaning against each
other in order to stand up at all. The single event of
the death of Napoleon, perhaps even that of Lord
Palmerston, would set everything afloat, and make the
direction of things in Europe almost impossible to
foresee. Hence we may hope that these two powers
will reflect well before they inaugurate a policy in re-
gard to us which would in the end react most fatally
against themselves. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, September 7, 1861
Yours in answer to mine written after the Bull's Run
arrived last night and I answer it at once. Whatever
40 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Sept. 7.
weight your arguments might have had on me in ordi-
nary times, just now they are entirely superseded by
the new turn things have taken since that letter was
written. I could not go home now if I would, nor
would if I could. Work has increased to such an extent
since our return from our excursion that I am absolutely
necessary here. Things have taken a turn which makes
it every day more probable that we must sooner or
later come into collision with England, and of course
with that prospect I can't leave the Chief and the
family in the lurch. So you need not at present feel
any alarm about my blundering home, as you call it,
for I promise you fair warning so that you may be
down at the wharf to receive me with the towns-people.
Warning you to preserve it a profound secret, I will
disclose to you some of the horrors of the prison-house.
Remember, your finger ever on your lip.
You may or may not be informed that among the first
instructions to the Chief from the Department was one
directing him to offer to the British Government the
adhesion of the United States to the four articles of the
Treaty of Paris. They related as you know to privateer-
ing, neutral goods, neutral flags and blockades. The
Chief obeyed instructions an<J ever since we have been
here this matter has dragged its slow length along
through strange delays, misunderstandings, and dis-
cussions that in so simple a matter were very curious
and inexplicable. At last the Chief acting under re-
peated instructions, broke through all objections and
brought it to such a point that he and Mr. Dayton
were agreed to sign the Convention on the same day at
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 41
Paris and London, with Earl Russell and with Mr.
Thouvenel. The day alone remained to be fixed.
Such was the condition of the negotiation when we
went off on our excursion. Before we had returned a
note was received from the Foreign Office suggesting
a convenient day for signing, but transmitting also the
draft of a declaration outside the treaty itself, which
Earl Russell proposed to read before signing. It ran as
follows:
"In affixing his signature to the Convention of this
day between H. M. the Queen of Great Britain and
Ireland and the U.S. of A. the Earl Russell declares by
order of H. M. that H. M. does not intend thereby to
undertake any engagement which shall have any bear-
ing direct or indirect on the internal differences now
prevailing in the United States."
On receiving this Note the Chief sat down and wrote
an elaborate reply. It was in his best style and was
certainly an admirable paper. After tearing the whole
thing up and placing, as it seems to me, the British
Government in a very awkward and untenable posi-
tion, he ended by breaking off the negotiation until
further instructions from home should command him
to resume it. This Note Earl Russell has never replied
to. A few days after he sent an answer which sounded
to me rather like an apology than anything else, but in
this Note he said that he should defer the answer to
another time.
So that passed away, but only to give place to a
greater excitement. Last Monday a special messenger
arrived from Seward bringing the package taken on
42 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Sept. 7.
Mure, directed to Lord Russell. But besides this,
which was legitimate, or might be, as coming from the
British Consul at Charleston, a great quantity of let-
ters were found on Mure, and among others one that
very gravely compromised the British Government.
It seems that the British and French Consuls at Charles-
ton have acted in concert in making a treaty with Jeff
Davis, and that treaty nothing less than this very
Convention of Paris.
Here was a pretty to-do. Whatever we might sus-
pect, there was no direct proof against England or
France nor was it our interest to make a quarrel. So
the Chief sits down and writes a long despatch to Lord
Russell complimenting very highly the perfect confi-
dence to which the British Government were entitled,
and returning to them the bag of despatches. In an-
other short Note he quoted the letter I have mentioned,
and demanded the Consul's recall.
To these Notes no answer has yet been returned.
No doubt the graveness of the matter will make a
Cabinet meeting necessary, and just now every one is
out of town. Lord John however was in Paris on Sun-
day. Was it to consult with the French Government?
You see what a dreadfully tight place they're in and
how inevitably the inference of bad faith of a very gross
nature is against them.
These are the signs of the times and will no doubt
alarm you enough. I am myself more uneasy than I
like to acknowledge in my public letters, but hope we
shall worry through yet. They won't like the idea' of
our privateers here when it gets near them.
1861.J A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 43
As for your recommendation to set up here as letter-
writer to the Times, you know not what you say. In
the first place, all that I know comes from my position
and without it I were nothing. In the second place,
there are few beings lower in the social scale in Eng-
land than writers to newspapers. I should destroy
myself beyond a hope of redemption.
No, I am very well as I am. I shall gradually make
way and worry along. London does not satisfy all my
longings, but enfin it is an exciting, hard-working life
here, and the Chief and I are as merry as grigs, writing
in this delightful old study all day long, opposite to
each other. When I say delightful I stretch a point,
but it is not bad. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, September 14, 1861
Your last letter containing principally suggestions on
the cotton matter, reached me this week. Also a bundle
of newspapers. At present I am busy in another direc-
tion, so that I can't yet take up the subject you recom-
mend, but when my immediate bubbles have burst,
or have expanded brilliantly, I mean to see what I can
do here. Yet I confess I do not promise myself much
from the effort. The main principles which you aim at
demonstrating, that the American monopoly of cotton
is in fact a curse both to America and to Great Britain,
and its destruction might be made the cause of infinite
blessings to the whole range of countries under the
torrid zone, this principle is and has always been an
axiom here. It needs no proof, for the cotton-mer-
44 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Sept. 14,
chants themselves are the most earnest in asserting it.
The real difficulty with regard to cotton does not lie
there. It is never the hope of a future good, however
great, that actuates people, when they have immedi-
ate evils such as this want of cotton will produce right
before their eyes. Nor should I answer any real ques-
tion by proving that in two years the world will be
infinitely benefitted by our war, when what they alone
ask is whether meanwhile England will not be ruined.
My own belief is that she will be ruined. This next
winter will, I fear, be a dreadful one in this country
in any case, nor will it be bettered if they make war
on us. It is not as if the cotton manufacture alone
suffered, but the tariff and the war have between
them cut off the whole American trade, export and
import, and the consequence has been a very bad
season, with a prospect of frightful pressure in the
winter. Whole counties will have to be supported
by subscription.
This is my idea of the real cotton problem in this
country. I have no doubt that the suffering interests
will make a violent push to solve it by urging the Gov-
ernment to attack our blockade. But that is merely
the last struggle of a drowning man. The Government
will not do it, I think, and most Englishmen speak of
the idea as preposterous. If they did, it would only
complicate matters still more and I doubt whether
even then they got their cotton. The winter over, the
new era will dawn on us; that cursed monopoly will be
broken and with it the whole power of the South; the
slave-trade will then be ended and slavery with it, for
1861] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 45
the negro will be of no use; and we may expect sunnier
days and renewed prosperity. This is the only view
that I could advocate, and this, a generally acknowl-
edged truth, is at best but small comfort to a starving
people.
Meanwhile we are getting on in these parts. Lord
Russell has just answered the Chief's Note, by refusing
to dismiss Bunch; acknowledging that he acted under
instructions; justifying the step as one which implied
nothing and in which even pirates might be admitted
to join (i.e. the neutral flag matter); accepting the
responsibility for its acts and the consequences; but
at the same time declaring that the Ministry has no
present intention of recognizing the Southerners, or of
leaving their old position.
Of course Seward will revoke Bunch's exequatur, but
that need make no trouble. But it is by no means so
clear what also may result from this. By a pure acci-
dent it was discovered that the British Government
were secretly entering into connections with the insur-
gents, and they are now compelled to acknowledge
that they have really been acting behind our backs.
This is no pleasant acknowledgment to make, for evi-
dently secrecy was their object, and the implication
is direct against their good faith. They feel that they
have been found out, and this for an Englishman is
anything but pleasant. The affair will hardly end here.
I have been lately hunting up the newspapers. The
other day I called on the editors of the Spectator and
had a long talk with them. I mean to call on or write
to Hughes, the Tom Brown man, who has vigorously
46 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Sept. 17,
taken our side. The Star too we are in with. Miss
Martineau writes for the News and she is an invalid,
not to be seen. I may very likely myself turn up some
of these days in the lists. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Boston, Tuesday, September 17, 1861
As I hear nothing more of your coming home I hope
you have forgotten that folly. The few of your friends
in the army here, like Billy Milton and Howard
Dwight, opened their eyes wide with astonishment at
the suggestion. Just now I certainly hope that you
have n't left, as I send you by this mail a couple of
copies of yesterday's and today's Courier, in which
you will find two leaders headed "English Views,"
written by me and which, if you have any opening yet
in the English press you may turn to advantage as
extracts from the American. The letter of the Times
correspondent of 30th August printed in last Satur-
day's Times (N.Y.) seemed to intimate that the wind
now lay in this quarter and American views to the
point might, I thought, be of use. These articles were
written, however, before I saw that letter, or the Times
(London) editorials in the same direction. I offered
these articles to Charles Hale who declined to publish
them editorially, and so I sent them to the Courier;
but Hale remembered my line of thought and repro-
duced it in his leader of last Monday, which I also send
you. So, for once, the Courier and the Advertiser
were brought close together on the same day.
% Here we feel immeasurably better and not only are
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 47
things outwardly more encouraging, but I am in-
formed from private correspondents of military men
in Washington that the appearance is not deceptive,
an immense improvement has taken place and military
men are most sanguine of the future.
I wait anxiously to hear from you. By the way, in
case you think favorably of my suggestion of an Eng-
lish article on the American press, did you notice a few
days ago an article in the N.Y. Times about the Her-
ald, in which Bennett was called "the old liar," "a
skunk," a "stink-pot," etc., etc. How would the two
read if the editorial of the celebrated Potts in the Ea-
tanswill Gazette about the "buff -ball in a buff neigh-
borhood " and that were put side by side? Which would
be the caricature? ...
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, September 20, 1861
I deeply sympathise with you in your trials about the
part you ought to play in the war. Much as I value
your assistance during my absence on this side, I
should be very reluctant to continue it at the cost of
your own convictions of your duty. If you feel that
the crisis demands it, I pray that you set aside every
other consideration at once. . . . Whichever way you
determine, you will know that I appreciate your mo-
tives, and that you will have under every circumstance
my sympathy and my prayers.
The late modicum of good news has helped us here
a good deal. People were beginning to believe that the
48 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Sept. 28,
slaveholding generals were demigods, on Aristotle's or
Longinus's principle (I forget which), that mystery is
a source of the sublime. The London Times at last
frankly admits that if split up we shall no longer be a
terror to Europe so that there is no need of going any
farther for a reason to explain its crooked policy. Mr.
Russell's last letter went far to justify your inference.
He has seen a little light and is willing to admit that we
are not so badly off after all. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, September 28, 1861
Time goes precious fast and yet seems to leave very
little behind it. I have been very busy for the last three
weeks but now am at leisure again though I have some
ideas of beginning a new tack. Papa got back late last
night from a visit to Lord Russell's in Scotland. I must
say I think Lord Russell was rather hard in making him
take all the journey, but as it could n't well be helped
I am glad it has happened, and especially so as it will
have an excellent effect on the relations of the two coun-
tries. When I last wrote things looked threatening if
I recollect right. Since then they have wonderfully
cleared away. Lately, except for the Bunch affair and
the negotiation business, England has behaved very
well. The Southerners were refused recognition and we
are no longer uneasy about the blockade. Lord Rus-
sell has explained the Mexican business very satisfac-
torily and it appears that England is trying to check
Spain, not to help her. Lord Russell was very open
and confidential towards the Chief and showed him
1861] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 49
confidential despatches proving the truth of the
matter with regard to Spain, besides treating him in
every way extremely kindly and confidentially. You
know that these are state secrets which no one knows
out of the immediate circle here, so you must be very
careful not to let it out, even to write back here that you
know about it, as it might shake confidence in me. . . .
I have no news for you beyond what I've told. We
are all right here, strong and confident. If you win us
a victory on your side, the thing's finished. Rosecrans
seems to be a good deal of a man, if I understand his
double victory over Floyd and Lee. The Lee business
has not wholly reached us yet, but seems to be a first-
rate thing, as he was one of their great guns.
I occasionally worry a newspaper writer, but ad-
vance slowly. Called on Tom Brown Hughes the
other day but he was out of town and won't be back
for some time. No one is in London, but in about a
month I suppose the country visiting will begin and
then one may make a few more acquaintances. . . .
We are settling down into the depths of a London
autumn. The fogs are beginning and the streets look
as no streets in the world do look out of England. Ber-
lin was never so gloomy as London. Every now and
then, when things go wrong, I feel a good deal as though
I would like to cut and run, but on the whole my posi-
tion is much better than it was three months ago. I
saw a little article of yours (I suppose) in the Tran-
script a short time ago, and I hope that you will see in
some of the London newspapers if not my writing, at
least my hand. They need it, confound 'em.
50 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Oct. 5,
I enclose an order on the Times. I did n't know pre-
cisely how to word it for I don't know how many of my
letters he has published. Fourteen or parts of fourteen
I know of, but there may be more. I wish you could
manage to get the money from Raymond without let-
ting the subordinates into the matter. I doubt if I can
carry it on much longer without being known.
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
Londony October 5, 1861
Your letter and your articles in the Courier arrived
last Monday. I sent one set of them down to Lucas,
the editor of the London Star, and received a compli-
mentary note in return which I will enclose to you.
The other set I sent down to the editor of the Specta-
tor, and from him I have not heard. There was one
article to the Star which was partly drawn from your's,
without quoting it, but there has been no reprint. The
Spectator never reprints, but if it notices you, I will
send you the notice. Your Manchester paper I have
made unavailing efforts to find, but London seems to
despise anything provincial, and I can find the paper
nowhere. London papers go to Manchester but Man-
chester ditto don't seem to return the compliment.
This week I have no news for you. Everything
seems to be getting along well and the Government
here behaves itself very fairly. I don't know whether
my last letters will appear or not, but if they do you
can form some judgment as to my inventive powers.
The truth is that I 've lately told so much in that way
which was not generally known, that my position began
1861] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 51
to be too hot and I thought I'd try a little wrong scent.
The facts are all invented therefore, but the idea is
carried out as faithfully as I could, of quoting the state
of English opinion.
We have been overrun by visitors this week. My
friend Richardson goes in the Arabia to Boston, if he
can, but I'm not sure that he won't have to make Hali-
fax his terminus. He was in a horrible position. His
family and property are in New Orleans and he has a
brother in the Virginian army. He is himself a good
Union man, I believe; at all events he talks so; but he
does not want to do anything which will separate him
from his family or make them his enemies. So he could
not make up his mind to take the oath, and deter-
mined rather to run his risk without a passport. I be-
lieve he means to pass the winter in Boston. He told
me all about his troubles and I strongly advised him
not to think of ever living in New Orleans again; at
least as an architect.
Sohier and Charley Thorndike have been here this
week. Both leave for Paris this morning. Sohier was
quite amusing, and dined with us twice. But the trouble
about London is that no one ever stays here and I can't
keep a companion. As for Englishmen I don't expect to
know any of my own age for at least six months more,
as this club business has got to be settled and the
season to come round again first. We see no English
people now, or very few, and the fogs are thick al-
most every morning. Hooroar! Can you find out (not
through Sumner, who seems to have distorted even
your ideas of Washington affairs) what ground Seward
takes on the slave question?
52 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Oct. 6,
I need n't say that the articles are devilish good and
made me blue for a day, thinking of my own weak
endeavors in the same way.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Quincy, Sunday, October 6, 1861
I received your letter of the 7th some ten days ago
and not a word from London since; so that as I have
seen no signs of trouble in the press, I presume the
little flurry you there mention has passed away. In
fact I cannot say I share your apprehensions, though
I must confess I think the government's cards, so far as
the public sees them, are played badly enough both here
and in England. While the agents of the Confederates
are abroad working the whole time at public opinion
and at the foreign mind, influencing papers and think-
ers and undermining us the whole time, our press at
home does but furnish them the materials they need
and our agents abroad apparently confine their efforts
to cabinets and officials and leave public opinion and
the press to take care of themselves. This may not be
so in fact, but if it is not, all that can be said is that the
Southern emissaries are far more efficient than ours.
We have money and the command of the sea, so that
Europe can know nothing except through us, and yet,
from the beginning, so much more active and efficient
has the South been, that we have done nothing but lose
ground. Why is this? I may be all wrong, but to me
our policy in England seems as plain as noon-day, but
I see no signs of its operation on the press, though I hope
it is working secretly. England is made up of large in-
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 53
terests. Some of those are in our favor and some opposed
to us; but why are they not played off against each
other? This war promises immense results to India,
and has already carried up the Indian bonds. That in-
terest is immensely powerful in England and can only
reap benefit from the war; but I have not noticed that
its organs were particularly friendly to us. The shipping
interest derives great benefit from the war, but their
organs are opposed to us. Why is this? What are our
agents doing? Why is not India played off against
Manchester and London against Liverpool? Why do
the Southern agents have it all their own way? Why
are not a few American papers sufficiently under the
control of government to enable some expression of
good sense to go abroad? Why is everything so utterly
left to take care of itself? Remember I only ask these
as questions, for I do not know but what a profound
plan and ceaseless activity under-runs it all; but if it
does, the State department certainly keeps its own
councils much better than the war. So much for these
things.
I wait curiously for the next development from
abroad and chuckled amazingly over the tight place in
which the Governor had got Lord John. Meanwhile,
if there is to be trouble, for Heaven's sake give me a few
days' notice. . . .
Tuesday, 7th
I send the corrected copy of Sumner's speech here-
with. Did you ever see anything like the classical ex-
posure in the Advertiser? How can it be accounted
54 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Oct. 7,
for? What can Sumner mean by perpetrating historical
frauds so sure of detection? The speech has been made
the subject of most severe criticism and that too from
men hitherto Sumner's friends. Dana tore it to shreds
for my edification in a most substantial manner, and
Sumner has done himself no credit. For myself I'm
glad the speech was made, though I think very differ-
ently from most in these matters. The education is
going on and the fallacies lie hid. I agree with it, how-
ever, neither in theory or results, and if we had a Juve-
nal, would not the celebrated author of a certain 4th
of July peace oration, now become the leading advocate
for a savage servile war, catch particular jess. Sum-
ner is a humbug! There's no doubt about it. He's
been a useful man in his day, but he's as much out of
place now as knights in armor would be at the head of
our regiments.
The convention was managed and its results brought
about by Dana, and it was to him a great personal
triumph as he had all the old party associations to
contend with. You never saw a man chuckle over any-
thing as he did over his doings at Worcester. Sumner,
I imagine, is offended with him and will evince it in
the usual way. There is, of course, no political contest.
The position of the country is now very curious and
my strong conviction is that everything is ready and
one good victory would start everything. Politics are
so dead that a little success would lead to an era of good
feeling in the North. Business is, in New England, all
ready to rise under the tariff to a state of activity,
unusual even in time of peace. Everything that is left
CHARLES SUMNER
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 55
is strong and the present feeling of depression is wholly
unfounded. I am convinced that one victory would
make an almost incredible change, but we shall not see
it for a long time without a victory.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Boston, October 14, 1861
My impression is that we are on the eve of great
movements and the naval expedition, if successful, will
open the ball. We can see little in the papers, but it
looks to me as if the correspondents were at fault. But
in truth McClellan is coiling himself up for a spring on
Manassas immediately after a coast success. If he suc-
ceeds, and in him alone have I any confidence, the
loan will be at a premium in twenty-four hours and
all over Europe in six weeks. For those who have
confidence now is the time to buy and sell in the
victory. . . .
Let me call your attention to the article on England
and America in the Examiner I send the Governor
by this bag. It is said to be written by Dr. Hedges
and is one of the ablest papers I have read for a long
time. ...
By the way, I had almost forgotten what I most
wanted to say. In his last letter the Governor hinted
that it would be a good thing if I could get a connec-
tion as American correspondent with some London
paper, as the correspondents from this side as a whole
were beneath contempt. I will leave this to you. Of
course I demand no pay and only desire to influence
56 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Oct. 15,
public opinion abroad. If any respectable London
paper will print my letters, I will let them hear from
me as often as there is anything of interest to let them
hear about. I am not anxious about it at all, but at
this crisis I am anxious to do everything in my power.
Heney Adams to Chaeles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, October 15, 1861
In your last letters I am not a little sorry to see that
you are falling into the way that to us at this distance
seems to be only the mark of weak men, of complaining
and fault-finding over the course of events. In mere
newspaper correspondents who are not expected to
have commonsense or judgment, this may be all nat-
ural, but you ought to know better, for you have the
means for hitting the truth nearer. For my own part
I tell you fairly that all the gossip and senseless stories
that the generation can invent, shall not, if I can help
it, shake for one single instant the firm confidence
which I feel in those who are guiding our affairs. You
are allowing your own better judgment and knowledge
to be overruled by the combined talk of a swarm of
people who have neither knowledge nor judgment at
all; and what is to be the consequence, I would like
to know, if you and men like you, who ought to lead
and strengthen public opinion in the right path, now
instead of exercising your rights and asserting your
power for good, give way to a mere vulgar discourage-
ment merely because the current runs for the moment
in that direction. Call you that backing of your friends ?
A plague upon such backing. Every repetition that is
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 57
given to these querulous ideas tends to demoralize us
worse than a defeat would, and certainly here abroad
is sure to counteract every attempt to restore confi-
dence either in our nation or her institutions.
Even if I believed in the truth of the sort of talk you
quote, I would suspend the moral habeas-corpus for a
time and deny it. But I don't believe it; and more than
that, in all the instances which you quote about which
I know anything at all, I know it to be false. You, like
a set of people with whom you now for the first time
agree, seem to have fallen foul of the President and
Cabinet and in fact every one in authority as the scape-
goats for all the fault-finding of the day, simply be-
cause their positions prevent them from showing you
the truth. Now so far as military and naval affairs go,
I know nothing at all, but one fact I have noticed and
this is that our worst misfortunes have come from pop-
ular interference with them. Croaking is just as likely
to bring another defeat, as that ridiculous bravado
which sent our army to Bull Run. But your troubles
don't end with the army and navy; if they did, I
might perhaps think that your informants really knew
something about a matter on which you and I know
nothing. You go on to find fault with the President
and the Secretary of State, or at least to quote others
who find fault, as though there might be something in
it. Here I am willing to make a direct issue with your
authorities, and you may choose between us which you
will believe and whose information you think best
entitled to credit. They say that the Secretary of
State's education and train of mind are not adapted
58 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Oct. 15,
for these times; that his influence is no longer such as
it once was; that you can no longer discern under the
surface of events that firm grasp and broad conception
that we once admired and bent to, in the founder of the
republican party; and finally you quote an old cal-
umny, thirty years ago as common as it is today; a
year ago as virulent as his prominence could make it; a
calumny which you knew then from the testimony of
your own eyes and ears to be utterly and outrageously
false; and you seem now to suppose that mere repeti-
tion is going to shake my own knowledge of facts; my
own certainty of conviction; and that too because men
who are really ignorant attempt to make you believe
that you are so.
You say that Mr. Seward's hand is not evident in
the course of events. I disagree entirely to any such
idea. I think it is very evident and so much so that,
feeling perfect confidence in him, I have come to the
conclusion that our ideas are wrong and that his are
right, at least on one question. I am an abolitionist
and so, I think, are you, and so, I think, is Mr. Seward;
but if he says the time has not yet come; that we must
wait till the whole country has time to make the same
advance that we have made within the last six months,
till we can all move together with but one mind and
one idea; then I say, let us wait. It will come. Let us
have order and discipline and firm ranks among the
soldiers of the Massachusetts school.
But apart from this, when you say that you do not
see the hand of the Secretary of State in the course
of events, I tell you plainly that you do not know that
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 59
whereof you speak. I do assure you, and I do pretend
to knowledge on this point, that his direction of the
foreign affairs of the nation has been one of very re-
markable ability and energy, and to it we are indebted
now in no small degree; in a very large degree, rather;
to the freedom from external interference which allows
us to give our whole strength to this rebellion. Never
before for many years have we been so creditably
represented in Europe or has the foreign policy of our
country commanded more respect. They will tell you
so in Paris and they will tell you so here, if you don't go
to such authorities as the Times for your information.
The high tone and absolute honor of our country have
been maintained with energy and lofty dignity, but
are we not on good terms still with foreign nations?
Have not the threatening clouds that were hanging over
our relations with this country a few months since,
been cleared away by an influence that no man of com-
mon experience would imagine to be accident? And
what of Spain? And Mexico? Trust me, when you
come to read the history of these days at some future
time, you will no longer think that the hand of the
Secretary of State has been paralysed or his broad
mind lost its breadth, in a time of civil war.
Now let me read you a lesson in history. When the
English nation in the year 1795 were struggling with
revolutionary France, their armies were beaten, their
allies conquered and forced to sue for peace; every
military effort failed the instant it was put forth;
famine was in the land; revolution raised its head
boldly within the very hearing of Westminster Hall;
60 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Oct. 25,
ill-success of every kind, infinitely greater than our own,
dogged their foot-steps at every move; and their credit
sank under their enormous subsidies to Austria, and
eternal draughts on the money market. But did the
English people hesitate to give a firm and noble sup-
port to Pitt, their Prime Minister, in spite of his gross
failures? Not a bit of it. His majority in Parliament
and throughout the nation was firmer than ever, and
when he threw open a loan at last to the people, even
in such a dark hour as that after Bull Run was to us,
noble and peasant, King and Commoner, snapped it up
in a single week, at a rate at which the money-market
would have nothing to do with it. The English have
the true bull-dog's grip, and that is what we must have
if we expect to do anything either in victory or in
defeat.
If you think the above worth printing, send it to
Charles Hale. If not, no matter.
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, October 25, 1861
Our American news comes much in the old way,
always of a chequered character. First, we are com-
pelled to blow away a great deal of froth on the top of
the cup, and then we find the liquor more or less mud-
dled beneath. The impression is that "some one has
blundered." Our Navy does not look as it did in the
last war. Then the land expeditions indicated as much
incapacity as they do now. Now our ships do nothing
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 61
but catch fishing schooners. The Alliance, the Gou-
dar, the Thomas Watson, the Bermuda, the Fingal,
the Amelia, have all taken quantities of clothing, and
military equipment of every description from here, of
which we have had notice beforehand. But I do not
see a sign of their capture in any quarter. Yet to my
mind this is a greater triumph than twenty such results
as that at Bull's Run. The latter at least had the effect
of seriously crippling the victor. The former supplies
the material for carrying on the war indefinitely and
gives to all Europe the idea of an ineffective blockade
— the most dangerous thing of all to our ultimate
success. ... I cannot sympathise with Mr. Sumner's
speech, because the tone is purely vindictive and im-
practicable. But I do not the less feel that we must
ultimately embrace the military necessity as a basis
for the reconstruction of a stable government.
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, October 25, 1861
You complain of the manner in which England has
been allowed to wheel round. I mean to write a letter
to the Times on that matter some day. Do you know
the reason why it is so? How do you suppose we can
make a stand here when our own friends fail to sup-
port us? Look at the Southerners here. Every man
is inspired by the idea of independence and liberty
while we are in a false position. They are active, you
say. So they are, every man of them. There are no
traitors among them. They have an object and they
62 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Oct. 25,
act together. Their merchants and friends in Liverpool
have been warm and vigorous in their support from the
beginning. Ours have been lukewarm, never uttering
a hearty word on our side, and the best of them, such
as Peabody and the house of Baring's invariably play-
ing directly into the hands of our opponents. They
have allowed the game to go by default. Their talk
has been desponding, hesitating, an infernal weight
round our necks. How can you suppose that we should
gain ground with such allies.
But we might nevertheless have carried the day if
the news from home had been such as to encourage
our party, which was once strong and willing. You
know how much encouragement we have had from
your side. Every post has taken away on one hand
what it brought of good on the other. It has by regu-
lar steps sapped the foundations of all confidence in us,
in our institutions, our rulers and our honor. How do
you suppose we can overcome the effects of the New
York press? How do you suppose we can conciliate
men whom our tariff is ruining? How do you suppose
we can shut people's eyes to the incompetence of
Lincoln or the disgusting behavior of many of our
volunteers and officers.
I tell you we are in a false position and I am sick of
it. My one hope is now on McClellan and if he fails us,
then as I say I give it up. Here we are dying by
inches. Every day our authority, prestige and in-
fluence sink lower in this country, and we have the
mournful task of trying to bolster up a failing cause.
Do you suppose I can go among the newspapers here
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 63
and maintain our cause with any face, with such
backing? Can I pretend to a faith which I did once
feel, but feel no longer? I feel not seldom sorry in
these days that I didn't follow my first impulse,
and go into the army with the other fellows. Our
side wants spirit. It does n't ring as it ought.
These little ups and downs, this guerilla war in
Missouri and Kentucky, amount to nothing but vexa-
tion. Oh, for one spark of genius! I have hopes of
McClellan for he doesn't seem to have made any
great blunders, but I don't know.
We are all in a lull here. The English Government
is perfectly passive and likely to remain so. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Boston, November 5, 1861
By the last mail I got a letter from you intended for
the press. I have not however used it as intended. . . .
The great facts of the case stand out. Six months of
this war have gone and in them we have done much;
and by we I mean our rulers. But if we have done
much with our means, the rebels have performed
miracles with theirs. At the end of six months have
we a policy? Are traitors weeded out of our depart-
ments? Is our blockade effective? Is the war prose-
cuted honestly and vigorously? To all these questions
there is but one answer. The President is not equal to
the crisis; that we cannot now help. The Secretary of
War is corrupt and the Secretary of the Navy is in-
competent; that we can help and ought to. With the
rebels showing us what we can do, we ought to be
64 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Not. 5.
ashamed not to do more. But for me I despair of doing
more without a purification of the Cabinet. With
Seward I am satisfied, and so is the country at bot-
tom, for our foreign affairs are creditable. Chase will
do and to Blair I make no objection. But all the rest I
wish the people would drive from power. Your his-
torical examples are not good. When was England
greatest? Was it not when an angry people drove the
drivellers from office and forced on an unwilling King
the elder Pitt, who reversed at once the whole current
of a war? I want to see Holt in the War Department
and a New York shipowner in that of the Navy, or
else Mr. Dana. I am tired of incompetents and I want
to see Lincoln forced to adopt a manly line of policy
which all men may comprehend. The people here call
for energy, not change, and if Lincoln were only a wise
man he could unite them in spite of party cries, and
with an eye solely to the public good.
Herewith you will receive three Independents, in
each of which you will find an article by me for your
delectation. They answer at some length your sug-
gestion that I am an "abolitionist." I am also as-
sured that they met with favor in the eyes of Wendell
Phillips, which indeed I do not understand. I imagine
they will not meet your and my father's views, but on
the whole I am not dissatisfied with the two last in
general and the last in particular. ...
Please notice the leader in the Independent of the
24th. I did more than I expected in influencing the
editorials of the Independent.
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 65
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, November 7, 1861
We have just received the account of the disaster to
the 20th, and I tell you, I feel bad. That there was a
blunder somewhere I have no doubt, and I am in-
clined to believe that it was Baker and that he paid
for it with his life. But to lose Lee and Paul Revere
and to have your friends wounded and defeated is not
atoned for by the fact of its being a blunder. Thank
God it was no worse and that no one was killed. You
can imagine I trembled when I ran down the list of
losses.
The anxiety with which we are waiting now for the
struggle that is coming is not pleasant to bear. A gen-
eral battle must come before the month is over, and on
its result everything will turn. I shall wait to hear of it
before I discuss anything about what is to follow.
Affairs here remain in the old position and promise to
remain so until there is something decisive on your side.
There is no danger of any movement from England, of
that you may be sure, and I have done my best to induce
the New York press to change its tone towards this
country, but they are damned fools, and they will re-
main damned fools, I suppose, and make our difficulties
as great as they possibly can be. The English Govern-
ment are well disposed enough, at least so far as actions
are concerned, and now we hate each other too much
to care a brass farthing what our opinions may be, on
either side. Last May was the time for the contest of
opinions. Now it is the most wretched folly to waste a
66 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Nov. 7.
moment over what this or any other country thinks.
We must induce them not to act, but as for their
thoughts, I, for one, have been thoroughly satisfied
that America can expect no sympathy or assistance in
Europe from any Government. They all hate us and
fear us, even the most liberal. We must depend wholly
on ourselves, and so long as we are strong all will go on,
but the instant we lose our strength, down we shall go.
The New York press are playing into the hands of the
party here which is organized on the basis of anti-
blockade.
As for me, I am not wholly lazy. A few days ago I
called again on Townsend, the editor of the Spectator.
He says that the present Ministry will stand and that
there will be no interference with us even in the case of
another defeat. But he doubts about France. Then
I called on "Tom Brown" Hughes and had a long
talk with him, but not about politics entirely. He is
a regular Englishman and evidently one who prides
himself on having the English virtues. He is to ask me
to dine with him next week.
But my great gun is the Manchester one. Tomor-
row evening I start with a pocketful of letters for Man-
chester to investigate that good place. With such rec-
ommendations I ought to see everything that is to be
seen and learn all that is to be learned. I am invited to
stay with a Mr. Stell, an American there, and have
accepted. My present plan is to report with as much
accuracy as possible all my conversations and all my
observations, and to send them to you. Perhaps it
might make a magazine article; except that it should
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 67
be printed as soon as possible. If I find that I can
make it effective in that form, I shall write it out and
send it to you for the Atlantic. If not, I shall contract
it and send it to you for the Advertiser or Courier.
As for the matter of your becoming a correspondent
of some paper here, I have had it always in my mind,
but the difficulty is that every paper here has already
one or more American correspondents. I intend to
suggest it to Townsend, and should have done so earlier
but that I do not think the Spectator cares for corre-
spondents. As for papers against our side, of course
I could n't get you onto one of those, nor would I if I
could. George Sumner is writing weekly vile letters in
the Morning Post. I wish you would put the screws on
him to stop it. He does more harm than his head's
worth. So does Charles, here and at home. They're
both crazy, and George, at least, unprincipled. Charles,
though I believe him to be honest, is actuated by
selfish motives. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, November 8, 1861
It may be my predilection that biasses my judgment,
but I think I see in my father the only picture of a full
grown statesman that the history of the United States
has yet produced. By this I mean that in him were
united more of all the elements necessary to complete
the character than in any other man. I weigh very de-
liberately the substance of what I affirm. Neither am
I disposed to detract from the merit of the many dis-
68 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Nov. 8.
tinguished persons who have likewise run a brilliant
career in America. In single points they may have
shown a superiority. The mind of Jefferson, or Hamil-
ton, or Webster may when directed to a special object
have given indications of more positive power. Mar-
shall may have developed a more disciplined profes-
sional intellect. All this may indeed be true. But that
does not touch the question. Compare the figures from
the foundation to the apex, look at them all round and
you will not fail to note deficiencies of a most striking
kind in those cases which you will not see in him.
Read the writings of Hamilton. You see ability, sagac-
ity and penetration, but you will find it hard to keep
awake. Webster is strong in logic and forcible in ex-
position, but very imperfect in his bases of reasoning.
Calhoun is subtle and keen in ratiocination, but never
true to any consistent theory of morals. All of them
are equally bold in resources for illustration and the
philosophy of generalization.
The first and greatest qualification of a statesman
in my estimation, is the mastery of the whole theory of
morals which makes the foundation of all human so-
ciety. The great and everlasting question of the right
and wrong of every act whether of individual men or of
collective bodies. The next is the application of the
knowledge thus gained to the events of his time in a
continuous and systematic way. It is in this last par-
ticular that the greatest number of failures are ob-
served to occur. Many men never acquire sufficient
certainty of purpose to be able to guide their steps
at all. They then become the mere sport of fortune.
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 69
Today they shine because they have caught at a good
opportunity. Tomorrow, the light goes out, and they
are found mired at the bottom of a ditch. These are
the men of temporary celebrity — the Charles Town-
shends, the John Randolphs, the George Grenvilles, the
Harrison Gray Otises of their day. Every civilised
nation is full of them. Other men, more favored by
nature or education, prove their capacity to direct
their course, at the expense of their fidelity to their
convictions. They sacrifice their consistency for the
sake of power, and surrender their future fame in ex-
change for the applause of their own day. The num-
ber of these is Legion. They crowd the records of all
governments. The feebleness of perception and the
deliberate abandonment of moral principle in action
are the two prevailing characteristics of public men.
In my opinion no man who has lived in America had
so thoroughly constructed a foundation for his public
fife as your grandfather. His action always was de-
ducible from certain maxims deeply graven on his
mind. This it was that made him fail so much as a
party-man. No person can ever be a thorough partisan
for a long period without sacrifice of his moral identity.
The skill consists in knowing exactly where to draw
the line, and it is precisely here that it seems to me
appears the remarkable superiority of your grand-
father over every man of his time. He leans on noth-
ing external. He derives support from every thing he
can seize. But if circumstances force it out of his
hands, he is still found standing firm and alone. . . .
70 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Nov. 10.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Boston, November 10, 1861
I am very anxious to hear news from Europe, for I can-
not believe that it was my " letter " which caused you
"a sleepless night." I fear the despatches had some-
thing to do with it. In most perfect confidence, will
you tell me, does Seward want or intend to make a
foreign war? He is too profound a man to brag the
country into a war by simply being over-confident and
overbearing; and if he does it, I know him well enough
to know he means to and has a design, and just now
it looks surprisingly like it. As you know I have the
highest faith in Seward and would surrender it as
late as any one; but a policy so comprehensive and
immense, and so evidently doing evil that good might
come of it puzzles me strangely. However my faith
is abiding that the world will not come to an end this
time.
P. S. On reading the foreign files I am annoyed to see
the rumpus created in England by the Harvey Birch
affair. We again present the ludicrous aspect of two
people scared, the one at the other. While Englishmen
are trembling over the Harvey Birch, we have been
quaking over the seizure of Slidell and Mason. The
Harvey Birch, I am told, belonged to secession owners
in New York, and all New York is chuckling over their
loss, which they most richly deserve. The public at
large, so far as I can see and hear, feel no indignation,
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 71
but merely a sense of intense relief at such a Godsend
having just now turned up in the moment. of our
greatest need. . . .
Chaeles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Bostcri, November 19, 1861
We have had a little run of luck on this side this last
week, and Dupont and Wilkes have bolstered up the
reputation of our navy, and indeed not before it was
time, as you say. I suppose the seizure of Mason and
Slidell reached you before the Beaufort news and
made that additionally acceptable. Here it created
quite a stir and immense delight, though at first every
one thought that it must be a violation of national
law; but Dana crowed with delight and declared that
if Lord John made an issue on that, you could blow
him out of water. I don't think people cared much for
Mason, except that his arrogance has made him odi-
ous; but of Slidell every one stands in great terror, and
to have him safe in Fort Warren is an immense relief.
Of the Beaufort aflair you can judge as well as I, and if
the handling of that fleet does n't please the English,
they must be fastidious. As a whole the news is for the
moment better, but the symptoms are still bad. We
evidently cannot follow up our successes, and the army
is perfectly unwieldy. This time and more disaster will
cure, but for myself, I by no means partake of the im-
mense elation of our press. I still think that nothing of
importance will be done before the spring. . . .
72 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Nov. 26,
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Quincy, November 26, 1861
I don't know whether you will be surprised or dis-
gusted or annoyed or distressed by the information
that I have gone into the army, but such is the fact.
Before this reaches you I shall be an officer of the 1st
Mass. Cavalry and probably in Carlisle Barracks. You
know it now and I am glad of it! You ask what has
impelled me to this unadvised and sudden step. Many
reasons, I answer; a few of which I will now give you.
But in the first place let me say that I have not felt
sure of my appointment until within the last five days
and that I would have notified you of it before had not
former false alarms made me timid of present ones.
Now I feel reasonably sure and will give you the rea-
sons of my actions. You will say, of course, that the
arguments which were decisive against my going two
months ago are decisive now in no less degree; but this
is not so. I have all along felt that it was my place to
represent our family in the army in this struggle, but
a higher sense of public duty kept me at home while
I was useful to you; and when that usefulness was gone,
the argument which had justified my staying at home
became one for my going away. I can be of little
future use to you here. . . .
For going I have many reasons. I do not think my-
self a soldier by nature. I am not sure I am doing that
which is best for myself; but I feel that, if I go, I shall
be better satisfied with myself, and, as I said to you
1861.] CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 73
before, I do not think it right that our family, so prom-
inent in this matter while it is a contest of words,
should be wholly unrepresented when it has grown to
be a conflict of blows. You say there is neither glory
nor honor to be won in civil strife. I answer, that it
cannot be otherwise than right for me to fight to main-
tain that which my ancestors passed their whole lives
in establishing. These however are general arguments
which I have advanced to you before, but there are
others nearer home. I have completely failed in my
profession and I long to cut myself clear of it. I have
indeed derived an income this summer from my office,
but not from the law, and that I have made up my mind
to give up. This mortifies me and the army must
cover my defeat. My future must be business and
literature, and I do not see why the army should not
educate me for both, for its routine is that of business
and it will go hard if my pen is idle while history is to
be written or events are to be described. Thus my
decision not only closes one career in which I have
failed, but it opens others in which experience teaches
me I can succeed if at all. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Mother
Boston, November 29, 1861
What is known of Seward in the Legation? Here his
fall has been tremendous. Few men are now more
violently attacked on all sides. There is a very preva-
lent rumor that his mind is at all times befogged with
liquor; that he drinks half the time, and people won't
74 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Nov. 29,
believe me when I laugh at the idea. Then many of his
oldest friends here — myself in the number — are ut-
terly perplexed as to what he is doing. We don't see
his mind in the policy of the government anywhere.
In fact, we don't see any policy of the government. He
seems not equal to the occasion. He may be overruled
in the cabinet and devoting himself to his department;
but that is not the popular impression and, though the
cabinet is unpopular, if any of it went out he would go.
I don't understand it and my only solution is that
Seward's is one of those calm, philosophic minds which
need peaceful times to operate in, when he can study
cause and effect and mature his plans for gradually
approaching events; but he lacks the energy, decision
and "snap" for days like these. . . .
We had a Fast-day the other day and I went to
church. I found it fuller than I ever saw it before on a
fast-day and Mr. Wells gave us a fast sermon which
made some people stare. It was hard on the war and
stiff enough, but in laying down his position on slavery
his Mississippi life stuck out strong, so strong, in
fact, as to lead him to assert that for himself he "did
not consider negro servitude as necessarily a wrong."
Some people were a little astonished, but as it was an
occasional sermon it will not hurt him any. . . .
Of war news there is none, though what the steamer
will carry out I can't say. The Lexington affair is bad
and Fremont has his choice of a series of successes
or removal. The real difficulty with him seems to be
extravagance. He spends money like water and one
draft on the Secretary of the Treasury from him was
1861] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 75
for $5,800,000, I am told. Still he has an immense
hold, which I cannot understand, on the West, and if
successful can maintain himself. ...
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, November 30, 1861
If I thought the state of things bad last week you may
imagine what I think of them now.1 In fact I consider
that we are dished, and that our position is hopeless.
If the administration ordered the capture of those
men, I am satisfied that our present authorities are
very unsuitable persons to conduct a war like this or
to remain in the direction of our affairs. It is our ruin.
Do not deceive yourself about the position of England.
We might have preserved our dignity in many ways
without going to war with her, and our party in the
Cabinet was always strong enough to maintain peace
here and keep down the anti-blockaders. But now all
the fat's in the fire, and I feel like going off and taking
up my old German life again as a permanency. It is
devilish disagreeable to act the part of Sisyphus es-
pecially when it is our own friends who are trying to
crush us under the rock.
What part it is reserved to us to play in this very
tragical comedy I am utterly unable to tell. The Gov-
ernment has left us in the most awkward and unfair
position. They have given no warning that such an
act was thought of, and seem almost to have pur-
posely encouraged us to waste our strength in trying
to maintain the relations which it was itself intending
1 After the Trent affair.
76 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Nov. 30.
to destroy. I am half mad with vexation and despair.
If papa is ordered home I shall do as Fairfax did, and
go into the war with "peace" on my mind and lips.
Our position here is of course very unpleasant just
now. We were to have gone to Lord Hatherton's on
Monday, but now our visit is put off, and I am not
without expectations that a very few weeks may see
us either on our way home or on the continent. I think
that the New Year will see the end.
This nation means to make war. Do not doubt it.
What Seward means is more than I can guess. But if
he means war also, or to run as close as he can without
touching, then I say that Mr. Seward is the greatest
criminal we've had yet.
We have friends here still, but very few. Bright
dined with us last night, and is with us, but is evidently
hopeless of seeing anything good. Besides, his as-
sistance at such a time as this is evidently a disad-
vantage to us, for he is now wholly out of power and
influence, Our friends are all very much cast down and
my friends of the Spectator sent up to me in a dread-
ful state and asked me to come down to see them,
which I did, and they complained bitterly of the posi-
tion we were now in. I had of course the pleasure of
returning the complaint to any extent, but after all
this is poor consolation.
Our good father is cool but evidently of the same
mind as I am. He has seen Lord Russell but could give
him no information, and my Lord did not volunteer
any on his side. You will know very soon what you
are to expect. . . .
1861.1 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 77
No news of importance has yet reached my ears, but
you will see my views as usual in the Times. We
are preparing for a departure, though as yet we have
taken no positive steps towards making future arrange-
ments.
Beaufort was good. It gave me one glowing day
worth a large share of all the anxiety and trouble that
preceded and have followed it. Our cry now must be
emancipation and arming the slaves.
Chaeles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Boston, December 3, 1861
Your letters were written under the cloud of Balls
Bluff, and it is hard for us just now when every one is
getting elated again to go back and appreciate the
bitterness of which you speak. Yes, every one is in the
clouds again, but I must confess my confidence has
been too much shaken to be suddenly restored. I am
oppressed by a combined sense of ill-luck and incom-
petence. A few words of Balls Bluff affair and then let
us try to forget it. I am informed by Harrison Ritchie,
who has been to Washington for the Governor recently
and is in "possesshun of certing infamashon," that there
is no doubt that the advance was ordered by General
Scott without McClellan's knowledge, and the advance
on Romney was ordered by him at the same time. The
last succeeded and the first failed, and within ten
days Scott resigned. The results of the reverse were
however fatal, and much in the way that I imagined,
the plans of the campaign were frustrated, and here we
78 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 3,
now are with a disconnected series of successes and
reverses leading to little and effecting in themselves
still less. So affairs now stand, and soon we must go
into winter quarters, for today it has set in bitter cold.
Still there are signs of promise in the sky arid the
blockade promises us far greater results than our arms
bid fair to win. The South already is evidently starv-
ing, and if it is so in November what will it be in April?
They are wild with terror at our naval expeditions and,
in despite of all and everything, I never felt so con-
fident of crushing them in time, if no foreign force in-
tervenes, by sheer weight, as I now do. I have lost all
confidence in our skill or courage, for the present;
but passing events make it pretty clear to my mind
that we are learning fast and that brute force is all
with us.
Every one is fearfully anxious to hear from England
of the reception of Mason and Slidell's capture, and
your letter in which you mention that the James
Adger was watched created a good deal of uneasiness.
The English precedents so clearly justify us that I can-
not fear difficulty from that cause; but I do fear very
much a popular clamor and feeling of hatred towards
us which will make the occurrence of future difficulty
very easy. However, every day gained is a great thing
now and I think there will be a Southern collapse
within four months, if only we can hold over that
time.
But I have talked enough of politics. How do they
like my going into the army in London? Did they
expect it? Were they pleased or disgusted? As for me
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 79
I have nothing new to tell you in that regard. The
regiment is still here, but I do not expect to be ordered
to join until they move to Carlisle barracks, which
will probably be very soon, for winter has set in in
earnest. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Boston, December 10, 1861
Yours of the 23d of last month reached me yesterday.
... If we are going to have such a storm as you in-
timate, I should have to go, so anyhow, and if indeed
"all that remains is to drop gracefully," it will not do
me or any one else any good for me to anxiously hang
on here a few days longer. Yet it does make me feel
terribly. We have blundered all summer long and
now we have capstoned our blunders by blundering
into a war with England. So be it. While there 's life
there's hope; but I go into the army with a bitter
feeling against those under whose lead we have come
to this pass, and amid all the shattered idols of my
whole life I don't feel as if I cared much when my
turn came. I suppose now I shall go into the field
against a foreign enemy and I ought to rejoice at that.
Still, I don't. Against the rebels I could fight with a
will and in earnest. They are traitors, they war for a
he, they are the enemies of morals, of government, and
of man. In them we fight against a great wrong —
but against England, we shall have forced her into war
when she only asked for peace; we shall have made
that a cause of quarrel which a few soft words might
have turned away. It will be a wicked and causeless
80 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 10,
war wantonly brought about by us and one in which
I most unwillingly would go to my death.
As for Seward I cannot comprehend his policy and
so I cannot judge of it, and most slowly and reluctantly
will I surrender my faith in him. His policy has been
to keep a firm front, and in this it was wise; but I think
he might have made himself less offensive to foreign
powers in doing it, and I somewhat doubt the ex-
pediency of bragging yourself out of the game, as you
tell me he has done. Still we have made our bed and
now we must lie on it.
I shall probably have joined my regiment this week
or early next. You will be surprised to hear that I
shall probably regularly enlist and make my debut as
a simple sergeant in Caspar Crowninshield's company.
The truth is they have so backed and filled, and hesi-
tated and delayed, that, having determined to go, I
have lost my patience, and have signified to them that
I am ready to wait in the ranks until they are ready to
give me a commission. Caspar got his company as a
promotion for his behavior at Balls Bluff, and I shall
get mine, I suppose, at some indefinite future period,
when Sargent ceases to be a gas-bag and Williams
feels the regiment under his thumb. Meanwhile I
shall rough and fight it out with the rest, sleep fifteen
in a tent with stable-boys, groom horses, feed like a
hog and never wash, and such is my future! Well, it
is better than my present, for I shall at least, by going
into the army, get rid of the war.
Your last letter, and your statement that there was
nothing left but a suspension of relations with England,
CASPAR CROWNINSHIELD
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 81
came peculiarly unpleasantly just now. I had again
begun to hope. Our blockade has become so effective
and we are developing such enormous strength, that in
spite of blunders, the confederates seemed likely to be
crushed by brute force and starved to death, while we
are really more prosperous than we have been for a year,
and our poor more comfortable than they have been
for four years. The confederates already, before win-
ter begins, are regulating by law the profit on "articles
of prime necessity," and what would it have been be-
fore spring? I had begun to hope yet to see this rebel-
lion collapse. Of course a war with England exactly
reverses positions. It will be short and desperate, and
end in the establishment of a confederate government,
I suppose. However, a glorious indifference is coming
over me. I can live on my pay, the world will not come
to an end this time, and if I do, I shall doubtless be
very comfortable in my grave. But I do hate to be
blundered out of existence and, before a foreign war
just as we were getting the whip-hand. Even Balls
Bluff will hide a diminished head; it will stand forth in
all history as the Koh-i-noor of blunders. . . .
Chakles Francis Adams to his Son
London, December 12, 1861
It has given us here an indescribably sad feeling to
witness the exultation in America over an event which
bids fair to be the final calamity in this contest. We
wonder that there has been so little of comprehension
of the nature of the struggle here in public opinion
82 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 13.
not to jump at once to the conclusion that it would be
turned against us by such an act. Putting ourselves
in the place of Great Britain, where would be the end
of the indignation that would be vented against the
power committing it? Yet it seems everywhere to have
been very coolly taken for granted that because she
did outrageous things on the ocean to other powers,
she would remain quiet when such things were done
to her. A little observation of her past history ought
to have shown that she never sees the right until half
a century after she has acted wrong. She now admits
her error in our revolution, and in the last war. Now
she is right in principle and only wrong in point of
consistency. Our mistake is that we are donning our-
selves in her cast-off suit, when our own is better
worth wearing. And all for what? Why to show our
spite against two miserable wretches, twenty thousand
of whom are not worth a single hair in the head of
any of the persons on both sides of the controversy
whose lives and happiness are endangered by the
quarrel. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, December 13, 1861
Your letter to papa announcing your metamorphosis
took us as you may suppose a good deal by surprise.
I endorsed it at once. As you say, one of us ought to
go, and though of the three as a mere matter of acci-
dental position I might have preferred that it should be
John, still, as a question of greater or lesser evil per-
haps it's best that it should be you. If we come home,
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 83
perhaps I may try it myself a little, but if we stay
abroad, or if I come home alone, I do not suppose I
shall be compelled to do so. At the same time, as a
personal matter, I'm sorry you're going, especially as
I have, since the last shock, become satisfied that we
must sooner or later yield the matter. As a mere
question of independence I believe the thing to be
settled. We cannot bring the South back. As a ques-
tion of terms and as a means of thoroughly shaking the
whole southern system, I'm not sorry to see the pres-
sure kept up. . . .
You can imagine our existence here. Angry and
hateful] as I am of Great Britain, I still can't help
laughing and cursing at the same time as I see the ac-
counts of the talk of our people. What a bloody set
of fools they are! How in the name of all that's con-
ceivable could you suppose that England would sit
quiet under such an insult. We should have jumped
out of our boots at such a one. And there's Judge
Bigelow parading bad law "at the cannon's mouth,"
and Governor Andrew all cock-a-hoop, and Dana so
unaccustomed confident, and Mr. Everett following
that "Great authority" George Sumner into a ditch,
" blind leader of the blind " ! Good God, what 's got into
you all? What do you mean by deserting now the great
principles of our fathers, by returning to the vomit of
that dog Great Britain? What do you mean by as-
serting now principles against which every Adams yet
has protested and resisted? You're mad, all of you.
It's pitiable to see such idiocy in a nation. There 's the
New York Times which I warned only in my last letter
84 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec 17.
against such an act, and its consequences; and now I
find the passage erased, and editorial assurances that
war was impossible on such grounds. Egad, who knew
best, Raymond or I? War is not only possible but
inevitable on that ground; and we shall be forced to
declare it. England can compel us to appear to act as
the aggressors in future as now.
Thurlow Weed is here and hard at work on public
opinion. He is excessively anxious about the meeting
of Congress and thinks we shall be talked into a war.
I have had some talk with him and like him very much.
. . . The Government has not yet condescended to
send us one single word as to the present question.
I wonder what Seward supposes a Minister can do or
is put here for, if he is n't to know what to do or to say.
It makes papa's position here very embarrassing. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Boston, December 17, 1861
I clearly see that the little squall you refer to in
yours of the 23d of November was a gentle zephyr in
comparison with the gale that set in four days later.
Your Manchester paper got here just too late. The
Atlantic could not have printed it till January, and
so, as you told me, I carried it to the Courier. It has
been printed and I send it to you, but I doubt if any
one has read it, or any notice will be taken of it; for you
might as well expect the sailors on a sinking ship to
pay attention to flourishes of a fiddle. It happened
at exactly the wrong moment, and people were too
much absorbed in the questions of the moment to pay
1861] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 85
attention to those of the day. I made a mistake, how-
ever, in sending it to the Courier, but I am under some
obligation to them and this paid it off. I shall cer-
tainly have nothing to do in the future with that
low toned and semi-treasonable sheet — that is, when
I can use any other.
Is the present a case of war or of diplomacy? I can-
not tell, but I do hope not war. The idea of two great
countries setting to work to do each other all the in-
jury in their power on a technical point of law, or
error into which one fell in its desire not to offend the
other. Still, if England will take that tone, so be it.
We have our war paint and feathers on and we shall
die hard. Do you remember how hard France was
pressed just after the revolution and how she turned
on her enemies? We can make a better fight now than
we ever could before, and our two first measures would
almost necessarily be those most troublesome to Eng-
land — a decree of universal emancipation on the one
hand, and a swoop on English commerce on the other.
A true democracy is a pretty hard thing to whip and
I cannot help thinking that, in a war forced upon us on
this issue, England would find us as ugly a customer as
she had often dealt with. Still it is a conclusion terri-
ble to think of. As great a cause as ever men struggled
for ruined forever by so needless a side issue ! Yet for
one I do not see how it can long be avoided and per-
haps it would be as well to face it at once. . . .
I send you herewith a copy of a lecture by Boutwell
of some interest just now. By the way, it is a hopeful
sign to see that Seward on this question has Congress
86 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 19,
under the curb. I should n't wonder if the wily old
bird changed his note now, as he did when the South
kicked out, and you suddenly found him most suave
and peaceable.
Chaeles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Boston, December 19, 1861
I received yours of the 30th ultimo yesterday. You
say "this nation means to make war." To this I have
to reply that this nation does n't. England may force
us into a war, but the feeling here is eminently pacific,
and unless the Ministry has put themselves in an un-
tenable position and driven us to the wall, no war will
come out of this. Dana has sent a letter to the Gov-
ernor by this mail, and if Lyons withdraws, the nego-
tiation must be carried on in London. He wants me
to add the peculiar injustice of the English talk of vio-
lence in seizing Slidell. The business was done in the
most courteous manner in which it could be and the
"sass" in the Trent was all English. Our men were
abused and assaulted, called "pirates" and black-
guarded, and answered not a word. And if England
insists on war, it will be only because England is dis-
satisfied that we did n't insist on all our "belligerent"
rights, and the curse be on her head. The facts in the
case you will have before this and make the most of
them.
My object in writing this is, however, to tell you
that I have received my commission. I leave the State
Tuesday next with my regiment for Annapolis. I am a
1st Lieutenant and to be Captain, so Colonel Williams
1861] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 87
says, and heard of it only an hour ago. This is all
I hoped for and much more than I expected. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, December 20, 1861
The great event of the past week on this side is the
death of the Prince Consort. From the time of my
arrival I had formed a very favorable opinion of the
man. Having a most difficult part to play he seemed
to me to acquit himself most creditably. A feeble per-
son would have fallen into contempt. A vicious one
would have created discord. An intriguing one would
have filled the Court with animosities and sharpened
all the rivalries of parties. He was neither. His capac-
ity and his acquirements commanded the respect of
the most powerful subject. His moral character set at
defiance all malevolence. And his prudence preserved
his neutrality from the assaults of contending factions.
Yet he can scarcely be said to have been popular in
any class, and least of all among the nobility. He was
reserved and shy, little versed in the arts which recom-
mend a man to others. Few were disposed to give him
much credit until they lost him. Now they are begin-
ning to open their eyes to a sense of his value. They
discover that much of their political quietude has been
due to the judicious exercise of his influence over the
Queen and the Court, and they do not conceal their
uneasiness as to the future without him. The young
Prince is just coming of age, with a character by no
means formed. The younger children are coming
88 ' A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 20,
forward with a strong curb removed. The Queen her-
self has no guide or adviser so well fitted to perform
his part without danger of political complications to
disturb her. There is no strength in any purely party
organization that will keep the government steady.
War with the United States seems imminent. It may
spread itself all over Europe. Where is the master to
direct this storm, if he cannot arrest it? Is it Lord
Palmerston or Earl Russell? I trow not. Let any thing
happen to Napoleon, and you will see. He is their
buckler and their shield.
As to us I fancy you can understand the pleasant-
ness of the position we are occupying in the mean time.
The leading newspapers roll out as much fiery lava as
Vesuvius is doing, daily. The clubs and the army and
the navy and the people in the streets generally are
raving for war. On the other side are the religious peo-
ple and a large number of stock jobbers and traders,
together with the radical following of Messrs. Cobden
and Bright. The impression is general that Mr. Sew-
ard is resolved to insult England until she makes a
war. He is the bete noir, that frightens them out of all
their proprieties. It is of no use to deny it and appeal
to facts. They quote what he said to the Duke of New-
castle about insulting England as the only sure pass-
port to popular favor in America, and a part of a speech
in which he talked of annexing Canada as an offset to
the loss of the slave states. This is the evidence that
Mr. Seward is an ogre fully resolved to eat all English-
men raw. Pitiful as is all this nonsense, it is of no
trifling consequence in its political effect. Even our
1861] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 89
friend Mr. Thurlow Weed with all his sagacity is
baffled in every attempt to counteract it. And if war
finally happens, it will trace to this source one of its
most prominent causes.
Of course I feel most anxiously the position of my
country, and of those who are enlisted in its cause. So
far as I now see the field it is much less alarming than it
looked some weeks ago. Many of the causes of appre-
hension are removed. The government has not author-
ised the act of Captain Wilkes, neither has it adopted
it, as yet. So far, so good. But the British government
will not rest satisfied with that position. The policy
must be disavowed and the men replaced. Such is my
understanding of the substance no matter how gently
the sense may be conveyed. Shall we do either? For
my part I think justice to our former professions de-
mands it of us. I care not about quibbles concerning
Sir William Scott's law, against which I was bred in a
mortal aversion. He is no idol of mine, and I care not
how soon both nations join to knock his image off its
pedestal. .But what my opinion may be is one thing.
What the delusion of my countrymen is, is another and
very different one. They may regard Messrs. Mason
and Slidell as more precious than all their worldly pos-
sessions. May be so. For my part I would part with
them at a cent apiece.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Boston, December 22, 1861
You may imagine that we are waiting here anxiously
to hear the news from England, but I think you over-
90 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS Pec. 27.
estimate it. People seem to have lost all apprehension
of war, on the simple theory that it requires two to
make a war, as it does to make a bargain, and we don't
mean to fight — yet. By the way, why did you never
tell me of the tone of Seward's despatches? Here they
excite the greatest admiration. I must say, I don't
think I ever read more admirable state papers, and
I look with renewed admiration on the consummate
genius which could produce them. They have gone far
to reinstate Seward in the estimation of all cultivated
minds. Sumner, I see, is riding the "nigger" hobby
still. Why can't he leave it alone. Can't he see that it
has passed beyond laws and proclamations, and that
day by day we are working at that volcano. . . .
Chaeles Francis Adams to his Son
t
London, December 27, 1861
We watch the progress of events in America by the
lurid glare of the passions that burn on this side of the
ocean. The last news we have brings the Europa to
Cape Race. The next will probably shew us your
countenances on receiving the details. I have been so
often deceived in my calculations of late that I do not
pretend to foresee what the picture will be. You took
the affair of the Nashville so amiably that perhaps you
will laugh now. I have never before met with an in-
stance so striking of provoking simplicity in a nation.
You do not even resort to the most ordinary habit of
judging of others by yourselves. Here is all Europe
from end to end arrayed in opinion against you, and
1861.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 91
not a shade of suspicion that you may not be right yet
rests upon your brows. Lord Stowell carries the day as
if he were your legitimate ruler by the grace of God.
It is unlucky for me that I was bred up in declared
hostility to the arbitrary dogmas against neutral rights
of that impersonation of Anglican egotism, so that I
have never partaken of your security. A day or two
will show whether the government will prove true to
its ancient well-established principles, or whether un-
der the paltry inducement of personal pique it will
strike into a new path that will lead it neither to glory
nor success. My own convictions still are that it will
determine right. Thus far it has not shown a false
color as I feared under the first popular impulse that
it might. Yet I confess I dread the effect of the pres-
sure to which it maybe subjected. The result will soon
be upon us. . . .
Apropos of this let me say a word about the notion
you still seem to entertain that Mr. Seward means to
bring on a war. Thus far I have always maintained
that this was a mistake founded on a bad joke of his to
the Duke of Newcastle at Governor Morgan's dinner
to the Prince of Wales. The Duke has however suc-
ceeded in making everybody in authority here believe
it. Lord Lyons and Mr. Sumner have helped on the de-
lusion at home. Yet I have no hesitation in my opin-
ion, neither do I find that Mr. Thurlow Weed, with
whom I compare notes, entertains any other. Be it as
it may, now will be his chance. He can have a war, if he
wants one. He has but to do what the Duke says he
told him he meant to do, i.e. insult the British govern-
92 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 28,
ment in his answer, and he will have it to his heart's
content. In my opinion he will do no such thing. But
if I am right, I trust that from that time no more
reliance will be placed upon a poor pleasantry uttered
after a hospitable entertainment, to a mischief -making
guest. . . .
The people of Great Britain are just beginning to
think that the Queen's husband, though a German,
was something of a person, after all. I am inclined to
believe that they have not seen a royal personage equal
to him since the days of William the Third. Had he
lived the country would have felt more and more the
influence of his presence. For parties are in process of
disintegration, and personal qualities are growing more
important. The old Whig dynasty will die out with
Lord Palmerston, and the Tories will scarcely outlive
Lord Derby. New issues will take the place of the old
ones, just as they have done with us, but I hope for
their sakes not to be attended with a similar convul-
sion. Yet just that is the thing they in their inmost
hearts dread, and the poor people fancy they are going
to avoid it by means of our calamities.
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
Londony December 28, 1861
The difficulty of our position here consists first in the
fact that the South are in London a nation, and in
Washingon no nation; and second, that Seward will not
submit to this fact as an evil of which the least said
the better. No doubt you have read his state papers
1861] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 93
and see what I mean. They are admirable works;
they show great ability; but they want tact. He shaves
closer to the teeth of the lion than he ought. No one
has a right to risk so much for a mere point of form.
It is a mere point of form. The Nashville business
can have only one of two results : one, the recognition
of the belligerent rights of the South by our Govern-
ment; the other, a suspension of relations, either pre-
ceding or following measures of force, as threatened
in the despatch I spoke of to you, now published.
Again, about the Trent affair. Our lawyers have
shown a strange want of close logic. The seizure of the
commissioners can only be justified in one of two ways.
If Seward sticks to his rebel theory, he must claim a
right to do that which is most repugnant to our whole
history and sense of right. He must defend a viola-
tion of the right of asylum.
If he claims them as contraband, setting aside other
legal objections, he acknowledges the South as belliger-
ents, by the act. From every word he has written I am
bound to believe that he will not do the latter. But if
he adheres to his old view, I can see no means of pre-
serving our relations with this Court in either the
Nashville or the Trent difficulties.
For these reasons I think that our stay here is at an
end. But I do not believe in war. I have written at
some length on this in my letter to the Times this
evening, and from that you can judge whether there
will be war or no. Lord Lyons' departure will not
make ours necessary unless Seward wishes it.
For my own part I am tired of this fife. Every at-
94 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 28.
tempt I have made to be of use has failed more or less
completely. I stand no stronger than the first day
I arrived. I cannot find that I have effected a lodg-
ment anywhere, in spite of many exertions. I am now
at a loss again to what new point to turn, having been
beaten back everywhere; and hope for an idea.
You are going into the army. I do not think it my
duty to express any regrets at the act, or at the necessity
for it. They are understood, and I do not mean to
make the thing any harder for either you or myself,
by mourning or maundering about it. About my own
fortunes I am becoming more and more callous and
indifferent; but about yours, I feel differently, and if
it were not for the strange madness of the times, which
has left no longer any chance of settled lives and Chris-
tian careers, I should be vehement against your throw-
ing yourself away like this. As it is, I can only tell you
to do what you think best, and I shall be always ready
to stand by you with what aid I can give.
Inclosed is my quarterly draft on Raymond. With
this and what money of mine you have now in your
hands, there ought to be something more than two hun-
dred dollars. I want you to use this on your outfit, to
buy a horse, or equipments, or to fit out your com-
pany. It is my contribution to the war and to your
start in pride, pomp and circumstance. . . .
Thurlow Weed is still here, very active indeed. I
have tried to be of what use to him I could, but with-
out much result. He's a large man; a very tall man
indeed; and a good deal taller than I am. So I can
only watch and admire at a distance.
1862
1862
Chaeles Feancis Adams, Je., to Heney Adams
New York, January 3, 1862
Heee I am in barracks in New York and under orders
for Port Royal, with the thermometer about zero and
a small pandemonium all around me. I went out to
camp about eight days ago in the dead of winter, and
when the strong north wind blew. Sunday we struck
our camp and moved for the South. It was n't a pleas-
ant day, for the Blue Hills looked cold and dreary and
snow packed on the deserted camp ground; and while
the earth was covered with ice the sky was grey and
uncompromising and the wind rough and cold. It was
dismal enough I assure you and I was glad enough
when we were hurried into the cars. John was the only
person to see me off, much to my relief, for I was
in the cross and hungry rather than the sentimental
mood.
Then came a chapter of accidents. Our Major got
drunk before we left and has continued so ever since,
and the battalion has taken care of itself. That officer
has now disappeared, we hope forever, and at last we
have got ourselves comfortably quartered. We are
barracked in a German amusement building and grove
on 64th street, and our horses are stabled in large sheds
not far off, and the room in which I am writing is the
parlor and sleeping room of the officers and the head-
98 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 3,
quarters of the battalion. The weather is beastly cold
and very windy, and the horses suffer though the men
are comfortable. As for me I never was better in my
life. The exposure has been pretty severe and the
change of life great; but I am always well in the open
air and jolly among a crowd of fellows, so no sympathy
need be wasted on me. I like it and like it better than
I expected. I fall into the life very easily and find
my spring experience at the fort of inestimable service.
Already I feel as much at home in charge of the guard
or the company stables as I ever did in my office. I 'm
sure if I like it so far I shall continue to do so, for we've
had a pretty rough time, and Caspar Crowninshield
says the most disgusting he ever had. But I certainly
like it so far and expect to continue to do so.
We are off soon — probably within ten days — for
Port Royal. We like the idea fairly, though we would
prefer to go to other places. For myself I should prefer
to winter at Annapolis, and next to that to be sent to
Texas, but as for being cooped up on Hilton Head all
winter, I don't relish the idea much, though as regards
climate it will be a pleasant change. As for active serv-
ice, it's just impossible. You could n't get our horses
within a mile of firearms, and the drilling task before
us is something terrible to contemplate. We are all
green, officers, men and horses, and long practice is
absolutely necessary. But we can do, I imagine, picket
and camp duty. My wants (?) will probably be found
on board ship.
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 99
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, January 10, 1862
Captain Wilkes has not positively shipwrecked us,
but he has come as near to it without succeeding as he
could. Thus far the country has been at least saved the
danger of setting up military idols. This reconciles me
a little to the slowness of our operations. Another con-
sideration is the crushing nature of our expenditure
which must stop this war, if something effective does
not follow soon. It is idle to talk of putting down the
rebellion whilst our power is resisted successfully within
a dozen miles of the capital. This idea prevails so
much here that it will undoubtedly become the basis
of a movement for recognition before long. . . .
The first effect of the surrender of Messrs. Mason
and Slidell has been extraordinary. The current which
ran against us with such extreme violence six weeks ago
now seems to be going with equal fury in our favor.
The reaction in the city was very great yesterday, and
even the most violent of the presses, the Times and the
Post, are for the moment a little tamed. Possibly, if
nothing else should intervene to break its force, this
favoring gale may carry us through the first half of
the session of Parliament, in other words, until the first
of May. If by that time we shall have made no de-
cided progress towards a result, we may as well make
up our minds to disbelieve in our power to do it at
all. Foreign nations will come to that conclusion if
we do not. . . .
100 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 10,
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, January 10, 1862
The news of the surrender of the unhung arrived yes-
terday, and gave us much satisfaction. It was particu-
larly grateful to me because the ground taken is that
which the Chief recommended in an early despatch to
the Government, in which he quoted Madison's words.
The effect here is good and will help us, but I have little
hope that we shall be able to maintain ourselves here
much longer. I fear that the meeting of Parliament
will be the signal for a grand battle, and March will
see us en route for somewhere.
Still there is great activity among our friends here in
preparing for the struggle, and Thurlow Weed is or-
ganising our forces effectively. We shall die hard I
think, and England will have little to be proud of.
The blockade is the place where the shoe pinches, and
the blockade is now very perfect, I should judge. We
shall see what they mean to do. . . .
Financially we are dished. There is but one resort,
and that is severe direct taxation. It is in this way
alone that the expenses of all modern wars in Europe
have been borne, and we must come to it at last, or
repudiate. The latter is out of the question, but the
Lord knows.
The Legation is tolerably quiet just now, with little
doing. Government has behaved well in the Nash-
ville business, and that vessel is now under our guns
and without increased armament. Meanwhile the
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 101
Sumter has turned up and is making trouble in Spain.
I wish to God the Tuscarora could catch her and sink
her.
Today I find myself in a scrape that is by no manner
of means agreeable. The Courier in putting my name
to my "Diary" has completely used me up. To my
immense astonishment and dismay I found myself this
morning sarsed through a whole column of the Times,
and am laughed at by all England. You can imagine
my sensations. Unless something occurs to make me
forgotten, my bed is not likely to be one of roses for
some time to come. There is nothing to be done but to
grin and bear it. But for the present I shall cease my
other writings as I am in agonies for fear they should
be exposed. I wish I could get at Raymond, as I don't
want to write myself, for fear my letter should get out.
Could n't you write to him and explain, without men-
tioning names, why his London correspondent has
stopped for a time. My connection with him must on
no account be known. The Chief as yet bears this vex-
ation very good-naturedly, but another would be my
ruin for a long time. I don't want him ever to know
about it. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
"Empire City," Off Port Royal
Friday, January, 1862
We are just making harbor on the fifth day out, after
a decidedly rough and long passage. We ought to have
got in yesterday, but missed the harbor and for the last
twenty-four hours have been cruising up and down
102 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan..
the coast, in a northeaster, between Tybee island and
Charleston light, and will barely get in today. The
voyage has been very severe on our horses which look
most decidedly used up, and a fair average of men have
been down and could fully describe the pleasures of
seasickness — as also could most of the officers, includ-
ing myself, who passed the second day out on my back,
but since then have picked up sufficiently to be on my
feed, drink, and smoke, and round while my bed is
made. We have left the winter fairly behind us and
now in a couple of days we shall settle down at Beau-
fort, but what to do, the Lord only knows. . . .
You set up for a philosopher. You write letters a la
Horace Walpole; you talk of loafing round Europe;
you pretend to have seen life. Such twaddle makes me
feel like a giant Warrington talking to an infant Pen-
dennis. You "tired of this life"! You more and more
"callous and indifferent about your own fortunes!"
Pray how old are you and what has been your career?
You graduate and pass two years in Europe, and wit-
ness by good luck a revolution. You come home and
fall upon great historic events and have better chances
than any young man to witness and become acquainted
with them. You go abroad while great questions are
agitated in a position to know all about them. Fortune
has done nothing but favor you and yet you are "tired
of this life." You are beaten back everywhere before
you are twenty-four, and finally writing philosophical
letters you grumble at the strange madness of the times
and have n't even faith in God and the spirit of your
age. What do you mean by thinking, much less writ-
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 103
ing such stuff? "No longer any chance left of settled
lives and Christian careers!" Do you suppose the
world is coming to an end now? Had n't you better
thank God that your lot is cast in great times? How
am I throwing myself away? Is n't a century's work
of my ancestors worth a struggle to preserve? Am I
likely to do so much that it won't do for me to risk my
precious life in this great struggle? Come — no more
of this. Don't get into this vein again, or if you do,
keep it to yourself. . . . We shall come out all right and
if we don't, the world will. Excuse me if I have been
rough, but it will do you good. . . .
We are just taking a pilot on board off Hilton Head
and in a few hours we shall sully the soil of Carolina. Ah,
would n't I like to ride into Charleston ! I don't know
when you will hear from me again, but perhaps my
letters will come as regularly as ever. We shall be very
busy and hard at work for some time and may soon see
service. I well know how eagerly the news from Port
Royal will be wished for in the breakfast room of the
Legation at London. Meanwhile I am very well and
in very good spirits and look forward to having a very
pleasant time, though very monotonous and so keep
the parents easy. . . .
We have just arrived at Hilton Head and come
to anchor. We are going up to Beaufort tomorrow.
Weather delicious and all well. . . .
104 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 22.
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, January 22, 1862
For life here is by no means what it is cracked up to
be. The Trent business coming first destroyed all our
country visits, for people have given up inviting us, on
the just supposition that we would n't care to go into
society now. The small list of friends that we have are
not always so American as one would like. So we
generally dodge "exposure" as much as possible. But
I am personally flabbergasted by the explosion of my
Manchester bomb, or more properly, the return of
the boomerang which has made me too notorious to
be pleasant. The Times gently skinned me and the
Examiner scalped me with considerable savageness.
For myself I care about as much for the Times or the
Examiner as I do for the Pekin Gazette; but, unfortu-
nately, the American Minister in London is at this time
an object of considerable prominence; an eyesore to
an influential and somewhat unscrupulous portion
of the community. Accordingly I form a convenient
head to punch when people feel vicious and pugna-
cious. I have, therefore, to change the metaphor, found
it necessary to take in every spare inch of canvas and
to run (on a lee-shore) under double-close-reefed miz-
zen to' gallant skysails, before a tremendous gale. In
other words I have made myself as little an object of
attack as possible. This reduces my means of useful-
ness to almost nothing and I might just as well be any-
where as here, except that I can't leave the parent
birds thus afloat on the raging tide.
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 105
We are sometimes anxious still and are likely to be
more so. The truth is, we are now in a corner. There
is but one way out of it and that is by a decisive
victory. If there's not a great success, and a suc-
cess followed up, within six weeks, we may better give
up the game than blunder any more over it. These
nations, France probably first, will raise the block-
ade.
Such is the fact of our position. I am ready for it
anyway, but I do say now that McClellan must do
something within six weeks or we are done. . This war
has lasted long enough, to my mind.
There is precious little to tell you about here. France
has again renewed her proposal to raise the blockade
and there has been a discussion, or a battle about it.
Prince Albert was strongly for peace with us, and now
that he is dead it is understood that the Queen con-
tinues to favor his policy. Besides her, the King of
Belgium has come over and is pressing earnestly for
peace. His great object always is to counteract French
influence when it points to war. We have a majority
(probably) in the Cabinet of neutrality men, nor do I
know whom to call the leader of the war-party in the
Ministry. You must not misunderstand Palmerston.
He means disunion, but not war unless under special
influences.
We gave' a dinner last week to Bishop Mcllvaine,
and I went with mamma another day to breakfast with
Mr. Senior. Met there the chief man of the Times,
Lowe. He never speaks to any of us, and I certainly
should n't care to seem to make up to him. . . .
106 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 31.
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, January 24, 1862
The Trent case has not blown hard enough to carry
me away from my post of duty here. But it is not
quite calm for all that. The rebel emissaries and
their sympathisers are continually at work puffing up
grievances and straining out falsehoods, and they find
multitudes of not unwilling ears. One day it is the
barbarism of savage blockade by filling up harbors;
the next, it is the wretched pretence of paper blockade,
respected by nobody. All this shows the eagerness to
clutch at some pretext for interference. The expedi-
tion to Mexico is taking extraordinary proportions
just now, which may not be without its significance
under possible contingencies. Political matters being
a little dull on this side, it would seem as if people
would like to take a hand in the quarrel in America.
I do not wish harm to any body, but if the Austrians
and the Italians should fall to belaboring each other a
bit just at this moment, so as to turn the public atten-
tion from our continent, I do not know that I should
regard it as wholly a misfortune. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, January 31, 1862
The disputed mock-heroes, who came so near creating
a war between people vastly better than themselves,
have arrived safe and sound in this city. But for the
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 107
usual notice in the newspapers nobody would have
known it. I doubt whether the presence of one person
more or less will have any very serious effect upon the
current of public events, which depends far more upon
the results now taking place with you than upon any
action here. ... In the meanwhile the newspapers
indulge their respective fancies as freely as ever. Their
abuse is not very pleasant, but I am always consoled
for it, when I reflect that Lord Lyons is likely to get
about as much on his side. The balance of national
invective being thus kept about even, I do not see why
we cannot consider the one side as neutralising the
other, and nothing left. ... In any event I shall re-
tain the conviction that the endeavor to excite enmity
against us here has a purely political origin, and does
not find its root deep in the heart of the community.
It pleases an influential class to think that the demon
of democracy may be laid at home, if it can be stripped
of its American garb. Perhaps they are right, though
I do not believe it. No more fatal mistake can be
committed by them than that of taking up the cause
of a slaveholding oligarchy to prove the fact. Every
step in its progress would be a new argument against
them. For it would more and more establish the fact
of their want of sympathy with free institutions and
the progress of the age. Hence the decline of their
power over the public mind would be precipitated
rather than retarded, and the end would come just as
surely. . . .
108 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 31,
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, January 31, 1862
We are going ahead just as usual and our position has
not varied. The only fault I am disposed to find is
the old and chronic one with our Chief, and for that
matter, with me also, of not extending his relations
enough. I want him to cultivate the diplomatic corps,
which has been greatly neglected and from which
many advantages may be drawn. About the English
it does not so much matter. They are so extremely
jealous of whatever looks like foreign influence that on
the whole they are better left to themselves. We have
now a tolerably good organization in our branch of the
press, and Weed is extending this rapidly. He can do
everything that we cannot do, and a single blunder on
our side that would bring the Legation into discredit,
would much more than compensate for any advantage
we are likely to get from bold action. Since my ex-
posure in the papers here, I have wholly changed my
system, and having given up all direct communication
with the public, am engaged in stretching my private
correspondence as far as possible. This I hope to do
to some purpose, and with luck I may make as much
headway so, as I could in any other way.
The two unhung arrived after all. Evidently they
are born for the gallows, as the sea casts them out.
Their detention of two months was a great stroke of
luck for us in my opinion. Their party here had made
all their preparations for a war, and stopped their old
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 109
game almost wholly. Peace was a great blow to them,
and has disconcerted all their plans. For two months
they ceased to send supplies to the South; they kept
the Nashville in port; and they worked on a whole line
of manoeuvres which are now regularly knocked into
a cocked hat. Slidell might have been dangerous in
France, for the Emperor was very shaky, but Seward's
course and Weed's dexterity just turned the corner
and now Slidell's first reception is the announcement
of Napoleon's continued neutrality. Up to the last
moment the beggars were confident that directly the
opposite course would be taken. Then, in expectation
of a war, the Nashville was kept in port. The Tuscarora
arrived just in time; and now Mason is received here
with the news that the Nashville can no longer remain
in port but that both she and the Tuscarora must
proceed to sea.
And now the great battle is coming and we shall see
lively times. Parliament meets on the 6th. The rep-
robates are as usual very sanguine that there will be
intervention, and that the Ministry will be compelled
to recognize or resign. A battle there will be, no doubt,
but unless we are defeated at home, I think we shall
yet maintain ourselves here. The opposition to inter-
vention of any sort will be bitter in the extreme. They
are well organised, I understand, but they are too vul-
nerable to stand a long contest, and we shall not give
up with a short one. Still, much is yet in the dark
as to our relative strength. Lord Russell distinctly
stated the other day, in private conversation with the
Due D'Aumale, that he thought we should conquer
110 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. si.
the South in the end. If he thinks so he surely
won't countenance interference. And if the Ministry
are firm, we are safe.
Parliament will bring society, and this I dread. The
son of the American Minister is likely to meet with
precious little favorable criticism in London society in
these days, and, after all, I'm very little of a society
man. I do not mean to press myself on this quarter,
but rather to avoid notice and be all the more active
where no one sees me. I can't do much, but I think I
can make myself of some use.
I was surprised to hear that you were to go to Port
Royal. I can't conceive of your being placed there
except for service, but I should guess that at least half
your regiment would be more likely to break their own
necks than to hurt an enemy in a battle. If you see the
correspondent of the London Star there, a youth named
Edge, pray make his acquaintance and tell him that
Moran, Wilson and I are all particularly anxious to
know whether that travelling suit is worn out yet, or
the telescope used up. He is not a bad fellow, though
rather long-winded, and his employers are warm allies
of ours here with great influence. They like his letters,
as we all do, but wish there were more of them and
longer. At last accounts he Was doing the fever and
toping on quinine. I hope you will forswear that lux-
ury, not uncommon, it appears, in that neighborhood.
We are dreading the next news. I hardly dare think
of a battle and we all are tacitly agreed not to talk
about it. I am sorry to say that our advices are not
quite so satisfactory as we would like. But the darkest
hour before the dawn. . . .
18«2.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 111
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Mother
BeauforU S.C., February 2, 1862
• ••••••.»•
I was then in the delicious doubt of our first picket
detail which I was to command. After all it did n't
come to much and the only danger I had to face arose
from the terror of my own horses at the sight of the
sabres of my men and at the dulcet sounds of the band
at guard mounting. Lord! what a time I had, and
for an instant your son proved himself a trooper in pro-
fanity at least. But imagine the feelings of a young
officer leading the first detail of his regiment ever seen
at a public parade on seeing his men and horses go
shooting over the field in all directions like squibs on
the 4th of July. With stern decision I at once disgraced
and sent home two horses and their riders and pa-
raded the rest in style, marching them in review in a
way which almost restored our honor. Then I escorted
the officer of the day to his post and stationed my
details and then visited the outposts.
We are all alone on an island here, and on its shores
our pickets stand and gaze placidly at the pickets of
the enemy on the shore opposite. About three times
a week one party or the other try to cross in boats and
get fired at, but no one ever seems to be hurt and so the
danger is apparently not alarming. I visited our fur-
thest pickets and found them on Barnwell's Island
at the house of Mr. Trescot, the author of whom we
have heard. It is n't a pleasant picture, this result of
war. Here was a new house on a beautiful island and
112 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Feb. 14,
surrounded with magnificent cotton fields, built evi-
dently by a gentleman of refinement and very recently,
and there was the garden before it filled with rubbish,
and within broken furniture, scraps of books and let-
ters, and all the little tokens of a refined family.
Scattered over the floors and piled in the corners were
the remains of a fine library of books of many lan-
guages, and panels and glasses were broken wherever
so doing was thought an easier course than to unlock or
open. I wandered round and looked out at the view
and wondered why this people had brought all this
upon themselves; and yet I could n't but pity them.
For I thought how I should feel to see such sights at
Quincy. . . .
Heney Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, February 14, 1862
Good morrow, 't is St. Valentine's day
All in the morning betime.
And I a maid at your window
To be your Valentine.
Hail, noble lieutenant! I have received your letter
written on board ship, and I am with you. Now that
you are at work, if you see or do anything or hear some-
thing that will make a good letter to be published, send
it to me and I think I can promise that it shall see the
light. Thus you can do double work, and if you write
well, perhaps you can get double pay. I shall exercise
my discretion as to omissions. . . .
You find fault with my desponding tone of mind. So
do I. But the evil is one that probably lies where I
can't get at it. I've disappointed myself, and experi-
^w
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JOHN BRIGHT
1 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 113
ence the curious sensation of discovering myself to be
a humbug. How is this possible? Do you understand
how, without a double personality, I can feel that J
am a failure? One would think that the I which could
feel that, must be a different ego from the I of which
it is felt.
You are so fortunate as to be able to forget self-
contemplation in action, I suppose; but with me, my
most efficient channels of action are now cut off, and
I am busy in creating new ones, which is a matter that
demands much time and even then may not meet with
success.
Politically there is no news here. We shall be al-
lowed to fight our battle out, I think; at least for some
time yet. Parliament has met and the speeches have
been very favorable to neutrality. I think our work
here is past its crisis. The insurgents will receive no
aid from Europe, and so far are beaten. Our victory
is won on this side the water. On your side I hope it
will soon be so too. . . . John Bright is my favorite
Englishman. He is very pleasant, cheerful and cour-
ageous and much more sanguine than I have usually
been. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, February 21, 1862
Of course if you remain on the island there can be lit-
tle use for your arm of the service, so I presume you
may be employed mainly in the labor of the manege.
And even if on the mainland I cannot well conceive
114 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Feb. 21.
what business you can have in a region so sparsely set-
tled with whites and with few elements of aptitude for
military operations. Neither Savannah nor Charleston
can be taken by cavalry, and apart from these ports
what is there in that country important to the object
of the war?
To be sure you may individually obtain much insight
into the economy of that densely populated slave re-
gion, and thus reinforce your^ means of speculating on
the cotton producing theory. If so, I should very well
like to see the conclusions to which you may come.
To me at this distance it looks very much as if the
slave tenure must be irreparably damaged by the social
convulsion through which the country is passing, but
I confess myself puzzled to see what is likely to take its
place. I learn that some letters reach here from Caro-
lina planters declaring that they are utterly ruined.
The end to them may then be emigration. And what
then? Is it a community of negroes requiring to be
taught the very rudiments of social and political
economy? . . .
The Trent affair has proved thus far somewhat in
the nature of a sharp thunderstorm which has burst
without doing any harm, and the consequence has been
a decided improvement of the state of the atmosphere.
Our English friends are pleased with themselves and
pleased with us for having given them the opportunity
to be so. The natural effect is to reduce the apparent
dimensions of all other causes of offense. The Man-
chester people are patient and uncomplaining. The
distress is not yet of such a kind as to give rise to much
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 115
uneasiness, and the blockade shuts up the expectation
of cotton enough to stimulate the prospect of produc-
tion in other quarters, so that England shall not be
again subject to a similar catastrophe. In the meantime
industry naturally seeks new channels, and emigration
affords a steady outlet. So that I am now quite encour-
aged to think that the prospect of interference with
us is growing more and more remote. All that I have
ever sought for has been the opportunity of developing
our policy of repression. At first I confess I had little
confidence in its success. But of late I have been
thinking better and better of it. And it seems to me
that the same impression is growing all around me. . . .
The struggle is a tremendous one, and must not be
measured hastily. I pity the people of the southern
states, but I have no mercy for their profligate lead-
ers, who have wantonly brought them to such a
catastrophe.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Beaufort, S.C., February 28, 1862
My life here is very charming and pleasant, but is
growing monotonous. I dread the idea of being here
much longer, though any change is almost certain to
be for the worse and the sameness of stable-duty, drill
and camp life is telling on all of us. A prettier place
than Beaufort would be hard to find, and a finer cli-
mate I do not want to see; but nothing marks the days
as they pass, and few know less of the progress of the
war than we, in the heart of South Carolina and in
116 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Feb. 28,
sight of the enemy's pickets. How long this will last
we can't tell, but I fear for a good while; for there are
no signs of real activity here, and now we all feel a
desire to soon leave this Capua for the free, changing
life of Tennessee, Missouri or even Texas. Nothing,
I fear, but foreign intervention will get us out of this,
however, and I imagine our destiny is either to fight at
home against England and France or to march into
Charleston.
Meanwhile I am very well and very comfortable,
save in some respects of position with which I will not
trouble you and which will cure themselves. To us it is
now more of a picnic than war, and I live in as much
luxury almost in my tent as I ever did at home. We
are all very well and as brown and dirty as nuts, and
I have never enjoyed life more than in the army. In
fact, my college days seem to have come back to me,
but bereft of most of their cares. I have been doing a
good deal of detailed duty and have pretty thoroughly
explored this island and last week they made me Judge
Advocate to a Court of Inquiry, and these give quite
a variety to life and took me away effectually from
certain annoyances of my camp life; but they've
found me out now and I'm steadily kept here, while
my pleasant rides and expectations have come to an
end. Socially also things are extremely agreeable here.
Colonel Sargent is in immediate command and recent
experiences have made me feel as if walled in with
friends. My tentmate, Davis, is the very man I need
and it is generally supposed in camp that he is a sort
of nurse and guardian for me and that without his
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 117
fostering care I should be a tentless wanderer. In fact
my family will be pleased to know that my announce-
ment that at home I had always been considered rather
an old Betty was received with shouts of derision, and
in camp here, in all matters of comfort, I enjoy the rep-
utation of being the most careless, shiftless and slip-
shod devil in the whole battalion. Still I get on well
enough, but I do not grow here, or, rather, should not
long. The life and experience will have its uses for me
and they will be great, but it is not the life for me for
a permanency. The mind is perfectly fallow. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Beaufort, S.C., March 11, 1862
What I see here only confirms my previous impres-
sions gathered mainly from Olmsted and developed in
the articles I wrote for the Independent. We can do
nothing for these people until the cotton monopoly
is broken down and a new state of political economy
forces the cotton producer here to employ a new and
cheaper machinery. Edward Pierce arrived here on
Sunday in command of forty missionaries. They had
better have kept away; things are not ripe for them
yet and they are trying to force the course of nature.
Yet the problem is a difficult one. We have now some
7000 masterless slaves within our line and in less than
two months we shall have nearer 70,000, and what are
we to do with them? I have not thought sufficiently
to express an opinion. My present impression is in
favor of a semi-military system for the present. Dis-
118 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [March ll,
trict the territory, oblige the young to go to school,
punish rigidly all thieving and violence, and then teach
them all the first great lesson, that they must work to
live; establish low wages and let the blacks support
themselves or starve. If they choose to live in their
own huts and cultivate their own land and so support
themselves I see no objection, if the young went to
school; but the first lesson must be work or starve.
These blacks will not starve. They are just such as the
white has made them and as we have heard them de-
scribed. They are intelligent enough, but their intelli-
gence too often takes the form of low cunning. They
he and steal and are fearfully lazy; but they will work
for money and indeed are anxious to get work. They
are dreadful hypocrites and tomorrow would say to
their masters, as a rule, what today they say to us.
As a whole my conclusion is that the race might be
devoted, if man were what he should be; but he being
what he is, it will be destroyed the moment the world
realises what a field for white emigration the South
affords. The inferior will disappear — how no man can
tell — before the more vigorous race. The world has
seen this happen before many times and this, though
the newest, will not be the last instance. This war,
I think, begins the new era from which, while freedom
has much, the African has little to hope. . . .
Some things in your letters filled me with astonish-
ment and laughter. First and foremost among them
was the idea of your new intimacy with Thurlow
Weed — Thurlow of the unopened letter, Thurlow the
unforgiving and corrupt, coming at this very time
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 119
when the star of the injured Sumner — Sunnier the
philanthropist, the persecuted and the beaten — was
no longer in the ascendant. Verily politics does give
and take strange bed-fellows, and to find you working
heart and hand with Weed, advising with him, confid-
ing in him and believing in him, is something I did not
dream to see. I am glad of it. The devil is not indeed
so black as he is painted, and in this I think I see the
last link needed in a political alliance — a Puritan and
New York political confederacy — destined to be po-
tent for good in the affairs of this Continent. Surely
never did we need that all motives and all faculties
should work together as we do now, and I hope lead
and pestilence will spare me to do what I may as a
member of the new league. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, March 15, 1862
Times have so decidedly changed since my last letter
to you, which was, as I conceive, about three weeks or
a month ago, that I hardly know what to write about.
My main doubt is about your prospects. I see no rea-
son why Davis and his whole army should n't be shut
up and forced to capitulate in Virginia. If so, you will
be spared a summer campaign. But if he is allowed to
escape, I shall be disgusted, and God only knows what
work may be before you.
Meanwhile it worries me all the time to be leading
this thoroughly useless life abroad while you are acting
such grand parts at home. You would be astonished
at the change of opinion which has taken place here
120 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [March 15,
already. Even the Times only this morning says:
"The very idea of such a war is American, multitudi-
nous, vast, and as much an appeal to the imagination
as the actual brunt of arms." And again in speaking
of the tone of the Southern papers it says in a striking
way: "Some of their expressions recall those in which
the Roman historians of the later Empire spoke of
the Northern tribes." The truth is, as our swarm of
armies strike deeper and deeper into the South, the
contest is beginning to take to Europeans proportions
of grandeur and perfection like nothing of which they
ever heard or read. They call us insane to attempt
what, when achieved, they are almost afraid to appre-
ciate. A few brilliant victories, a short campaign of
ten days or a fortnight, rivalling in its vigor and results
those of Napoleon, has positively startled this country
into utter confusion. It reminds me of my old host in
Dresden, who, when he heard of the battle of Ma-
genta, rushed into my room, newspaper in hand, and
began measuring on the map the distance from the
Ticino to Vienna. The English on hearing of Fort
Donnelson and the fall of Nashville, seem to think our
dozen armies are already over the St. Lawrence and at
the gates of Quebec. They don't conceal their appre-
hensions and if we go on in this way, they will be as
humiliated as the South itself. The talk of interven-
tion, only two months ago so loud as to take a semi-
official tone, is now out of the minds of everyone. I
heard Gregory make his long-expected speech in the
House of Commons, and it was listened to as you
would listen to a funeral eulogy. His attacks on us, on
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 121
Seward and on our blockade were cheered with just
enough energy to show the animus that existed in a
large proportion of the members, but his motion, a sim-
ple and harmless request for papers, was tossed aside
without a division. I saw our friend Mason on the
opposite side of the House to where I was sitting with
Thurlow Weed. He is unlucky. One of the Bishops
who happened to have come in and was seated near
the door, heard a "Hear! hear!" behind him, and look-
ing round saw Mason. For a stranger to cheer is a
breach of privilege, and the story went all over town
creating quite a row. Mr. Mason now denies it, I am
told, and says it was some one else who cheered. He
maintains now that the South always expected to lose
the border States and that now that they are retiring
to the cotton region the war has just begun. He coolly
talks this stuff to the English people as if they had
n't always asserted that the border States were a vital
point with them. We on the other hand, no longer
descend to argue such stories, or to answer the new
class of lies; but smile blandly and compassionately
on those who swallow them and remark that so far as
advised, the nation whom we have the honor to rep-
resent is satisfied with the progress thus far made,
and sees no reason to doubt that the Union will be
maintained in its fullest and most comprehensive
meaning.
The blockade is now universally acknowledged to be
unobjectionable. Recognition, intervention, is an old
song. No one whispers it. But the navy that captured
Port Royal, Roanoke and Fort Henry, and that is
122 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [March 21,
flying about with its big guns up all the rivers and
creeks of the South, is talked of with respect. And the
legion of armies that are winning victory after victory
on every side, until we have begun to complain if a
steamer arrives without announcing the defeat of some
enemy, or the occupation of some city, or the capture
of some stronghold, are a cause of study to the English
such as they Ve not had since Napoleon entered Milan
some seventy years ago. I feel like a King now. I
assert my nationality with a quiet pugnacity that
tells. No one treads on our coattails any longer, and
I do not expect ever to see again the old days of
anxiety and humiliation. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, March 21, 1862
Nowhere has the condition of the western campaign
been productive of better effects than in this country.
The change produced in the tone towards the United
States is very striking. There will be no overt acts
tending to recognition whilst there is a doubt of the
issue. It is nevertheless equally true that whatever
ability remains to continue the contest is materially
aided by the supplies constantly and industriously
furnished from here. Every effort to run the blockade
is made under British protection. Every manifesta-
tion of sympathy with the rebel success springs from
British sources. This feeling is not the popular feeling,
but it is that of the governing classes. With many
honorable exceptions the aristocracy entertain it as
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 123
well as the commercial interest. So did they in 1774.
So did they in 1812. So will they ever, when their
narrow views of British interests predominate. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, April 4<, 1862
The late military successes have given us a season of
repose. People are changing their notions of the power
of the country to meet such a trial, which is attended
with quite favorable consequences to us in our posi-
tion. Our diplomacy is almost in a state of profound
calm. Even the favorite idea of a division into two
states is less put forward than it was. Yet the interest
with which the struggle is witnessed grows deeper and
deeper. The battle between the Merrimack and our
vessels has been the main talk of the town ever since
the news came, in Parliament, in the clubs, in the city,
among the military and naval people. The impression
is that it dates the commencement of a new era in war-
fare, and that Great Britain must consent to begin
over again. I think the effect is to diminish the confi-
dence in the result of hostilities with us. In December
we were told that we should be swept from the ocean
in a moment, and all our ports would be taken. They
do not talk so now. So far as this may have an effect
to secure peace on both sides it is good. . . .
We are much encouraged now by the series of suc-
cesses gained, and far more by the marked indications
of exhaustion and discouragement in the south. They
must be suffering in every way. Never did people pay
IU A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [April 6,
such a penalty for their madness. And the worst is yet
to come. For emancipation is on its way with slow but
certain pace. Well for them if it do not take them
unaware.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Milne Plantation, Port Royal Island
Monday, April 6, 1862
Yours of the 14th of February reminds me of our long
interrupted correspondence. My last to you, if I re-
member right, was from on shipboard nearly three
months ago, and was of a savage tenor. This is from
an old South Carolina plantation, the headquarters of
our cavalry pickets, and is likely to be of an eminently
pacific tone. Here I am surrounded by troopers, mis-
sionaries, contrabands, cotton fields and serpents, in a
summer climate, riding immensely every day, dread-
fully sick of the monotony of my present existence,
disgusted with all things military and fighting off ma-
laria with whiskey and tobacco. So far, the island of
Port Royal is a small Paradise, and no men were ever
so fortunate in the inception of a military career, bar-
ring the immense labor of organizing such a regiment
as this and our peculiarly rigid discipline, than we have
been. So far our privations have been next to nothing
and our career has been more that of a winter picnic
than anything else. The future I fear has less agree-
able things in store for us. Still sweets cloy, and drilling
in a South Carolina cotton field hour after hour daily
for weeks in succession is one of those sweets which
cloy early. Perpetual roll-calls too become tiresome, and
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 125
the daily superintendence of the grooming of eighty-
five horses is not a pleasant phase of existence. I make
no objection however to my duties, though I do to
my superiors. But all in the fullness of time, and when
you next see me you probably won't know me.
Just now I am on picket and also specially detailed
by General Stevens to build a road, which I had the
rashness to recommend in a report the other day. So
this morning I diversified my cavalry pursuits by driv-
ing a gang of niggers on my new road, which connects
the sea board plantations. You would n't have known
me. I had ten slaves and drove by example. My
horse was tied to a tree and my pistols and coat lay
near him, while I, in heavy boots and spurs and my
shirt sleeves, handled a spade by the side of my sable
brethren in the midst of a combination of rice-field
and cotton swamp, while my sergeant, axe in hand,
headed another gang in clearing away underbrush. I
am happy to say such energy was not unrewarded, as
I succeeded in connecting and repairing three miles of
road in one day instead of two, as I calculated. I am
happy to say the Africs worked well and spared me
much prepared execration; but from personal experi-
ence I am qualified to assert, that an African has about
as much idea of a shovel and its uses as a wild Irish-
man might have of a quadrant or a cotton-hoe. My
work however was completed at two o'clock and I then
indulged in a delicious sea bath, declared myself a half
holiday and determined to devote it to you. . . .
You and his Excellency always ask for my impres-
sions of things here and, though I have sent them to
126 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Aran.*
him in little, I will enlarge them to you here and you
may do with them as you see fit, only don't publish
unless my views are likely to enliven the English.
Here I am on the Milne Plantation in the heart of
Port Royal Island. Cotton fields, pine barrens, con-
trabands, missionaries and soldiers are before me and
all around me. A sick missionary is in the next room,
a dozen soldiers are eating their suppers in the yard
under my window and some twenty negroes of every
age, lazy, submissive and as the white man has made
them, are hanging about the plantation buildings just
as though they were not the teterrima causa of this con-
suming bella. The island is now just passing into its
last stage of spring. The nights are cool, but the days
are hot enough to make the saddle no seat of comfort.
The island, naturally one of the most delightful places
in the world, is just now at its most delightful season.
The brown unhappy wastes of cotton fields unplanted
this year and with the ragged remnants of last years
crop, still fluttering in the wind, do not add to its
beauty, but nothing can destroy the charm of the long
plantation avenues with the heavy grey moss droop-
ing from branches fresh with young leaves, while the
natural hedges for miles along are fragrant with wild
flowers. As I canter along these never ending avenues
I hear sounds and see sights enough to set the orni-
thologist and sportsman crazy. The mocking-bird is
never silent, and the varieties of plumage are to the
uninitiated infinite, while hares and grey squirrels seem
to start up under your horse's feet; wild pigeons and
quail from every field, and duck and plover from every
186a.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 127
swamp. Nor are less inviting forms of animal life want-
ing, for snakes cross your path more frequently than
hares and, even now, the soldiers under my window
are amusing themselves with a large turtle, a small
alligator and a serpent of curious beauty and most
indubitable venom, a portion of the results of their
afternoon's investigations.
One can ride indefinitely over this island and never
exhaust its infinite cross-roads and out-of-the-way
plantations, but you cannot ride fifteen minutes in any
direction, however new, without stumbling over the
two great facts of the day, pickets and contrabands.
The pickets are recruits in active service without
models — excellent material for soldiers and learning
the trade, but scarcely soldiers yet. The contrabands
were slaves yesterday and may be again tomorrow,
and what slaves are any man may know without him-
self seeing who will take the trouble to read Olmsted's
books. No man seems to realize that here, in this lit-
tle island, all around us, has begun the solution of this
tremendous "nigger" question.
The war here seems to rest and, for the present, Port
Royal is thrown into the shade, and yet I am much
mistaken if at this minute Port Royal is not a point
of greater interest than either Virginia or Kentucky.
Here the contraband question has arisen in such pro-
portions that it has got to be met and the Govern-
ment is meeting it as best it may. Some ten thousand
quondam slaves are thrown upon the hands of an un-
fortunate Government; they are the forerunners of
hundreds of thousands more, if the plans of the Gov-
128 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [April e.
eminent succeed, and so the Government may as well
now decide what it will do in case of the success of its
war plans. While Government has sent agents down
here, private philanthropy has sent missionaries, and
while the first see that the contrabands earn their
bread, the last teach them the alphabet. Between the
two I predict divers results, among which are numer-
ous jobs for agents and missionaries, small comfort to
the negroes and heavy loss to the Government. Doubt-
less the world must have cotton and must pay for it,
but it does not yet know what it is to pay for it if the
future hath it in store that the poor world shall buy
the next crop of Port Royal at prices remunerative to
Government. The scheme, so far as I can see any,
seems to be for the Government, recognizing and en-
couraging private philanthropy and leaving to it the
task of educating the slaves to the standard of self-
support, to hold itself a sort of guardian to the slave
in his indefinite state of transition, exacting from him
that amount of labor which he owes to the community
and the cotton market. The plan may work well; if it
does, it will be the first of the kind that ever has. Cer-
tainly I do not envy the slaves its operation. The po-
sition of the Government is certainly a most difficult
one. Something must be done for these poor people
and done at once. They are indolent, shiftless, unable
to take care of themselves and plundered by every
comer — in short, they are slaves. For the present
they must be provided for. It is easy to find fault with
the present plan. Can any one suggest a better? For
me, I must confess that I cannot. I think it bad, very
1862.J A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 129
bad, and that it must end in failure, but I can see no
other more likely to succeed.
That this is the solution of the negro question I take
it no one but the missionaries and agents will contend.
That is yet to come, and here as elsewhere we are look-
ing for it, and trying to influence it. My own impres-
sion is that the solution is coming — may already in
some degree be shadowed out; but that it is a solution
hurried on by this war, based on simple and immuta-
ble principles of economy and one finally over which
the efforts of Government and individuals can exercise
no control.
This war is killing slavery. Not by any legal quibble
of contrabands or doubtful theory of confiscation, but
by stimulating free trade. Let any man ride as I do
over this island. Let him look at the cotton fields and
the laborers. Let him handle their tools and examine
their implements, and if he comes from any wheat-
growing country, he will think himself amid the insti-
tutions and implements of the middle ages — and so he
would be. The whole system of cotton growing — all
its machinery from the slave to the hoe in his hand —
is awkward, cumbrous, expensive and behind the age.
That the cultivation of cotton is so behind that of all
the other great staples is the natural result of mo-
nopoly, but it is none the less disgraceful to the world,
and to give it an impulse seems to have been the mis-
sion of this war. The thorough and effectual breaking
up of its so much prized monopoly will be the great-
est blessing which could happen to the South, and it
seems to be the one probable result of this war. Com-
130 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [April 6,
petition involves improvement in ruin, and herein lies
the solution of this slavery question. Northern men
with Northern ideas of economy, agriculture and im-
provement, are swarming down onto the South. They
see how much behind the times the country is and they
see that here is money to be made. If fair competition
in the growth of cotton be once established a new sys-
tem of economy and agriculture must inevitably be
introduced here in which the slave and his hoe will
make room for the free laborer and the plough, and the
change will not be one of election but a sole resource
against utter ruin. The men to introduce this change
or any other are here and are daily swarming down in
the armies of the Government, soon to become armies
of occupation. A new tide of emigration has set in
before which slavery has small chance.
But how is it for the African? Slavery may perish
and no one regret it, but what is to become of the un-
fortunate African? When we have got thus far we
have just arrived at the real point of interest in the
"nigger" question. The slaves of whom I see so much
here may be taken as fair specimens of their race as
at present existing in this country. They have many
good qualities. They are good tempered, patient, doc-
ile, willing to learn and easily directed; but they are
slavish and all that the word slavish implies. They
will lie and cheat and steal; they are hypocritical and
cunning; they are not brave, and they are not fierce
— these qualities the white man took out of them gen-
erations ago, and in taking them deprived the African
of the capacity for freedom. My views of the future
] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 131
of those I see about me here are not therefore encour-
aging. That they will be free and free soon by the
operation of economic laws over which Government
has no control, I thoroughly believe; but their freedom
will be the freedom of antiquated and unprofitable
machines, the freedom of the hoes they use which will
be swept aside to make way for better implements.
The slave, however, cannot be swept aside and herein
lies the difficulty and the problem. My impression
from what I see is that Emancipation as a Government
measure would be a terrible calamity to the blacks as a
race; that rapid emancipation as the result of an eco-
nomic revolution destroying their value as agricultural
machines would be a calamity, though less severe; and
finally, that the only transition to freedom absolutely
beneficial to them as a race would be one proportioned
in length to the length of their captivity, such a one
in fact as destroyed villeinage in the wreck of the feu-
dal system. Were men and governments what they
should be instead of what they are, the case would be
different and all would combine in the Christian and
tedious effort to patiently undo the wrongs they had
done, and to restore to the African his attributes.
Then the work could be done well and quickly; but
at present, seeing what men are, and how remorselessly
they throw aside what has ceased to be useful, I can-
not but regard as a doubtful benefit to the African
anything which by diminishing his value increases his
chances of freedom.
A revolution in cotton production springing from
competition may work differently by gradually chang-
132 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [April 6,
ing the status of the African from one of forced to one
of free labor, but I do not regard this as probable. The
census already shows not only that cotton can every-
where be cultivated by free labor, but also that the
best cotton now is so cultivated, and the most probable
result of a permanent reduction in the price of cotton
would seem to me to be a sudden influx of free white
emigration into the cotton fields of the South. Such a
result would produce untold advantages to the South,
to America and to the white race; but how about the
blacks? Will they be educated and encouraged and
cared for; or will they be challenged to compete in the
race, or go to the wall, and finally be swept away as a
useless rubbish? Who can answer those queries? I for
one cannot; but one thing I daily see and that is that
no spirit exists among the contrabands here which
would enable them to care for themselves in a race of
vigorous competition. The blacks must be cared for
or they will perish, and who is to care for them when
they cease to be of value? I do not pretend to solve
these questions or do more than raise them, and their
solution will come, I suppose, all in good time with the
emergency which raises them. But no man who dreams
at all of the future can wander over Port Royal Island
at present and mark the character and condition of its
inhabitants, without having all these questions and
many more force themselves upon his mind. I am a
thorough believer in this war. I believe it to have been
necessary and just. I believe that from it will flow
great blessings to America and the Caucasian race. I
believe the area of freedom will by it be immensely
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 133
expanded in this country, and that from it true prin-
ciples of trade and economy will receive a prodigious
impetus throughout the world; but for the African I
do not see the same bright future. He is the foot-ball
of passion and accident, and the gift of freedom may
prove his destruction. Still the experiment should and
must be tried and the sooner it is tried the better. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, April 11, 1862
Modest and unassuming as I am, you know, society
is not the place for pleasure to me. Even at the Club
I talk distantly with Counts and Barons and number-
less untitled but high-placed characters, but have never
arrived at intimacy with any of them. I am a little
sorry for this because there are several very nice fel-
lows among them, and all are polite and seem suffi-
ciently social. Then, too, my unfortunate notoriety,
which, I told you of, in a letter that I trust and pray
may not be lost, some three months ago, tells against
me, though it certainly has brought me into notice.
I have no doubt that if I were to stay here another year,
I should become extremely fond of the place and the
life. There is, too, a certain grim satisfaction in the
idea that this people who have worn and irritated and
exasperated us for months, and among whom we have
lived nearly a year of what was, till lately, a slow tor-
ture, should now be innocently dancing and smiling
on the volcano, utterly unconscious of the extent of
hatred and the greediness for revenge that they've
134 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [April n,
raised. When the storm does finally burst on them,
they will have one of their panics and be as astonished
as if they 'd never heard of anything but brotherly love
and affection between the two nations. Of course it
would be out of the question for me to hint at the state
of things to them. I have only to smile and tell gross
lies, for which God forgive me, about my feelings to-
wards this country, and the kindness I have received
here, which, between ourselves, so far as the pure Eng-
lish go, has been brilliantly conspicuous for its almost
total absence. Only a fortnight ago they discovered
that their whole wooden navy was useless; rather a
weakness than a strength. Yesterday it was formally
announced and acknowledged by Government, people
and press, that the Warrior and their other new iron
ships, are no better than wood, nor can any shot-
proof sea-going vessel be made. In order to prove this,
they 've proved their Armstrong guns a failure, for he
has given up the breech-loading system and been com-
pelled to return to the old smooth-bore, muzzle-loader.
So within three weeks, they find their wooden navy,
their iron navy, and their costly guns, all utterly
antiquated and useless.
To me, they seem to be bewildered by all this. I
don't think as yet they have dared to look their posi-
tion in the face. People begin to talk vaguely about the
end of war and eternal peace, just as though human
nature was changed by the fact that Great Britain's
sea-power is knocked in the head. But for my private
part, I think I see a thing or two. And one of these
things is that the military power of France is nearly
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 135
doubled by having the seas free; and that our good
country the United States is left to a career that is
positively unlimited except by the powers of the imag-
ination. And for England there is still greatness and
safety, if she will draw her colonies around her, and
turn her hegemony into a Confederation of British
nations.
You may think all this nonsense, but I tell you these
are great times. Man has mounted science, and is now
run away with. I firmly believe that before many cen-
turies more, science will be the master of man. The
engines he will have invented will be beyond his strength
to control. Some day science may have the existence of
mankind in its power, and the human race commit
suicide by blowing up the world. Not only shall we be
able to cruize in space, but I see no reason why some
future generation should n't walk off like a beetle with
the world on its back, or give it another rotary mo-
tion so that every zone should receive in turn its due
portion of heat and light. . . .
We are putting on the diplomatic screws. A few
more victories and it will be all straight. We under-
stand that the Nashville has been taken or destroyed,
and it is today telegraphed privately to us that the
crew of the Sumter are to be paid off, and her captain
is coming to London. Bankrupt. The long purse, the
big guns, and the men carry the day. . . .
The Chief saw and conversed with a number of French
celebrities. They are surprisingly well-disposed towards
us now that we are looking up in the world. Here in
London we are as comfortable as possible. The news-
136 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Apeil 11,
papers are dumb except for an occasional sneer, or as-
sertion, which is invariably acknowledged to be false
the next day. I tell you it's not a bad thing to have
seven hundred thousand fighting men behind one, to
back one's words up. I am more and more convinced
every day that we are very much feared. Indeed you
can imagine what the change must be when we all here
know on the very highest authority that in May last
it was supposed that the revolution was complete, and
the recognition was a matter of course. Men who have
made such a political blunder as that are apt to open
their eyes wide when they find it out.
As for home affairs and your position, we are so
ignorant that I shall not discourse on the subject. Of
course we know all that the newspapers tell us and are
waiting with a sort of feeling that is now chronic for the
flash and the thunder that is soon to come from the
cloud over Richmond and New Orleans. I despise a
mail that does not tell of a victory, and indeed for some
time past we have been pampered. But every time
that the telegram comes and its yellow envelope is
torn open, I feel much like taking a little brandy to
strengthen me up to it. There is a nervous tremor about
it that is hard to master. The 24th did well at New-
bern. I wish to God I had been with it, or were with
the Richmond army now. I feel ashamed and humili-
ated at leading this miserable life here, and since hav-
ing been blown up by my own petard in my first
effort to do good, I have n't even the hope of being of
more use here than I should be in the army. But I
can't get away till you come over. . . .
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 137
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, April 17, 1862
The successes, which I was so earnestly praying for in
my letter to you, have come and have had all the effect
I anticipated. There is just now nobody who pro-
fesses to think well of the South. Neither will there be
any more until the war varies. Of course, our position
here becomes comparatively easy and comfortable.
The quantity of official work has sensibly declined,
and I can look round to interest myself in the scenes
that are more immediately before me.
But just as the public work diminishes, as men cease
to offer themselves as soldiers, or to propose all sorts
of contracts for ships, cannon, rifles, and every im-
aginable death dealing invention, my correspondence
has taken a wholly new direction. Good Mr. Pea-
body, having made more money than he can hold,
takes it into his head to give to the poor of the city of
London an endowment of a hundred and fifty thousand
pounds. To carry out his idea he conveys the sum to
five gentlemen, the minister of the United States be-
ing ex officio one of them. No sooner did my name
appear in the papers than all the poor women of the
city begin to pelt me with applications for aid, and all
the useful societies present their claims for considera-
tion. The consequence is that I bid fair to become the
most widely known American envoy that ever came
here, and furthermore that all the army of beggars in
this great Babylon feel as if they had a special right
138 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May 8,
to importune me. Such is fame ! In the meantime the
great question how the most beneficially to apply this
enormous sum is about to be imposed upon us, and I
am to bear one-fifth of the responsibility of a decision.
Whichever way it is made the cry of the disappointed
majority which expect a dividend of a sovereign apiece
will be loud and long. I know not that I should take
this view so coolly, if I did not feel that it cannot be
long before I bid my friends here farewell, and devolve
all cares as well as honors upon a successor. That suc-
cessor will devolve all the odium of the action taken
upon his predecessor, so that both will be safe; and
again I shall exclaim, such is fame! . . .*
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, May 8, 1862
One always begins to doubt at the wrong time and
to hesitate when one should strike hardest. Know-
ing this my infirmity, I have made it my habit here
abroad to frown it down with energy and to persuade
myself, when seeing most cause for anxiety, that the
moment of suspense was nearest to its end. It needs
to be here, among a people who read everything back-
wards that regards us, and surround us with a chaos
of croaking worse than their own rookeries, to under-
stand how hard it is always to retain one's confidence
and faith. The late indecisive military events in Amer-
ica are looked upon here as the sign of ultimate South-
ern success. I preach a very different doctrine and
1 Removed in April from 5 Mansfield Street to 5 Upper Portland
Place, the house of Russell Sturgis.
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 139
firmly believe that the war in its old phase is near its
end. I do not see how anything but great awkwardness
on our part can prevent the main southern army from
being dispersed or captured in Virginia. But there is
no doubt that the idea here is as strong as ever that
we must ultimately fail, and unless a very few weeks
show some great military result, we shall have our
hands full again in this quarter. There is no fear of
armed intervention, or even, I think, of immediate
recognition; but a moral intervention is not impossible,
or rather, it is inevitable without our triumph before
July. By moral intervention I mean some combined
representation on the part of the European powers, in
friendly language, urging our two parties to come to an
understanding. If this catches us still in Virginia, it
will play mischief. The worst of it is that the Govern-
ments here are forced to it. The suffering among the
people in Lancashire and in France is already very
great and is increasing enormously every day without
any prospect of relief for months to come. This drives
them into action, and has at least the one good side
that if we do gain decisive advantages so as to make
the Southern chances indefinitely small, we shall have
Europe at our control and can dictate terms.
On the other hand, if it is right to suppose that we
shall soon end the war, I am afraid we have got to face
a political struggle that will be the very deuce and all.
The emancipation question has got to be settled some-
how, and our accounts say that at Washington the
contest is getting very bitter. The men who lead the
extreme Abolitionists are a rancorous set. They have
140 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Mays,
done their worst this winter to over-ride the Admin-
istration rough-shod, and it has needed all Seward's
skill to head them off. If we are completely victorious
in the field, we shall see the slave-question come up
again worse than ever, and Sumner and Chandler
and Trumbull and the rest are just the men to force a
new explosion. Gradual measures don't suit them, and
yet without their support it will be hard to carry grad-
ual measures. I have immense confidence in Seward
however, and there is said to be the most perfect con-
fidence between him and the President, so that we shall
go into the struggle with a good chance of carrying it
through.
As for this country, the simple fact is that it is unan-
imously against us and becomes more firmly set every
day. From hesitation and neutrality, people here are
now fairly decided. It is acknowledged that our army
is magnificent and that we have been successful and
may be still more so, but the feeling is universal against
us. If we succeed, it will still be the same. It is a sort
of dogged, English prejudice, and there is no dealing
with it.
Socially, however, we do not feel it to any unpleas-
ant degree. People are very polite, and we seem to be
in a good set and likely to get on well. The season has
begun and we have engagements in plenty. I hope, with
time, to get well into society, though just now I am
hovering on the outskirts of it. My greatest achieve-
ment in this career came off the other night when we
were invited to the old Dowager Duchess of Somer-
set's, who is decidedly original, and to my unutterable
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 141
horror, I found myself performing for the first time in
my life, a double-shuffle in the shape of a Scotch reel,
with the daughter of an unbelieving Turk for a partner.
For twenty minutes I improvised a dance that would
have done honor to Taglioni. When I got through, in a
state of helpless exhaustion and agony of mind, I was
complimented by the company on my success.
Last night who should I meet at a little reception,
but our friend Russell, the Special Correspondent of
the London Times. Some one offered to introduce
me to him and I consented with pleasure. He was a
little embarrassed, I thought, but very good natured. I
said I was sorry he had returned, whereat he laughed
and remarked that personally he was glad, but he re-
gretted having lost the chance of showing his good-
will to us by describing our successes. I only was with
him a moment, and he closed the conversation by say-
ing that if I thought it would be agreeable to my father,
he would like to call upon him. I assented to this the
more willingly because I am told that Russell declares
on all sides that he is wholly a Northerner and always
has been, and that between his private opinions and
his opinions as suited to the doctrines of the Times,
there is a decided difference.
I think it is about time for us now to begin to expect
another breeze here in London and the usual panic
and expectation of departure. If you were at home I
should write particulars, but as I've never yet had one
of my letters to you acknowledged or answered since
you've been at Port Royal, and as I've written pretty
regularly every fortnight, there's no great encourage-
142 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Mat 8,
ment to trust secrets to paper. So much, however, is
pretty well known. Since we made our great step from
Kentucky into Alabama, our Government has been
pressing the European Governments energetically to
withdraw themselves from their belligerent position.
But anyone who knows English sentiment and politics
now, knows that there is not the remotest chance of
any such step. The sympathy of the Administration,
of the Lords, of the Commons and of the people
throughout the country may be dormant perhaps;
I hope it is, though I believe it's not; but beyond a
doubt it is not with our Union. I have no fear that
there will be any hostile acts on the part of this coun-
try, but before Parliament closes, which may be in
June, you may be sure that the Ministry will do nothing
that is likely to provoke attack; least of all anything
so unpopular as the throwing over of the South would
be. Meanwhile the contest between the two gentlemen
here is getting to be flavored with as copious dashes of
vinegar as you would wish to see. About once a week
the wary Chieftain sharpens a stick down to a very
sharp point, and then digs it into the excellent Rus-
sell's ribs. The first two or three times the joke was
borne with well-bred politeness and calm indifference;
but the truth is, the stick's becoming so sharp that
now things are being thrown round with considerable
energy, and our friend Russell is not in entirely a good
temper. The prospect at this moment is that the breeze
^vill soon change into settled rough weather and per-
haps we shall have a regular storm. For if we conquer
in Virginia, I hope and trust that Seward will give this
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 143
Government the option of eating their words, or being
kicked. And I don't know whether I should derive a
keener satisfaction from seeing them forced to over-
throw their whole political fabric as regards the South,
at our demand, or from seeing our Minister here take
his leave of the country until they are able at last
to bring their stomachs down to that point without
further prompting. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, May 16, 1862
People here were quite struck aback at Sunday's
news of the capture of New Orleans. It took them
three days to make up their minds to believe it. The
division of the United States had become an idea so
fixed in their heads that they had shut out all the
avenues to the reception of any other. As a conse-
quence they are now all adrift. The American prob-
lem completely baffles their comprehension. The only
wish I have is that they would let it alone. But strange
to say, that is the very last thing to which they are
inclined. Some future historian of ours may have an
amusing task in extracting from the Times of the last
year its daily varying prognostications on this sub-
ject. A friend of ours, Sir Charles Lyell, was sitting
with your mother on Sunday when I came in, and re-
marking how frequently he had found the American
news of the next day flatly contradicting the Times's
affirmations at a given moment. "Now," said he,
"last week they proved conclusively that the United
144 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May 16.
States could not control the Mississippi and seize New
Orleans. I should not wonder if tomorrow's steamer
were to show the contrary." And thereupon I showed
him a telegram just received from Mr. Seward, by the
steamer Canada, announcing the capture of that city.
"There now," said he, "is it not just as I said? " Even
the Americans here get soon impregnated with the
spirit of doubt. It was not without difficulty that I
could get some of them to credit that the Government
of the United States was transmitting trustworthy
information.
The Exhibition does not as yet draw such great
crowds as were expected. Things are a little out of
joint. The Queen secludes herself and does not get
over her grief. TLe Prince of Wales is sent on his trav-
els to get him out of the way. The ministry have no
power in Parliament, and yet the opposition are afraid
to take their places. Napoleon does not know what to
do with the Pope. The King of Prussia does not know
what to do with his subjects. Everything seems a little
mal a propos and yet goes on somehow. Cotton goes,
but does not come. The operatives are getting poorer
and poorer, and yet there is so much capital in the city
that interest is at two and one-half per cent. The
country really seems to be rolling in wealth, and yet
there are miserable beggars in rags assailing you at
every corner. Such is a summary of European life so
far as London is concerned. . . .
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 145
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, May 16, 1862
Before this reaches you I suppose you Will be in mo-
tion, and I hope that the war will be at an end. It
would be a mere piece of unjustifiable wantonness for
the Southern generals to defend Charleston, if they
are defeated in Virginia. So, although I would like to
see you covered with glory, I would be extremely well
satisfied to hear that you had ended the campaign and
ridden into Charleston without firing a shot or draw-
ing a sabre.
Last Sunday afternoon, the day after my letter to
you had gone, telling how hard it was to sustain one's
own convictions against the scepticism of a nation, I
returned from taking a walk on Rotten Row with my
very estimable friend Baron Brinken, and on reach-
ing home, I was considerably astounded at perceiving
the Chief in an excited manner dance across the entry
and ejaculate, " We 've got New Orleans." Philosopher
as I am and constant in a just and tenacious virtue,
I confess that even I was considerably interested for
the moment. So leaving Sir Charles Lyell regarding
my abrupt departure through one eye-glass with some
apparent astonishment, I took a cab and drove down
to Mr. Weed. Meeting him in the street near his ho-
tel, I leaped out of the cab, and each of us simultane-
ously drew out a telegram which we exchanged. His
was Mr. Peabody's private business telegram; mine
was an official one from Seward. We then proceeded
146 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May 16,
together to the telegraph office and sent a despatch to
Mr. Dayton at Paris, and finally I went round to the
Diplomatic Club and had the pleasure of enunciating
my sentiments. Here my own agency ended, but Mr.
Weed drank his cup of victory to the dregs. He spread
the news in every direction, and finally sat down to
dinner at the Reform Club with two sceptical old Eng-
lish friends of our side and had the pleasure of hear-
ing the news-boys outside shout "Rumored capture
of New Orleans" in an evening extra, while the news
was posted at Brookes's, and the whole town was in
immense excitement as though it were an English
defeat.
Indeed the effect of the news here has been greater
than anything yet. It has acted like a violent blow in
the face on a drunken man. The next morning the
Times came out and gave fairly in that it had been mis-
taken; it had believed Southern accounts and was de-
ceived by them. This morning it has an article still
more remarkable and intimates for the first time that
it sees little more chance for the South. There is, we
think, a preparation for withdrawing their belligerent
declaration and acknowledging again the authority
of the Federal Government over all the national terri-
tory, to be absolute and undisputed. One more victory
will bring us up to this, I am confident. That done,
I shall consider, not only that the nation has come
through a struggle such as no other nation ever heard
of, but in a smaller and personal point of view I shall
feel much relieved and pleased at the successful career
of the Chief.
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 147
You can judge of the probable effect of this last vic-
tory at New Orleans from the fact that friend Russell
of the Times (who has not yet called) gravely warned
the English nation yesterday of the magnificent army
that had better be carefully watched by the English
people, since it hated them like the devil and would
want to have something to do. And last night I met
Mr. John Bright at an evening reception, who seemed
to feel somewhat in the same way. "Now," said he,
"if you Americans succeed in getting over this affair,
you must n't go and get stuffy to England. Because if
you do, I don't know what 's to become of us who stood
up for you here." I did n't say we would n't, but I did
tell him that he need n't be alarmed, for all he would
have to do would be to come over to America and we
would send him to Congress at once. He laughed and
said he thought he had had about enough of that sort
of thing in England. By the way, there is a story that
he thinks of leaving Parliament.
This last week has been socially a quiet one and I
have seen very little of the world, as I have no time
to frequent the xClub. I don't get ahead very fast in
English society, because as yet I can't succeed in find-
ing any one to introduce me among people of my own
age. It's the same way with all the foreigners here,
and a young Englishman, with whom I talked on the
subject, comforted me by acknowledging the fact and
saying that as a general thing young Englishmen were
seldom intimate with any one unless they had known
him three or four years. He gave a practical illustra-
tion of the principle by never recognizing me since,
148 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May 16,
although we sat next each other three hours at a dinner
and talked all the time, besides drinking various bot-
tles of claret. With the foreigners I do much better, but
they are generally worse off than I am in society. Ex-
cept for a sort of conscientious feeling, I should care
little for not knowing people at balls, especially as all
accounts, especially English, declare young society to
be a frantic bore. . . .
Now as to your letter and its contents on the negro
question. I 've not published it for two reasons. The
first is that the tendency here now is pro-slavery and
the sympathy with the South is so great as to seek jus-
tification in everything. Your view of the case, how-
ever anti-slavery, is not encouraging nor does it tend
to strengthen our case. If published, especially if by
any accident known to be by you, it might be used to
annoy us with effect.
My second reason, though this alone would not have
decided me, is that it seems to me you are a little need-
lessly dark in your anticipations. One thing is certain;
labor in America is dear and will remain so; American
cotton will always command a premium over any other
yet known; and can be most easily produced. Emanci-
pation cannot be instantaneous. We must rather found
free colonies in the south such as you are now engaged
in building up at Port Royal; the nucleus of which
must be military and naval stations garrisoned by
corps d 'armee, and grouped around them must be the
emeriti, the old soldiers with their grants of lands, their
families, their schools, churches and Northern energy,
forming common cause with the negroes in gradually
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 149
sapping the strength of the slave-holders, and thus
year after year carrying new industry and free insti-
tutions until their borders meet from the Atlantic, the
Gulf, the Mississippi and the Tennessee in a common
center, and the old crime shall be expiated and the
whole social system of the South reconstructed. Such
was the system of the old Romans with their conquered
countries and it was always successful. It is the only
means by which we can insure our hold on the South
and plant colonies that are certain of success. It must
be a military system of colonies, governed by the Ex-
ecutive and without any dependence upon or relation
to the States in which they happen to be placed. With
such a system I would allow fifty years for the South
to become ten times as great and powerful and loyal
as she ever was, besides being free.
Such are my ideas and as the negroes would be ex-
tremely valuable and even necessary to the develop-
ment of these colonies, or the Southern resources at
I trust they will manage to have a career yet.
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, May 20, 1862
It has rained every day at some time in the day for
eight or ten days. People begin to look dismal and
croak about the crops. To Great Britain every day of
sunshine lost is equal to an expense of just so many
thousand pounds. The islands never produce bread-
stuffs sufficient for the consumption of the people
annually. They must beg some millions of quarters of
150 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May 20,
wheat at any rate. In bad years they buy just so much
more. Hence it is that at this season every bad day
sensibly affects the price of stocks. No country ever
had a more sensitive thermometer of the weather. But
if this be true in ordinary times, how much more so in
this season. The supply of cotton is rapidly and stead-
ily declining. And the poor operatives of Lancashire
are coming nearer and nearer to the time of starvation
for want of work. If upon the top of this there should
come a dearth of bread, it is not difficult to understand
the extent of the social distress that may ensue. So
there are miseries quite as acute as those of war which
now afflict us.
In the meanwhile things are looking better rather
than worse with us. The game of secession looks as
if it might be nearly played out. The country is just
putting forth its power whilst the rebel armies are
gasping for breath. I have been here now more than
a year, during which time I have gone through nearly
every variety of emotion in connection with this war.
The time is approaching, I trust, when this anxiety will
disappear, and with it the uncertainty of my own situ-
ation. Doubtless others may succeed, of an equally
serious nature. We shall have upon us the dangerous
and critical task of restoration of the civil and a dimi-
nution of the military power. All this is very likely.
But at any rate that condition presents a different face
to external nations. It does not materially impair the
entireness of the national position. I shall therefore
accept the transition with cheerfulness and accommo-
date myself to the new state with more cheerfulness
than to the old. . . .
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 151
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, May 22, 1862
We are still in great anxiety to know the results of the
Yorktown business, having as yet arrived only as far
as Williamsburg and West Point. On McClellan's suc-
cess in dispersing the Southern army and capturing all
the means for carrying on a war will depend more than
I like to think of. If we can disperse them, too, we can
immediately reduce our army one-half, and all our ex-
penses on the same scale. I dread the continuance of
this war and its demoralizing effects more than any-
thing else, and happy would be the day when we could
see the first sign of returning peace. It's likely to be
hard enough work to keep our people educated and
honest anyway, and the accounts that reach us of the
wholesale demoralization in the army of the west from
camp-life, and of their dirt, and whiskey and general
repulsiveness, are not encouraging to one who wants to
see them taught to give up that blackguard habit of
drinking liquor in bar-rooms, to brush their teeth and
hands and wear clean clothes, and to believe that they
have a duty in life besides that of getting ahead, and
a responsibility for other people's acts as well as their
own. The little weaknesses I speak of are faults of
youth; but what will they become if America in its
youth takes a permanent course towards every kind of
idleness, vice and ignorance?
As for our position here, it is all that could be wished.
Everyone congratulates us on the success of our arms
and there is no longer any hint at even a remonstrance,
152 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May 22,
though there are questions between the Governments
which in our bitter state of feeling may bring difficulty.
I am very anxious to avoid anything of this sort. We
must have peace for many years if we are to heal our
wounds and put the country on the right track. We
must bring back or create a respect for law and order
and the Constitution and the civil and judicial author-
ities. The nation has been dragged by this infernal
cotton that had better have been burning in Hell, far
away from its true course, and its worst passions and
tastes have been developed by a forced and bloated
growth. It will depend on the generation to which you
and I belong, whether the country is to be brought
back to its true course and the New England element
is to carry the victory, or whether we are to be carried
on from war to war and debt to debt and one military
leader to another, till we lose all our landmarks and go
ahead like France with a mere blind necessity to get
on, without a reason or a principle. No more wars.
Let's have peace, for the love of God.
England will truckle to us low enough when we regain
our power, and we can easily revenge ourselves on the
classes of English who have been most venemous,
without fighting them all. It is but to shut out their
trade and encourage our own development. I am now
a protectionist of the most rabid description. I want
to see us developing our mines, manufactures and com-
munications, with the most success possible. There is
England's vulnerable point; but we shall have com-
mitted a blunder of the worst sort if we allow our per-
sonal prejudices to affect our national policy to the
extent of a war. . . .
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 153
The last week we have had that whited sepulchre
General Cameron here, and as we were to have our first
large dinner on Wednesday, he was invited to it. Then
last night I took him to Monckton Milnes, where he
was the object of considerable interest. I can't say that
I was proud of my charge, nor that I like his style.
Thurlow Weed is quite as American, and un-English,
but is very popular and altogether infinitely prefer-
able. We all like Mr. Weed very much, and are sorry
that he is going home this week. As for Cameron, I hope
he will vanish into the steppes of Russia and wander
there for eternity. He is of all my countrymen one of
the class that I most conspicuously and sincerely de-
spise and detest. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, June 6, 1862
The evening before the Derby, the Chief and I were
down at the House of Commons from five o'clock p.m.
till one a.m., listening to the great debate of the season.
This is one of the sights that I enjoy most. With us
debate has gone out, and set speeches and personalities
have taken its place. But here, though they no longer
speak as they used in.the old days of Pitt and Fox, with
rhetorical effort and energy, there is still admirable
debating. That night we heard Palmerston, Disraeli,
Horsman and Cobden. Palmerston is a poor speaker,
wants fluency and power, and talks the most miserable
sophistry, but he does it so amusingly and plausibly
and has such prestige that even Disraeli's keenness puts
154 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [June 6,
no quencher on him. Gladstone is the best speaker in
the house, but next to him I should place Disraeli. He
looks precisely like the pictures in Punch, and speaks
with a power of making hits that is infinitely amusing.
He kept me in a roar three quarters of an hour, and the
House cheered him steadily. Cobden was very good
too. He damaged Horsman dreadfully. But the most
striking part of the debate was that not a word as to
America or interference was said in it. This was pecul-
iar because the debate was on the subject of retrench-
ment, and retrenchment was necessary because of the
American war. Six months ago such a debate would
not have taken place, but in its place we should have
had war speeches with no end.
Our position here now, putting aside a few diplo-
matic questions, is much as it might be at home. The
Speaker calls the Chief "The Conqueror," and it is only
now and then, when our armies stop a moment to take
breath, and they think here that we are in trouble, that
the opposition raises its head a little and barks. In-
deed the position we have here is one of a great deal of
weight, and of course so long as our armies march for-
ward, so long our hands are elevated higher and higher
until we bump the stars. I hear very little about our
friend Mason. He is said to be very anxious and to fear
a rebellion within the rebellion. He has little or no
attention paid him except as a matter of curiosity,
though occasionally we are told of his being at dinner
somewhere or other. A Southern newspaper called the
Index lately started here, contains numbers of south-
ern letters, all of which are so excruciatingly " never
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 155
conquer" in their tone, that one is forced to the be-
lief that they think themselves very near that last
ditch. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
John's Island, S.C., June 18, 1862
Yours of May 23d reached me here last night, keeping
up the series of your weekly despatches. Whatever
may happen to me in this war I assure you there has
been no item in it which has touched me so much as
this series of letters coming so regularly in spite of all
you had to occupy your mind. They have not been
answered as they should have been, but do not suppose
that I have failed to appreciate them, or the great
thoughtfulness which dictated them. This one found
me well and in good spirits, and with two bulletins
already sent to John and Louisa informing them of
these facts, I had left it for them to notify you and
given up the idea of writing myself, for writing here is
no small effort; but as General Williams orders all of
us to sit up all night, I am going to devote my two
hours of dawn to you.
You have probably heard, through Southern sources
and with their usual degree of truth, of the action yes-
terday and you may have been anxious for my safety,
though I hope you were sufficiently ignorant of all the
facts not to be apprehensive for me personally. The
amount of the whole story is that we had a severe action
and were repulsed with very heavy loss. This much
you know; and for myself, General Williams' brigade
was in the advance of one of the attacking columns,
156 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [June is,
was under fire about four hours, during the whole of
which time the danger of his men was fully shared by
the General and his staff. I would not have missed
it for anything. I had never been really under fire be-
fore and the sensation was glorious. There we were,
mounted officers, either standing right before the
enemy's works, while the shells went shrieking and hur-
tling just over our heads and sometimes broke close
to us, or else carrying orders to all parts of the fine,
feeling that you carried fife and death in your hands.
I was frightened of course — every one is, except a few
who don't know what danger is; but my fear was not
what I had imagined it might be. My face was a little
fixed I imagine. I knew that my nerves were a little
braced, but my mind was never clearer or more easily
made up on points of doubt, and altogether the ma-
chine worked with a vigor and power which, under the
circumstances, I had never hoped it possessed. To all
his staff, collectively and individually, General Wil-
liams has expressed the highest satisfaction, saying that
he was perfectly satisfied and that a difficult and dan-
gerous work could not have been better executed; and
if you knew General Bob, and had seen how recklessly
he exposed himself, and were aware how he does snub
and how he does n't praise, you would allow that this
was something. In a word I don't care if I'm never
in action again, and I would rather not run its risk,
though I should like once to join in the shouts of vic-
tory; but I would not for anything have lost the expe-
rience of yesterday and, without affectation, it was one
of the most enjoyable days I ever passed.
GENERAL ROBERT WILLIAMS
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 157
I don't pretend to give you a history of the engage-
ment. You will get that from the lying prints, and a
very false one it will be; but being on the staff I saw
all the Generals and all the movements. There was
Benham, an old hen, cackling round, insulted by mes-
sages from angry Brigadiers sent through boyish aids,
and he himself mainly anxious for cover, indecisive,
and, many thought, frightened. There was Wright, a
little excited at times but growing genial and kindly
as the fire grew hot. There was your friend, Stevens,
dirty and excited, but clear headed and full of fight,
with a dirty straw hat on his head and his trousers
above his knees from the friction of riding. And finally,
there was handsome Bob Williams astride of his big
horse, defiantly planted in front of the battery in
open field, full of all sorts of humors — the long sabre
hanging from the saddle-bow and his eyes beaming,
sparkling and snapping according to the turn of the
fight. In the hottest fire he grew genial and took the
occasion of a shell splashing us with mud to tell me an
old and not very good story. Then the retreat was
ordered and he grew savage, though not to us; and
finally I thought old Benham would have to put him
under arrest, he treated him with such undisguised con-
tempt. My rides round the battle field too were curi-
ous. Here was a long line of wounded men toiling to
the rear, and the different ways in which they bore
their wounds, from the coward limping off untouched
to the plucky fellow with his leg hanging by the skin
making faces that he might not yell. There were knots
of men behind hedges and in the ditches, stragglers
158 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [June 27,
and cowards, men who could not be shamed to the
front. To talk of the horrors of a battle field is a mis-
nomer. The hospital is horrid and so are the stretchers
and ambulances running blood; but in the heat of bat-
tle a corpse becomes a bundle of old clothes and you
pass the most fearful wounds with a mere glance and
without a thought.
There was nothing disgraceful in our repulse, and
our retreat was a model of good order and regularity.
The regiments when overcome retired in column in
common step and with their colors flying and formed
exactly where their officers ordered. There was no
running, no panic, and I felt proud of New England as
I saw the 3d N.H. coolly hold their position between
two murderous fires. We should have whipped them
dreadfully had they followed us. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, June 27, 1862
But the main thing is now the issue at Richmond. At
the latest dates things were getting uncomfortably
close. McClellan was making his movements steadily
and slowly until the choice only remained to attack at
disadvantage or to move. In this case my impression
is strong that the rebels will move. They did so at
Manassas, and at Yorktown, at Williamsburg and at
Corinth. Why not do so again? The only question is to
know where to go to. Money is scarce, and confeder-
ate promises have lost what little credit they had. The
means to feed and support great bodies of men are not
1862.J A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 159
so easily to be had from a country already pretty heav-
ily drawn upon. My conclusion is that before long the
attempt to keep a large army in the field must be
abandoned, and that from that time hostilities will be
continued by small bands who will sustain themselves
by levies on the country. Such is the policy sketched
out by Mr. Yancey in a letter to somebody here of
which I have heard. The effect of this will doubtless be
to complete the devastation and ruin which seems to
be the fate of the slaveholding region. I scarcely see
the good it will do to anybody. If cotton be not grown
here, it will come from Surat and Bombay. In the
meanwhile what are the slaves to do?
The cotton problem in England is becoming more
and more serious. The stock has got down to about two
hundred and fifty thousand bales, and there is a de-
mand for export which is reducing it faster than was
anticipated. At present it is calculated that by No-
vember there will be none left. Provided always that
the slaveholders should be so foolish as to persevere
in destroying it and themselves. It has seemed to me
all along that they were mere suicides, and I believe it
more firmly every day.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
James Island, S.C., June 28, 1862
I received yours of May 30th last week and it found
me still here. Since then, however, the news of the en-
gagement of the 16th has been carried home and today
we receive the return blast from Washington. They
tell us we are to see Charleston, but not now to enter
160 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [June 28,
it; that we are to go back to Hilton-head and generally
to confess ourselves as out-generaled, while Benham is
to be made the scape-goat for all our misfortunes — and
the last is the only item of news which gives us any
satisfaction. The army is a great place to learn phi-
losophy, I find, and in it you not only get careless of
danger, but indifferent as to what disposition is made
of you. The enemy have again begun to shell us and yet
I find I do not even any longer go to the door of my
tent to see where and how their shells burst. And to-
day, though under every circumstance I have looked
on riding into Charleston as a sure and ample reward
for all I might be called on to undergo, I hear that the
chances are immense against my ever receiving that
reward with an indifference which surprises me. I am
ordered and I can't help it; though it seems strange to
me that we must turn our backs on these fellows for
lack of ten poor regiments out of the grand army of
the republic. I do so know we could whip these men if
we had two chances out of five, and we would so like
to do it; and now to go back with nothing but failure
— oh ! for one hour of generalship ! ! Everything here
but honor has been sacrificed to the fussy incompetence
of Benham, the unmilitary amiability of Hunter, and
the misplaced philanthropy of Edward L. Pierce. . . .
Philanthropy is a nuisance in time of war and I sym-
pathised somewhat with Governor Stanley. There are
3000 men at Beaufort in the service of philanthropy
and tomorrow we turn our backs on Charleston be-
cause they are not here. What good is Beaufort to us?
A gun-boat can take it any day. I respect the mission-
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 161
aries for their objects and perseverance, but they have
no business here. Their time is not yet and they make
us fight in fetters. . . .
General Williams has seen fit in a special order to his
brigade to make honorable mention, among others, of
each member of his staff by name. He also yester-
day requested me in my next letter to you to mention
from him his extreme satisfaction with my conduct in
the action. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, July 4, 1862
This detestable war is not of our own choosing, and
out of it must grow consequences important to the wel-
fare of coming generations, not likely to issue from a
continuance of peace. All this is true, and yet here in
this lonely position of prominence among a people self-
ish, jealous, and at heart hostile, it needs a good deal
of fortitude to conjoin private solicitude with the un-
avoidable responsibilities of a critical public station.
I had hoped that the progress of General McClellan
would have spared us much of this trouble. But it is
plain that he has much of the Fabian policy in his
composition which threatens to draw the war into
greater length. Of course we must be content to take a
great deal on trust. Thus far the results have been all
that we had a reasonable right to expect. Let us hope
that the delay is not without its great purposes. My
belief is unshaken that the end of this conflict is to
topple down the edifice of slavery. Perhaps we are not
162 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [July 4,
yet ready to come up to that work, and the madness
of the resistance is the instrument in the hands of
Divine Providence to drive us to it. It may be so. I
must hold my soul in patience, and pray for courage
and resignation.
This is the 4th of July. Eighty-six years ago our
ancestors staked themselves in a contest of a far more
dangerous and desperate character. The only fault
they committed was in omitting to make it more gen-
eral and complete. Had they then consented to follow
Thomas Jefferson to the full extent of his first draught
of the Declaration, they would have added little to the
seven years severity of their struggle and would have
entirely saved the present trials from their children.
I trust we shall not fall into any similar mistake, and
if we are tempted to do so, I trust the follies of our
enemy will avert from us the consequences of our weak-
ness. This is the consideration which makes me most
tolerant of the continuance of the war. I am not a
friend of the violent policy of the ultras who seem to
me to have no guide but their own theories. This
great movement must be left in a degree to develope
itself, and human power must be applied solely to
shape the consequences so far as possible to the best
uses. ...
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, July 4, 1862
It is some time since I last wrote. I have hardly had
the courage to do so in the face of what is now going
on at home, and today we hear news of a battle near
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 163
Charleston on the 16th which has done little to en-
courage me. Your last letter speaking of your illness
and general position troubled our camp much. I had
to pooh-pooh it more than I liked in order to stop the
noise. Hard as your life is and threatens to become, I
would like well to share it with you in order to escape
in the consciousness of action a little of the struggle
against fancied evils that we feel here.
The truth is we are suffering now under one of those
periodical returns of anxiety and despondency that I
have often written of. The last was succeeded by that
brilliant series of successes which gave us New Orleans,
Yorktown, Norfolk and Memphis, and perhaps this
may end as well; but meanwhile we are haunted by
stories about McClellan and by the strange want of
life that seems justly or not to characterize our mili-
tary and naval motions. You at Charleston seem to be
an exception to the rule of stagnation which leaves us
everywhere on the defensive even when attacking. A
little dash does so much to raise one's spirits, and now
our poor men only sicken in marshes. I think of it all
as little as I can.
Our own position here is now so uninteresting as to
give us nothing to think of. After some pretty sharp
fighting and curious experiences that I dare n't trust
to paper, we are again quiet and undisturbed, waiting
the event of the struggle at Richmond. Things are not
over-inspiriting with us, but I don't know that they
look much brighter with the English or French. The
suffering among the operatives in Lancashire is very
great and is increasing in a scale that makes people
164 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [July 16,
very uncomfortable though as yet they keep quiet
about it. Cotton is going up to extraordinary prices;
in a few days only it advanced three cents a pound and
is still rising. Prices for cotton goods are merely nomi-
nal and vary according to the opinions of the holders,
so that the whole trade is now pure speculation. Mills
are closing in every direction. Add to this that the
season has been bad and a short crop is now considered
a certainty, and you can comprehend how anxious peo-
ple must be to know how they are to weather next
winter. No doubt this state of things will soon produce
fresh agitation for mediation or intervention before
long if no progress is made by our armies, but as yet
we enjoy quiet. . . .
If it were not for home matters it would be all well
enough, but they have a good deal of influence here,
which is felt rather than seen. We have entertained
a good deal — evening receptions once a week for
Americans, and several state dinners for English. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Hilton Head, S.C., July 16, 1862
McClellan's reverses fell on us with sufficient weight
here and 10,000 of our troops are being hurried to the
north, destroying all chance of operations here and
leaving only artillery to hold these points. For artillery
and cavalry they say they do not need, so our poor
regiment seems likely to go into garrison duty in the
midst of active war, and that too when all the opera-
tions of the war in Virginia indicate the vital necessity
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 165
of good cavalry and this regiment is here considered
the best in our volunteer service. However personal
considerations don't amount to much and I want to dis-
cuss the news and its effects. How do you look at this
terrible fighting in Virginia? Not, I mean, in a mili-
tary or even immediate point of view, but in its remote
bearing on our country's future? For myself I must
confess I begin to be frightened. The questions of the
future seem to me too great for us to grapple with suc-
cessfully and I have really begun to fear anarchy and
disorganisation for years to come. If we succeed in
our attempt at subjugation, I see only an immense ter-
ritory and a savage and ignorant populace to be held
down by force, the enigma of slavery to be settled by
us somehow, right or wrong, and, most dangerous of all,
a spirit of blind, revengeful fanaticism in the North,
of which Sumner has come in my mind to be typical,
which, utterly deficient in practical wisdom, will, if it
can, force our country into any position — be it bank-
rupt, despotic, anarchical, or what not — in its blind
efforts to destroy slavery and the South. These men,
and they will always in troublous times obtain tem-
porary supreme control, will bankrupt the nation, jeop-
ard all liberty by immense standing armies, debauch
the morality of the nation by war, and undermine all
our republican foundations to effect the immediate
destruction of the one institution of slavery. Do you
not think that this is so? . . .
166 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [July 19,
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, July 18, 1862
You can have very little notion of the effect the Rich-
mond news is having here. It has set all the elements
of hostility to us in agitation, and they are working to
carry the House of Commons off their feet in its debate
tonight. To that end a story has been manufactured
of an alleged capitulation of General McClellan on the
third coming out by the Glasgow that sailed on the
fifth, in the face of a later telegram dated the seventh,
which reported his address to his army pledging himself
to continue the war. Yet the people here are fully ready
to credit anything that is not favorable. I have no
doubt that the matter is bad enough, but it is not quite
to that extent. Yet the consequences are likely to be
as unfavorable as if it was. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
[London,] Saturday, July 19, 1862
Knowing that you would probably be anxious to hear
from us what effect the bad news of June 26-30 might
have on our position here, I take the last moment to
write in order to tell you what I think we are to expect.
Certainly it was a violent blow. We suffered several
days of very great anxiety, knowing that the current
here was rising every hour and running harder against
us than at any time since the Trent affair. This re-
verse called out at once all the latent hostility here, and
there was nothing to do but to give way. I shut myself
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 167
up, went to no more parties and avoided contact with
everyone except friends. . . . The only bright spot in
the week was the reception of your letter. As we had all
relied on your being safe in the hospital, or if not there,
with your regiment which we knew was not engaged,
your letter was quite welcome, as it told us first both
of your going in and your coming out. I congratulate
you, and apropos to that, I congratulate your General
Hunter on his negro-army letter. We all here sustain
him and I assure you that the strongest means of hold-
ing Europe back is the sight of an effective black army.
Nevertheless our trouble here was extreme. As the
week passed it was not diminished. Nor is it now, I
fear, permanently so. It arrived however at its cul-
minating point last night. It so happened that last
night was the occasion of an expected debate in the
Commons on a motion in favor of mediation. We had
been busy in preparing for it and had assurances that
all was right. But lo and behold, at two o'clock yes-
terday afternoon in rushes a member of the Commons,
and half a dozen alarmists in his rear, with an evening
paper whose telegraphic column was headed in big
letters, "Capitulation of McClellan's Army. Flight
of McClellan on a steamer. Later from America."
This astounding news for a moment made me almost
give way. But a single glance at dates showed us that
it was an utter swindle, and that we had bulletins from
McClellan of two days later than the day of the re-
ported surrender. The next reflexion led us to see that
it was intended for the debate of the same evening, and
we, who know the seal, recognized the stamp of our
168 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [July 19,
old friends the Southern liars, who juggled Georgia
out of the Union by telegraph. But the consternation
among our friends was incredible and even when they
knew it must be false, they still shook and shuddered
with terror. Every Englishman believed it, or doubted
in a tone that showed he wanted to believe it. As for
me, I have come to consider it my whole duty here to
keep up the spirits of the community and so did the
best I could to laugh the lie off. Luckily its effect on
the Commons was very good, for it disposed them to
postpone action and tended to quiet them. Palmerston
made a good speech, and the motion was not pressed
to a division. This morning the Arabia's news has
arrived, three days later, which relieves us again for
a time of our anxiety, and induces us to believe that
the enemy were as much crippled by their victory as
we by our defeat.
Thus the pinch has again passed by for the moment
and we breathe more freely. But I think I wrote to
you some time ago that if July found us still in Virginia,
we could no longer escape interference. I think now
that it is inevitable. The only delay thus far has been
caused by the difficulty in inducing the five great
powers to unite, and Russia and Austria to act with
England in any sense favorable to the South. That
unity cannot much longer fail to be obtainable. Eng-
land alone or with France will not move, but their
idea is that if all the great powers were to unite in of-
fering mediation, they could by their moral influence
alone force some result. If the North defied them, a
simple recognition of the South by them would, they
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 169
think, secure her independence. And this belief is
probably correct.
It must now be the effort of the North to cast upon
the South the responsibility of standing against a set-
tlement. Here will be three means of hampering
European attempts: the slavery question, the bound-
ary question, and the Mississippi; and it is the slav-
ery question from which we can derive the greatest
strength in this running battle. You see we are strip-
ping and squaring off, to say nothing of sponging, for
the next round. If our armies sustain us, we shall win.
If not, we shall soon see the limit of our hopes.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Hilton Head, S.C., July 28, 1862
I read your 4th of July reflections with much interest
and on part of them my last letter to you had bearing.
Our ultra-friends, including General Hunter, seem to
have gone crazy and they are doing the blacks all the
harm they can. On this issue things are very bad.
General Hunter is so carried away by his idea of negro
regiments as, not only to write flippant letters about his
one to Secretary Stanton, but even to order their ex-
emption from all fatigue duty; so that while our North-
ern soldiers work ten hours a day in loading and un-
loading ships, the blacks never leave their camp, but
confine their attention to drill. There may be reasons
for this, but it creates intense feeling here and even
I cannot see the justice of it. The course of Sumner,
Wade, Stanton, etc., have ruined us, I fear, in the war,
170 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [July 28,
by making success subservient to their preconceived
plans of negro good, instead of allowing the movement
to develope itself. I no longer see anything but our
ruin on our success, and no escape from it save in our
defeat as to the ends of the war. Still I do not lose faith,
but go into the future as cheerfully, if, in my own opin-
ion, a little more blindly than heretofore. I liked the
innuendoes in Hawthorne's article in the July Atlantic.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Hilton Head, S.C.
July 28, 1862
This place is not at all the pestilential spot you all
seem to suppose, and if you will convince yourself of
that, you will all save yourselves a great deal of anxiety.
The deaths here of all descriptions, arising from disease,
wounds and accidents, are not more than six a week out
of some 5000 men, which is about six per cent a year
and that in the very heart of the summer. From this
you will see that the station, however disagreeable,
and General Williams says it's the most so he ever
saw, certainly cannot be considered unhealthy. . . .
We get nothing new here. Col. Williams' nomina-
tion as Brigadier was among the unfinished business
of Congress and so falls to the ground; but I shall act
on his staff, though I expect very soon to return to
the regiment, though not to my old company. . . . Ben
Crowninshield is at home on furlough and at Sharon.
. . . Lawrence Motley is really down sick, as also is
Rand. Greely Curtis has also been on his back — all
of them four times as sick as . Henry Higginson
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 171
is acting in command of the regiment and more than
a third of the officers are away sick or on detached
duty. By way of variety our horses have the glanders
and we have lost some forty and not yet succeeded in
wholly getting rid of it. So we feel the necessity of
some change, somehow.
General Hunter is very unpopular — arbitrary and
wholly taken up with his negro question. His one regi-
ment is a failure, and becoming more so, and I have no
faith in the experiment anyhow. I smiled audibly at
your idea of my taking a commission in one of them;
after all my assertion of principles to become a "nig-
ger driver" in my old age, for that is what it amounts
to, seeing that they don't run away, or shirk work or
fatigue duty. No ! Hunter and you are all wrong, and,
for once, the War Department was right. The negroes
should be organized and officered as soldiers; they
should have arms put in their hands and be drilled
simply with a view to their moral elevation and the
effect on their self-respect, and for the rest they should
be used as fatigue parties and on all fatigue duty. As
to being made soldiers, they are more harm than good.
It will be years before they can be made to stand before
their old masters, unless (and the exception means a
great deal) some leader of their own, some Toussaint
rises, who is one of them and inspires them with con-
fidence. Under our system and with such white officers
as we give them, we might make a soldiery equal to
the native Hindoo regiments in about five years. It
won't pay and the idea of arming the blacks as soldiers
must be abandoned.
172 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Aug. l,
To my mind the ultras are doing all the harm they
can and it is yet a question whether they will not save
slavery out of this war, rather than let Providence work
its destruction in ways other than those preconceived
by them. I sincerely hope Sumner will be defeated
in the fall election. As to the army, so far as I see it,
it is completely demoralized on this question by the
conduct of these men, and it makes me sick to hear
New England men talk on the subject of the negroes
here and all who would aid them. Such prejudice and
narrow bigotry I never met in Southerners. There is no
abolitionism or, I fear, even emancipation in the army
here. The ultras in their eagerness have spoilt all. It
is all right, you know, and for the best; but is n't it
enough to make an equine laugh to see a man like
Sumner, so convinced that he alone sees the clear way,
so absolute in his opinions and wholly devoid of char-
ity to others, withal such an utterly blind instrument
in the hand of Providence. The plot thickens and I
hope this war will spare me, as I don't want to die,
until I see how all this turmoil, confusion and disaster,
is, on pure philosophical principles, to result, as we
know it will, in the advancement of the human kind.
How much and how long must you and I suffer that
that advancement may be worked out.
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, August 1, 1862
We have been much prejudiced here by the unfortu-
nate turn things took at Richmond. It is impossible
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 173
for a non-military man to form any judgment of the
events of the campaign, but one thing seems to be cer-
tain, that General McClellan must have made some
egregious miscalculation of the strength of his right
wing. Otherwise the attack of Stuart could not have
been successful. As to the future I dare not count upon
anything. From this point I should hardly suppose that
we had any forces left anywhere. The only accounts
we get are of the multitudes on the other side. Our
newspapers and quidnuncs delight in counting them
with additions of many ciphers, until I am bound to in-
fer that the census of 1860 is all a northern forgery, and
that the slave states have had the fertility of the north-
ern hordes that overran the Romans in the days of the
lower Empire. So far as foreign countries are concerned
I am very much of opinion that our press does more
harm than good to our cause. It discloses all our own
position, whilst it exaggerates that of the rebels of which
it knows really nothing. As a consequence evil minded
people here take every advantage of both practices,
to our harm. . . .
If you are still with General Williams I beg you
to express to him my thanks for his remembrance of
me in the commendation he was disposed to give you.
Nothing could have been more grateful to my feelings.
Much as I deplore this unfortunate war, brought on
by the infatuation of men who are only sealing their
own fate in persevering in it, I see and admit the neces-
sity which forces you to take your share in it. And such
being the fact, it is consoling to me to reflect that you
are doing your duty with credit and with honor. Should
174 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Aug. 10,
the time arrive when you are released in safety and
with propriety I shall hail it with joy. Redeunt saturnia
regna. In the meantime I look to the emancipation
of the slaves as the veritable solution of the problem.
After that is accomplished I care comparatively little
what may be the determination of the southern states,
or of their people. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Hilton Head, S.C., August 10, 1862
Affairs here are as dull as dull can be. We have had
a little excitement about your old friend the Fingal,
which has turned up in Savannah harbor as an iron-
clad of much force, but that seems to be dying out
now, though I can't help thinking that we shall some
day hear from her when we least expect or desire to.
General Hunter's negro regiment was disbanded yes-
terday and now they have all dispersed to their old
homes. Its breaking up was hailed here with great joy,
for our troops have become more anti-negro than I could
have imagined. But, for myself, I could not help feel-
ing a strong regret at seeing the red-legged darkies
march off; for, though I have long known that the
experiment was a failure, yet it was the failure of an-
other effort at the education of these poor people and
it was the acknowledgment of another of those blun-
ders which have distinguished all and every our ex-
periments on slavery throughout this war. When did
an educated people ever bungle so in the management
of a great issue ! I feel sick and almost discouraged at
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 175
what I see and hear. What God made plain we have
mixed up into inextricable confusion. We have had
declarations of emancipation ingeniously framed so as
not to free a slave and yet to thoroughly concentrate
and inflame our enemy. We have wrangled over arm-
ing the slaves before the slaves showed any disposition
to use the arms, and when we have never had in our
lives 5000 of them who could bear arms. Why could
not fanatics be silent and let Providence work for
awhile. The slaves would have moved when the day
came and could have been made useful in a thousand
ways. As it is, we are Hamlet's ape, who broke his
neck to try conclusions. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
At Seay Steam Transport McClellan
August 22, 1862
Here I am at sea once more and heading north, but
not as I had hoped I might be going north about this
time, leaving this conflict literally settled behind me,
but only on my way to the dark and bloody ground
in Virginia. Our regiment most unexpectedly received
orders for the north one day last week at about the
same time that I received my orders to report to Gen-
eral Pope. Accordingly I go north with them. As to
my future, this unexpected change has set it all afloat.
The war is evidently going to continue some time
longer and my regiment is now going into active service.
Is it wise for me now to separate myself from a Massa-
chusetts regiment, and shall I not be more useful where
I am than on an ornamental staff? These reflections
176 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Aug. 27.
puzzle me much and I do not know what will become
of me. I shall try to decide for the best and I do know
that we now seem to be going into the thick of the
conflict. . . .
We left the shores of South Carolina on Wednesday
last, just seven months to a day from the time when
I first set foot on them. I don't think any of us felt
much regret at leaving the State and certainly none
of us at leaving Hilton Head. Of all the places it has
ever been my fate to set foot on Hilton Head is by
many degrees the meanest. Of Beaufort and Port
Royal island I retain many pleasant memories, par-
ticularly of the last, than which I have never seen
a more delightful island. But Hilton Head — dust,
sand, government warehouses and fleas, constitute all
its attractions. Thus ends my first campaign, and has
n't it been a failure ! — a failure personally and publicly,
nothing in itself and leading to nothing. Here I am
just where I was when I started. I have seen nothing
but the distant spires of Charleston and have not been
promoted. I have had a bitter contest with my Cap-
tain and seen little active service. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Willard's Hotel, Washington
August 27, 1862
Here I am once more in the city of Washington. Since
I last wrote the first detachment of our regiment has
arrived at Fortress Monroe, and is now in camp at
Acquia Creek, while I have come up here to see about
this business of Pope's staff. I find the old city much
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 177
as usual, but still not the same. It was indeed pleasant
for me to get here and at least to see something familiar
once more, and I looked at all the public buildings and
even at Willard's as at old friends. Once more I have
really slept in a bed and I really never enjoyed any-
thing in my life, in its kind, more than the delicious
little supper which Gautier got up for me. You don't
know how much eight months of coarse fare improve
one's faculties for gastronomic enjoyment, and last
evening I experienced a new sensation.
Here I am though, and what next? Shall I go onto
Pope's staff? I think not. This is a very different
place from Hilton Head and here I am learning many
strange things which make me open my eyes very
wide, which make me sorrow over our past and do not
encourage me for the future. Here I have access to
certain means of information and I think I can give
you a little more light than you now have. Do you
know that just before leaving the Peninsula McClellan
offered to march into Richmond on his own responsibil-
ity? Do you know that in the opinion of our leading
military men Washington is in more danger than it
ever yet has been? Do you know that but for McDow-
ell's jealousy we should have triumphantly marched
into Richmond? Do you know that Pope is a humbug
and known to be so by those who put him in his pres-
ent place? Do you know that today he is so com-
pletely outgeneraled as to be cut off from Washington?
Yet these are not rumors, but facts, doled out to me
by members of McClellan's and Halleck's staffs.
Our rulers seem to me to be crazy. The air of this city
178 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Aug. 27,
seems thick with treachery; our army seems in danger
of utter demoralization and I have not since the war
begun felt such a tug on my nerves as today in Wash-
ington. Everything is ripe for a terrible panic, the end
of which I cannot see or even imagine. I always mean
to be one of the hopeful, but just now I cast about in
vain for something on which to hang my hopes. I still
believe in McClellan, but I know that the nearest
advisers of the President — among them Mr. Holt —
distrust his earnestness in this war. Stanton is jealous
of him and he and Pope are in bitter enmity. All pin
their hope on Halleck and we must do as the rest do;
but it is hinted to me that Stanton is likely to be a
block in Halleck's way, and the jealousies of our gen-
erals are more than a new man can manage. We need
a head and we must have it; a man who can keep these
jealousies under subordination; and we must have him
or go to the wall. Is Halleck going to supply our
need? I hope he is, but while the question is in doubt
we may lose Washington. You will think that I am in
a panic and the most frightened man in Washington.
I assure you it is not so. I do consider the outside con-
dition of affairs very critical, but it is my glimpse be-
hind the scenes, the conviction that small men with
selfish motives control the war without any central
power to keep them in bounds, which terrifies and dis-
courages me.
• Take the history of the Peninsular campaign. My
authorities are one aid of McClellan's and Halleck's
Assistant Adjutant General, but the facts speak for
themselves, and the inferences any man may draw.
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 179
Stanton, contrary to the first principle of strategy and
for motives not hard to comprehend, divides Virginia
into four independent departments. McClellan takes
charge of one and a column is taken from him to form
another under charge of McDowell. It is solemnly
promised McClellan that McDowell shall join him be-
fore Richmond, and meanwhile he is retained where he
is to protect Washington. Mark the result. McClel-
lan fights the battle of Hanover Court House, with all
its loss of life and time, simply to open the road for
McDowell to join him and he does open it. McDow-
ell's advance guard hears his cannon on that day, but
McDowell does not stir, and McClellan, still looking
for him, forms that fatal Chickahominy front of twenty
miles. Doubtless McDowell was kept back by orders,
but in how far was he instrumental in procuring these
orders to suit himself? McClellan's staff do not hesi-
tate to say that he dictated them on pretence of danger
to Washington, in reality because his advance would
have absorbed his command in that of McClellan.
Take the pretence. Jackson makes his raid in the
valley of the Shenandoah, and again McDowell's ad-
vance hears the sound of his guns. Washington is in
danger now. As before he does not move and Jackson
escapes and returns to attack McClellan. Had Mc-
Dowell done his duty either for McClellan or against
Jackson, we should now have Richmond and McClel-
lan would now be the conquering hero. He did neither
and is now in disgrace, as subordinated to Pope; but
McClellan is not the conquering hero. Not half an
hour ago Halleck's nephew and private secretary told
180 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Aug. 27,
me that I could not imagine the trouble these jeal-
ousies gave his uncle. Said he, "McDowell and Sigel
will not fight under Pope. McClellan and Pope are not
in sympathy"; and he added an intimation that Mc-
Clellan was most restive under Halleck.
Under these circumstances what can we expect?
What can we hope for? Sigel stands well, but all our
army officers are bitter and jealous against him. In
Burnside there is indeed hope. He has been true and
generous and, what is much, successful. He did not
hesitate to award to McClellan the credit of planning
his Carolina campaign, and, unlike McDowell, when
told to send to McClellan all the troops he could spare,
he at once sent him twenty-eight regiments and six
batteries, leaving himself and the Major General under
him some 3000 men in all. We have some grim old
fighters who do their work and do not scheme. Such
they tell me are Sumner and Heintzelman; but even of
these the last is outspoken against McClellan because
he will not fight with more energy. The simple truth is
the man has not come and now we mean to supply his
place with vast numbers of undrilled recruits. Shall
we succeed? You can judge as well as I.
Thus the war is gloomily enough approaching its
last and bloodiest stage. Unless Halleck is the man of
iron who can rule, it will be discordant numbersagainst
compact strategy. We must face the music, though
we do not like the tune. . . .
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 181
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to John Quincy
Adams
Willard's Hotel
Washington, August 28, 1862
Things here look badly enough and amid this atmos-
phere of treason, jealousy and dissension, it requires
good courage not to despair of the republic. As I said,
I am going back to my regiment instead of onto Pope's
staff, and you must take it out in cursing my insta-
bility. My reasons are manifold. The regiment and
Colonel think I ought to come back or resign; we are
about to see active cavalry service; and finally, be-
tween ourselves, I am ashamed at what I hear of Pope.
All army officers say that he is a humbug and is sure to
come to grief; "as big a liar as John Pope" is an old
army expression; he has already played himself out in
the army of Virginia and he has got himself into such
a position that he will be crushed and Washington lost,
unless McClellan saves him. He may come out with
colors flying, for he a lucky man; but if he does, he is a
dangerous one, and I am advised not to connect my
fortunes with his. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, September 5, 1862
Your appointment reached us some time ago and I
was rejoiced at it, because I think such a place as this
gives more room for expansion than that of a regimen-
182 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Sept. 5.
tal officer. I doubt whether the atmosphere of Lieuten-
ants is healthy, or of Captains or Majors. I think you
have grown rusty at Hilton Head and I want to hear
more vigorous talk. As to your speculations about the
end of the war and a peace, I won't say that I would n't
consent to argue about it some day, but you know
perfectly well that until we've driven the South into
their cotton fields we have no chance even to offer
those terms. Perhaps on the broad national question
I look at the matter differently from you. Apart from
other causes, I am here in Europe and of course am
influenced by European opinion. Firmly convinced as
I am that there can be no peace on our continent so
long as the Southern people exist, I don't much care
whether they are destroyed by emancipation, or in
other words a vigorous system of guerilla war carried
on by negroes on our side, or by the slower and more
doubtful measures of choaking them with their own
cotton. Perhaps before long we shall have to use both
weapons as vigorously as we are now using the last.
But one thing is clear to my mind, which is that we
must not let them as an independent state get the
monopoly of cotton again, unless we want to find a
powerful and bitterly hostile nation on our border, sup-
ported by all the moral and social influence of Great
Britain in peace; certain in war to drag us into all the
European complications; sure to be in perpetual an-
archy within, but always ready to disturb anything and
everything without; to compel us to support a stand-
ing army no less large than if we conquer them and
hold them so, and with infinite means of wounding and
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 183
scattering dissension among us. We must ruin them
before we let them go or it will all have to be done over
again. And we must exterminate them in the end, be it
long or be it short, for it is a battle between us and
slavery.
I see that your regiment is ordered to Virginia which
shows a gleam of reason in the War Department. What
it was ever sent to Port Royal for, the Lord he knows.
At any rate, however, it has spared you some hard
fighting, and with the prospect you have now before
you, I think you need n't be sorry for that. For my
own part I confess that I value human life at a pretty
low price, and God knows I set no higher value on my
own than on others. I always was a good deal of a
sceptic and speculator in theories and think precious
small potatoes of man in general and myself in par-
ticular. But I confess to feeling very badly when the
news comes of our disasters and losses. Poor Stephen
Perkins. I have a kind of an idea that Stephen
thought much as I do about life. He always seemed to
me to take rather a contemptuous view of the world
in general, and I rather like to imagine him, after the
shock and the pain was over, congratulating himself
that at last he was through with all the miseres of an
existence that had bored him and that offered him little
that he cared for; and now he could turn his mind to
the exploring of a new life, with new duties and a new
career, after having done all that man can do to dis-
charge his debt to his God and his fellow-men in the
old. There are men enough in Europe who hold these
ideas with more or less variation, but Stephen and
184 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Sept. 19,
perhaps Arthur Dexter are the only ones among us
whom I should call bitten with them — with Stephen,
his eyes excused them. With Arthur, his digestion.
Our life here is quiet but very busy. No more is
heard of intervention. Six hundred thousand men
have put an end to that, and the English think be-
sides that the South need no help. Of late the trou-
bles in Italy have drawn people's minds away from
us and as their harvest is very poor, our grain is too
necessary to joke about. . . .
Chaeles Francis Adams to his Son
London, September 19, 1862
England is at peace, and in spite of the drawback
occasioned by the failure of the cotton crop is prosper-
ous. During the last twenty years the great devel-
opment of the manufacturing policy has poured vast
sums into her lap, whilst the outlets furnished to her
poor populations in the colonies and in America have
prevented the growth of any discontent at the unequal
distribution of that wealth. In all my different jour-
neys through the interior I find every evidence of sub-
stantial thrift. No dilapidated houses, or neglected
lands or broken windows or ruinous barns. Even the
oldest dwellings seem cared for and elaborately put in
order. The question naturally arises are there no very
poor people? It must be answered, not in the agricul-
tural districts, but you must look for them in the popu-
lous towns. Go through many parts of London and
you will be at no loss to understand where they are.
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 185
And so it will be in the great manufacturing centres in
Lancashire and Yorkshire. Thus it appears as if Eng-
land showed two distinct faces — one of happiness and
one of misery, the first owing to the last. For however
great may be the prosperity of the manufacturer, it
appears to be resting only upon the extent to which the
share in it of his operative can be reduced to a mini-
mum. Were it not for the resource of emigration I
doubt whether this condition of things could last long.
As it is, I see no prospect of any change. The rich are
growing richer, and conservatism gains rather than
loses in its struggles for power. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Mother
Skarpsburg, Md.
September 25, 1862
Next morning my only good horse was fairly done up
and in the name of humanity I had to leave her at
Frederick to take my chance of ever seeing her again,
and with her, as I could not burden my other horse,
I had to leave all my baggage and left everything in-
cluding my last towel, my tooth-brush, my soap and
every shirt and this, alas ! was a fortnight ago ! As soon
as I left her I followed the regiment and had hardly
left the town when the sound of artillery in the front
admonished me that now we were practically in the
advance. I pressed forward and rejoined the column
some three miles from the town at a halt and with sharp
artillery practice in front. Here we stood three hours
resting by the side of the road and waiting for it to be
186 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Sept. 25,
opened for us. Now and then the shot and shell flut-
tered by us, reminding me of James Island. Some of
them came disagreeably near and at last some infan-
try came up and for a moment sat down to rest with us.
I told a Captain near me that the enemy had a perfect
range of the road and he'd better be careful how he
drew their fire and just as I uttered the words, r-r-r-h
went a round shot through the bushes over my head,
slid across Forbes and Caspar as they lay on the ground
some thirty yards further on and took off the legs of
three infantry men next to them. After that it did n't
take long for the infantry to deploy into the field and
leave us in undisturbed possession of the road. Still the
infantry did it and the enemy soon limbered up and
were off, having delayed our pursuit some three hours.
Then we followed and pushed over the hills wonder-
ing at the strength of the enemies' position. As we got
to the top we pushed on faster and faster until we went
down the further side at a gallop. The enemy were
close in front and now was the time. Soon we took to
the fields and then, on the slope of a hill, with the
enemy's artillery beyond it, formed in column. More
shelling, more artillery, and the bullets sung over our
heads in lively style, and then " forward" as fast as we
could go, over the hill, pulling down fences, flounder-
ing through ditches, struggling to outflank them. But
the fences were too much for us and we had to return
to the road, all losing our tempers and I all my writing
materials, the one thing I had clung to. We made the
road, however, in time to witness some of the humbug
of the war. As we clattered into the town the Illinois
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 187
cavalry, commanded by Colonel Farnsworth, not un-
known to my father, were in front of us and, having
hurried into the town were cracking away with their
carbines and giving to me, at least, the idea of a sharp
engagement in process. We followed them and got our
arms all ready, but, as I rode through the single street of
the pretty little town, a little excited and pistol in hand,
I was somewhat surprised at the number of women
who were waving their handkerchiefs, hailing us with
delight as liberators and passing out water to our sol-
diers. For now we were in the truly loyal part of
Maryland and everywhere were greeted with delight.
It certainly did n't look to me much like a battle,
and yet there were those carbines snapping away like
crackers on the 4th of July. In vain I looked for rebels,
nary one could I see and at last it dawned on my mind
that I was in the midst of a newspaper battle — "a
cavalry charge," "a sharp skirmish," lots of glory,
but n'ary reb.
Here we paused, while I thought we should have
pressed forward, and our artillery battered away from
the hill to see if any one was there. Meanwhile the
rebels burned the bridge before us and made off for the
range of hills on the other side of the valley. Presently
we followed, forded the stream and followed them up
the road, through the most beautiful valley I ever saw,
all circled on three sides with lofty wooded ranges sur-
rounding a beautiful rolling valley highly cultivated
and blooming like a garden. A blazing bridge and barn
in the middle of it suggested something unusual. We
hurried through the valley and up the hills on the other
1SS A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Sept. 25.
side and there we made a pause, brought to a dead
stand. It did n't look like much, but we did n't like
to meddle with it. It was only a single man on horse-
back in the middle of the road some few hundred yards
before us, but it stopped us like a brick wall. We stood
on the brow of one hill, with a straight road running
through the valley below and disappearing in a high
wooded range on the other side. We did n't know it
then, but we were looking on what next day became the
battle field of South Mountain. In the road below us
were a few rebel videttes and on the hill beyond were
posted, hardly to be distinguishable even with our
glasses, a battery of artillery. We stood and looked
and debated and at last our leaders concluded that it
was n't healthy to go forward, and so we went back.
We went into camp on a hill-top and passed a tedious
night. It was very cold, and we were hungry, but still
we slept well and in the morning feasted on an ox
we killed the night before.
At seven o'clock we moved forward to our position
of the day before, struggling along to the front through
a dense advancing army corps. We got there and took
up our position in support of a batten7 and soon our
artillery opened and after about an hour the enemy
began to answer. Presently we were moved far to the
front and of course a blunder was made, and we found
ourselves drawn up in a cornfield in front of our most
advanced battery and between it and the enemy, with
the shells hurtling over us like mad, and now and then
falling around us, but fortunately doing us no harm
save ruffling our nerves. Here we sat on our horses for
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 189
two hours, doing no good and unpleasantly exposed.
At last we were moved from there and sent round to
our left to support some infantry and there we passed
the afternoon, listening to the crackle of musketry and
the roar of artillery till night, when it ceased and the
men lay down in ranks and slept, holding the bridles of
the horses. This was all we saw of the battle of South
Mountain, which at the time we supposed to be a
heavy skirmish. . . .
Here we lay all that day and I think the next, with
a continual spattering of shells around, some of which
injured other commands adjoining but all spared ours,
and, at last, one day we were ordered early to the rear
and we knew there was to be a big fight. Then came
the battle of Antietam Creek and we saw about as
much of it as of that at South Mountain. We were
soon brought hurriedly to the extreme front and posted
in support of a battery amid the heaviest shelling and
cannonade I ever heard. It was a terrific artillery duel,
which lasted where we were all day and injured almost
no one. At first, as we took up position, we lost a horse
or two, and the storm of artillery, the crashing of shells
and the deep reverberations from the hills were confus-
ing and terrifying, and yet, so well were we posted and
so accustomed to it did we become, that ten minutes
after the imminent danger was over and we were or-
dered to dismount, I fell sound asleep on the grass and
my horse got away from me.
In fact this whole subject of battle is misunderstood
at home. We hear of the night before battle. I have
seen three of them and have thought I saw half a
190 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Sept. 26,
dozen when the battle did n't come off, and I have
never yet seen one when every officer whom I saw did
not seem, not only undisturbed, but wholly to fail to
realise that any thing unusual was about to occur. In
battle men are always frightened on coming under fire,
but they soon get accustomed to it, if it does little exe-
cution, however heavy it may be. If the execution is
heavy they're not nearly so apt to go to sleep, and I
can't say I have ever yet fallen in with that lust for
danger of which I have read. . . .
Chaeles Fkancis Adams to his Son
London, September 26, 1862
Latterly indeed we have felt a painful anxiety for the
safety of Washington itself. For it is very plain that
the expedition of the rebels must have been long medi-
tated, and that it embraced a plan of raising the stand-
ard of revolt in Maryland as well as Pennsylvania. It
has been intimated to me that their emissaries here
have given out significant hints of a design to bring in
both those states to their combination, which was
to be executed about the month of September. That
such a scheme was imaginable I should have supposed,
until the occurrence of General Pope's campaign and
the effects of it as described in your letter of the 29th
ulto. . . .
Thus far it has happened a little fortunately for our
comfort here that most of our reverses have been re-
ported during the most dead season of the year, when
Parliament was not in session, the Queen and Court
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 191
and ministry are all away indulging in their customary
interval of vacation, and London is said to be wholly
empty — the two millions and a half of souls who show
themselves counting for nothing in comparison with
the hundred thousand magnates that disappear. It is
however a fact that the latter make opinion which
emanates mainly from the clubhouses. Here the Lon-
don Times is the great oracle, and through this channel
its unworthy and degrading counsels towards America
gain their general currency. I am sorry for the manli-
ness of Great Britain when I observe the influence to
which it has submitted itself. But there is no help for
it now. The die is cast, and whether we gain or we lose
our point, alienation for half a century is the inevitable
effect between the two countries. The pressure of this
conviction always becomes greatest in our moments
of adversity. It is therefore lucky that it does not
come when the force of the social combination is com-
monly the greatest also. We have thus been in a great
degree free from the necessity of witnessing it in so-
ciety in any perceptible form. Events are travelling at
such a pace that it is scarcely conceivable to suppose
some termination or other of this suspense is not ap-
proaching. The South cannot uphold its slave system
much longer against the gradual and certain under-
mining of its slaveholding population. Its power of
endurance thus far has been beyond all expectation,
but there is a term for all things finite, and the evi-
dences of suffering and of exhaustion thicken. The
war now swallows up the children and the elders. And
when they are drawn away, what becomes of the
192 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Oct. 17.
authority over the servants? It may last a little while
from the force of habit, but in the end it cannot fail
to be obliterated. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, October 17, 1862
General McClellan's work during the week ending
the 18th has done a good deal to restore our drooping
credit here. Most of the knowing ones had already
discounted the capture of Washington and the capitu-
lation of the Free States. Some had gone so far as to
presume the establishment of Jefferson Davis as the
President instead of Lincoln. The last number of the
Edinburgh Review has a wise prediction that this is
to be effected by the joint labors of the "mob" and of
"the merchants" of the city of New York. This is the
guide of English intelligence of the nature of our strug-
gle. Of course it follows that no sensible effect is pro-
duced excepting from hard blows. If General McClel-
lan will only go on and plant a few more of the same
kind in his opponent's eyes, I shall be his very humble
servant, for it will raise us much in the estimation of
all our friends. Mr. Gladstone will cease to express
so much admiration of Jefferson Davis, and all other
things will begin to flow smoothly again.
We are all very quietly at home. Last week I made
a flying trip into the north to pay a visit to a good
friend of America in Yorkshire.1 It gave me an op-
portunity to see a very pretty region of country, and
1 William E. Forster.
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 193
the ruins of Bolton Abbey and Barden Towers in the
picturesque valley of the river Wharfe. If they only
had a little more sunlight, it would be very exquisite.
But the excessive profusion of verdure unrelieved by
golden rays, and only covered with a leaden sky, gives
an aspect of sadness to quiet scenery which I scarcely
relish. On the whole I prefer the brilliancy of America,
even though it be at the cost of a browner surface.
My friend is a Colonel of a volunteer regiment, after
the fashion of almost everybody here. For the fear
of Napoleon has made the whole world turn soldier.
Whilst I was with him he had some exercise at target
practice with two sections of his riflemen. I went up
to witness it, and thought it on the whole very good.
The distances were three, four and five hundred yards.
The best hits were nineteen in twenty. Three tied at
eighteen, and then all the way down to eleven, which
was the poorest. It seemed to me excellent practice,
but I do not profess to be a judge. I suppose our peo-
ple in the army by this time are able to do full as well
if not better. . . .
Chaeles Francis Adams to his Son
London, October 24, 1862
Your account of the campaign in Maryland was ex-
ceedingly interesting to us all. It contrasted admirably
with those of the newspaper writers in telling only
what you saw; whereas they, with far less of opportu-
nity, undertake to say they see many things which did
not happen. I have lost all confidence in any accounts
194 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Nov. 19,
which do not come with responsible names attached to
them. I am not sure since General Pope's time that
I always credit official statements. His mistakes have
however had one good effect in reducing the tone and
style of our other generals. They now do not overstate
their success, nor boast of gains they have not made.
Still the war drags on. I scarcely know what to think
of the prospect. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Washington, D.C., November 19, 1862
I am certainly very well and in very good spirits, though
the downfall of McClellan was a heavy blow to all
below the rank of a General. The army believed in
McClellan, but the Generals are jealous and ambi-
tious and little, and want to get a step themselves, so
they are willing to see him pulled down. We believed
in him, not as a brilliant commander, but as a prudent
one and one who was gradually learning how to handle
our immense army, and now a new man must learn and
he must learn by his own mistakes and in the blood of
the army. It is all for the best and the Lord will in his
own good time bear witness ior us; but oh! the blunders
and humbug of this war, the folly, treachery, incom-
petence and lying! ! ! They tell me here that Halleck
is a very strong man, and that his touch is already felt
in the West and soon will be in the East, and that the
winter will restore our fortunes. I hope it may prove
so, but my theory is that there will be much more
fighting this year in Virginia, but that while we are
GEORGE BRINTON McCLELLAN
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 195
to hold the enemy here, the war is to rage on the
Mississippi and the sea-board. But who knows — not
I. Keep up your heart.
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, November 21, 1862
My work is now limited to a careful observation of
events here and assistance in the manual labor of the
place, and to a study of history and politics which
seem to me most necessary to our country for the next
century. The future is a blank to me as I suppose it is
also to you. I have no plans nor can have any, so long
as my course is tied to that of the Chief. Should you
at the end of the war, wish to take my place, in case
the services of one of us were still required, I should re-
turn to Boston and Horace Gray, and I really do not
know whether I should regret the change. The truth
is, the experience of four years has done little towards
giving me confidence in myself. The more I see, the
more I am convinced that a man whose mind is bal-
anced like mine, in such a way that what is evil never
seems unmixed with good, and what is good always
streaked with evil; an object seems never important
enough to call out strong energies till they are ex-
hausted, nor necessary enough not to allow of its fail-
ure being possible to retrieve; in short, a mind which
is not strongly positive and absolute, cannot be steadily
successful in action, which requires quietness and per-
severance. I have steadily lost faith in myself ever
since I left college, and my aim is now so indefinite that
196 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Nov. 21.
all my time may prove to have been wasted, and then
nothing left but a truncated life.
I should care the less for all this if I could see your
path any clearer, but while my time may prove to have
been wasted, I don't see but what yours must prove so.
At least God forbid that you should remain an officer
longer than is necessary. And what then? The West
is possible; indeed, I have thought of that myself.
But what we want is a school. We want a national set
of young men like ourselves or better, to start new
influences not only in politics, but in literature, in
law, in society, and throughout the whole social or-
ganism of the country — a national school of our own
generation. And that is what America has no power
to create. In England the Universities centralize
ability and London gives a field. So in France, Paris
encourages and combines these influences. But with
us, we should need at least six perfect geniuses placed,
or rather, spotted over the country and all working
together; whereas our generation as yet has not pro-
duced one nor the promise of one. It's all random, in-
sulated work, for special and temporary and personal
purposes, and we have no means, power or hope of
combined action for any unselfish end.
One man who has real ability may do a great deal,
but we ought to have a more concentrated power of
influence than any that now exists.
For the present war I have nothing to say. We re-
ceived cheerful letters from you and John today, and
now we have the news of McClellan's removal. As
I do not believe in Burnside's genius, I do not feel
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 197
encouraged by this, especially as it shakes our whole
structure to its centre. I have given up the war and
only pray for its end. The South has vindicated its
position and we cannot help it, so, as we can find no
one to lead us and no one to hold us together, I don't
see the use of our shedding more blood. Still all this
makes able men a necessity for the future, and if
you're an able man, there's your career. I have proj-
ects enough and not unpromising ones for some day,
but like most of my combinations, I suppose they '11
all end in dust and ashes.
We are very comfortable here in London fog. Some
sharp diplomatic practice, but, I hope, not very seri-
ous. People don't overwhelm us with attentions, but
that is excusable.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to John Quincy
Adams
Potomac Bridge, Virginia
November 28, 1862
Here we are back with the Brigade at last. I hope you
yesterday remembered us at home in your cups, for not
a drop to drink, save water, had we, and our eating was
of the toughest and slimmest. Here we are though,
through mud and mire and rain, up with the army
at last. A winter campaign here, by the way, is just
impossible, no more and no less, and you who sit so
snugly at home by the fire and round the hearth, and
discuss our laziness in not pressing on, may as well dry
up. We will allow everything to please you, waste
of life, loss of labor, extreme exposure without tents,
198 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Nov. so,
existence in a foodless country and all you will, and yet
any movement is just simply impossible on account of
mud. Horses can't walk, artillery can't be hauled, and
ammunition can't be carried through this country after
this season. Of course, we don't expect to get any
forage, rations or tents through, but it is simply im-
possible to go ahead and carry the arms and ammuni-
tion to enable us to fight, though we should consent
to starve and freeze cheerfully. So I look on it after
the experience of a few days' march. I may be wrong
and hope I am. But Lord! how it vexes and amuses
me to think how easy it is, after a full dinner, to sip
your wine in the gas light, and look severely into a fine
fire across the table, and criticise and find fault with
us poor devils, at that very time preparing to lie down
before our fires, mud to the middle, wet through, after
a fine meal of hard bread and water, and with nothing
between us and the sky but November clouds. I don't
complain of these little incidents of our life myself, and
only I do wish they found less fault at home. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Potomac Bridge, near Falmouth, Va.
November 30, 1862
Here we are once more with the army, but not on
the move. We passed six days in Washington and it
stormed the whole time, varying from a heavy Scotch
mist to a drenching rain. Our camp was deep in
mud, at times a brook was running through my tent,
and altogether we were most unfortunate as regarded
] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 199
weather. Still we succeeded in completing our equip-
ment and I started out on our new campaign toler-
ably prepared to be comfortable in future. Nor did I,
I am glad to say, waste my time while there, but I fed
on the fat of the land, feasting daily, without regard
to expense, at Buhler's. I no longer wonder at sailors'
runs on shore. Months of abstinence and coarse fare,
cooked anyhow and eaten anywhere off anything, cer-
tainly lead to an acute appreciation of the luxuries of
city life. It seems to me now as if I could n't enjoy
them enough. While here I saw Aunt Mary repeatedly
and she seems much the same as ever. She was very
kind and hospitable. I also saw Governor Seward for
an instant. He invited me to dinner and was very
cordial; but he looks pale, old and careworn, and it
distressed me to see him.
Here we remained till Friday evening, on which day
the two Majors and myself succeeded in getting paid
off, after immense exertion and many refusals, when
we had our last dinner at Buhler's and on Saturday,
when we saw the sun for the first time for a week, we
struck camp and moved over to Alexandria, on our way
to join the brigade. We got into Alexandria by two
o'clock and went into camp on a cold, windy hill-side.
We were under orders to join our brigade at Manassas,
but when we got to Alexandria we found Manassas
in the possession of the enemy and we did not care to
report to them. Accordingly we sent back for orders
and passed Sunday in camp, a cold, blustering, raw
November day, overcast and disagreeable. The damp
and wet, combined with the high living at Washington,
200 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Nov. so,
had started my previous health, and now I not only
wasn't well, but was decidedly sick and lived on
opium and brandy. In fact I am hardly well yet and
my disorder followed me all through our coming march.
Sunday afternoon we got our orders to press on and
join the brigade at the earliest possible moment near
Falmouth, so Monday morning we again struck camp
and set forth for Falmouth. It was a very fine day
indeed, but the weather is not what it was and the
country through which we passed is sadly war-smitten.
The sun was bright, but the long rains had reduced the
roads almost to a mire and a sharp cold wind all day
made overcoats pleasant and reminded us how near we
were to winter. Our road lay along in sight of Mt. Ver-
non and was a picture of desolation — the inhabitants
few, primitive and ignorant, houses deserted and going
to ruin, fences down, plantations overgrown, and every-
thing indicating a decaying country finally ruined by
war. On our second day's march we passed through
Dumfries, once a flourishing town and port of entry,
now the most God-forsaken village I ever saw. There
were large houses with tumbled down stairways, pub-
lic building* completely in ruins, more than half the
houses deserted and tumbling to pieces, not one in
repair and even the inhabitants, as dirty, lazy and
rough they stared at us with a sort of apathetic hate,
seemed relapsing into barbarism. It may be the season,
or it may be the war; but for some reason this part of
Virginia impresses me with a sense of hopeless deca-
dence, a spiritless decay both of land and people, such
as I never experienced before. The very dogs are curs
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 201
and the women and children, with their long, blousy,
uncombed hair, seem the proper inmates of the delapi-
dated log cabins which they hold in common with the
long-nosed, lank Virginia swine.
To go back to our march however. Our wagons
toiled wearily along and sunset found us only sixteen
miles from Alexandria, and there we camped. During
the latter part of the day I was all alone riding to and
fro between the baggage train and the column. I felt
by no means well and cross with opium. It was a cold,
clear, November evening, with a cold, red, western
sky and, chilled through, with a prospect of only a
supperless bivouac, a stronger home feeling came over
me than I have often felt before, and I did sadly dwell
in my imagination on the intense comfort there is in
a thoroughly warm, well-lighted room and well-spread
table after a long cold ride. However I got into camp
before it was dark and here things were not so bad.
The wind was all down, the fires were blazing and we
had the elements of comfort. The soup Lou sent me
supplied me with a hot supper — in fact I don't know
what I should have done if it had not been for that,
through this dreary march; and after that I spread my
blankets on a bed of fir-branches close to the fire and
slept as serenely as man could desire to sleep.
The next morning the weather changed and it gradu-
ally grew warmer and more cloudy all day. Our road
lay through Dumfries and became worse and worse as
we pushed along, until after making only eight miles,
we despaired of our train getting along and turned
into an orchard in front of a deserted plantation house
202 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Nov. 30.
and there camped. Our wagons in fact did get stuck
and passed the night two miles back on the road,
while we built our fires and made haste to stretch our
blankets against the rain. It rained hard all night, but
we had firewood and straw in plenty, and again I
slept as well as I wish to. Next day the wagons did
not get up until noon and it was two o'clock before
we started. Then we pushed forward until nearly dark.
An hour before sunset we came up with the flank of the
army resting on Acquia Creek. We floundered along
through the deep red-mud roads till nearly dark and
then, having made some five miles, turned into a beau-
tiful camping ground, where we once more bivouacked.
One thing surprises me very much and that is the very
slight hardship and exposure of the bivouac. Except
in rains tents are wholly unnecessary — articles of
luxury. Here, the night before Thanksgiving and cold
at that, I slept as soundly and warmly before our fire
as I could have done in bed at home. The reason is
plain. In a tent one, more or less, tries to undress;
in the bivouac one rolls himself, boots, overcoat and
all, with the cape thrown over his head, in his blankets
with his feet to the fire, which keeps them warm and
dry, and then the rest will not trouble him. A tent is
usually equally cold and also Very damp.
The next day was Thanksgiving Day — 27th No-
vember. It was a fine clear day, with a sharp chill
in the little wind which was stirring. I left the column
and rode forward to General Hooker's Head Quarters
through the worst roads I ever saw, in which our empty
wagons could hardly make two miles an hour. I saw
] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 203
General Hooker and learnt the situation of our brigade,
and here too we came up with our other battalion. We
passed them however and came over here to our pres-
ent camp, where we have pitched our tents and made
ourselves as comfortable as we can while we await the
course of events.
As to the future, you can judge better than I. I have
no idea that a winter campaign is possible in Virginia.
The mud is measured already by feet, and the rains
have hardly begun. The country is thoroughly ex-
hausted and while horses can scarcely get along alone,
they can hardly succeed in drawing the immense sup-
ply and ammunition trains necessary for so large an
army, to say nothing of the artillery which will be stuck
fast. The country may demand activity on our part,
but mud is more obdurate than popular opinion, and
active operations here I cannot but consider as closed
for the season. As to the army, I see little of my part
of it but my own regiment. I think myself it is tired of
motion and wants to go to sleep until the spring. The
autumn is depressing and winter hardships are severe
enough in the most comfortable of camps. Winter
campaigns may be possible in Europe, a thickly peo-
pled country of fine roads, but in this region of mud,
desolation and immense distances, it is another matter.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Mother
Potomac Run, near Falmouth, Va.
December 9, 1862
After a day or night of duty, it is strange what a sense
of home and home comfort one attaches to the bivouac
204 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 9,
fire. You come in cold, hungry and tired and I assure
you all the luxuries of home scarcely seem desirable
beside its bright blaze, as you polish off a hot supper.
And such suppers! You've no idea how well we live,
now we've added experience to hunger. This evening,
I remember, I had army-bread fried in pork — and
some day I '11 let you know what can be made of that
dish — hot coffee, delicate young roast pig, beefsteak
and an arrangement of cabbage, from the tenement of
a neighboring mud-sill. This, with a pipe of tobacco,
a bunk of fir branches well lined with blankets and a
crackling fire before it left little to be desired. There is
a wild luxury about it, very fascinating to me, though
I never realise the presence of danger and that excite-
ment which some men derive from that; to me camp
always seems perfectly secure and my horses kick and
champ on the other side of my fire, and my arms hang
on the ridge of my bunk, practically as little thought of
by me as though the one were in the stable at Quincy,
and the other hanging over my mantelpiece in Boston.
My enjoyment springs from the open air sense of free-
dom and strength. It's a lawless sort of feeling, mak-
ing me feel as if I depended only on nature and myself
for enjoyment.
This is all very well when the weather is fine, even
in December; but next morning a change came o'er me,
for early in the morning it began to rain and snow and,
by the time we were relieved, at noon it snowed most
heartily, so that I sincerely pitied the miserable crea-
tures who relieved us. Home we rode, wet and cold,
and as I walked sulkily along, I tried to think of one
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 205
crumb of comfort awaiting me when I got back into
camp. I couldn't think of one, unless indeed the com-
missary might have procured some whiskey. Wrong
again! I got into camp and found Colonel Sargent
there with three companies from Hooker's head-quar-
ters and things looked lively enough, though far from
cheerful, and as luck would have it Henry Davis was
there, established in the midst of discomfort in his
usual comfort. So I passed the evening with him,
cursing Colonel (in which chorus we all unani-
mously concur), smoking the best of tobacco, drinking
hot whiskey punch and eating plum-cake fresh from
Washington. . . .
The next time Henry passes a bookstore let him
stop and buy for her [Mary] a little volume called
"Ten Years of Soldiers' Life in India." It contains the
life of Major Hodson taken from his own letters and is
one of the most touching and charming books of these
later days, to say nothing of the character of Hodson
himself — my ideal of a Christian gentleman and sol-
dier. I wonder none of you ever heard of him.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
In the woods, near Falmouth, Va.
December 15, 1862
My dear Mother:
Potomac Run, Va.
December 21, 1862
My dear Father:
I leave the above heading to my letter for two reasons.
In the first place to show you that I did n't forget you
while we were at the front; and in the second because
206 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. h,
this is my last sheet of paper and when this is gone I
must borrow or be silent.
My last was written on Tuesday the 9th and while
we were under orders for the front. The orders how-
ever did not come until Thursday and on Wednesday
we had nothing to contend with but our new Colonel.
He, however, was a host in himself and worried us very
thoroughly. You've no idea what a nuisance such an
ass as is at the head of a regiment. Ignorant to
the last degree of his supposed profession, his ignorance
is only surpassed by his conceit and vanity and his love
of display. He has two and only two of the qualities of
an officer of cavalry: he is a good and daring horseman
and a man of great personal courage. At the same time
he is the most cruel man on horses I ever saw in my
life, and his courage, combined with his plenteous lack
of judgment, only endangers the lives of those under
his command. He prides himself on being a disciplin-
arian, knowing nothing of discipline, and so wears out
his officers and men by an inordinate attention to use-
less trifles. He considers himself a tactician and yet
he could not drill a corporal's guard without making
ludicrous blunders. His mistakes on the drill ground,
his theories of war and his absurdities in camp are, as
John will tell you, the laughing stock of the regiment.
He is universally disliked as well as ridiculed. He has
already cost us the best officers in our regiment, and we
all fear that he will ultimately ruin it. We of course
can do nothing, but I assure you we keep up a devil of
a thinking. This particular day certain horses were to
be condemned and he nearly drove the commanders of
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 207
companies wild. Their horses were led out and then
led back again, and then led out and kept standing.
Then some blanks were made out and then some more
horses were ordered out, and then some were inspected
and ordered to be shot or turned over to the Quarter
Master, and then some messages were sent round and
then we were ordered to pick out our worst horses
to hand over to another regiment, and the Majors
laughed and cursed, and the Captains cursed and swore,
and the men grumbled and looked sullen, and he
strutted round, overwhelmed with a sense of his own
importance and utterly unaware with what a hearty
contempt the general camp, pioneers and all, were
cursing him and laughing at him. We see how ridicu-
lous he makes us in the army and what a tool he be-
comes in the hands of others; and yet, discuss it as we
will among ourselves, to the world we must put our
tongues between our teeth and bear it as best we may.
As for me, I have no great trouble with him. I am in
command of my company and go near him only when
I can't help doing so. My company is a very good one
and so I'm not often drawn into scrapes. . . .
Early Thursday morning, clear and cold, the brigade
got into line and began to advance to the front. While
we were at the stable call a heavy cannonade had
opened towards Fredericksburg and it was clear that
work was before some one. Our column was not
formed until nine o'clock and then we began to move
towards the front, but very slowly. It was at first very
cold, and our fingers and feet felt it sharply; but as the
sun rose this passed away and the weather moderated.
208 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS Pec. 21,
Then the battery in front of us got stuck and delayed
us an hour, during which we listened to the firing and
discussed the prospects. For, instead of going out to
operate on the right flank as we had expected, it was
now clear that we were going straight towards Fred-
ericksburg. Finally we passed the battery by a path
through the woods, leaving it fairly mired and then
pushed rapidly forward. Presently we came to a large
field, about I should say a mile and a half from the
point of cannonading, and there the brigade drew up,
dismounted and began to wait. Around us were de-
serted infantry camps. On our left, on a rising ground,
was an infantry line of battle, beyond and above them
was a cloud of white smoke, and this was all I saw of
Thursday's fighting.
For ourselves, we waited. The warm sun had started
the frost and converted our field into a fine mire, and in
that we stood from eleven o'clock to sunset. As long
as I could I stood by my horse and eat hard-bread and
smoked. When that was played out, I found the driest
place I could, spread the cape of my overcoat on the
mud, laid down on it and went to sleep. So the day
passed tediously and disagreeably away. Rumors of
doings at the front reached us from time to time; our
pontoons were knocked to pieces and the engineers
killed and we were not getting ahead very fast. Fi-
nally it became clear that we were to do nothing that
day, so we watered our horses and presently the
column started for a camp. It was dark before we
reached it, but finally we found ourselves packed away
in a pine wood, full of camp fires and pine smoke. I
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 209
have ceased to be a believer in any necessity for dis-
comfort under any circumstances. On this occasion
Davis and I at eight o'clock, with the horses groomed
and fed, had had a very comfortable supper ourselves
and then with blankets unrolled were lying before our
fire and smoking the pipe of great content. The weather
too had moderated and though it froze stiff during the
night, in the woods we rolled ourselves in our blankets
and were as comfortable as need be.
Friday the 12th, instead of moving as was expected,
we lay all the morning in the camp, listening to the
artillery firing which still continued, but we noticed
no musketry. The day was warm and bright and we
found picnicing in the woods in December not so bad.
To be sure the Colonel worried the officers all he could
— among other trifles in one morning threatening the
Lieutenant Colonel, Major and Adjutant with arrest;
but I was fortunately at the extreme further end of the
camp and took good care not to lessen my distance.
As it was I began to enjoy myself very much. I am
growing more and more attached to out of door life,
so that it is pleasant even in December. We found that
our camp was most prettily situated in a little strip of
pine wood surrounding a little hollow in which the 4th
Pennsylvania was encamped. The weather was delight-
ful and we had nothing to do but to while away the
time watching our neighbors and listening to the can-
nonade. The Pennsylvanians were a source of endless
delight to Davis and myself — they were so ragged, so
independent, and so very peculiar. No officers trou-
bled their repose, and stable calls worried them not.
210 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 21,
They were grave and elderly men and very, very old
campaigners. They were curiously clad in defiance of
all rule whether military or civil, and we pondered long
as to where they could have got their clothes, until
Davis happily suggested that, having all started as
civilians, they had been picking up old soldier clothes
ever since, until they had arrived at their present de-
gree of uniformity. They had strange ways of leaving
camp whenever they saw fit and returning ladened
with well filled haversacks; whereat the faces of their
comrades would light up with grim satisfaction. Water
they had not now and soap they had evidently never
known; but they were old soldiers, for they cooked
strange messes and when boots and saddles sounded,
undisturbed by the cannonade they would saddle their
horses carefully, slowly and meditatively, evidently
with respect for the beast if not in the fear of God.
They compared so curiously with our own men so com-
paratively young, clean and well dressed, full of intelli-
gence and yet subject to such rigid and never ending
discipline. Then as the afternoon crept on the most
beautiful lights and shadows I ever saw crept over the
little hollow in which our friends were encamped, the
smoke of the camp fires rising among the pines, while
the sunlight played round the horses and riders among
them gave effects which in pictures we should declare
unnatural. At two o'clock orders came for us to saddle.
We did so and got all ready to start and then, anxious
and waiting for orders, we killed away the time until
dusk, when again we watered and unsaddled, and
again Davis and I after a comfortable supper lay
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 211
before our fire enjoying the charms of tobacco and
December moonlight.
Saturday the 13th, we did not change our position
at all, but, as before, our horses were kept saddled the
greater part of the day; but learning by experience
I made myself comfortable, reading Holmes and ob-
serving the preparation of our dinner. Still, at best,
this comfort was a very relative term that day, for all
day long, from before day-break to long after dark, the
heavy cannonade was broken only by long and terrific
vollies of musketry, now before us, now on the right,
now far away to the left. Evidently a terrible battle
was going on, but with what result we could only guess,
for we could only hear, and during all these days did
not see an enemy or hear the whir-r-r of a single shot.
There we lay, cold, idle and anxious, aware only of
the severity of the contest, expecting soon to take part
in it and knowing nothing of the result. The day
passed slowly away, ending in the heaviest musketry
fire by all odds that I ever heard, and again we passed
a moonlight evening over our camp-fires. ...
An order has just come for me to go out with two
days' rations and twenty pounds of forage on some un-
known job. If we meet an enemy God save us, for I
understand Colonel is to command.
Wednesday, 24th. We got back from our scout yes-
terday at about noon, having accomplished nothing
and now, as Colonel Sargent has kindly put me un-
der arrest, I hope to be able to quietly finish my letter.
Where did I leave off? I had accounted for Saturday
I believe. Sunday the 14th found us still in the woods
212 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 21,
and still the weather continued clear and warm. At
daybreak the usual firing began and at times there
seemed to be explosions of musketry and cannon, but
it was not at all the fire of yesterday. Our horses were
still kept saddled and all our traps packed, but I had
ceased to believe that we should move, and lay peace-
ably before my fire, enjoying the soft air and the
strange livery scene and reading Browning's poems.
Towards evening rumors of some great success were
rife and made us all very cheerful, and we again hoped
soon to be in the saddle and following the enemy briskly
up on the road to Richmond. I put less faith in the
rumors than most and accordingly next day my dis-
appointment was less. For next day our hopes most
suddenly collapsed. There was a desultory firing going
on all day, but not amounting to a great deal as com-
pared with what had been going on. We lay in the
woods as usual and I started this letter, but was sud-
denly cut short by an order to shift all the picket ropes,
which, while it increased my comfort, took up the rest
of the day and cut off your letter.
Tuesday the 16th, they actually took us out to drill,
to exercise the horses and occupy the time. We skir-
mished round a hilly field opposite the camp for a couple
of hours, and then the Colonel blundered us into camp.
It began to grow clear that we should not immediately
be wanted. When I got in I was informed that I was
to be officer of the day and was to go out and post some
pickets to protect the rear of the camp. I should just
as soon have thought of posting pickets in State Street,
as we were all surrounded by the camps of our friends;
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 213
but I did as I was told and posted at least half a dozen
miserable men in positions in which they seemed least
likely to be ridiculous and returned to camp to be
worried by my Colonel. That night it rained smartly
and, as usual, the drops pattering on my face reminded
me that we were in bivouac. Like a knowing cam-
paigner I called to my servant to throw my rubber
poncho over me, pulled my boots under the blankets
and my cape over my head and chuckled myself to
sleep, as the rain came down harder and harder, to
think how comfortable I was and how very much I had
got ahead of the elements this time. The next morning
it cleared away at about the time when decent people
get up. I suppose, of course, that you bear in mind
that eight o'clock p.m. is our bed time and that the
regular hour of reveille is half past six — one hour be-
fore sunrise — which we vary on special occasions by
having it at three o'clock and so down. I assure you
I have seen all the sun-rises I ever want to see and
I thoroughly believe in lying abed until the earth is
dry.
Hardly was the sun out when the announcement
seemed to run at once all through the camps that our
whole army had recrossed, that the bridges were all
up and the campaign was a terrible failure — in a
word, all our cake was dough. Even Colonel Sargent
concluded that his regiment would not advance for
a few days and left camp. Hardly was he gone when
"The General" sounded and it was announced that
we were to go back whence we came. It was a muddy,
sullen, discouraging march home. The sky was cloudy
214 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 21,
and threatening and the mud deep, liquid, and slip-
pery. It was rapidly growing cold and the wind was
rough and chilling. We had been to the front and had
not been under fire or seen an enemy, and we were going
back with a campaign ruined and winter quarters be-
fore us. For myself I did hope that now we should put
through this winter campaign and not sit down under
this blow. I never had any confidence in this advance,
but we had tried it and now I, and I think all, felt that
it would not do to give it up so, and we did earnestly
hope that we might be called upon to face and be able
to surmount all the exposures, dangers and obstacles
of a winter campaign. At any rate we felt willing to
try and I do so now, but I understand this f eeling does
not extend to the body of the army which crossed the
Rappahannock. We got into camp by three o'clock,
finding it dirty, unprepared, bleak and cold, and there
finished as quietly disheartening a day as I care to
pass, with a miserable and insufficient dinner and a
night passed wretchedly cold in a wet overcoat and
frozen blankets. I had n't got ahead of the elements
the night before as I had calculated.
A change of weather had taken place and we had got
back to our tents just in time, to meet it. It was cold,
very cold, ice an inch and a half thick and now and
then men frozen to death — only stragglers and serve
them right; but then you know "a soldier's life is al-
ways gay." As for us, again we went shivering round
camp, frozen out of our tents and miserably grouping
round first one fire and then another. Our camp is
the coldest, bleakest, most exposed place in the whole
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 215
surrounding country, and we wanted to move into the
woods; but our Colonel, fully impressed with the idea
each day that tomorrow we are going to advance in
triumph to Richmond, did n't think it worth while to
make us comfortable just for a day, and, as he has a
large tent with a fireplace in it, he is n't frozen out as
we poor devils are. Anyhow, the next three days until
Sunday passed uncomfortably enough, clear and bitter
cold, the water in our blankets freezing even at noon.
They drilled us Friday and Saturday, and that was a
bore; but on Friday my patience gave out and I re-
solved to be comfortable if only for a day. So I set men
to work and had a fireplace built behind my tent, of
rough stone. The seam in the rear of the tent was then
opened and closed around its mouth, and lo! in one
corner of my tent was a mean, ugly little open fire-
place. Then I had a shelf put up on one side, on which
I am now writing, and a bed of fir-tree branches on the
other side on which I spread my blankets. Thus I
become more comfortable than I had ever been be-
fore and, though the wind sweeps and the rain drips
through my tent, and Davis in abject despair calls
it a "dirty kennel," in it I can be comfortable and I
can write in the coldest weather, and there I am writ-
ing now, and tomorrow in it Davis and I will have our
Christmas dinner, if we can raise one, which seems
doubtful; but your dinner in London and John's in
Boston will not taste better than ours, though we do
eat tough beef and drink commissary whiskey out of
battered and campaign worn old tin plates and cups.
And even if it does, I am very sure that my health will
216 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 21.
be drunk and I shall be remembered in Newport and
Boston and London and that if it lay in the power of
my family, I should eat and drink of the fat of the land.
However, to go back to my letter. I left off, I be-
lieve, just where I began this letter — at Sunday noon.
We got our orders — 250 men from the command, with
two days rations and twenty pounds of forage, and were
to report in an hour. It struck hard, for though the
weather had moderated it was cloudy and threatened
rain and it was still rough and we were just comfort-
able. However, out it was and my fifty-six men were
m line at the time the fifty-six horses having had two
quarts of oats and no hay, thanks to the shortcomings
of the brigade Quarter Master, that day. We got out
and joined other details from the brigade, making 1000
cavalry all told, and somewhat after dark took up our
line of march for Hartwood Church. We reached our
advanced pickets at about nine o'clock and then en-
camped in the woods, lighting fires and feeding our
horses and before eleven we were all asleep. At three
o'clock Monday morning an orderly came round and
woke us up, though why we did n't exactly see, as our
horses were neither fed nor cleaned, and all we had to
do was to get our breakfasts. I fed my horse and got
myself up a fine breakfast of four hard-breads and was
ready for a start, but the start did n't come until day-
break, and the sun rose, weak and cloudy, while we
were still within our pickets, but yet on the road.
Then came a long killing march, ending in nothing.
We rapidly pushed directly forward, at times at a
gallop, until after noon, when we pushed forward
1862.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 217
through some fields and woods as fast as our horses
could go, using many up and finishing a man or two by
tumbles and accidental shots. Here we drove in pick-
ets, but I saw no signs of any force of the enemy having
been in that vicinity. We then turned to the South and
towards the river and ended by meeting Sigel's corps
and marching home to our camp of the night before,
having made a dashing reconnaissance with no results.
. . . We got into camp about five o'clock having cov-
ered I should say not less than thirty-five miles. We
cleaned and fed the horses, cooked some supper and
then went to sleep. Yesterday (Tuesday, 23d) at day-
break we were roused and got ready to come home.
To show you how government kills horses, I will say
that my fifty-six from twelve o'clock Saturday night to
twelve o'clock Tuesday noon — sixty hours — trav-
elled nearly sixty miles and had no hay and just thir-
teen quarts of oats apiece. I am glad to say only
one gave out, and that one has since been brought in.
We came leisurely in on a pleasant, warm, winter morn-
ing, and here befel my most lamentable arrest by my
Colonel. He thinks himself a disciplinarian and is
great on "marching orders," and leaving the column
on a march. Now we were within sight of our camp
and the brigade had stopped to water at a stream, and
watering a thousand horses is a matter of time. As we
were waiting I happened to hear that Colonel Buchanan
was quartered just a hundred yards or so on our right
in plain sight. I wanted to see him and said so to Major
Higginson, with whom I was riding. He replied : "Why
don't you go now? I would." I said I would come over
213 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 19,
again, there was n't time, etc.; but he still advised
me to go until at last I said I thought I would and
cantered over there. I found the Colonel in front of
his tent and had a pleasant talk of about ten minutes
with him. I then started to rejoin my column and
found it had gone forward. I followed and came up
just after my company had watered and found Colo-
nel Sargent just finishing some unknown manoeuvre
through which he discovered my absence. As I calmly
took my place, he summoned me before him and in-
quired where I had been. I pleasantly informed him, in
that airy manner which makes me a universal favorite,
and he immediately put me under arrest. Upon which,
winking pleasantly at his orderlies, I retired to the rear
of my company. I believe now he is debating in his
own mind as to whether he will have me dismissed
the service without a hearing or court martialed and
cashiered. He is too ignorant to know that my having
had the consent of my immediate superior to what I did
covers me completely. So now I look upon this as a
little vacation and to my release from the weary mo-
notony of company duties you owe this letter. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, December 19, 1862
To change the subject let me tell you of a pleasant little
experience which diverted my thoughts from home last
evening. The Queen's Advocate, Sir Robert Philli-
more, learning that I had accepted an invitation of the
Westminster School to attend their annual performance
SURGEON LUCIUS MANLIUS SARGENT
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 219
of a Latin play, asked me to join him at his own house
to dinner, and proceed from there. I accepted very
thankfully. The company I met was small but choice.
It consisted of the Lord Chancellor (Lord Westbury),
the Brazilian Minister, Lord Harris, now attached to
the new household of the Prince of Wales, and a brother
of the host. We had a lively dinner, as the Chancellor
is a very ready talker, and has great resources, and soon
after proceeded to Westminster School which is in close
proximity to the famous old abbey. It dates from the
time of Elizabeth and has produced many eminent men
from Ben Jonson downward to Gibbon and Southey.
The stage is set up in what is called the dormitory, a
large hall, the bare walls of which are marked with the
names in large letters of those who have been scholars
with the date attached, apparently done by themselves
without any order or method. The popularity of the
school has declined of late years, whilst that of Eton
has developed beyond all legitimate bounds. Neverthe-
less those who are attached to it cling with pride to
its usages, and of these the most notable and peculiar
is the performance about Christmas time every year of
some old Latin play.
This year it happened to be the Andria of Terence.
The scene was well got up. It represented Athens in
the distance, as it may be presumed to have looked in
its sunny days. The costumes were rigidly Grecian
according to the best authority. The only modern
things were the prologue and epilogue, and these were
likewise in Latin.
I had seen the same thing done at Ealing in my boy-
2*0 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 25,
hood. But now that I could understand it better I
wanted to see it again. Not having read the piece for
twenty years I had bought a copy of Terence pre-
viously and refreshed my memory with a careful pe-
rusal. The result was that I enjoyed it exceedingly.
The boys articulated well and acted with spirit, one or
two with power, so that I could form a very fair notion
of the secret of the charm of old Menander. The audi-
ence, composed mostly of old "Westminster scholars
familiar with the play, was quiet and sympathetic, so
that it really gave a good illusion. On the whole I must
say that this is the pleasantest evening I have yet
passed in England. The Queen's Advocate, Sir Robert
Phillimore's son was what is called the Captain of the
school, and played the part of Pamphilus very well. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
Mount Felix, Walton on Thames *
December S3, 18tv2
Public matters remain yet in a profound state of repose,
and probably will continue so for another month. The
publication made by the Secretary of State of large
portions of my Despatches for the past year has rather
stirred a hornet's nest in the press, but I fancy it
will prove only a nine days' wonder. I have said
merely what everybody knows. The great body of the
aristocracy and the wealthy commercial classes are
anxious to see the L'nited States go to pieces. On the
other hand the middle and lower class sympathise
1 Russell Sturgis* place.
1862] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 221
with us, more and more as they better comprehend the
true nature of the struggle. A good deal of dust was
thrown into their eyes at first by the impudent pretense
that the tariff was the cause of the war. All that is
now over. Even the Times has no longer the assurance
to repeat that fable. The true division now begins to
make itself perceptible here as elsewhere in Europe —
the party of the old and of the new, of vested rights and
of well regulated freedom. All equally see in the convul-
sion in America an era in the history of the world, out
of which must come in the end a general recognition of
the right of mankind to the produce of their labor and
the pursuit of happiness. Across all these considera-
tions come occasionally individual and national inter-
ests which pervert the judgment for a time, but the
world moves onward taking little note of temporary
perturbations, and whatever may betide to us of this
generation, the end is sure. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, December 26, 1862
. . . The telegrams announce a battle on the 13th and
from the scanty items I infer that it was another An-
tietam, only worse. In short I am prepared for a com-
plete check and am screwing my courage up to face the
list of killed and wounded. . . .
We have our hands full and things are in a very lively
state. The notes are becoming savage, but we have
a clear case and are making headway. I find myself,
I think, of use, and am well content to be here. My
former restlessness was caused by the Pope campaign
222 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Dec. 26.
which upset us all. On the whole I would infinitely
prefer to be here to going into the army, and it is only
when there really seems to be a superior call to the
army that I feel disposed to move.
Anxiety has become our normal condition and I find
a fellow can dance in time on a tight rope as easily as
on a floor. It is harder to keep one's temper, but
even that I now contrive to do in very trying cases.
A steady pressure tells better here than anything
else, and if our people will be cool, I think we can set
England straight. . . .
I have been staying several days at Monckton
Milnes' place in Yorkshire where we had a very jolly
little bachelor party. . . .
Even the stoic steadiness of nerve that I am try-
ing to cultivate, shakes under the apprehension of the
next news.
1863
1863
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Mother
Potomac Run, Va.
January % 1863
During the day [29th] two details of one hundred men
each were ordered from our regiment, to join other de-
tails from other regiments in the brigade at eight o'clock
the next morning. One of these details was to consist
of picked men and horses, carefully armed, with three
days' rations and twenty pounds of forage, and of these
Colonel Curtis had command and Channing Clapp
went with him as Major. I had command of the other
detail, which was provided with ten pounds of forage
and three days' rations. Both details got off at eight
o'clock the morning of the 30th, Colonel Curtis report-
ing to General Aver ell in person and I to Major White
of the 3d Pennsylvania. Evidently something was on
foot. General Averell's force could not have been less
than a couple of thousand picked men and horses
under chosen officers and it was evident that work was
cut out for them. Our force was about 325, far inferior
men and horses, and I imagined we were merely to act
as a reserve or to support a battery. It took us a long
time to get off and it was while waiting in the saddle,
on a chilly, cloudy December morning, that I received
all your letters of November 21st, informing me of
Sallie Hampton's death among other facts.
226 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 2,
About ten o'clock we began to move, our detach-
ment following General AverelPs and taking the road
towards our advanced pickets at the Hartwood Church.
We got there at about noon and after a few min-
utes' rest Major White received his orders. We again
mounted, passed Averell's force and took the west-
erly road. Here Major White sent me back word that
he wished to see me, and I went forward and joined him
and he proceeded to develop to me the plan of our
scout, as it appeared I was next in command to him-
self. We were to march with the utmost despatch and
caution to Warrenton Junction, there rest and feed,
and start at the proper time to arrive at Warrenton
at daylight, "where," the orders went on, "you will
find two companies of rebel cavalry. You will capture
these and return at once, reporting in person to Major
General Hooker." White winked at me and I winked
at White, and immediately I went to the rear, changed
my mare for my heavy old working brute, and sent her,
my servant and all my possessions back within the
picket and then rejoined White and we went on our
way rejoicing in the cold, heavy, rainy December after-
noon. For once I really believed we were going to do
something and my spirits rose accordingly.
We pushed briskly along, stopping only once for a
few moments until nine o'clock, when we found our-
selves close to Warrenton Junction and then turned
into the woods to wait, for the next six hours. It had
been raining, but not heavily, and now the air was
very heavy and cold — damp. It was a sort of cold
drizzle. Of course fires were not safe, so we fed our
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS m
horses and then, after sharing Major White's supper,
I smoked for a while and then lay down at the foot of a
tree and slept as smcomfortably as I care to, waking
up chilled through and very disconsolate. At three
o'clock we again got on the road and pushed on well
enough, except that our guides once or twice lost the
road, until we came to the Junction. There, the moon
having gone down, it suddenly became intensely
dark, our guides lost the road, we got wandering
through the woods and morasses, and, for a time,
things looked black enough. I never saw such dark-
ness. I could not see a man and horse three feet before
me, but blindly followed the jingling of the column,
relying on my horse not to fall and to keep the road.
We lost our advance guard, a message came up that
the rear squadron had not been seen for a long time,
and we lost our rear-guard and didn't find it until next
day. We had finally to retrace our steps to the Junction
and there, at least, we found our missing squadron, got
back our advance guard and re-discovered the road and
then pressed on once more.
Then came one of those disgusting night marches;
cold and disgusted, one's only desire is to be in bed; so
sleepy that to keep one's eyes open is impossible. You
sleep and doze in wretched discomfort while your horse
presses on. Good Lord! how for two hours I did wish
myself comfortably back under arrest. Day broke at
last and I woke up. We were late and pressing on fast,
but it was eight o'clock before we entered Warren-
ton. White was to drive in the pickets and charge
through the town with one squadron and I was to f ol-
228 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 2,
low in the rear and support him with mine, while the
third was to be left as reserve. As we approached the
town I began to smell a rat. In vain I listened for the
first shots telling that we were on their pickets. It
did n't come, and I began to feel that we were sold.
Still it had to be done. On a bright, cool morning in
December, feeling like a fool, I charged through the
quiet town of Warrenton at the head of my squadron,
with their carbines advanced, making a devil of a
racket, barked at by curs and astonishing and delight-
ing peaceful citizens. They flocked out and looked at us,
not exactly with admiration, but much as if it had been
the great American Circus or Van Amburg's Menagerie,
or any other show got up for their edification. They
were very civil and certainly exhibited no signs of dis-
trust or fear, and we justified their confidence; for, as
soon as we had rushed through the town and sent our
men up all manner of streets, satisfying ourselves that
there was no organized body of rebels in that town, we
turned round and left the town according to our orders
on our way home. We felt, as I have said, like fools.
I have told you what was, now for what might have
been. As we marched away we heard bells ringing and
wondered what it was. It was a little signal. Two hours
after we left, Stuart entered the town on his way back
from Dumfries and was there joined by Lee and a few
hours after he left Averell entered it in pursuit and thus
Warrenton saw plenty of cavalry that day. On the
one hand we just missed defeat and captivity, death or
flight, and on the other, brilliant success. Had Stuart
been there when we arrived we would savagely have
1863.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 229
assaulted his whole force, under the impression that
they were the two companies we were after and now,
the probabilities are, I should not have been writing
this letter. Had Averell gone with us, instead of tak-
ing the road he did, Stuart would have been caught
at last. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Mother
Camp of 1st Mass. Cav'y
Potomac Run, Va., January 8, 1863
It was clear that we were not going to the bridge, as
Chamberlain of our regiment had charge of that party.
I had the rear of the column and a ripping head-ache,
otherwise I should have enjoyed the thing immensely,
for it was a clear, cold, moonlight night and we went
floundering through the marshes at a tremendous gait.
All I could see was dissolving views of the rear of the
column as we pelted through woods and across broad
white marshes, intersected by creeks which we had to
ford. Presently Ben [Crowninshield] came down the
column and informed me that we were going up the
railroad to destroy some smaller bridges and, if it took
us long, we were to let the column go and find our own
way home. Of course we lost the way and after riding
up the road two miles and finding no bridge, we rode
down two miles and a half, cutting down the telegraph
poles as we went along, and then there was a halt and
I heard the sound of the axes. "Ah," thought I, "here
is the bridge," and my head-ache felt better.
So I rode up and looked at a miserable little culvert,
230 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 8,
about three yards long, on which some twenty de-
stroyers were at work. This was, then, the greatest
humbug of all. We had come with artillery and cavalry
and infantry, through rain and snow and ice, without
shelter or forage, all the way up here to cut up a miser-
able little culvert which ten men could rebuild in five
hours. It would have been very amusing had I felt
well. There we were a hundred of us, some eighty in
line and ready to fire into any unsuspecting train which
might come along, and the other twenty, without direc-
tion, or system or tools, tugging away at a remarkably
well-built railroad which resisted their utmost efforts.
Ye Gods! how the mismanagement did stick out!!
Our tools were six axes and the ground was hard frozen.
Every one directed and every one worked on his own
hook. My second Lieutenant, a son of Judge Par-
sons, was ordered to do the work and he bellowed and
swore, and the men laughed and minded him or not as
they chose. White, quite nervous and anxious to get
through, complained that too many orders were given
and did nothing to remedy it. Ben Crowninshield,
very anxious to get the job done while yet there was
time, seeing that the men had worked an hour with-
out getting up a single rail, encouraged them by danc-
ing round in high excitement, exhorting them some-
what generally to "do something to turn the whole
thing over at once, somehow" and I sat on my horse
in amused despair.
At length with immense effort we got up one rail and
threw it into the creek, and White at once declared the
bridge used up and we started back along the railroad.
1863.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 231
It was eleven o'clock now and the last half hour we
had heard a spattering fire of carbines and musquetry
towards the river, indicating that Chamberlain was at
work, but no artillery, which seemed to indicate that
it was n't much of a job after all. As for us we went
rapidly along the track and the first thing we knew we
came to a bridge, as was a bridge. It was clear at once
we had been at work on the wrong bridge hitherto, so
we went to work again. It was the same old story, only
a little better, for this time we made cleaner work, pull-
ing up the track, cutting through the uprights and
main beams and finally setting the middle pier on fire;
having done which we mounted and went off better
pleased.
Through the whole thing I must confess I felt like
a fool. It was a small job and badly done; slight resist-
ance would have turned us back and I have n't as yet
gotten over an old prejudice against going round de-
stroying property which no one tries to protect. Any-
how it was done and the fire of the burning bridge
threw a bright fight across the marsh as we rode away.
We rejoined the main body and waited for Chamber-
lain, who had been at work on the main bridge and had,
after some slight resistance, resulting in nothing, de-
stroyed about one hundred and twenty feet of it. The
whole party was in by three o'clock, and we at once
started back and, as I rode along in the clear, cold
moonlight, I very soon made up my mind as to the
whole affair.
I don't know, but I imagine a newspaper success —
"dashing raid" and all that — will be manufactured
232 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 8,
out of this. If it is I can only say it is a clap-trap and
a humbug and was intended as such. It is, I fear, pure
Joe Hookerism and wire pulling. The bridge was of no
real value to the rebels or to us and was not protected.
Even if it had been, Ned Flint, who is an engineer, said
he would contract to repair with forty men all the dam-
age done in four days. Anyhow, value or no value, two
hundred cavalry could have done it twice as surely and
effectually and in just half the time, and so Chamber-
lain had previously reported. But no ! that would n't
answer for political effect, and so the sledge is brought
out to crush the fly, and infantry, artillery and cavalry
are paraded out in the depth of winter to burn a bridge
which no one used or means to use, and I expect to see
an immense pow-wow over it. If there is, rest assured
it's all a humbug. The thing amounted to nothing,
was very badly done after no end of blunders and mis-
management, and was and is intended solely for politi-
cal effect and has about as much bearing on the ends
of the war as would the burning of Neponset Bridge
or our barn at Quincy. . . .
At last, at half past one, we marched into camp and
were dismissed. This was Saturday afternoon. I had
been on continuous duty for thirty-four hours and in
the saddle twenty-eight; my horse had not eaten for
thirty hours. I had last washed my face and hands
on Wednesday morning, and in this week, the first in
January and by far the most severe of the winter, I
had passed two nights in my tent and five in bivouac.
I got something to eat and washed my face and hands
and then went out to see that the horses were cared for,
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 233
but that night my blankets felt like a bed of down and
I slept like an infant.
I have been specific about this trip as I regard it as
finishing my education. I had tried most kinds before,
dry and wet, hot and cold. We have steadily been at it
for months and I have thought that terrible discom-
fort was yet to come. This combined cold and wet
and hunger and sleeplessness and fatigue and all that
men regard as hard to bear. We had slept in melting
snow and rain, had passed days in the saddle with
soaking feet and freezing clothes, had waited hours in a
pelting rain, and yet I had enjoyed it all, and not for an
instant had wished myself away. I do not now believe
in outdoor hardships. None of us are sick, we have
no colds and no diseases, we are all far better than we
were at home, and yet there is but one greater hardship
than we have felt. A long continued, disastrous winter
retreat would be worse and in the line of exposure this
alone I now fear. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, January 9, 1863
I am deep in international law and political economy,
dodging from the one to the other; and as I see nothing
of the world and am much happier when I see nothing
of it, I have no news to tell you. In point of fact I am
better satisfied with my position now than ever before,
and think I am of use.
At this moment public affairs are becalmed, but
Parliament is soon to meet and then we shall all be put
234 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 20,
on the gridiron again. Luckily one's skin gets callous
in time. We are pretty strong, however, and very ac-
tive; that is, our party here is; and I hope we can check
any hostile plots on this side. Of course we expect to
come in personally for a good share of abuse and social
annoyance, but I suppose we can stand that. Some
day et haec meminisse juvabit. I'll make you laugh
with our little passages at arms. As a general thing,
however, we are simply avoided. By the way, if you
can get Fred. Seward to send you down the volume of
Diplomatic Documents just published, I think it will
amuse you. It has made a great sensation here, and
our opponents have paraded it about as though it were
a collection of choice blasphemy, or a compilation of
bawdy stories. You would think that the unpardonable
sin was in that volume. Unfortunately it is seriously
open to ridicule, but apart from that there is really
nothing to cry out at and much to praise and admire.
I congratulate you on your Captaincy, if it is a cause
of congratulation. You know I look on the service
merely as a necessary duty, and my highest ambition
would be reached by seeing you honorably and safely
out of it. When that event arrives, I will resign you
my place and retire to private life. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Mother
Potomac Run, Va.
January 20, 1863
I see a great deal of Buchanan now and find him
extremely pleasant and most unexpectedly kind and
disposed to assist me. Did n't we formerly consider
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 235
Buchanan a little pompous? And were not we a little
disposed to laugh at him? If we did a most surprising
change has come over him, for he certainly is in his own
quarters and in his intercourse with younger men by
all odds the most genial and pleasant officer of rank
I have ever met. You know he has been very badly
used and bears it like a man. General Sumner alone of
all the Army officers in this Department ranked him
when the war began and now Lieutenants and Cap-
tains of his regiment are Brigadiers and Major Gen-
erals and he is still a Lieutenant Colonel command-
ing the 1st Brigade of Regulars. Yet he is universally
respected as one of our best officers and most reliable
men; as a soldier none stand higher and scarcely one
would be trusted in a tight place as soon as he. He has
been recommended for promotion over and over again
and no man in the army doubts his loyalty. But Wil-
son does and he has not yet succeeded in working his
way through the Military Committee of the Senate.
Now he is coming up and will soon get what he most
desires, the office of Inspector General. At any rate he
is a good friend of mine, and I count his rise as in a
good degree my own. I contrive to get over and see
him very frequently and he advises me to leave this
regiment and go into a staff. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, January 23, 1863
Our customary midweek intelligence has not arrived,
owing I suppose to the violence of the storms delaying
236 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 23,
the steamers, so that we are now fifteen days back. In
the meantime the President's proclamation is doing
much for us on this side. That is put in contrast to the
paper of Jefferson Davis, much to the advantage of the
former. The middle classes generally see and compre-
hend the existence of a moral question apart from all
political disquisitions. The effect is to bring out an ex-
pression in popular meetings which is doing something
to neutralise the opposite tendency of the governing
people. Mr. Seward has printed so largely from my
Despatches of last year, that there is now no misunder-
standing here of what I think on this matter. I fear that
I have forfeited the favor of my aristocratic friends by
performing my duty of disclosing their tendencies, but
as I have had not unsimilar experiences heretofore at
home, perhaps I take it with less uneasiness. There are
always great exceptions to be made. And after all, the
position of a foreign minister must necessarily be one
to inspire caution in making intimacies. My acquaint-
ance is already quite as extensive as I can keep up with.
The profound quiet of the months which intervene
during the absence of Parliament is almost at an end.
On the 5th of February the respective forces in the
political campaign will be marshalled, and the war
of ins and outs will begin. Although they are nearly
equal in numbers I do not find much expectation of an
overthrow of the ministry. Lord Palmerston is very
popular, and he means to hold on to power as long as
he can. If the opposition throw him in the House, he
will only appeal to the people, and the chances are that
he may sustain himself. For though the special vacan-
1863.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 237
cies have been filled rather favorably to the opposition,
it is singular that the successful candidates generally
pledge themselves to support Lord Palmer ston. Thus
is shown the singular spectacle of a leader who mounts
two parties at the same time and yet having the entire
confidence of neither. Such a state of things will not
survive his Lordship. And he is nearly eighty years
old ! So it is not unreasonable to presume that a change
cannot be far distant. The question what might be the
effect on American affairs is that which gives us an in-
terest in the result. I trust that before it happens we
may be so far on our way to a result at home as to save
all risk of trouble. . . .
Chaeles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Potomac River, Va.
January 23, 1863
I do wish you took a little more healthy view of life.
You say "whether my present course of life is profit-
able or not I am very sure yours is not." Now, my
dear fellow, speak for yourself. Your life may be un-
profitable to you, and if it is, I shall have my own ideas
as to why it is so; but I shall not believe it is until I see
it from my own observation. As to me my present con-
viction is that my fife is a good one for me to live, and
I think your judgment will jump with mine when next
we meet. I can't tell how you feel about yourself, but
I can how I feel about myself, and I assure you I have
the instinct of growth since I entered the army. I feel
within myself that I am more of a man and a better
man than I ever was before, and I see in the behavior
238 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 23,
of those around me and in the faces of my friends, that
I am a better fellow. I am nearer other men than I ever
was before, and the contact makes me more human.
I am on better terms with my brother men and they
with me. You may say that my mind is lying fallow
all this time. Perhaps, but after all the body has other
functions than to carry round the head, and a few
years' quiet will hardly injure a mind warped, as I
sometimes suspect mine was, in time past by the too
constant and close inspection of print. I never should
have suspected it in time past, but to my surprise I find
this rough, hard life, a life to me good in itself. After
being a regular, quiet respectable stay-at-home body
in my youth, lo! at twenty-seven I have discovered
that I never knew myself and that nature meant me
for a Bohemian — a vagabond. I am growing and de-
veloping here daily, but in such strange directions.
Let not my father try to tempt me back into my office
and the routine of business, which now seems to sit like
a terrible incubus on my past. No ! he must make up
his mind to that. I hope my late letters have paved
the way to this conviction with him. If not, you may
as well break it to him gently; but the truth is that
going back to Boston and its old tread-mill is one of the
aspects of the future from which my mind fairly re-
volts. With the war the occupation of this Othello's
gone, and I must hit on a new one. I don't trouble my-
self much about the future, for I fear the war will not
be over for years to come. Of course I don't mean this
war, in its present form: that we all see is fast drawing
to a close; but indications all around point out to me
1863.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 239
a troubled future in which the army will play an im-
portant part for good or evil, and needs to be influenced
accordingly. I shall cast my fate in with the army and
the moment reorganization takes place on the return
of peace and the disbandment of volunteers I shall do
all I can to procure the highest grade in the new army
for which I can entertain any hope. I now lament
extremely my early education and life. I would I had
been sent to boarding school and made to go into the
world and mix with men more than my nature then
inclined me to. I would I had been a venturous,
restive, pugnacious little black-guard, causing my
pa-r-i-ents much mental anxiety. In that case I should
now be an officer not at all such as I am. But after all
it is n't too late to mend and enough active service
may supply my deficiencies of education still. Mean-
while here I am, and here I am contented to remain.
The furlough fever has broken out in our regiment, and
the officers, right and left, are figuring up how they can
get home for a time. Three only of us are untouched
and declare that we would n't go home if we could, and
the three are Greely Curtis, Henry Higginson and my-
self. Our tents and the regimental lines have become
our homes. . . .
I've all along told you, you ought to remain in Lon-
don, and I say so still; for that is your post and, pleas-
ant or unpleasant there you should remain. I have
told you all along, however, that I did n't like the tone
of your letters. Your mind has become morbid and is
in a bad way — for yourself — both for the mens sana
and corpus sanum. A year of this life would be most
240 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 26,
advantageous. Your mind might rest and your body
would harden. My advice to you is to wait until you
can honorably leave your post and then make a bolt
into the wilderness, go to sea before the mast, volun-
teer for a campaign in Italy, or do anything singularly
foolish and exposing you to uncalled for hardship. You
may think my advice absurd and never return to it
again. I tell you I know you and I have tried the ex-
periment on myself, and I here suggest what you most
need, and what you will never be a man without. If
you joined an expedition to the North pole you might
not discover that terra incognita, but you would dis-
cover many facts about yourself which would amply
repay you the trouble you had had. All a man's life
is not meant for books, or for travel in Europe. Turn
round and give a year to something new, such as I have
suggested, and if you are thought singular you will
find yourself wise.
Tuesday, 26th
I suppose you in London think it strange that I do
not oftener refer to the war in my letters and discuss
movements. The truth is that you probably know far
more of what is going on than I do, who rarely see
papers, still more rarely go beyond the regimental lines
and almost never meet any one possessed of any re-
liable information. As a rule, so far as my knowledge
goes, the letters of correspondents of the press are very
delusive. They get their information from newspaper
generals and their staffs and rarely tell what they see.
Now and then, very rarely, I see a plain, true, out-
spoken letter of an evident eye-witness. The small
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 241
means of observation I have are enough, however, to
convince me that the army of the Potomac is thor-
oughly demoralized. They will fight yet, but they
fight for defeat, just as a brave, bad rider will face a
fence, but yet rides for a fall. There is a great deal
of croaking, no confidence, plenty of sickness, and
desertion is the order of the day. This arises from
various causes; partly from the defeat at Fredericks-
burg and the failure, but mostly from the change of
commanders of late. You or others may wonder or
agree, as you choose, but it is a fact that McClellan
alone has the confidence of this army. They would
rally and fight under him tomorrow and under him
only. Burnside has lost, and Hooker never had their
confidence.
Under these circumstances my mind recurs more
and more to the plan of the war which I suggested to
you in my last letters from Hilton Head, after the
seven days' fight. This army I now think should be
broken up and the bulk of it at once transferred to the
South West, where it could seize and hold against
everything the territory west of the Mississippi. This
would give us that river and its tributaries, including
the States of Tennessee and Kentucky; it would cir-
cumscribe and ultimately destroy the Southern con-
federacy, and would settle forever the slavery question
in the young South West. One measure alone would de-
cide all this : let the army know that they are to have the
territory they occupy and Congress pass liberal laws
encouraging the army to settle where they have fought.
I think that at least 100,000 fighting men would
242 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 26;
become coloni, would send for their families or marry
and there settle; and this would at once insure to that
immense country inhabitants, defenders and free labor.
This would be now, as it was then, my plan of the war,
and I would abandon at once the moral effect of the
capture of Richmond in favor of the great material
fact of an open Mississippi. That this will be the future
plan of the war there are already indications, but I
hardly hope that we shall throw our whole strength
into it, as we should to insure success. I have given up
philosophising and do not often, except in very muddy
weather indulge in lamentation. I think indeed you
in London will all bear witness that my letters, under
tolerably adverse circumstances, have been reasonably
cheerful, and I hope they will remain so, even if the
days become blacker than these blackest days I ever
saw. We all feel that we are right and that being right,
there is for us good in this plan of Providence, if our
philosophy could but find it out. Do you remember
the first lines of the last chorus in Samson Agonistes?
They begin, "Though we oft doubt," and I have often
tried to recall them lately, but cannot get them all. I
hope to live to see the philosophy of this struggle, and
see the day when the Lord "will to his faithful servant
in his place, bear witness gloriously." Meanwhile, if
it is your place to wield the pen, to my no small as-
tonishment I find the sword becoming my weapon and,
each in his place, we are working off our shares of the
coil. Let us try to do it in our several ways to the best
of our ability and uncomplainingly receive whatever
fate betides us.
1863.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 243
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, January 23, 1883
The Emancipation Proclamation has done more for
us here than all our former victories and all our diplo-
macy. It is creating an almost convulsive reaction in
our favor all over this country. The London Times
furious and scolds like a drunken drab. Certain it is
is, however, that public opinion is very deeply stirred
here and finds expression in meetings, addresses to
President Lincoln, deputations to us, standing com-
mittees to agitate the subject and to affect opinion, and
all the other symptoms of a great popular movement
peculiarly unpleasant to the upper classes here because
it rests altogether on the spontaneous action of the
laboring classes and has a pestilent squint at sympathy
with republicanism. But the Times is on its last legs
and has lost its temper. They say it always does lose
its temper when it finds such a feeling too strong for it,
and its next step will be to come round and try to guide
it. We are much encouraged and in high spirits. If
only you at home don't have disasters, we will give
such a checkmate to the foreign hopes of the rebels as
they never yet have had. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, January 27, 1863
Spring has come again and the leaves are appearing
for the third time and we are still here, nor does there
2U A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 27.
seem any immediate probability of our moving. In
fact we are now one of the known and acknowledged
units of the London and English world, and though
politics still place more or less barriers in our path, the
majority of people receive us much as they would Eng-
lishmen, and seem to consider us as such. I have been
much struck by the way in which they affect to dis-
tinguish here between us and "foreigners"; that is,
persons who don't speak English. The great difficulty
is in the making acquaintances, for London acquaint-
ances are nothing.
After a fortnight's violent pulling, pushing, threaten-
ing, shaking, cursing and coaxing, almost entirely done
through private channels, we have at least succeeded
in screwing the Government up to what promises to be
a respectable position. How steady it will be, I don't
know, nor how far they will declare themselves, do I
know. But between our Government at home and our
active and energetic allies here, we seem to have made
progress. I went last night to a meeting of which I
shall send you a report; a democratic and socialist
meeting, most threatening and dangerous to the estab-
lished state of things; and assuming a tone and pro-
portions that are quite novel and alarming in this capi-
tal. And they met to notify Government that "they
would not tolerate" interference against us. I can as-
sure you this sort of movement is as alarming here as
a slave insurrection would be in the South, and we
have our hands on the springs that can raise or pacify
such agitators, at least as regards our own affairs, they
making common cause with us. I never quite appreci-
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 245
ated the "moral influence " of American democracy, nor
the cause that the privileged classes in Europe have to
fear us, until I saw how directly it works. At this mo-
ment the American question is organizing a vast mass
of the lower orders in direct contact with the wealthy.
They go our whole platform and are full of the "rights
of man." The old revolutionary leaven is working stead-
ily in England. You can find millions of people who
look up to our institutions as their model and who talk
with utter contempt of their own system of Govern-
ment. Within three months this movement has taken
a development that has placed all our enemies on the
defensive; has driven Palmerston to sue for peace and
Lord Russell to proclaim a limited sympathy. I will
not undertake to say where it will stop, but were I an
Englishman I should feel nervous. We have strength
enough already to shake the very crown on the Queen's
head if we are compelled to employ it all. You are not to
suppose that we are intriguing to create trouble. I do
not believe that all the intrigue in the world could create
one of these great demonstrations of sympathy. But
where we have friends, there we shall have support, and
those who help us will do it of their own free will. There
are few of the thickly populated districts of England
where we have not the germs of an organisation that
may easily become democratic as it is already anti-
slavery. With such a curb on the upper classes, I think
they will do little more harm to us.
The conduct of the affairs of that great republic
which though wounded itself almost desperately, can
yet threaten to tear down the rulers of the civilised
246 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 28,
world, by merely assuming her place at the head of the
march of democracy, is something to look upon. I
wonder whether we shall be forced to call upon the
brothers of the great fraternity to come in all lands to
the assistance and protection of its head. These are
lively times, oh, Hannibal.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Camp near Potomac Run, Va.
January 28, 1863
The fine weather seems fairly to be over and the wet
season to have set in. In addition to the week of rain
before, which played Burnside out, it rained steadily
all last night and this morning set in from the N.E.
with sleet and snow, and is at it now very lively. The
results of this you may imagine, but I dare not. For
myself it is of little consequence. My tent is logged up,
I have a good fire-place, a pretty complete outfit and
am as comfortable as I have any wish to be; but I feel
for my men and dare not go and look at my horses.
I know just how they look, as they huddle together
at the picket-ropes and turn their shivering croups to
this pelting north easter. There they stand without
shelter, fetlock deep in slush and mud, without a
blanket among them, and there they must stand —
poor beasts — and all I can do for them is to give them
all the food I can, and that little enough. Of oats there
is a sufficiency and the horses have twelve quarts a day;
but hay is scant, and it is only by luck that we have a
few bales just now when most we need them. I have
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 247
them fed four times a day — at morning, noon, night
and midnight — and if they have enough to eat, they
do wonderfully well, but it comes hard on them to have
to sustain hunger, as well as cold and wet. It is all over,
however, with any horse that begins to fail, for after
a few days he either dies at the rope, or else glanders
set in and he is led out and shot. I lose in this way
two or three horses a week. The men do better now,
as they too have logged in their tents and built fire-
places, and, as a rule, they are well clad and shod; but,
after all, it comes hard on them, this being wet and
always sleeping on damp ground, and we have had
five funerals this month, one from the fall of a horse
and four from sickness, one of which was in my com-
pany — a boy, named Pierce, from the central part
of the State.
I had two men desert the other day also, and under
peculiar circumstances. They were two of our recruits
and did not properly belong to my Company, but were
assigned to it for duty. They had cost the Government
some three hundred dollars each and were good for
nothing, as by far too many of these "bounty-boys"
are. They were sent out as part of a detail for picket
duty from my Company, under Lieutenant Merrill.
On the night of the 8th of January they were posted at
an important point on the extreme front of our fines,
and in the immediate vicinity of Hartwood Church.
When the patrol came round they had disappeared.
The case was reported and I supposed that they had
grown cold and drowsy and been ingeniously spirited
away by guerrillas — for such things are done. At
248 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 28,
the end of ten days however one of our men acciden-
tally found their horses tied to a tree in the woods near
their posts, all saddled, just as the men had left them,
and on the saddles were hanging all the men's arms, ex-
cept their pistols. There the poor brutes had stood for
ten days, without food or water, until one had died in
the agonies of starvation, and the other, having gnawed
up all the trees around him, was reduced to a walking
skeleton. This last, however, is alive and now at my
picket-rope. (P. S. He died of exposure the next morn-
ing after I wrote this.) Meanwhile the human brutes,
this brace of $300. men, had, I find, quietly deserted
their posts as videttes and walked off, enquiring their
way to Warrenton and leaving their horses and arms,
except pistols, as too likely to lead to their being
caught — their design evidently being to get through
our lines near Alexandria and so North. Meanwhile I
am doing all in my power to catch them by notifying
the authorities in Washington and at home. Should I
succeed, their fate is not to be envied. They will be
court martialed and probably shot. If not shot, they
will suffer some terrible military punishment at the
Tortugas. . . .
Meanwhile peace reigns once more in our domes-
tic affairs — a very lively storm has purified the air.
Colonel Sargent went on in his career until one day he
put Lieut. Col. Curtis under arrest and then the storm
burst. I rode over and stated our case to General
Buchanan and he advised me as to the proper course
to pursue, and the next day Sargent found his head in a
hornet's nest. Curtis forwarded a complaint on his
MAJOR HENRY LEE HIGGINSON
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 249
arrest to General Averell. Major Higginson as next
in command forwarded a paper in behalf of his brother
officers to General Hooker, through Colonel Sargent,
setting forth the Colonel's utter ignorance and glaring
incompetence, and prepared a similar paper for Gover-
nor Andrew; and Dr. Holland was brought up to the
point of preferring charges against him for unwarrant-
able interference with the sick. At first the Colonel
showed signs of bulling ahead to his destruction, but
General Averell sent for him, Curtis and Higginson,
and the last two stated the regimental grievances to
General Averell in Sargent's presence, glossing nothing.
Sargent asked: "On account of what vice am I incom-
petent to command this regiment?" To which Curtis
answered: "On account of no vice, Sir; you are simply
utterly incompetent," and so on, and referred him as
authority to the Company officers. Averell was very
anxious that "an arrangement" should be effected, and
requested them to consult together. Sargent came back
to camp and sent for some of the officers — his peculiar
favorites. They all came up to the mark and plainly
informed him that he was not able to run the machine.
He then sent for Curtis and Higginson and the three
had a long discussion, the result of which was that
Curtis was released, Higginson withdrew his papers
and peace was restored. . . .
Friday, the SOtk
I think you may as well make up your mind to pass-
ing the remaining two years of your term abroad. The
war is on its last legs and it would hardly pay for
250 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Jan. 30,
England to abandon her neutral policy now, simply to
get into a quarrel and revive our dying spirit. We are
playing her game better ourselves. Whatever Cab-
inets and correspondents may say to the contrary, I
feel persuaded that unless we have rapid and brilliant
successes in the southwest soon, and those leading to
something, the fighting in Virginia is over. The New
York Herald may say what it pleases, but the Army of
the Potomac is at present fearfully demoralised. Even
I can see that, small means of observation as I have.
You can have no idea of the disgust felt here towards
the Government. Unable to run the army themselves,
they take away McClellan, and when that leads to ter-
rible disaster, they cashier Fitz John Porter, one of the
best general officers we have; and now relieve Burn-
side, one of our best corps commanders, ridiculously
displaced by these very men; Sumner, the hardest
fighter and best man to take or hold a position in the
whole army, and Franklin, on the whole considered the
ablest officer we have — all this that Hooker may be
placed in command, a man who has not the confidence
of the army and who in private character is well known
to be — I need not say what. This army, now, does
not know under whom it is fighting. Government has
taken from it every single one of its old familiar battle
names, save Hooker's. I most earnestly hope it will
now break up the army, else some day it will have it
marching on Washington. . . .
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 251
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, January 30, 1863
Politically things go on swimmingly here. The anti-
slavery feeling of the country is coming out stronger
than we ever expected, and all the English politicians
have fairly been thrown over by their people. There
was a meeting last night at Exeter Hall which is likely
to create a revolution, or rather to carry on a com-
plete revolution in public opinion which was begun by
the great Manchester Meeting on the 31st Decem-
ber. Last night's meeting was something tremen-
dous, unheard of since the days of reform. The cry
was "Emancipation and reunion" and the spirit was
dangerously in sympathy with republicanism. The
Strand was blocked up in front of Exeter Hall by those
who could n't get in, and speeches were made in the
street as well as in another hall opened to accommo-
date a part of the surplus. As for enthusiasm, my
friend Tom Brown of Rugby school-days, who was one
of the speakers, had to stop repeatedly and beg the
people not to cheer so much. Every allusion to the
South was followed by groaning, hisses and howls, and
the enthusiasm for Lincoln and for everything con-
nected with the North was immense. The effect of
such a display will be very great, and I think we may
expect from Lancashire on the arrival of the George
Griswold, a response that will make some noise.
Next week Parliament will meet. Of course it will
bring hot water, but the sentiment of the country will
252 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Feb. 13,
not tolerate any interference with us. I breath more
easily about this than ever. My main anxiety is about
the Alabama case, which has been the subject of the
sharpest kind of notes between the Chief and Lord
Russell. As these notes will probably now be pub-
lished, I can say that in my opinion my Lord has been
dreadfully used up, and if you don't howl with delight
when you read the Chief's note to him of 30th Decem-
ber, you won't do what I did. But our cue is still
friendship, and we don't want to irritate. The strong
outside pressure that is now aroused to act on this
Government will, I hope, help us to carry through all
we want in time and with patience.
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, February 13, 1863
The last week here has been politically very quiet. I
am surprised at it, for I thought that the meeting of
Parliament would set the floods going. Lord Derby,
however, put his foot on any interference with us, on
the first night of the session, and so we have obtained
a temporary quiet. But the feeling among the upper
classes is more bitter and' angry than ever, and the
strong popular feeling of sympathy with us is gradually
dividing the nation into aristocrats and democrats,
and may produce pretty serious results for England.
Society is beginning. As it is almost certainly the
last season I shall pass in London, I intend to see all
I can. Society in London certainly has its pleasures,
and I found an example of this, the other evening. We
THE DUKE OF ARGYLL
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 253
were asked to dinner at the Duke of Argyll's, who is
a warm friend of ours, as well as the Duchess who is
daughter of the anti^slavery Duchess of Sutherland.
The party was evidently asked on purpose to meet us.
There was Lord Clyde, who always has his hair on end
and never seems to talk; Charles P. Villiers, a friendly
member of the Cabinet; Charles Howard, a brother of
Lord Carlisle; John Stuart Mill the logician and econo-
mist, a curious looking man with a sharp nose, a wen
on his forehead and a black cravat, to whom I took
particular pains to be introduced, as I think him about
the ablest man in England; very retiring and em-
barrassed in his manner, and a mighty weapon of de-
fense for our cause in this country. Then there was the
famous physician, Dr. Brown-Sequard; then Professor
Owen, the famous naturalist, geologist, palaeontolo-
gist and so on, whom I have met before. Then came
Lord Frederick Cavendish whom you know. . . . You
know your friend "Lord Fwedewick's" style of cos-
tume in America. It's not much better here. If a man
chooses to neglect rules he can do it in London though
not with impunity. As for example, our friend and
cousin the phenomenon who has just graduated at the
university with much lower honors than we had hoped
for him. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, February 27, 1863
Have you ever seen the narrative by the Prince of
Joinville of the events of the campaign of McClellan
254 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Feb. 27,
against Richmond? It seems to me remarkably well
done. I think he touches as with a needle's point the
radical defect of our military system. They have al-
ways impaired the efficiency of our troops. I can see
clearly the reason why we have not made an ade-
quate use of the multitude we have summoned to
the field. Two armies of a hundred thousand men each,
properly officered, would have done more than our
million.
In the meantime the people of this country have so
far changed their views as it respects our share in the
strife, as to give me a fresh source of occupation in
the work of transmitting addresses and resolutions of
crowded meetings everywhere. The anti-slavery feel-
ing has been astonishingly revived by the President's
proclamation and the kindly disposition by the sup-
plies furnished to Lancashire. It is however to be noted
that all this manifestation comes from the working and
middle classes. The malevolence of the aristocracy
continues just as strong as ever. Every item of news
that favors the notion of division and disintegration is
eagerly caught up. I only wish our people could be
here a little while and see what is hoped from their dif-
ferences of opinion. If it did not have the effect of
smoothing them all down into the pursuit of a common
object, then there is not a particle of patriotism left
among them. . . .
1863.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 255
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Camp of the 1st Mass. Cav'y
Potomac Bridge, Va., March 8, 1863
At nine o'clock on the 25th we set out for Hartwood,1
which is the somewhat famous centre of our Bri-
gade picket line, and some ten miles from here. Our
lines run from the Rappahannock to Acquia Creek, a
length of some eighteen miles and covering the whole
right flank of our army. The morning was bright and
sunny, the roads very heavy and the snow melting
fast. We looked on our business as rather a lark and
rode leisurely along enjoying the fine day and taking
our time. At half past twelve we entered the woods
within half a mile of our picket reserve, and just then
Major Robinson of the 3d Penn., who, with Captain
Blood, a curious nondescript from the 4th Penn. made
up of whiskey and dullness, and myself, constituted
our board, said: "Oh! there's a carbine shot," and we
trudged along. Like Bull Run Russell, I am now about
to tell you things which I myself saw. A few paces
further on we were challenged by a vidette and Robin-
son rode forward and explained our business. He spoke
to the man, and just then I heard a few more shots and
Robinson shouted to me: "Hurry up, there's a fight
going on," and began to press on through the road,
knee deep in mud. I was picking my way through the
woods and, in my disbelief, replied: "Well, I can't
hurry up in these roads, even if there is." The words
1 To assess damages done to property of loyal men near Hartwood
Church. Three officers constituted the board.
&56 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [March 8,
were scarcely out of my mouth when I saw good cause
to jam the spurs into my horse and hurry up indeed.
Pell-mell, without order, without lead, a mass of panic-
stricken men, riderless horses and miserable cowards,
our picket reserve came driving down the road upon
us, in hopeless flight. Along they came, carrying help-
less officers with them, throwing away arms and blan-
kets, and in the distance we heard a few carbine shots
and the unmistakable savage yell of the rebels.
We drew our sabres and got in the way of the fugi-
tives, shouting to them to turn into the woods and show
a front to the enemy. Some only dashed past, but most
obeyed us stupidly and I rode into the woods to try
and form a line of skirmishers. But that yell sprung
up nearer, and in a twinkling my line vanished to the
rear. Nor was this the worst. The panic seized my
horse and he set his jaw like iron against the bit and
dashed off after the rest. Oh! it was disgraceful!
Worse than disgraceful, it was ludicrous!! My horse
dashed through the woods — thick woods — both feet
were knocked out of the stirrups, I was banged against
the trees, my hat was knocked over my eyes, I could
not return my sabre, but I clung to the saddle like a
monkey, expecting every instant to be knocked out of
it and to begin my travels to Richmond. This went on
for a couple of hundred yards, when at last I got my
horse under, and out of the woods into the road, when
I found myself galloping along with the rear of the
fugitives, side by side with Major Robinson. "My
God! Adams," said he, "this is terrible! This is dis-
graceful." "Thank God," I replied, "I am the only
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 257
man of my regiment here today." "Well you may,"
said he.
Something had to be done to rally the men however
at once, else we should soon find ourselves rushing, a
mob, onto the infantry pickets two miles behind. I
said I would go ahead and try to step and rally the last
of the column, and I let my horse out. The fresh pow-
erful animal shot by the poor worn out government
brutes and did some tall running through the Virginia
mud and soon brought me out of the woods into a
broad field. Here I turned and blocked the road, and
pulled and stormed and swore. Some hurried by
through the woods and across the fields, but a number
stopped and Robinson began to form a line, such as it
was. Here at once I learned the cause of the panic.
Nearly all the men belonged to a new and miserable
regiment, the 16th Penn. They had never been under
fire before, were Pennsylvanians and — ran like sheep.
We got some thirty men in one fine and I was busy
forming another, but what lines! No two men knew
each other, their officers were gone, God only knew
where! Not one face had I ever seen before, and a
glance showed me not one man could be relied on.
They were all squinting behind them. In less than two
minutes the enemy was on us.
Meanwhile Robinson had sent Lieut. Colonel Jones,
an old incompetent of his own regiment who had had
command of the pickets, to the rear to rally the fugi-
tives and had taken command. I had sent Blood off
on the same errand. Meanwhile the hompesun coats
dashed out of the woods, or we could see them riding
258 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [March 8,
through them, and instantly Robinson's line began to
vanish, to dissolve. He shouted to them to fire and an
abortive volley was the result. Poor as it was it did the
work. A few saddles were emptied and the rebs grew
at once more prudent. But alas ! If it scared the rebs,
it scared my line also, which was forming a little to the
right and rear and I saw the rascals wavering on the
verge of a panic, while I heard Robinson calling on
them to come up, for his men were leaving. "I clearly
can't drive them," thought I, "perhaps they'll follow
me," and I spurred my horse forward and shouted,
"Come on, follow me, there they are," waving my
sword — all in the most improved patterns; but the
disciples of Penn did n't see it in that light, and as I
looked over my shoulder I saw my line vanishing from
both flanks and the centre on the road home. Then
wrath seized my soul and I uttered a yell and chased
them. I caught a hapless cuss and cut him over the
head with my sabre. It only lent a new horror and
fresh speed to his flight. I whanged another over the
face and he tarried for a while. Into a third I drove my
horse and gave him pause, and then I swore and cursed
them. I called them "curs," "dogs," and "cowards,"
a "disgrace to the 16th Pennsylvania, as the 16th was
a disgrace to the service," and so I finally prevailed on
about half of my line to stop for this time.
Meanwhile the firing had ceased and no more rebs
were in sight. I joined Robinson and we debated what
was to be done. The enemy's fire had done us no harm
and one dead body was in the road before us. Our
men were utterly surprised by the effect of their one
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 259
wretched volley, but alas ! they were no more reliable,
and as I glanced at those feeble undecided faces, I
trembled lest the enemy should attack us again. Oh!
thought I, for my own company ! I felt rejoiced that
they were out of that scrape, but I realized how good
and reliable they were. In a few minutes we had settled
on a sort of plan and I went into the woods with a
dozen men to cover our flank and skirmish. I scattered
my men along and encouraged them with the informa-
tion that at the first sign of wavering I should shoot the
first man I came to, and I portentously flourished my
pistol. In fact I think I should have done so then, for
it could have done no harm at this stage of the game.
Before I had not dared to, as I felt that if I did, these
men, so green and undisciplined, would only run away
from me as well as the enemy, and what we wanted was
to get them to stand and stop running. Anyhow I
deployed my skirmishers, such as they were.
We saw nothing of any enemy and presently I re-
turned to Major Robinson to settle on some plan of
operations. I told him I was ready to take the of-
fensive and charge of the skirmishers, if he was ready
to advance, and finally he gave me some more men and
we began operations. I extended my line through the
woods to the open fields beyond and began to advance.
The ground was covered with snow, but the woods
were so thick that I could not see more than a third of
my fine at once. However I pushed steadily forward
and in a short time heard some one calling to me. I
rode up and found two or three of my men standing
round a veritable grey coat, with an officer's chevrons
260 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [March 8,
on, near a tree, by which two horses were standing and
at the foot of which lay a man, one glance at whom
satisfied me that his course was run. As I came up the
unhurt man approached me and told me he was a Cap-
tain and my prisoner; that the wounded man was his
Lieutenant and friend, and that he had remained to
look after him, and, adding with much agitation: "We
have always tried to have your men who have fallen
into our hands well treated, and we hope you will do
the same. At least, let me have a surgeon for my
friend." The poor fellow was lying in the snow at the
foot of the tree, shot through the abdomen and now
and again writhing in pain. And how could I look on
him wholly without feeling? And yet I did just that.
No one who has not felt it knows what a brutaliser war
is ! My duty was clear and I did n't feel an instant's
hesitation. I assured the prisoner that I did not doubt
he had always behaved with humanity, that his friend
should receive all possible care; asked him a few hurried
questions and then told him he must leave his friend
and go to Major Robinson as a prisoner. I took away
their arms and parted them. They shook hands, the dy-
ing man begging his friend to tell his family of his death,
and his friend almost crying as he wrung his hand and
left him expiring there on the snow in the woods —
alone — for my men could not stop. I went back to
Robinson with the prisoner to see how his information
would affect our plans, and in a few minutes went back
to my men in the woods and have not seen the pris-
oner or the wounded man since. The last Robinson had
carried into a neighboring house where he died in a few
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 261
hours, I believe and hope with his Captain by his side;
but I have since often thought of that scene in the
woods and it has brought very near to me the horrors
of war.
Now however I was very busy pushing forward my
line and trying to discover where the enemy were. We
could see them in force on the left across some fields,
but not in the woods in front. I sent Blood into the
fields with six men to observe them and cover my
flank and have n't seen him since. Somehow, no one
knows how, the cuss contrived to get captured about
an hour later. I can't imagine how he did it, but he
has n't been heard of since. Well, I pushed steadily on
and presently came to our old line of picket and found
myself with about twenty men left. I sent three by
the road to the right, three to the left, leaving the rest
as reserve. I went a few hundred yards and saw a
body of men drawn up on the skirts of the woods.
Were they friends or foes? I halted my men and rode
forward and called to them, but they made no answer.
My men insisted on it they were rebels. If so, I was
way ahead of our forces and in a dangerous place, but
I could not believe it. They soon settled my doubts,
for I heard an order given for a party to go down and
drive me back, and down they came. They had car-
bines and we had not, and they called on us to sur-
render. As they approached I told my men to fall back,
and two of them at once vanished into the woods,
while one advanced, stood stock still, as if fascinated,
and, I suppose, surrendered.
As for me, finding myself alone, after in vain calling
262 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [March 8,
on the man to fall back and not shooting him at once,
as I should have done, I fell back myself. I knew I
could rely on my horse and cared little for the enemy,
keeping just so far in front watching them. Presently
the one in advance of the rest saw my reserve and pulled
up, and then took a long, deliberate aim and sent a
bullet after me. I had never had a bead drawn on
me before and the sensation was now not disagreeable.
I was cantering slowly along watching my well-wisher
over my shoulder and, as he aimed away, I pleasantly
reflected: "You're mounted, I'm in motion, and the
more you aim the less you'll hit"; and then the ball
whistled harmlessly by, and we both stopped and he
went back and molested me no more. Then came mo-
ments of doubt. A skirmish began with yelling and
shooting where he came from. Who could be there and
fighting? And I saw skirmishers coming up in my rear.
Oh Lord ! thinks I, I have got ahead of our forces with
twelve men and here are the rebels in my rear. Where
is Blood? and I cast anxious glances into the woods for
a line of retreat and began to fall back. But the ad-
vancing line proved to be the 1st Rhode Island and
at last light began to dawn on me. Our picket reserve
had been divided and I had fallen in with one portion,
while of the existence of the 6ther on my left all day
I had been wholly ignorant and had so blundered
ahead of them and onto the enemy's flank. Now they
had come up and a skirmish was in progress. I turned
back and again advanced, but when I reached my old
place the skirmish was over. Fitzhugh Lee had ac-
complished his object, left us his compliments by the
1863.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 263
widow Coakley, and gone off with, as it now appears,
about 120 horses and prisoners. I rode forward and
again had a prisoner announce himself as at my dis-
posal. This one had been left behind with two more
wounded men at the widow Coakley's, and from her
fair daughters I grimly received General Lee's com-
pliments.
It was now evening and my thoughts fondly turned
on home and the delights of my tent. I saw the offi-
cers who had that day come out on picket, and deeply
compassionated them, but did n't offer my assistance
for the night. I found Major Robinson and, at last,
as night was falling persuaded him that it was just as
well to go home and not to pass the night there, med-
dling with other people's business and giving orders
to our superior officers, and so we started back. The
weather had changed and the sky was full of rain, and
we met the brigade coming out, now that the bird had
flown and was hours away. We wished them joy of their
thankless job and got home to a late dinner and that
night you may well believe I revelled in my blankets,
as I reflected how my share of this job was over, and
the next morning I revelled the more as I thought of
that miserable brigade when the patter of the rain on
my tent woke me and I folded my hands for slumber
anew. . . .
In coming in [on the 4th] I found myself Judge Ad-
vocate on a Court Martial called to try the fugitives
of the 25th and that has busied me ever since. My only
variety has been morning drills and on Sunday last a
Brigade review, at which our regiment by its appear-
264 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [March 22,
ance and general excellence, not only called forth much
remark, but alone in the Brigade was most highly com-
mended by the Division Commander. In fact, at last
we are coming up and winning that place in public
estimation which we have always felt belonged to us
of right. We have long been under a cloud, but at
last we have been found out and now every day adds to
our reputation. ... I am high in favor with all the
remaining powers that be, and, having confidence in
me, they allow me full swing with my Company and
never molest me and, though I say it who perhaps
should not, there are few better companies in this
regiment or army. Promotions with us are rapid and
already I find myself one of the four senior Captains,
and consequently a chief of Squadron, which command
I, a short time since, considered as filling the measure
of my ambition; but we are never contented and now I
find myself lusting after a staff appointment with its
increased rank on a larger sphere. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Camp of 1st Mass. Cavly
Sunday, March 22, 1863
I am glad you have come to my conclusion as to the
best basis for an end to this war. Virginia, Kentucky,
Tennessee and all west of the Mississippi was my
theory, I think, in my letters from Hilton Head last
July and was, I recollect, stigmatized by you as "Eng-
lish." I am glad you have come round to it and wish
the Administration would do the same. Meanwhile
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 265
things are improving here, though the weather con-
tinues abominable, beastly, unbearable. I wish I
could go to Boston just to get rid of the east winds,
which are increasing and bring with them almost daily
snow, rain and sleet, or, now and then, watery, cold,
blue sky. But the army is decidedly improving, and is,
I imagine, in a far better condition than ever before.
It will improve daily too, and if Hooker acts as ju-
diciously as indications would warrant us in hoping,
we shall, I think, by the first of June be again within
sight of Richmond with no very serious loss. The plan
of the campaign, I think I see, and, if I do, it is only
the execution of McClellan's mutilated scheme of a
year ago. When the roads permit, a large column will
be rapidly pushed forward from Fortress Monroe, to
cut off the army on the Rappahannock from Rich-
mond, thus necessitating its capture or the abandon-
ment of the line of the Rappahannock. But Lee will not
be caught; he will fall back on Richmond and, per-
haps, on his way, try to crush the army of the Peninsula.
This army here will push him back with great rapidity
and regardless of loss and try to force an engagement,
and will crush him if it succeeds. If it fails, as I think
it will, it will join the Peninsula column and push on
Richmond, and be before that city in one week after
leaving its camp here. None of the delays of last year
will be tolerated. The march on Richmond will be such
a rush as was ours of last fall to Antietam. The dis-
tances are about the same, and now all preparations
are made before hand, which they were not then. At
Richmond will come the tug of war, and God spare the
26Q A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [March 22.
Infantry ! As for the Cavalry, I think that we shall do
one of two things: either push after Lee, if he allows
himself to be caught in a tight place; or, which to my
mind is more probable, if he slips off, be sent up towards
Culpepper to operate on his left flank and annoy him.
Anyhow we shall have work enough and fighting enough,
and you may well wish us well through with it. Such
are my views and theories and time will show how cor-
rect they are. As I understand it, they cover only
McClellan's old plans corrected in the light of a year's
experience. Of course the army will do something else,
and meanwhile we'll see how wrong I am.
As to your and my futures, they will probably work
themselves out in their own way, and I trouble myself
little about them. You a little misunderstand me how-
ever. My plans for life are altered little if any; it
is only my way of coming at them. All my natural
inclinations tend to a combination of literature and
politics and always have. I would be a philosophical
statesman if I could, and a literary politician if I must;
but to command attention as either I must have a
certain position of my own. A lawyer's would have
done, if I could have won it, but I failed in that and
that is all over, for I could not go back to it. I must
look about for another. Why should not the army serve
my turn — if I hang to it? Here is support, leisure for
reflection and promotion — two years would make me
a Colonel almost surely and my very faculty with the
pen will give me reputation as such, besides my chance
of distinction as a soldier. Here then would be support
and position for ten years, and then, at thirty-seven
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 267
I may hope to have reached that position of my own
which will enable me to leave the army and to devote
the rest of my life to those pursuits in which I can best
play my part in the plan of the universe. This is all that
my "avowal of belligerent intentions for life" amounts
to, and why is not the plan a good one? You do not
say it is not. So far as I now see, it is my only alter-
native with a long period of aimless indolence. I can't
think of coming abroad to stay without some definite
plan for the future. I see only this. I am twenty-eight
years old in two months and at that age a man can-
not afford to say "I will devote four years to seeing the
world and thinking of what I will do." At that age
my father had a son named Charles. . . .
I begin to realize that I have made a mistake in not
getting a furlough, for I find myself most thoroughly
played out with the army and camp life — out of
spirits, desponding and blue, and all for the sake of a
few days' change. It is in this mood, always brought
on me by monotony and camp life, that I continually
imagine that I am going to be hit in the next fight.
When we move the mood passes away and my faith in
my luck and future revives. . . .
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams
Camp of 1st Mass. Cav'y
Sunday, April 5, 1863
No wonder that I began to write March instead of
April, for there is nothing of April in the weather.
Your last told me of the delightful weather you were
having in London. Here it has been and still is beastly
268 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [April 5,
and unbearable. Last night, or April 4th and in Vir-
ginia, we had a violent and pelting snow storm and
this morning the country is again under water, and hills,
forts and camps are white with snow. Yesterday the
wind was north all day and cold and violent — such as
we remember in early March in Washington — accom-
panied with clouds of dust. I was out in it all day, for
I was sent out to inspect the pickets, and starting at
nine a.m. did not get in until half past three p.m.
Cold, dreary, uninteresting work, riding from post to
post and putting the same questions and receiving the
same answers from all manner of stupid men. My es-
cort, as is usual in such cases, consisted of twenty-five
men, who served finely to impede my progress, were
of no use to any one; and also my bulldog Mac, who
frisked along with the column in a state of high enjoy-
ment — in fact he would n't fight and submitted to
insults from divers curs, great and small, with almost
abject deprecation of a row. You see Mac's only idea
of fighting is taking hold and then holding on, and as
he stands in great fear of being left behind he calcu-
lates he won't have time to finish up the job and make
a really neat piece of work before I'm out of sight.
So he dares not take hold at all. We finished our work
at half past three and at four o'clock Major Higgin-
son and myself rode off to dine with General Griffin
and George Bancroft (Tacitus). And hereby hangs a
tale.
Friday evening last, as Colonel Curtis, Major Hig-
ginson and myself were crooning over the fire in their
tent and mourning over the loss of so many old friends,
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 269
and wondering dismally what was to become of us, I
was called on by Captain Bliss — George Bancroft's
step-son — and took him into my tent. He was in
company with a Captain Batchelder and soon opened
his business. He was sent by General Griffin, on whose
staff they both were, to offer me the position of aid on
the same staff. General Griffin is a well known officer
of the old army, a Brigadier now in command of a
Division, a young man and highly reputed. An officer
of the old army, he never drinks, and he married one
of our old Washington acquaintances, the Carrolls.
So much for General Griffin, whom I had never seen
but whose staff I should consider one of the most de-
sirable in the army. I intimated to Bliss what my an-
swer would be, and told him that I would express my
acknowledgments to the General in person next day.
Accordingly Major Higginson and I rode over at four
o'clock to dine. Before dinner I had my audience
and politely declined the proffered situation. I found
Griffin a young, rather handsome man, with a face
expressive of a good deal of resolution and energy,
pleasant manners and a good deal of conversation.
I told him that I was fully sensible of the great advan-
tages and yet greater comforts which the proposed
situation offered me. I did not deny that I was un-
comfortable and ill at ease where I was, and that my
chances of rising and of knowing what was going on
would be much greater with him; but I told him I could
not accept his offer for two reasons. First, if I did so
I must yet retain my commission in my regiment. For
a captain to do this I did not consider right. He knew
270 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [April 5,
what cavalry service was and how it differed from the
other arms. In it all officers had to act for themselves
and on their own responsibility. We were always in the
face of the enemy and generally in small force. Our
responsibility was great both for men and property and
we were paid additionally for assuming it. I could not
think it right that I should retain my rank and com-
mission, receive the pay and stand in the way of those
below me, while I shoved onto them the danger and
responsibility, left my men to take care of themselves
and went off and enjoyed myself looking only to my
own advancement. This objection might however be
removed by my receiving a new commission as aid.
This he could not offer me, but even if he could, my
second objection would still be in the way. He knew
how essential in the cavalry officers of experience were
and I told him how in our regiment our officers had
been weeded out, so that now actually we could not
boast of one officer, considered really reliable, to each
of our four squadrons and that I was now the third line
officer in this part of the regiment. I could not tell him
of the sort of indirect appeal Curtis had made to me
a few days before when Clapp had decided to leave us.
I sustained Clapp in his course and said, that so far as
the good of the regiment was concerned no officer had
a right to consider himself so valuable to it that he
ought to stay. Curtis replied: "That is very well to
say, but you know the facts. You know whom we have
and you know that if I went, and Higginson went, and
yourself and one Captain more, the regiment would be
stripped of its reliable officers. You know well enough
1863.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 271
that we can't officer our companies, and then what do
you want us to say?"
Now I do know all this and unfortunately for me I
have not only the highest opinion of Curtis' judgment
and common sense, but the greatest admiration for his
pluck and courage and the greatest fear of his censure.
I know that he values me more than any line officer he
now has left, and, finally, he fairly set it before me as
a question of duty. Did I pretend that I could be of
more use and service in this war on a staff than in my
present position? If so, he disagreed with me. Would
I allow myself to be driven from the post of usefulness
by a man as radically wrong and dangerous as ?
If so, he could not sympathize with me. Did I go into
this war as a soldier to enjoy and benefit myself or to
contribute all in my power to a great result? If the
last, would I not contribute most by remaining where
I was, where I was of use and really essential and re-
spectable in rank, rather than by appending myself
to a General, no matter how agreeable or able? He
argued in this way, and, while he preached, I felt that
he himself was living up to his doctrine. I knew that he
was the lif e and soul of this regiment, that he was doing
his share in the war in his place; that Sargent could not
drive him from it, and that he himself would not leave
it. I felt that among us all he was the one strong,
determined, formidable man. All this had its influence
on me. Four months ago I should have felt differently
and replied that there were better men than I here and
my loss will not be felt; but now they are so all gone
that I felt that the loss of each one was irreparable.
272 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [April 5,
All this I could not tell Griffin without appearing
conceited, and as I spoke in a general way, saying that,
under existing circumstances, I felt that I was of more
service in this stage of the war where I was than I could
be with him and so — a miserable sense of duty tri-
umphed over pleasure, comfort, advance, knowledge
and excitement, and I gave up in favor of exposure,
discomfort, danger, a contemptible superior, tyranny
and hopeless obscurity, all the wished for pleasures and
advantages of a Head Quarters' life. I hope I decided
wisely; I know I did honestly, unwillingly and accord-
ing to my lights. It will cost me all my comfort and
most of my pleasures; it may cost me my life, and that
too grossly blundered away. It certainly consigns me
to hopeless obscurity in this war, but I meant it for the
best. When the moment came I did not want to leave
my post and I have thought to remain where I believed
I could be of most use. Certainly I ought to love this
regiment, for certainly first and last I have undergone
and sacrificed enough in its behalf.
Such was my decision. Griffin listened and agreed to
the force of my reasoning and did not try to dissuade
me. He only expressed regret, as he assured me that
he had been in it and was well enough aware that
mine was the hardest, most trying and most thankless
branch of the service in existence. Colonel Williams,
he told me, had recommended me to him strongly and
had induced him to make the offer; but apart from all
I said he evidently considered that he rather offered
me a fall from a senior captaincy of cavalry to a posi-
tion as personal aid to a Brigadier.
1863.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 273
Having finished business we went in to dinner. Ah !
is n't it pleasant, this dining at Head Quarters ! Line
life is indeed beastly and one learns to appreciate glass,
crockery and a table cloth. Old Bancroft was there
and, as usual, I thought [him] a bore. The General was
immensely civil to me and altogether I enjoyed my-
self very much. It was well I did, for some enjoyment
was needed to compensate me for a ride home at nine
o'clock, through a pelting, driving snow storm. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, April 23, 1863
Troubled times ! troubled times ! My own opinion is
that our bed here is getting too hot for comfort and
I don't much care how soon we are out of it.
The last storm really amounts to very little, but
serves to show the temper of the people here, or rather,
of the business men. I had not sent my last to you
when it burst, and you would have thought the devil
was loose. Ecoute, mon cheri.
The cursed blockade-runners got up a lovely scheme
of trading to the Rio Grande, a few months ago, and
to insure success they made a contract with J. D.
at Richmond to furnish cotton at half price on the
spot, etc., etc., and in accordance with the program, a
steamer called the Peterhoff was sent out, which Ad-
miral Wilkes very properly bagged, and deserves the
thanks of the Government for doing so. But the own-
ers had covered the transaction under the appearance
of a trade with Mexico and Matamoras, and finding
their whole game spoiled and the officers refusing at
274 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [April 23,
any price to insure their ships or any ships to Mata-
moras, they set up a tremendous cackle, and the Times
and the Telegraph and all the newspapers cackled, and
deputations of blockade runners went to the For-
eign Office and in short the whole blockade-breaking
interest, the insurance Companies and underwriters,
the ship-owners, and all and every their relations,
friends and acquaintances, were exasperated and acri-
monious.
Meanwhile two Americans named Howell and Zer-
man had been some time here engaged in purchasing
articles on account of the Mexican Government, but
mostly with British money. The capture of the Peter-
hoff suddenly destroyed their chance of insurance. In
great disgust they went to the Minister and asked him
for a certificate of loyalty, on which they might act.
The Minister saw his chance of hitting the Peterhoffers
a hard blow, and at the same time of helping Mexico,
and so wrote the letter which you have probably al-
ready seen in the newspapers. Of course it was secret,
for its publication would necessarily destroy the insur-
ance, but it was intended for the gentlemen at Lloyd's.
It had the intended effect. The policy was to have been
executed the next day, when one of the very under-
writers made public a copy of the letter which his
clerk had surreptitiously taken in short-hand as he
himself read it aloud to the other four underwriters;
within an hour a deputation had gone up with it to
Earl Russell; the Exchange was raving mad; the Times
next day thundered at the Minister for his insolent
attempt to license British trade; the Standard cried
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 275
for his dismissal; the public cursed and threatened;
even our friends were frightened, and all thought that
at last salt had been deposited upon the caudal append-
age of a very venerable ornithological specimen.
The Minister was grand. I studied his attitude with
deep admiration. Not all the supplications of his
friends could make him open his mouth either to put
the public right on his letter or on the gross falsehoods
told about the Peterhoff . The time had not come. Of
course he was cursed for his obstinacy, but he is used
to that. We remained perfectly silent while the storm
raged and laughed at it. But you can't conceive how
bitter they were in the city, and the matter was twice
brought up in Parliament, though nothing was said
there, nor shown, except a strong desire to get hold of
the Minister. Luckily Lord Rus'sell was firm and his
course irritated the Peterhoffers so as to draw off a
large portion of indignation upon him. Meanwhile
the man who betrayed the letter in the hope of getting
revenge for being called "dishonest and fraudulent,"
and of stirring up hostility to our Government, honor-
ably refused to proceed with the insurance and was
blackguarded in his own office like a thief by Howell.
To complete their discomfiture, a letter of the Minis-
ter to a London firm is published this morning, coolly
putting it right as to the licensing business, and refer-
ring British subjects to their own Government for
protection. When the whole Peterhoff story is told we
shall reverse everything and overwhelm these liars,
I hope, but meanwhile the storm seems to have blown
itself out and we are still steady and going straight
276 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [April 24,
ahead. But England is not comfortable with such
Irish rows.
April 24
You may judge the state of feeling here by the de-
bate in Parliament last night, where much bad tem-
per was shown, but no case. You will observe that
our friends kept silence and left the Government to
manage the matter. As to Lord Russell's declaration
about the Minister's course and the complaint at Wash-
ington, it is of course annoying and hurts us here, but
I believe it to be only the result of the outside pressure,
and I do not believe he expects really to affirm that
the American Government has no right to protect its
own citizens against its own fleets. One thing however
is certain. There is great danger in this feeling of irri-
tation on both sides and a rupture is highly probable.
But then, if we can weather it and turn the current,
as I hope we may do, if the Peterhoff case is a strong
one, we shall have plain sailing for another spell.
Meanwhile we still bear up and steer right onward.
Another debate comes on tonight and our friends will
have their innings on the Alabama case. You will
probably see this in our papers, but I shan't be able
to send it to you
Charles Francis Adams to his Son
London, April 24, 1863
We go here much as usual. The American question
excites more fever than ever. The collisions that in-
evitably take place on the ocean in the effort to stop
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 277
all the scandalous voyages to help the rebels, that are
made from this island, necessarily created much bad
feeling. I have got a little mixed up in it of late, so that
my name has been bandied about rather more than I
like. But such is the fate of all men who are in situa-
tions of difficulty in troubled times. I hope and trust
I shall survive it. My rule is, so far as I know how, to
follow a strict rule of right. As long as I keep myself
within it, I trust in God and fear no evil. My endeavor
will be to prevent things from coming to a rupture
here, not from any particular goodwill to the English,
but from a conviction that quarreling with them just
now is doing service to the rebels. So far as I can judge
from their own reports of their condition, the suffo-
cating process is going on steadily to its end. On the
other hand the position of the loyal part of the country
is more dignified and imposing than ever. In spite of
lukewarm generals and a defective and uneven policy,
the great body of the people and the army are true to
their duty which is to save the country. I feel more hope-
ful of that result than ever before. Presently our people
will fight with the same energy that animates the reb-
els. Whenever that happens, the struggle will be soon
brought to an end.
We have of late quite an influx of Americans, more
than have been here all the winter before. First, there
is Mr. Robert J. Walker, the quondam Secretary of the
Treasury and Governor of Kansas. I am amused to
find him changed into a thorough anti-slavery man,
determined upon emancipation as the only condition
of pacification. Then we have Mr. W. H. Aspinwall
278 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May l,
of New York and Mr. John M. Forbes. And in addi-
tion, Mr. John A. Kasson of Iowa, late Assistant Post-
master General, and now member of the next House of
Representatives, who is out here as a delegate to a con-
vention to settle postal matters between nations. I
wish he could succeed in getting a reduction of ocean
postage. Over and above these we have my old col-
league in the Massachusetts Legislature, Mr. Alvah
Crocker of Fitchburg, and George Morey, whilom
the great factotum of Whig politics, in days of yore.
So we cannot be said to be solitary or without sym-
pathisers. . . .
Heney Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, May 1, 1863
And so two years have passed over and gone, and still
I am abroad and still you are a Captain of cavalry.
Y7ou meanwhile are near twenty-eight years old. I shall
never on this earth see my twenty-fifth birthday again.
Does not this fact suggest certain ideas to you? Can
a man at your time of life be a cavalry captain and re-
main a briefless solicitor? Can a man of my general ap-
pearance pass five years in Europe and remain a can-
didate for the bar? In short, have we both wholly lost
our reckonings and are we driven at random by fate,
or have we still a course that we are steering though it
is not quite the same as our old one? By the Apostle
Paul, I know not. Only one fact I feel sure of. We are
both no longer able to protect ourselves with the con-
venient fiction of the law. Let us quit that now useless
] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 279
shelter, and steer if possible for whatever it may have
been that once lay beyond it. Neither you nor I can
ever do anything at the bar. . . .
You don't catch me entering the army now. It
would be like entering college Freshman when all
one's friends were Seniors. I have a trick worth
twenty of that. My friend General Zerman, who has
been the means of kicking up such a row around us
here, and who is an old Dugald Dalgetty; a midship-
man under the French at Trafalgar; a sous-officier at
Waterloo; a captain at Navarino; a Russian admiral; a
Turkish admiral; a Carbonaro; a companion of Silvio
Pellico in the prisons of Spielberg; a South American
officer by land and sea; and lately a general in the army
of the United States; now a Major General in the Mexi-
can service; and I've no doubt a damned old villain,
though a perfectly jovial old sinner of seventy odd;
this distinguished individual offers to take me on his
staff with the rank of major to Mexico. Would n't I
like to go! The chances are a thousand to one that my
bones would bleach there, but for all that the chance
is worth having, for it would be a great step for a young
man to secure for himself a control even to a small
extent over our Mexican relations. But such magnif-
icent dreams, worthy of the daring of those heroes,
Porthos, Athos, Aramis and D'Artagnan, are not for
me. By the by, though, what a good Porthos Ben
Crowny would -make; you could do D'Artagnan, I
would put in for Aramis, and no doubt you could hunt
up some one that might pass equally badly for Athos.
Then we could all go to Mexico together. . . .
280 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May i,
I left off by sending you the debate of last Friday
night which contained Earl Russell's brilliant re-
marks on the celebrated letter of our Minister to Ad-
miral Dupont. In those remarks Earl Russell was
indignant at the idea of his speaking to Mr. Adams
about it. No! No! He should go straight to Wash-
ington ! But my Lord, having thus pledged himself in
order to please the English copper-heads, to go straight
to Washington, amused himself the next morning by
sending straight to Mr. Adams. Of course I know
nothing of the conversation that followed. That is all
a secret with Mr. Seward. But I think it is not difficult
to guess. It had suited Lord Russell to yield a little to
the copper-head pressure on Thursday night; it suited
him to allow Mr. Adams to triumphantly purge him-
self of misdemeanor on Friday morning. It suited him
to make the American Minister think that he (Lord R.)
thought him to be in the wrong — moderately. It also
suited him to make the British public think that
Mr. Adams had confessed his error and contrition and
had received pardon. English statesmanship consists
in this sort of juggling and huckstering between inter-
ests.
Such was the position when I wrote to you, or
rather, immediately after I wrote to you. Since then
nothing has been heard of complaining at Washington.
But now see the resources of a British Minister. Last
Tuesday morning the City Article, what we call the
money article, of the Times, in which most of the attack
has been directed, contained the following paragraph:
"The public will be glad to learn that the difficul-
1863.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 281
ties occasioned by the recent issue by Mr. Adams of
the certificate or pass to Messrs. Howell and Zerman,
are likely to be smoothed down. It is reported that
Mr. Adams is conscious of having acted in the matter
upon imperfect representations and with undue haste,
and that consequently he raises no pretensions such as
would necessitate any absolute protest from one Gov-
ernment to the other on the subject. It is therefore
believed that the relations between our Cabinet and
the United States Legation in London will continue
on a friendly footing — a result which in a personal
sense will afford unmixed satisfaction, since the indi-
vidual and historical claims of Mr. Adams to respect
and esteem have never been disputed in any quarter."
Now, is not this a remarkable State Paper? Did you
ever see a case in which the butter was laid on so curi-
ously over the interstices of the bread? The real fact
is that you should read "Earl Russell" instead of
"Mr. Adams" in the fifth line. That would be the
correct thing. But this statement has received uni-
versal currency and is accepted as a conclusion of the
difficulty. It now remains for Lord Russell to make
the explanation which no doubt Mr. Adams must de-
mand, at some time when the whole affair shall be
forgotten, and then I hope this curious chapter will be
closed. . . .
Our own position here does not change. We lead a
quiet and not unpleasant fife, and I pass my intervals
from official work, in studying De Tocqueville and
John Stuart Mill, the two high priests of our faith. So
I jump from International Law to our foreign history,
A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May 8,
and am led by that to study the philosophic standing
of our republic, which brings me to reflection over the
advance of the democratic principle in European civili-
zation, and so I go on till some new question of law
starts me again on the circle. But I have learned to think
De Tocqueville my model, and I study his life and
works as the Gospel of my private religion. The great
principle of democracy is still capable of rewarding a
conscientious servant. And I doubt me much whether
the advance of years will increase my toleration of its
faults. Hence I think I see in the distance a vague and
unsteady light in the direction towards which I needs
must gravitate, so soon as the present disturbing
influences are removed.
We are surrounded by assistants. Mr. Aspinwall,
Mr. J. M. Forbes, Mr. Robert J. Walker and Mr.
Evarts are all here.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his Father
Hartwood Church, Va.
May 8, 1863
This is indeed a twice told tale and of the weariest
at that. Here am I once more picketing Hartwood
Church after another battle of Fredericksburg, just
as I did last December! I did on the fifteenth of last
month confidently hope never again to see this modest
brick edifice, but the wisdom of Providence differently
ordained and here I am once more and, from here, go
on with my broken story.
I left off with Sunday, 26th April, and an order to
send me out on picket. I got off at about ten o'clock
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 283
and reached my position on the road to Sulphur Springs
at about four. I had only about sixty men and my
line was very long. The officers whom I relieved looked
disgusted enough when I told them what my force was,
and said that they had twice as many and had sent for
more. However I was sent to relieve them and went to
work to do so. There are few things more disgusting
I imagine than being called upon to establish a line of
pickets at night and in a strange country, and then
having night shut down on you just when you realize
how difficult your task is. It took me four hours to ride
over my line, and when I returned I was in an awful
maze. Major Covode, whom I relieved, had taken me
through the fields instead of over the roads, and I no
longer knew where the river ran, which was north or
south, or indeed where I was. My mind was a jumble of
fords, hills and roads, with a distinct recollection of
a rapid brook called "the river," and the immense
desolate ruins of the huge hotel at the Springs, burnt
by Pope last summer and through which I had ridden
by moonlight. Major Covode left me with the en-
couraging information that I need n't fear much until
the river went down, but then I'd have to look sharp
and I proceeded to secure myself.
As for guarding the army, I gave that idea up at once
and perforce ran for luck; but I was n't going to be
surprised myself, so I made my arrangements to pro-
tect myself and concluded that they were eminently un-
satisfactory. Flint with twenty men was posted about
four miles to my right and in a very exposed and dan-
gerous place, and my force was too weak to keep
284 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Mats,
up communication with him. He might be swallowed
whole and I not know it. I was near Sulphur Springs
and tolerably secure until the river fell. The enemy left
us alone, however, and in the morning one of my men
crossed the river and found it fordable. I sent in my
report and at nine o'clock — as I was not likely to be
on duty three days — went out to study the country.
At two o'clock I had gotten through and set my mind
at ease, for I understood the position and knew how
to go to work for the next night, and at three o'clock
I was notified that I was relieved. Our picket duty is
made immensely more difficult here by the state of
the population. The enemy know the country and we
don't, and every man is a citizen or a soldier, as the oc-
casion offers. We feel no single man is safe and so our
posts have to be double, and we feel at any time that
these may be picked off and thus our reserves and the
army exposed to surprises. I was glad to be relieved,
although now I felt that I knew what I was about, and
at seven o'clock got off and got into camp at nine.
At eleven Flint got in and we turned in for a good
night.
Monday the weather had changed again and all day
it rained and was threatening rain, but we nevertheless
went to work and made ourselves very comfortable.
We moved our squadron camp to the top of the hill and
had the tents pitched in line and our own head quar-
ters fenced in with brush. When evening came all was
finished, swept up and clean, and I looked round on the
pleasantest camp I had ever seen in a bivouac. Teague,
Flint's 2d Lieutenant, had constructed a rustic bench
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 285
and the bright fire in front of it threw its light into the
shelter tents where Mac had ensconced himself on our
blankets. It was very pretty and Flint and I sat down
to a pipe of deep contentment, preparatory to a sleep
of supreme comfort.
While we were simmering over these pleasant sen-
sations an orderly blundered by inquiring the way
to Colonel Curtis' quarters, and a cold shiver went
through me. In a minute more orders came for me to
get ready to march at once. It was then eight o'clock,
and a night march was before us, and we so comfortable
and tired ! It went very hard, but it had to go, and at
nine o'clock we were in the saddle and our comfort-
able camp was nowhere. It was a general move. We
marched down to Bealeton and struck the railroad
and kept along until we came to within a mile of the
river when we turned off into the woods, and Mac lost
us and disappeared. It was then about two o'clock in
the morning. We dismounted, unsaddled, built some
fires and went to sleep before them. The night was
cloudy, damp and warm. We were called and saddled
at daylight and the men got their breakfasts — mine
being a cup of coffee and at eight we started. In vain
had I whistled and inquired for Mac. He seemed gone
and I gave him up; but just as our column was formed
out in the fields my heart was rejoiced by seeing him
poking down the ranks, evidently looking for me. He
caught sight of me at last and evinced his satisfaction
by at once laying down and going to sleep. Since that
he has pegged steadily along with the column and is
now placidly sleeping in my tent. I did n't expect to
2S6 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May 8,
keep him so long, but now I think he's got the hang
of it and has a chance of coming through.
We marched towards the river and halted. It was
a cold, cloudy, dismal east wind morning. Appar-
ently the ford there was impracticable, for presently
we started again and moved rapidly down the river. I
now felt pretty sick of this running round after a ford
and began to doubt whether we ever should get across
that miserable little river. My doubts were solved,
however, when at noon we got down to Kelly's Ford
and I saw a pontoon bridge thrown across and the
cavalry fording. Here at last we crossed the river at a
point which we reached at the end of our first day's
march, and we left camp on April 13th and this was
April 29th. After crossing we dismounted and let our
horses graze and lay there, doing nothing, or mount-
ing, moving and accomplishing nothing, until nearly
evening, when just as we were thinking of going into
camp, the column began to defile into the woods and
we followed in our turn. We had had nothing to eat
since the evening before and were getting cross; but
luckily, just then Flint's man came up with a canteen
of coffee and a plate of meat, and at the same time the
skirmishing began in front. So we rode forward feast-
ing and ready to fight.
We pressed rapidly forward in fine of battle through
the woods with a rapid skirmishing fire in front and a
few shells now and then going or coming and, presently,
about sunset, emerged onto an immense open coun-
try, on the farther side of which could just be seen
the enemy's cavalry. Here we formed line, but it was
1863.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 287
too late to attack and so presently we fell back to the
edge of the wood to pass the night. Of course we could
have no fires and our ranks were not broken; but the
men dismounted, the horses were fed part at a time,
and the men lay down and slept in front of them, hold-
ing the bridles. Presently it began to rain and kept it
up smartly pretty much all night, but we slept none
the less and I know I slept well. We certainly calculated
on a fight that morning, but when morning came the
rumor crept round that the enemy was gone and so it
proved. It had stolen away like a thief in the night
and left open to us the road to Culpepper. This we
took at once and again breakfasted in the saddle, glad
enough to see Davis, Flint's man, with his coffee and
tin dish of fried beef.
This was Thursday and we had one of the most de-
lightful and interesting marches I ever enjoyed. The
morning was cloudy, but it cleared bright and warm
at noon, and the afternoon and night were charming,
with a few slight drawbacks. The country towards
Culpepper is open and we approached the town in or-
der of battle — five columns or squadrons, marching
straight across the country and all manoeuvring to-
gether. We saw nothing of Lee or Stuart, however,
except his dead horses, which lay along our course
thick and unburied, and by noon we were close to
Culpepper. The country looks old, war-worn and
wasted, but not so bad as the other side of the river.
Most of the houses along the road were deserted and
apparently had been so for a long time. Some of them
were evidently old Virginia plantation houses, and
2SS A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May 8,
once had been aristocratic and lazy. Now they are
pretty thoroughly out of doors. We marched rapidly
through Culpepper and out on the other side, exciting
the especial notice of the negroes and curs of the town
and the lazy attention of the few whites left. It's quite
a Yankee looking place and, with Warren ton, very unlike
most Virginia towns. Hardly were we dismounted when
I was sent scampering out to the front to attend to a
party of rebels who were said to be threatening our ad-
vance guard, but when I had pounded my horses up hill
and down dale for a mile and a half, I found no enemy
to attend to and was told I might come back and feed
my men and horses. I did so and we lay off for a couple
of hours in the woods. Presently the column came up
and we fell in and continued our march until we came
to the battlefield of Cedar Mountain, where we halted
while the column was passing an obstacle in the road.
Here you know our 2d Regiment was so cut up and Ste-
phen Perkins was killed. We looked over the field and
saw the graves of our troops, but there are few signs of
a battlefield left. I noticed that our horses would not
eat the grass and, as we passed one ditch, some of my
men hit upon a skull, apparently dug up and gnawed
by the swine. Such it is to die for one's country !
While resting here a tremendous shower came up and,
before it was over, we were again on the road. As night
came on and we approached the Rapidan things got
worse. The afternoon was clear and was followed by
a full moonlight evening, but the roads were heavy
enough and the head of the column passed on at a gait
very unmerciful to the rear. I once got a mile to the
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 289
rear of the squadron in front of me and was kept at
a trot the whole time. At sunset we entered a thick
marshy wood of heavy timber, between Cedar Moun-
tain and the Rapidan, and pressed on, through per-
fectly fearful roads, until about eight when the river
brought the column up standing. Then came one of
those nights which try the temper and patience. After
dark, with exhausted horses, tired, wet and hungry,
we were first kept waiting and then marched into the
woods, and then more delay, and then marched back in
search of a camp. But the whole wood for miles was lit-
erally a marsh, and so after bungling round for some
time, at ten o'clock we were dismounted and told to
"make ourselves comfortable." It was the worst camp-
ing ground I ever saw. The mud and water stood every-
where up to the horses' fetlocks and our ankles and
it seemed a dead flat; but the moon was in our favor.
Had it rained, it would have been very trying. The
men picked out the dry spots, or those least wet, and
Flint, Teague and I had some young trees cut and,
resting one end on a dead trunk and the other in the
mud, made a sort of inclined plane bed on which we
spread our blankets, had some coffee and beef and
went to sleep.
The next day was the 1st of May — the day two
years that you sailed for Europe, as I did not fail to re-
member. It was a delightful day, bright and sunny.
We did not leave our charming camp, christened by the
men the water-cure establishment — until about nine,
and then went slowly forward to where we could hear
some skirmishing and artillery practice along the line
290 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May 8,
of the river. Presently we halted and our carbineers
went to the front and there we waited all day. I don't
know what the plan was, but I cannot think that it
included our crossing the river. The enemy had a few
pieces of artillery on the hills beyond and the sharp-
shooters lined both banks. No attempt was made by
us to cross and our plan seemed rather to be to make a
feint and to distract the enemy's attention from some
other point. Once or twice during the day we changed
our position, but otherwise we killed time only and
finally when evening came and when we were in a very
comfortable position orders came for us to go into camp
and to our unspeakable disgust we were marched
straight back to the water-cure establishment, and
dumped down into the mud again. This time I could n't
stand it and at eleven o'clock, after wading round and
looking at my horses wholly unable to lay down, I
got permission to move my company and went to bed
satisfied that men and horses were high and dry.
Saturday we started at eight o'clock and, to our im-
mense surprise, found ourselves on the back track. They
said that we had accomplished all we came for, but we
could n't see it, and we did n't relish our march. As for
me, I did n't relish the reticence about high quarters.
There seemed to be an air of solemn silence which
omened badly and I felt sure that evil tidings had
come from Hooker. Still the day was very fine and the
spring young and full of life and at this season, in this
open air lif e, one can't be dull long, so I soon brightened
up and was all ready for the first rumor which told us
of a battle and a great victory of Hooker's the day
1863.] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 291
before. After that we lived in anxiety and rumors, now
victory, now defeat, now all up and again all down, un-
til the final acknowledgment came. We did not hear
the guns of the battle until that afternoon, but as we
approached the Rapidan near Ely's Ford they began
to boom faintly up and when we reached the ford at
sunset they sounded loud and fast. Here we halted and
went into camp with a notice that we should go on
again at midnight; but just as we were getting ready
to lay down there came a most tremendous volley of
musketry close to us, causing us to saddle with the
least possible delay. Our camps were knocked to
pieces and the regiments moved off as soon as possi-
ble and my squadron was ordered to support Tidb all's
battery. I reported and all the dispositions were made
and things were prepared for a night attack, and then
our commanders concluded that there would n't be
any after all. It proved that a rebel regiment had
fired across the river into our camp and had then sub-
sided into silence. So I was told that I might unsaddle
and go to sleep, which I did, and at one o'clock we lay
down in the hospitable furrows of a corn field to be
called at four.
Saturday was a lazy, anxious disagreeable day.
Heavy firing in the direction of Chancellorsville, about
five miles off, began at daybreak and was kept up un-
til nearly noon without intermission. We anxiously
watched the direction and distance and tried to draw
inferences from it. We listened to all sorts of rumors
which came flowing in, most of them encouraging, and
tried to believe them, and, in fact, we did and that
292 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Mat 8,
afternoon I, for one, was sanguine and confident. At
noon the battery left and I was relieved, so, to pass the
time, I was ordered to go and strip an old secesh farmer
of his corn, for our horses were well-nigh starving. I
did so in most approved style and in reply to his long
story of losses, plunderings and impending starvation
turned the deaf ear of duty, and, as I swept off his last
ears of seed corn, told him that Virginia had brought
this on herself and need expect no mercy. I think that
that old pod realises that the ordinance of secession was
a mistake. After finishing this job I took my squadron
into the woods and we lay off for a few hours under the
trees in the pleasant spring afternoon until the column
started to cross the river, when I fell in.
We crossed and came into our lines a couple of miles
on the other side. Though I did not know it, those two
miles were very dangerous to us, for it was through
thick woods, of which we did not hold possession, and
in which a few felled trees and a small force of infan-
try could have driven us back. We got through safely
however and came into our fines. We found our forces
throwing up defences, as busy as bees, already strongly
protected and apparently in excellent spirits. They
looked fresh, clean and confident. We went on to U.S.
ford and soon struck the main road with its endless
confusion — reinforcements, supply and ammunition
trains and messengers going to the front; stragglers,
ambulances and stretchers with the loads of wounded
and dying men toiling to the rear; cattle, horses and
mules; wounded men resting, tired men sleeping, all
here looking excited and worn out with fatigue. The
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 293
news here was not so good, but the 11th Corps had
fought here and had not fought well, and we thought
it was probably colored by their reverses.
We got to the ford at dusk and encamped, and in
the evening we had a shower or two and in the morn-
ing we woke by a brisk discharge of artillery and burst-
ing of shells. At ten o'clock we moved and came across
the river and encamped on this side in a wood, a mile
or so from the river, and received a new issue of forage
or rations. The rumors were very good and very bad.
At first, the enemy was surrounded, Sedgwick held the
heights and we were getting ready to follow in pursuit.
Then Sedgwick had lost the heights and Hooker was
coming to grief, and night fell on rumors of an un-
pleasant aspect. Still our quarters were comfortable
and we turned in for a good night's sleep; but at two
o'clock we were called and ordered to be ready to
move in ten minutes and three found us on the road.
We marched down towards Falmouth, utterly ignorant
of our destination or of what was going on; but as
day broke through a thick heavy fog we found various
stragglers, etc., and picked up scraps of news. It was
all bad, not decisive, but bad; things evidently were
going wrong. At last I met a Captain from Sedgwick's
Corps who gave me the gross results, and in a few min-
utes I rode through Falmouth as dejected a man as you
would care to see. I felt sick of the war, of the army,
almost of life. I thought of you and of this result
abroad; it seemed too much and I felt despairing. We
presently halted beyond Falmouth and there passed
the day trying not to believe news which we felt to be
294 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May 8,
true. The morning was very hot, but in the afternoon
a tremendous rain-storm came up ending in a north-
easter, wetting us through, driving us out of our tents
and freezing us nearly to death, and in this we passed
the night.
Wednesday was cheerless to a degree. Wind north-
east, cold and rainy, and we wet and shivering; but it
wore away by degrees and our spirits kept rising, until
at last we actually believed that the army had not re-
treated; but in the afternoon came the crusher. The
news of the retreat of the army came upon us at once
with the order to saddle and return to our old camp.
We did so and returned to Potomac Run Bridge. It
was a cold, cheerless afternoon. The rain fell by show-
ers in torrents and we had been wet through twenty-
four hours. We found our old camp deserted, burned
up, filthy and surrounded with dead horses. We tied
up our horses and stood dismally round in the pouring
rain. Presently shelters were rigged up and we crawled
into them and passed a supperless, wet night, by no
means uncheerfully, for things were too bad to be
trifled with now and woe to a grumbling man, or one
who intimated that things might be more agreeable.
Thursday, just as we were getting ready to clear
away the wreck and to discover what our four weeks
of active service had left of our companions an order
came for us at once to go out on picket. I was not sorry
to do it, for the old camp is not pleasant. We did so
and here I am now, doing the lightest possible picket
duty and sitting in the woods. To be sure it rained
again last night and we are still wet; but we are out of
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 295
that confounded filthy camp which oppresses us with
defeat.
Potomac Bridge, Va.
May 9, 1863
Back at Potomac Run and so ends today the four
toughest weeks campaigning that I have ever felt —
mud and rain, rain and mud, long marches and short
forages. It is strange how I like the life though, in
spite of its hardships and beastly slavery. I no longer
care for a leave of absence, or wish to go home. I am
satisfied to stay here and see the thing through. Still
we are now clearing away the wreck and can see what
damage is done. We got in from picket last night at
nine o'clock, and today it has cleared off and we can
take account of stock. The trip has used up about
twenty of my sixty horses and done no good to the men,
but we have seen no fighting. Our regiment has lost
one officer, poor Phillips, picked off by a sharp-shooter
on the Rapidan. He was a promoted sergeant and came
from Springfield. Our division has lost its General —
Averell — placed under arrest, why, I do not know.
I think they'll have to release him, as, good or bad,
he's the best we have. Stoneman turned up last night
and what he has done the newspapers will tell you;
I can't. As for the Army of the Potomac, it's loss is
great, but not irreparable. The men do not seem cast
down or demoralised and the enemy cannot afford to
diminish their forces opposite. The real trouble, I im-
agine, is the mustering out of the two year men. If it
were not for that I should feel confidence in immediate
movement. As for Hooker, I think the army feels con-
296 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [May*
fidence in him. He ran his head against a stone wall
here, but that is his tendency and the lesson will be of
great service. I think he '11 do much better next time.
On the whole things might be much worse; but the
army must be kept in motion and the enemy engaged.
If Hooker rests, he's lost, and so I look to being in the
field again at once. . . .
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
London, May 8, 1863
My bulletin is calmer this week than has been usual of
late. The little squall has passed and instead of press-
ing on the Minister, people here feel that Lord Russell
was in the wrong in his attack that I sent you some
weeks ago, and the Times has this week administered
a second pacify er in the shape of a flattering leader on
Mr. Adams' speech to the Trades Unions delegation.
I send you a newspaper containing this speech. No-
tice also the Royal Academy dinner and Lord Palmer-
ston's remarks. They are not political, but are a no-
ble specimen of lofty sentiment and brilliant rhetoric,
worthy of the experienced statesman to whose power
and wisdom this vast nation bows. And these men call
Seward shallow and weak!
A much quieter feeling and a partial reaction against
the blockade runners have generally prevailed here for
a week past. Our successes on the Mississippi, too, and
the direct advices from the South are having a quiet-
ing effect here on the public, and the Polish question is
becoming so grave that we are let up a little. On the
whole we have made progress this last week.
1863] A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 297
Meanwhile we have a complete Cabinet of Minis-
terial advisers and assistants. I wrote you their names
in my last. Of them all Mr. Evarts is the only one
whom I put very high. Dana too has written to call
on my services for him. So I have done and shall do
everything I can to make him comfortable and con-
tented. Last Sunday I took him down to Westminster
Abbey in the afternoon, where we listened awhile to
the services, and then trotted off and took a steamboat
up the river. We had a two hours' voyage up to Kew,
where we arrived at half after five, and had just time
to run over the gardens. Then we took a cab and
drove up to Richmond Hill, where we ordered dinner
at the Star and Garter, and then sat in the open air
and watched the view and the sunset until our meal
was ready. Much conversation had we, and that of a
pretty confidential nature. We discussed affairs at
home and philosophic statesmanship, the Government
and the possibility of effectual reform. He is much like
Dana in his views, but is evidently a good deal soured
by his political ill-luck.
Another evening I took him out to see London by
night. We visited, as spectators, various places of pop-
ular resort. He was much interested in them, and
seemed to enjoy the experience as a novelty in his
acquaintance with life. London is rather peculiar in
these respects, and even an experienced traveller would
find novelty in the study of character at the Argyll
Rooms and at Evans's. At any rate, I consider that
I have done my part there, and you may imagine that
I do not much neglect opportunities to conciliate men
298 A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS [Mat 8.
like him, like Seward and like Weed. I would like to
get further west, but the deuce of it is that there are
so few distinguished western men.
With this exception I believe the last week has been
quiet. I was rather astonished last Monday by one of
Seward's jocose proceedings. The Minister had sent
me down to the Trades Unions meeting three weeks
ago to make a report on it to him, for transmission to
Washington. I did so and wrote a report which I had no
time either to correct or alter, and which was sent the
next day to Seward officially, appended to a despatch.
Now Seward writes back as grave as a Prime Minister
a formal despatch acknowledging the other, and thank-
ing "Mr. Henry B. Adams " in stately and wordy para-
graphs for his report and "profound disquisition," etc.,
etc. I propose to write a note to Fred Seward on his
father's generosity. . . .
END OF VOLUME I
No. / 7/7 Sect._/3 Shelf.
CONTENTS
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