The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 1, January, 1864

Оглавление

Various. The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 1, January, 1864

RETROSPECTIVE

HAS THE WAR GONE SLOWLY?

NOT TOO SLOW—WHY? SLAVERY

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM

OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS

CONCESSION OF BELLIGERENT RIGHTS TO THE REBELS

THE REBEL CRUISERS

BRITISH VIOLATION OF NEUTRAL OBLIGATIONS

LEGISLATION—THE CONFISCATION LAW

MILITARY ADMINISTRATION—NO ARMY OF RESERVE

CONSOLATION—ENFORCEMENT OF THE DRAFT IN NEW YORK

SUMMARY REVIEW

SKETCHES OF AMERICAN LIFE AND SCENERY

I.—A SUMMER EXCURSION

REASON, RHYME, AND RHYTHM

PREFACE TO VOLUME SECOND

CHAPTER_FIRST. RHYTHM

'OUR ARTICLE.'

SOME OF THE AGGRAVATIONS OF LIVING

THE LESSON OF THE WOOD

DIARY OF FRANCES KRASINSKA;

OR, LIFE IN POLAND DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

THE GREAT STRUGGLE

AMERICAN FINANCES AND RESOURCES

LETTER NO. II, FROM HON. ROBERT J. WALKER

THE DECLINE OF ENGLAND

TEMPTATION

MADAGASCAR

A VIGIL WITH ST. LOUIS

UNION NOT TO BE MAINTAINED BY FORCE

WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?

PART THE LAST

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

THE GREAT AMERICAN CRISIS. PART TWO

THE ENGLISH PRESS

THE CONSCRIPTION ACT OF MARCH 3d

EDITOR'S TABLE

THE CUMBERLAND

AMERICAN THANKSGIVING DAY IN LONDON

LITERARY NOTICES

Отрывок из книги

Time makes many dark things clear, and often in a wonderfully short and decisive way. So we said hopefully two years and more ago in regard to one of the unsolved problems which then pressed on the minds of thoughtful men—how, namely, it was to fare with slavery in the progress and sequel of the war. The history of our national struggle has illustrated the truth and justified the hope. Time has quite nearly solved that problem and some others almost equally perplexing. The stream of historical causes has borne the nation onward on the bosom of its inevitable flow, until we can now almost see clear through to the end; at any rate, we have reached a point where we can look backward and forward with perhaps greater advantage than at any former period. What changes of opinion have been wrought! How many doubts resolved! How many fears dispelled! How many old prejudices and preconceived notions have been abandoned! How many vexed questions put at rest! How many things have safely got an established place among accepted and almost generally acceptable facts, which were once matters of loyal foreboding and of disloyal denunciation! No man of good sense and loyalty now doubts the rightfulness and wisdom of depriving the rebels of the aid derived from their slaves, and making them an element of strength on our side; while the fact that the enfranchised slaves make good soldiers, is put beyond question by an amenability to military discipline and a bravery in battle not surpassed by any troops in the world.

In a review of the conduct of the war, how little reason appears for regret and how much for satisfaction in regard to all the great measures of the Government!

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Of course the driver was plied with numerous questions regarding the thus far nameless lake. He had been up the Shawangunk mountain fishing, but that was years before; there was a lake, but he had never heard any name given to it; he had understood a house had been built since his last visit; but he did not know if it was intended to accommodate visitors during the night. Of one thing, however, he was quite certain, and that was, the impossibility of finding a horse in New Paltz to take the ladies up that evening. The inns had none to let; there were no livery stables, and his own pair were too greatly fatigued by their twenty-mile drive to venture up so steep an ascent; but he thought a conveyance might be found for the following morning. The views along the road were charming; and the sharp, jagged crest known as Paltz Point, overhung the well-cultivated rolling valley beneath, giving a fair promise of an extended and characteristic view.

The inn, to which the travellers were driven, proved very neat and comfortable. It was a new edifice, with an accommodating landlord and landlady, the latter of which personages seemed quite mystified by the advent of two lorn ladies in search of an unknown lake. In the entry hung a new map of Ulster county, on which appeared a lake nestling under the cliffs of Paltz Point, but still without a name. Paltz Point!—that must be the very jagged pile of rock visible from the Cornwall hills, and the lake at its foot more than probably the object of the journey.

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