and children. There is many a negro in the southern states who does actually stand in the same kind of moral relation to his master as that which Jesus Christ bore to the Jews, when he said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And not moral relation only; for the negro often has a clear mental perception of the fact stated. He sometimes stands above his master, at a hight which the master can neither see nor believe in.

CHAPTER V.

BALTIMORE.

WHEN war breaks out in a country after a long peace, it is natural that the people should look for guidance first to men who won distinction in the wars of the past. The history of wars shows us that this is generally an error, fruitful of disaster. It gave us Washington, it is true; but Washington was but forty-four years of age when he left Philadelphia to take command of the armies of the revolution; and he had passed the twenty years which had elapsed since Braddock's defeat, not in the routine of a military office, but in hunting the fox, and in managing a great estate, which involved the control of some hundreds of human beings. The almost sovereign lord of a little principality, he spent half his days in the saddle, and was constantly engaged in pursuits somewhat akin to those of a commander of armies. Neither his mind nor his blood could stagnate, roaming those extensive fields and forests, foreseeing, calculating, providing, governing. But the rule usually holds good, that a war develops its own hero; the heroes of the past not proving adequate to the new emergency.

At the beginning of this rebellion, there was an officer at the seat of government who had been a general in the service of the United States for forty-nine years. Two generations had been accustomed to regard him as the ablest of American soldiers; and for a long series of years, he had been highest in place, as well as highest in the confidence of the public. The reputation of a living person has

in it a principle of growth. If a man has done something which so enters into the history of his nation, that children necessarily become familiar with his name at school, he may sit still for thirty years, and yet find his reputation growing; until, by the death of cotemporaries, it becomes, perhaps, unique and overshadowing. The haze of antiquity gathers round it, veiling and yet magnifying the basis of fact upon which it rests. And if, perchance, the ancient hero, emerging from the vast, dim halo of his name, presents himself to view, in his old age, at the head of a conquering army, thundering at the gates of an enemy's capital, vague reverence is changed to conscious enthusiasm, and no one doubts that here, indeed, is the "first captain of the age." When the war began, therefore, and rumors of an impending attack upon the capital alarmed the country, the name of Winfield Scott appeared sufficient to allay apprehension. It seemed of itself a tower of strength; it was a rallying point for the gathering forces of the country; it gave assurance to millions of minds that the resources of the nation, so lavishly offered, would be employed with intelligence and success. If there was

a moment when some men feared that the mania of secession might seize even him, the fear was quickly dispelled, when he was seen renewing his oath of allegiance, and responding in unequivocal language to the cheers of arriving regiments. There he was, the center of attraction, conspicuous among the conspicuous, apparently rolling up the whirlwind, and elaborating the storm that was supposed to be about to sweep over the rebellious states resistless. Fatal delusion!

General Scott was seventy-five years of age. An old wound partly disabled him. A recent accident had shaken him severely. He could not mount a horse. He could not walk a mile. The motion of a carriage soon fatigued him. His vast form was itself a heavy burden. He required a great deal of sleep. He moved, thought, and acted slowly. Accustomed for fifty years to the pettiest details of a small, widely scattered army, he was now suddenly called upon to organize many armies, and direct their movements against enemies in the field. A task more difficult than ever Napoleon or Wellington performed, was laid upon a man who, in his best days, would have been signally unequal to it; for he had not been gifted by nature with that genius for command which alone could have formed invincible armies out of masses of loosely organ

ized men, having nothing that belongs to soldiers except arms and a willingness to use them for the restoration of their country. He was a man of exact, formal, unpliant mind. Accustomed long to the first place-accustomed also to that extravagant adulation which we used to bestow upon conspicuous persons, he was less likely to suspect his infinite insufficiency.

This was well known, however, to every thinking man familiar with Washington. Mr. Lincoln was not familiar with Washington. He, too, had been accustomed to survey General Scott from a great distance, and he took for granted the correctness of the popular estimate, which pronounced him the first captain of the age! Mr. Cameron, the secretary of war, was totally ignorant of the first rudiments of the military art; and he had, too, a painful sense of his ignorance, which he frequently expressed. Hence, the military resources of the country were laid, as it were, humbly at the feet of General Scott, for him to use or misuse according to his good pleasure.

Baltimore was the ruling topic in those days. Baltimore, still severed from all its railroad connections with the North, and still under control of the secession minority. One of the last reporters who made his way through the city, two or three days after the attack of the mob upon the Sixth Massachusetts, gave a striking narrative of his adventures, which kept alive the impression that Baltimore had gone over, as one man, to the side of the rebels, and meant to resist to the death the passage of Union troops.

"In the streets," he wrote, "of the lower part of the city, there were immense crowds, warm discussions, and the high pitch of excitement which discussion engenders. The mob-for Baltimore street was one vast mob-was surging to and fro, uncertain in what way to move, and apparently without any special purpose. Many had small secession cards pinned on their coat collars, and not a few were armed with guns, pistols and knives, of which they made the most display.

"I found the greatest crowd surging around the telegraph office, waiting anxiously, of course, for news. The most inquiry was as to the whereabouts of the New York troops-the most frequent topic, the probable results of an attempt on the part of the Seventh regi ment to force a passage through Baltimore. All agreed that the force could never go through--all agreed that it would make the

attempt if ordered to do so, and none seemed to entertain a doubt that it would leave a winrow of the dead bodies of those who assailed it in the streets through which it might attempt to pass.

"I found the police force entirely in sympathy with the secessionists and indisposed to act against the mob. Marshal Kane and the commissioners do not make any concealment of their proclivities for the Southern Confederacy. Mayor Brown, upon whom I called, seemed to be disposed to do his duty-providing he knew what it was, and could do it safely. He was in a high state of exsitement when I mentioned my name and purpose. He manifested. a disposition to be civil, and to give me information, but was evidently afraid that I was a Northern aggressor, with whom it was indiscreet for him to be in too close communication. Seeing his condition, I left him and went out in the crowd to gather public opinion again."

Wild rumors were afloat. "At one time government had backed down-then it was going ahead; Virginia was coming-Virginia was not coming. The New Yorkers, Pennsylvanians, the Massachusetts men and the Rhode Islanders, were at one time marching one hundred abreast over the state, looking neither to the right nor the left-at another, no 'd-d Yankee' would dare thus to pollute the sacred soil of Maryland. One told that Fort McHenry had been blown up, another that it was going to 'shell' the city, a third that it was only garrisoned by a handful, while a fourth was positive that at least a force double the full war allotment was within its walls. There was some talk that the fort would be attacked, but the opinion that there was a full garrison, having generally obtained, the attacking part of the programme was postponed. Though large crowds remained in the streets until morning, no unusual events transpired. Curiosity to see what was going on appeared to be the prevailing motive with those who were tramping about. ***

"About eight o'clock the next morning, the streets began again to be crowded. The bar-rooms and public resorts were closed, so that the incentive to precipitate action might not be too readily accessible. Nevertheless, there was much excitement, and among the crowds this morning, there were many men from the country, who carried shot and duck guns, and old-fashioned horsepistols, such as the Maryland' line might have carried from the

first to the present war. The best weapons appeared to be in the hands of young men-boys of eighteen, with the physique and dress and style of deportment, cultivated by the 'Hook Boys' and 'Dead Rabbits' of New York, as villainous looking compounds of reckless rascality as were ever produced in any community.

"About ten o'clock, a cry was raised that 3,000 Pennsylvania troops were at the Calvert street dépôt of the Pennsylvania railroad, and were about to take up their line of march through the city. With a portion of the crowd, I made my way to the dépôt to find it by far the most quiet place in the city. There it was said that the 3,000 were at Pikesville, about fifteen miles from the city, and were going to fight their way around the city. The crowd did not seem disposed to interfere with a movement that required a preliminary tramp of fifteen miles through a heavy sand. But the city authorities, however, rapidly organized and armed some three or four companies and sent them toward Pikesville. Ten of the Adams express wagons passed up Baltimore, loaded with armed men. In one or two there were a number of mattresses, as if wounded men were anticipated. A company of cavalry also started for Pikesville, I supposed to sustain the infantry that had been expressed.

"All through the day, the accessions from the country were coming in. Sometimes a squad of infantry, sometimes a troop of horse, and once a small park of artillery. It was nothing extraordinary to see a solitary horseman' riding in from the counties, with shotgun, powder-horn and flask. Some came with provender lashed to the saddle, prepared to picket out for the night. Boys came with their fathers, accoutered apparently with the war sword and holsterpistols that had done service a century ago. There were strange contrasts between the stern, solemn bearing of the father, and the buoyant, excited, enthusiastic expressions of the boy's face. I had frequent talks with these people, and could not but be impressed with their devotion and patriotism; for, mistaken as they were, they were none the less actuated by the most unselfish spirit of loyalty. They hardly knew, any of them, for what they had so suddenly come to Baltimore. They had a vague idea only, that Maryland had been invaded, and that it was the solemn duty of her sons to protect their soil from the encroachments of an invading force."*

*N. Y. Daily Times, April 24th, 1861.