Page images
PDF
EPUB

The most curiously unique of Yosemite plants, to my thinking, is the California nutmeg tree, Torreya Californica. I ignore, for good reason, the different generic designation adopted in some books more recent than the work of Brewer and Watson. So far as my word goes, my distinguishedth cousin -th cousin shall not be deprived of his one genus. Mr. Clark, who remembered Dr. Torrey's and Dr. Gray's visits to the tree, and whose sympathetic account of the affectionate relations subsisting between these two scholars was deeply interesting, instructed me where to look for the nearest examples, at a point below the Cascades, some eight miles down the El Portal road, and I de- and I devoted a long day to the making of their acquaintance.

[ocr errors]

It was the twentieth of June, the weather had turned summerish, and the road, which had been as dusty as possible a disgrace to the nation that owns it five or six weeks before, when I entered the Valley, was by this time very much dustier. But the river, hastening from the mountains to the sea, was close at my side, garrulous of thoughts and fancies, histories and dreams, and between it and the birds, the trees, and the innumerable wild flowers, I must have been a dull stick not to be abundantly entertained. An ouzel, fishing for something on the flat, inclined surface of a broad boulder in midstream, just where the rapids were wildest, was compelled to spring into the air every minute or so as a sudden big wave threatened to carry it away. It seemed to be playing with death; once fairly caught in that mad whirl, nothing could save it. Again and again I looked to see it go, as the angry waters clutched at it; but it was always a shaving too quick for them. Syringa and calycanthus ('sweetshrub' faintly ill-scented!) were in blossom, and the brilliant pink godetia

a name which may suggest nothing to the Eastern reader, but which to an old Californian like myself stands for all that is brightest and showiest in parched wayside gardens wayside gardens never made a more effective display; and all in all, though I had walked over the longer part of the same road within twenty-four hours, the day was a pure delight. If it gains a little something in the retrospect, it is all the more like a picture, -which must be framed and hung at a suitable distance before we truly see it.

The trees of which I had come in search were recognizable at a glance: the leaves, of a remarkably vivid green, bearing a strong resemblance to those of the hemlock, but sharp as needles, as if to cry 'Hands off!' the flaky gray bark, most incongruously like that of some kind of white oak; while the green fruits, prettily spaced ornamental pendants, were really for shape and size not a little like nutmegs: a surprising crop, surely, to be hanging amid such foliage. The largest of the few examples that I saw (they grow plentifully along the road a little farther down, and may be picked out readily from a carriage-seat, as I discovered later) might have been, I thought, about fifty feet in height.

This tree (the species, I mean), whose only congeners are found in Florida, China, and Japan, may be considered as one of four that lend a notable distinction to the Californian silva, the others being the Torrey pine, the Monterey pine, and the Monterey cypress. No one of them occurs anywhere in the world outside of California, and the nutmeg is the only member of the quartette that ventures more than a few miles inland. Stranded species we may assume them to be, formerly of wider range, but now how or why there is none to inform us-surviving only within these extraordinarily narrow limits.

I alluded to myself just now as an old Californian, and so far as my standing in the Yosemite is concerned I might have said, without jesting, that by the time I had been there three weeks I had come to be regarded as one of the oldest inhabitants; the ordinary stay of visitors being so niggardly brief, - two or three days, perhaps, upon an average.

One man, it is true, gave me what I had to confess might be, in his case, a valid reason for brevity. A Southern gentleman he was, as I should have divined at once from the engaging, softly musical quality of his voice. He began with some question about a squirrel,

which had surprised him by running into a hole in the ground, — and after a word or two more called my attention to two or three wild roses which he carried in his hand. They were fragrant, he said; had I ever noticed it? And when I remarked that I should have expected them to be common in Tennessee, he explained that at home he never went to places where such things were to be looked for. He had discovered the perfume of wild roses as Thoreau discovered the sweetness of white-oak acorns, I thought to myself, and so far was in good company. Then he told me that he had arrived in the Valley on the noon of the day before, had found it grand and beautiful beyond all his dreams, ravishing' was

one of his words, —and was going out again, not of necessity but from choice, that very afternoon. I manifested a natural surprise, and he explained that he 'did n't wish to lose the thrill.' He had seen the picture once and, consciously or unconsciously, was following Emerson's advice never to look at it again. So this time, too, he was in excellent company.

For my part, I cannot afford to be so sparing in my use of good things. My æsthetic faculty, it would appear, is less prompt than other men's. Its method is not so much an act as a process. In the appreciation of natural scenery, at all events, as I have before now confessed, I am not apt to get very far, comparatively speaking, on the first day. I must have time, — time and a liberal chance for repetition. And in the Yosemite, which is as rich in modest loveliness as in spectacular grandeur, a fact of which too little is made, I know perfectly well that there are countless beauties which I have never seen (more and more of them were coming to light up to my very last day), as well as countless others that I should rejoice to see again, or, better still, to live with. Give me the opportunity, say I, and I will cheerfully risk all danger of disillusion, or, as my Southern friend of the wild roses more feelingly expressed it, the 'loss of the thrill.'

A DIARY OF THE RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD1

BY GIDEON WELLES

VII. FRUSTRATING THE PRESIDENT'S POLICIES

Monday, February 18, 1867.

The session of the Senate on Saturday continued through the night and until 6.30 yesterday morning. The subject under consideration was the establishment of military governments over the Southern states. A bill to this effect was introduced by Thad Stevens from the Reconstruction committee, and was carried through the House under his management and dictation. Very few attempt to endorse or justify the measure, yet all the radicals and most of the Republicans voted for it. There is very little firmness or moral courage in the House. The members dare not speak nor act according to their convictions. Indeed their convictions are feeble, and there is little sincerity in them.

In the Senate, Wade, Sumner & Co. undertook to force through the bill at the Saturday's session. A stand was made by the minority against such precipitate and unreasonable legislation on so important a measure. Various amendments were offered and voted down, but at length, on Sunday morning, Mr. Sherman offered a substitute which was adopted. It is in one or two respects less offensive than the House bill, but is still an outrage upon the Constitution, the rights of the people, and the rights of the states. Sumner was violent, and, Grimes tells me, more savage when Sherman's substi

238

tute was adopted. He left the Senate in a rage. Grimes and Sumner, though both radicals, are not friends or on speaking terms. Of course, Grimes is enjoying Sumner's disappointment.

Stevens, Boutwell, and the extreme radicals are as indignant as Sumner, and will make fight against the bill in its present shape and likely secure amendments. The Republicans, though disliking and mistrusting each other more and more each day, are not yet prepared to break. There is no shrewd man among the Democrats to take advantage of or manage their rising differences, or to lead his own party wisely.

Seward and Stanton confuse and bewilder the mind of the President, prevent him from pursuing a straightforward and correct course and from taking and maintaining a bold, decisive policy. They are weakening the executive power daily, and undermining the constitutional fabric. Seward acts as usual from no fixed principles, but from mere expediency; not with a design to injure the President or to help the radicals. He tries to resuscitate, vitalize, and perpetuate the old Whig party, and to undo and destroy the Democratic party, each for the glory of Seward. Stanton is deep in the radical intrigues, but contrives to get along with and to use Seward and his superficial wisdom, and is so far suc

1 Copyright, 1910, by EDGAR T. WELLES.

cessful as to keep his place, although the President knows his mischievous designs and purposes.

The country is in poor legislative hands, and the prospect is sadly foreboding. The Constitution and the great principles of union and free government on a federal basis are disregarded.

Friday, February 22, 1867.

The politicians in and out of Congress have been busy for several days on the subject of governing the Southern states. Sherman's amendment went down to the House, was disagreed to and some abominable additions were made. Partisans, and factions, and fanatics, and demagogues were each and all at work. Finally a bill was adopted, establishing military governments and martial law in and over those states. Where Congress gets the power to do these things no one attempts to point out. The Members of Congress evidently confound martial law with military law, and know no distinction. Congress has the undoubted right to enact military laws for the government of the land and naval forces; but martial law exists. and is in operation where there is no law. The will of the military officer in command is supreme. He can order court-martials or military commissions to try, citizens as well as soldiers, but citizens cannot be tried by military law.

Martial law abolishes jury trials; Congress cannot abolish them. Martial law may abridge freedom of speech and of the press, but Congress cannot. When there is a Congress or legislature to enact laws, there can be no martial law. It would be a solecism. Yet this radical Congress has undertaken to enact martial law. In other respects the bill is subversive of government, destroys titles, and introduces chaos. The President as commander-in-chief

of the army and navy exercised the power - which devolved upon him when the rebellion was suppressed, and the military forces occupied the rebel states; when there was no law, and chaos reigned of appointing provisional governors and ordering other measures to establish order and system and re-introduce law. Congress could not do this. It had no authority or power. All its powers are derived from the Constitution, the organic law; but when martial law prevails municipal law is suspended.

To-day the President laid this bill, and also the one respecting the tenure of office, before the Cabinet. The bill for the military government of the states was the only one considered. On this there was the usual uncertainty. No one of the Cabinet advised the President to approve the bill but Stanton. He said that though he would have framed the bill differently and altered it in some respects, he should give it his sanction, and advised the President to give it his approval.

Following him, I wholly dissented, and plainly and directly advised the President to put his veto upon it.

Reverdy Johnson, the senatorial trimmer, gave his vote in the Senate for this infamous bill.2 Stanton quoted him as an example and an authority. How long will the President be able to go on with such an opponent at his council board?

Monday, February 25, 1867.

I read some suggestions on the Tenure-of-Office bill to the President. They were prepared in response to an opinion of the Attorney-General some months since, but are applicable to the

1 Senator from Maryland.

2 No law so unjust in its policy, so direful in its results had passed the American Congress since the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.' RHODES, vol. vi, page 23.

bill. The President was pleased with them. I also left with him some views on the bill for the military government of the Southern states. These views, which relate to the strange plan of enacting martial law by Congress, chimed in with his opinions.

On taking the paper the President alluded to the cabinet council on Friday and the pitiful exhibition which Stanton made of himself, and wondered if Stanton supposed he was not understood. The sparkle of the President's eyes and his whole manner betokened intense though suppressed feeling. Few men have stronger feeling; still fewer have the power of restraining themselves when evidently excited.

I remarked that it was but part of the drama which had long been enacting and asked what was to be the condition of things, if impeachment were pressed and an attempt to arrest him was made. This subject the President himself had brought forward at the Friday meeting. Seward and Stanton wished to give it the go-by, though each had his own theory. Seward said it was not wise to anticipate such a thing, to discuss it even among ourselves, had an anecdote to tell, and his experience on the McCracken correspondence. I differed with him and thought it both wise and prudent to be prepared for an emergency which was threatened, and had been undoubtedly discussed. Others agreed with me, the President earnestly. Thus pressed, Seward said it might be considered a law question, coming particularly within the province of the AttorneyGeneral whenever it came up, but if the Attorney-General should advise the President to submit to an arrest before conviction he would demand the immediate dismissal of the AttorneyGeneral. I asked if the demand would be made on legal or political grounds.

Stanton tried to evade the matter; did not believe that impeachment would be pursued; the session is near its close, etc.

The President was evidently not satisfied with this treatment of the subject when we had our conversation on Saturday, and was now a good deal indignant. But whether he will make any demonstration in that direction remains to be seen. I have little expectation that he will, although had I not previously had similar strong intimations without any result, I should from his expressive manner have expected a change.

[The Tenure-of-Office Act, designed to frustrate President Johnson in any attempt to carry out the policies of his administration, provided that the consent of the Senate should be necessary to the dismissal of any officer who had been appointed by and with the consent of that body.]

Tuesday, February 26, 1867. At the Cabinet the subject of the Tenure-of-Office bill came up. It had been postponed at the request of the Attorney-General on Friday. He said he had not read it until to-day, but he required no time to express his unqualified condemnation of it. In this the whole Cabinet were united. Stanton was very emphatic, and seemed glad of an opportunity to be in accord with his colleagues. The President said he was overwhelmed with many pressing matters which must be disposed of, and he would be glad if Stanton would prepare a veto or make suggestions. Stanton asked to be excused, for he had not time. The Attorney-General said it was impossible for him to do the work. The President turned to Seward, who said he had not recently given these subjects attention, but he would take hold if Stanton would help him.

« PreviousContinue »