The Nation.

...__I

as best he can to infuse order and discipline into the vast

unwarlike host now under his orders in Paris, and llis plan apparently is to
break them in by means of small encounters with the encn~y, brought
on under favorable circumstances, and not pushed far
enough to try
themtoo
severely. This mode of bringingundisciplinedtrobps
state of thingiizFmn,y z~ppeys,,.?~~
&ow norse and worse. up to the mark has
oftenbeen tried and succeeded, but never, we
Every day nlalres the hopelkssnee%&Jui sfruggle dearer, and nothing believe, under similar circumstances. I t nlay be said to be essential to
does more to dishearten
the fricndsof France than the attllospllcre its success that the army should be in camp, or in a fortress to itself,
of falsehood by which everybody connected k t 1 1 the press or with pub- away from civilians and civilian influences, and completely under the
lic affairs, except General Trochu, appears to be hboring to surround control of the general. The nrn~yof Paris is not only, however, made
himself and the public. Everybody seems to be engaged either i n de- up largely of menfresh from civil life, but of
stillin civil life.
ceiving himself or his neighbors; and even the nlen of thought, like It is surrounded by
inillion or nlorc of non-cornbatmtc, to whose
Mazade and Louis Blanc,havecompletelylost
their heads. Rlazadc, cackle i t listens when off duty,
whose moods it is inevitablyaffected,
on the 15th of September, pours forth the same strain of folly as in the and whose fears and panics and despondency it must inevitably share.
R e w e of the previous fortn,ight, and consoles l~i~nself
for the horrible Moreover, these non-combatants will soon begin to suffer seriously from
reverses of Sedan by the reflection that to France belongs ;the glo- scarcity of provisions, and the troops will be constantly cognizant of
riousprivilege of astonishingthe world. Louis Blanc, w110 has a theirprivations,andconstantlywithinhearing
of their plaints. If
well-earncd reputation as an accurate observer and cool reasoner, raves Trochu can make a body so sit.uated a match, even behind stone walls,
like the lunaticsof the Gacdoiu or
and, thoughan educated IIIRII, for such an army as that of the Crown Prince, he will do ulore than
calls King Willia~n the
Attila of the Nineteenth Century, apparently
any military n ~ a n113s ever done bcfore him. The exposure of the city
for no other reason than that the former, like the latter, has fought
to bombardment becomes every day more inexcusable, :N it is every
battles in Champagne, and that the defeat of the Prussians on the day more evident that no relief from the outside is to lw Iookrd for.
plains of Chblons would be an agreeable occurrence. JulesFavre,
of whom we dislike to speak with anything but respect, has published
,inlong the campaignstories of the week * has been a report I~III~OUIICan account of his interview with I3ismarck which reads like a letter
ing theraising of the siege and thegeneral retreat of the Irussians. There
from a young lady delegate to a
womans rights convention, rather
as another, from Tours, heralding the dest,rnction, 1)sthe firc of the
than the reportof a statesman deputed to debatc with one of thc keenFort da Mont ValErien, of all the Prussian works i n rircnit of six
est diplonmtists of the age the fate of a great people, and that people
kilometres ; the clriving of their engineers from Clau1art,Meltdon, and
his own country~nen. The figure he cut himself appears all through to
Montretout : the recapture of Villejuif and Champigny, and a nuutber
be uppermost in !?is mind. He keeps an exact record of all his emoof otherexploits achieved by the Parisians.
there mas also an
tions; tellshow he started from his chair, and how he writhed and
offcia1 bullet.in, issucd by Gambetta, at Tours, 1)roclainling that, on thc
agonized under Bismarcks dastardly propositions ; how his strength
12th inst., the Prussiana wcre driren out of a11 the Imitions
was near failing him, and how near he came to breaking down, and so
they had been occupying for weeks . . . drivel1 beyond Stains. Pierreon-a most pit,iful record, and well calculated to increase the contempt
fitte, and Dugny ; beyond Joinville, Creteil, Champigny ; *forced
of the Prussians for their adversary, and harden their hearts against
from Has-hleudon and St. Cloud, and thrnwn back on Versailles. The
him.
truth of the matter, h o ~ c v e r ic,
, that the exploits of the more than
ever heroic pcoplc of Paris consisted in some feeble reconnoissances
As far as sin~ple, unadnlterated lying goes, it must be adn~ittcd
of the Prnssian outposts,
that the Republichas, thus far,
outdone theGralnonts and Palikaos, snd sorties, which caused the falling back
and with less excuse. Attcmpts are no longer made to conceal disas- and ended, like all precedingones, with repulses; that the fire of Mont
is worsc, ValGrien did its principal I~avocin the chatenu of St. Cloud ; and that
tere, but stories of successes are invented and spread, and, what
stories of arnmnlents and succors, and risings and reinforcements, the Prussiwns continue to hold their positions all aroundthecity,
I
+ \\+ich the men in power Itnow have nofoundation whatcver. The whose only means of cornnlnnication with the second capital, Tours,
Army of Lyons, of which we have heard so much of late, has now remains the balloon. A conveyance of this kind lately tookout M.
bees converted into the -4rmy of the Loire, probably because it m-as [<bratry, who followedlliscolleague in the Government of National
felt to be a little too barefaced to assign it to anyspecified locality, and Defence, $1. Gambetta,to Tours. Thelatest aerial messenger. who
have made the openit is nom o h the Loire, and rolling up into the hundreds
of thousands, slighted in Belgium, reports the Prussians to
ing
sllots
of
the
bombardment
on
t
h
e
14th,
whic.11
lack? confirmation
and making ready to eat the Germans at a mouthful, although the
Prussians are advancing withoutserious opposition on Tours-the regular from other quarters.
____
..~
troops flying before them.
course, dozens of these disgraceful fictions
We h a w no suflicient data to enable us to judge whctllcr General
are found out by the people every day, and every such discorery increases the want of confidence in the leaders which hasbeen the curse Trochu, Jules Favre, and their military and civil associates in the rule
of the war, as far as the French are concerned, and which is already af the city do or do not display all the energy and vigor demanded
threatening society with dissolution. The prefectsreportincreasing diffi- znd possible under the trying circumstances. What we do know is
if not fatally:
; the ordersof the Govern- that their activity, both military and civil, is greatly,
culty inpreserving order in their departments
ment are disregarded, and thelevies refuseto march. In many cases the hampered by the doings of some young and old fools whose wisdonl
National Guard are returning their arms, and many of the towns refuse :onsists in reminiscences of the revolutionary years 1793 and 1848, and
of actionand harmony dumanil self-to allow themselves to be defended, feeling certainof defeat, and dread- whose patriotism,whenunity
ing the Prussian artillery. Better pay contributions, they say, than be kbnegation, always yields to the promptings of vanity and vulgar ambombarded and burnt. Indeed, it would be almost impossible to find a bition. Thus we see Red revolutionary movements going on, withparallel for the present state of things in France. Many weeks more of in walls, against the Goverumcnt of National Defence; wc find Gusit, withoutsome great success, which isvery unlikely, would make Prus- tave Flourens-the youthful hero who once rose in insurrection against
Napoleon, andmarchedalongthroughthenightputting
out the
sian conquest welcome to all owners of property.
lamps until he took to flight-heading a rebellious opposition to the
From Trochu, on whom may now be said to rest thewhole .burden decree of the Government postponing the elections ; and we hear of a
of the natjons sorrow, we hearlittle.
is -undoubtedlylaboring
;ommunder of a battalion of National Guards having distributed cartPORK, THURSDB Y, OCTOBEB 10, 1870.

_L

2-50

The Nation.

ridges among the men preparatorytomarching

on the HGtel
Ville. The establishment of a revolutionary commune, as it existet
during the Reign of Terror, is demanded-and that within hearing o
the Prussian guns, and while food is getting scarce. Fblix Pyat, a herc
of 1848, whose deeds have altvays been words, reproaches the Govern
nlent with having betrayed Toul and Strasbourg
by their cowardlg
negotiating for peace, and after elegantly telling them that Toul is
frontier lost, Strasbourg is a gate of Paris, also reproaches them wit1
scattering flowers of rhetoric, and then cruelly exclaims : Begone
your deposition ispronounced ! More patriotically disposed, Victol
Hugo turns the shaftsof his rhetoric chiefly against the Prnssians, and
tells them that they are doomed, the theatre of mar having changed
N o more forests, no more thick fogs, no more tortuoustactics, nc
more gIiding along in the dark. The strategy of the cat mill not avai
when you meet the lion. In vain you will step softly. The very dead
will hear you. Paris is watching you-the thunder in her hand.
Your facile successes arc o m .
.
And theu he calls them nanm
.- Borussians, ; Vanda1sand quotes Shakespeare against Noltkeif we understand him aright.

..

. .

_________

Where Paris does not watch the Germans-- the thunder in

hand, as Victor Hugo says-they continue to achieve more
less
:facile succcsses. They have reduced Soissons by heavy bomb:rrd.
ment, under thc Duke of JIeclilenburg-Schmerin, capturing four thou.
sand prisoners and one hundred and thirty-two guns; they have captured spinal and
Vesoul, thecapital towns of theDepartments o1
Vosges and Iiaute-SnGne; have closely investedVerdunand
?\en
Brisach ; have entered Solnme inforce, occupyingillontdidier and
threatening
hmiens;
have
occupied
Ureteuil, in Oise, and Lee
Andelys, in Eure,
reached Fleury, in tlle very vicinity of Rouen :
havepushedtheiradvance
westward as far as Blenqon, in Orne :
have achievedanotlrervictory
near OrlCans, on t h ci l t h , entered
thatcity, crossed the Loire, and pressed theFrench forces back
beyond La Fert&-St.-Aubin,thelatter
probably retreatingin
the
direction of Blois and Tours.
official report by the general commanding the French Fifteenth Corps, which was successively defeated
on the 10that Artenag-and on thc i l t h , shows the disastrous character of itslast ruverse: Our troops, who
. . hadtakenpart
I mas obligthe day before in the batti: of Artenay, gave \vi>y.
ed, in order to check the enemys progress, to go forward personally
withthreebattalions of the reserve. . .
The enemy was checked
for three hours, but at last
were broken and overcom~IJY their
shells. The generalpraises thebravery of his troops, but a correspondent of the
with the Army of the Loire-a term, as it
.qeems, identicalwith&Fifteenth Corps-restricts his praise to the
JIobile Garde, the Foreign Legion, which (mas almost entirely destroyed, and the Pontifical Zou~~ves, and speaksvery severely of the demoralization pervading a part of the line. If the description given by
be
that correspondent of things witnessed around OrlBans and in
i n t.lle main correct, the condition of affairs in that quarter must be
really deplorable.

. . .

Tours appears now to be threatened by

a double advance of the
Germans, on both sides of the Loire, from La FertB-St.-Aubin, south of
OrlBans, where they are said to havc established theirheadquarters
after crossing that river, and from the picinity of ChBteaudun, in Eureet-Loir,wherethey recently appearedin some force. The means of
opposing this advance seem to be exceedingly scanty. The capacity of
the defeatedcomnlander
of theFrench forces on the Loire being
doubted, he has been temporarilysupersededby
General Uourbaki,
though the latter was to leave forthe North, where
all the large townsfortified as well as unfortified-are apprehensive of attack by the Pruesian forces made disposable by the capture of Soissons. or by others
arriving as reinforcements. Gambetta, for the last few days the soul of
the Government a t Tours, has left for the seat of the war in the East.
Lyons and Xarseilles continue to be agitated by political rnovelnents
of an extreme character. Disobedience to the new authorities manifests
itself
in various other localities. Rumorsare also current that

277
__-

Bazaine, who hasbeen quiet for a number of clays, is negotiating for the
capitulation of Netz. And amid all these extraordinary difficulties and
perplexities, the slight successes achievedhere and there by FrancsTirenrs or Guards over Prussian foraging parties, or now and then by
the defenders of Paris in skirmishes before the ramparts, have thus
beell the only events calcnlated to encourage either branch of the GOVe r n n m t of National Defence in clinging to the determination to cede
for peace (neither an inch of territory nor a stone of a fortress. The
Paris branch, however, can boast of having firmly stood a siege for a
full month.
Anybody who wants really
exciting war news we must advise to
subscribe to the New York Worlit, the European despatches of whic]l
are really as horrible reading as anybody can wi,h for. The way the
Germans are nearly every day maltreated i n its columns is positively
inhaman, and we protest against such atrocities in a neutral paper. At
that last great fight before Paris, the Germans not only had their besieging lines broken in, but were slaughtered and otherwise disposed
of to the extent of eight (eighty 7) tllousand men, not to speak of arpoor devilsare nary crouchinginthe
tillery andstandards.The
woods around Paris, badly corned. At Soissons, the slaughter too
so dreadful that t h e Dnkc of Necklenburbr-8ehn.erin wept and wrung
his hands. From the accounts given by the W o d d of t h e earlier portiou of the campaign, we felt satisfied that the aR:tir \vould end pretty
much as the World describes it-that is, in the imprisonment of the
whole Prussian army around Paris, with angry pe:mnts rising around
them, the great guns of the fortresses playing
tllenl, Garibaldi and
Bazaine cutting oE their retreat to the IZhine, and the National Guard
cutting off everything else, and the Crown Prince wasting a r v ~ ywith
hunger in Versailles. They now see how much better i t would have
been for them to have surrendered at, Sedan, aa the Frenrh would then
have let them go home.

-___Fuller returns from the late elections substantially contirtn the sumolnry we gave last meek. In Pennsylvania, sixtecn Congressional districts have been carried by the Repnblican~,seven by the Democrats,
and one (ONeills) by the mixed supporters of an indepcndunt candidate. This leaves the delegation divided practicillly the same as now,
though thc Repub1ic;tns havc lost trvo districts (involving, we are not
sorry to say, the rctirement, ofMr. Ihnicl J. Morrell), ancl gained one,
namely, that which Judge Wooclwnrd lately represented more respcct~ b l y t h a most
n
of his collengoes. In the State Legislature, the Repnhlicans have a majority on joint ballot, and in Phihdclphia thcy carried
:heir local ticket by about 5,000 maiority in a vote which showed a
I11:krked Falling off from that called out by national questions. In Ohio,
,he Repnblican State ticket was carried by abont 1:5,000 nlnjority, and
here, too, the Congressional delegation remains unchanged cllrtr:lcter
-each p;wty having gained and lost two districtsun1css Mr. Schenck
;uccccds incontestinghisseat
with Mr. Campbell. ThcIattcr owes
lis slight majority totwo causes, doubtless-dissat,isfilction on the part
)f certain Republicans with Mr. Schencks notions about the tariff, and
:hereally nloderate and sensible way in which the late Minister to
flexico behaved when returned to the State Senate. The
Democrats
lave carried Indiana by a majority of about 2,000, and gain one repre;entathe. What is
of more importance, and by no means a ntltional
nisfortune, is the fact that
have small m2Njority on joint ballot
n the Legislature, thus ensuring a Democratic snccessor to Senator
aorton in case he accepts the mission to England, which is now renjered very doubtful. In Iowa, finally, the Republicans seem to have
ost one Congressman in the Third District, lately Mr. Allisons, by a
rely considerable Democratic gain, but small majority.
the whole,
1s me llave said; the Republicans have
their
and the Demo:rats, it is certain,will not control the next Congress.
The Administration has committed
serious mistakc inallowing
fir. Cox to resign, or, to speak more correctly, in Itaring allowed free
?lay to the influences which have forced him to resign. All the able
jnd most influential Republicanpapersacknowledge
its gravity.

The Nation.

Oct. 20, 18701

-~Mcssrs. Chandler and Cameron, probably two of the worst politicians in

the country, are believed to be at the bottom
of it, and, coming as i t
does simultaneously with the Presidents absurd attempt to influence
the Missouri State election by very gross abuse of his appointing
troublesome prospect for the remaining
power, i t opens np lather
year of his term of ofice. I t i s not yet too late for him to retrace his
steps, and retain what will be of tenfolcl more value to him than all
the &
mnnagcrs in the country can do for him, and that is tllc respect
and confidence of the honest men outside politics,
a body of considerable n 4 g l l t a n dinfluence in the long run. Gratz Bran-n, of wllose
speech only a telegraphic summary has reached us, has openly declared
war on the administrationinNissouri,denouncingthePresidents
policy as intolerable.
_____~

The state of politics in t!lis city is this : Last spring, when the
New Yorlr Charter was passed, the Republican members of the Lcgis1;tture wcrc induced to support it,
under an arrangement by w!lich
Itepnblicans re tohave a proper s h a x of themunicipal ofices.
This arrangement wvas ctrried out, and it created
a bqdy of persons
known as (Tammany IEepublicans, who are powerftfby, and, as i t
proves, overwl~clmingly,representedbytheRepublicanCommittee,
which is charged, in New Work, with the care of the rights of
and other interests of that nn,turc. The Young Democrats, or the
new Democratic opposition t o the T:tmmany Ring, have now h a d the
grace to nominate Air. Ledwith. an honest and independent Democrat,
then1 to elect him, as the
for Mayor, and invite the Repnblicans to help
first and best me:tns of ovcrthrowing the rule of the Ring.
portion
of the Republicans are ready to so, and a meeting of the committee
was a
was called to consider the matter last Saturday night. There
fierce debate.which
as onlypreventedfrom
degener2:ting into a
breach of the peace by the presence of a strong body of police ; but
the Tammauy Republicans, w h o do not want to have LedRith elected,
make a separatenomination,or
(astraight
andthereforewishto
Republicanticket,mnsteredin
such force thattheycarriedtheir
point amid tremendous uproar, and the minorit,y, lleadecl by Collector
Murphy, left the room in disgnst. The minority includes Mr. Charles
S. Spencer and other gentlemen of that stamp. One of his reasons for
wanting to adjourn Tvas, he said, respect for the S:Lbbitth, the debate
having been protractedbeyond midnight-an
annonncenlcntwhich
the wicked Tammany men received, we are sorry to sag, with derisive
Spencers open
cheers. Our opinion is, however, that, in spite of
confession of his reverence for the Lords DAY, the piety of the two
sections is about equal, and we would not havc any Republican hesiany Republican who votes
tate between them on that ground. But
for the straight Republican Mayor, nominated by the Tanmlany
Republicans, will to all intents and
purposes vote for the nominee of
theRingand
for the continuance of itsvile rule. It will be the
highest duty of every Republican, therefore, to repudiate on this occasion the regular party nomination.

251

.~

~
~

~
~

ivity, we must honestly confess that me are unable at this lnoment to

hink of any good reason for regretting it. This sonuds inllunlan, but
here arc so many of our citizens
the bal!ot has so c;ompletely
ailed either to elevate or to purify, and vhose growth in rascality isSO
teady, that it ~vould
really be hard even for their bestfriends to protest
gainst their taking off.
____~~

~~~~

General Robert E. Lee died, on Wcdnesd:y week, of ncr1~011spros,ration,brought on, doubtless, by the ftitigucs andansietics of the
aar, and, more immcdi:ttely, by the awfnl cllagrin-vc will not call i t
.emorse-which must have come in the silence ancl t1esol:ltion of peace
,o every man who bore a prominent part at tlle South in carrying on
;he war. Skill, courage, patience. and fortitude, ancl all in t,hc Irighest
legree, nobody can deny him, and
we are glad to say t l l n t . so fhr as
dc:ttll has
)ur observation hasgone,not
one who has noticedhis
Ittempted to do so. Everybody acknowledges that, whetl~er]lis share
n the rebellion was his folly or his fault, he made, by his demeanor
gince he laid down his arms, the best and, indeed, the only atonement
I brave man could make without forfeiting his self-respect.
now
.bat itis all over, and that mens judgments of him have, at best, only
L literary value, we may say that he was a type of soldier which any
ace maybe proud to produce and ~ o u l dd o well to cherish. Tlihen
In3 matches what is happening in France, andsees h o w hard i t is even
:or a nation trained toarms to bring to thesurface, evcn in thethroe3 of
who can t:tlre the fortunesof the State on
Icspair, the strong, silent man
lhis single head, and bear
them valiantly-sercne ttnd resolute and stillthe North, as well as the South,may do worse than rrspectLees mcmory,
rebel and traitor thoughhe was. How anybody can look at llim as a p ~ - :hological puzzle because, having taken the military oath totllc United
States, heafterwardsborearmsagainstthen-and
some (lo so-~ve
x n n o t vel1 understand. IIistory is full of cases in which men, greater
md betterthanhe,brokeanoath
of allegianceto an established
Tovernment as he broke his, in the interest,
real or imaginary, of higher
things, and yet retained the
respect of all the world and their own.
Thatwhich will, perhaps, if anything
will, cloud the cstinmtion in
which he will be held by posterity is his failnre, when in thc very flush
of his power and influence, to do anything to put a stop to the atrocitics of the Libby and of hndersonville. That he did not knowof these
horrors it is hard to believe; that, knowing of them, h e should have
done nothing to hinder them,
those who admire him as a man, stillmore
than those who admire him simplyas a Southerner, lvill always remember as a great stain on a great name.
-

We are surprised and pained to find that none of the lecturers this
winter have made any preparations, so far as our knowledge goes, for
the continuance of those assaults on caste which last year and the
year before attracted so lnncll public attcntion. Miss Alma nickinson
has gone off after Joan of Arc ; and Mr. Sumncr is, we are told, going
to point sonle moral with the Franco-German Tar, and
is going.
~__
\\-e fear, to have fnll swing. t h o ~ g hit
, is true, n-c h a r e n o t yet heard
We are about to have i n New York, on the first Tuesday in KO- from General I q a n . Now,considering horn powerful caste was last
vember, the trial of a question in which the whole country will be in- year, and what fearful havoc it was playing with the body politic and
terested-namely, whether t h e United States Government can enforce social, and what desperate efforts its votaries ere making to confirm
order and regularity and honesty at elections in this city, indcfianceof its hideous sway-witness the nose-pnlling case in Boston, and GeneveneralShermansattemptstomake
himself a marquis,andgive
theTammanyHall mob. Underthe ncw law,the Marshal hasfull
power over the proceedings, but if he were left to relyfor support ing parties; and considering, too, honr deep-seated was thc dislike of
white people to marrying colored people, in spite of the plainness of
simply on his deputies, the
mercenaries of the Ring wonld have no
difficulty in overpowering him and having things their own way. We their moral duty in that regard, nobody, we hope, will have the assubelieve, however, that the Government has been advised to make, and rance to tell us that the danger is over, and that the lnonster has been
is making, preparations to put the army and
navy at his disposal, in slain by one course of lectures. We are, therefore, drivcn to some very
much the s an x fashion in which they mere used to preserve order a t painful conclusions about its last years assailants; but we sllall not
we may say, h o m v e r , t h a t
Lincolns election in 18G4. We have no doubt that we shall therefore utter them; our hearts are too fnll. This
have a day of extraordinary quiet, and an
election of extraordinary any undaunted politician,who boldly a v o m his hatred of caste, of arispurity. If it shonld not be a clay of quiet, however, and if an attempt tocracy, ancl of monarchy and of orders of nobility, and his respect for
should be made to carry out the Ring programne, and theGovernment the will of the people, will meet with the hcartiest support from us
should do its dutyfirmly, as we hope it will, ancl a number of our citi- under any persecution to which h e may I E subjected. The:? are not
zens should be removed by violence from their present spheres of ac- the times to alloiv outspoken and fearless men to be put down.