But It Was Then Thought That
In This Coming Winter Of 1860-61 The Action Of Congress Might Be
Set Aside.
The North possessed an enormous army under the control
of the President.
The South was in rebellion, and the President
could pronounce, and the army perhaps enforce, the confiscation of
all property held in slaves. If any who held them were not
disloyal, the question of compensation might be settled afterward.
How those four million slaves should live, and how white men should
live among them, in some States or parts of States not equal to the
blacks in number - as to that Mr. Phillips did not give us his
opinion.
And Mr. Phillips also could not keep his tongue away from the
abominations of Englishmen and the miraculous powers of his own
countrymen. It was on this occasion that he told us more than once
how Yankees carried brains in their fingers, whereas "common
people" - alluding by that name to Europeans - had them only, if at
all, inside their brain-pans. And then he informed us that Lord
Palmerston had always hated America. Among the Radicals there
might be one or two who understood and valued the institutions of
America, but it was a well-known fact that Lord Palmerston was
hostile to the country. Nothing but hidden enmity - enmity hidden
or not hidden - could be expected from England. That the people of
Boston, or of Massachusetts, or of the North generally, should feel
sore against England, is to me intelligible. I know how the minds
of men are moved in masses to certain feelings and that it ever
must be so. Men in common talk are not bound to weigh their words,
to think, and speculate on their results, and be sure of the
premises on which their thoughts are founded. But it is different
with a man who rises before two or three thousand of his countrymen
to teach and instruct them. After that I heard no more political
lectures in Boston.
Of course I visited Bunker Hill, and went to Lexington and Concord.
From the top of the monument on Bunker Hill there is a fine view of
Boston harbor, and seen from thence the harbor is picturesque. The
mouth is crowded with islands and jutting necks and promontories;
and though the shores are in no place rich enough to make the
scenery grand, the general effect is good. The monument, however,
is so constructed that one can hardly get a view through the
windows at the top of it, and there is no outside gallery round it.
Immediately below the monument is a marble figure of Major Warren,
who fell there, - not from the top of the monument, as some one was
led to believe when informed that on that spot the major had
fallen. Bunker Hill, which is little more than a mound, is at
Charlestown - a dull, populous, respectable, and very unattractive
suburb of Boston.
Bunker Hill has obtained a considerable name, and is accounted
great in the annals of American history.
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