"We Submitted," The North Says, "To
Southern Presidents, And Southern Statesmen, And Southern Councils,
Because We Obeyed The Vote Of The People.
But as to you - the voice
of the people is nothing in your estimation!
At the first moment
in which the popular vote places at Washington a President with
Northern feelings, you rebel. We submitted in your days; and, by
Heaven! you shall submit in ours. We submitted loyally, through
love of the law and the Constitution. You have disregarded the law
and thrown over the Constitution. But you shall be made to submit,
as a child is made to submit to its governor."
It must also be remembered that on commercial questions the North
and the West are divided. The Morrill tariff is as odious to the
West as it is to the South. The South and West are both
agricultural productive regions, desirous of sending cotton and
corn to foreign countries, and of receiving back foreign
manufactures on the best terms. But the North is a manufacturing
country - a poor manufacturing country as regards excellence of
manufacture - and therefore the more anxious to foster its own
growth by protective laws. The Morrill tariff is very injurious to
the West, and is odious there. I might add that its folly has
already been so far recognized even in the North as to make it very
generally odious there also.
So much I have said endeavoring to make it understood how far the
North and West were united in feeling against the South in the
autumn of 1861, and how far there existed between them a diversity
of interests.
CHAPTER IX.
FROM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI.
From Niagara we went by the Canada Great Western Railway to
Detroit, the big city of Michigan. It is an American institution
that the States should have a commercial capital - or what I call
their big city - as well as a political capital, which may, as a
rule, be called the State's central city. The object in choosing
the political capital is average nearness of approach from the
various confines of the State but commerce submits to no such
Procrustean laws in selecting her capitals and consequently she has
placed Detroit on the borders of Michigan, on the shore of the neck
of water which joins Lake Huron to Lake Erie, through which all the
trade must flow which comes down from Lakes Michigan, Superior, and
Huron on its way to the Eastern States and to Europe. We had
thought of going from Buffalo across Lake Erie to Detroit; but we
found that the better class of steamers had been taken off the
waters for the winter. And we also found that navigation among
these lakes is a mistake whenever the necessary journey can be
taken by railway. Their waters are by no means smooth, and then
there is nothing to be seen. I do not know whether others may have
a feeling, almost instinctive, that lake navigation must be
pleasant - that lakes must of necessity be beautiful. I have such a
feeling, but not now so strongly as formerly. Such an idea should
be kept for use in Europe, and never brought over to America with
other traveling gear. The lakes in America are cold, cumbrous,
uncouth, and uninteresting - intended by nature for the conveyance
of cereal produce, but not for the comfort of traveling men and
women. So we gave up our plan of traversing the lake, and, passing
back into Canada by the suspension bridge at Niagara, we reached
the Detroit River at Windsor by the Great Western line, and passed
thence by the ferry into the City of Detroit.
In making this journey at night we introduced ourselves to the
thoroughly American institution of sleeping-cars - that is, of cars
in which beds are made up for travelers. The traveler may have a
whole bed, or half a bed, or no bed at all, as he pleases, paying a
dollar or half a dollar extra should he choose the partial or full
fruition of a couch. I confess I have always taken a delight in
seeing these beds made up, and consider that the operations of the
change are generally as well executed as the manoeuvres of any
pantomime at Drury Lane. The work is usually done by negroes or
colored men, and the domestic negroes of America are always light-
handed and adroit. The nature of an American car is no doubt known
to all men. It looks as far removed from all bed-room
accommodation as the baker's barrow does from the steam engine into
which it is to be converted by Harlequin's wand. But the negro
goes to work much more quietly than the Harlequin; and for every
four seats in the railway car he builds up four beds almost as
quickly as the hero of the pantomime goes through his performance.
The great glory of the Americans is in their wondrous contrivances -
in their patent remedies for the usually troublous operations of
life. In their huge hotels all the bell ropes of each house ring
on one bell only; but a patent indicator discloses a number, and
the whereabouts of the ringer is shown. One fire heats every room,
passage, hall, and cupboard, and does it so effectually that the
inhabitants are all but stifled. Soda-water bottles open
themselves without any trouble of wire or strings. Men and women
go up and down stairs without motive power of their own. Hot and
cold water are laid on to all the chambers; though it sometimes
happens that the water from both taps is boiling, and that, when
once turned on, it cannot be turned off again by any human energy.
Everything is done by a new and wonderful patent contrivance; and
of all their wonderful contrivances, that of their railroad beds is
by no means the least. For every four seats the negro builds up
four beds - that is, four half beds, or accommodation for four
persons.
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