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by the American Historical Society to go over the very voluminous Mexican correspondence and publish a digest of it, it would not only help us to a clearer appreciation of this problem, but would set a new standard in diplomatic usage. It would plant a new milestone in the progress of Democracy.

In order to break through the traditional barriers of diplomacy and to establish more direct contact with the popular forces of other countries, the President might instruct our ambassadors abroad to watch the newspaper discussions regarding the relations between the two countries, and, if the need arose, to take part in them.

A poor translation of an inaccurate, unsympathetic English report of Mr. Wilson's speech before the League to Enforce Peace appeared in the telegraphic columns of the French papers. It was two weeks or more before the mail brought the text of the speech. A deep and painful impression had already been made. The complete text, or an accurate résumé, of every such important speech on foreign affairs should at once be telegraphed to our ambassadors for issuance to the press. It would not be amiss for the State Department to cable regular press bulletins to all our embassies.

When ambassadors are dispatched on foreign missions, it would be well for Congress to give them credentials and messages of good-will to the parliament of the country to which they are accredited. And when ambassadors come to us, the President, in some formal ceremony, might take them to the Capitol and present them to Congress, and in this manner emphasize the fact that their business is with a democracy.

It would be but one step further to grant to all ambassadors the courtesy

privilege of addressing messages directly to Congress.

We desire to make it impossible for a few men in secret and uncontrolled conclave to decide the fate of nations. If we find the Foreign Office of any country standing in the way of cordial friendship, we must go over their heads, directly to the people. It is popular friendship more than the good-will of the rulers of the moment which we seek.

And we must freely grant the same privilege to other nations. It would be better for all concerned if the European governments, which are now spending money to influence our public opinion, were offered some more open and direct method of appeal.

If the minister from Liberia is dissatisfied with the treatment he receives at the State Department, it would be much better if he were free to air his grievance before Congress than for him to be reduced to the necessity of ‘persuading' some editor to write an indirect attack on the administration.

But, of course, in any such reforms, the spirit of their operation is more important than the form. The two main objects to be sought are: first, the development of an enlightened public opinion at home, and, secondly, more direct methods of communication between the peoples of the different countries.

We, as a nation, are deeply interested in the future peace of the world. We must devise means by which our diplomacy can be made democratic in its control and in its action. Any experiments we make in this direction will be watched with interest by the Liberals of all the world. The solution of the problem would be the greatest contribution which any nation could make toward the welfare of the race.

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[After a cruise as venturesome and picturesque as that of any Elizabethan buccaneer, the little commerce-destroyer Georgia finally gave up her raiding of Federal shipping and landed her crew at Bordeaux. Midshipman Morgan and his fellow officers proceeded at once to England, took passage for America, and successfully ran the blockade of Charleston harbor. Young Morgan was shortly assigned to land duty at Battery Semmes, on the James River near Richmond, where he is stationed when he takes up his narrative again.]

I

AT the house of Mr. Trenholm I was always received as one of the family. The beautiful house, which had been built originally by an English gentleman of wealth and artistic tastes, was the centre of a certain amount of gayety, and was frequented, especially on Saturday evenings, by many distinguished people, among them of course many generals, and foreigners who visited Richmond for the excitement of the experience. Mr. Trenholm, as well as being Secretary of the Treasury, was a man of great wealth, and probably the largest owner of blockade-runners; consequently almost every luxury in the way of food was most hospitably placed before his guests.

Where two or three young Southerners were gathered together, there was sure to be singing and dancing. It is true that there were not many handsome toilets to be seen at these receptions, but the young girls were so pretty that no one took the trouble to look at their dresses of a style fashionable before the war. The foreigners of course appeared in the orthodox dress-coats and white ties; but we poor fellows who belonged at the front shamelessly join

1 Earlier recollections of the author were

ed the gay throng in our rags and tatters. My uniform, which had once been gray, had turned a green yellowishbrown, owing to its exposure to the elements and the mud in the trenches; besides, I had had the misfortune to have one of my coat-tails burned off while sleeping too close to a camp-fire. One of my trouser-legs had raveled out to halfway up the calf of my leg, and the lower part of the other trouser-leg was very ragged. I wore a boot on one foot and a shoe on the other — the boot on the bare leg. This Falstaffian costume was set off with a sword, and if there is anything that will make a ragged man look more ridiculous than another, it is the wearing of a sword. But the girls in their four-year-old dresses did not mind our appearance, and it would have been a cold day when a man in civilian togs no matter how welldressed he was could have persuaded one of those Southern girls to dance with him when a man from the front wanted a turn.

At Mr. Trenholm's house I met General Robert E. Lee on several occasions. It always amused me to hear the fond mothers tell about the rapture and overflowing affection with which the general treated their little ones when they were brought before him. I hap

printed in the Atlantic for January, February, pened to be present at one of these demonstrative occasions in the general's

and March. - THE EDITORS.

life, and afterwards heard the mother's account of it. She said that as she entered the room with her little four-yearold daughter, the general opened his arms, into which the little girl rushed; and the great man fairly smothered the child with kisses. What I saw was that, when the little one saw the grave statuesque man with silver hair sitting on a sofa, she drew back in fright; her mother then seized her by the wrist and dragged the shrinking little tot up to that formal embodiment of dignity, and told him that she wanted her child to be able to say in future years that she had shaken hands with him. The general, looking very tired, without a word extended his forefinger. That was all the demonstrativeness I saw.

Mr. Trenholm, as I have said before, was most hospitably inclined, and he was the possessor of some of the finest and oldest madeira wine in the country; naturally his invitations to dinner were rarely declined. I used to meet at his table the most distinguished generals of our army and the members of the cabinet. These gentlemen for the most part were taciturn and serious; but Mr. Judah P. Benjamin, the Secretary of State, and Mr. Trenholm were both gifted conversationalists as well as being very witty, and they always enlivened the banquets with anecdotes. Mr. Pierre Soulé of Louisiana was also a frequent guest, and he was a most interesting talker. It was Mr. Soulé, who, when United States Minister to Spain, after the duel between his son and the Duke of Alva, the brother-inlaw of the French Emperor, shot and crippled for life the Marquis de Turgot, the French Ambassador to Spain.

Despite the sad state of affairs, both in the Capital and the country, there were balls and parties and 'marrying and giving in marriage' going on in Richmond. Mr. McFarland, a wealthy banker, was to give a ball, and social

Richmond was all agog over the prospect. To attend this ball, it was necessary for me to have a new uniform. With any amount of Confederate money at my disposal, the modern man might ask why I did not go to a tailor and order one; but that was not the way we did things in those days. In the first place, there were no shops; and had there been, there would have been nothing in them for sale. I had to search the town before I found a man who possessed a few yards of gray cloth and was willing to part with it for several hundred dollars in Confederate money. I finally found such a man, and also bought from him a pair of boots made out of thick half-tanned cow-hide, for which I paid three hundred dollars. I looked so nice in my new togs that I was immediately asked by an army surgeon to be one of the groomsmen at his wedding; I also attended the wedding of the beautiful Miss Hetty Cary and General John Pegram which had so sad an ending a few days afterwards, when General Pegram was killed.

We had our gossip, of course, and society was very busy discussing the marked attention Mr. Soulé was paying to Mrs. Stanard, a widow and an acknowledged social leader. Mr. Soulé must have been an ardent wooer, for Mrs. Stanard told her intimates that, when Mr. Soulé was with her, he was so eloquent that she could not say no to him; when he left her, however, she realized what a mistake she would make in marrying a man upwards of sixty, who had no future before him. At Mr. McFarland's ball it was whispered round the room that Mrs. Stanard had taken the occasion publicly to announce her engagement at last, and that congratulations were in order.

Mr. Trenholm came up to me and, taking my arm, said that he wanted to find Mr. Soulé. So we walked to where the latter was standing by the side of

Mrs. Stanard. After congratulating the pair, Mr. Trenholm said, 'Now, Mr. Soulé, my old friend, I want you to tell me: is this something new, or is it an old love-affair?'

Mr. Soulé, rolling his r's, replied with his very pronounced French accent, 'Well, Mr. Trenholm, I will tell you. It is not so very new, nor in fact is it so very old. The truth is, my dear sir, it is now some thirty years since I first had the honor of meeting Madame Stanard; but at that time there was Stanard, a splendid fellow, and Madame Soulé, a magnificent woman, both in their prime; and to tell you the truth, my dear sir, we did not see our way clear!'

II

While the young people were laughing, dancing, and being killed, the black clouds of adversity were gathering over our beloved Confederacy. Bitter dissension had resulted from the removal of General Johnston from the command of the Western army a step which President Davis took in response to popular clamor for a change. This demand did not come from Johnston's soldiers, but from the populace, who cried out that if Johnston continued his strategy, the Western army would soon be in the Gulf of Mexico; they wanted an aggressive man put in command, and Mr. Davis gave them General Hood. He was aggressive enough, Heaven knows! After the bloody victory he won at Franklin, in which some seventeen Southern generals fell, Mr. Davis was heard to observe, 'One more such victory and there would be no Western army left.' After the disastrous defeat at Nashville, the very men who had clamored to have General Johnston superseded clamored against Mr. Davis for having removed him.

The Confederate Congress was at open war with President Davis and

missed no opportunity to thwart his policies. They refused point-blank to adopt any of his suggestions for the relief of the pitiable condition of the country, and, in rejecting the financial schemes submitted by Mr. Trenholm, the Senate Finance Committee frankly told that gentleman that under no circumstances could they adopt his suggestions, as it would imply their sanction of a measure emanating from Mr. Davis's administration!

Mr. Trenholm told them that, when they had treated Mr. Memminger, his predecessor in the Treasury Department, in the same way, Mr. Memmin

ger had consulted him as a friend as to the course he should pursue, and that he, Mr. Trenholm, had advised him to resign. Now that he himself was placed in a similar position it was necessary that he should do likewise.

The Senate Committee, however, protested that such a course would not do at all, as they had a financial proposition of their own that they wanted him to father on account of the popular belief in his ability as a financier.

Mr. Trenholm, no less frank than they were, informed them, after glancing over their bill, that he had a reputation among business men to maintain, and that if he put his name to and gave his approval to such a measure, business men would laugh at him. He went to Mr. Davis then and tendered his resignation. Mr. Davis told him that it was his duty to remain in the Cabinet; that he, Mr. Davis, recognized that with a Congress at open war with the administration, nothing could be done to relieve the Treasury. He declared that he needed Mr. Trenholm's clear head and advice, and begged him to stand by him in his hour of need.

As an example of the demoralization of the Confederate government at this time, I remember going into the Senate chamber one day while that august

body was in session. At the front, heavy firing was going on, which could not only be plainly heard inside the building, but the windows rattled and shook when particularly big guns were discharged. With this ominous obbligato, the lawmakers were earnestly debating the question how many daily newspapers should be placed on the desk of each senator every morning! While these petty quarrels were going on, the destiny of a whole nation was being ruthlessly decided in blood and suffering. We men in the trenches fought, shivered, and starved outside the city, and danced and made merry whenever we were allowed to come within its limits, little dreaming the end was so near.

The Southern soldier was a very determined fellow, and at the same time reckless and light-hearted; one moment he would be in deep distress over the loss of some dear comrade and the next he would be shouting with laughter over some senseless joke perpetrated by one of his companions. I went one day to a tobacco warehouse, then used as a hospital, to see my friend Captain F. W. Dawson, who was very seriously wounded. The ladies of Richmond were very kind to the wounded, and out of their scanty means they managed to make dainties which they would carry to the hospitals and distribute themselves. The day was hot; I found my friend lying on a cot near the open front door, so weak that he could not speak above a whisper; and after greeting him and speaking some words of cheer, I saw that he was anxious to tell me something. I leaned over him to hear what he had to say, and the poor fellow whispered in my ear, Jimmie, for God's sake make them move my cot to the back of the building.'

I assured him that he had been placed in the choicest spot in the hospital, where he could get any little air that might be stirring; but he still insisted

that he wanted to be moved, giving as a reason that every lady who entered the place washed his face and fed him with meat-jelly. The result was that his face felt sore and he was stuffed so full of jelly that he was most uncomfortable. As he was so weak, he could not defend himself, and the women would not listen to his protests.

Shaking with laughter, I delivered his request to the head surgeon, who pinned a notice on Dawson's sheet to this effect: 'This man must be washed and fed only by the regular nurses.' Dawson was a gallant soldier and served on the staffs of J. E. B. Stuart, Fitzhugh Lee, and General Longstreet. He recovered from his wounds and in 1873 married my sister Sarah.

III

The spring of 1865 was fast approaching and we expected soon to see great changes. One army or the other would surely attack; they could not stand still indefinitely. One morning things became very lively at Battery Semmes. A rifled gun in my division exploded and an eight-inch smooth bore was dismounted by a well-directed shot from Signal Hill. About noon my commander sent for me and, to my amazement, ordered me to go up to Richmond and report in person to the Secretary of the Navy, adding that I had better take my belongings with me. I at once commenced to think of all my sins of commission and omission. What could a secretary of the navy want to see a passed midshipman for, unless it was to give him a reprimand?

Arriving in Richmond, I made my way to the Navy Department at once, and, to my surprise, I was shown into the Secretary's sanctum without delay. Mr. Mallory was smiling, and if I had not been a midshipman, I should really have thought he was glad to see me. To

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