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CHAPTER XX

DONELSON, NASHVILLE AND COLUMBUS.

Rebel Preparations for the Defense at Fort Donelson.-Its Position.-Reception of the Gun-
boats at Eddyville.-Storming a Breastwork.—Arrival of the Carondelet.—Suffering of
Union Troops.-Admiral Foote.-Terrible Conflict.-Charge of Gen. Smith.-Hard Fighting
of the Troops of Gen. Wallace.-Incident.-Surrender of the Fort.-Nashville.—Anec-
dotes.-Value of the Gun-boats.-Columbus.-Bishop Gen. Polk.....

PAGE.

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CHAPTER XXI.

GEN. MITCHEL'S CAMPAIGN.

Gen. Mitchel Commissioned Brigadier-General.-Transparent Character of Gen. Mitchel.-Con-
sequences of Rivalry between Officers.-Earnest Desire of Gen. Mitchel and his Command
to Take the Field.-Pride of the Men in the Third Division.-Secrecy and Energy of
Mitchel's Movements.-Policy of Gen. Mitchel.-Sudden Descent upon Huntsville.-Cap-
tures Effected by Gen. Mitchel and his Army.-Hon. Judge Lane.-Reply of Gen. Mitchel
to Madam Polk.-Command Assigned.-Death of Gen. Mitchel...

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ARISTOCRATS OF THE OLD WORLD.-CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.-AMERICAN REVOLUTION. SPEECHES OF SOUTHERN SENATORS.-ROMAN SLAVERY.-SOUTHERN DEMANDS.-TREATMENT OF NORTHERNERS IN ALABAMA.-OF FREE NEGROES IN SLAVE STATES.-THE SOUTHERN CHURCH.-SPEECH OF DOUGLAS.-A. H. STEPHENS.-PRINCIPLE OF REPRESENTATION, NORTH AND SOUTH.-DECLARATION OF VOTES FOR PRESIDENT, 1861.

CIVIL war burst upon the United States, with almost the suddenness of the meteor's glare. It was, however, but like the eruption of the volcano, whose pent-up fires had, for ages, been gathering strength for the final explosion. The whirlwind which our country has reaped, is but the natural harvest of that seed which, for long years, we have been sowing.. All thinking men have been watching the cumulation of the menacing cloud, and have foretold its bursting. Many have hoped that the vials of wrath would not be emptied in their day, and like the selfish courtiers of Louis XV. have said, "After us the Deluge." But the deluge has come. Upon our heads it has fallen.

This fierce fight, which has arrayed more than a million of men in arms, and which made our ship of state reel and stagger, as if smitten by thunderbolts and dashing upon rocks, was but one, though a sublime act, in the drama of that great conflict, between patrician arrogance and plebeian resistance,-between the claims of aristocratic privilege on the one hand, and the demand for equal rights on the other, which for countless ages has made our globe one vast battle-field. History is crowded with scenes terrific, in this irrepressible conflict. Two thousand years ago, Cneus Pompey placed himself at the head of the aristocracy of Rome. Julius Cæsar, espousing the cause of the people, unfurled the banner of equal rights. Striding through oceans of blood, which tossed their surges over every portion of the habitable globe, Cæsar overthrew the aristocratic commonwealth, and reared, upon its ruins, the imperial republic. It was aristocracy, striving to keep its heel on the head of democracy, which deluged the Roman empire in blood. On the field of Pharsalia, the banner of aristocratic pride was trailed in the dust, and democracy, though exceedingly imperfect in its development, became the victor.

Two hundred years ago, the aristocracy of France, housed in baronial castles, mounted on war-horses, encased in helmet, cuirass, and buckler of steel, with pampered men-at-arms ready to ride rough shod on every embassage of violence, trampled upon humanity, till humanity could endure it no longer. The aristocracy so despised the people, whom they had driven into mud hovels, whose wives and daughters were goaded to the field, bareheaded and barefooted, to be yoked with the donkey in dragging the plough, that they did not dream that these boors, whom their inhumanity had brutalized, would dare even to look defiantly at the lordly castle of rock, whose defenders strode proudly along the battlements, in measureless contempt of the helpless peasantry below.

These poor boors had not individuality enough even to receive a name. As a shepherd may call every sheep in his flock "Nannie," and as the slave-driver calls each one of his wretched gang "boy," so every peasant was called "Jack." But the pent-up vengeance of ages at last burst forth. The Jacks rose, and, like maddened wolves, rushed upon their foes. Every demon power and passion, which can riot in the human soul, held high carnival. Imbruted men, infuriated by ages of the most outrageous wrongs, rose by millions, upon their oppressors, and wreaked upon them every atrocity which fend-like ingenuity could devise. France ran red with blood.

But at length disciplined valor prevailed. The steel-clad knights trampled down their victims; and after one half of the peasants of France. had perished, the aristocrats resumed their sway, and the slavery of feudal bondage was again riveted upon the people. This war of the Jacks, or of the Jacquerie, as it is called in history, is one of the most instructive events of the past; and yet it was all unheeded.

The nobles, regardless of this lesson, renewed their oppressions. Again they commenced sowing the wind, from which they were to reap another, and a more dreadful, harvest. The masses of the people were deprived of every privilege but that of toiling for their masters. That the lords. might live in castles, and be clothed in purple, and fare sumptuously, the people were doomed to hovels, and rags, and black bread.

Every effort was made to keep the people ignorant, that they might not know their wrongs, and poor, that they might not resent them. A peasant was not allowed to bury a piece of dough in the ashes of his own fireside, he was compelled to take it to the bakery of his lord, and pay exorbitant toll there, to have it baked. A peasant was not allowed to dip a bowl of water from the ocean, and let it evaporate, that he might scrape from the bottom the few particles of salt left there in the residuum. He was bound to purchase every particle of salt, from his lord, at an enormous price. No man, not nobly born, whatever might be his character or genius, was deemed a fit companion for the lords. Louis XV., surrounded by courtesans and debauchees, said:

"I can give money to Voltaire, Montesquieu, Fontinelle, but I can not dine and sup with these people."

Every office of honor or emolument, in the church, the army, the state, or the court, was conferred upon the privileged class only. Consequently

even christianity, administered, in its highest offices, only by the children of the nobles, exulting in princely incomes, as bishops, archbishops and cardinals, hiring poor priests, whom they could starve or burn at any moment, to do the drudgery of reading prayers, preaching sermons, and burying the dead, became essentially an instrument to uphold oppression. "Servants, obey your masters," was its unchanging and unintermitted utterance. This religion was so manifestly not the religion of Jesus Christ, that kings, lords, and ecclesiastics were all alike vigilant, not to allow the people to read the Bible, lest they should find out what our Saviour really taught. A peasant, detected with a Bible in his hand, was deemed as guilty as if caught with the tools of a burglar, or the dies of a counterfeiter.

Christianity is the corner-stone of true democracy. "All men are brothers," is its fundamental doctrine. Consequently nowhere, the world over, will aristocratic intolerance allow democratic servitude to read the Bible. It is a curious fact, illustrative of this universal truth, that even in republican America, those who were in favor of the servitude of the masses, and of a privileged aristocratic class, roused their utmost endeavors, to prevent the preachers of Christianity from teaching that doctrine of man's brotherhood, which Christ so fervently and unceasingly has inculcated. "You are preaching politics," was the cry which drove many a minister of Jesus from his pulpit.

In the church of Notre Dame, in Paris, in the year 1789, the abbé Fauchet preached to an audience crowding every nook and corner of that immense cathedral. The noble prelate, unintimidated by frowns, was the bold enunciator of that equality of rights which Christianity inculcates. Taking for his text the words of Paul, "Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty," he said:

"The false interpreters of the divine oracles have wished, in the name of Heaven, to keep the people in subjection to their masters. They have consecrated despotism. They have rendered God an accomplice with tyrants. These false teachers exult because it is written, Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's.' But that which is not Cæsar's-is it necessary to render unto him that? And Liberty does not belong to Cæsar. It belongs to human nature."

Notwithstanding the presence of the king and his frowning court, this annunciation of the pure spirit of the gospel of Christ was received with a burst of applause, which shook the venerable pile to its foundations. Yes, more! it caused the very throne of despotic power at the Tuileries to tremble, and finally toppled it into ruins. When the preacher left the door of the church, the people, delighted to hear such sentiments in feudal France, so long overridden by princes and priests, seized him, in the exuberance of their gratitude, and bore him to his home in a triumphal chair, decorated with wreaths and garlands, and then the vast multitude, surging through the streets, raised three cheers for Jesus Christ. Jesus is indeed the friend of the poor man and the helper of the oppressed. Did the masses but appreciate his sympathy for them, they would indeed feel that he was their friend.

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