Diary in America Volume I Part 25

Look into your mirrors--perhaps you may find All villains are not in South Boston confined.

"I'm not a wild beast, to be seen for a penny; But a man, as well made and as proper as any; And what we most differ in is, well I wot, That I have my merits, and you have them not.

"I own I'm a drunkard, but much I incline To think that your elbow crooks as often as mine; Ay, breathe in my face, sir, as much as you will-- One blast of your breath is as good as a gill.

"How kind was our country to find us a home Where duns cannot plague us, or enemies come!

And you from the cup of her kindness may drain A _drop_ so sufficing, you'll not drink again.

"And now that by staring with mouth and eyes open, We have bruised the reeds that already were broken; Go home and, by dint of strict mental inspection, Let each make his own house a house of correction.

"This _morceau_ was signed 'Indignans.'"

The following muster-roll of crime, as he terms it, which he obtained from the master of the prison, is curious, as it exemplifies the excess of intemperance in the United States--bearing in mind that this is the _moral_ state of Ma.s.sachusetts.

"The whole number of males committed to the house of correction from the time it was opened--July 1st, 1833, to September 1st, 1837,--was 1477.

Of this number there were common drunkards 783, or more than one-half.

"The whole amount of females committed to this inst.i.tution from the time it was opened to Sept 1837, was 869. Of this number there were common drunkards 430, very nearly one-half.

"And of the whole number committed there were--"

+========================+====+===============+====+ Natives of Ma.s.sachusetts 720England 104 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ New Hamps.h.i.+re 175Scotland 38 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Maine 130Ireland 839 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Vermont 17Provinces 69 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Rhode Island 35France 10 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Connecticut 28Spain 2 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ New York 50Germany 2 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ New Jersey 3Holland 2 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Pennsylvania 28Poland 2 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Delaware 6Denmark 2 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Maryland 10Prussia 1 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Virginia 20Sweden 8 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ North Carolina 10West Indies 12 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ South Carolina 1Cape de Verde 1 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Georgia 5Island of Malta 1 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ District of Columbia 3At Sea 7 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Foreigners 1100 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ United States 1241Unknown 5 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ MORAL States 1905 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Other States 236Total 2346 +========================+====+===============+====+

He sums up as follows:--

"I have nearly finished, but I should not do justice to my subject did I omit to advert to the beggarly catch-penny system on which the whole concern is conducted. The convicts raise pork and vegetables in plenty, but they must not eat thereof; these things must be sent to market to balance the debit side of the prison ledger. The prisoners must catch cold and suffer in the hospital, and the wool and stone shops, because it would cost something to erect comfortable buildings. They must not learn to read and write, lest a cent's worth of their precious time should be lost to the city. They may die and go to h.e.l.l, and be d.a.m.ned, for a resident physician and chaplain are expensive articles. They may be dirty; baths would cost money, and so would books. I believe the very Bibles and almanacks are the donation of the Bible and Temperance societies. Every thing is managed with an eye to money-making--the comfort or reformation, or salvation, of the prisoners are minor considerations. Whose fault is this?

"The fault, most frugal public, is your own. You like justice, but you do not like to pay for it. You like to see a clean, orderly, well conducted prison, and, as far as your parsimony will permit, such is the house of correction. With all its faults, it is still a valuable inst.i.tution. It holds all, it harms few, and reforms some. It looks well, for the most has been made of matters. If you would have it perfect you must untie your purse-strings, and you will lose nothing by it in the end."

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER FORTY.

REMARKS--ARMY.

Isolated as the officers are from the world, (for these forts are far removed from towns or cities,) they contrived to form a society within themselves, having most of them recourse to matrimony, which always gives a man something to do, and acts as a fillip upon his faculties, which might stagnate from such quiet monotony. The society, therefore, at these outposts is small, but very pleasant. All the officers being now educated at West Point, they are mostly very intelligent and well informed, and soldiers' wives are always agreeable women all over the world. The barracks turned out also a very fair show of children upon the green sward. The accommodations are, generally speaking, very good, and when supplies can be received, the living is equally so; when they cannot, it can't be helped, and there is so much money saved. A suttler's store is attached to each outpost, and the prices of the articles are regulated by a committee of officers, and a tax is also levied upon the suttler in proportion to the number of men in the garrison, the proceeds of which are appropriated to the education of the children of the soldiers and the provision of a library and news-room.

If the government were to permit officers to remain at any one station for a certain period, much more would be done; but the government is continually s.h.i.+fting them from post to post, and no one will take the trouble to sow when he has no chance of reaping the harvest. Indeed, many of the officers complained that they hardly had time to furnish their apartments in one fort when they were ordered off to another--not only a great inconvenience to them, but a great expense also.

The American army is not a favourite service, and this is not to be wondered at. It is ill-treated in every way; the people have a great dislike to them, which is natural enough in a Democracy; but what is worse, to curry favour with the people, the government very often do not support the officers in the execution of their duty. Their furloughs are very limited, and they have their choice of the outposts, where they live out of the world, or the Florida war, when they go out of it. But the greatest injustice is, that they have no half-pay: if not wis.h.i.+ng to be employed they must resign their commissions and live as they can. In this point there is a great partiality shown to the navy, who have such excellent half-pay, although to prevent remarks at such glaring injustice to the other service, another term is given to the naval half-pay, and the naval officers are supposed to be always on service.

The officers of the army are paid a certain sum, and allowed a certain number of rations per month; for instance, a major-general has two hundred dollars per month, and fifteen rations: According to the estimated value of the rations, as given to me by one of the officers, the annual pay of the different grades will be, in our money, nearly as follows:--

Army.

+==================+======+=========+======+ Army poundsNavy pounds +------------------+------+---------+------+ Major-General 850 +------------------+------+---------+------+ Brigadier-General 570Same rank 960 +------------------+------+---------+------+ Colonel 340Do. 830 +------------------+------+---------+------+ Lieutenant-Colonel 280 +------------------+------+---------+------+ Major 225Do. 525 +------------------+------+---------+------+ Captain 200Do. 380 +------------------+------+---------+------+ First Lieutenant 150 +------------------+------+---------+------+ Second Lieutenant 140 +------------------+------+---------+------+ Cadet 90Do. 156 +==================+======+=========+======+

The cavalry officers have a slight increase of pay.

The privates of the American regular army are not the most creditable soldiers in the world; they are chiefly composed of Irish emigrants, Germans, and deserters from the English regiments in Canada. Americans are very rare; only those who can find nothing else to do, and have to choose between enlistment and starvation, will enter into the American army. They do not, however, enlist for longer than three years. There is not much discipline, and occasionally a great deal of insolence, as might be expected from such a collection. Corporal punishment has been abolished in the American army except for desertion; and if ever there was a proof of the necessity of punishment to enforce discipline, it is the many subst.i.tutes in lieu of it, to which the officers are compelled to resort--all of them more severe than flogging. The most common is that of loading a man with thirty-six pounds of shot in his knapsack, and making him walk three hours out of four, day and night without intermission, with this weight on his shoulders, for six days and six nights; that is, he is compelled to walk three hours with the weight, and then is suffered to sit down _one_. Towards the close this punishment becomes very severe; the feet of the men are so sore and swelled, that they cannot move for some days afterwards. I inquired what would be the consequence if a man were to throw down his knapsack and refuse to walk. The commanding-officer of one of the forts replied, that he would be hung up by the thumbs till he fainted--a variety of piquetting. Surely these punishments savour quite as much of severity, and are quite as degrading as flogging.

The pay of an American private is good--fourteen dollars a month, out of which his rations and regimentals take eight dollars, leaving him six dollars a month for pleasure. Deserters are punished by being made to drag a heavy ball and chain after them, which is never removed day or night. If discharged, they are flogged, their heads shaved, and they are drummed out at the point of the bayonet.

From the conversations I have had with many deserters from our army, who were residing in the United States or were in the American service, I am convinced that it would be a very well-judged measure to offer a free pardon to all those who would return to Canada and re-enter the English service. I think that a good effective regiment would soon be collected, and one that you might trust on the frontiers without any fear of their deserting again; and it would have another good effect, that is, that their statements would prevent the desertion of others.

America, and its supposed freedom, is, to the British soldiers, an Utopia in every sense of the word. They revel in the idea; they seek it and it is not to be found. The greatest desertion from the English regiments is among the musicians composing the bands. There are so many theatres in America, and so few musicians, except coloured people, that instrumental performers of all kinds are in great demand. People are sent over to Canada, and the other British provinces to persuade these poor fellows to desert, promising them very large salaries, and pointing out to them the difference between being a gentleman in America and a slave in the English service. The temptation is too strong; they desert; and when they strive, they soon learn the value of the promises made to them, and find how cruelly they have been deceived.

The Florida war has been a source of dreadful vexation and expense to the United States, having already cost them between 20,000,000 and 30,000,000 of dollars, without any apparent prospect of its coming to a satisfactory conclusion. The American government has also very much injured its character, by the treachery and disregard of honour shown by it to the Indians, who have been, most of them, captured under a flag of truce. I have heard so much indignation expressed by the Americans themselves at this conduct that I shall not comment farther upon it. It is the Federal government, and not the officers employed, who must bear the _onus_. But this war has been mortifying, and even dangerous to the Americans in another point. It has now lasted three years and more.

General after general has been superseded, because they have not been able to bring it to a conclusion; and the Indians have proved, to themselves and to the Americans, that they can defy them when they once get them among the swamps and mora.s.ses. There has not been one hundred Indians killed, although many of them have been treacherously kidnapped, by a violation of honour; and it is supposed that the United States have already lost one thousand men, if not more, in this protracted conflict.

The aggregate force under General Jessup, in Florida, in November, 1837, was stated to be as follows:--

+==========+=====+ Regulars 4,637 +----------+-----+ Volunteers4,078 +----------+-----+ Seamen 100 +----------+-----+ Indians 178 +----------+-----+ 8,893 +==========+=====+

It is supposed that the number of Indians remaining in Florida do not amount, men, women, and children, to more than 1,500 and General Jessup has declared to the government that the war is _impracticable_.

Militia.--The return of the militia of the United States, for the year 1837, is as follows:--

The number of _Militia_ in the several states and territories, according to the statement of George Bomford, Colonel of Ordnance, dated 20th November, 1837.

+======================+==============+=================+ States and TerritoriesDate of ReturnNumber of Militia +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Maine 1836 42,468 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ New Hamps.h.i.+re 1836 27,473 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Ma.s.sachusetts 1836 44,911 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Louisiana 1830 14,808 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Mississippi 1830 13,724 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Tennessee 1830 60,982 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Vermont 1824 25,581 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Rhode Island 1832 1,377 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Connecticut 1836 23,826 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ New York 1836 184,728 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ New Jersey 1829 39,171 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Pennsylvania 1834 202,281 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Delaware 1827 9,229 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Maryland 1836 46,854 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Virginia 1836 101,838 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ North Carolina 1835 64,415 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ South Carolina 1833 51,112 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Georgia 1834 48,461 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Alabama 1829 14,892 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Kentucky 1836 71,483 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Ohio 1836 146,428 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Indiana 1833 53,913 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Illinois 1831 27,386 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Missouri 1835 6,170 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Arkansas 1825 2,028 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Michigan 1831 5,478 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Florida Territory 1831 827 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ Wisconsin Territory -- -- +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ District of Columbia 1832 1,249 +----------------------+--------------+-----------------+ 1,333,091 +======================+==============+=================+

This is an enormous force, but at the commencement of a war not a very effective one. In fact, there is no country in the world so defenceless as the United States, but, once roused up, no country more formidable if any (attempt) is made to invade its territories. At the outbreak of a war, the states have almost everything to provide; and although the Americans are well adapted as materials for soldiers, still they have to be levied and disciplined. At the commencement of hostilities, it is not improbable that a well-organised force of 30,000 men might walk through the whole of the Union, from Maine to Georgia; but it is almost certain that not one man would ever get back again, as by that time the people would have been roused and excited, armed and sufficiently disciplined; and their numbers, independent of their bravery, would overwhelm three or four times the number I have mentioned.

Another point must not pa.s.s unnoticed, which is, that in America, the major part of which is still an uncleared country, the system of warfare naturally partakes much of the Indian practices of surprise and ambuscade; and the invaders will always have to labour under the great disadvantage of the Americans having that perfect knowledge of the country which the former have not.

Most of the defeats of the British troops have been occasioned by this advantage on the part of the Americans, added to the impracticability of the country rendering the superior discipline of the British of no avail. Indeed the great advantages of knowing the country were proved by the American attempts to invade Canada during the last war, and which ended in the capitulation of General Hull. In an uncleared country, even where large forces meet, each man, to a certain degree, acts independently, taking his position, perhaps, behind a tree (treeing it, as they term it in America), or any other defence which may offer. Now, it is evident that, skilled as all the Americans are in fire-arms, and generally using rifles, a disciplined English soldier, with his clumsy musket, fights at a disadvantage; and, therefore, with due submission to his Grace, the Duke of Wellington was very wrong when he stated, the other day in the House of Lords, that the militia of Canada should be disbanded, and their place supplied by regular troops from England. The militia of Upper Canada are quite as good men as the Americans, and can meet them after their own fas.h.i.+on. A certain proportion of regulars are advantageous, as they are more steady, and in case of a check can be more depended upon; but it is not once in five times that they will, either in America or Canada, be able to bring their concentrated discipline into play. But if the Americans have not the discipline of our troops, their courage is undoubted, and even upon a clear plain the palm of victory will always be severely disputed. A Vermonter, surprised for a moment at finding himself in a charge of bayonets, with the English troops, eyed his opponents, and said, "Well I calculate my piece of iron is as good as _yourn_, anyhow," and then rushed to the attack. People who "calculate" in that way are not to be trifled with, as the annals of history fully demonstrate.

A war between America and England is always to be deprecated.

Notwithstanding that the countries are severed, still the Americans are our descendants; they speak the same language, and (although they do not readily admit it) still look up to us as their mother country. It is true that this feeling is fast wearing away, but still it is not yet effaced. It is true also that, in their ambition and their covetousness, they would destroy the mutual advantages derived by both countries from our commercial relations, that they might, by manufacturing as well as producing, secure the whole profits to themselves. But they are wrong; for great as America is becoming, the time is not yet arrived when she can compete with English capital, or work for herself without it. But there is another reason why a war between the two countries is so much to be deprecated, which is, that is must ever be a cruel and an irritating war. To attack the Americans by invasion will always be hazardous, and must ultimately prove disastrous.

In what manner, then, is England to avenge any aggression that may be committed by the Americans? All she can do is to ravage, burn, and destroy; to carry the horrors of war along their whole extended line of coast, distressing the non-combatants, and wreaking vengeance upon the defenceless.

Dreadful to contemplate as this is, and, even more dreadful the system of stimulating the Indian tribes to join us, adding scalping, and the murdering of women and children, to other horrors, still it is the only method to which England could resort, and, indeed, a method to which she would be warranted to resort, in her own behoof. Moreover, in case of a future war, England must not allow it to be of such short duration as was the last; the Americans must be made to feel it, by its being protracted until their commerce is totally annihilated, and their expenses are increased in proportion with the decrease of their means.

Let it not be supposed that England would hara.s.s the coasts of America, or raise the Indian tribes against her, from any feeling of malevolence, or any pleasure in the sufferings which must ensue. It would be from the knowledge of the fact that money is the sinews of war; and consequently that, by obliging the Americans to call out so large a force as she must do to defend her coast and to repel the Indians, she would be put to such an enormous expense, as would be severely felt throughout the Union, and soon incline all parties to a cessation of hostilities. It is to touch their pockets that this plan must and _will_ be resorted to; and a war carried on upon that plan alone, would prove a salutary lesson to a young and too ambitious a people. Let the Americans recollect the madness of joy with which the hats and caps were thrown up in the air at New York, when, even after so short a war with England, they heard that the treaty of peace had been concluded; and that too at a time when England was so occupied in a contest, it may be said, with the whole world, that she could hardly divert a portion of her strength to act against America: then let them reflect how sanguinary, how injurious, a protracted war with England would be, when she could direct her whole force against them. It is, however, useless to ask a people to reflect who are governed and ruled by the portion who will _not_ reflect. The forbearance must be on our part; and, for the sake of humanity, it is to be hoped that we shall be magnanimous enough to forbear, for so long as may be consistent with the maintenance of our national honour.

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER FORTY ONE.

REMARKS--AMERICAN MARINE.

It may be inferred that I naturally directed my attention to everything connected with the American marine, and circ.u.mstances eventually induced me to search much more minutely into particulars than at first I had intended to do.

The present force of the American navy is rated as follows:--

_s.h.i.+ps of the Line_

+===========+==+ of 120 guns 1 +-----------+--+ 80 guns 7 +-----------+--+ 74 guns 3 +-----------+--+ Total 11 +===========+==+