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Admiral David D. Porter, The Naval History of the Civil War., Chapter 56: commerce-destroyers.-their inception, remarkable career, and ending. (search)
gh foreign vessels, or otherwise. His object was to show the people of Europe the dreadful havoc the Confederates were making on American commerce; and, although by this course he ran the risk of being followed and overtaken by the Federal cruisers, yet he was so adroit in his proceedings that he always managed to leave a cruising-ground before the United States Government could get a vessel there. Semmes frequented some of the best-known ports, where there was constant communication with England, so that the Britons were constantly informed of the effect of their policy in allowing Confederate cruisers to be fitted out in their harbors. At the same time this news was transmitted by British packets to the United States, having its effect there, but not exactly what Semmes wanted. Semmes pursued this course. without attempt at concealment, until his vessel was sunk by the Kearsarge. Waddell, in the Shenandoah, pursued an entirely different course. He followed the line of the w
Admiral David D. Porter, The Naval History of the Civil War., Chapter 58: conclusion. (search)
xed on Mexico, went over to England and supported her in the proclamations issued in the Queen's name, but dictated by Earl Russell. The emperor hoped to persuade England to embark in a scheme that was to benefit France only in the subjection of Mexico to French rule, and to add to the French crown that jewel which would enrich and and, in fact, to all European governments; and announcing in his dispatch the course France would pursue under like circumstances — his real policy being to urge England into a war with the United States, which would further French views in regard to Mexico. This shows the animus actuating the emperor; though the Federal Administea has no foundation in fact; though it might well be impressed upon the consciences of many of the British people who do not remember with complacency the course England (as a nation) pursued, considering her intimate relations with the United States. But the Americans are a forgiving people, and forget injuries, only to have the
Horace Greeley, The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-65: its Causes, Incidents, and Results: Intended to exhibit especially its moral and political phases with the drift and progress of American opinion respecting human slavery from 1776 to the close of the War for the Union. Volume I., Vi. Slavery under the Constitution. (search)
ged in New Haven, disabling many of his workmen ; and soon the lawsuits, into which they were driven in defense of their patent, began to devour all the money they could make or borrow. In 1795, Whitney had another attack of sickness; and, on his return to New Haven, from three weeks of suffering in New York, learned that his manufactory, with all his machines and papers, had just been consumed by fire, whereby he found himself suddenly reduced to utter bankruptcy. Next came a report from England that the British manufacturers condemned and rejected the cotton cleaned by his machines, on the ground that the staple was greatly injured by the ginning process! And now no one would touch the ginned cotton; and blockheads were found to insist that the roller-gin — a preposterous rival to Whitney's, whereby the seed was crushed in the fibre, instead of being separated from it — was actually a better machine than Whitney's! In the depths of their distress and insolvency, Miller wrote (Apri
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 2. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 73 (search)
country might not have a sufficient supply, purchased on their own responsibility, through cooperation with the United States Ministers to England and France, a number of improved cannon and muskets, and, at your instance, this department accepted the drafts drawn to defray the outlay thus assumed. A perfect battery of six Whitworth twelve-pounder rifled cannon, with three thousand rounds of ammunition, the munificent donation of sympathizing friends in Europe, has also been received from England. It will be necessary for Congress, either at its approaching special, or at its next annual session, to adopt measures for the reorganization, upon a uniform basis, of the military of the country. I know of no better source of information on the subject than the able report of General Henry Knox, the first Secretary of War, who, by his wise forecast and eminent appreciation of the future wants of the country, showed the entire safety of an implicit reliance upon the popular will for th
Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler, Chapter 5: Baltimore and Fortress Monroe. (search)
On this bluff, and extending back four or five miles upon it, until they reached a large and apparently primeval forest, were cultivated lands. This point was called Newport News from this incident: When the colonists at Jamestown, some twenty miles up the river, were in a state of starvation,--that is to say, in want of wheat, barley, beer, and roast beef, having almost everything else to eat that a man could desire of the game of the forest, and the fish of the sea,--they sent word to England of their starving condition, like our Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth, who did the same thing under the same circumstances. These people at Jamestown then waited with anxiety for the outfit of a vessel by Lord Newport containing the coveted material for beer, and at the farthest point of all down the river they established an outpost on this bluff to watch for the coming of Newport's ship from home. After days of watchfulness and anxiety the vessel came in sight. The watchers at the outpost
Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler, Chapter 12: administration of finances, politics, and justice.--recall. (search)
ates, because of which I am not unconscious of complaint. I do not feel that I have erred in too much harshness, for that harshness has ever been exhibited to disloyal enemies to my country, and not to loyal friends. To be sure, I might have regaled you with the amenities of British civilization, and yet been within the supposed rules of civilized warfare. You might have been smoked to death in caverns, as were the Covenanters of Scotland by the command of a general of the royal house of England; or roasted, like the inhabitants of Algiers during the French campaign; your wives and daughters might have been given over to the ravisher, as were the unfortunate dames of Spain in the Peninsular War; or you might have been scalped and tomahawked as our mothers were at Wyoming by the savage allies of Great Britain in our own Revolution; your property could have been turned over to indiscriminate loot, like the palace of the Emperor of China; works of art which adorned your buildings migh
Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler, Chapter 20: Congressman and Governor. (search)
ockading fleets. The Dominion of Canada was made a headquarters for the concoction and carrying out of all sorts of incursions upon our territory, robbing banks, setting fire to our cities, sending garments charged with infectious disease to be distributed among our people, and affording a path for supplies of British gold by which our currency was debased by speculators in gold, by raising large premiums upon gold supplied through English sources. These, with the encouragement given by England from the very beginning of the war that if the South could make sufficient headway to justify the British government in declaring the independence of the Confederacy it would so do,--all these formed an aggregate of national wrongs and injuries that could not be compensated for by money. Through the greed of the influence thus moving upon President Johnson, a treaty was concluded which made a settlement of the Alabama claims for the actual destruction of some property. This treaty was sub
Rebellion Record: Introduction., Volume 1. (ed. Frank Moore), Introduction. (search)
tizens in that region felt the danger, and sounded the alarm. Speech of Mr. Ross, in the Senate of the United States, 14th February, 1803. But in another moment the aspect of affairs was changed, by a stroke of policy, grand, unexpected, and fruitful of consequences, perhaps without a parallel in history. The short-lived truce of Amiens was about to end, the renewal of war was inevitable. Napoleon saw that before he could take possession of Louisiana it would be wrested from him by England, who commanded the seas, and he determined at once, not merely to deprive her of this magnificent conquest, but to contribute as far as in him lay, to build up a great rival maritime power in the West. The Government of the United States, not less sagacious, seized the golden moment — a moment such as does not happen twice in a thousand years. Mr. Jefferson perceived that, unless acquired by the United States, Louisiana would in a short time belong to France or to England, and with equal w
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 10. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 2 (search)
my orders, under all circumstances, with coolness and judgment. My especial thanks are also due to .C. S. Cadet Joseph C. Haskell, of South Carolina, who volunteered me his services, and rendered me indispensable assistance in the supervision of so extensive a command. I beg leave to recommend him to the War Department for promotion. Lieutenants Gillen, Wilson, Burroughs, Terrill, and Woolfolk, are mentioned in high terms by their captains, as are also Sergeant Cisco, of Moody's, and Private England, of Woolfolk's battery. The latter, unfortunately, was killed. I was personally impressed with the bearing of Lieutenant J. Donnell Smith, of Jordan's battery, commanding a section in the attack on the evening of the thirteenth. Corporal Lockwood, of his company, a most gallant soldier, whom I also noticed particularly, was wounded, I fear mortally, in the night attack. Our entire loss was one killed, ten wounded, and fifteen horses. One thousand and eighty rounds of ammunition were
Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Appendix B (search)
diency of terminating an ancient treaty, which, if it be unwise, it can not be dishonorable, to continue. Yet, throughout this long discussion, the recesses and vaulted dome of this hall have reechoed to inflammatory appeals and violent declamations on the sanctity of national honor; and then, as if to justify them, followed reflections most discreditable to the conduct of our Government. The charge made elsewhere has been repeated here, that we have trodden upon Mexico, but cowered under England. Sir, it has been my pride to believe that our history was unstained by an act of injustice or of perfidy; that we stood recorded before the world as a people haughty to the strong, generous to the weak; and nowhere has this character been more exemplified than in our intercourse with Mexico. We have been referred to the treaty of peace that closed our last war with Great Britain, and told that our injuries were unredressed, because the question of impressment was not decided. There ar
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