Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1869-11-02
General Magruder in Boston.


We give (says the Baltimore Gazette the
following extracts from an article in a leading
Radical journal IN Boston, showing how Cen
eral Magruder and his lecture were received
there, and showing also some evidence of re-
turning sense and good feeling in that city
towards the South. 1t is significant thing
that the name of Stonewall jackson should
have been cheered in the metropolis of New
England:
GENERAL MAeRUDER ON ssMAxIMILIAN."
The Music Hall was well filled last night
by an audience which was possessed at the
outset with strong desire to see how real
General of the Confederate army would ap-
pear upon the lecture platform of Boston, and
to hear what he had to say. A hospitable
amount of applause heraldsd the entrance of
the General and greeted his ears when he arose
to speak. As he took his place before the
audience and began his lecture, his manner
was that Of person accustomed to speaking,
and confident, but not presumptuously so, in
his ability to acquit himself with credit to
himself and acceptance to his hearers.
General Magruler opened his discourse
with very graceful 'eference to the time before
the war when he vas stationed in Boston as
an officer of the tsgular army, and became
familiar with the dty and its suburbs "from
Longwood to Ghsaeston, and from Roxbury
to Cambridge" Since then, he said, 1.-The
black curtain of war" had separated him from
his friends THE North, but he had never
hesitated cheerfully to bear his testimony at
the South to the "high culture, refined hospi-
tality andpubiic spirit of the city of Boston )"
and now b was ''glad to say in peace what
L. L. j L l.. L
presumed, however, to appear before Boston
audience, Felying upon his own skill as a
speaker orwriter, but he had confidence in
the intrinsic merit and interest of the story
he had totsll. That story, the speaker said
was one of the fortunes, character and mel
ancholy death of one of the noblest of men,
Maximilian-and of the efforts of this person to
confer benefit upon mankind. To set this
story before his hearers and to sketch an outs
line of the true policy of our Government
toward Mexico, the lecturer said, were the
objects of his discourse.
Our readers may infer from tho character
of this introduction the fact that there is
nothing extravagant or bombastic, nothing of
the conventional fire.eater of the South, about
General Magruder. The verdict of all who
heard him was unanimous, and persons like
the writer, who came with half. formed preju-
dices against the expected speaker, and
forebodiDg Of oratorical extravagances and alb
surdities, remained to be impressed with his
simplicity, dignity and sense.
y x X
He told how his own army in Texas dis
banded themselves against his will, and how
he and his friends started to make their way
across Mexico, expecting to sail for Europe
from its Pacific coast, and how they met the
Emperor and took civil Offices under his adj
ministration. In one long conversation held
with Maxinilian and his wife, General Ma
gruder says he told of the various deeds of
valor done at and about the capture of tho
city OF Mexico by our troops and he brought
up in succession the names of Robert E. Leo,
of General Nc Clellan, of President Grant and
Stonewall Jackson for honorable mention to
each and all of which the audience responded
with applause, especially at those of the Pres
ident and Stonewall Jackson.
The downfall of Macmillan General Ma
gruder ut,riprs;. er.:.c to tae witnaIa,..sl
of support by Louis Napoleon, which, he said,
made formidable enemy of Juarez, who, a
few days before, had neither a friend nor a
dollar. This withdrawal, the lecturer said,
Was in answer to the tinkle of Mr.. Stewards
boil after the war-Which tinkle was heard
and abjectly responded to at the Tuileries.-
Maximillian's policy, according to General
Magruder was all in the interest of America,
and this, in the lecturers opinion. was the
only way to Americanize Mexico, viz to let
some intelligent foreign monarch govern it
with enlightened dcspotism, and in the inter
est of America thing which is, perhaps,
not likely to happen. General Magruder's
picture of the last days and the death of the
unfortunate Maximillian and of the insanity
of Carlotta, was very simple, eloquent and
touching.
1t was rather curious to see General Ma
gruder introduced by Colonel Marsh, who
commanded the Forty seventh Massachusetts
Volunteers in Texas