Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-07-16
"REMINISCENCES or WASHINGTON IN 1861.
An Episode of tie beginning OF ths
Great Struggle.
Copyright 1891. by The United Pressl


ambitious, jealous; the old timers sneer-
ing, contemptuous, holding aloof, the hot
fires of secession burning fiercely from one
end of the capital to the other, the capital
over which the flag Of the Union flew and
still flies.
In the White House was a curious COM
bination of brains and folly, Of high nobil-
ity, feminine caprice, manly purpose, so
oal bewilderment, anxious thought silly
frivolity, for there had come in the train
of Abraham Lincoln mass of ignorance,
incompetence, feather headedness, which
was quickly pounced upon by the vultures
of the day, who utilize for their own selfish
ends the wheedling tones of flattery, COM
ing with golden gifts in their itching
palms, reducing in the very temple of the
gods the vestals who should have served
with patriotic loyalty and with fervid
piety at the altar during the sad hours of
their cOuntryS need.
Abraham Lincoln was absolutely Access
sible during those tremendous DAYS. No
guards hedged his footsteps, no sentinels
paraded before his door.
The name of the humblest was as well
come as the card of the highest. Threats,
denunciations, revelations of conspiracies
came by the buShel in his mail. He was
lampooned from one end of the country to
the other, and his own homely figure and
sad melancholy face were made the COM
paniOn picture to orang-outangs and
gorillas. Kissed at, sneered at cheered at,
he pursued his frightful journey, bearing
the cross as resolutely as ever cross was
borne.
There appeared one day in the New York
Times a despatch, the echoes Of which
rolled about the civilized globe for five
consecutive years. Never did dispatch
contain more momentous information,
never was document more pregnant with
CT rT1iH ooI1{ hot fob
which consisted of one word alone, and
was sent, if my recollection serves me- by
Mr.. Saltus, correspondent of the New
York Times then travelling in the vicinity
Of Charleston. That dispatch was the
single word "war." Date, headline,
introduction, report, all combined in one
single word, war, and that was the text
from April 1861, down to the fall of 1865,
when peace spread her white wings once
moro over a dismantled South, and in
every moral sense, disintegrated North.
| You all know William 81. Seward by
reputation, once governor Of this bright
State, long worthy occupant Of New
Yorks seat in the Senate of the nation, the
idol of the old Wing party foremost
leader in the new Republican party, man
OF head and hand and heart, Secretary Of
State in Cabinet comprising the most
noted names in the country; unit Of sup
| port to the great chieftain in the presiden-
tial chair, a Cabinet such as United States
never saw before, certainly has never seen
since.
Imagine him walking by the hour up and
down the corridors of Wizards Hotel with
slight figured youth with long black
hair, slight moustache, a zouave uniform
his feet in velvet slippers. This young
man, the first martyr in the war whose
blood first spurted, dread signal for the
barring of a million breasts in the near
future. was first seen in New York about
1859 as the cOmmandant of a small COM
pany of expert drillers. That I refer to
Ellsworth 1 need hardly say, who, placed
at the head of the fire brigade from New
York City was during the early days Of
the great struggle, encamped In and about
the House of Representatives. Wizards
Hotel was in q blaze and then the fire lad
dies whose ardor and zeal were kept in
check during the hours of peace broke
forth at the sight of flames, and could no
more be restrained than a tiger, his chain
once broken. Down Pennsylvania avenue
they rushed like boys let loose from
school, hooting and yelling and scream
ing as was the habit Of the
day, until they reached the scene
of confagratiOu. In an instant the
vast structure was dotted with the fire lad
dies. They perched on the cutters, they
hung to the window stills, they ran across
the brakes with the old time fervor of the
unpaid fire department. They screamed
themselves hOarse, and drank in vast
draughts of oxygen for they were once
more in their native element.
That the flames were subdued goes
without saying and the boys drawn up in
front of the side entrance of Willard s
Hotel were publicly thanked, not for
breach of discipline, not for breaking
through their camp lines, but for welcome
service at time of emergency.
This young man walking up and down
the corridors of Wizards Hotel, he a hum
BILE colonel, the Secretary of State his COM
panion. affords an idea to any quick mind
of the condition of affairs then existing.
Would Secretary of State to-day be found
walking the corridors of any hotel with a
volunteer colonel? Hardly.
The great event after the firing upon
Sumter was the departure of the Seventh
Regiment for Washington. Imagine a
thousand soldiers having professionally
gone with bands of music and waving
flags, attended by half million people,
every window open, every space occupied
| with cheering men and hand-kissing
women on trip to Washington. They
are gone. No word comes back. They are
gone. Nothing is heard from them. Day
passes into night. The sun rises on the
following day. The sunset gun tells the
story of another twenty-four hours, and so
on for week, no word No word. That
was the state of affairs. Telegraph wires
down, communications of every sort OBJ
structed. Absolutely barred were we from
communication, not only with Washing
ton ITSELF but with the Seventh Regiment
on its way to Washington. 1t was an anx-
ious week in the capital as we'll as in the
metropolis, and from Cape Cod to New
Orleans.
In this conditions Of affairs, naturally
enough, the first thing that occurred to
the quick mind Of managing editors was
to send correspondents whose duty it
should be to get to Washington whether
the Seventh Regiment could or not. ]
was assigned to that pleasant task, and
started for Philadelphia. The ensuing two
days were spent on the road back and
forth from Havre de Grace, Wilmington
and Philadelphia, it being a physical i'm
possibility to get step beyond. On the
evening of the third day, standing in the
corridor of the Continental Hotel, 1 saw
two men enter. They registered them