[46] Spectator, December 1, 1860. Times, January 29, 1861. Economist, May 25, 1861.
[47] Saturday Review, January 19, 1861.
[48] Edinburgh Review, Vol. 112, p. 545.
[49] Lyons Papers.
[50] Russell, My Diary North and South, Boston, 1863, p. 134. "Then cropped out again the expression of regret for the rebellion of 1776, and the desire that if it came to the worst, England would receive back her erring children, or give them a prince under whom they could secure a monarchical form of government. There is no doubt about the earnestness with which these things are said." Russell's Diary is largely a condensation of his letters to the Times. In the letter of April 30, 1861 (published May 28), he dilates to the extent of a column on the yearning of South Carolina for a restoration of colonial relations. But Consul Bunch on December 14, 1860, reported a Charleston sentiment very different from that of the Jockey Club in February. He wrote to Lyons:
"The church bells are ringing like mad in celebration of a
newly revived festival, called 'Evacuation Day,' being the
nefastus ille dies in which the bloody Britishers left
Charleston 78 years ago. It has fallen into utter disuse for
about 50 years, but is now suddenly resuscitated apropos de
nothing at all."
In this same letter Bunch described a Southern patriotic demonstration. Returning to his home one evening, he met a military company, which from curiosity he followed, and which"drew up in front of the residence of a young lawyer of my
friends, after performing in whose honour, through the medium
of a very brassy band, a Secession Schottische or Palmetto
Polka, it clamorously demanded his presence. After a very
brief interval he appeared, and altho' he is in private life
an agreeable and moderately sensible young man, he succeeded,
to my mind at any rate, in making most successfully, what Mr.
Anthony Weller calls 'an Egyptian Mummy of his self.' the
amount of balderdash and rubbish which he evacuated (dia
stomatos) about mounting the deadly breach, falling back
into the arms of his comrades and going off generally in a
blaze of melodramatic fireworks, really made me so unhappy
that I lost my night's rest. So soon as the speech was over
the company was invited into the house to 'pour a libation to
the holy cause'--in the vernacular, to take a drink and spit
on the floor."
Evidently Southern eloquence was not tolerable to the ears of the British consul. Or was it the din of the church bells rather than the clamour of the orator, that offended him? (Lyons Papers.)
"The church bells are ringing like mad in celebration of a
newly revived festival, called 'Evacuation Day,' being the
nefastus ille dies in which the bloody Britishers left
Charleston 78 years ago. It has fallen into utter disuse for
about 50 years, but is now suddenly resuscitated apropos de
nothing at all."
"drew up in front of the residence of a young lawyer of my
friends, after performing in whose honour, through the medium
of a very brassy band, a Secession Schottische or Palmetto
Polka, it clamorously demanded his presence. After a very
brief interval he appeared, and altho' he is in private life
an agreeable and moderately sensible young man, he succeeded,
to my mind at any rate, in making most successfully, what Mr.
Anthony Weller calls 'an Egyptian Mummy of his self.' the
amount of balderdash and rubbish which he evacuated (dia
stomatos) about mounting the deadly breach, falling back
into the arms of his comrades and going off generally in a
blaze of melodramatic fireworks, really made me so unhappy
that I lost my night's rest. So soon as the speech was over
the company was invited into the house to 'pour a libation to
the holy cause'--in the vernacular, to take a drink and spit
on the floor."
[51] Edinburgh Review, Vol. 113, p. 555.
[52] The Times, January 4, 1861.
[53] Letter to Dublin News, dated January 26, 1861. Cited in The Liberator, March 1, 1861. Garrison, editor of The Liberator, was then earnest in advocating "letting the South go in peace" as a good riddance.