In Abraham Lincoln: a History we read that “The riots came to a bloody close on the night of Thursday, the fourth day. A small detachment of soldiers met the principal body of rioters at Third Avenue and Twenty-first Street, killed thirteen, wounding eighteen more, and taking some prisoners.” This occurred within a square of Mr. Field’s house, and those who had been left in charge had not proved themselves very brave; they fled from the house, leaving pictures, silver, and all valuables, and took with them only a box of tea and a cat. The tea they thought they would enjoy, and feared the cat might be lonely. The depression felt in New York on July 1st, and mentioned in the letter written on that day, was reported in England on the 16th, on which day the news brought by the steamer Bohemian, was published, and those who sympathized with the South were exultant, and were quite sure that the steamer Canada, due on the 18th, would bring news of the utter defeat of the Northern army under General Meade. The steamer did not arrive on the day she was expected, and on the intervening Sunday he has said that he was far too excited to think of going to church. Instead he hailed a cab and drove to the house of Mr. Adams (then American minister in London). Mr. Adams was at church. Next he stopped at the rooms of a friend, and persuaded him, although he was in the midst of shaving, to go with him to the city. They drove to Reuter’s; the man in charge of that office refused to answer any questions, saying that if he were to do so he would lose his place; he was assured that if that proved to be so he should immediately be given another place, and with an increase of pay. These questions were then asked: “Is the steamer in from America?” and “What is the price of gold in New York?” At last the wearied clerk opened the door wide enough to say that “the steamer is in and gold is 131.” This gave assurance of a victory for the North; and putting his foot between the door and the jamb, Mr. Field refused to move it until he was given every particular. “There has been a three days’ fight at Gettysburg; Lee has retreated into Virginia; Vicksburg has fallen.” Three cheers were given, and then three times three; they were hearty and loud, and after that the one thought was to spread the good news as rapidly as possible. First he made his way to Upper Portland Place, where a message was left for Mr. Adams. Then he drove out of London, and passed the afternoon in going to see his friends. He enjoyed very much telling of the victory to those who rejoiced with him, but perhaps more to those who, though Northerners by birth, were Southerners at heart, and had not failed in the dark days just past to let him know that they wished for a divided country. At one house in particular he entered looking very depressed, and with a low voice asked if they had had the news from Queenstown, and when the answer was “no” he read to them the paper he carried in his hand. His appearance had deceived them, and they had answered him smilingly, but their faces fell when they heard the news, and as he drove from the house he waved the message at them and called back, “Oh, you rebels! Oh, you rebels!”
Mr. Bright wrote on August 7th:
“From the tone of the Southern papers and the spasms of the New York Herald I gather that the struggle is approaching an end, and the conspirators are anxious to save slavery in the arrangements that may be made. On this point the great contest will now turn, and the statesmanship of your statesmen will be tried. I still have faith in the cause of freedom.”
It is more probable that Mr. Chase refers in the following letter to Mr. Bright’s letter of February 27th than to the one just given:
“Washington, August 21, 1863.
“My dear Sir,—I thank you for sending me a copy of Mr. Bright’s letter. It is marked by the comprehensive sagacity which distinguishes his statesmanship.
“Have you read “Callirrhoe,” a fanciful story of George Sand’s, which has appeared in the late numbers of Revue des Deux Mondes? It is founded upon the idea of transmigration, and especially upon the notion that the souls of those who have lived in former times reappear with their characteristic traits in the persons of new generations. If I adopted this notion I might believe that Hampden and Sidney live again in Bright and Cobden.
“A letter expressing the same general ideas as are contained in that addressed to you was lately sent by Mr. Bright to Mr. Aspinwall. This letter Mr. Aspinwall kindly enclosed to me, and I read it to the President. I had repeatedly said the same things to him, and was not sorry to have my representations unconsciously echoed by a liberal English statesman. The President said nothing, but I am sure he is more and more confirmed in the resolution to make the proclamation efficient as well after peace as during rebellion.
“My own efforts are constantly directed to this result. Almost daily I confer more or less fully with loyalists of the insurrectionary States, who almost unanimously concur in judgment with me that the only safe basis of permanent peace is reconstitution by recognition in the fundamental law of each State, through a convention of its loyal people, of the condition of universal freedom established by the proclamation. It was only yesterday that I had a full conversation with Governor Pierpont, of Virginia, and Judge Bowden, one of the United States Senators from that State, on this subject. Both these gentlemen agree in thinking that the President should revoke the exception of certain counties in southeastern Virginia from the operation of the proclamation, and that the Governor should call the Legislature together and recommend the assembling of a convention for the amendment of the existing constitution, and in expecting that the convention will propose an amendment prohibiting slavery. I think there is some reason to hope that the President may determine to revoke the exception, and more reason to hope that the convention will be failed and freedom established in Virginia through its agency.
“I do not know that you are perfectly familiar with the present condition of things in Virginia. Soon after the outbreak of the rebellion the loyal people of Virginia organized under the old constitution, through a Legislature at Wheeling, and subsequently, through a convention, consented to a division of the State by organizing the northwest portion as the State of West Virginia. If you look at the map you will see that the line forming the southern and eastern boundaries of this new State commences on the big fork of the Big Sandy, in the west line of McDowell County, and thence proceeds irregularly so as to include McDowell and Mercer counties, along the crest of the Alleghanies to Pendleton County, where it diverges to the Shenandoah Mountains and proceeds northeast to the Potomac River, at the northeast corner of Berkeley, including Pendleton, Hardy, Hampshire, Morgan, and Berkeley counties. Congress consented to the admission of this State, and it is now in the Union, fully organized under a free-labor constitution. Its organization, of course, left the government of old Virginia in the hands of Governor Pierpont and his associates, by whom the seat of government has been established at Alexandria. At present only a comparatively narrow belt of counties from the Atlantic to the east line of Berkeley is practically controlled by the loyal State government, but the loyal men of these counties are recognized by the national government as the State, and as county after county is rescued from rebel control it will come naturally under this organization, until probably at no distant day Governor Pierpont will be acknowledged as the Governor of Virginia at Richmond. When this takes place, the State will be necessarily a free State, under a constitution prohibiting slavery. The loyal people of Florida are ready to take the same course which Governor Pierpont proposes to take in Virginia; and the same is true of the loyal people of Louisiana to a great extent. It will be found, doubtless, as the authority of the Union is re-established in other States included by the proclamation, that the same sentiments will prevail; so that it will be quite easy for the national government, if the President feels so disposed, to secure the recognition of the proclamation, and the permanent establishment of its policy, through the action of the people of the several States affected by it.