[The Atlantic Monthly for November]
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THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY1 for November is a literary feast of good things. The feature in the earlier numbers that evoked the disapprobation of super-orthodox and fault-finding people, has been discarded in the later ones; and we have one chapter more on some living practical subject, instead of the transcendental article. The November number contains no less than fifteen articles, three of which are pleasant chapters of fiction, and two of poetry. There is an excellent treatise on “Railway engineering in the United States;” a review—discriminating as regards the work, but laudatory of the greatness of the subject—of Randall’s Life of Jefferson; an exposition of the consistency of Mr. Caleb Cushing,2 which the Ex-Attorney General, we should presume, will peruse with any feeling but satisfaction. It abounds with witty and striking passages, some of which we extract:
"Mr. Cushing has distinguished himself lately as the preacher up of a crusade against modern philanthropy; and we do not wonder at it, if the offer of a dinner be so rare as to demand in acknowledgement a letter three columns long. Or perhaps he considered the offer itself as an instance of the insane benevolence which he reprobates, and accordingly punished it with an epistle the reading of which would delay the consummation of the edacious treason till all the meats were cold and the more impatient conspirators driven from the table."
Speaking of the Democratic party the writer says "it has been impartially on both sides of every question; but during all these changes it has contrived to have the Constitution always on its side, by the simple application of Swift's3 axiom—"Orthodoxy is my doxy, Heterodoxy is thy doxy," though it has had as many doxies as Cowley. Sometimes it has even had two at once, as in refusing to the iron of Pennsylvania the protection it gave to the sugar of Louisiana. Pennsylvania avenged herself by the fatal gift of Mr. Buchanan.4
Of Mr. Cushing it remarks that "he is said to be master of several tongues, and it is therefore quite natural that he should have held a different language at different times on many different questions."
Again—"The question, 'who is in office?' may be of primary importance to Mr. Cushing, but is of little consequence to the Free States. What concerns them is, How and in what interest are the offices administered? If to the detriment of free institutions, then all the worse that sons of theirs can be found to do that part of the work which involves (as affairs are now tending) something very like personal dishonor. It is no matter of pride to us that the South has never been able to produce a sailor skilful enough and bold enough to take command of a slaver."
"The carrying away of a single fugitive gave the Republicans a tenure of power in Massachusetts, as firm, and likely to be as enduring, as tht of the Whigs was once. The propagandists of Slavery overreached themselves when they compelled the people of the North to be their accomplices. The higher law is not a thing men argue about, but act upon. People who admit the right of property a thousand miles off go back to first principles when the property comes to their doors in the upright form of man, and appeals for sympathy with a human voice."
Notes:
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2. Caleb Cushing (1800–1879) was the United States Minister to Spain (1874–1877). [back]
3. Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was a writer and dean of the St. Patrick Cathedral. He wrote the poem "A Libel for Delany" in 1729. [back]
4. James Buchanan (1791–1868) was the fifteenth President of the United States (1857–1861). Late in life Whitman still considered Buchanan "perhaps the weakest of the President tribe—the very unablest" (With Walt Whitman in Camden, Monday, November 5, 1888). For more information on Whitman and his disdain for Buchanon, see also Bernard Hirschorn, ""To a President" (1860)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]