Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 02.djvu/227

 apparent candor, which are requisite to make them effective, any inquiry of the kind would be thrown away. The idea of perfidy may indeed have been uppermost in his mind while engaged in the consideration of this matter, and have been thus strangely misapplied by a lapse of memory or of pen. This, however, is merely a suggestion. Should he still be really in darkness on the point, we would refer him, for his own enlightenment, to the various publications bearing upon it that have issued from Northern sources, and also to the singularly clear, cool and dispassionate statement of Judge Campbell. How will he reconcile the position he assumes for Mr. Lincoln with the course pursued, as is proven on unimpeachable testimony by Mr. Lincoln's official representative, Secretary Seward? We cheerfully leave to him the task of settling the question between his two heroes.

After what they have already seen of the scrupulous accuracy and thorough acquaintance with his subject displayed by this historian, our readers will scarcely be surprised to meet with such original and interesting items of information as that "the three fractions of the Democratic party" were personified by Douglas, Breckinridge and and that "the electoral colleges of Tennessee and North Carolina refused to call a convention at the bidding of the seceders."

But enough of this. We grow weary of pointing out errors which a stupid school-boy would be ashamed to commit, and a clever school-boy would scarcely have patience to correct. It may perhaps be suggested that, from his education and previous habits, the Count of Paris is better fitted to figure as a writer of military than of civil history. If so, we would strenuously advise him to confine himself in future strictly to technical details. Let us see however whether this view of the case is sustained by the facts. Turning, then, to the military portion of the history, we find, not to mention the errors pointed out by the editor (elsewhere by no means so mindful of the duties of his office), in regard to the West Point system, and the army retired list, the following extraordinary statement on page 24: "In 1855 Congress passed a law authorizing the formation of two new regiments of cavalry, and Mr. Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, took advantage of the fact that they had not been designated by the title of dragoons to treat them as a different arm, and to fill them with his creatures to the exclusion of regular officers whom he disliked."

The reader may perhaps be curious to know who some of these