THE IDEA THAT AN ARMY CAN BE CREATED IN TWENTYFOUR HOURS IS SO ABSURD THAT IT SHOULD NOT BE NECESSARY TO REFUTE IT WITH THE EXPERIENCES OF THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED IN THE ARMY; AND YET WE HAVE MEN LIKE MR. BRYAN OPPOSING PREPAREDNESS, MAKING STATEMENTS THAT WE COULD ASSEMBLE AN ARMY OF A MILLION MEN BETWEEN SUN-UP AND SUN-DOWN.

Another letter shows how he kept in touch with his military friends:

"Headquarters, District of the Nohtoway, Petersburg, Va., September 7, 1865. "My dear Mr. Latrobe:

"I was very glad today to greet your handwriting from our 'Alma Mater.' I should have written to you before, but hearing you had left Baltimore did not know where to direct, and was only waiting to learn of your return home to resume our correspondence. I spent a very quiet time in the vicinity of Philadelphia with my wife and children, balanced between hope and fear in regard to the life of my poor little boy, who is now, I am happy to say, somewhat improved, but very thin. I trust the cool weather (if you have it cool up there, for it is terribly hot here) will enable Mrs. Gibbon to leave there and get to Baltimore, where she will feel more at home and eventually join me here after the frost, if I stay here that long, which I have at present no reason to doubt. I remained with my wife and children to the last moment allowed by my leave, and did not remain in Baltimore long enough to run out and see Mrs. Latrobe, which I otherwise would gladly have done, so I hope you will make my apologies to her. Need I say how happy I should have been to have met you at West Point and accompanied you to that dinner at Mr. Kemble's?

I can fancy how you enjoyed it and also the explorations, old yet ever new, of West Point. Did you happen to meet there my old Chief of Staff, General Potter? He was there a short time ago staying with the Commandant, Colonel Black, and doing a little courting on his own account. You speak of meeting Schoolfield. I thought he had gone to Europe under orders. Did you hear anything about it? I am getting along very quietly and pleasantly here, trying to reconcile civil and military law in the same place—a very difficult matter, by the way, but I hope it will come out straight in the end. The two are, of course, incompatible, but, with modification and no disposition to be a despot, I hope to have no trouble. The temper of the people is much better than I expected to find and much better than in Richmond, which I suppose was to be expected. A number of gentlemen have called on me and cordially invited me to their houses. Such a thing is almost unknown in Richmond. Tell Mrs. Latrobe I think the ladies are the great obstacle, but I think if I were a young bachelor I could even bring some of these over to the right side. As it is, I do not feel at liberty to 'try my hand upon them.' The great question is 'the inevitable negro,' and I presume the winter will be the turning point in their existence. They are flocking into town in great numbers, and some steps will have to be taken to get rid of the surplus population before the cold weather comes on, and I shall probably send a number of them out to one of the old camps three or four miles from camp, where cabins and wood are plenty. They are lazy and disinclined to work, and the mischief of it is that the negro question is a delicate one to handle without burning one's fingers in these ticklish times of freedom and free suffrage. I think you might manage to come down, pay me a visit, and look over these celebrated

lines with me now. I should like to have a long talk with you, and consult you on several legal questions which come up now and then, for I must plead guilty to being no lawyer, 'nothing but a soldier,' with his occupation gone. I wish I had something to fall back upon when they come to muster me out, for as far as going back to the command of a company-the thing is out of the question, so if you hear of an opening for a 'quiet, sober young man of tolerable character,' let me know. Remember me most kindly to Mrs. Latrobe and all your children at home, and those abroad when you write. What is the last news from my friend Johnnie?

Yours very truly,
(signed) JOHN GIBBON."*

This short recital covers the actual participation in military affairs and matters connected therewith, but the studies pursued by Mr. Latrobe at West Point were of great use, especially in his profession and in that branch known as "patent law," where his facility with his pencil and the mechanical knowledge acquired gave him a great advantage. His eye was so trained as an engineer that with his habit of observation he was quick to observe defects of any kind. A most interesting example of this is furnished in the following letter:

"Philadelphia, 31st May, 1848.

"Ibaum forte via sacra." I met you, my worthy neighbor and friend, some five weeks since, and we strolled over Market Street Bridge, dawdling and twaddling along, entirely merged in the usual talk of such a stroll; when, passing by the Old Town Corner, I believe it is Pitt but will be Fayette Street (continued), we halted and took a passing squint at the iron bridge, nearly finished.

*Gen. John Gibbon.

"You may not, but I do, and very distinctly too, remember your saying to me, with emphasis, "That bridge will and must fall, it is against every principle of construction and down it must tumble,' and on we sauntered. Now I have seen that 'Jones' Falls' has received another fall in its bosom, and I was immediately reminded of our conversation, and said to myself, 'I must write to my neighbor and remind him of our walk and talk and of his prediction. So do I now do..

CHRISTOPHER HUGHES."

(Christopher Hughes represented the United States longer than any other American at the several European Courts in successive diplomatic intercourse.)

In a letter from Washington Irving we find him referring to Mr. Latrobe as a soldier.

Mr. Latrobe, writing in 1882, says:

"For many years I have been an annual visitor at West Point Hotel, and have, during the several weeks of my stay here, attended morning and evening parade and guard mounting as regularly as when discipline compelled me, and now, in the ebbing tide of life more than ordinarily prolonged, look forward to the time of my annual pilgrimage with a feeling that has not weakened by the lapse of years. These lines aptly describe Mr. Latrobe's feelings:

My heart is in the hills, the shades

Of night are on my brow;
Ye pleasant haunts, ye quiet glades,
My heart is with you now.

CHAPTER VI

AFRICAN COLONIZATION

Mr. Latrobe left very copious notes on the subject of African Colonization. It was a work in which he took a deep interest, as can be seen from the following extracts:

"When I lost my feeling of-I scarcely know what to call it, it was not timidity, it was not especially reverencewell, without seeking for a word, when I got to be on easy terms with General Harper, he talked freely with me on all topics that interested him; and the two leading topics of his life were Internal Improvement and African Colonization. General Bernard's report had not yet demonstrated the impracticability of a canal by the Potomac route, between the waters of the East and West; and Canals, stimulated by what Pennsylvania was doing, were a subject of exceeding interest to the people of Baltimore. There were river routes, the Potomac and the Susquehanna; and General Harper advocated the former and George Winchester, Esquire, the latter, at a great meeting held in the Rotunda of the Exchange. Of course, I took sides with the General, and the interest was planted in me then, which endures to this day in all matters of internal improvement. I am President of the American Colonization Society now, as a consequence of my having sat at the feet of the great authority in Maryland in this connection.

"General Harper made it a point to introduce me to all his friends, and in that way I became acquainted, sooner than I otherwise might have done, with leading men in Baltimore. Some of them I now see before me.