The Continental Monthly, Vol 3 No 3, March 1863: Devoted To Literature And National Policy

In Short

This March 1863 issue of The Continental Monthly is a literary and political miscellany published in New York during the height of the American Civil War. Blending geopolitical essays, domestic serial fiction, patriotic verse, and public history, the issue addresses the urgent questions of its day: the decay of the Ottoman Empire, international monetary unification, Southern secession, and the immediate necessity of Union victory. Through diverse voices, the volume advocates for uncompromising national unity, emancipation as a strategic and moral imperative, and a forward-looking American identity forged through global engagement and internal reform.

The Story

The issue opens not on American soil, but in the Middle East, with a sweeping examination of the Ottoman Empire's long decline. The essay surveys Turkey's military restructuring under Rija and Redschid Pashas, the autocratic ignorance of historical sultans, and the pivotal religious tolerance edict of 1850. It frames the spread of Christianity and Bible distribution as the true force destined to supplant Islamism while preserving civil governance. This global perspective swiftly pivots to international finance, tracking massive post-1850 gold mintages across the United States, France, Britain, and Russia, while endorsing a uniform global coinage to streamline world trade.

From macroeconomic policy, the publication shifts directly to the human drama of American slavery and war. In serial fiction set in the South, a Northern visitor named Kirke travels among plantation communities. He observes the intellectual sharpness of educated freedmen like "Boss Joe," attends a joyous darky ball celebrating the wedding of the young black man Ally to Rosey, and witnesses the harsh realities of bondage. Ally buys his mother Dinah's freedom with hard-earned wages before securing his own hearth, while nearby, a dying slave named Old Jack summons his master, and a tragic mother named Amy dies after revealing that her child was fathered through her master's sexual violence.

Poetic interludes reinforce these narrative themes: martial verses call Union soldiers to charge the battlefield, while tragic ballads lay bare the plight of enslaved women. Moving into explicit political analysis, the issue features foreign and domestic commentary on the war. An essay highlights French intellectual Edouard Laboulaye, who urges Northern victory and warns that disunion would ruin American liberty and plunge the world into perpetual conflict. Historical records of 18th-century Virginia Huguenots—and the lists of enslaved people they held—anchor the deep roots of the nation's racial struggle.

The narrative arc concludes with a detailed first-hand account of Secession's rapid triumph in Montgomery, Alabama. It traces how moderate Union sentiment dissolved after Abraham Lincoln's election into fierce, revolutionary hatred. The volume closes on a resolute Unionist note, arguing that slaveholding traitors cannot break the republic, asserting that Missouri's congressional emancipation plan will secure absolute victory, and offering practical notices for Western railroad lands alongside previews for upcoming issues.

How It Unfolds

The Ottoman decline The opening piece charts Turkey's military modernization, its historic resistance to administrative innovation, and the transformative 1850 imperial edict granting freedom of conscience and religious apostasy.

Global currency reform A financial survey details the immense mid-century surge in global gold production and advocates for a unified international coinage system to eliminate the costs of recoinage.

Scenes from the plantation Kirke visits Southern households, engaging in intellectual debate with an exceptionally well-read Black man named Joe and attending a lively holiday wedding celebration among the plantation's enslaved population.

Tragedies of bondage Poetry and prose expose the horrors of slavery as a dying enslaved woman named Amy confesses to her mistress that her light-skinned child was born of forced violence by the plantation's master.

The call to arms Patriotic verse urges Union soldiers to form ranks and charge the enemy, framing the war as a sacred struggle for native land, family, and eternal right.

Foreign defense of the Union An essay highlights French writer M. Laboulaye's passionate defense of American national unity, warning that secession will lead to standing armies, foreign domination, and endless war.

Historical records of Virginia Transcripts from a 1720s Huguenot parish register list early American baptisms, deaths, and the names of enslaved workers, illustrating the long presence of slavery in colonial life.

The fall of Southern Unionism An eyewitness account details how Union sentiment in Montgomery, Alabama, was rapidly overwhelmed by secessionist fervor following the 1860 presidential election.

The promise of emancipation A final political salvo rejects Northern compromise, praises New England's patriotic sacrifices, and identifies federally assisted emancipation in Missouri as the key to total Union victory.

The People

• Selim and his successors: Ottoman sultans who broke with centuries of imperial isolation, introducing administrative councils, representative tribunals, and fundamental civil rights to their subjects.
• Mr. Kirke: A Northern narrator traveling through the antebellum and wartime South, observing Southern society, plantation life, and the intellectual capacities of enslaved people.
• Boss Joe: A highly intelligent, remarkably well-read Black man who manages plantation affairs, maintains a library of classic literature, and leads his community with authority and generosity.
• Ally: A industrious young Black man who works two years in the swamps to earn enough money to purchase his mother Dinah's freedom, eventually marrying Rosey.
• Dinah: Ally's mother, a formerly enslaved woman who achieves her freedom through her son's devotion and hard labor.
• Amy: An enslaved woman whose deathbed confession reveals the sexual violence of her master and the tragic burden of raising a child fathered by her oppressor.
• Edouard Laboulaye: An influential French intellectual whose writings champion the Union cause, framing American national integrity as essential to world liberty.

In Its Own Voice

"From this superstitious belief they selected the Asiatic shore for the burial of true Mussulmans; nor was it altogether a fanciful belief, for in the sudden rise of Russia, Turkey foresaw the harbinger of her fall, and recognized in Muscovite warriors the antagonists of fate."

A historian reflects on the long-standing Turkish belief in their eventual displacement from European soil.

"I found the negro had taxed them for house room. He had levied on their best thoughts, and I soon experienced the uneasy sensation which one feels when he encounters a man who can 'talk him dry' on almost any subject."

Narrator Kirke describes his surprise at the formidable intellect and deep reading of Boss Joe.

"The hot white blood in my baby's veins, though mixed with duskier flow, / Will make her wretched if a slave; let her in freedom go!"

The dying slave woman Amy pleads with her mistress for the freedom of her innocent child.

What It's Really About

Underneath its varied contents, The Continental Monthly is an argument for total national renewal through moral and political transformation. The periodical connects global struggles against despotism—whether in the decaying Ottoman Empire or autocracies in Europe—to the American Civil War. It asserts that national unity is not a mere political preference, but a vital necessity for human freedom. By placing literary fiction and personal accounts of slavery alongside economic statistics and political analysis, the issue argues that the Union cannot survive without eradicating slavery. Emancipation is presented not merely as a military tactic, but as the essential first step toward fulfilling America's democratic promise.

Why Read It Today

The Continental Monthly offers readers a direct, unfiltered window into the Northern mind during one of the most critical moments in American history. Rather than viewing the Civil War through the soft lens of historical hindsight, the reader experiences the raw anxiety, fierce patriotism, and ideological debates as they were voiced in March 1863.

The prose style ranges from the formal, elevated rhetoric of 19th-century political essayists to the vernacular dialogue of Southern plantations. Modern readers should be prepared for period difficulties, including phonetic renditions of 19th-century Black dialect, explicit depictions of the cruelties of slavery, and strong anti-British and anti-Ottoman cultural biases typical of Northern wartime journalism.

What stays with the reader is the issue's striking breadth. It moves effortlessly from high-stakes geopolitical analysis and monetary policy to intimate human dramas. For anyone interested in the Civil War, historical journalism, or the evolution of American identity, this volume provides a vivid, complex, and unvarnished portrait of a nation fighting to redefine itself.