THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD -1857 -1864 97 



The main effort in our behalf was made by Mr. John 

 Bigelow, at that time consul-general, but afterward min 

 ister of the United States, to supply with arguments the 

 very small number of Frenchmen who were inclined to 

 favor the Union cause, and this he did thoroughly well. 



Somewhat later there came a piece of good fortune. 

 Having been sent by a physician to the baths at Homburg, 

 I found as our consul-general, at the neighboring city of 

 Frankfort-on-the-Main, William Walton Murphy of Michi 

 gan, a life-long supporter of Mr. Seward, a most devoted 

 and active American patriot; a rough diamond; one of 

 the most uncouth mortals that ever lived ; but big-hearted, 

 shrewd, a general favorite, and prized even by those who 

 smiled at his oddities. He had labored hard to induce the 

 Frankfort bankers to take our government bonds, and to 

 recommend them to their customers, and had at last been 

 successful. In order to gain and maintain this success he 

 had established in Frankfort a paper called &quot;L Europe,&quot; 

 for which he wrote and urged others to write. To this 

 journal I became a contributor, and among my associates I 

 especially remember the Eev. Dr. John McClintock, for 

 merly president of Dickinson College, and Dr. E. H. 

 Chapin, of New York, so eminent in those days as a 

 preacher. Under the influence of Mr. Murphy, Frankfort- 

 on-the-Main became, and has since remained, a center of 

 American ideas. Its leading journal was the only influ 

 ential daily paper in Germany which stood by us during 

 our Spanish War. 



I recall a story told me by Mr. Murphy at that period. 

 He had taken an American lady on a business errand to 

 the bank of Baron Rothschild, and, after their business was 

 over, presented her to the great banker. It happened that 

 the Confederate loan had been floated in Europe by Baron 

 Erlanger, also a Frankfort financial magnate, and by birth 

 a Hebrew. In the conversation that ensued between this 

 lady and Baron Rothschild, the latter said: &quot; Madam, my 

 sympathies are entirely with your country; but is it not 

 disheartening to think that there are men in Europe who 



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