who lives...

The universe is all of one mind. Though my twin-brother sware to me, by the blazing sun in heaven at noon-day, that Oro is not; yet would he belie the thing he intended to express. And who lives that blasphemes? What jargon of human sounds so puissant as to insult the unutterable majesty divine? Is Oro's honor in the keeping of Mardi?--

(Mardi, 1849)

C. "But who lives, who may not be wounded through another!—Then so be it! let us treat the whole world as it has done us, and—forget it! I dare say, nay, I am sure, that beyond some family ties, there is not upon the wide earth a heart in sympathy with our good or ill; whose even beat would be as much disturbed, were this wild sod to cover us forever, as at the most ephemeral of the trifling cares which make up their petty lives."
(Scenes Beyond the Western Border, August 1852); and Scenes and Adventures in the Army)

Philip St George Cooke's June 24, 1864 letter to the Adjutant General

as head of recruiting service, proposing swift capital punishment for deserters to stop bounty jumping:

Page 3

General Cooke's cure for rampant bounty jumping, June 1864

Biographer Otis E. Young references Alson B. Ostrander for the period of 1864-1866 when Philip St George Cooke headed the army recruiting station in New York City.  More remains to be told from Cooke's numerous letters to the Adjutant General's Office which are held by the National Archives and now available online through fold3.

To stop the plague of bounty jumping, General Cooke wrote on June 24, 1864 to recommended more stringent punishment for deserters: hang them by the dozen at the Battery on Fridays.

H[ea]d Q[uarte]rs Gen Rec[ruit]ng Service
New York June 24. '64

To the Adjutant General

U. S. Army

Wash.n City

I cannot ascertain that there are any existing orders for measures toward the detection & apprehension of deserters; such as a report of names & description to the Asst. Pro[vost] Marshall General or the police department here; or the publication of names, &c., in a police Gazette, or otherwise.

The recruiting Service, at present, leads to a system of robbery of the Nation, on a gigantic scale; by a class, thus fostered, of cowardly and perjured swindlers—

Take the last return of the 5^th U. S. Artillery, as a sample: 31 enlisted in City of N. York, & 24 of them deserted, & thus committed a robbery of $7800.

In mercy to the country, and to the Army—where hundreds daily die, or are crippled & need support—this wholesale desertion should be stopped by administering justice: a dozen men shot, or hanged, at the Battery, each friday for about three weeks, might cure the great evil. Thus, in the long run, our country may gain as much by the deaths of 36 deserters & robbers, as it does by the deaths of as many hundreds of its brave soldiers.

Very respectfully

P St Geo Cooke
Brig Gen USA S. R. S. [Superintendent Recruiting Service]

(Letters Received by the Adjutant General, 1861-1870.
1864/C/Cooke, Philip St Geo R429 at fold3)

Mardi-style dialogue in Scenes Beyond the Western Border

The astounding prairie dialogues of the Captain and his Imaginary Friend have no counterpart in anything else attributed to Cooke.


April 1852:

C.  "Amigo Mio!  Didn't you desert me on the eve of a snow storm, like many another friend of so honest mouthing!  And is a touch of poetry a bad companion in difficulty and trial?  Never a bit; it was the boon of a God — Wisdom was ever feminine."

I. F.  "Phew!  The fit is on!  Sorry I said a word! I supposed frost and starved horses—the sight of poor women to-day trudging the weary road —the driving poor beef instead of the spirit striving chase, would have tempered you to the philosophy of a very materialist, (male or female.")  --Scenes Beyond the Western Border, April 1852; and Scenes and Adventures in the Army

January 1852:

 ... "I conceived hopes of you, that the poetic spirit was layed; and when at supper to-night you ate so heartily of the elk-steak, I little thought you had been indulging again in such pathetic" —

"Pshaw! it serves for a gilding to Life's bitter pill! The delicious supper should have mended your humour: for I stake my reputation on it— as 'guide, surgeon and hunter'"—

Imaginary Friend. "And butcher" —

—" That the flesh, cooked, as it was, with a little pork, cannot be distinguished from that of the fattest buffalo cow that ever surrendered tongue and marrow-bones to hungry hunter.

I. F. Bravo! I have hopes of you! Kill your meat with a good conscience, and daily labour and excitement over, solid indeed is the hunter's comfort!...
--January 1852; and Scenes and Adventures in the Army

But Mardi abounds in just this kind of talk. In the examples below, see in particular how Melville similarly deployed references to another speaker's "fit"; and the optimistic turn of phrase, "I have hopes..." In Mardi as in Scenes Beyond the Western Border, the "fit" is alleged behavior of the traveling philosopher, while the line "I have hopes" is said by a realist.

... The universe is all of one mind. Though my twin-brother sware to me, by the blazing sun in heaven at noon-day, that Oro is not; yet would he belie the thing he intended to express. And who lives that blasphemes? What jargon of human sounds so puissant as to insult the unutterable majesty divine? Is Oro's honor in the keeping of Mardi? — Oro's conscience in man's hands? Where our warrant, with Oro's sign- manual, to justify the killing, burning, and destroying, or far worse, the social persecutions we institute in his behalf? Ah! how shall these self-assumed attorneys and vicegerents be astounded, when they shall see all heaven peopled with heretics and heathens, and all hell nodding over with miters! Ah! let us Mardians quit this insanity. Let us be content with the theology in the grass and the flower, in seed-time and harvest. Be it enough for us to know that Oro indubitably is. My lord! my lord! sick with the spectacle of the madness of men, and broken with spontaneous doubts, I sometimes see but two things in all Mardi to believe:—that I myself exist, and that I can most happily, or least miserably exist, by the practice of righteousness. All else is in the clouds; and naught else may I learn, till the firmament be split from horizon to horizon. Yet, alas! too often do I swing from these moorings." 

"Alas! his fit is coming upon him again," whispered Yoomy. 

"Why, Babbalanja," said Media, "I almost pity you. You are too warm, too warm. Why fever your soul with these things? .... (Mardi, Babbalanja Discourses in the Dark)

"Profane jester! Would'st thou insult me with thy torn-foolery? Begone—all of ye! tramp! pack! I say: away with ye!" and into the woods Doxodox himself disappeared. 

"Bravely done, Babbalanja!" cried Media. "You turned the corner to admiration." 

"I have hopes of our Philosopher yet," said Mohi. 

"Outrageous impostor! fool, dotard, oaf! Did he think to bejuggle me with his preposterous gibberish? And is this shallow phraseman the renowned Doxodox whom I have been taught so highly to reverence? Alas, alas—Odonphi there is none!" 

"His fit again," sighed Yoomy.  (Mardi, They Visit One Doxodox)

keen relish

Old Maga--God bless his cocked hat!--shakes his venerable head sagatiously, notwithstanding his keen relish for the humourous.
(1847 letter to John Murray, Selected Melville Letters)

It is wonderful how many go through the world with eyes shut, with minds unawake; but without the keen relish of the beautiful, without souls sensitive of lofty emotion, they have the enjoyments of animals, and are dull to painful reactions.  (Scenes Beyond the Western Border, May 1852)

Tribute to Cortez (only excelled by Caesar) in May 1852

The August 1852 installment of Scenes Beyond the Western Border holds up Cortez (Hernán Cortés) as the model hero. As suggested in previous posts here and here, Cortez is recalled in the prairie talk of August 1852 as a great champion of belief and enthusiasm. This association of Cortez with enthusiasm intriguingly corresponds to Melville's enthusiast hero Pierre and the main theme of his poem "The Enthusiast."

I forgot about this riff on Cortez in another, earlier installment of Scenes Beyond the Western Border:

But the prairie does not always charm the eye or the imagination: often its sameness and the monotony of slow motion, lull us to dreamy thought, then, happily, we create of solitude, a world of our own; or people it with the loved absent, or the long dead. To-day, by an easy association, I dreamed of the old warrior explorers from Spain—'ere her glory died—of De Soto Cortez, and others. Hernando Cortez! What a name is there! What hero of antiquity excelled him? None but Caesar: his military genius resembled Alexander's; but—as in the comparison of our Washington with the world's Captains with an allowance for the scale of action and of means. (His passage of the Delaware and subsequent campaign gave indications of what he might have done!) The master-stroke of the career of Cortez, was his desperate march to Vera Cruz, his attack and defeat of the braggart Narvaez and his vastly superior numbers. Truly, his were enthusiastic genius, energy and constancy, beyond all proportion to what Providence implants or requires in man in ordinary times. In the world's story, among all wondrous events, in Mexico alone History and Romance form an unity. And Cortez, like Columbus, was self-made; he forced his way over great obstacles, with which that age heaped the paths of aspirants from the low classes.
(Scenes Beyond the Western Border, May 1852; and Scenes and Adventures)

 

Columbus ended earth's romance:
No New World to mankind remains!" (Clarel)

more on Cortez and enthusiasm in August 1852

That allusion to Cortez (Hernán Cortés) and conspiracy in the August 1852 installment of Scenes Beyond the Western Border probably refers to the 1521 assassination plot led by Antonio de Villafana. Many versions of the story exist, in poetry as well as prose, including a volume of Uncle Philip's Conversations.  According to William Robertson, Cortes learned of the plot and

repaired instantly to Villefagna's [Robertson's spelling] quarters, accompanied by some of his most trusty officers. The astonishment and confusion of the man at this unexpected visit anticipated the confession of his guilt. Cortes, while his attendants seized the traitor, snatched from his bosom a paper, containing the association, signed by the conspirators. Impatient to know how far the infection extended, he retired to read it, and found there names which filled him with surprise and sorrow. But aware how dangerous a strict scrutiny might prove at such a juncture, he confined his judicial inquiries to Villefagna alone. As the proofs of his guilt were manifest, he was condemned after a short trial, and next morning he was seen hanging before the door of the house in which he had lodged. Cortes called his troops together, and having explained to them the atrocious purpose of the conspirators, as well as the justice of the punishment inflicted on Villefagna, he added, with an appearance of satisfaction, that he was entirely ignorant with respect to all the circumstances of this dark transaction, as the traitor, when arrested, had suddenly torn and swallowed a paper which probably contained an account of it, and under the severest tortures possessed such constancy as to conceal the names of his accomplices. This artful declaration restored tranquility to many a breast that was throbbing, while he spoke, with consciousness of guilt and dread of detection; and by this prudent moderation, Cortes had the advantage of having discovered, and of being able to observe such of his followers as were disaffected; while they, flattering themselves that their past crime was unknown, endeavoured to avert any suspicion of it by redoubling their activity and zeal in his service.  (William Robertson)

Some accounts emphasize that Cortés only pretended that Villafana had swallowed the paper naming the conspirators. According to Prescott, Villafana actually did attempt to swallow the paper.

A review of Prescott in the Southern Quarterly Review reports that Cortés "destroyed the scroll" without stating how:

He destroyed the scroll, and contented himself with the execution of the one ringleader. The conspirators trembled, but without cause. The magnanimous judgment of Cortes forbore farther inquiry. In an address to his troops, he told them that the guilty man had made no confession. His admirable policy never once suffered them to suppose that he had any suspicion of the guilty parties

Other sources likewise credit the actions of Cortés as great "policy." One biography refers to the ingested paper ruse as a "master stroke of policy,"  again the word used in the 1852 dialogue of C. and F. 

So far I have not found any report saying that Cortés burned the evidence of conspiracy, unread.

Possibly the reference in Scenes Beyond the Western Border merges two averted rebellions from the history of Cortes and the Spanish conquest of Mexico. First confronted with conspiracy, Cortés famously destroyed his fleet at Veracruz to prevent discontented men from deserting to Cuba. Legend has it that Cortés burned his ships. Even now "burn the ships" or something to the effect of burning your boats is a proverb of business success and life wisdom.  Nit-pickers insist Cortes scuttled his ships but did not actually set fire to them:

There is a popular misconception that Cortés burned the ships instead of scuttling them. This may have come from a mistranslation of the version of the story written in Latin.  (New World Encyclopedia)

Here again is the 1852 text as first printed in the Southern Literary Messenger:

F. " At last you have struck a chord that answers as to the touch of truth! And as for love, I know none better than that of the she-bear for her cub; and that lasts, and is returned, just so long as circumstance and interest bind."

C. "O! my friend! Is there not then a pure soul-love, a deathless friendship, "passing the love of women," which all life's trials and the world's baseness cannot soil or sap? If that be truth, 'twere better never to look into her Medusa face! O! better to cherish enthusiasm, (despite the sneers and ridicule of cold, calculating woman;) better, (as it would become) a blind heroism of credulity! Ay, a heroism of policy, —like that of the great Cortez, who burnt, unread, the proofs of a conspiracy, rather than embrace damning doubt."
(Scenes Beyond the Western Border, August 1852); and with significant revisions in Scenes and Adventures in the Army)

1857 book version:

"If that were truth, better never to look into her Medusa face; better to cherish illusion: blind credulity would be heroism! ay,—and policy,—like that of the great Cortez, who burnt the proofs of a conspiracy, rather than foster damning doubt."