Elements of Discord in Secessia

7 Shakspeare tells us that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but divers of the self-styled aristocracy of Secessia appear to have differed from him in opinion, and to have been in many instances ashamed of the patronymics which they inherited. Like Mr. Thackeray’s footman, James Plush, who after he had made a fortune by a gambling speculation in railway shares, assumed the Norman style of Janies de la Pluche, with a suitable coat of arms, they have sought a finer nomenclature. Peter Gustav Toutant (he is registered as Peter Gustav Toutant Beauregard in the General Catalogue of West Point) assumed the “Beauregard” (good countenance), which has the merit of being a fancy if not an aristocratic name, and subsequently dropped the “ Peter,” probably because he thought it plebian, while all the other male members of his immediate family are yet known as the Messrs. Toutant. What explanation can he give of the changes made that will relieve him from the imputation of snobbishness 1 Why one bearing the name of R. Barnwell Smith should wish to substitute for his surname the unchivalric name of Rhett we are at a loss to discover, although we can easily imagine that he might desire to get rid of his middle name—the felonious name of Barnwell, made notorious by George Barnwell as the paramour of Sarah Milwood, and as a murderer duly convicted and executed* Bow and Morse are unmistakable and common Saxon names, and as such are clearly incompatible with the Norman prefix of “ De.” Still the cotton agent of Mr. Jeff. Davis’ government, by what authority we know not, sports the name of De Bow, without so much as making it plausible by spelling it De B-e-a-u; and we have heard of a secession editor in Texas (originally from Maine), who got a statute passed, changing his name from Morse to De Morse, which was vetoed by Gen. Houston, the then President of the republic of Texas, on the ground that he was opposed to such statutes on principle and for various reasons—among the rest, because they might operate so as to defeat the collection of foreign debts. Still the Act was passed over the veto by a constitutional majority. Why Levy, of Florida, got the Legislature of that State to change his name to Yulee, we do not know. He is certainly of an ancient lineage, and may have merely effected a restore-

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