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THE WAR IN AMERICA; 
 
 What England, ok the People of England, may do 
 
 TO RESTORE PEACE 
 
 By e^y: ROBBINS. 
 
 lOllRESSEIl TO AI.I. Prill.ANTHROPISTS, ANI> LOVERS OK PEACE IN KNOLANP. 
 
 "Nell) Yorft. 
 M. B. RHOWN & CO., PRINTKUS, 2(il anp 'iO,T WILLIAM STKKKT 
 

THE WAR IN AMERICA.* 
 
 I do not come before the English people to complain of their 
 conduct in the past, or to dictate for the future, but simply to 
 suggest ; to suggest to a people who, as I believe, already sin- 
 cerely and deeply hate slavery and deplore war, how, in my 
 opinion, they may aid in the removal of the former, and shorten 
 tlie duration and prevent the recurrence of the latter. 
 
 I cannot but believe that there are in England many philan- 
 thropic men, probably the majority of the better classes, who 
 would gladly use their influence to put down slavery in any 
 peaceable way, but whose sympathies are repelled by the means 
 which the North is using, (a class whose feelings were recently 
 expressed by an eminent statesman, and friend of freedom, 
 at Edinburgh) ; men who regard war as a great evil as well 
 as slavery, and who, while they love the slave, do not hate 
 his master, or, at least, would not wish to see him extermina- 
 ted ; but who would see slavery put away, if it can be done 
 by peaceable means, by moral force, for the sake of the master 
 as well as of the slave ; both being victims of the evil. To 
 such, and indeed to all Englishmen, I would address myself 
 with all christian kindness ; feeling that the people of Eng- 
 land and of America are, and should feel themselves to be, 
 brethren ; and that no unkind words or uncharitable thoughts 
 should be indulged in by them toward each other. 
 
 What is the cause of the war now raging in America ? Be- 
 lieving that the Southern people knew best why they rebelled, 
 when the war first broke out, and before the mails were stopped 
 between the North and the South, I took much pains to examine 
 
 * The following was designed for delivery as a lecture or lectures in England. But 
 the author not being able to make the proposed journey, it is now laid in this form, 
 before the English people, with the hope that it may be the means of doing at least 
 some good. 
 
Soutlierii newspapers of all classes, to endeavor to get at the 
 real state of the Southern mind. And the great cause held out 
 generally as producing and justifying the rebellion was, what 
 they regarded as the attempt of the North to tyrannize over the 
 South, by prohibiting slavery in new States and Territories. In 
 a Presbyterian newspaper (the Telescope, published in South Ca- 
 rolina, of the date of May 17th, 1861), I found the case so clearly 
 and strongly j)ut, that I shall beg leave to quote some para- 
 graphs from it : 
 
 " We understand that one leading principle of Lincoln and 
 " his party is, that there shall be no more slave territory ; that 
 " slave-holders, with their slaves, arc to be excluded from all the 
 " territory belonging to the United States. 
 
 " Now, this determination of the Republican party to exclude 
 " from all participation in the public Territories a wealthy and 
 "•powerful class in fifteen States — a class that has done as much 
 " as any other to secure the territories and support the Govern- 
 " ment — is the principal reason, we believe, which led to seces- 
 " sion, and, what is more, it justified secession. For Avho could 
 " expect that fifteen, or five, States would remain in a union 
 « whose burdens they were compelled to bear, but from whose 
 " public lands they were to be forever excluded ? The South 
 " has paid its money to survey the territories and divide them 
 « into counties and sections ; it has helped to open military roads 
 " (a costly labor,) through the territories ; to build forts, court- 
 " houses and other public buildings, — to keep up a standing army 
 " to defend the territories against the depredations of Indians 
 " and others. The South has assisted in paying the expenses of 
 " Governors, Judges, and other civil officers in the territories. 
 " The South, too, willingly sent its men to Mexico, many of them 
 " slave-holders, and by blood and treasures secured a large 
 " addition to the territories of the United States. 
 
 " And now, after all this expenditure of blood and money to 
 '« secure territory and have it surveyed, — to keep up forts, roads, 
 '* a standing army. Governors, Judges, etc.' — after all, to be coolly 
 " told by Lincoln and his party that they could have no part or 
 " lot ill ihc territories, was outrageous injustice, and any body 
 
" can see that it must eventually load, as it has leil, to a rupture 
 " of the Government." 
 
 Of course, every one uudcrstauds all this, notwithstandiu-,' the 
 injured tone assumed; understands that the Southeruer couhl jro 
 to these territories on exactly the same conditions as the North- 
 erner — viz., with as many servants as he pleased, pi'ovided lie 
 paid them just wages for their labor. But the Southerner 
 wanted peculiar privileges above the Northern man; he wished 
 the privilege of going into these territories and having his work 
 done for nothing, forcing others to do it for him; while the 
 Northern man must pay for his work, or do it himself: and Ije- 
 cause the North was not willing to grant them this unjust pre- 
 rogative, they set up a pitiful complaint, as if suffering grievous 
 wrong, and resolve to fight for it. 
 
 Indeed, that the war was begun on the part of the South, and 
 is continued in the interest of slavery, seems evident from the 
 fact that the intensity of the secession feeling prevails in dif- 
 ferent States, and sections of States, nearly in proportion to tlie 
 slave interest, or the relative amount of slave property, in those 
 several States and sections of States. Thus, South Carolina, 
 which has been foremost both in secession and in war, has, in 
 proportion to its population, the largest slave interest; there 
 being in 1860 only a little over 291,000 whites to 402,400 
 slaves ; while in East Tennessee, where the loyal feeling is 
 stronger, and the opposition to secession more general, than in 
 any other part of the South, the amount of slave property is 
 very small. With a white population almost equal to that of 
 South Carolina — viz., about 282,000 — East Tennessee had in 
 1860 only 26,504 slaves; or one slave to nearly eleven white 
 persons. Between these two extremes (South Carolina and 
 East Tennessee), the intensity of the secession feeling will be 
 found to vary in the diiferent States and districts pretty nearly 
 in proportion to the slave interest; showing very clearly that it 
 was for the benefit of slavery that the Avar, on the part of the 
 South, was begun and is continued. 
 
 Now, what England wants, and what the world wants, and 
 what humanity requires that we should seek, is peace — present 
 
and future — permanent and abiding peace ; not a temporary and 
 treacherous peace, liable at any moment to be broken by war, 
 disturl)iug the commerce, and breaking up tlie industry of the 
 world. But, slavery being the cause of the war, there can be no 
 permanent i)eace in America till slavery is removed. Among 
 the anti-slavery people of the North there is an intense and in- 
 extinguishable hatred of slavery, which can never be suppressed 
 till the slave is made free. Among the slave-holders of the 
 South there is an equally intense and inextinguishable hatred of 
 abolitionism, which can never be suppressed till abolitionism 
 ceases to be antagonistic to the interests of the South — that is, 
 till there are no slaves in the South. 
 
 If slavery is to continue in existence, there are but two condi- 
 tions supposable ; viz., either, first, that it exist in union ; or, 
 second, in disunion. The first is the aim of the Democratic or 
 pro-slavery party of the North. Their object is to reestablish 
 the Union upon the basis of slavery, leaving the cause of the 
 war still in existence, and liable to break out at any moment 
 into a new war. This is very much as if we should undertake 
 to stop up the mouth of a volcano and build a city upon it. We 
 might stop up the volcano — it is at least conceivable — but we 
 should only produce a future earthquake, that would engulf us. 
 
 But the South could not probably be induced by this party, if 
 it should come into power, to reenter the Union except on con- 
 dition that slavery be for ever guaranteed, and strengthened 
 with enlarged privileges. Thus, the links that bound the North 
 and the South in such a reunion would be the links of the chain 
 that also bound the slave in more cruel and hopeless bondage, 
 so long as that reunion should last. 
 
 But, in the second place, suppose there jje disunion ; suppose the 
 South gain her independence, with slavery still in existence ; — it 
 will leave all the elements that produced the war alive and active ; 
 the inextinguishable hatred between slavery and freedom, — only 
 increased tenfold by disappointment on the part of the North, 
 and by the bloodshed and desolation inflicted on the South. The 
 whole Nortli would probably become intensely anti-slavery ; and 
 wo sliould have two nations, as diverse in feeling and interest 
 
as possible, — Avith antagonistic social elements, — lying side by 
 side for fifteen hundred or two thousand miles, with notliing but 
 an imaginary line or a river between them. Along the whole ex- 
 tent of that line the slaves would ever be seeking lo escape. It 
 would be a daily and hourly occurrence ; and the escape of every 
 slave across that narrow boundary would be a new cause of irri- 
 tation. Fire-arms, which almost every Ijody in the South 
 carries, and often uses, and many in the North, at least on the 
 frontiers, carry or possess, would be liable to be used by the pur- 
 suers and the defenders of the fugitives. Thus, quarrels Avould 
 break out ; blood would be shed ; and all this could scarcely fail 
 to lead to frequent war, interrupting your industry and com- 
 merce by blockades and other appliances of war. 
 
 Slavery is in its essential nature belligerent, aggressive ; 
 slavery is latent war, and liable at any moment to become ac- 
 tive war. It is war in that stage in which the con(|uered are 
 held down by the conquerer. With the South as an inde- 
 pendent slave power, lying side by side with the North, the 
 peace of the world would be in far greater danger tlian it ever 
 was with the old Union; than it ever would be with one free, 
 united people ; for as separate, and necessarily antagonistic 
 governments, both the North and the South would maintain 
 great standing armies. They would fear each other, and each 
 would, seek to rival and surpass the other in the magnitude 
 and strength of its land and naval armaments ; and if these 
 should ever make common cause against European nations, it 
 would be a most formidable array. They would become two 
 great military powers. Wars between themselves would de- 
 velope their strength. Nations, like individual pugilists, the 
 more they are exercised and trained, the more they feel their 
 power, and the more dangerous they become. And the wisest 
 and best thing that we, who seek the peace of mankind, can do, 
 is to seek to remove the cause of war between the North and 
 the South; and that cause, I say again, is slavery. With 
 slavery abolished, even with the North and the South 
 united, though a great, it would be comparatively a peaceable 
 nation, because the great motive and cause of aggression would 
 
6 
 
 be removed. Every one acquainted with the facts knows that it 
 has been under the influence of the South, and of slavery, that 
 most of our foreign troubles have arisen. This is true of the 
 last war with England, the war with Mexico, and with most of 
 our diplomatic difficulties with England and other nations. The 
 South, and the supporters of slavery in the North, have always 
 been bitterest against England, because they believed that it 
 was through English influence that anti-slavery principles were 
 propagated and spread in the North ; and if they do not just 
 now give utterance to their hatred, it is only for the sake of 
 expediency. 
 
 For union, for the mere purposes of political power, I have 
 nothing to say. For freedom and peace, I have everything to 
 say. Union is but an instrument, or means, of good, or of evil, 
 as it may be used : Freedom and Peace are goods in themselves. 
 A union based upon slavery, aggressive, belligerent, domineer- 
 ing, would be an unmitigated calamity to the world. A free, 
 peaceable, and just union would be a blessing to the world. 
 
 If, then, the removal of slavery be necessary to the establish- 
 ment of peace, on a firm and lasting basis, how shall this re- 
 moval bo eft'ected ? By war? War and slavery are twin relics of 
 barbarism ; and it has always seemed to me that to undertake to 
 destroy slavery by the power of war was very much like casting 
 out devils " through Beelzebub the prince of the devils." And yet, 
 if war is to be the policy, certainly it should be an emancipation 
 policy. This is the only redeeming feature of the war. And 
 indeed, if Avar is ever right, then I believe that war to extermin- 
 ate American slavery is right. Thousands of the anti-slavery 
 people of the North are fighting for this, and not for more politi- 
 cal union and power ; and if others are carrying on the war 
 from baser motives, it is to be regretted, for I believe it is a 
 great crime ; and yet, may we not hope that Providence will 
 bring good out of their evil, and use them as instruments to 
 bring about his purposes of mercy — the emancipation and ele- 
 vation of the oppressed ? 
 
 And yet, it always seemed to me that we should at least have 
 first tried a lifl'orcnt course : tried other means than war. 
 
When the war first broke out between the North ami the 
 South, I urged upon my countrymen tliat it wouhl be better, 
 more christiaulike, and in the end cheaper, to olTcr to the South, 
 through the mediation, and with the influence of England and 
 France and other nations, the probable expenses of war, as 
 a remuneration for their slaves ; and thus remove the cause of 
 war: — that it would be better in the end, even if we had to pay 
 the full market value of the slaves, or four hundred million 
 pounds, or even a sum equal to the national debt of Eugland, 
 than it would to sink it in war, besides destroying hundreds of 
 thousands of lives, and incurring all the demoralization that 
 war would bring ; and perhaps becoming involved in foreign 
 quarrels.* I felt most deeply upon this subject, not only for 
 the sake of the freedom of the slaves, but for the present 
 and future peace of America, and of the world, and the 
 cause of civilization and social advancement, which war inter- 
 rupts. 
 
 In an address which I prepared upon the subject, I estimated 
 that, if the war should continue two or three years, the cost to 
 the North could scarcely fall short of four hundred million 
 pounds, which would pay about four times as much for each 
 slave as England paid for her slaves in the West Indies. 
 
 To prove to them that the people of England and other Euro- 
 pean countries would gladly lend their influence to such a 
 scheme, I quoted the expression of various European writers 
 upon the subject ; among others, the genial and philanthropic 
 words of the noble President of the Association of Social 
 Science, uttered at the meeting in Dublin in 1861, and which 
 you will pardon me for recalling to your recollection : 
 
 « Casting our eyes," said he, "across the Atlantic, and re- 
 « garding the lamentable conflict that now shakes the great 
 " Union of our kinsmen, surely without ofl"ense to cither party 
 
 * The plan of removing slavery by compensation was advocated and urged upon 
 the people of the North, by Elihu Burritt, years before the war broke out, as a means 
 oi preventing war. But it was not heeded : and events have proved, as is often the 
 case, that the neglected philanthropist was wiser than the prudent statesman. 
 
8 
 
 " we may at least breathe a wish, that the least of war's evils 
 " — its heavy expense — were bestowed upon the redemption of 
 " the colored race, upon the amicable removal of the greatest 
 " obstruction that exists to American prosperity, the greatest 
 " blot that rests on the American name." 
 
 Had such a course effected no other good, it would at least 
 have shown to mankind that we stood upon a great principle, 
 and that we aimed at freedom, at justice, and at peace : and it 
 would have secured for us the respect and sympathy of all Chris- 
 tian nations ; because they would have been compelled to say, 
 and to feel, that we had made a magnanimous and just offer to 
 prevent war, and to secure the freedom of the slave. 
 
 But the people of the North, believing that they could put 
 down the rebellion in a few weeks or months, and at a cheaper 
 rate, accepted war. And noAv, that so much has been sunk in war, 
 it is vain to hope for anything of this kind being done. Reluc- 
 tantly we are compelled to say, that war must take its course. 
 And the recent elections in the North show a great increase in 
 the strength of the war party. 
 
 But shall war be the only agency ? And shall we try to do 
 nothing to shorten its duration ? I repeat, because of its great 
 importance, that if, as we have seen, slavery is the cause of the 
 present war, and if its continuance will be liable to produce future 
 wars, the great aim — the greatest aim — of all of us who wish for 
 peace, as well as of all friends of the slave, should be the re- 
 moval of slavery. This object is in importance paramount to 
 every other connected with the war. Compared with this, all 
 other means and ends are temporary and superficial. Every 
 class in America and every class in England should feel the in- 
 cxpressi1)le importance of this consideration. And while war, 
 which every Christian man must deplore, may bring emancipa- 
 tion, yet are there not other and peaceable means that may be 
 brought to bear, that will hasten the result, and shorten the 
 Idoody work of the sword ? If so, then, as philanthropists and 
 Christians, we are bound to make use of them. 
 
 Wliat can England do, then, to accelerate the advent of free- 
 dom and peace? First, she can refuse ever to recognize a slave 
 
9 
 
 government. The Southern people have oonstiinlly enlertuincLl 
 the hope of being ultimately recognized by England, and of 
 forming a treaty of commerce with her, and so of becoming rich 
 by the sale of cotton ; and this hoi)e has sui)portcd and stimu- 
 lated them in fighting for slavery ; and if still held out, it will 
 probably induce them long to struggle and prolong the war. 
 Let England give the South distinctly and clearly to under- 
 stand, in so many words, that she can never recognize a govern- 
 ment based upon slavery — can never enter into commercial 
 treaties with them ; and it would have a powerful tendency 
 either to induce them to institute a system of emancipation, or 
 else to cease to fight for the establishment and independence of 
 slavery. 
 
 It has been said, that in a question of national recogni- 
 tion you cannot take into account the character and social 
 institutions of the people asking recognition — that you have no 
 right of discrimination. But is this correct? England cer- 
 tainly would refuse to recognize or form treaties of commerce 
 with a nation of pirates, or a government based upon the prin- 
 ciple and the practice of cannibalism. You would discriminate. 
 Is it said that the recognition of the South as a slave govern- 
 ment, w^ould be no worse than the recognition of the Federal 
 government with slavery existing in it ? But the Federal gov- 
 ernment was not based upon slavery : it only tolerated it in 
 certain States, not as a national institution, but as belonging to 
 individual States; while the greater part of the Union was free. 
 Moreover, the recognition of the Federal government, and of 
 other governments in which slavery exists, are acts already 
 performed, and could not conveniently be receded from; whereas, 
 in the case of the Confederacy, the whole matter is still in the 
 future — is still left to your free will and pleasure. 
 
 But further, there is such a thing as governmental and diplo- 
 matic progress. Precedents do not establish right. Privateer- 
 ing was formerly regarded as a lawful method of warfare. In 
 1856, England and France, and other nations, declared it to be 
 piracy. 
 
 Eminent authorities, as Cicero and Grotius, distinctly assert 
 
10 
 
 this right and duty of discrimination in questions of national re- 
 cognition. Cicero says that a body of men, to have a right to be 
 regarded as a state or nation, must "be associated under the 
 sanction of Justice." And will you set up and welcome to the 
 family of nations a government confessedly based upon injustice? 
 — based upon a great crime ? — a crime that England has paid 
 millions of money to be rid of? — based upon the principle that 
 the relation of master and slave is the only natural and right 
 social condition ; a people standing as it were upon another 
 prostrate people, and proudly boasting of that fact as elevating 
 them above the status of other nations ; — a government based 
 upon the assumed right of the strong to tyrannize over the weak 
 — of the high to oppress, the low — to sell the child from its mo- 
 ther — the wife from her husband — the right of the master to hold 
 absolute control over the persons of the maid, and the wife — to 
 prostitute them to his lecherous desires ; and the right over all 
 to scourge them at pleasure; and even the right to sell his own 
 children, as our old barbarous Anglo-Saxon ancestors did ? 
 
 But nations do discriminate. The United States Government, 
 while under the control of the slave-holding influence, refused to 
 recognize Hayti and Liberia ; and the South will always re- 
 fuse to recognize them, because the people are Africans. And 
 are we bound to recognize a nation that enslaves Africans ? 
 
 And if England cannot recognize them, then it would be a 
 mercy to them, and a mercy to the world, to tell them so ; to 
 say to them distinctly and clearly, but with as much kindness as 
 may be, We can never recognize you as a slave government, 
 or enter into commercial treaties with you, even though you do 
 win your independence, any more than we could recognize and 
 enter into commercial treaties with a nation of pirates or rob- 
 bers ; — for what is slavery but robbery, — robbery not of proper- 
 ty merely, but of labor ; of personal liberty ; of freedom of 
 conscience ; and of all right and chance of social elevation. 
 
 What would be the effect upon the South, if such a course were 
 taken? If it really was political independence they wanted, 
 they would at once go about emancipating their slaves. Fur- 
 ther than this we cannot of course go. If the North should 
 
11 
 
 give up the struggle, or circumstances come aboul, wliicli. accord- 
 ing to the laws and usages of nations, just ily recognition, and the 
 South should ask for recognition, on the basis of emancipation, 
 fairly and in good faith entered upon, of course no one would have 
 any right to object. But without this, no matter if they gain 
 their independence, no matter if the North herself recognize 
 them, I believe that England would be violating her duty to the 
 world, to the cause of freedom, and of civilzation, ever to re- 
 cognize or enter into commercial treaties Avith them ; and I 
 believe that no time should be lost in giving them to understand 
 this, and so removing from them the prop and stimulus of a false 
 h.<ape. 
 
 You can have tenfold the influence now against slavery that 
 you could after recognition. If you advance you cannot 
 recede. If the South be once set up as a nation on an equality 
 with other nations, she will resent as an insult any proposition 
 or advice in regard to her social institutions. Whatever in- 
 fluence you expect to use for the liberation of four million 
 Africans, you must use now. Set up slavery, and you cannot 
 pull it down : you make it a sovereign power among the 
 nations ; you make it respected. It can then reply to you on 
 an equal footing ; and it will reply with all the haughtiness of 
 its nature. 
 
 And can we doubt that the Confederacy, once established, 
 will seek to reopen the slave-trade ? And who could prevent 
 it ? If all the naval force of the North cannot prevent ships 
 from running the blockade, how could England hope to prevent 
 slave-ships from running any blockade she could establish — 
 or, at least, could afford to establish — against the slave-trade ? 
 It would cost her not a million annually, but twenty or fifty 
 millions. Now is the time to prevent the slave-trade. Now is 
 the time to abolish slavery. Now is the time to strike a great 
 but peaceable blow for freedom and for future peace. All this 
 can never be done again so cheaply as now. 
 
 What is the character of the Southern people ? I have looked 
 upon it, I believe, with the eye of calm and unprejudiced obser- 
 vation, and with due christian charity. And I say it is exactly 
 
12 
 
 the character which would probably have been yours, and mine, 
 and that of nine-tenths of the people of the Northern States, and 
 of England, had we been born and educated in like circumstan- 
 ces, — been born heirs of slave property, and taught from infancy 
 to believe that slavery is right. And yet it is an abnormal char- 
 acter, created by slavery ; and can evil bring forth good ? Living 
 in the midst of wrong, their natural perceptions of right are dis- 
 torted ; their natural sensibilities have become blunted. 
 
 This is but human nature. A person of refined education and 
 habits, who never saw animals killed, would be shocked to wit- 
 ness the operations in a slaughter-house. Had that same per- 
 son been apprenticed in boyhood to a butcher, he would slau§|li- 
 ter without remorse, and almost without feeling. Habitu- 
 ated from childhood to the exercise of undisputed and absolute 
 control over the bodies and wills of those about them, they, as 
 a natural consequence, become domineering, proud, irascible, 
 and impatient of restraint upon their passions, or their wills. 
 And we could not confer a greater favor upon the slave-holder 
 himself than to release him from these adverse and corrupting in- 
 fluences ; — than to bring him by moral and peaceable means to feel 
 his true position, his natural humility as a man, — to feel his 
 equality with, and his dependence upon, his fellow-creatures. 
 Standing as it were upon the shoulders of their slaves, they 
 fancy that they are really so much taller than common men ; so 
 much more elevated in their social condition and character. They 
 boast that they are the ruling race ; that the North is a nation 
 of menials ; that European nations are menials. They describe 
 themselves.) in the language of the Richmond Whig, as "a haughty, 
 resentful, warlike race ; accustomed to rule, and not to serve ; 
 and hating the North with a hatred ineffable." These are 
 their own words. They are proud of their character as 
 b ullics, defending their " honor," as they term it, even 
 in private life and in times of peace, Avith pistols and 
 bowie-knives. Even the women partake of this feeling. 
 A Southern Congressman, for brutally assaulting, and well- 
 nigh murdering a Northern Senator, for exercising the right 
 of free speech, is honored and feted by the first ladies in 
 Southern society. 
 
13 
 
 Slavery scoffs at what the world holds sacred ; scoffs at free 
 education and social progress. The social pro.irrcss of this ai^o 
 to them is retrogression. The Richmond Examiner, than which 
 no paper stands higher as an exponent of the doctrines of the 
 new Commonwealth, in a very strongly written article on the 
 character, mission and destiny of the young State, speaks re- 
 peatedly, in scorn and derision, of what it terms this " sanc- 
 timonious nineteenth century," and says, with proud con- 
 tempt : " The whole current of the world's opinion in this 
 exemplary century, and the spirit of this highly respectable age, 
 runs strongly and steadily against us." And glorying in 
 this antagonism to civilization, and trusting in its own puissant 
 and red right arm, which has upheld its independence, and is to 
 carve out a glorious future in the world, this young and giant 
 Confederation, speaking through this its oracle, goes on to say : 
 " We shall be all the more free to run the grand career Avhich 
 " opens before us, and to grasp our own lofty destiny.'' " The 
 " establishment" — it continues — "the establishment of this con- 
 " federacy is verily a distinct reaction against the whole course 
 " of the mistaken civilization of the age. For Liberty, Equal- 
 " ity. Fraternity, we have deliberately substituted Slavery, 
 " Subordination, Government. Those social and political prob- 
 " lems which rack and torture modern society, Ave have under- 
 '• taken to solve for ourselves, in our own way, and upon our 
 " own principles. That there are slave-races born to serve; master- 
 " races born to govern; . . such are the fundamental principles which 
 " we inherit from the ancient world, and which we lift up in the 
 " face of a perverse generation, that has forgotten the wisdom 
 " of its fathers." Is not this the language of political fanati- 
 cism, that would, if it could, proselyte the world by the sword, 
 and spread the blessings of slavery to all the benighted nations 
 of Christendom ? Indeed, in this very article, a little further 
 on, occur these remarkable words, " Reverently we feel that 
 " our Confederacy is a God-sent missionary to the nations, with 
 " great truths to preach. We must speak them boldly, and who 
 " hath ears to hear let him hear." 
 
14 
 
 Yerily, tlic prupliot of this new dispcnsatiou must read the 
 words of the divine commission with a difterence ; as thus : The 
 Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me 
 to preach the gospel to the rich; he hath sent me to heal the hard- 
 hearted; to preach deliverance to tliose who hold their fellows in 
 captivity; the recovering of sight to those who are blind to the 
 beauties of slavery; and to set at liberty them that bruise. 
 
 Why, they would send missionaries to England to preach re- 
 pentance and remission of her great anti-slavery sins, and for 
 malignantly depriving her West India colonists of the blessings 
 of slavery ; to publish this new code of human riglits, which 
 shall displace Magna Charta ; the right of the few to appro- 
 priate to their own use and pleasure the labor, the hands, the 
 feet, the brains, the hearts, the wills, the entire souls and bodies 
 of the many ! 
 
 Is there nothing to fear in the triumph and establishment of 
 such a nation as this — ^with such principles ? It would seek to 
 reverse the wheels of civilization, and carry the Avorld back 
 again into the darkness and barbarism of the middle ages. The 
 slave-holders would be the feudal lords. Their ambition un- 
 doubtedly was and is to establish a great military power, in 
 which, the land being cultivated and the labor performed by the 
 slaves, the white population should be left free to follow the 
 profession of arms ; the wealthy class furnishing the ofificers, and 
 the great mass of the poor whites forming the common soldiers. 
 And they would be a powerful, restless and aggressive nation, 
 ever seeking to enlarge their boundaries, and to acquire new 
 territory for slavery to blight and curse with sterility. Let them 
 once be established as a nation, and the peace of mankind would 
 never be secure. Either the world would have to combine to 
 hold them in check, or they would overrun the West Indies, and 
 Mexico, and Central America ; which the South would already 
 have done, but for the restraint of the North. 
 
 I do not like to detail the liorrors of slavery, for probably 
 there is much misrepresentation in this way. But I have seen 
 certain official statements wliich impressed me very strongly. 
 Surgeons of the United States army, who have had the examina- 
 
15 
 
 tion of hundreds aud thousands of freedmcn in llio South, who 
 proposed to enter the federal service as soldierri, state that one 
 half of them are marked or maimed by physical violence. Some 
 are branded, others scarred by whipping, some have been torn 
 by dogs, while others are hamstrung, to prevent their running 
 away. And yet a very natural thing is tliis disposition to run 
 away ; and a thing which all of us, in similar circumstances, would 
 feel strongly inclined to put in practice, and think no harm of 
 it. But in the code of slavery it is a very vicious inclination, 
 and to be punished by scourging, aud prevented by maiming. 
 And will the people of England, wdio usually feel inclined to 
 take the part of the weak against the strong — of the oppressed 
 against the oppressor — Avelcome to the family of nations a gov- 
 ernment confessedly and boastfully based upon this same system 
 of cruelty, as its " chief corner-stone ? " Is it not a gross mis- 
 application of sympathy, to bestow it upon the master instead of 
 upon the slave ? 
 
 There is another thing which we may do to shorten this war, 
 and to remove its cause ; a thing which to have proposed a few 
 years ago would have appeared very chimerical, but which 
 events have now rendered practical and easy of accomplishment. 
 Christian nations now have slavery in their grasp. We may 
 narrow the proposition, and say that England and the Northern 
 States of America now have slavery in their grasp, — or even 
 England alone. The South rests her hopes of future wealth and 
 prosperity chiefly upon the expectation of selling her cotton to 
 England. Cotton is to enrich her. Now, suppose England 
 should lay a tax upon slave-produced cotton, admitting free- 
 cotton free ; or, by some such means, make it to the interest of 
 the South, and of each individual planter, to raise free cotton. 
 The object of the slave-holder is to make as much as he can out 
 of the labor of the negro, whether it be by working him as a 
 slave or by paying him wages as a hired laborer. Make it to the 
 pecuniary interest of the people of the South to emancipate their 
 slaves, either as States or as individuals, and tlicy will do it. 
 Discriminate in some way : make free cotton wortli more tliau 
 slave cotton, and the slave will be emancipated and set to raise 
 
16 
 
 free cotton. Precisely how this might best be done, statesmen can 
 better tell than myself. But surely it can be done in some way. 
 
 But, suppose Government or Parliament should not think best 
 to do anything in the matter, still the people may do it. And 
 there is already, to some extent, a feeling with many, that phi- 
 lanthropy, justice, and in the end the highest pecuniary policy, 
 demand it. 
 
 One of your most eminent commercial statists, and a member 
 of Parliament, in an address before the National Association, a 
 year ago, used the following language : 
 
 " That to produce our supply of cotton, that portion of the 
 " human family that is most defenseless should bo held in the 
 " degradation of slavery, is abhorrent to the feelings of the 
 " righteous, the humane, and the benevolent." Another of your 
 writers remarks, that " all thoughtful politicians have long felt, 
 " and felt most justly, that to depend for the maintenance of 
 " millions of our population on a cotton supply Avhieh is the fruit 
 " of frightful guilt, is at once a disgrace and a peril.'" 
 
 Suppose there were philanthropy enough — or rather a suf- 
 ficiently clear perception of ultimate self-interest — in the Brit- 
 ish people, and in those of the Northern States of America, to 
 induce them to refuse to buy slave cotton at any price, how long 
 do you suppose it would be before slavery would be abolished, 
 peace restored, and the world have an abundance of cotton, pro- 
 duced by free labor ; the labor of emancipated slaves ? You 
 would get cotton sooner in this way than in any other ; 
 probably months, possibly years sooner ; for it would be the 
 means of terminating the war sooner than it will be likely 
 otherwise to end. 
 
 Are not the Northern States of America and England ac- 
 complices in the guilt of slavery ? To illustrate : I buy stolen 
 goods, and by so doing encourage the thief to continue to steal. 
 If 1 refused to buy these stolen goods, theft would cease to be 
 profitable, and the thief would cease to steal. By continuing 
 to l)uy them, then, am I not making myself partaker in the 
 crime of theft ? Certainly, I am. Now, here are two great 
 enlightened nuunilacliiring nations, the Northern States of 
 
17 
 
 America and England, professing to regard slavery as a great 
 sin. The South is driving the slave with a bloody scourge to 
 the production of cotton ; robbing him of his labor and Ida 
 rights. Why ? Because these professedly slavery-hating 
 nations buy that cotton ; tlie product of that robbery. If tliesc 
 people would refuse to buy the products of slavery, of robbery, 
 they would make slavery unprofitable. If they would ofier 
 only to buy cotton produced by free labor, they would make it 
 to the interest of the slave-holder to emancipate his slaves and 
 pay them wages. Now, if they do not do this, are they not 
 partakers in the crime of slavery, and responsible for its con- 
 tinuance ? 
 
 Besides, as was said before, this is an opportune tiuie to 
 effect something in this way. Three years ago, when the 
 cotton manufactories were all active, to have proposed that we 
 should voluntarily cease to buy cotton and stop our mills, for the 
 sake of putting an end to slavery, would, at least, have ap- 
 peared very chimerical. But Providence has permitted such an 
 interruption to take place without our voluntary action. 
 Slavery has itself cut off its sale of cotton by inaugurating a 
 war for its further extension and aggrandizement. And now 
 we have only to say, We will not resume this partnership with 
 cruelty ; we will not enter into a new league with death ; wc 
 will not remand the slave hack to the cotton-field. The wheels 
 of our industry are stopped, and they shall not again be set in 
 motion by the motive power and impetus generated by the 
 whip of the slave-driver, but by that of free will and wages. 
 
 Now is the time to effect the emancipation and elevation of 
 the negro. And he has proved himself worthy of emancipation. 
 What tempting opportunities have been enjoyed by thousands 
 and tens of thousands of slaves, when escaping, or after esca- 
 ping, to the Federal lines in the South, to execute vengeance, and 
 retaliate upon their former masters, by burning their property, 
 or murdering their families. Yet we hear of no such deeds 
 being indulged in by them, however sweet such revenge might 
 appear. The African has proved himself to be a peaceable, quiet, 
 law-abiding, and inoffensive man ; and yet not at all destitute of 
 
 Q 
 
18 
 
 courage and heroism, Avhen occasion requires ; — faithful and 
 honest as a servant ; and superior in all desirable qualities to 
 the low, rowdy class of the white population — to those who perse- 
 cute, hunt and hang him in the North. Indeed, we cannot but 
 admire his conduct in the trying circumstances in which he has 
 recently been placed in America ; and must believe that had he 
 the advantages of education and social position, he would be- 
 come a noble man, equal to any other race of men. A corres- 
 pondent of the New York Herald^ (Sept. 25, 1863, a paper 
 which will not admit more than it cannot possibly help in favor of 
 the negro) writing from Helena, Arkansas, says of the freedmen, 
 to whom Government leased the plantations which had been 
 abandoned by their owners near that place : " Some of them will 
 " make one thousand, some two, three, four, and even five thous- 
 " and dollars for their season's labor. And they will have 
 " richly deserved it, for they have labored early and late ; work- 
 " ing harder and more industriously, because more hopefully, 
 " than when they were slaves." 
 
 Now God is giving us an opportunity to raise this race — four 
 millions of them — from degradation and oppression ; an oppor- 
 tunity such as we never had before, and can scarcely expect to 
 have again. He is giving us an opportunity to break their 
 chains by peaceable means — by moral force. Providence has per- 
 mitted certain events to occur by which the slave has been re- 
 leased, for the time, from his former labor. He has ceased to cul- 
 tivate cotton. He has ceased to cultivate the other great staples 
 by which the South has been, and hopes again to be enriched. 
 Now it is for us — it is for the Northern States of America, and 
 for England, to say by our govermental and individual acts, in 
 regard to the purchase or the refusal of slave cotton — it is for 
 us to say whether he shall return to these spheres of labor or 
 not — or whether he shall return to them a slave or a freeman. 
 And will we — will England — liberty-loving England — England, 
 the friend of the slave — send him back to the cotton-field and 
 the rice-field to toil unrequited, under the whip of the slave- 
 driver ? — or will we, as we may, by taxing or refusing to buy 
 slave produce, break his chain forever, give him back his wife 
 
19 
 
 and his children, and bid him go and rai^e us cotton 
 for wages, and rice for wages, and sugar for wages, 
 or for a part of the product of his labor, — free as the birds 
 that sing in the fields that he cultivates, and the groves about 
 the little hut where his wife and children dwell — subject uo 
 longer to be torn from him for the profit, or the pleasure, or the 
 passion of the white man ? 
 
 The cotton you worked was the product of oppression and 
 cruelty. It was stained with blood, with the blood of men and 
 of women. Your prosperity was based upon a great crime. 
 God has permitted it to be overturned — its foundation to be 
 shaken asunder. Do not attempt to build it up again upon the 
 foundation of sand, upon the foundation of unrighteousness. 
 But, like the wise man, dig deep, and found it upon the rock — 
 the rock of Justice — upon Freedom — upon compensated labor. 
 
 Let England resolve hereafter to have free cotton and no other, 
 and the slave's chains will quickly be broken. Why should 
 not the manufacturers of England form themselves into a 
 Free-Cotton League? It would be a most powerful organ- 
 ization. They could thus destroy slavery quicker than 
 the guns and bayonets of the North can do it. The pens with 
 which they signed their names to such a league would indeed be 
 mightier than the swords of the Federals ; winning a bloodless 
 victory ; and leaving the pen of the historian of this shocking 
 war some less battles to record than he will otherwise have. 
 
 But they would not only be doing a great act of humanity: 
 they would also advance their own pecuniary interests ; for they 
 would not only get free cotton sooner than slave cotton, but 
 cheaper ; for slave cultivation is proved to be more wasteful, 
 more exhaustive, and consequently more costly in the end, than 
 free cultivation. The Germans, in Texas, before the war broke 
 out, it was said, were raising cotton more successfully, and at a 
 greater profit, than the slave-holders. Besides, by the emancipa- 
 tion and elevation of the slaves, they would become larger con- 
 sumers of cotton fabrics, and those, too, of a better quality ; 
 thus advancing, and increasing the value of, the mauutacturing 
 interest. 
 
20 
 
 But not only would you get cotton quicker and cheaper, but 
 the supply would be more permanent. Any supply of cotton 
 from slave labor must necessarily be a precarious supply. If 
 peace were proclaimed, and the blockade removed, with slavery, 
 the cause of the war, still in existence, whether in union or in dis- 
 union, your mills would scarcely get into motion, the nations 
 would scarcely get settled down to the ordinary pursuits of 
 peace, before your commerce and industry would be liable to be 
 again interrupted by war. 
 
 High christian principle here would be the broadest pecuniary 
 policy. Would to God that this great truth were impressed 
 upon the cars and upon the hearts of my countrymen and of your 
 countrymen, and of the civilized world ! Then slavery would 
 soon disappear. Then this terrible war, that darkens the sky 
 of my native country, and that stains its green hills and fertile 
 plains with blood, would soon cease, and peace would return, 
 loaded with blessings. Commerce would whiten the Southern 
 harbors. Your hungry operatives would again return to their 
 spindles and their looms, without fear of war, arising from op- 
 pression and wrong, again interrupting their industry ; and you 
 would have cotton to spin that a christian man could wear with- 
 out compunctions of conscience. 
 
 This is a golden opportunity to secure the freedom of the 
 slave, even if war should fail to do it, and it may. And will 
 we, for the sake of a little present and precarious profit, ex- 
 tracting gold from the blood and the tears of men and women, 
 let this opportunity, which an all-wise and beneficent Provi- 
 dence is giving us, to secure freedom to the slave and future 
 peace to the world — will we let it pass unimproved ? If we do, 
 as we profess to be Christians — and as He is a God of Mercy 
 and of Justice — He will hold us to account for it. 
 
 Is it said that the arms of the North, aided by the slaves or 
 freedmcn, will bring emancipation ? This seems probable, if the 
 Republican party continue in power, and if the emancipation 
 policy be persevered in. But even then, if no other agency or 
 influence be brought to bear, it will probably be a work of years, 
 of terrible and bitter war, in which tens of thousands and per- 
 
21 
 
 haps huiuli-cds of thousands of the shivcs themselves will perish, 
 and during- which scenes will be enacted to turn the heart of 
 humanity sick. We know the privations and sulVerings to which 
 the Avar has reduced some parts of the South. Of course, these 
 privations fall first and heaviest upon the slaves. We have the 
 best evidence that many have already died of want ; while some 
 have been hung, and others burnt alive, for the real or suspect- 
 ed "crime" of rendering aid or information to the Federals, or 
 of seeking their own liberty. And these horrors will go on in- 
 creasing as the war advances. We are bound, then, us friends of 
 the slave, to bring to bear every influence within our power to 
 shorten the bloody struggle. 
 
 The slaves would be far better off if emancipated by a peacea- 
 ble act of the South herself, with the consent and cooperation 
 of their masters, still remaining to cultivate the lands they for- 
 merly cultivated, in a climate suited to their nature, than they 
 would be torn away by the violence of war, and brought in con- 
 tact and competition with the negro-hating and negro-hanging 
 mobs of the North. 
 
 It is but justice to say that these negro-persecuting mobs are 
 composed only of the very lowest class in the Northern cities ; a 
 very few rowdy Americans, together with the lower class of 
 catholic Irish. This is well known to all acquainted with the 
 facts. Germans are rarely or never concerned in them. 
 
 Are any ready to say that the war is already nearly ended 1 
 If we are going to take back slavery to our embrace ; if we are 
 going to give up the emancipation policy, which alone can, in any 
 degree, redeem the war, in the sight of God and of good men, 
 then it may be nearly ended. But if we are not going to do 
 this, then I believe the South will struggle long and des])erately 
 yet, unless their hope of recognition be cut off — or unless the 
 pecuniary value of slavery be destroyed, by our action against 
 slave cotton. 
 
 If it be said, then, that war will bring emancipation, and so 
 work out peace, I reply that these influences would help to bring 
 it, — might bring it, if war should fail ; and in any case would 
 tend to bring it sooner than it Avould otherwise come ; and con- 
 
22 
 
 scqueiitly wo, as pliilanihropists, as professors of the religion of 
 peace, and as friends of the slave, arc bound to do onr utmost 
 to briuir these influences to bear. 
 
 In this peaceable movement against slavery all classes of 
 Englishmen may join, whether they sympathize with the North 
 or with the South; whether they would see union or disunion; 
 for all chisses of Englishmen hate slavery, and believe that its 
 removal by peaceable means would be a great blessing, not only 
 to the slave, but also to the master: and its removal by peace- 
 able means Avould stop the bloody work of removing it by the 
 sword; and all classes of Englishmen long to see peace restored. 
 
 The removal of slavery must, in any case, tend to shorten the 
 duration of the war. For consider. There are, of course, but 
 two ways in which this war can terminate : either, first, in the 
 North alloAving the independence of the South; or, secondly, in 
 the South submitting to the North. In the first case, namely, 
 that the South is to be independent, the manumission of the 
 slaves by the Southern people themselves would have a powerful 
 effect upon the people of the North, or at least upon a large 
 portion of the best of them, to reconcile them to the indepen- 
 dence of the South, and to induce them to cease to make war 
 upon the South, at least much sooner than they would otherwise 
 do. In the latter case, that is, if the South is to submit to the 
 North, slavery being removed would leave one less object for 
 the South to fight for, and that the principal object ; so that 
 they would be likely to cease to struggle against the North 
 much sooner than they would if they still had slavery to defend 
 and uphold. Besides, the removal of slavery would tend to 
 secure future peace to America, and to the world. And it 
 only requires the united and earnest action of the people of 
 England to eft'ect this. 
 
 This is an inexpressibly important crisis. More can bo done 
 now toi- the removal of slavery than could be done in a century 
 of ordinary times ; more than can be done in a century to come, 
 if the South be once recognized and established as an indepen- 
 dent slave power among the nations. Slavery is now tottering, 
 ready to fall. It needs but the united and earnest action of 
 
23 
 
 the people of Enijland to overturn it ; to overturn it l)y moral 
 force ; to overturn it without bloodshed. England ! what a 
 high position do you, or rather may you, occupy ! By your 
 peaceable action at home, you may give freedom to four millions 
 of oppressed Africans ; you may give peace to a continent dis- 
 tracted by war. No doubt the condition of posterity, the peace 
 of future ages, depends upon the removal of slavery ; perhaps 
 upon your action in regard to it now. 
 
 I cannot hope to " reach the hight of this great argument." 
 Language is feeble to convey the weight and magnitude of the 
 thoughts. People of England, friends of humanity, and of social 
 reform, cast in, I beseech you, your united and earnest influence 
 for justice, for freedom, for peace. It is not alone my voice 
 that appeals to you. To the ear of enlightened reason and 
 humanity come the voices of those who are suffering through the 
 influence of war or of slavery ; the voices of thousands, some of 
 them members of the Society of Friends, and others con- 
 scientiously opposed to war, who are forced unwillingly into 
 the Southern and into the Northern armies, to be butchered in 
 battle, or to die of disease in filthy camps or in crowded or un- 
 ventilated hospitals ; the voices of mothers mourning over the 
 loss of their sons, and of thousands of children made orphans. 
 
 All high and holy considerations — humanity, patriotism, 
 philanthropy, religion — urge us to use our influence to stop this 
 war, and to stop it by the removal of slavery, its cruel cause, its 
 removal by peaceable means. Would you do this ? Would 
 you restore your industry and commerce to their former con- 
 dition ? Would you have a quick supply of cotton not liable to 
 be interrupted by future wars arising from the same cause ? 
 Then resolve to have no more slave cotton, and cut off all 
 hope of recognition in the South, by distinctly informing thera 
 that you can never welcome to the brotherhood of nations a 
 government based upon slavery ; whose foundation principle is 
 the right of robbery ; whose wealth is extracted by torture, oi 
 the fear of torture, from the blood and sweat of the African 
 bondman. 
 
24 
 
 The true and disinterested anti-slavery people in America, 
 conscious from the beginning of the struggle of their own high 
 motives, conscious that their great object was the freedom of 
 the slave, felt that they had a right to sympathy ; and not suffi- 
 ciently considering that the Government, and the majority of 
 those Avlio supported the war, did not come out at once upon the 
 great principle of emancipation, they did not understand, or did 
 not stop to consider, why the people of England did not give 
 tlieir entire sympathy and support to the North. Hence there 
 grew up a feeling that England was their enemy, and wished 
 them all possible harm. I have heard some of the best men in 
 America say this, and say it, too, more in sorrow than in anger. 
 They think that the people of England have lost their anti- 
 slavery principles. They do not, I believe, sufficiently consider, 
 either, that the people of England regard war, too, as a great 
 evil, as well as slavery, and would have greatly preferred to see 
 emancipation brought about by other means, by remuneration, 
 as in the case of their own West India slaves. 
 
 It would be a most happy thing, if all this difference and 
 hardness of feeling between the people of the two coun- 
 tries could be removed, and they brought to feel that each 
 is, at heart, the friend of the other, and to harbor no suspicion 
 or uucharitableness. It might be the means of preventing war 
 between brethren. 
 
 There should be a careful discrimination made between the 
 two parties in the North — the anti-slavery and the pro-slavery 
 parties. It is a fact which none will dispute, that most of the 
 abuse of England, especially in former years, came from the 
 South or from the })ro-slavery party in the North. These have 
 always been ready for war, and especially ready for war with 
 England ; and if they are the peace party now, it is only for the 
 occasion, dictated by policy, and for the sake of slavery. They 
 are not peace men, in any proper sense of the word, but war 
 men. 
 
 It is also a fact which none will dispute, that the Republican, 
 or anti-slavery party, embraces a majority of the best portion of 
 tiie Northern poi)ulution, the most intelligent and moral, the 
 
supporters of temperance, of sanitary improvement, and eveiy 
 other social reform. The Democratic, or pro-slavery party of 
 the North, that always voted with the South, though it embraces 
 a few very good men, is chiefly made up of the lower elements. 
 It embraces almost the entire foreign catholic population, to- 
 gether with the rough and turbulent native American element. 
 This is the negro-hating party of the North, and the lowest 
 members of it are the negro-hangers of New York. This party, 
 and the South, have always been the anti-English party, the 
 fillibustering party, the war party. It was this party that drew 
 the nation into war with England in 1812: New England was 
 opposed to that war. It was this party that made war upon 
 Mexico, to acquire slave territory ; the majority of the North 
 was also opposed to that war. And it is a simple historical 
 fact, that most of the diplomatic troubles betAveen England and 
 America have occurred under the reign of that party, caused by 
 the domineering and overbearing spirit of slavery, or by the 
 hatred which a certain foreign element of the party bears to 
 England, and the wicked disposition of its leaders, for party pur- 
 poses, to take advantage of, and encourage, that hatred. And 
 now the great newspaper-organ of this party, published in New 
 York, with an immense circulation, but which is read by but 
 few of the better citizens, except for the news it contains — this 
 great mouthpiece of the low pro-slavery classes of the North, 
 like a wild beast thirsting and howling for blood, is almost daily 
 trying to stir up the passions of its readers in favor of war with 
 England. 
 
 Of one thing you may rest assured, that if there is in America 
 any respect or love for England, it is in the Eepublican 
 party, the anti-slavery party of the North ; and especially in 
 the New England States. New England and Old England are 
 worthy of each other. The sun, in his course, shines not upon 
 a better people, more enlightened, more humane, progressive, 
 and philanthropic, than the people of these two countries. May 
 they ever be friends, and aid each other in the advancement of 
 civilization and social reform. And it is only slavery, the 
 habit of domineering and ruling, with absolute sway, over the 
 
26 
 
 slaves, that has corrupted the Southern people, and made them 
 what they are. Let us help them to remove it ; help them to 
 break the thraldom of the demon that enchains them ; and 
 stand up among the nations a free, tolerant, progressive 
 people, as they iiave proved themselves to be a brave one. 
 
 We sec in America the folly and the sin of war. We have 
 already considered how much wiser and more Christian-like it 
 would have been for the North, instead of spending hundreds 
 of millions of money in war, and sacrificing hundreds of thou- 
 sands of lives, to have at least offered, through the mediation and 
 with the cooperation of England and other nations, to remove 
 the cause of war, by paying the South for her slaves. Even if 
 we had paid their full market value, it would have been cheaper 
 than war has been. But what of the South ? what proportion 
 of the responsibility for the war rests there ? There perhaps 
 never was a great and powerful nation that entered upon 
 war more reluctantly than the North did. Strange, as it may 
 seem, yet it is true, that a large part of the anti-slavery people 
 of the North, and especially of New England, were believers in 
 the principles of peace. And they do not now regard this as a 
 war in the ordinary sense of the word ; but as the efforts of a 
 body of police, in the legitimate discharge of their duty, 
 endeavoring to suppress a riot, and to enforce order and 
 obedience to civil law. 
 
 However we may regard the abstract right of secession (and 
 the writer is one who believes that for a cause, which, in the 
 judgment of Christendom, is just and sufficient, secession would 
 be right, and should be peaceably permitted), yet we cannot over- 
 look the motive which prompted the South to secede, and which, 
 according to their own words, already quoted, was, that they 
 might have liberty to enslave their fellow-creatures perpetually, 
 and over unlimited territory ; that they might have liberty, 
 not to exercise any just right, but liberty to do Avrong, 
 and what all civilized nations, and especially the people 
 of England, regard as Avrong. To secede for such a cause 
 as this, can be no more regarded as right, than it would 
 Vie right for a body of people to secede from, or rebel against, 
 
27 
 
 their government, that they might exercise the liberty of steal- 
 ing, or committing any other violation of Divine or human law. 
 But a community of thieves would scarcely be regarded as 
 justifiable in " seceding " that they might steal with impunity. 
 The case is very simple. If slavery is right, then I believe the 
 South is right (in seceding, but not in making war). If slavery 
 is wrong, then assuredly the South is wrong. 
 
 Had the South with any degree of decent politeness, or res- 
 pect, asked to be allowed peacably to withdraw from the Union, 
 and had shown, by a fair vote, freely taken, in the several states, 
 that the majority of the people of those states wished to separate 
 from the North, we have the highest evidence to believe that it 
 would have been granted. Many of the leading Republican jour- 
 nals, among them the New York Tribune, advocated this course. 
 But the South proudly and contemptuously set the Government at 
 defiance. The North saw the national custom-houses in the 
 South taken possession of, and the Government officers turned 
 out ; and they forbore to resort to force. They saw the forts 
 seized and manned against the Government ; they saw hostile 
 forts being built up, at Charleston, for weeks, under the very 
 guns of the one only fort that remained in the possession of Gov- 
 ernment; and still they forbore to resort to war: and it was 
 not till that lone fort and its little garrison of less than one 
 hundred men was deliberately beleaguered and bombarded by a 
 force of seven thousand men in surrounding fortresses, that had 
 been built up through their forbearance, — it was not till then 
 that the North was brought to accept war. Who, then, is res- 
 ponsible for the beginning of this terrible struggle, this bloody 
 work ? And who most sins against God and the peace of socie- 
 ty, the man who offers the first insult, and strikes the first blow, 
 or the man who, being insulted and smitten, smites back again } 
 Though the course taken by the North was not that which 
 seemed to me to be dictated by the highest principles of Chris- 
 tianity, yet I doubt if any great and sensitive people would, un- 
 der the circumstances, have acted more dispassionately. 
 
 The people of the South, accustomed to the use of fire-arms, 
 even in private life, and accustomed to domineer over the slaves, 
 
28 
 
 and over others in the way of tlieir imperious will, in the blind 
 and mistaken spirit of war, first drew the sword. And have 
 thej not " perished by the sword "? Their young men and their 
 chief councillors have fallen, and their cities are left desolate. 
 This vast country, North and South, was peaceful and happy. 
 The sun shone upon no land more lovely — none with brighter 
 sky or more fertile soil. Only the blight of slavery was upon 
 it ; and that they might extend and perpetuate that blight, they 
 invoked War, — tit coadjutor of slavery, — and he came : 
 
 " Lo ! where the giant on the mountain : 
 
 His blood-red locks still deepening in the sun, 
 With death-shot glowing in his fiery hands ; 
 And eye that scorcheth all it glares upon : 
 
 while at his iron feet 
 
 Destruction cowers, to mark what deeds are done." 
 
 And now, instead of prosperity and happiness, desolation and 
 mourning are over the land. The smoke from a hundred fields 
 of carnage rises up and hides the bright sun in heaven. 
 
 " Death rides upon the sulphury siroc, 
 1 Red Battle stamps his foot, and nations feel the shock." 
 
 Not only America, but England and France, and all the nations 
 of Christendom feel the shock of this terrible war. It has already 
 cost the North more than would have paid the South for her 
 slaves — cost the South, in money, property and human life, more 
 than all her slaves were worth ; and now it threatens to extend 
 and involve other nations. 
 
 V60 
 

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