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 THE CEISIS : 
 
 ITS KATIONALE. 
 
 PART I.— OUR NATIONAL FORCE THE PROPER REMEDY. 
 
 PART II.— RESTORATION OF LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY THE 
 END AND OBJECT OF THE WAR. 
 
 f^ 
 
 BY THOMAS J. SIZEK. 
 
 BUFFALO: 
 
 BREED, BUTLER & CO. 
 
 1862. 
 
4i^^ 
 
 L- 
 
 P 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1862, 
 
 Bt breed, butler & CO., 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District 
 
 of New York. 
 
 Zt/^t^ 
 
 By trausfei 
 
 JAN 15 1916 
 
 StKRKOTYPKD and I'niNTED BY 
 
 K. WHKELKK k CO. 
 
 Comraerci.'il Adv. Buildings, Buffalo. 
 
PREFACE/^-^ 
 
 A crisis in national affairs is not necessarily measured hy days or months. 
 The first part of this endeavor to show the rationale of that through which 
 our nation is passing, was published early in May, 18G1. It announced facts 
 and principles that have since been more fully realized. The magnitude 
 of the occasion continues, and reasons similar to those which prumptrd the 
 first publication seem now to require its extension. 
 
 The first part not being temporary in character and purpose, and being 
 introductory to, and closely connected with, what is now added in the 
 second part, it is republished therewith. 
 
 It is not supposed hy the author that a full statement of the philosophy 
 of this crisis can be embodied in a brief publication; but it is believed 
 that leading principles, being recognized, even though briefly and imper- 
 fectly slated, the whole subject may be more easily comprehended and 
 acted on. 
 
 The first part was so entirely impersonal, that the author's name seemed 
 
 immaterial. It being necessary, in the part now added, to treat somewhat 
 
 of the actors in the history which we are making, remaining anonymous 
 
 would, perhaps, not be entirely justifiable.' 
 
 T. J. o. 
 Bi'FFALo, June, 1SG2. 
 
THE CRISIS: 
 
 rVTIONALE. 
 
 Tlic time lias conic for tlic exposure oi' a i;;reat, aiul, it may be, 
 a disastnnis fallacy in the political reasuninj:; of our ))eople. Ke- 
 parding inti/'est as tlie ci-futrolling ])o\ver in worldly affaii-s, the 
 States as sovereign, and that sovereignty referable to the masses 
 of the peoi)le in each State, under our republican system, they 
 have assumed that slavery must abide the sure action of the prin- 
 ciples of political economy, and live or die, according as enlight- 
 ened self-interest, acting upon the whole ])eoi)le of each State, 
 influenced by climate and productions, shall determine. 
 
 Prominent political men, seeking excuses for inaction or acqui- 
 escence, have rejieatedly advanced this sedative doctrine ; and 
 people of all parties have too rea<lily accepted it as true. 
 
 The error consists in overkxiking the fact that the interest of 
 the slaveholder is great and ])crmanent, and is not the intei'cst of 
 the State ; and that the interest of the State does not control po- 
 litical action. In the case of slavery, republicanism is not per- 
 mitted to act; the people of the Slave States are not permitted to 
 be enlightened in regard to their interest on the subject, and if 
 they were enlightened, they are not permitted, as against slavery, 
 to control the action of their States. This is not in accordance 
 with the theory and j)hilosoj)hy of our system, but it is our actual 
 condition, and whoever would help our country, in its ])resent cri- 
 sis, should know it and give it thoughtful heed. The necessities 
 of slavery create for it a ])olitical system that is really irreconcil- 
 able with our constitutional political system. 
 
 The system of government devised by oui fathers, is one of 
 most perfect and practical rei)ublicanism. It ditfers from other 
 systems of republicanism, especially in its provisions for great 
 national ])Owerand ex])ansion, combined with provisions for com- 
 plete local self-government, guaranteed against revolutionary 
 
4: OUR KKPL'BLICAN SYSTEM. 
 
 violence. and })]ivsical force. Its trne character was so well des- 
 cribed by Mr. Calhoun," tliat liis language is copied here, not 
 only as a clear and correct statement, but also as a valuable 
 testimony from one whose example and teachings have never- 
 theless, done much, very much, to defeat the practical working 
 of our system, according to his own explanation of its nature and 
 intention. Treating of the guarantees in the Constitution against 
 external and internal violence towards a State, and against 
 encroachment by rulers, he says : 
 
 "Havinpf now answered your several qnestions, I deem it dne, both to mj'self 
 and the occasion, to state in conclusion what, according to the opinion I enter- 
 tain would be the eflTects of these gnai-antees, on the sn])position that the Federal 
 Government shall faithfully dischaige the duties they impose. 
 
 '• The great and leading efl'ect wouhl be, to put an end to all changes in tlie form of 
 government and Constitutions of the States, originating in force ir revolution ; unless, 
 indeed, they siiould be efl'ected against the united resistance of the State and the Federal 
 Government. It would give to the government and constitution of each, the stability of 
 the whole ; so that no one could be subverted without subverting, at the same lime, the 
 whole system; and tliis I believe to have Ijeen the intention of the framers of the Fed- 
 eral Constitution in inserting the guarantee section. They were experienced and wise 
 men, and did their work effectually. They had carried the country successfully through, 
 by their wisdom and patriotism, the most remarkable political revolution on the 
 records of history, and finnly established the Constitutions and Governments of the 
 States, composing tlie Union, on the great principles of popular liljerty, in which it 
 originated. Nothing was left; undone to perfect their great and glorious task, but to 
 reconstruct, on more correct and solid principles, the common Constitution and Gov- 
 ernment of all the States, and bind them into one compact and durable structure. 
 This was their crowning work; and how well it was performed, the Federal Consti- 
 tution and Government will stand more durable than brass, an everlasting monument 
 of their wisdom and patriotism. 
 
 '• But very imperfect, indeed, would their task have been left, if they had not 
 adopted effectual means to guard all the parts against the lawless shocks of violence 
 and revolution. They were too deeply read in the history of free and confederated 
 States not to know the necessity of taking effectual guards against them ; and for this 
 juirpose, inserted in the Constitution the guarantee section, which will effectually and 
 forever guard against those dangerous enemies of popular and constitutional govern- 
 ments, if the Federal Government shall faithfully do its duty. They would, in such 
 case, effectually close the doors, on every side, against their entrance, — whether at- 
 tempted by invasion from wltliout, domestic violence from within, or through the law- 
 less ambition and usurpation of rulers. 
 
 " But while the framers of the Federal Constitution thus carefully protected the 
 .system against changes by tlie rude hand of violence and revolution, they were 
 too experienced and wise to undertake to close the door against all changes. They 
 well knew that all the works of man, whatever may be their skill, are imperfect of 
 themselves, and liable to decay ; and that, in order to perfect and perpetuate what 
 
 • See his IcttT (o Hon. Wiliiiun Smith, of Rhode Island, July 3, 184.3, in the Gth 
 vol. of Culhoiiu's woi'Ks. p. 2.'M. 
 
ITS i)i:scRii"HC)N i;v mi:, cai ih)i;n. «> 
 
 tlify had done, it wiw noct'swnry to piovido u remedy to i-Dnrct ita iiii|n'rrecti<iiiH 
 und rt'iiuir the injurii-H of lime. l<y iimlviiii,' Mich iluiiiKes iih the one (ir the otiior inij^ht 
 re'liiire. Tiicy alx) knew that, if mdi ehanj,'e.s were not ieimilt«'d, vioit-nce and 
 revohilien ui uKl, in tim.', hurtit (i|)en the (hKU-s which they liad ho caiefuily eloHed 
 against them, and tear down tlie whole system in their Mind and nnskilllnl altemptH 
 to repair it. xNor were they i;,'norunt thai, in providinj; for nmendmentp, it woiihl lie 
 nece.ssiiry. in onler to ^nve sudieient Htaliiliiy to the system, to Kimrd ajjainst hasty 
 und thoii^'hth'ss innovations hiit, at tlie name time, to avoid mich restrictions a« 
 would not leave suflicient facility for making t!ie recjuisite chanpes. Ami this 
 too, is execnled wilh the same wisdom and skill which ( haracleri/.ed every other 
 I>art of their work in the various provisions contained in the Federal t"< nstitnti* f<ir 
 amendments; — which, wiiile they atford sudicieiit guards ajrain^t innovations. nW'nvd 
 at the same time. s;iflicient facility for tiie olijects contemplated. Itnt one ihinj,' still 
 remained to p<'rfect ih(>ir work. 
 
 "It might 1k' that the jiarly in power wunid he opjiosed to all chan^ti-s. and that, 
 in consc'.pience of the door beiny thus clo.^ed ajiainst force and revolution, and the 
 i-estrictinns inipo.^ed on the amendinji ])ower. in order to prevent hasty innovations, 
 —they might make successful Resistance against all attempts to amend the constitu- 
 tion, however necessary, if no adeipiale provision were made to prevent it This they 
 foresaw, and provided against it an ample remedy ; after exjilaining which. I shall 
 close this long coinmnriicalion. 
 
 "The framei-s of the Federal ConL^litulidn wore not only exiierienced and wise 
 men, but firm believers also in the capacitv of their fellow-ciii/ens for self-governmen'. 
 Ilwas in the full pei-suasion of the con-ectnessof this belief that, after having excluded 
 violence and revolution, or jihysical force as the means of change, and placed ade- 
 quate guards against innovation, they oj-ened wide the doors — never to be closed — 
 for the five and lull ojieration of all the moral elements in favor of change; not doubt- 
 ing that if rea-son be left free to combat error, all tlie amendments which time and ex- 
 perience might show to 1k> necessary-, would, in the end Ix' made; and that the system, 
 under their salutary influence, would go on indefinitely, purifying and ] erfecting it- 
 self. Thus thinking. — the liberty of the press, — the freedom of speech and deliate. — 
 the trial by jury, — the privilege of habeas corpua. — and the right of the people 
 peaceably to ass(»mble together, and petition for a redress of grievances. — are all put 
 under the sacred guarantee of the Fetleral Constitution, and secured to the citizen 
 against the power Ikith of the Federal ami Slate Government.s. Thus it is. that the 
 same high power, which guarantees jirotection to the governments of the .'^tates against 
 change or subversion by jihysical fowe. guarantees, at the same time, to the citizens 
 protection against ix'strictions on the unlimited use of these great moral agents for 
 eifecting such chang<'s as ivason may show to be neces.sary. Nor ought their over- 
 powering efficacy to accomplish the obj(>ct intendeil. to W doubted. Hacked by per- 
 severance and sustained by these powerful auxiliaries, Reason in the end will surely 
 ])revail over error and ainise, however obslinalely maintaininl; — and this the more 
 surely, by the exclusion of so dangerous an ally as mere bnite force. The ojieration 
 in.iy be slow, but will not U- the less sure. Nor is the tardiness an objection. All 
 changes in the Aindamental laws of the State, ought to l>e the work of time, amjile 
 discussion, and reflection; and no peojde who lack the requisite jjcrseverance to go 
 through the slow and difficult process necessan* at once to guard against improjier 
 innovations, and to insure wise and salutary changes, -or who are ever ready t(» re- 
 sort to revolution, instead of reform, where reform may be jiracticable, — can jireservc 
 their liberty. Nor would it be desirable, if it were practicafde. to make the requisite 
 changes without going through a long previous jiroce.ss of discus-sion and agitation. 
 They are indispensable means, — the only school (ifl may be allowed the exprcs.sion, ) 
 
6 OUR PRACn'IOK DOES NOT ACCORD WITH OUR THEORY. 
 
 in our ca.=e. tliat can dittuse and fix in the mind of the community, the principles and 
 doctrines neccf^sary to ujibold our complex but beautiful system of governments. In 
 none that ever existed, are they so much required; and in none were they ever calcu- 
 lated to produce such powerful effect. Its very complication — so many distinct 
 sovereign and independent States, each with its separate government, and all united 
 under one — is calculated to give a force to discussion and agitation, never befoi'e 
 known. — and to cause a diffusion of political intelligence heretofore unknown in the 
 history of the world, — if the Federal Government shall do its duty under the guarantees 
 of the Constitution by thus promptly suppressing jjhysical force as an element of 
 change, — and keeping wide open the door for the full and free action of all the moral 
 elelhents in its favor. No peojjle ever had so fair a start. All that is lacking is, that 
 we shall understand in all its great and beautiful jnoportions the noble political strnc- 
 ture reaped by the wisdom and patriotism of our ancestors, and to have the virtue 
 and the sense to preserve and protect it" 
 
 This is, undoitbtedly, tlie true theory of our government; re- 
 publicanism iruaranteed to evei-y State — the liberty of the press 
 
 — the freedont of speech and debate — the trial by jury — the 
 privilege of Jiah as corjms — and the rigiit of the people peace- 
 ably to assemble together, and petition for a redress of grievances 
 
 — all put under the sacred guarantee of the Federal Constitution 
 and secured to the citizens against the power both of the Federal 
 and State Governments. 
 
 Such is our theory — our system; but such, unfortunately, is 
 not our ])ractice, especially where slavery is concerned. We 
 think it logically demonstrable that slavery cannot permanently 
 coexist with republicanism thus guaranteed. We think our 
 fathers knew this, and that they expected, when they guaranteed 
 republicanism in the States and did not guarantee slavery there, 
 that republicanism would root out slavery; We think, also, that 
 they who are determined, in every event, to hold on to slavery, 
 are also aware of its real incompatibility with our system, and 
 that to this, are to l)e ascribed their persevering attempts, first, to 
 change our system by construction, and, failing in this, to with- 
 draw from it with their cherished "institution." 
 
 The known necessities of slavery liave caused to grow up in 
 these United States, wherever slavery exists, a system utterly at 
 war with our proper system, and with many of the plainest and 
 most important provisions of our Constitution. The liberty of the 
 press, the freedom of speech and debate, do not, and cannot, 
 exist, where slavery is to be permanent. The trial by jury, the 
 privilege of Itaheas corpus^ and the right of the people peaceably 
 to assemble together and petition for a redress of grievances, may 
 not be violated by statutory enactments, or judicial construction, 
 
THE NECKS9ITIK3 OF SLAVK)iY CUKATK ITS OWN RY.^IKM. 7 
 
 in Slave States; hut \'ii:;ihuice Committoos and J.yiu-li-hiw, HUjier- 
 sede t)tlaT l;i\v, uiid provido ettbctively l'<>r the necessities of 
 slaverv. "J'he shive hiws of Kansjis shucked the inorul sense of 
 the i)e(Htle, anil even of tlic T'nited States Senate, hut their provi- 
 sions were not worse than the necessities of slaver}*, existin;^ in 
 such a eoniniunity, actually require. Such provisions have to be 
 enforcrd where slavery exists, and the practical I'esult is the same, 
 whether the law is administered according to Judge Lynch, or lias 
 a more i'ormal sanction. Judge Lumpkin, of (Jeorgia, expound- 
 ing the severe ]»rovisions of their laws against the education or 
 intellectual employment of negroes, says: 
 
 •• I do nut irfiT lo tlioso povoiv rcstriclioiis for tlio imrposo of condemning thorn. 
 Tlicy liiivc my hourly iind cordial a])]irovnl. Tlic jin'at iiriru'ijjh' of scir-|>r»'svrvation 
 di'm;\nds, on tlic part of llio white ])o]iuh\lion unceasing vigihince and finnness, as 
 well as unifurni kindness, justice and humanity. Everything must be interdicted 
 which is caliulatiHl to ivnder the slave discontented with his condition, or would tend 
 to increase his capacity for mischief."' * 
 
 T/ie great pr'incijT'le of self -preservation demands.^ on the part 
 of the white population unceasing vigilance and firmness. Kccry 
 thing nxxist he interdicted which is calculated to render the slave 
 discm\tentcd loith his condition. This is not only thus authorita- 
 tively expounded to be tlie law and the reason of the law, but it 
 commends itself to our understanding: we see that, in the nature 
 of the case^ it must be so, and that slavery, admitted to be ]>er- 
 manent, carries with it, by the force of its actual necessities, a 
 system of government and of law adapted to itself and its self- 
 preservation, whatever may be the professed forms of govern- 
 ment. From the cautious necessities of slavery, result genend 
 popular ignorance, and the concentration of political power in the 
 hands of slaveholders. Their interests l»ecome the interests of the 
 State government. They wield the political power, and others 
 share in their favor only as they show themselves acquiescent and 
 Pcrvicable. 
 
 Ileasoning d priori we wotdd infer this state of things; looking 
 at facts we see it exemplified. For more than fort}' years, States 
 in this Union — Tiot one, oidy, but a considerable number of them 
 — have been shown to be heUl down and impoverished by slavery. 
 Lying side by side with other States free from slavery, yet bav- 
 
 • See Georgia Law Reports, Vol. 14. \\ 198. 
 
O SLAVERY 18 NEVER ABOLISHED BY SLAVEHOLDERS. 
 
 ing 110 Letter soil or climate or natural productiveness, the general 
 and aggregate wealth of the people and their standard of living 
 are seen to be vastly inferior to those of the Free States. There 
 stands the fact, too patent for denial or equivocation. Yet not in 
 one of these States is that law of self-interest which is so much 
 relied on, working, however gradually, the extinction of slavery. 
 Surely if the law were so potent, forty years are long enough for 
 it to begin to act. Obviously it is not true that slaveiy will be 
 abandoned when it becomes unprofitable to a State, or to tJiepeo- 
 pie of a State ; because the republican system contemplated by 
 our fathers, and guaranteed by the Constitution, does not prevail 
 in the Slave States, but is overborne and crushed out there by the 
 despotic necessities of slavery. Hence it is, that, gradually, there 
 has grown up in the Slave States, a S3'stematic distrust of majori- 
 ties. More and more their State Constitutions have guarded 
 against popular influences, especially where slavery is concerned ; 
 and Mr. Calhoun, during the latter part of his life, expressed fre- 
 quent apprehension and dread of what he called " the tyranny of 
 majorities," and gave much attention to contriving methods 
 whereby the minority might check and control the majority. 
 
 The example of some States that did actually abolish slavery, 
 will, perhaps, be cited as against our reasoning, but it is not. 
 Slavery in those States had not yet attained the political control, 
 and men were then nearer to the times and more imbued with the 
 spirit of the revolution. Eepublicanism M-as not then suppressed, 
 but was active and dominant in those States, according to the true 
 intent and meaning of the Constitution. Freedom of discussion 
 and the interest of the masses prevailed over the interest and 
 desires of the slaveholders. If any of the latter favored the move- 
 ment it was because their sense of right or their other interests 
 overcame their interests as slaveholders. Had the question been 
 left to the slaveholders in those States, t7ieir interest would never 
 liave led them to abolish slavery. It was the interest of the 
 masses sustained by their moral convictions, enacting and enforc- 
 ing positive legal prohibitions, against the interests and wishes 
 of slaveholders, that abolished slavery in those States ; and not 
 the changed interests or relaxing cupidity of the slaveholders 
 themselves. "Where slaveholders have the political power, slavery 
 will never be abolished, whatever may be its impoverishing eflects 
 on the State or the masses of the people ; and this law will pre- 
 
IMilCK MKASIKKS ITS VALUE. 9 
 
 vail whatever tliu cliinatu or the jfrotlnctiuiis ot' tlio State. Tho 
 law of interest does not work there, through the masses, to abolish 
 slavery, but through the slavehohliTS, to |)erj)etuare it. 
 
 The interest ot" the siavehohU'r in iiis slave is, always an<I every- 
 where, precisely measured by the marketable pecuniary value ot 
 the slave — by his ])riee. AVhere a slave can be sold for iil'ty dol- 
 lars, that tact siii^nities that, in that case, slavery, or the ri<,dit or 
 k'i^al ability to hold the i)erson in bondage, is actually worth iit'ty 
 dollars to the master. So it" the jirice be ten dollars, oi- iive 
 thousand dollars, the price measures the mai-ketable value to the 
 master, ot" the relation l)etween him and his bnnilnian. And 
 therefore, wherever a slave will sell for anyUtinq. slavery is val- 
 uable to the master, and therei"ore his interest will not lead him 
 to abolish it. There is no ])art of the I nited States in which 
 slavery, or the unlimited right of one man to a]ipropriate the ser- 
 vices of another, would not be jiecuniarily and largely valuable. 
 Tlie colored people of Chicago would, if held there as slaves, con- 
 stitute a large pecuniary interest of their owners. The legal right 
 and abilitv to work a ffanf; of stalwart fugitives in the Canadian 
 forests, would insure a fortune thereto their master: and Gov. 
 "Wise was right when he told us of the great i)ecuniary value of 
 slaves to dig for gold in California, if only slavery were legalized 
 and protected there. Some pertinent statements and statistics 
 are copied here, from the letter of an intelligent observer who was 
 travelinii in Keutuckv.* lie savs : 
 
 "It is a common assertion that the complete substitution of free labor for slare 
 labor would be jjrufitable, and that even without Abolition action and outside pros- 
 sure, such change would be produced, in a somewhat longer time, by the choice of 
 the slaveholders, directed by considerations of economy. There is no proposition 
 more groundless. If free labor was more cheaj) and profitable, many slaveholdei-s 
 would have learned it, and have already made the complete substitution. This has 
 not occurred, as I am informed, on a single farm in Kentucky, unless where the easy 
 access of Aboliticmist negro-stealers renders the holding of slaves toy hazardous. If 
 any reliance really were jdaced in this oflien-asserted dogma, the certain result wonld 
 have Ix-en seen in a great diminution of the numlx-r of slaves, and even remote from 
 the Abolition border, compared to the whites. On the contiary, the proportion of 
 slaves has lieen increased, and greatly, from the census of 17!)0 to the last of ISJO — 
 and regularly to ISIO. The small relative diminutinn between Is-tO and lS.')n. (though 
 still with an absolute increase in that time of 2s.72.'i slaves), may safely be ascribed. 
 and entirely, to the incendiary action of Xorthern Abolitionists, and nut. in the lea.st. 
 
 • His letter is dated at Frankfort, Ky.. and was published in the Charleston Mer- 
 cury, Sept 24, 18G0. 
 
10 CLIMATE DOES NOT CONTROL SLAVERY. 
 
 to negro slavery being otherwise less profitable. The proportions in Kentucky have 
 been very nearly as follows: 
 
 '' 171)0, there was one .-lave to every five white inhabitants. 
 
 " 1800, there was one slave to every four and a half white inhabitants. 
 
 '' 1810, there was one slave to every four white inhabitants. 
 
 " 1820, there was one slave to every three and a half white inhabitants. 
 
 '' 1830, there was one slave to every three white inhabitants. 
 
 " 1840, there Ti-as one slave to every three white inhabitants. 
 
 "1850, there wa.s one slave to every three and a half white inhalntants. 
 
 " If the smaller propoi-tional increase of slaves in the last cited decade was caused 
 by diminTition of their economical value, (if not affected by Abolition action), it be- 
 comes those who maintain that general proposition to show what diflei-ence has 
 occurred in the agriculture of Kentucky, or otherwise, to produce such change of 
 value in labor. In truth, there are few, if any agriculturists, and none in this better 
 l^ortion of Kentucky, who do not use, or would not prefer, slaves to hired free labor- 
 ers — as would be the case, if the choice were free, in every now free State where the 
 climate is as mild. And if fanaticism and legal prohibition and penalties did not 
 prevent the holding of negro slaves, and their secure and quiet possession anywhere, 
 they would be bought and held in numbers, and to great advantage, for menial em- 
 ployments and as house servants, in every now non-slaveholding State, without regard 
 to severity of climate. At least, all wealthy house-keepers would rejoice to own 
 negro .slaves as domestic servants, to save their wives and daughters from their ])res- 
 ent toil and drudgery, in acting as servants, and performing all the most revolting, 
 degrading, and debasing duties of such service. 
 
 " Negro slavery is nowhere now kejjf out of either the new Territories, or the 
 older Northern States, by its being unprofitable for every employment; but is excluded 
 by positive prohibitory laws and penalties, and still more by the prevailing anti-slav- 
 ery fanaticism, which alone would render proi)erty in slaves entirely in.secure and 
 w orthless, and make the pos.sessor odious in the highest degree. If negro slaves could 
 be taken to, and held securely under the laws in any State or Territory, where the profit 
 or convenience of ownere would require, they would spread into every Northern State, 
 and be demanded in such numbers, that a million of slave population, to be there 
 held, w^ould not more than maintain the needed supply. The most earnest advocates 
 for the advantages of the institution of negro slavery, and for its greatest extension, 
 would a.«k no better means for the desired ends, than the fair and full ajiplication of 
 the rule of leaving the demand lor slaves, and the ju-ofits of their employment, with 
 their secure possession, to direct and limit their use, and to determine the extension 
 and limits of the institution of negro slavery." 
 
 To this testimony we add, (what all must know), that tlie vices 
 and passions of men contribute largely to sustain slavery every- 
 where ; and also that, contrary to general impression, the Census 
 shows* the expectation of life of colored persons to be greater in 
 New England than in T.ouisiana. 
 
 We think the observations al)Ove quoted substantially correct, 
 and that the pectiniary interest of slaveliolders can nowhere be 
 relied on to relax human bondage. If tlicy control the State, the 
 
 * See abstract of U. S. Census, IS.'iO, p. 13. 
 
IT WANTS A NATIONAL Oi »Vl•:K^^f i:.NT. 11 
 
 Governinoiit expresses and responds to their interests. Shiverj, 
 oiiginuted and sustained by eiipidity, nowhere subsides of its own 
 accord. Oidy tlie adverse interests and moral convictions ofnon- 
 shiveliolders, armed with le^al j)ower, can reach and abolisli it. 
 Shiveholders know this, instinctively, and hence they j^rasp and 
 hold instinctively to political ])ower; and hence, in uo slave iState, 
 can the system of enlightened popular self p.)verntnent, ))rovi(led 
 for by the Constitution and so justly described by Mr. Calhoun, 
 be ])ermitted to ])revail. The i)eculiar, eelf-con>tituted, oli<:;arch- 
 ical system established b}' slavery, must prevail there instead; and 
 even the ]>rovisions of the Constitution, where they conflict with 
 it, must, of necessity, give way. 
 
 liut the spirit of the age and the moral sense of mankind, aided 
 by the press, the telegraph and railroads, are dangerous to the 
 continued ]iolitical supremacy of slavery in the slave States, even 
 when aided by its self-constituted and unconstitutional anti-repub- 
 lican system. The several slave States actually need, for the safe 
 perpetuation of their system, the effective ]irotectioii of a national 
 government. Slavery, with all its advantages guaraiiteed by State 
 constitutions, and the increasing stringency of its system of influ- 
 ence, terror, and power, is, in itself, so essentially weak and wi-ong, 
 that it actually needs, and must have, strong, positive, and active 
 support and protection from a government armed with national 
 power. Tlierefore, politicians in the slave States, and their allies 
 and cc-adjutors, have not been engaged in a work of sujiereroga- 
 tion, when seeking, in every possible way, by construction and 
 otherwise, to press rur general government into the active service 
 (>f slavery, and to save slavery from even the possible influence 
 of 'republicanism in the slave States. 
 
 IIo7i. Albert Tlust, member of Congress from Alabama, said in 
 his place last fall : 
 
 " It is only l)y donyinp to Icfrislativo txxlios every wlicro undiM- our povcrnment, 
 the power to iinjiairor affect the rijrlit of jir<nji.'rty in slaves, lliat you {,'ivo jieruiuneiit 
 peace and seciuity to tbe slav<'lK)lder.'' 
 
 Tlie Committee on Federal Relations in the South Carolina 
 Legislature, last fall, said : 
 
 "Out of the Union, our means and resources will go to build up a power under 
 our own control, to l;e wielded by ourselves for our defence."' 
 
 Gov. Pettus, of Mississippi, in his message to the Legislature, 
 
13 REPUBLICANISM OR SLAVERY WHICH? 
 
 iu special session, (Nov. 20, ISGO), said, referring to the past, it Lad 
 been tlie opinion of many, 
 
 *• That we niiplit still defend ourselves iu the Union, by the power of our irftate 
 governments. wUh the aid of the Ftderal Government. But when, in a recent presi- 
 dential election, a lai-gc majority have decreed that the Federal Government, wUh all 
 its hmnen.'ie poicer on which we relied for protection, shall hereafter be administered 
 by the same class of men who have been guilty of all these acts of violence and bad 
 faith, it, i.s fully, it is nuulness, to hope for safety in such a government." 
 
 The sentences we liave italicised, show the point for which the 
 quotation is ojiven. 
 
 Mr. lihett, of South Carolina, a prominent leader in the seces- 
 sion movement, and when just elected to the Convention, said, 
 
 (Nov. 12, 1SC»»): 
 
 '• The Southern Confederacy, ought to be a Slaveholding Confederacy. It is wo 
 experiment that free government should exist in slaveholding countwes. The Repub- 
 lics of Rome and Greece— still the light and glory of ancient times— were built on 
 domestic slaveiy. But it is an experiment to maintain free government with univer- 
 sal suffrage, and the whole population to control the government. 
 
 " Population increases faster than capital, and no prosperity can long stave off 
 the dire conflict which must arise between want and affluence — population and cap- 
 ital. Where the great majority of the population have no property, which is the case 
 with every nation in Europe, what shall protect property under the control of this 
 majority from partition or confiscation ? What is libeity worth with starvation ; and 
 what is property worth with confiscation ? Our Confederacy must be a Slaveholding 
 Confederacy. AVe have had enough of a confederacy with dissimilar institutions." 
 
 Yice-President Stephens, in a speech lately, at Atlanta, Georgia, 
 where he had a public reception, speaking of their new Constitu- 
 tion, said : 
 
 " The changes in our Constitution were made with a view to conform to our social 
 institutions, and afford a greater protection to our slave property." 
 
 Tlius, looking into the real reason of our present difficulties, it 
 is found in tlie vecessities of slavery for active national ■protection 
 — an inlierent incongruity between Slavery and Ilepublicanism — 
 between the system M-hich slavery necessitates, and the system 
 guaranteed by our Federal Constitution. It is the irrepressible 
 conflict ; and the Sphynx-question now propounded to us, is, — 
 which shall prevail, Slavery and its now recognized necessities, 
 or, tlie liepiiblican government founded by our fathers, and estab- 
 lislied l)y our Constitution? 
 
 Let us not be misunderstood. "We are not presenting imme- 
 
REVOLUTION I-ONO (ONTKMl'I.ATKI). 13 
 
 tliato jibolitioii as tlio ultcriiativo, imicli less ar(! we sii<r™c*stiii^ 
 tliat the Ft'iU'ral (iovi'riiiiK'iit sIiduM, in any way wliati-VL-r, cn- 
 iH-a<rc in the abolition of slavery in the Statt-s. For ani;ht we have 
 said, and tor auj^ht that appears, slavery may continne for years, 
 and for generations, as it lias continued in the Slave States, subject 
 only to the rijjjhtful action of moral and political inlluences in the 
 States themselves. "While it can fairly meet and deal with these, 
 let it live, ami, if it can, flourish. AVhen it cannot do so — and 
 we believe tliat permanently and successfully it cannot — tiiere is 
 now no government, and there never should be any, to put down 
 republicanism in the States, in order to sustain slavery there. 
 Our Constitution guarantees the perpetuity of re])ublicanism tlicrc, 
 and it does nt>t guarantee the ]ierpetuity of slavery. AVe believe 
 the Constitution is right; and if slavery, anxiously forecasting, 
 determines now to set up its idtimate necessities as paramount to 
 the Constitution, then the Government and the Constitution, and 
 not Slavery, are to be sustained. 
 
 That the subversion of our Republican system has long been 
 deliberately purposed and planned, we have had abundant evi- 
 dence, but did not sufficiently believe it. That leading southern 
 journal, the liieliiyiond ^?iqiiirc)\ said, about the 1st of Septem- 
 ber, 185G : 
 
 '" The election of Mr. Buchanan may, anrl probably will, originate a reaction in pub- 
 lic opinion that will cncoiirarre the extension of the conservative institution of slavery, 
 nnil the extension of the British and southern European races, for the very purjjose 
 of stenuning and turning back the torrent of inlidelity. materialism, sensuality, agra^- 
 rianism, and anai-chy. that threatens to overwhelm us from the prulitic hive of northern 
 Europe. 
 
 " The election of Mr. Buchanan would be a reactionary movement in favor of 
 slavery and conserratism. 
 
 *■ • Forewarned, forearmed.' 'W'e see the numbers, the character, the designs of our 
 enemies. Let us prepare to resist them and drive them back. 
 
 '"Let the South present a compact and undlvidinl front. Let her show to the bar- 
 barian.s that her sparse pojiulation offers but little hopes of plunder ; her military and 
 self-reliant habits, and her firm union and devoted n'solution, no chance of conquest. 
 Let her. if possible, detach Pennsylvania and southern Ohio, southern Indiana, and 
 southern Illinois, from the North, and make the highlands lietween the Oliio and the 
 lakes the dividing line. Let the South treat with California, and. if necessary, ally 
 licrself with Ru.ssia, with Cuba, and Brazil. 
 
 '•.\ common dang^jr from without, and a common necessity (slavery) within, will 
 lie sure to make the .-^outh a great, a uniti-d, a vigilant, and warlike people." 
 
 The same paper, in a subscfjuent article, (Oct. 14, 1856), after 
 carefully counting up the military resources of Virginia, says: 
 
l-i FORCE, NOT REASON, RELIED OX, 
 
 " Add to this abundant provison of war numinients. the fiuil.s of her certain Fei/urc 
 of Fortress Monroe with its well stored arsenals, as well as the federal arni(jry at 
 Harper's Ferry, on the first occurrence of hostilities with the North ; and her military 
 preiiarations would be very far from contemptible. The skill of her people with the 
 ritie and in horsemanship is ])roverbial ; and we speak the words of calm reflection 
 when we say, in no spirit of boastfuliiess, that if the North should undertake to in- 
 vade the Houth, by throwinjr open her ports to free trade with foreign nations, and 
 refusiiifi to allow federal duties to be collected in her waters, Virginia could alone 
 drive hack tlieir forces. 
 
 " Virginia makes no boasts of these preparations ; but as surely as the sun shines 
 over her beautiful fields, she will treat the election of an abolition candidate as a breach 
 of the treaty of 1789, and a release of creiy sovereign State in the South from all pai't 
 and lot in its stipulations. The South will then revert to free trade, her favorite and 
 long-desiied policy ; and her commerce will be no longer shackled with a tribute oi 
 $5(),()()(l.()()0 to $75,000,000 in annual revenues, which constitute the grand federal 
 corrujition fund, to grasp which is the whole object of the abolition agitation, and 
 which Inxs proved itself the 'root of all the evils' which afflict the country." 
 
 These statements made more tliafi four A-ears ao:;o, but, we pre 
 sume, not generally believed then, can, perhaps, lietter be appre- 
 predated now, when the line of policy indicated, is so nearly 
 folhnved out. Quotations, of like character, could easily be mul- 
 tiplied. 
 
 A reaction to encourage slavery, was then, not only desired but 
 hoped and expected. " A common danger" — that is, from the 
 people — "and a common necessity (slavery) " were preparing 
 the Slave States for the destruction of our republican system of 
 government, and the establishment of a more "conservative'' 
 system — that is, one better guarded against the influence and 
 ])ower of the people — to wit, the oligarchical s^'stem of slavery, 
 
 Tile "infidelity" alluded to, doubtless means the want of faith 
 in slavery as a Christian institution, the " materialism " and 
 " agrarianism" so much dreaded, means, the regard for ])opulai 
 thrift and industry, favored l)y republicanism, and by "anarchy'"' 
 is intended, government by the people, and the absence of arbi- 
 trary control over them, by an oligarch}^ of masters. To obviate 
 these dangers to slavery, to revolutionize a government which 
 acknowledges and guarantees the right uf the peoj)le to control it, 
 was already a settled purpose. Confident of the absolute i)olitica] 
 control of " tlie South " by the slave interest, it already looked 
 to the consolidation of its power. " Military habits," " firm 
 union and devoted resolution," not reason, argument or justice, 
 were, even then, relied on tc^ carry the day against the peo[)le, tt 
 
Tiri;v MKxs ur;voLUTio>f. 
 
 15 
 
 overthrow our goviTmnciit, and to eiitahlisli uiul pt riic-tuato ^'tlio 
 conservutive institution" of slavery. 
 
 The suecessive steps in tlie proi^ress to this point, iVoni tlic re- 
 publican theory and systeu), have been natural an<l orderly. 
 Fir^t, the jealous anxiety of slavery for national control, as niani- 
 I'ested in its avidity for Federal olHces, and in its ac(piisition of 
 iSlave Territory and exclusion of Free Territory ; then the ])ropo- 
 sition to secure for itself, by constitutional amendnicnt. a ])crpetual 
 and e([ual share in the control of the <;eneral irovernnient, by 
 means of a dual executive, etc. ; then its demand for the abro^-a- 
 tion of all Federal restrictions on its extension and for protective 
 federal leifislation ; and, iinally, failinu^ in these, revolution, to 
 attain its purposes. 
 
 "We can, now, perhaps, better understand the true character of 
 our present ])olitical crisis, and can see how fallacious it must be, 
 to look for remedies in ])opular action, according to the provisions 
 of our Constitution, hi /States where slavery has political control. 
 The time for such action there, is past. As well might we look 
 for it, in any other despotic or oligarchical government. Tlie 
 necessities of slavery are in the full tide of successful domination 
 there, and necessity knows no other law — no other Constitution. 
 This shows us why, in every State cohere slavery has control of 
 the State Government, and so has installed itself as the govern 
 vient DE FAcro, no appeal to the peoiile is allowed, where it 
 icoidd he attended with the least risk to slavery, or the revolution 
 which it contemplates. People there, voters, according to their 
 existing constitutions, even a majority of them, may be really 
 unwilling to be ])recipitated into revolution. TJictj cannot help 
 it. Government is taken away from them — never to be restored, 
 till slavery again yields to the Federal Constitution, and to right- 
 ful popular sovereignty in the States. This, it will not, for the 
 present, do. It will only yield to a greater necessity ; and this 
 fact we may better imderstand first, than last. Republican rea- 
 soning, in those States, is utterly vain ; for they who believe in it 
 there, have now no political power, and they who have the politi- 
 cal power, do not believe in republicanism, and understand, full 
 well, what they are about, and that, to accomplish their purposes, 
 popular control, except when nuiddened into hostility to its real 
 interests, must not be permitted. They mean revolution, the 
 supremacy of slavery, and a government better adapted than ours, 
 
16 THE PEOPLE IN SLAVE STATES, POWERLESS. 
 
 to its necessities ; and we have no right now, to await, or idly to 
 calcuhite on, the recuperative action of republicanism according 
 to our Constitution, in the States which slavery has already suc- 
 cessfully paralyzed. Murmurs of popular discontent, and even 
 indigiumt denunciations, against the revolutionists, which now 
 occasionally reach us, from the people of those States, are louder 
 now, than they ever will he again, if the friends, in those States, 
 to our government and our republican system, receive no outside 
 support. Like the cries of shipwrecked sufferers, the popular 
 murmurs there, will grow less and less. Even Austrian despotism 
 relinquishes nothing that it can successfully liold. American 
 despotism is, at least, erpiall}' intelligent and regardful of its in- 
 terests ; and, we believe too, it is equally remorseless. Not right, 
 not constitutional law, not suj)erior power, is arrayed against our 
 government, nor even an excited temporary and local popular 
 enthusiasm, which will cool of itself; but calculating, interested 
 cupidity and ambition, understanding their own purposes and 
 bent on their accomplishment, regardless alike, of popular rights 
 and constitutional provisions. In nature and essence, it is the 
 same power, and governed by the same motives, as that which, 
 in every age of the world, has contemned the people, and trampled 
 on their rights. 
 
 Agencies are not wanting here, for its purposes. The very 
 means designed to guard popular liberty, are, when perverted, 
 the most efficient for its destruction. Hon. James Guthrie, of 
 Kentucky, quotes from a Georgia paper : 
 
 "We know as well as any one living that the whole movement for secession and 
 the formation of a new government, so far at least as Georgia is concernetl, proceeded 
 on only a quasi consent of the people, and was pushed through, under circumstances 
 (if great excitement and frenzy, by a fictitious majority. With all the appliances 
 brought to bear, with all the tierce rushing, maddening events of the hour, the elec- 
 tion of the 4th of January showed a falling off in the popular vote of 25,000 or 30,- 
 000 ; and on the night of that election the co-operationists had a majority, notwith- 
 standing the falling off, of nearly 3000, and an absolute majority of elected delegates 
 of 79. But, uj)on assembling, l)y wheedling, coaxing, buying, and all the arts of 
 docepdon, the Convention showed a majority of 31 against Governor Johnson's pro- 
 ])osition. 
 
 "And thus."' says Mr. Guthrie, "went one State o)it of the Union — against the 
 voice of the people who elected the delegates to the Convention ! Now it is said that 
 a majority of the popular vote of Alabama was cast against going out, but it so 
 chanced that a small majority of the delegates were for secession while the bulk of the 
 people were opposed to it, and they took Alabama out, and refused to let the people 
 
coNVKN'iioNs rsi'ur Tni;iu r<>\viu. 17 
 
 Imvo i\nv voice in (lie niiittcr. Tlii> vnio of T.niiisiiuiii loo was ii^^aiiisl scccshion, Imt 
 tlie doU'gtitcs supprchsi'd it mid took ^oni^iallil out ii;,'iiiri.st tin- wi.-lics of tin- iicopli-." 
 
 CiiMvontiiiiH of tlir iicojtlt', the Ic^'itiiuiiti! jturpo.-;!' of wliicli. is, 
 to iiuike guveniiiKMits more coiifoniiiihlc to the jjopuliir will, ure 
 made the most etlicii'iit iiu'Jins for (le|iriviiii; thi' people of politi- 
 cal jiower, and n-moNiiii; it |>eniiam'ntly out of their reach. 
 l*ractieally they are comiiii; to he used, as other ^governmental 
 agencies have been used, from time immemorial, by tlic few to 
 oppress the many. Somewhere in every jtolitical system, there 
 is assumetl to be an embodied expression of sovereii|;n power. 
 Sovereignty, admitted to reside with the ])eople, is supposed to 
 be embodied in convention l)y delegation, and thence it has been 
 tt-H) readily assumed that the j)o]itical powers of a convention are 
 unlimited and absolute. A little retlection must show to every 
 one, the very great danger of this assumption. Grant it, and 
 nothing more is needed, in order to subvert and revolutionize free 
 government, than to get control, by whatever means, of the oi'gan- 
 ization of a convention. Its power is assumed to lie illimitable, 
 its sessions indefinite, its edicts supreme. Initiated by the legis- 
 lature, it determines the manner of constituting future legisla- 
 tures, and so may secure perpetuity for any system which it chooses 
 to inaugurate. Future legislatures, acting in the same interest, 
 will not call future conventions, except at such times and in such 
 manner as still further to promote and secure the same interest ; 
 and even if the convention should assume to extinguish the legis- 
 lature, where would be the remedy? How availal)le are these 
 instrumentalities for the utter subversion of all po])ular govern- 
 ment, was exemplified" in the case of Kansas, and the Lecompton 
 Constitution. It is also exemplified now, by the revolutionary 
 State Conventions. 
 
 Popular liberty cannot survive the unchecked o]K>ration of this 
 system. Delegates to a convention are not themselves sovereign, 
 but oidy the servants of the real sovereigns, and submission of their 
 action, to the deliberate judgment of the sovereign people, is not 
 only an act of proper respect for the supreme power, but a check 
 upon the exercise of delegated power, the use of which, the 
 people can, with no safety, forego. If, in times past, the informal 
 sanction of the people has, in some instances, been deemed suffi- 
 cient, with no propriety can the precedent be held to authorize the 
 denial of their right of adoption or rejection in every case. The 
 
18 THE PEOPLE WRONGED AND CORRUPTED. 
 
 rio-lit is, in the nature of the case, iiilierent and indestmctihle. 
 To deny, to circumscribe, or to defeat it, is usurpation, and rebel- 
 lion against the sovereign power. 
 
 When the United States Constitution liad been formed, it was 
 submitt('(l to the peo])le of the States for their approval or rejec- 
 tion. They apj)roved it. l]ut the real significance of tliis act is 
 overlooked, by those who now assume to withdraw legally by 
 State Convention. A State Convention has no such power ; 
 because this ])ower is, l)y the compound form of government thus 
 adopted, conferred upon United States Conventions, or upon the 
 bodies authorized to act as substitutes theref»r. It will be noted 
 that, in either of the legitimate methods of exercising such power, 
 the people would have two opportunities of ]iassing upon such 
 action, and by two sets of their delegates. As Mr. Calhoun has 
 shown in his careful consideration of the Hhode Island case, the 
 peoide's sovereignty is not to be exercised informally, but is only 
 authoritative, M-hen exercised according to the I'ules which they 
 have prescribed for themselves. The j^eopleof the several States, 
 having, with due formality, prescribed to themselves how they 
 will amend or modify their relations in. or with, the LTnited States 
 Government, cannot, except by revolutioTi, do this, in any other 
 way. The assumption of such power by a State Convention, is in 
 derogation of the sovereignty of the peo])le of its own State, as 
 well as of the peoj^le of other States affected thereby. Yet we 
 have seen, in several of the Slave States, such power usurped by 
 State Conventions, and we also see them still further exercising 
 their pretended sovereignty, by forming, adopting, officering, and 
 ])utting in operation, a national government, without reference to 
 the people. The theory evidently is, that sovereignty is in the 
 State Conventions, not in the people. Aiul there is no power in 
 these States to resist enforcement of the theory, because the State 
 Governments are dominated by slavery, and not by the people; 
 and hence it is vain to anticipate effective reaction of republican- 
 ism in these States. 
 
 But another, and ])erhaps even a greater, difficulty lies back of 
 this. The people of these States are themselves, already, to an 
 alarming extent, debauched and corru])ted by slavery. They arc 
 not bred to reason and justice, to a knowledge of, and respect for, 
 human rights, to self-restraint and selt-go\'ernment, but, to a rev- 
 erence Ibr power, and to the exercise of force. Men who will, in 
 
THK Kxn.NsK >vii.i. NOT STAY I UK i:i:v< >i,i rid.v. 10 
 
 crowds, inalti\';it ;i Iuik-, iiiirfsi.stiii<^ cl(.'r;_'ym;iii, >fli(Hil-tc';icli(jr, (»r 
 woman, cl«> in>t net iiiulcr tin* iiitliieiice of iviisoii, liiimiuiity, or 
 roi2;anl lor legal ri^^hts. We do not iiU'UM tn stiirj^ost that they are 
 worse by nature than other people, but that their interest, as they 
 undei*stand it, leads them to sustain slavery, and to sanction what- 
 ever is seen t(t be neeessary Ibr its sn]»|)(irt and ]i('rj)('tnation. 
 During all their lives they have been in the habit ai' seeing the 
 owners of slaves rise to wealth, jiowi r and respectability, ami 
 their own ho|>es jxtint in the same diieetion, as naturally as do 
 those of a lal>t>rer in a Free State, to the ownership of a farm. 
 Cheap negroes ami the uninterrupted use of them, are the hope 
 for which they are willing lo sacrifice republican priiicij)les, and — 
 if sure of success — to tight. 
 
 If slavery, having the absolute control ot the State Govern- 
 ments in the Slave States, having also largely corru]»ted the people 
 there, deems, now, that its necessities re(|uire a natioiud govern- 
 ment speciall}' adapted ami devoted to its protection and perpetu- 
 ation, if it recognizes that our Federal Constitution does not pro- 
 vide such a nrovernment, and that slaverv can no lonjrer use it as 
 such, — what shall prevent slavery from destroying our present 
 government, and establishing, by revolution, a national govern- 
 ment adai)ted to its necessities and purposes { 
 
 Before answering this question directly, we will first in(Jicate 
 what, in our opinion, will certainly /tof prevent it. 
 
 We have shown that the ])eople of the Slave States will not, 
 unaided, prevent it, through the action of their State governments 
 — that slavery controls those governments, and is using them, and 
 will }»robal)ly continue to use tliem, as governments cle fado, for 
 the accomplishment of its revolutionary purposes, and that no 
 reactionary influences among the ]K'ople there, can reasonably be 
 relied on, to arrest the present progress of events. 
 
 Considerations of economy — the pecuniary burdens, taxes and 
 expenses of the revolution, will not arrest its proijrcss. The 
 habits of thought and action, in the Slave States, on this subject, 
 are not like those of the peo])le of the Northern, P^astern an<l 
 Middle States. Such considerations are not so })ot.ent there, and. 
 calculations in regard to them are not so closely made, and there- 
 fore it is not reasonable to expect them to influence, so decidedly, 
 their public action. Moreover, the actual pecuniary profits of 
 
20 THE PROFITS OF SLAVERY. 
 
 sLaverj are so great as really and reasonably to warrant, (those 
 profits only considered), a large expenditure for its security. We 
 give some statistics : 
 
 Col, Woodson, speaking in Charleston, S. C, concerning Kansas, 
 in March, 1856, said : 
 
 "Slaves were worth $1500 each. Upon the above estimates their annnal products 
 would reaeli $910 each, which would give 10 per cent, on the investment, $1U0 for 
 food and clothing, and $505 clear profit to each hand."' 
 
 About the same time, a writer in a Florida paper gives, as an 
 instance, 
 
 " One planter who works twenty-seven field-hands, counting girls and lK)ys twelve 
 years old, with which he runs twelve plows and plants 250 acies of Sea Island cotton 
 and 175 acres of corn. We suppose it takes the corn to feed the mules and 'people,' 
 and we suppose the cotton will yield 800 pounds per acre; that it is worth 25 cents 
 per pound, making $18,750 for the earnings of 27 slaves, counting boys and girls over 
 twelve years old."' 
 
 These profits are not so large as some that we have seen stated 
 on apparently good autliority, and connected with other branches 
 of slave labor. We see that the pecnniary value of 4,000,000 
 slaves, at $500 each, is $2,000,000,000. 
 
 The Secretary of the Treasury of South Carolina lately estimated 
 the taxable property in that State, thus: Slaves, $370,000,000; 
 land, $105,000,000 ; all other property, $73,000,000. 
 
 Slavery is certainly an enormous pecuniary interest, and there- 
 fore large sacrifices can be aftbrded, for what that interest may 
 be supposed to require. 
 
 We are not speaking of the general interest of the whole people, 
 in the Slave States, but only of the pecuniary interest of slavery — 
 the ruling power. Despotisms and oligarchies are generally 
 exceedingly unprofitable to the people, but they are not unprofit- 
 able to tlie rulers themselves, and therefore they arc never relin- 
 quislied by those rulers, from prudential reasons. The House of 
 Ilapsburg have fiourished, though the nation suffered. Delirant 
 7'6(/^6-, ^j»/tv'^?^w?!(//' ^■Ic'Zi/yy''. The ambitious political men, who now 
 control, in those States, are reckless of expense ; their necessities 
 require them to go on, and probably they may be pecuniarily and 
 largely benefited, though the people and the country should be 
 ruined thereby. Equally reckless are the poor masses, who have 
 nothing to loose, and thiid< tliey have much to hope from the rev- 
 
N(m: fouicign intkrfkufnck. 21 
 
 olution. Adil, also, tlie expcctiition (rvasdiiivlde, j»erliii])S, until 
 lately,) that tlio expenses of acc()mj)lisliiM<i; the revuluticdi liad 
 mostly already been incurred, and tiie itmniises, so fascinating^ to 
 the younjj:, of an independent career of Southern con([uest and 
 national i^Iory, and we see how futile are any ex{)eetations that 
 the revolution is now to Ite arrested by dread of the expense, 
 liowcver jxreat may be the real loss and inipoverishment of the 
 peojde (»r the nation thereby. 
 
 The low Southern taritf miirht, however, if permitted to operate, 
 at the same time withdraw Northern trade, and reimburse the 
 revoiutittnary exchequer, and, through this means, secession, in- 
 stead of entailing a discouraging expense, might really bring 
 pecuniary profit and encouragement. 
 
 Interference by other Tiations will not prevent the consumma- 
 tion of the revolution. Less than formerly are European nations 
 inclined to interfere, to ])revent revolutions, even on their own 
 continent ; and their motives to do so are less here, especially 
 when, as in this case, the proposed revolution is anti-popular, and 
 favorable to aristocracy — perhaps, to an empire. Unfortunately, 
 also, the })romised policy of the proposed government, is really 
 more friendly to their mercantile interests, than that of our present 
 government, and, in this respect, wiser for all concerned. That 
 European nations will recognize, and negotiate with, the ''South- 
 ern Confederacy " or Empire, if it is permitted to become a 
 national government de facto, no t>ne can rationally refuse to be- 
 lieve. Europe has no such interest in the preservation or restora- 
 tion of our j)resent national govern inent, as we ourselves have ; 
 and, if we acquiesce in its dismemberment and the establishment 
 of another, rival, and. probably, hostile government, on our own 
 borders, and even out of our own territory, how exceedingly 
 pusillanimous and absurd it is to calcidate that Europe will, to 
 discourage slavery, and out of a general regard for humanity, veto 
 the risingr government, and thus do for us what we will not do 
 for ourselves ! Eurojie has not extinguished Turkey. Spain, Cuba 
 or llrazil. 
 
 Returning affection for the Union, in the Slave States, will not 
 Ptay the revolution. "NVere it sufficient for this, the revolution so 
 long contem})lated, would never have been begun. Neither is 
 "returning reason" of those people, to be relied on. Their revol- 
 utionary movement is no temporary excitement, but is the 
 
II NOT PATKIOTISM NOR CONCILIATION. 
 
 looical result of sentiments and pnrj)oses long entertained and 
 deliberately pondered. " Tvcturnino; reason" may, however, do 
 good, in at last showing loyal peo])le how to meet the revolu- 
 tionists. 
 
 l^ational considerations — the sense of security, and pride in 
 being part of a great and powerful nation — will not suffice to 
 restore the disaffected. This jreneration of our people have grown 
 up with this sense of security so strong, that it seems to them to 
 be personal, rather than national, and nothing, perhaps, but a re- 
 versed experience, can teach them its source find its value. Be- 
 sides, if a revolution can be so easily and suddenly accom- 
 plished, it may seem that our sense of security was fallacious, and 
 that our national government has not really deserved the confi- 
 dence and respect it has enjoyed. "We cannot shut our eyes, too, 
 to the fact that to the southward over the whole Continent, are 
 rich countries and weak governments inviting to conquest, and 
 tliat the rivalries, and perhaps hostilities, with the "IS'orthern 
 Republic," may afford are agreeable stimulus to those sentiments 
 of patriotism, which delight to express themselves in action. 
 Looking at this subject, too, from a Southern point of view, as 
 we are now doing, it is not, perhaps, unreasonable to contemplate 
 the gradual and ultimate absorption of all the States into the 
 more plucky and daring, and therefore successful, government, 
 which it is proposed, by means of the revolution, to inaugurate. 
 
 Conciliating the border Slave States, by concessions to slavery, 
 will not win back the seceding States, but must, while the separ- 
 ation continues, demoralize the Free States. The most vicious 
 and corrupting influence in our politics is, "the balance of 
 power," or "third party." Only in respect to the slave trade, 
 are the interests of slavery, in the border Slave States, different 
 from its interests in the more Southern States, The border 
 Slave States have probably secured, by their position, the guaranty 
 in the Constitution of the "Southern Confederacy" against the 
 opening of the foreign slave trade. It cannot be doubted that, on 
 the same principle, favorable guarantees will be obtained by them 
 from the Free States. A slave confederacy being permitted on 
 one side of them, ever solicitous for their alliance, and the exam- 
 ple of successful secession being before them, nothing but con- 
 stant acquiescence in their wishes, assiduous cultivation of their 
 interests, and a liberal share of the benefits and emoluments ol 
 
Nou 1)1m:ai> of iNSURUKcrnoN. 23 
 
 government, couM n-tniii (lu'in in tlio Uninii. 1'lie system of 
 "compromise" \vi>iiM Ihh-oiiu' jicrpetuiil, uinl more one-sided 
 than ever. So<»n, ]>erliai)S, the '^ Nortliern Free Con te<k' racy " 
 would thus l)0('oine nu>re theorrtically and frovernnientally pro- 
 slavery, than the "ISouthern Shive ( 'oiit'ederacy." AVhat, then, 
 shoidd prevent the miiun of the t\v(t confederacies — in, bh<irt, re- 
 construction of the Union on the slavery basis ? Tlie same result 
 would also be attained by a <^eneral compromise, satislactory to 
 slaver}'. 
 
 Such seems the prospect before us, on the principle of concili- 
 ating the border 61<ive /States. If we refuse to do so, or if we show 
 ourselves; in tlieir estimation, at all nitrgardly, in our concessi(ms 
 in favor of slaver}*, they join the new luitional government to be 
 established for slavery, and find there, that which politicians have, 
 for years, been educating them to consider a sine qua non — protec- 
 tion for slavery. For we must not supj^ose that the interests of 
 slavery are really and greatly inconsistent in the slave-raising and 
 tlie slave-consuming States. The owner of a gang of slaves in 
 Georgia has as much benefit from the monopoly caused by pro- 
 hiljiting the foreign slave trade, as the owner of a large family of 
 slaves in Virginia; and the non-slaveholders in Virginia might 
 be nearly as much benefited by the cheapening of slaves, through 
 the restoration of tiie foreign slave trade, as the non-slaveholder 
 of Georgia. ]S'ot those who have slaves, anywhere, but those wlio 
 want them everywliere, would be benefited. 
 
 AV'hile actual slaveholders control the "Southern Confederacy" 
 it will probably not open the slave trade, however favorable they 
 raay be to free trade in articles which they have not. A ''slave 
 Ke})ublic" might, and indeed ought, logically, to open this trade; 
 but a slave oligarchy or despotism would be more likely to con- 
 nive at it, as in Cuba and Brazil. 
 
 Dread of servile insurrection will not stay the revolution. Ulti- 
 mately these will certainly come, if slavery haa its way ; and in 
 case of a general war, they may, indeed, burst out speedily, and, 
 like the burning barracks in Fort Sumter, slavery may thus 
 smotiier its defendei-s. Uut dread of this, is not yet imminent in 
 the Slave States. It is the custom there, to attribute insurrections 
 to "northern abolitionists," rather than to man's inherent desire 
 for liberty ; and the exclusion of northern men, and extensive 
 military preparations, create, probably now, a sense of increased 
 
24 J^Oii CONSCIOUS inability. 
 
 security from insurrections, except, perhaps, along the borders of 
 the Free States. 
 
 Moreover, it is not easy for people bred in the Free States to 
 realize the mastery which strong wills exert over strong men bred 
 to unconditional submission. That free negroes make good sol- 
 diers, was shown by the colored regiments which did good service 
 in our war for independence ; but it is not the least of the terrible 
 afflictions of slavery, that it so far destroys manhood. It was one 
 of the mistakes of John Brawn, that he c-alculated on the prompt 
 aid of those whom he meant to assist. The terrible penalties sure 
 to fall on resistance, the difficulty of combination and organiza- 
 tion by slaves, the facilities for them on the part of the whites, 
 the investigation by torture, the certainty of exposure, through 
 some avenue for strong personal affections, and the unvarying 
 character of experience, make slave insurrections very rare, always 
 of limited extent, and speedily su])pressed. Indeed, it may rea- 
 sonably be supposed that such experience, in this direction, as the 
 governing class, in the Slave States, have had, has strengthened, 
 rather than diminished, their self-confidence. Apprehensions of 
 their inability to create and maintain independent government, 
 if they exist at all, do not arise from within. 
 
 Judging, also, with unprejudiced eyes, the prospect that, if our 
 government permits, the revolutionists can not only maintain 
 an independent national government, but greatly extend and 
 strengthen it, justifies the confidence they express. The experi- 
 me7it of the few governing the many, by military rule, is neither 
 new nor unsuccessful. In many respects the conditions are exceed- 
 ingly favorable for it now, in the Slave States. The proclivity of 
 their educated men, for political employment, is proverbial. It 
 has been indulged and cultivated for generations, by our general 
 gf'vernment. Our military and naval schools have, also, been 
 most freely and extensively used by them. The degradation of 
 labor, by means of slavery, has caused a large body of poor whites 
 to grow up in idleness, and fitted for nothing so well as to be con- 
 verted into soldiers. Organization, the great element of power 
 among civilized men, is easier accomplished among a few, and 
 under the consolidating pressure of a strong common interest. 
 Southward, indefinitely, are rich countries with weak govern- 
 ments, and ada})ted to the evident purposes of the revolutionists, 
 the acquisition of which would give employment to the ambitious 
 
OUKATMU yoKCIC WIM- AVAIL. 20 
 
 aiul restless, and, at the same lime, eonsulidate ami extend tlifir 
 natiDMal ])0\vei-. 
 
 AVaitin^ for sometliiiii; to fiii-n up, will not stop the revoliitinn. 
 "We have waited — waitrd a-ti'iii>liiiiL:]\ — and still th(^ revolution 
 \vt,'nt (III. Vwy natiiralU' and wvy rcirularly it went on. Its 
 ci>ndiietors liave evidently been in i-arm-st, and \V(trl<ini; with a 
 purjHtse and a plan. Does a tallin<; body arrest itself"^ iVeither 
 will slavery arrest itself — especially if rushing, unresisted, towards 
 a lon<!;-ehcrislied purpose. 
 
 "What will stop it, and the revolntii»n which it has initiated? — 
 again we ask, and now we answer, — -force^ greater force^ nothing 
 but a greater force. 
 
 "With conscious anxiety, slavery has, from the beginning, ]in)- 
 tcsted against force ; and its friends and allies, everywhere catch- 
 ing at the word, have promptly echoeil '•^ no coercion^'' aixl the 
 politicians, accustomed to receive the law from slavery, flying 
 to ''compromise," their favorite ])anacca, and producing each 
 his separate ]»lan, have, nevertiieless, shaken their heads with 
 wonderful unanimity, enjoim'ng ^)('rt(?(', j'X'^c^, ^'' 710 coercion.'''' It 
 is one of the shrewdest of all the devices of slaveiw, thus to im- 
 pose on the people of a great, stiong nation, a ])re-determination 
 not to use tJie only remedy irldcli slavery really dreads. Slavery 
 originates in force, it believes in force, it relies upon force, and it 
 only stays its hand where greater force is meter expected. Hav- 
 ing determined on revolution, it naturally guarded most, against 
 the use of what it knew would be the most effective pi'eventive. 
 Pretexts were of course needed, and were used liberal!}'. Failure 
 to deliver uj) escaped slaves, personal liberty laws, exclusion from 
 the tei-ritories, etc., etc., were much talked of; but, that they were 
 only pretexts, was shown by the steady, atid even accelerated, on- 
 ward progress of the revolution, while Congress, in alarm, was 
 aj^pointing committees, and ])oliticians and parties were vieing 
 with each other, in alacrity, to devise remedies for the pretended 
 grievances. And yet, through the whole, and while the revoln- 
 tion was advancing with its utmost speed, through State after 
 State, while emissaries (we may not call them conspirators, for 
 they acted openly,) were freely and frequently ])assing to and 
 fro, negotiating not only with State, but with Federal authorities, 
 cultivating, preparing and forwarding the revolution, in every 
 possible manner, and with the greatest ])ossible haste, — while 
 
26 OUR STf-TKM NOT DICFECTIVE. 
 
 arms, i)ul)lic mone}'?, forts, vessels, und armies were seized every- 
 where, except M'liere strono; resistance was expected, this great, 
 stroiiir, rich, and courageous nation was, while its own dissolution 
 and destruction were progressing, magnetized into quiescence, by 
 the constant warning and threat, \\\^i resistance woiiM fvecipltciU 
 the revolution ! Force, our rightful constitutional, nationaiybr(?(^, 
 and that onlj', would have stopped it, at any point hitherto — will 
 sto]> it now. 
 
 The extensive general powers of our State governments favor 
 such a revolution, unless our National government act in its 
 appropriate sphere. It oidy needs that State governments should 
 assume national powers, and the General Government acquiesce in 
 such assumption, and the revolution is accomplished. But it is ]ier- 
 fectly easy, always, for our General Government to exercise its 
 national functions ; as easy, at least, as for any other national 
 government to exercise sucli. When it does not exercise them, 
 no defect is chargable upon our system. The -whole blame, in 
 such case, is chargable upon its administration, and not upon its 
 founders. The wit of man could not devise a national government 
 that will go of itself. With an imbecile Executive, the strong- 
 est national government becomes imbecile. 
 
 It is not proposed, to present here, a plan of operations for our 
 Government, much less, to enter into details. We are treating of 
 principles — endeavoring to trace, to their logical consequences, 
 conceded facts, and known political forces — human interests, 
 prejudices, passions and ambitions. But we will suggest, in 
 passing, that, in our judgment, it is not so material what partic- 
 ular position we shall first defend, as it is, that we immediately 
 cease to acquiesce in rebellion, and defend, with a strong hand, 
 and unfaltering determination, our national existence and rights. 
 
 Fortunately our system of government is such, that vindication 
 of its luitional authority, does not require the overrunning of 
 the States with armies. Most of the functions of government 
 are, at all times, left to the States, to be there exercised, inde- 
 ]iendently of the General Government. With these, the General 
 Government has no occasion to concern itself directly, but only 
 (when called on for the purpose) to maintain the rightful authority 
 over them, of the State governments. With other national gov- 
 ernments this is not so, and a rebellion arising, anywhere, under 
 them, must be overcome in detail, as well as in o'cneral. But if 
 
OCR (lOVKKNMDNT WII.I, UK MAI.Nl AINM). 27 
 
 the nature of our Lr"\eniiin'iit:il svstnn tliu^ excuses us fruui the 
 necessity of overnnuiinij:, witli anuiis, tin- States where the 
 authority ot the (ii-iu-ral ( rovcrnMu-nt isiK-nied, it does not excuse 
 lis, l)ut. on the c<>ntrarv, imposes, it" jiossilde, rt 8tron£jer ohliji^atidn 
 on the (xcneral (TuviMinnciit, tn maintain its own tew and simple, 
 but most important riiriits, and to resist and ])unish their usurpa- 
 tion. And '»ve are sui-e it will still be toun<i, as, thus far in our 
 history, it always has been foun<l. that this division of duties 
 between the IState irovei-ninents and the Tieneral Government, 
 deroLMtes not at all from the ])o\ver ami eflicieiicy of the latter, 
 but makes it. l"or its projx'r, constitutional, and ireiieral ])urp»»ses, 
 the stro7ig(st and mod efficient national government in the world. 
 
 Suj^pose tlien, that our GcTieral Government, speaking and 
 acting through the men who, clotiied with its authority, have the 
 right and duty tosj^eak and act in its name, determines, as it seems 
 at length to have done, that in no possible event, will it acquiesce 
 in usurpation, and suifer its own dissolution to even begin ; but 
 will, to the full extent of the nation's power, vindicate against 
 enemies at home, as it cannot be doubted it would, against enemies 
 abroad, its right and its duty to exist, to flourish unscathed, and 
 to progress, as it has, and as the fathers meajit it should, now and 
 forever.' And suppose it manifests such determination, b}' such 
 immediate ]U'eparation as the exigencies of the case require. — 
 taking special care, by the liberal use of its resources, to guard 
 against any failure in the exercise of its power; and, if need be, 
 that it exercise that power, unflinchingly and firmly. Can reason- 
 able men doubt the result ? Can it possibly be doul)ted that the 
 final result will be, the maintenance of our Constitution — our 
 Government — as it is^ If there be such doubt in this case, 
 then when, in the possible course of human events, can an (.>cca- 
 sion arrise, when the right can maintain itself, against the wrong? 
 
 But let us consider cabnly the ]>ossible consequences. We will 
 suppose, first, that the worst that has been threatened, should 
 actually occur, and, that the Slave States, all of them, rush, at 
 once, into civil war. How will the case stand, and how will it 
 appear before the world, and in the thoughts of the people every- 
 where? The General Government, the government de facto et 
 de jurCy with its written constitution vindicating its cojirse, is 
 right in law and in morals, and has the universal sympathy of 
 
28 WAR IS BETTER THAN REVOLUTION. 
 
 humanity, and the hearty approval of all nations. It has, too, 
 immense superiority in numbers, in wealth, in ships, and in all 
 the resources of war. Its opponents are destitute both of justifi- 
 cation and of means, and can get no help. They will fight hope- 
 lessly /br slavery. There can be but one possible result, — the 
 right will certainly prevail, and the wrong be compelled to yield. 
 But " blood will flow and men will be killed !" True, but there 
 are worse possible things than this ; to wit, national degradation, 
 loss of liberty, submission to slavery. 
 
 " Woe to the land thou tramplest o'er, 
 Death-dealing Fiend of War ! " 
 
 But precisely because war is terrible, and peace most desirable, 
 is it the solemn duty of this nation to defend itself against im- 
 pending dissolution. He has read history with little profit, who 
 does not know that the establishment of a filibustering slave-gov- 
 ernment, with national power, on the Gulf of Mexico is, in and 
 of itself, a standing declaration of war ; wars for our own cur- 
 tailed and miserable national existence, — wars, too, in which Euro- 
 pean nations will ultimately participate, — wars, the final result of 
 which no man is now wise enough to foretell, but in regard to 
 which, every man should now be wise enough to know, that years 
 of strife, thousands of lives, and millions of money, if necessary, 
 expended now, in sustaining our present republican system, would 
 be far the most economical and humane. We can thiidc of no 
 one advantage likely to result from a selfish and cowardly acqui- 
 esence now, in our national dissolution; for the diificulties and 
 wars sure to follow, would come so soon, in these fast times, that 
 very few of the fogies who would now compromise, would escape, 
 tiirough age, liability to militar}'' service, from which they are not 
 already exempt. The trials and tribulations would not even be 
 cast upon posterity. 
 
 Having contemplated the worst possible view, let us now con- 
 sider one, more correspondent to probabilities.* Our government 
 has shown itself exceedingly lenient, forbearing, peace-loving — 
 not to say timid, vacillating, weak. The second officer in the new 
 
 * This was written pi-evious to Ai)ril 15 ; events transpiring since, may cause it to 
 Kccni h'ss timely, but the principles remain, though the facts to which they are ap- 
 plied, be clianged or modified. 
 
Sr.AVKUV MAY I'AUSE. 29 
 
 '• Cdiifodcracy,"' coiiirratiihitiiii; a lar^c uiKliciico, lately, at Sa- 
 vannah, Georgia, on tlie successful progress of the revolution, 
 said : 
 
 "I take this occasion to slate tlint I was not williout pravc ami scrioiiH apini-licn- 
 sions that, if the worst came t4» the worst, and ciitliii^; loose IVom the old ^foveriiinciit 
 would 1k' the only ronifdy foroiir safety and security, it would In- attended with inucb 
 more serious ills than it ha.s been as yet," 
 
 \ et, forbearing, ami even acconiinudatini; as our jfoverninent 
 has been, nevertheless, wherever and \vl)encver it has been firm, 
 slavery and its revolution have been stayed. If has attacked, 
 where there was no resistance, and waited long, where the resist- 
 ance was small. "We think the inference reasonable, that, in view 
 of such decisive detenninatiun and |>rej)aration by our govern- 
 ment, as has been indicated, slavery and its revolution Avill, ere 
 long, everywhere, pause ; that peace, and not war, may be tlie re- 
 sult, and national salvation, not only, but the lives of the peo]»le, 
 be secured. We think that slavery has not expected such action 
 of our rjeneral government, and tliat this, more than anvthinjj 
 else, lias encouraged its attempted revolution. 
 
 The border Slave States, having the alternative, at once and 
 distinctly, placed before them, will, we think, be less likely, to 
 rush into a violent defence of the wrong and weak side, against 
 the right and strong side, than they would be, to be drawn, by 
 half-way measures, first into controversy, and then into false 
 positions, and thus become committed to a course ending in hos- 
 tilities. 
 
 "We arc aware that the balanced state of affiiii'S was, in some 
 respects, exceedingly favorable to the border Slave States, that 
 it gave them great political importance, and that nothing could 
 be more desirable to the managing politicians in those States, than 
 its indefinite continuance ; but such is not really the interest of 
 the people of those States. To them, as to the people of all 
 the States, it is far more important, that the state of doubtful 
 anxiety should be terminated ; and we doubt not, tliat, in view of 
 such determination and preparation by our government, could 
 the question be fairly presented to the people of those States, 
 they would, by overwhelming majorities, determine to maintain 
 the government as it is, and refuse to engage in rebellion. Those 
 States have been in the anamolous position of trying to do both. 
 Pressed to the alternative, we think they will choose the former. 
 
so IN ANY EVENT, FIKMNESS IS BEST. 
 
 AYe liave already explained, however, that, as a rule, in all the 
 Slave States, slavery controls the State government, but checked, 
 more or less, in the degree of its absolutism, by popular influ- 
 ences ; that iS; by republicanism. The controversy which has, 
 perhaps, generally been supposed to refer to South and North, 
 exists, in reality, in every Slave State, between republicanism 
 and slavery; as much within tlie State lines of Virginia, as 
 anywhere in our country. We think, also, that slavery under 
 stands this, dreads it, and that here, is its chief cause of anxiety ; 
 — that its greatest apprehensions, are from the people of its own 
 States, from the spread and influence of republicanism, and the 
 nltimate action of its own State governn)ents, and not from any 
 ap})rehended action of the general government; and we think, 
 too, that the people of those States, the otiier party in the coming, 
 though, perhaps, still distant contest there, are not so well aware, 
 as slavery is, of the inherent antagonism between them and slav- 
 ery. We therefore do not consider it certain, that slavery will 
 not, in some, perhaps most, of the border Slave States, attem])t, 
 if circumstances should favor, to carry out its threat of " precipi- 
 tating the revolution." Yet we know that slavery, however de- 
 fiant and blustering, and apparently, reckless, is necessarily timid 
 and cautious ; and we therefore have strong hopes, that, in view 
 of such determination and prejiaration by our government, (would 
 that they had been earlier exhibited), slavery, in these States, will 
 wisely determine to accept the continued sway of onr govern- 
 ment as it is, together with such lease of its own existence and 
 ])ower, as the several State governments and their people may 
 choose to give. 
 
 A more dangerous element, in determinini; the course of these 
 States, will be their ambitious politicians. These may be desper- 
 ate enough for the ])lunge; for they have been nursed into facti- 
 tious importance. But politicians, too, are timid — very timid, 
 and our government is strong — very strong, and its friendship 
 better, even for a ])olitician, than its hostility. 
 
 Public opinion, the common sense of the people, may have a 
 preponderating influence in these States ; and its influence will 
 1)6 greater, the naked question — support of onr government, or 
 rebellion? — being at once presented, and without altenative, 
 than if it were farther complicated by political manoeuverings and 
 deliiy. 
 
TO T>() KI(.IIT. IS ^r()ST rX'PKl IKNT. .'•! 
 
 Such we think :i ratimial \ ii-w <>t' pi-ohaliilitii'S. I'.iit \vc (It-r-iiv, 
 here, to iiisi.st, that, tor nations, as t'"r inili\ iihial;*, it is n<it well 
 to (k'tennine our conrso exclusively l»y reference to conseijuetiees, 
 or — what is all that we can iret in that (liri'ction-.-l)y onr r.stlnKtte 
 of consecjuences. Man's e-tiniafi' of eonsi'tpienci's is uni'eliablo 
 at the l)ef*t ; hut an all-wise Providence rules the W(»rhl, and 
 where the riijjht lies plain hefore us, as we think, in this ca-;e, it 
 (loe>, it wouM he assuiiiinLC too lariri' a I'isk. to attempt to coiiipro- 
 niise it. in oi'der to acconnnodate our views of conseijuences. '• \)i) 
 i'ii;ht thouiih the heavens fall," is a irood rule, not l)ecau>(; the 
 hea\ens fall therel)\', t)Ut hecause they do not, — hecause tin- <Jo(l- 
 ostahlished relati(»n between rii^ht action and i^ood results, is 
 found, by practical e\j>erience, to ]>e safer as a f^uiile, than man's 
 iu<li;iiient (>f ci>nse<|nences. AVe belie\e that an infidel apprehen- 
 sion of danger to result from the d(^ing of ])olitical <luty, has 
 broui^ht lis into onr greatest national daiiger, and that, an im- 
 mediate and trustful performance of that duty, will do most to 
 extricate ns. 
 
 Looking cal nd}' at the greatest dangers foretold by the timid, 
 loolving rationally at probabilities, or looking simply at the duties 
 l>lainly before ns in the way of administering onr government 
 accordinn; to its constitution and laws, we can arrive at but one 
 conclnsion, satisfactory to reason, or at all becoming a great, wise, 
 free. God-fearing, and man-loving peo])le, or accordant with our 
 past history, or with our ])rofessed ciMiiidence in the govei-nment 
 of our clutice; and that is, for onr government to go stronglv and 
 confidently forward, as it has f<->r seventy years, leaving those wiio 
 may attempt to oppose it, whoever or wherever they may be. to 
 go down before a necessity of the age, infinitely greater and 
 stronger than any which they can ])retend to represent. 
 
 The duty of this people and of this nation in this crisis, caimot 
 innocently be evaded. Considerations of immediate pecnniarv 
 tliritl", desire for peace at any ])rice, an overmastering horror of 
 blood-shed, are no excnse for national dereliction ; and certainly 
 our position in the world, and in the world's history, will afford 
 ns no peculiar exemjition now, but, on the contrary, they require 
 ns, l)y every considei'ation that can be addressed to a great nation, 
 and to reasonable and brave men, to act, confidently and fear- 
 lessly, the part assigned ns. The American revolution was the 
 beginning of a political system, the conduct of which is n(.»w ia 
 
32 SLAVERY IN THE STATES, NOT ATTACKED. 
 
 our hands, and its great and ultimate purposes are still unaccom- 
 plislied. How great and excellent a system it is, and also how it 
 is fitted and expected to secure the public safety and happiness, 
 are well sjjown in the clear lauguage of Mr. Calhoun, cpioted near 
 tiie beginning of this essay. Republicanism in every State, the 
 rational control, by the peo|)le, of their political affairs, undis- 
 turljed by force or violence, with full sway for all moral influences, 
 guaranteed by the general government, is the system which our 
 fathers established, which the world has admired, and we have 
 so long used and enjoyed, and of which, even Mr. Calhoun de- 
 clared, " tiie Federal Constitution and Government will stand, 
 more durable than brass, an everlasting monument of tlieir wis- 
 dom and patriotism." 
 
 AVe have shown that this republican system is not in practical 
 operation in the Slave States, that another system, hostile to re- 
 publicanism, has usurped the political power in those States, that, 
 aware of the antagonism between itself and our republican sys- 
 tem, it has determined to seek its own preservation at the expense 
 of a revolution that shall destroy our republican system. Per- 
 formance of the duty which we have pointed out, of resisting this 
 aggression promptly and with strong hands, if need be, to the ut- 
 most of our national power and resources, prepares the way for 
 the restoration of republicanism in every State in the Union ; thus 
 securing the harmony of our system, and complying with a fun- 
 damental provision of our Constitution. 
 
 Slavery, as it existed in the States at the formation of our Con- 
 stitution, is not to be attacked by our general government, how- 
 ever great may be the provocation ; but slavery, organizing as a 
 national power, and advancing to the overthrow of republicanism, 
 and the destruction of our government, must be resisted and at- 
 tacked, without hesitation and without coinpromise, by the gov- 
 ernment which it would destroy. To say that it cannot live under 
 our Constitution as it is, to say that it is in danger of extinction 
 from the advancing power and influence of republicanism in the 
 States, is no justification for its rebellion. It has no right to 
 live a single moment, in any State in the Union, longer than 
 it can live there, with republicanism. Ours is a republican Union 
 and Constitution ; not a slavery Union and Constitution. Re- 
 I ublicanism is guaranteed in every State ; slavery is not guaran- 
 
Ill I i:i;rL'!i.i( AMs.M ukvivcd. 3!i 
 
 teed in a single Stiitc ; jviid no udniiiiistnituin of our <;ciu'rid f^ov- 
 onnnent cmu, witln^nt. becoiniiio; i'orsworn, fore<ro its duty to pre- 
 servi' i>ur rr|>iililif;iii -vstrm in i-voiy State. It', tln-retbre, slavery 
 is right, wlirn it ull».'i;rs tluit it eannot safely livi- mider oiir repub- 
 lican system of liovornnient — under our (Constitution as it ir-s, and 
 in the j-ame States with ropuhlieauism, then the time has come 
 for it to prepare, becoiuini;ly,for its dis-^olutinii : fnrrcpulilicaiiisin 
 nuist, certainly. live, and uo{ die. 
 
 Suj)])o>e that this he. in reality, the ease — and we have already 
 ini>re than intinnited our lu'lief that it is — it strengthens, rather 
 than weakens, the s<ileiun obligations resting on our government 
 and it-- a»lniinistration, to maintain our system now. and to resist 
 revolution, to the utmost of our national power. If slavery, in the 
 Slave States, begins to feel the reins of power sli))ping in its 
 palsied hands, how disastrous it would be for the republican 
 people of those States. nund)ers of whom have watched, and 
 waited, and struggled long, if, through the pusillanimity of our 
 general government, slavery should be permitted to extort a 
 new lease of power, by forcing on a revolution for this express 
 purpose ! 
 
 If, as we have all learned, undoubtingly to believe, republican- 
 ism be the best form of government for man, and our federative 
 system the best practical form of republicanism, what precious 
 hopes of the people, in the Slave States, and of the peoj^le who 
 shall herealler be in those States, in all time, what hopes, too, of 
 the good and the free, everywhere, — aye, and of the oppressed, 
 everywhere, depend, now, on the performance, by our general 
 government, of its simple, constitutional duty ; the duty of self- 
 ])re5ervation. and therein, the constitutional dnty of guaranteeim; 
 repulilicanism in every State I 
 
 The revival of republicanism in the Slave States, will naturally, 
 perhaps necessarily, follow the defeat of the revolution prepared 
 and urged on by slavery ; and then, in those States, gag-law and 
 Lynch-law, will give way to conmion-law, and statntedaw, and 
 vigilance committees be superceded by civil authorities. In the 
 language of ^Fr. Calhoun: — ''Violence and revolution or piiysi- 
 cal force, as the means of change.'' M'ill be " excluded •' there, 
 and the '• doors " opened — "never again to l)e closed — for the 
 free and full operation of all the moral elements in fav(jr <»f 
 fhange,"' ''The liberty of the ])ress — the freedom of speeoh and 
 3 
 
34 NATIONAL DKSTEUCTION, OR NA'JIONAL SALVATION. 
 
 debate — the trial l)y jury — tlie |:)riv.ilege of /lahca.^; cor^^us — 
 and the rig-ht of the people peaceably to afisemble together and 
 ]-)etition for a redress of grievances," "put under the sacred guar- 
 antee of the Federal Constitution, and secured to the citizens 
 against the power, both of the Federal and State governments," 
 will become real and ]iractical — "if the Federal Government 
 shall do its duty under the guarantees of the Constitution, by thus 
 promptly su])pressing physical force as an element of change/" 
 
 Eepnblicanism in the Free States also depends, probably, on 
 the preservation of our national system. Our great, strong nation, 
 lias ]n-oved to be — what it was intended— a perfect wall of 
 defence, an overshadowing jn-ovidence, for the exceedingly free 
 and popular repnblicanism of the several States. It cannot pos- 
 sibly be so in the future, certainly not to the extent it has been, 
 if this great, strong Government sliall now dissolve ''like the 
 baseless fabric of a vision." 
 
 Permit the revolution which slavery has initiated, which it 
 certainly intends, and will, as certainly accomplish, unless it 
 shall encounter a superior force, wiiether in five States or fifteen, 
 and the power and prestige of the American Itepublic, are fatally 
 destroved. The wise national nieasures of all our statesmen, as 
 well of those who founded our government as of those who have 
 enlarged and strengthened it, are, at once, rendered nugatory. 
 The mouth of the Mississippi, the southern coast, our vast Pacific 
 territory, and, perhaps, other impc>rtant integral parts of our 
 country, are lost to us ; and commercial restrictions and national 
 dangers gather in upon us, with the rapidly contracting national 
 size and strength, involving, most undoubtedly, in the near future, 
 the goading necessity of using far greater force, to preserve even 
 life, and a modicum of liberty, than will now I)e required to pre- 
 serve the whole. 
 
 But, say, with the authority of this great nation, to slavery and 
 its revolution, " thus far — no farther," and republicanism, renewed 
 in its youth, smiles again, serene and secure, in every State. 
 Slavery, yielding to a greater necessity, not only abandons its 
 aspirations for distinct national embodiment, but retires from the 
 field of our national politics, and shields itself, as it nuay, and as 
 it was contented to do, previous to 1840, under the legislation of 
 States, that are themselves protected from violence from without 
 aiul from within, by the great and strong government, which 
 
FKi.Ki) n:().M THIS I)AN(;i:k, wk akvanck. of> 
 
 blavery, in its il^|•o^a^(•l^ h;is a^pirril to overtlirow. Tliciv, udcI 
 there only, can the prohlrni wliicli it j>resents, find a |»ejicot'iil 
 solution. What that solution may he, we will not assume to 
 declare, hut, that thus this j)rohlem may be solved, peacefully 
 solved, our faith in man, and oin- trust in a Ili^her Power, will 
 not permit us to douht. 
 
 In the meantime, (»ur nation, released from its oidy internal 
 danger, and oxomi)t, as it long has been, from external dangers, 
 may continue, with fresh inijjulse, its grand and hai)py career. 
 It is a narrow \ itw tliat limits our repu])lican system t«» its j)resent 
 boundaries. Wf think it a narrow view, to limit it to North 
 America — perhaps it is too narrow, to limit it to the continent. 
 The advantages resulting from perfect freedom of intercourse 
 between the people of the several States, are such as cannot be 
 secured under diverse national governments. One great source 
 of our unexampled national prosperity, is in our exemption, 
 among so many States, and of so varied climates and produc- 
 tions, from every kind and degree of governmental esjuonage and 
 obstruction, in our excliangcs of the fruits of our soil and industry. 
 But the moral benclits thence resulting, are still greater, and alto- 
 gether incalculable. It was not by an accident, that, in former 
 language, sfrangi'r meant eni^my. Mutual interests, and mutual 
 knowledge of one an<;>ther, juake friends of men, and the national 
 government that protects and encourages such mutual intercourse, 
 becomes the recognized benefactor of all. 
 
 Governmental science, taught by examples in the several 
 States, is also making, undci- our system, wonderful progress, and 
 is, in turn, br)th teaching and exemplifying the absurdity of the 
 old dogma, that man is naturally the enemy of man, and is sub- 
 stituting for it, the christian doctrine, " behold, all ye are breth- 
 ren." Under such a system it is no uniuitural development — 
 however strange i-t may be, in the world's history — the national 
 charity that fed the famishing p"Mr in Ireland, that springs to the 
 aid of suffering Kansas, and that even now, iiastens to supply the 
 hungry demands of the people, in Alabama and ^[ississipj)i. 
 Such things are the natural results of our republican system, a 
 system more in accordance, than any that the world has before 
 seen, with the songs of the angels, who declared ''peace on earth, 
 and good will to men ! " 
 
 And the improvements and discoveries of the age, those especi- 
 
36 GEEAT ENTERPEISES AKE BEFORE US, 
 
 ally relating to trans})t)rtnti<)n fur goods, for persons, and for 
 thonghts — steamships, railroads, printing-presses, telegraphs — 
 seem to be specially adapted to tlie expanding needs and capabil- 
 ities of onr grand republican system. Other governments might 
 well dread tlie dangers of territorial expansion. With their sys 
 tems, and with their means of conducting them, national ambi- 
 tion frequently outran their national al)ility. To the harmonious 
 and efhcient action of our system, national expansion scarcely 
 seems to place, in these times, any assignable limits. To the 
 exercise of the few, but most important functions of our General 
 Government, space and distance scarcely present obstructions. 
 
 Won by the observed harmony, large practical freedom, and 
 perfect safety of the States in our system, other States will press 
 into the charmed circle; and, not by unwilling conquest, but by 
 mutual beneficial arrangement, and as fast as development au'l 
 adaptation permit, the regions north of us, to the Pole, and south 
 of us, to the Isthmus, and even the rich Savannahs watered by 
 the Amazon and the La Plata, may gladly and happily congre- 
 gate, by their representatives at AVashington, and derive, from the 
 government founded by our fathers, assured protection, peace, 
 and republican liberty and independence. Thus we hare, on this 
 continent, " a congress of nations" for the peaceful adjustment of 
 national questions. 
 
 The genius of our people, extending with onr institutions, will 
 spread our improvements over the continent ; and all wdll parti- 
 cipate in the benefits. Varieties of climate will minister, as they 
 ought, to the people's health, wealth and happiness. Fresh fruits 
 in every season, will be everywhere e;isily obtained. The tropics 
 will be the hot-houses of the market gardens, for our northern 
 cities, villages and towns; and productions in the higher latitudes, 
 so abundant as to be seemingly useless, will minister gratefully to 
 the languid dwellers nearer the equator. 
 
 As our national power rises, expands and grr>ws. enterprises, 
 now seeming absurdly impracticable, or j'equiring the cond)inod 
 energies of great nations, will become easily practicable for our 
 own. Pacific railroads, — not one or two, but all that our millions 
 of people will require and sustain — will dart over the continent 
 wherever needed, and with as much seeming ease, as the spider 
 throws out its web on the breeze. A ship-canal across the Isth- 
 mus, — not meandering circuitously tiirough valleys, and rising, 
 by means of locks, over a summit Icvi'l, hut broad, level and 
 
IF Tin; KK\*)MJ1()N 1!K MulM'Kl). iUi; M A TICS lUKK. 37 
 
 strai'L'lit. niidrr tlu' ridLTc, from nfcaii to (ifo.iii — will traiisjiort the 
 commerce' of riu; woiM. Wifli such tUcilitits, On-t^un :iii<l Oali- 
 fnruia, ("hili and I'l-ru. will hi- iicanT t<» (tur politienl and com- 
 mercial ceiilei-. WaNhitiuti'ii and XcwYork. jiracticallv, and 
 measurini:- hy lime, than \va< New ( )rlean>; dm-imr the adnniiis- 
 tiation of .leifersoii. 
 
 These, and ]ieriia[)s still ^i-i-au-r, and, a-^ yet. iinthon^-ht of 
 ontei'j)rises. successfully accom[)li.shed, will attest our national 
 power, and adil to our natioind t;lory. Vi't, nuL if' ofr National, 
 Goveniiiu'nt jH ri/iif-s i/w ri'volution toijo on, n'hich xlavcru ^"^^ ^^" 
 gun / not. if it doe.-^ not immediately and ettectively use its 
 national ])o\ver. for national pnjtectlon, and foi* a lastint^ warnirip: 
 to all, that no real success can attend licin-. violence, anarchy and 
 rebellion. Fsini>; ag-ain the hinfruan'C of )\\v. Calhoun, we sav : 
 " No people ever had so lair a start. All that is lackinir i?!, that 
 we shall understand, in all its great and beautiful ])roportions, the 
 noble political structure reared by the Misdoni ami patriotism of 
 onr ancestors, and to have the \irtue and the sense to preserve and 
 protect it." 
 
 Certain supjiosed obstacles deserve, ])erlia|»s. a jjassing notice. 
 It is said that the States which have '• seceded "■ will never humble 
 themselves by submission. We have failed entiri'ly. in one of our 
 chief purposes, if it does not sufficiently appear, that it is not 
 properly the republican States of this Union that have engaged 
 in revolution, but a power in antagonism to the republican people 
 of those States, that has usurped political control, and wrongfully 
 assumes now, to speak in the name of the ])eople and of the 
 States. Every indication is given by this power, that it is con- 
 sciously a usurper. Precipitation, terror, vii^ilence, and not the 
 sober second thought of the people, are what it relies on. The 
 restoration of republican independence to these people and States, 
 under the guarantees of the Constitution, and by the power of the 
 Union, will not come to'them in the shape of tyrannical subjuga- 
 tion. l)ut in the shape, rather, of real enfranchisement. 
 
 In several of these States it is already known that a majority 
 of the people, not only have not desired, but are actually opposed 
 to the revolution torced on them by the usurping power. And it 
 cannot be doubted that, in every State, with proper time for re- 
 flection, and fair opportunity for rhe action of those •• great moral 
 agents,'' sj^oken of by ^Fi-. ( '.dhoun, the people W"uld hold, with 
 
38 
 
 POLITICAL (:0NSK(>III':NCKS. 
 
 gladness, in the Union, to their <jjiiaranteed safety, freedom and 
 republicanism. 
 
 The men who now lead on the revolution in those States, will, 
 it is true, he compelled to f^ive way. But their humiliation in- 
 volves no humiliation for their States. Other men in those States, 
 good and true, will be found by their people, competent to lead 
 in the wiser, safer and happier paths of union and peace. More- 
 over, peo])le easily forgive themselves, even when they have 
 erred. 
 
 Certain it is, that, in every State, are great numbers of men, 
 faithful to truth, duty and constitutional obligations ; and not even 
 an accidental majority against them, in their own States respect- 
 ively, can absolve our General Government from the sacred duty 
 it owes, to sustain and vindicate them ; not indeed, by placing 
 the State Governments in their hands, but by protecting their 
 rights as minorities, in States in the Union. If the purpose of 
 Constitutions be, as Mr. Calhoun says, to restrain majorities, cer- 
 tainly our United States Constitution should now avail for the 
 political salvation of our loyal people in every State. Impotent 
 as these people are, in many of the Slave States, if unaided, yet, 
 sustained by the general government, they may, by use of '' the 
 moral agencies" guaranteed to them by the Constitution, restore 
 to legitimate action, in their States, the republican princijJes of 
 our system. 
 
 We have purposely avoided, as much as possible, in this expo- 
 sition, the use of names, especially of living political men; and 
 gladly would we close, without reference to the political manipu- 
 lators and their combinations, throughout the Union. Really 
 thev ought not to intiuence the o})inions or actions of any body, 
 in times like these. But, being the cause, both of unfounded 
 hopes and of unfounded fears, we notice them, to protest against 
 their mischievous imbecility. Earnest men are for earnest times, 
 — men who believe in duty and in God, not men who believe in 
 sham and the devil. Political parties, that survive revolutionary 
 times, are not those whose chief end and aim it is, to nurse them- 
 selves. The party that survives, is the one that finds tiie most 
 useful work to do. In a crisis like this, when the fate of a conti- 
 nent seems trembling in the balance, tiie petty interests and am- 
 bitions of the petty men who flutter and buzz in the sunny day 
 of prosperity, should not be ])ermitted to usurj) public attention. 
 
ONLY I 111: iHVK MKN TKlSTKlt IIKKEAFTEU. 39 
 
 Plans for tlic I'liM^ti'iK'tinn or r^■(•()Il^fnl(•tictIl of j)artic.s, aro i:so.e88, 
 and will be dcstituti' of jtowi-r to jiarin those who cro holdlv for- 
 ward in the porfonnanc*.' of the dutii's which ])atrioti>iii. the Con- 
 stitution and tin.' laws I'lijoin. 
 
 IJiit woe to till' niiMi, coiisjjicuous or obscure, who oppose, or 
 shrink, or eqiiivoeatt', now ! Mothint^ can lie more certain, notliing 
 is more in aix-ordancu with human natnrt'. nothing is more in ac- 
 cordance with our past jxditical hisfoiy, than that the men who 
 now sustain our reiuiblican government, wherever they may have 
 been, or whatever called, heretofui-e, will be recognized, hereafter, 
 as safe political guides, and safe depositories of political power; 
 and that the men who now connive, in any manner whatever, 
 at rebellion, or who hesitate or compromise, wherever they may 
 now stand, or whatever honored name they may now wear, will 
 never outgrow their disgrace. Year by year, as the nation re- 
 cedes from this time of its peril, clearer and clearer will become 
 the universal consciousness of the broad distinction between 
 the right and the wrong, as now presented before us ; and few, 
 in the rising generation will, in a few years, have the charity to 
 believe, that any who now take the wrong side, can possibly be 
 good men. 
 
 April 15. 181)1. 
 
TllK nilSIS: ITS I! ATIONAM'. 
 
 PART II. — KKSTORATION OF T-EHITIMATK AI'TIIOKITV TilK KND 
 AND OIUKCT OF THE WAH. 
 
 A yoar has jmssed biiice the foregoing papfes weri' ])uhlishet]. 
 The ])ul)lic iiiiiul, then much tossed Ijy couflictini; counsels, needed 
 clear ideas of the princi])les at work in the contest that was be- 
 i:;inninij^ — an understandiiii:; of the j-ati<inMle of the crisis. Its 
 iiiaijnitude and eai-nest reality were comprehended by few; the 
 ]ea<lers of public action ditt'ered widely; consecpiently, a fjreat 
 anil intelligent nation stood pai-aly/ed with doubt, and only those 
 banded for rebellion seemed inspired and sustained by a definite 
 ]uirpose. It was time for action rather than for explanation; yet 
 the ffreat liindrance to effective action was the want of clear no- 
 tions of the work to be done. Errors of opinion erected them- 
 selves into real obstacles; and plainly now does it appear that, 
 in every stage of this crisis, our nation has been punished for these 
 errors, too long unadvisedly or selfishly entertained. 
 
 Clearer ideas of political duty now prevail, and the true men 
 of the nation are more united by definite purpose. This is not 
 merely because events have more and more liilted the veil, but it 
 is also because tlicy have compelled the 2^cople to thinl'. The 
 people of a republic must think, or they must fail. Earnest 
 thought, inspiring earnest action, has done much to bear us 
 through this crisis; yet the future is still before us. This is a 
 great republic, it is the great republic, and it is ours — yours, 
 reader, and mine. This trial of our reign is not yet fully past. Per- 
 haps the most difficult — we hope not the most dangerous — part 
 is yet before us. Xot for speculation, therefore, but for present 
 and important use, let us consider further the rationale of this 
 great crisis in our national life. 
 
 Time has already done much to verify the principles, and, in 
 fact, every material proposition in the foregoing exposition ; in so 
 much that a review and comparison with subsequent and actual 
 
42 OUR SLAVERY 
 
 events, though made for the purpose of establishing conviction, 
 would be liable to a different construction. Such review and 
 comparison are left for the reader to make, with the reminder 
 that whatever of accuracy may thus appear, in what was written 
 almost entirely before the attack on Fort Sumter, is attributable 
 neither to prophetic gifts nor to lucky gnessing, but simply to 
 logical inferences from well-known political principles. 
 
 What shall follow is not intended as a repetition or mere enforce- 
 ment of what precedes ; yet, being part of the same great subject, 
 and intimately connected, the principles already established 
 should be borne in mind. Thoughtful consideration may lead, 
 not only to the formation of better opinions and the dismissal of 
 needless apprehensions, but also to wiser and more effective ac- 
 tion. 
 
 Accepting the admission which invariably connects slavery 
 with the contest in which the country is engaged, we exposed, in 
 the foregoing pages, the fallacy which treats slavery as geograph- 
 ical and subject to the laws of political economy prevailing in 
 free communities, and which assumes that it will die of its own 
 accord ; and siiowed how the anti-republican system which it ne- 
 cessitates in every Slave State, prevents the interests of the masses 
 from working its abolishment through republicanism, anywhere, 
 so long as the slave interest dominates the State ; that the princi- 
 ples of slavery being inherent and characteristic, and ministering 
 everywhere to the cupidity of the master, though ruinous to the 
 State, are indej^endent of climate and productions ; consequently, 
 that the interest of the master, the pecuniary value of which is 
 everywhere fairly measured by the price of slaves, will, in no cli- 
 mate or country, cause slaveholders to abolish or discourage 
 slavery, or to establish or permit active republicanism. 
 
 A kindred follacy is that with which the people of this country 
 have too long deluded themselves, namely: that our slavery is 
 only African or negro slaver}', and therefore less dangerous or 
 more tolerable. 
 
 Every vice or wickedness, public or private, seeks justification 
 or palliation under the cover of some exception. Suppose the 
 negro be inferior, he is nevertheless a man, and endowed by his 
 Creator with the rights of a man. Assumed inferiority, its co- 
 relative of course being superiority, is the ground of all anti-re- 
 publican governments and pretensions. Let republicans beware 
 
NOT FOUNDKI) ON RACK. 43 
 
 of sopliistric'S which iiiKlcriiiiiio the fouiKhitions of their own lib- 
 erty. Kthnolo^ical distinctions jilTord no tciuiblc ground for tlic 
 denial of human riirlits. Associiition, honors, offices, are volun- 
 tary in free eoinnuinities, and do not necessarily follow the ac- 
 knowledi^nient of rii;lits; yet the fallacy that they do necessa- 
 rily follow is constantly adduccil to sustain the denial of rights to 
 those whom we may suppose it is our interest to wrung. 
 
 "We may not desire, and it may not be wise policy, to elevate 
 to the presidency, or to the office of justice of the peace, or to 
 marry, an African, a Malay, a Hindoo, a ('hinese, a Turk, or an 
 l']gyj»tian ; and doubtless many among us would extend the same 
 exclusion to most or all Asiatic, European, African, and South 
 American races ; but all of these races, or, in short, every man 
 has a God-derived right to his liberty — to his wife, to his chil- 
 dren, to the fruits of bis own labor, and to a fair opportunity, un- 
 obstructed by other men, for the cultivation and improvement 
 of his own mental and moral powers, such as they may be. 
 
 But. completely as the ethnological argument fails, on examin- 
 ation, to justity owr slavery, it is also becoming more and more 
 inajiplicable. Where the control of white men is absolute, and 
 the condition of the offspring follows that of the mother, as it does 
 universally in the Slave States, the ethnological character of slaves 
 must change; not rapidly, perhaps, during the life of an individ- 
 ual, but with great and accelerated rapidity, during the life of a 
 nation. Observation confirms what reason suggests. 
 
 In 1850 the State of Kentucky contained 32,359 mulattoes, and 
 the State of Virginia 79,775 ; there were, in all the Slave States, 
 348,874.* 
 
 In the course of a few generations the proportion of African 
 blood in these becomes very small, yet the status continues. Eth- 
 nology does not save the blood of even the "superior race" froiti 
 bondage. 
 
 The Kichmond Inquirer^ in December, 1855, said : 
 
 "The laws of all the southern States justify the holding of white men in slavorv. 
 provided, throujih the mother they are descended, however remotely, from a ncpro 
 slave."' " — tlie principle of slavery is right, and does not depend on ditVereiue of 
 complexion." 
 
 * See. also. •• Sea Board Slave States," p. 594, etc., on mixed races at New Orleans. 
 
44 
 
 ITS REAL ORIGIN. 
 
 If tlie presumed inferiority of the negro were the real reason for 
 our slavery, then slavery should cease when the negro blood gives 
 place to the boasted Anglo-Saxon. It does not cease in such 
 cases ; but, on the contrary, becomes more valuable for the pur- 
 poses of bondage, and is held to with greater tenacity. Shave- 
 holders themselves no longer claim to justify mere negro slavery, 
 but insist that slavery is the proper and normal condition of the 
 laboring class, everywhere, whatever their origin or complexion. 
 And persons not slaveholders, even persons of standing and po- 
 litical influence in the free States, have lent to the doctrine at least 
 a negative acquiescence — sometimes even more. A representa- 
 tive man of the late dominant party, reared, petted and advanced 
 by the tree States, was conspicuous for having, throughout a pro- 
 tracted political career, carefully abstained from commendation 
 of libert}'- as a principle ; and he even took pains to declare, in 
 the Senate, that he cared not whether slavery was voted up or 
 voted down ; and the declaration was made, not for the purpose 
 of signalizing any peculiar or personal opinions, but, on the con- 
 trary, to manifest his conservative moderation. 
 
 A writer, also, in the Xorth American Review did not hesitate 
 to say, in 1853 : 
 
 "Slavery, therefore, exists rightfully in the South. No rights of the negro are vio- 
 lated when he is made a slave. His right, like that of all men, is to be governed for 
 his own benefit. Some even go so far as to maintain that a social relation, founded 
 on the same principles, and modified to suit different circumstance.s, a relation more 
 strict than that of master and apprentice, and leas, severe and permanent than that of 
 slavery, might, with equal justice and much advantage, be introduced into some of 
 the northern States in relation, not only to negroes, but to the swarms of emigrants 
 who crowd our shores, many of them equally degraded by ignorance, poverty and 
 vice, and equally needing care, guidance and government. Less liberty in them and 
 more authority over them would be alike beneficial to themselves and society." 
 
 Selfish cu])idity is the real cause and motive for slavery wher- 
 ever it exists, and occasionally the admission is made with suffi- 
 cient ]thiinness to be understood, 
 
 A leading southern ])a])er alleged, five j-ears ago : 
 
 •• It is not hatred of slavery, it is not sympathy for the negro, which kindles the 
 resentment and (enthusiasm of the black republican party. It is envy of the ease and 
 affluence of the southern gentlemen aiul jeahjusy of the aristocratic character of our 
 social system which constitute the sentiment of abolitionism.'" 
 
WIlAr IS iJT.AVEUY? 45 
 
 Tliis alleffiitifHi of motives rcveuls motives jis ]>Iiiiiily, perliajis, 
 as the laiigii:i<;e lately (Rioted by a western corresitdiKleiit of a 
 Boston i)aj)er: 
 
 m 
 
 '"Tliis l;i(ly," suys lie, "oinniiii; fnun tln' iimlli, Invi-.s slavery for tliis r<'n.«on, Riven 
 her own words : 'O, tlio sliivelioltli-rs iire su iiidi'iii'iKiciit uiid live ho ciiny ! Tliey 
 
 can get rich in u few yours, und there is no chvss in the world lluit can enjoy more 
 
 than tliey.'" 
 
 Tills brincjs us back to the olil fi>im(1ati<ins. Our slaverv rests 
 on the same bad and scltish ])riiiei|>les on whieh slavery lias al- 
 ways rested ; the same jn-inciples, in fact, whieh have ^iven their 
 support to aristocracy, to monarchy, and to evei'V form of tyranny 
 and despotism. That which divides us now is no abstract o[)inion 
 about races, but it is davcry^ the oldest, the fj^i-eatest, the worst, 
 and the most dreaded political enemy of the human race. 'Wxo. 
 issue between us is simply one of princii)le, applying to man, 
 rather than to a particular class of men ; and it reaches to the very 
 form and nature of government. 
 
 "What is slaver}'? It is negation of self-control. It is the com- 
 pulsory subjection of the faculties and })owers of one human being 
 to the control of another human being. It is necessarily social 
 in its character, and pertains to order and to government ; but 
 it is the lowest possible form of social order and government. The 
 restraint to which it subjects a human being is ultimate in its 
 degradation. It is not that to which a child or a lunatic is sub- 
 jected, when reason is wanting, for in such case the good of the 
 subject is the leading idea; but it is that to which we subject an 
 animal. It is negation of the use of reason and of self-direction. It 
 is the appropriation of another's energies without reciprocity, the 
 master's interest and will being the sole measure and guide. Its 
 motive is cupidity, its argument force. In government it is most 
 simple, and it is most absolute. Other modes of government 
 have, or, at least, appear to have, reference to mutual benefits. 
 The government of slavery is entirel}^ one-sided. Its order, its 
 regulations, its practices, originate and exist entirely in the mas- 
 ter's interest and convenience. Even those which relate to the 
 slave's comfort or enjoyment are measured and limited by the 
 master's interest. Cupidity is the supreme arbiter on one side, 
 entire submission the all-comprehensive duty en the other. 
 
 The republicanism of this country is democratic, not aristo- 
 
46 SLAVEKY NECESSARILY HOSTILE. 
 
 cratic. Its fundamental principle is human rights — the rights of 
 all, and not the rights of any special class as against others ; much 
 less is it privilege. Sovereignty is of the people, and no man may 
 rightfully claim what he will not also concede. It is impossible 
 to conceive of any thing more irreconcilable than slavery and re- 
 publicanism — such i-epublicanism as we profess. Every princi- 
 ple of the one is abhorrent to every principle of the other. They 
 can not permanently coexist in the same country and under the 
 same government. They could only coexist while slavery was 
 regarded as an exception and in the process and preparation for 
 removal. This is not matter of opinion, but of demonstration ; 
 for, as the philosopher eliminates with confidence all the elements 
 of great and abstruse problems from given data, so may we with 
 certainty infer, from the principles of our republican system, the 
 incompatibility of slavery, and hence its ultimate extinction. Our 
 fathers expected and meant it should pass away from among us. 
 We know this, not only from what they said, but from the essen- 
 tial and inherent nature of the system they established. 
 
 This is so, not only in its nature, and as our fathers saw it and 
 intended to have it, but it is perfectly obvious, also, to the con- 
 ductors of this rebellion, more obvious, perhaps, to them, even, 
 than to ourselves. The most of us have assumed the continuance 
 and preservation of republican principles as matters of course, 
 and have trusted too much, perhaps, to their unaided operation. 
 Not so, however, with slaveholders and the political slave inter- 
 est. They, not less than the founders of our government, under- 
 stand the operation of causes and the logical sequence of effects, 
 and with intellects sharpened by interest, they realize that slavery 
 and republicanism are irreconcilable. Whenever, therefore, they 
 resolved to hold on to slavery, thej became, by inexorable logic, 
 necessarily Jwstile to Te])xihlicanhin and to our rej)id>lican system 
 of government. They who could not or would not see this, have 
 sometimes called them mad ; but patient observers of facts and 
 princij)les must admit that their madness has a method in it, and 
 consists only in believing, or at least determining, that slavery 
 must be sustained. Grant this, and all else which they claim and 
 do becomes reasonable and proper. It is precisely what any peo- 
 ple sliould claim and do, if reasonable and consistent, in order to 
 sustain the same ])rinciplo. 
 
 It was nothing special done by the believers in republicanism 
 
REPCBUCANISM MUST I'RKVAII,. 47 
 
 tliat alarmed the believers in slavery, and rendered tliein hostile. 
 Pretexts suliserved a purpose ; but the eause was the iniiereiit 
 nature and iirinci[)les tif rcjmblicanisni and their endmdiment and 
 expression in our system of <rovernnK'nt — free schools, free 
 speeelu c^eneral 6utfra<j;c, and soeial ecpiality. 
 
 The Charleston Mercury^ in the sprinfij of 185G. arpied and 
 showed, in a series of carefully ]>repared articles, that, whenever 
 two hostile forms of civilization are associated in ])olitical union, 
 one of them must inevitably be absorbed by the other, and tliat, 
 under the Federal Constitution, the South must eventually be swal- 
 lowed up by ''the North" — meaning, thereby, repuldicanism. 
 It said : 
 
 " If there be any phenomenon, which may be more clearly understood than any 
 other which is presented by the development of civil society in the United States, it 
 is this : that the social system ami ctvilizalion of the Xorth and the nor</ier?i method of 
 Ihowjht, completely Europeanized as it is, icill predomtTiate iyi the American Union^ 
 if that I'nion laMs ; aud Federal Government yieldiiij; to the pressure of that social 
 system and method of thought, will, by the action of the representative Ijody upon 
 it, become, and in a great degri-e is now, merely the agent and instrument by which 
 that predominance is to be accomplished. That the South is even now undergoing 
 the process of ab.sorption by the northern method of thought, in the manner stated 
 by the above postulate or law, needs but a common sense observation to determine." 
 
 Tliis writer fully appreciated the necessities of tlio republican 
 system, and denouncing, as traitore to the rights and interests of 
 the South, those southern representatives who then consented to 
 act in harmony with the Xorth with a view to controlling the 
 whole, he said : 
 
 •'So far from the idea being true, upon which southern statesmanship founds its 
 ho)>es. if tlie Federal Government were blotted out at a single blow, the method of 
 northern thought would not be changed, the social system of the North would pro- 
 gress as before, and a political system boni of the joint action of both would be 
 formed and controlled by them, to the subservience of all the ends they se<'k to ac- 
 complish now by means of the Federal Government But a good would result to the 
 South liy the fall of that government, for the present Union would V>e formed no more, 
 and the ."^outh wo\ild thus cease to be under the blight and curse of a southern rcpro- 
 sentatiou to a northern congress." 
 
 An intelligent correspondent of the same paper, writing from 
 Washington, January 11, 1857, says : 
 
 " We can not hope for any other solution of this anti-slavery problem than the ulti- 
 mate triumph of free soil over every department of government. All efforts at re- 
 sistance will be as idle in the future as in the past 
 
 Theix" are occa.<ions in the history of nations, as well as of individuals, when extra- 
 
48 REI5KLLI0N A NATURAL RESULT. 
 
 ordinary offorts are necessary to resist tlie ctTect of causes which may seem indirect, 
 or even immaterial to tlie world at large. The slave owners of the South find them- 
 selves surrounded bj^ elements which must end in their utter destruction, unless some 
 great, detei'mined and concerted effort is made in resistance." * * * .. gyery 
 effort of the South to escape from the thraldom will be deemed revolutionary. It is 
 the tirst and highest duty of the South to prepare to meet the issue thus presented to 
 us boldly. South Carolina will be sustained if she accepts the conflict. To do so 
 successfully, she must establish a policy looking to eventual independence. All the 
 mere political ex])edients or party appliances Mill come to nought. The press of the 
 State should combine to develop that organization of individual sentiment which is 
 necessary to practical eflbrt." 
 
 Understanding' so well and so correctly the incornpatibilitv of 
 republicanism with slavery, seeing and knowing that the differ- 
 ence is radical and fundamental, yet, determined in every event 
 to hold on to slavery^ what coidd the slaveholdei'S and the politi- 
 cal slave interest so rationally do, as deliberately, carefully, l)ut 
 determinedly, to revolt from a republican government? Under 
 such circumstances, the thing itself had of course to be done, or 
 at least attempted ; the remaining question being obviously only 
 one of time and opportunity. And if it had to be done, or at- 
 tempted, how could reasoning men be expected to forego the use 
 of an occasion so peculiarly favorable as was afforded them by a 
 series of remarkably acquiescent administrations of our general 
 government — a series, too, that was evidently approaching its 
 close ? The real wonder is, not that they availed themselves of 
 the opportunity, but that it was so wonderfully prepared and 
 offered to them. Not madly, and not foolishly, has the occasion 
 been either chosen or used. The leaders of the rebellion have 
 committed but one essential error. It consists simply m c?^V?<7^V^(7 
 to sletvery — in saying to evil : "-be thou my good." 
 
 We would add that, on the fjuestion of expediency, they erred 
 also in supposing that in this age and in this country, a rebellion 
 against republicanism, for the express purpose of establishing a 
 government for slavery, could succeed ; but, witnessing the ready 
 sympathy extended to them by rival governments anxious to attend 
 the obsequies of republicanism, knowing, too, how many there are 
 among ourselves who have learned to think that the slave interest 
 must succeed in whatever it really undertakes, and who probably 
 are still ready and willing to seek its favor, and understanding 
 liow self-coniident men become M'ho are self-assertive, we are con- 
 strained to admit that, from their point of view, their scheme was 
 far from appearing absurdly impi-acticable. 
 
vSLAVEUY IS WKONO. 4'J 
 
 The great moral principle wliich lies at the foundation of this 
 whole subject must not he overlooked. Slavery is wron<j ; and 
 the liglit which eiilii^htens every man coming into the worhl en- 
 ables all to know it. The forc(f of the truth cml>odied in tllo 
 golden rule is acknowledged, or at least in some degree felt, by 
 every human being; and no perversity of educational inlluences, 
 or repetition of sophistries, can completely blind any one to the 
 inherent moral wrong of slavery ; much less can a whole pcojjle 
 l)lind tiiomselvcs to this trutb. Slaveholders know that slavery 
 is wrong, however they may pettifog with their consciences on 
 the subject, and use their interests as counselors. But the respon- 
 sibility for seeking to pervert judgment concerning it rests not 
 with slaveholders only. Too long have our whole people been 
 })altering witb this subject, inventing euphemisms for it, and for- 
 getting, in their selfishness, that God is just, and that rigJdcous- 
 ness — not ici'ong — exalteth a nation. 
 
 The question, between the two sides in this case, refers to first 
 princi]>los. If slavery is right, then the rebellion is right; be- 
 cause it is necessary for the perpetuation of slavery. If slavery 
 is wrong, then its supporters are wrong ; and have no right to rebel 
 against republicanism and its government ; but they who defend 
 tiiem are right, and engaged in the cause of humanity and of God. 
 
 It may be suggested that each side may think itself right. But 
 it is not so. floral distinctions are too plain fur such confusion. 
 On questions fur the intellect, and even on questions of fiict, there 
 is much rcJom for honest differences of opinion ; but on moral 
 questions it is different ; and on questions so simj)]e as that of 
 slavery, the test is too easily applied to leave reasonable grounds 
 for a plea of ignorance, especially in this age and country. 
 Moreover, the right and the wrong on this subject have long ago 
 been settled by the united testimony of the great and good of 
 every age and clime. "We say, unhesitatingly, therefore, that 
 they who are engaged in this rebellion know instinctively that 
 their cause is bad, and that the enlightened moral opinion of the 
 world is against them. 
 
 Hence their implacable hatred. Men determined to hold to a 
 great wrong, and to defend it with strong hand, find it necessary 
 to cultivate in every possible way all the savagoness of their na- 
 tures, are compelled to steel themselves against the promptings of 
 humanity and to cultivate bitter hatred against those who oppose 
 
50 HENCE THE HATRED SHOWN. 
 
 them. "Were tLey to yield to the influences of brotherly kind- 
 ness, their cause itself must immediately fail. 
 
 Slavery cannot meet republicanism on equal ground, but must 
 answer with passion what it cannot answer with logic, and must 
 make up for inlierent weakness by remorseless violence. Con- 
 sciously an aggressor and consciously in the wrong, it naturally 
 hates those it injures. This has been so from the beginning, and 
 the exhibitions of its hatred now witnessed with surprise, as cause- 
 less, are but the I'esults of its natural development. Its hatred 
 extends to all who do not acknowledge it to be right, and coop- 
 erate zealously and constantly to sustain it. It will not, because 
 it safely can not, recognize degrees of approval. The history of 
 all political men who, having begun to favor it, have anywhere 
 hesitated or faltered, abundantly illustrates this. The monitor 
 within and the evident sentiments of mankind compel it to know 
 that only interest, constant and strong personal interest, is to be 
 trusted in its cause. Hence the eftorts of many among us to con- 
 ciliate its quick sense of hostility, by joinijig in denunciation of its 
 more open opponents, find their fit illustration in the labors of 
 Sisyphus rolling tlie stone. 
 
 "Were it possible really to believe slavery jilst, its champions, re- 
 iving on that inherent justice, would be more tolerant. Were 
 they consciously right, they might, even though unsuccessful, 
 conduct war with magnanimity. As it is, they can only be 
 boastfully "chivalrous," cruel and remorseless. The unities of the 
 drama in which they are engaged imperatively require them to 
 be so. It is most natural, therefore, that the war should be be- 
 o'un and conducted, on their part, with treachery, and should be 
 attended hy frequent exhibitions of malignity — that soldiers 
 should be poisoned, the dead mutilated, graves desecrated, human 
 bones used for trophies, and unarmed union men shot and hung. 
 
 That the vindictive malignity of those engaged in the rebellion 
 is due to their principles, and not to mere sectional hostility, is 
 shown by their treatment of people of their own States. A late 
 numl)er of the Ilichmond Examiner, speaking of union men in 
 Virginia, says : 
 
 "Tlio most of tlicm have packed up, ready to leave for Yankcedom at the shortest 
 possil)l(! notice. In Braxton connty every tory has been shot by his neighbor, and 
 in several other counties the citizens devoted to the confederate cause are doing good 
 service in the same manner." 
 
A NAIIONAI- COVKKNMK.N T I"(>K SI.AVKKV. 51 
 
 That cause is umlouhtedly tlo' cau:Jo ul" tlie Itittt'i-ness wliicli 
 tlioy exhibit, and in this I'act ajtpears the utter liopclessness of 
 winning them to reconciliation by the exhibition of mere kindness. 
 They know what rei)ublicanism re<|uires of its friends, as well as 
 what slavery re(iuires of themselves ; and, therefore, even acqui- 
 escence by tiie former in all tho wishes and demands of the lat- 
 ter would bring no real love or respect, l)ut rather contempt. Too 
 far, alreaily, has such ac(piiescence been carried, for the peace and 
 hajii)incss of all. 
 
 AVere it the sole object of this people to open the way for mu- 
 tual kindness, there is no means so direct or etlective as to ])ut 
 down the rebellion of slavery with strong hand and in the 
 k-ast possible time. The friends of republicanism must act as 
 though they believed in it and loved it. The hated and despised 
 must become feared and respected, before they can be loved. 
 
 The necessities of slavery impose its character upon every part 
 of this rebellion. It has been shown in the former part of this 
 exposition that the social necessities of slavery require for it an 
 anti-republican system, opposed to free speech, free thought and 
 free action, and embodying the master's interest and will as the 
 absolute law, in States dominated by the slave interest, even 
 though organized under the forms of republicanism. "What those 
 same necessities would inevitably require in a government ex- 
 pressly formed for their accommodation, is not difficult to fore- 
 see. The world has seldom witnessed so effective and systema- 
 tized degradation of the mass of human beings under a govern- 
 ment, as such a system would infallibly produce. Men, it is true, 
 are not always consistent; but facts, principles and history are 
 terribly logical. 
 
 The London Times, ton years ago, made this correct statement 
 of the principles on which the English Government is oi-ganized 
 and conducted ; 
 
 ''Thi' institutions and customs of this coiintiy arc all adapted to the supposition of 
 a vast diflVronco of classes. — a lower class, redundant, necessitous. ii;norant and nian- 
 ajrealile ; an ui)])er class, wealfliy, exclusive, unitetl and jiowerful ; and a middle 
 class, struggling to emerge from the lower and attach itaelf to the upper." 
 
 We see what moderate degree of general elevation such a sys- 
 tem allows; but what could be ho]»ed for humanity under a sys- 
 
62 EKRORS AND OBSTRUCTIOKS. 
 
 tern in which the upper cUiss would be wealthy, exclusive, united 
 and powerful, with tico lower classes, redundant, necessitous, ig- 
 norant and manageable, but loith no middle or transitionary 
 class ! Schools can not aid the poor whites to rise ; for education, 
 e:^cept of the masters, is dangerous in a land of slaves, and there- 
 fore must be discouraged, and even forbidden. There is no hope 
 for them, except to become the armed watch-dogs for slavery. The 
 only accessions to the upper class are immigrating fortune-seekers. 
 The result, embodied in a national government, would, inevitably, 
 be the ne plus iiltra of aristocratic selfishness and despotism. 
 
 Against the principles and system thus threatening to establish 
 themselves here, are necessarily arrayed, in deadly hostility, our 
 national principles and system. Republicanism, liberty, and all 
 that our fathers meant, when they declared themselves contend- 
 ing for the riglds of man ^ are now at stake. We are defending 
 the system of government founded by our fathers, and which, 
 for more than seventy years has, in every respect, save one, proved 
 a miracle of success. We have deviated from its principles in 
 administration, and hence, one of its normal results, the abolition 
 of slavery, has been delayed, until slavery, instead of preparing 
 for its dissolution, strengthens itself against the government and 
 threatens its overthrow. Democratic republicanism is the essen- 
 tial principle embodied in our governmental system, and this, 
 we have shown, is hostile to slavery. Slavery is aware of it — 
 hence, the rebellion. Slavery is wise, but slavery is wrong. Our 
 government — and with it republicanism, which is its soul — must 
 
 be sustained. 
 
 Errors and obstructions have occurred in the administration of 
 our government and in the political history of our people, which 
 have caused many to misjudge as to the principles involved in 
 this contest. An understanding of these errors and obstructions 
 will make the true principles, and consequently our present du- 
 ties, clearer now. 
 
 Erroneously, an idea has prevailed that our constitutional sys- 
 tem sustains slavery ; and logically, the idea has been developed 
 and wrought, until numbers among us transfer to slavery the rev- 
 erence due to the Constitution. AVith a considerable class even 
 the word "constitution " seems to mean slavery; and hence, with 
 them, to obey the Constitution is to sustain slavery. Whence 
 this idea ? 
 
■rilK FUGITIVK BLAVE LAW. 53 
 
 • 
 
 It origiiiaud in :i jicrversioii of ii siiii^lo provision of our Con- 
 stitution, wliicli, huiiii^ unjustiliiiMy iniule the suhjcct of con- 
 i^ressionul legislation, lias, liko an nns iuUling foreign substance 
 introducod into harmonious maeliinery, nearly caused tlie whole 
 operations of our system to become jammeil. JA-ailing northern 
 politicians in two great parties deemed it })olicy to sanction the 
 legislation, and set themselves with industry to the^usk of recon- 
 ciling an unwilling ])eople to projwsitions instinctively revolting, 
 AVhat could not be done by logic, was attempted by iteration. 
 Partizan feelings and vulgar prejudice helijcd the attempt. Jiut, 
 worst of all, it harnn^nized with the wishes, and possibly suggested 
 the pur})0se, of the slave interest to pervert the great powers of 
 the national government to the support of the inherently weak 
 and tottering cause of slavery. Men who, to justify the fugitive 
 slave law, had insisted, before the people, that the Constitution 
 sanctions and protects slavery, and that such protection was one 
 of the great purposes of the Constitution, could not well resist 
 the logical application of the argument, when it was demanded 
 by the slave interest, that the general government should, in other 
 respects^ also, extend and 'protect slavery. Their arguments re- 
 turned to plague the inventors. What the ruling men of the Slave 
 States most cared for, was this further use of the argument ; but 
 some, even of these, condemned the obvious fallacy. 
 
 The Charleston Mercury in 1855, said, of the fugitive slave 
 law : 
 
 '•It was, from the first, a miseraljle illusion ; and woi-se, in fact, for it was an in- 
 fringement of one of the most cherishetl i)rincii)les of the Constitution, which provides 
 that fugitives from labor ' upon demand shall be delivered up,' but gives no jiower to 
 Congress to act in this atl'air. The tenth amendment to the Constitution provides that 
 'the powers not delegated to the United States are reserved to the people.' The 
 clause above confers no power, but is the naked declaration of a right ; and the power 
 not being conferred, results to the Statt>s as one of the incidents of sovereignty too 
 dear to be trusted to the general government. Our southern members strove for the 
 passage of the law, and strove honestly ; but it shows the evils of our unfortunate 
 condition, that in the urgency of our contest with an aggressive adversary, we los<' 
 the landmarks of principle— to obtain an illusive triumph, we pressed the government 
 to assume a power not conferred by the instrument of its creation, and to establish a 
 precedent Ijy which, in all after time, it will be authorized to assume whatever right 
 may have no constitutional organ of enforcement." 
 
 ' But politicians who strove to jtcrvert the general government 
 to the support of slavery, and others, more logical, like the edit- 
 
51 SLAVERY NOT COKSTITUTIONAI.. 
 
 • 
 
 oi'S of the Mercury^ who early appreciated its utter incompati- 
 bility with shivery, and yet held to slavery and advocated dis- 
 union, naturally came together, when the purposes of the former 
 class had failed, and when republicanism was obviously about to 
 resume its rightful sway in the conduct of our government. 
 Probably the rebellion developed more successfully, and gath- 
 ered more fri#nds to its support, than if all who labored in its 
 interest, had, from the beginning, adopted the logical>;Conclusions 
 of the Mercury. 
 
 We have not yet outlived the generation of politicians among 
 us who, to keep the road to preferment open before them, sub- 
 stantially adopted, in both of the then great parties, the Shibbo- 
 leth that the Constitution 7n,eans Slavery . Many, even now, seem 
 to hope for political salvation by its repetition. They wdio think 
 there is any truth in the idea should reexamine the Constitution, 
 not in the false light of this doctrine, but in the clear light of the 
 doctrine by which the Constitution was made — the doctrine of 
 the rights of man. The unprejudiced and logical examiner will 
 find there no sanction for slavery ; much less will he find em- 
 bodied provisions there for its protection and perpetuation. Men 
 and States that permitted slavery wxre, indeed, by the Constitu- 
 tion, bound together with other men and States, in a general gov- 
 ernment. This fact of course shows that it was possible and 
 permitted that slavery should exist under it, at least for a time ; 
 but it does not show that the government, created by the Consti- 
 tution, assumed any responsibility for such existence. Marriage 
 with a diseased 23erson does not necessarily sanction the disease. 
 There are plain and positive provisions in the Constitution directly 
 hostile to slavery ; and its abundant and strong provisions for lib- 
 erty and republicanism are not nullified, and were not intended 
 to be nullified, by counteracting provisions for the protection, ex- 
 tension or perpetuation of slavery, and such counteracting pro- 
 visions do not exist in the Constitution. That this is unquestion- 
 ably so, is shown by the rebellion in which slavery has found it 
 necessary to engage, against a government that was only carried 
 on according to its principles. The assumed justification of the 
 rebellion is, that our government does not protect slavery. The 
 answer to this is, that it never was intended that it should ; and 
 that the government is conducted accordins; to its Constitution. 
 
TJIK (X>NflTrrL'TION IS KIGIIT. 
 
 Lot us do slavery unci its iVionds the justice to ndiiiit tiuit, //" its 
 pc7'j7etuailon he indispcnsahle^ tlieir present course is not nnrcason- 
 jiltlo. Our republican system, us correctly descrilKMl ]»y ]\rr. Cal- 
 houn, has been found practically inconsistent with the system ot" 
 slavery. Slavery will not, and can not, long tolerate free speech, 
 a tree press, general education, eipial laws, and other concomi- 
 tants of republicanism ; and, therelbrc, against a government 
 framed and adapted to secure these, slavery was necessitated to 
 rebel. 
 
 The provisions in the Constituti<.)n, aj^plicablc to slavery, are 
 general, covering other cases of social relations, and are in and of 
 themselves right, irrespective of slavery ; and therefore it is both 
 unnecessary and illogical to assume that our fathers really did 
 what they were asliamed of, and carefully and strongly protected 
 slavery, though ignoring and avoiding its name. The coolie 
 trade, as well as the slave trade, may be prohibited and punished 
 by congress ; and the right to pursue over a State line and take 
 back persons escaping from labor, is a general provision, appli- 
 cable to an apprentice system, or to any other which a State may 
 adopt, and is intended to throw upon the several States the re- 
 sponsibility of the relations in them between employer and em- 
 ployed, and not to commit the United States government to the 
 special sanction or support of any particular system. It is mu- 
 tual, and was intended, probably, as much to protect communities 
 from the unwelcome influx of a degraded class, as to give to other 
 communities opportunity to recover their escaping laborers. This 
 is shown by the readiness Nvith which the provision was adopted ; 
 for it was not — as has been wrongly represented — the result of 
 protracted discussion or of compromise, but its idea was first intro- 
 duced near the close of the four months' session of the conven- 
 tion, and it was soon adopted, and without opposition.* Like 
 that other provision guaranteeing States against insurrection, its 
 ultimate and normal etfect nmst really be favorable to liberty and 
 republicanism, and not to slavery ; for thereby each State is shut 
 up with the social consequences of its own acts, to the peaceable 
 solution, with free discussion, of social questions. AVe say, un- 
 hesitatingly, that slavery can not thus live ; and they who are con- 
 ducting this rebellion evidently have the same opinion. Shut up 
 
 * ."^('0 ^finlisiiii I''a]iiTs. ]iii. MIT iuul 1 l.'iH. 
 
56 MISTAKES BY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY. 
 
 slavery with republicanism, in any State, guarantee the existence 
 of the latter, with peace and free discussion, and slavery cannot 
 long survive. 
 
 Kot the nature or constitutional provisions of our government, 
 but our administration of it, has prevented, or, I'ather, retarded, the 
 abolishment of slavery. The democratic republicanism, essen- 
 tially embodied in the Constitution, had to struggle fur its own 
 development in administration ; and in that struggle it unfortu- 
 nately allied itself, to some extent, with slavery, on the ground 
 of State rights, then common to both. The alliance was contin- 
 ued for the sake of power, when both Slavery and Democracy 
 became "national." But Shivery and Democracy could not 
 jointly conduct the government, and that happened which always 
 must happen in the use of power acquired by unnatural combi- 
 nations — the principles of one ally superseded those of the other. 
 Slavery would not, and, if we are right, it could not safely yield. 
 Democracy therefore ceased to direct the common movements 
 still made in its name, and, in modern times, the inspiring spirit 
 and purpose of the party called " Democratic," were, simply, 
 Slavery. 
 
 Our system of government is peculiarly adapted to territorial 
 expansion. But expansion being more practicable on the side 
 next the Slave States, acquisition has been made to involve the 
 question of slavery ; and thus, again, has the normal development 
 of the republican character of our government been checked, and 
 slavery been adventitiously advanced. Such was the case when 
 the Louisiana territory was acquired. 
 
 Mistakes made by the opponents of slavery have also done not 
 a little to give slavery advantage in its contests with republican- 
 ism in our government. The sentiment of the people, naturally 
 responsive to liberty, has sometimes been appealed to, in be- 
 half of measures found to be inexpedient, or intended to ad- 
 vance the interests of a political party, otherwise objectionable. 
 When Missouri applied for admission to the Union, as a State, 
 it had been attached to us as territory for sixteen years. The 
 United States government during all that time ought to have pro- 
 liibited slavery there, as it properly might. But when the terri- 
 tory had grown to Statehood^ and the United States government 
 was about to part entirely with its jurisdiction over the subject, 
 it was unreasonable to require the incipient State to abolish that 
 
MISSOIKI COMl'KOMISK AltOLITloN 'IKXAS AN NKX AIK ».V. 07 
 
 slavery which the L'nitcd States •^overiuneiit had itself permitted, 
 and thus encouraged; especially as other Siatt's judired and acted, 
 each for itself, on the subject within their respective boundaries. 
 It became apparent, also, that opposition to the admission of 
 ^lissouri was seized on, and selfishly used, by the jjolitical ]»arty 
 that had then lately liccn driven into an almost hopelt'ss minority. 
 ]\Iiss(i\iri was rightfully admitted; but the comj)romise through 
 wiiic'li it was done, and the contest that ])receded it, were injuri- 
 ous to republicanism, and beneficial to slavery. Liberty had been 
 driven from an assumed position, and had compromised for half 
 a right, and impliedly, but not the less effectuall}', conceded to 
 slaverv the other half, and thereby slavery secured a new miar- 
 anty. The friends of liberty first undertook to keep out a State, 
 which, under the circumstances, they ought not to have attemj)ted ; 
 and then compromised, by accepting the exclusion of slavery from 
 j}a7't of the United States territory, when it ought to liave been 
 excluded from the whole, without compromise. 
 
 Those friends of liberty also made a mistake, who subsequently 
 attempted to engage congress in the general abolition of slavery. 
 They undertook to do a right thing in a wrong way, and gave to 
 slavery the advantage of successful resistance ; and, worse still, 
 allowed slavery to hold up before it the a?gis of the Constitution, 
 and were thereby themselves unwisely and unfortunately drawn 
 into hostility to the Constitution. Thence manv of a whole cen- 
 eration of our countrymen have learned to distrust and detest 
 abolition, in every form, even such as Washington, Patrick Henry, 
 Jeflerson and Franklin advocated, and have learned, at the same 
 time, to transfer "'constitutional" reverence to slavery, even as 
 advocated by Jefferson Davis, Toombs, Yancey and DeBow. 
 
 The annexation of Texas was another occasion on which many 
 friends of republicanism were misled, and slavery was incident- 
 ally helped, by association with a measure right and beneficial in 
 itself. The adaptation of our system of government to almost 
 indefinite expansion, as suggested and anticipated in the first part 
 of this treatise, is not universally admitted. A class of our 
 statesmen, respectable in numbers and standing, have denied it; 
 and have always opposed acquisition. Their extended ideas of 
 the functions proper for our general t^overnment would not allow 
 them to believe it ap|)licable to enlarged territory. Only they 
 who see in the several State governments the best means of pro- 
 
06 REVIVAL OP KEPUBLICANISM NECESSARY. 
 
 vidiiig for much the largest portion of the governmental wants of 
 the people, can properly appreciate the adaptation of our system 
 to expansion. Texas was desired by this class for great national 
 reasons — for peace, for republicanism, for freedom; but Texas 
 was also desired for slavery. Texas was acquired, and, undue 
 prominence feeing given to the latter reason, again was slavery 
 adventitiously advanced, acquiring more and more a national 
 character. But when republicanism shall have resumed its proper 
 supremacy in our system, it, and not slavery, will be seen to be 
 national, and then will the wisdom of the reannexation of Texas 
 also more fully appear. 
 
 An effective reason why slavery has fz-equently, in the conduct 
 of our government, been benefited at the expense of republican- 
 ism, is, that republicanism was universally known and admitted 
 to be the essential principle of our system, incorporated and 
 guaranteed in every part of it, while it was equally well-known, 
 and, until lately, as universally admitted that slavery was not. 
 Hence, slavery, in its conscious weakness, instinctively guarded 
 its life, and never willingly consented to what might in any way 
 endanger itself. Peculiarities in conducting the war of 1S12 il- 
 lustrate this. That war was begun and carried on in the inter- 
 ests of republicanism; but we can now see that the holding back 
 on the northern frontier — the failure to acquire and hold Canada 
 — was the work of slavery. Slavery has known that it could 
 live under our system only for a while; and, therefore, like a 
 doomed invalid, it instinctively took to nursing itself, and, in this 
 struggle for life, it has, at length, become a vampyre. 
 
 The revival of republicanism had become necessary, not only 
 because of such misleading circumstances and errors of opinion 
 as we have noted, but also because too many of our people had 
 become indifferent to their political duties. They did not feel the 
 same necessity for defending the interests of republicanism that 
 the opjioiients of republicanism in this contest have long felt for 
 defending and advancing the interests of slavery. The earnest 
 and thoughtful anxiety which attended the beginning of our ex- 
 periment of self-government, had too far yielded to a feeling of 
 conscious security. Politics, regarded as a profession, were be- 
 coming degraded and degrading, and immediate success being 
 more ])ri/.ed tlum jiermanent principles, acquiescence became the 
 populai- ductrine which seemed to clinch and secure the advancing 
 
CONTEST NOT SECnONAL NOR rKHSOXAr,. 59 
 
 requirements of slavery. The dark time for freedom was not 
 when Toxjis was annexed — there were other reasons than shivery 
 for that; it was not when tlio "com^)romise measures" were 
 paesed — tlio fugitive shive-law awakened reaction; it was not 
 when the Missouri compromise was rej)ealed — that repeal gave 
 force and form to the reaction ; but it was when parties, in 1852, 
 acquiesced in all that had been done for slavery. It was time 
 for republicanism to revive, or it must, ere long, have slept here 
 the sleep of dealh. Its revival was neither northern, nor eastern, 
 nor western ; but it belonged to our people, and to the character 
 of our government. 
 
 In no respect is this contest sectional, except as every great 
 contest must be bo. We have, indeed, fallen into tiie habit of 
 speaking of ''the South" and "the North" — of "the Southern 
 States "and "the Northern States;" but that which is usually 
 and really intended is not a geographical distinction, such as 
 AVashington deprecated. Geographical distinctions in our coun- 
 try, if they shall come to influence our politics, will be found 
 to be between "the West" and "the East," "the Seaboard 
 States " and " the interior," " the Atlantic States " and " the Pa- 
 cific States ;" rather than between "the North" and "the South." 
 Try this matter and the truth will ajipear. Missouri is a slave 
 State, and therefore is calle<l a Southern State ; Kansas, a<ljoining 
 on the west, and no further north, is a free State, and tiierefore is 
 classed with Northern States. So of California, tliough extending 
 further south ; but had it ado])ted slavery, it would iiave been 
 called a Southern State ; so would Oregon. AVere Texas to ex- 
 clude slavery it would become, in this parlance, a "Northern 
 State." New ]N[exieo, Arizona. Pelnware, Maryland, and even 
 Pennsj'lvania and Illinois, and, in short, any State in the Union, 
 or that may hereafter come into the Union, M'hile slavery exists, 
 would follow the same rule. 
 
 Neither is this contest personal^ Personal coml)inations of 
 ambitious men doubtless there are, and have been ; but %f ithout 
 a basis, a broad and real basis, no man or combination of men 
 could originate or sustain such a contest in this country as we 
 witness. They who lead — even the chiefs — are mere accidents 
 of the movement. Personal ambition doubtless operates with 
 them as with most men, to make them aspire to leadership ; V)ut 
 this has not caused the movement, and does not sustain it. There 
 
GO SLAVEKY OR REPUBLICANISM. 
 
 is no individual, and no dozen of individuals, who caused or who 
 caiT}' on this rebellion, and without whom it would not be. AYere 
 its prominent men all removed, the contest, using other men as 
 its instruments, must proceed to its development or its catastrophe. 
 Tlie rebellion is a distinct, decided and almost tangible thing, 
 moving consistently towards a definite purpose; and they who 
 regard it as a mere personal conspiracy, fail to appreciate the 
 real and greatest danger. It is no more a jjersonal conspiracy of 
 its leaders than our republican system is a mere happy thought 
 of Washington. This fact is further made evident from its ab- 
 sorption of men, even of strong men, who long opposed and resisted. 
 Stephens and Houston and Bell and Clemens are traitors and 
 rebels, as well as Davis and Wise and Pickens and Rhett. Other 
 men, also, are absorbed, wdiose birth, education and early associa- 
 tions would have guarded them from entering into conspiracies 
 merely personal, but could not prevent them from being carried 
 along by a great movement when they had once assented to its 
 essential principle. PrincijDles are stronger, and control the men. 
 
 The single postulate from which is inevitably deduced the course 
 of these men and of all men sustaining or favoring the rebellion, 
 is, slavery must he 2>crj)etuated. The one great principle which 
 unites the true men of our country, is, rejmhUcanism rausthe jper- 
 Ijetuatcd. This distinction is the solvent, and it is the only solv- 
 ent, in these times and in this country, of the action of men, of 
 combinations, and of sections. 
 
 The men who caused this rebellion, and who sustain it, are 
 all, in our country, who believe in slaveiy — all whose political 
 thoughts, interests, principles and purposes are identified with its 
 maintenance. Tlie misfortune of these men, everywhere in our 
 land, was, that the time had come when slavery required a re- 
 bellion — when it must certainly begin to die unless it could suc- 
 cessfully rebel against republicanism and its government. Let 
 us give them the credit of having first done all that they could to 
 make the revolution a peaceable one — to change the government 
 by construction and administration. But here, again, it was their 
 misfortune that the necessities of slavery on the one hand, and 
 the settled republican princi})les of the great mass of our people 
 on the other, comi~>eUed tJiem to he violent. They had to be vio- 
 lent in the Senate, violent in the Territories, and, nfbrally, even 
 
BOUTUKKN IIIKIII I MMA 1 lilMAT-. 61 
 
 more viuk'iit in the Supreme Court. IleTiee, ;i reiml»lic;m jienplo 
 was aroused, and j)eaceable revolutiun became imitossiblc 
 
 Let us also recui^iii/.o tlie wisdom i>t" the ci)nduett)rs ol" tbe re- 
 bellion in rejecting all overtures of political men lor a com])ro- 
 mise. They understood the case better than did tliose who made 
 such overtures, and rijihtly judi^ed it better for all concerned, 
 either that slavery should be separated from republicani.sm, and 
 become independent and entirely dominant, or, that it should 
 yield entirely, and permit republicanism to become domiiumt. 
 As gently as possible does republicanism exercise its sway in our 
 government as it is; and not the manner of its exercisinj; this 
 Bway, but the fact that it does exercise it, and that slavery can 
 not, is the real trouble. 
 
 That this rebellion is not sectional, but springs, rather, from 
 hostile political princijtles, may be further shown by reference to 
 antecedents of prominent men. Passing by early soutliern patri- 
 ots, so uniformly known as republicans and opponents of slavery, 
 we notice, in these times, many of southern birth and education 
 who hold, nevertheless, and with consistency, to their integrity and 
 republicanism. President Lincoln is by birth a Kentuckian ; Gen. 
 Fremont a Carolinian. The Charleston Mercury., conscious of 
 the fact which we notice, and of its inliuence, set itself t(» the 
 task of personal detraction, in language which betrays the effect' 
 of the rebuke of such examples. We quote from its issue of May 
 18, 18G1 : 
 
 '■Major Anderson' has thus beon weaned from his country, and has known only 
 a servile allegiance to a Hag which gives him pay and rations ! So Scott, a mercenaiy 
 at seventy-five, knows not Virginia as a mother." * • » "Scott and Anukrsov 
 and Cassils Clay and Andy Johnson and a few besides will enjoy, we fixncy, but a 
 brief season in the misrei)resentation of Kentucky and Tennessee. These are not 
 brethren — they never were brethren. They were always mercenaries, and will so 
 continue to the end of the chapter." 
 
 The Mercury thus shows that its standard for " brethren " is 
 slavery and its cause, and not nativity. 
 
 On the other hand, it is also noticeable that a considerable por- 
 tion of the active and influential men, on tbe side of slavery and 
 its rebellion, were born and educated at the North. Yancey, Sli- 
 dell, Yulee, and All)ert Pike may be mentioned as sjjecimcns 
 of this class. The fact of which we speak M-as lately no- 
 
62 NORTHERN BIRTH IMMATERIAL. 
 
 ticed, on the ground, by the correspondent of the London Times. 
 lie says : 
 
 " For out and out Southern notions, there is nothing in Dixie's hind like the suc- 
 cessful eniignmt Ironi the North and East." 
 
 A correspondent of the New York World., writing Lately from 
 Nashville, Tenn., says that the bitterest, most unreasonable, unre- 
 lenting secessionists there, are natives of the North, mostly of 
 New England ; and he adds : 
 
 "The Adjutant-General of the regular confederate army — Samuel Cooper — was 
 born in New York. Brig.-General Ripley was born in Ohio ; Pemberton in Pennsyl- 
 vania ; Whiting, Pike, Ruggles, and Blanchard in Massachusetts ; French in New 
 Jersey. 
 
 "Massachusetts furnishes as many generals for the rebel army as either Alabama 
 or Mississippi, one more than Texas, as many as Florida, Arkansas and Missouri, all 
 together, and lacking one of half as many as South Carolina. Of course these men 
 were citizens at the South at the brealdng out of the rebellion." 
 
 But northern men who advocate slaveiy, and sustain its rebel- 
 lion, are not merely those who live in Slave States. There is 
 scarcely a neighborhood in all the North where this may not be 
 abundantly proved and illustrated. 
 
 A leading political j)aper at the capital of the State of New 
 York, speaking of a correspondent's proposal of an apprentice 
 system, says : 
 
 " It is to be compulsory and we presume hereditary. We are glad to hear it. ' If 
 we cannot alter things, by Jove we'll change their names, sir.' " * * * "Call the 
 blacks apprentices, double their work and tighten their compulsion, and all perhaps 
 will be well again.'"* 
 
 And the same paper, after the bondjardment of Fort Sumter, 
 advised to resist the President's requisition of troops to put down 
 the rebellion. f 
 
 In short, everywhere, and without regard to section, climate or 
 productions, they who believe in human slavery and in govern- 
 ment adapted to it, do, and they logically must, justify and, so 
 far as they can, sustain this rebellion and the revolution which it 
 attempts ; fur the obvious reason that the republican system es- 
 tablished by our fathers is, in principle, hostile to slavery, and ir- 
 reconcilable with the system which slavery necessitates. 
 
 * Alljany Atlas and Argus, June 28, ISGl. t Same paper, Ai)ril 15, IfsGl. 
 
ACQl'IKSCKNT ADMINISTKATIONS. G'i 
 
 Wo turn to till- iiiou on whom is tU-volvt,'"! thu duty of j»uttiii<^ 
 «lo\vii the ivl)ullioM, Jirrestin^ tlu' llirt-atL'iicd revolution, ami .^us- 
 tiiinini; uur constitutional f^iovcrnnicnt. 
 
 In the former part of this essay, the ])ersonality of individuals 
 and of political orpcanizationp, was i)uri)0sely avoided, in order to 
 avoid ilivertini:!; attention from jyrineiples. This is still <lesii-al)le ; 
 yet it is not ])raetica1)le to treat j)ro[)erly of this crisis, without 
 treating of the ])ersons who are engaged in it. 'J'his will, there- 
 fore, be done directly anil plaiidy, but not further than is deemed 
 necessary in order })roperly to unilerstand the great subject before 
 us. 
 
 It is but just to the successive heads of the accpiicscent admin- 
 istrations which preceded ^Ir. LincobTs, to relieve them i'vinn a 
 large share of the personal lilanie which has been laiil upon them, 
 and to charge it lK)me, rather, npon the j)eople themselves. Those 
 men were ni)t elected to resist the encroachments of slavery. Some 
 wlio helped to elect them may have supposed that they would do 
 so; but they had really no right to suppose so. Those candidates 
 have proved, on the whole, fair representatives of the interest 
 which has elected them ; and Mr. Douglas, had he been elected, 
 and lived to administer the government, could not reasonably have 
 been more blamed for acting still further on the principle of ac- 
 quiescence in Avhatever new claims slavery ipight have made dur- 
 ing his administration. The point is this: that the people of this 
 country, by their elections, do really direct its policy. When — 
 and not before — the people liad fully determined upon effecting 
 a change, it was done. It was not !Mr. Lincoln who eflected it, 
 but the people who, directly and indirectly elected him; and the 
 great reason, now, why Mr. Lincoln is not and can not, in his ad- 
 ministration, also be an acrpiiesccnt in the demands and wishes 
 of the slave interest is, that he was not elected for that i)urpose, 
 but was elected to stand up steadily and firmly against them. 
 
 It is con>paratively easy for a president to do what he knows he 
 was elected to do; but it would l)e a task, the performance of which 
 is reasonably to be expected of no man — not even of a Jackson or 
 of a Napoleon, under our system — to stand at the head of aftairs 
 iu resistance to the purposes of those who placed him there. 
 
 Not James Buchanan, but the Cincinnati Convention of 1856, 
 and the electors who ratified its ])roccedings, ])re]>ared for and ne- 
 cessitated the measures of his administration. To the candid ob- 
 
6-i ELECTION OF MK. LINCOLN. 
 
 server ai)pears a reasonable and harmonious consistency tlirongh- 
 out. lie was purposely elected to conciliate the slave interest; 
 and, that the measures in which he was required to acquiesce 
 were worse, even, than those in which his predecessors had been 
 required to acquiesce, is chargeable, not specially to the individual, 
 ready as he was for the required service, but to the advancing neces- 
 sities of slavery. They who had seen his name associated with 
 those of Mason and Soule, in the Ostend Manifesto, had no right 
 to be surprised at the character and conduct of his secession cabi- 
 net ; and it forcibly illustrates the truth which we would present, 
 that after the election of 18G0, even Mr. Buchanan became some- 
 what conservative of our republican system, and substituted, in 
 his cabinet, Dix and Holt for Floyd and Thompson. Indeed, the 
 transition of administration from Mr. Buchanan, as it was last 
 conducted by him, to Mr. Lincoln, as it was first exercised by him, 
 was attended by no sudden jar. It seemed almost too much like 
 the continuance of one administration to be entirely agreeable to 
 the special friends of either ; but it was conformable to the pop- 
 ular will. 
 
 The election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency was undoubtedly 
 an event of more than usual significance. They who opposed, as 
 well as they who favored it, were right in attaching to it v^ery se- 
 rious importance; but it was the result of no fortuitous combina- 
 tion. It was the intelligent and intended act of the people, but it was 
 nat, therefore, the less closely connected with the outbreak of the re- 
 bellion. Whether the election of some other man — the continuance, 
 for another quadrennial period, of an administration more acqui- 
 escent in the wishes of the rebellious interest — would not have 
 postponed or modified the open rupture, is not now a very mate- 
 rial question ; for we think nearly all will now agree — and, on 
 this point, time and reflection will but make the unanimity more 
 complete — that acquiescence was not a remedy for our threat- 
 ened danger — that it never was the proper remedy; nay, that it 
 directly and largely aggravated the danger and difiiculty which 
 it postponed. 
 
 AVhen the war broke out, renewed evidence was given that the 
 destinies of tiie country are in the hands of the people. They 
 rallied at once to tlie support of their government, with men and 
 with means, everywhere, save where the alternative of rebellion 
 had been taken, and where the State governments were in the 
 
KKl'lllIli 
 
 -M ui:vivr:s. ^5 
 
 control of tlie sl;ive intiTcst. The eolio of the rebel gnus which 
 opened on Fort Snniter had sciiively died along the coast of Caro- 
 lina Itefore the nation wa-; in arms. The administration of the 
 national irovernnient scarcely nttered its call, before the i>eoi)lo 
 responded, with numbers and amounts almost cnd)arrassing. 
 These resources would have sooiu-r come, if sooner called. When 
 the Star of the ^yext was lired un, and when, afterwards, the pro- 
 ject was Considered of withdrawing or of reinforcing the garris<:»u 
 in Fort Sumter, had the Ailininistration asked for forces, and 
 shown an unliesitating deternniuition to use them, forces in abund- 
 ance would have come; and when, finally, they began to be col- 
 lected, had it been the policy of the Administration to use them 
 imn^ediately to enforce the laws and suppress insurrection, there 
 might have been greater and S))eedier demonstrations of national 
 power. It was then evident, as was already demonstrated and 
 announced in the first part of this essay, that the national force, 
 and nothing but the national force, would bring us salvation. Had 
 this Conviction been earlier received, and acted on with the utmost 
 possible promptness by those at the head of our national affairs, 
 the people would not have been wanting on their part ; for they 
 were in advance of their officials in willingness to apply tiie 
 remedy suitable to the occasion — the only remedy which has 
 proved, or which could prove, eti'ective. 
 
 Notwithstanding all untoward circumstances, republicanism re- 
 vived and reasserted itself The national heart beat strongly, and 
 the national arm nerved itself with power. Sentiments that were 
 supposed to animate but a })ortion of the people, were found to 
 be general ; and neutrality, tiiat had lately assumed to be pojtular, 
 disappeared before the })laincr distinctions of the right and the 
 wrong. Greater than any testimony previously borne by our peo- 
 ple to the capacity of man for self-government, is that which they 
 now give; fur, in all the passing events, the great and noticeable 
 fact is, that the people^ and not any great statesman or general, are 
 saving their country and its institutions. K'ot unlike the behav- 
 ior of a timid soldier in his first battle, have been the manoiuvres 
 of our political men. Gladly would they have parleyed, or shrunk 
 from the contest — some, even, who, at a distance, had boastfully 
 asked "who 's afraid V Men who had risen to positions of infiu- 
 ence, by persistently opposing compromise with slavery, had, at 
 
QQ OUR GOVERNMKNT AUKQUATE TO THE OCCASION. 
 
 last, engaged themselves in attempting such compromise, and, 
 warning their party, had said, openly : 
 
 " If the Republican party and the Republican Administration assume and perforin 
 the duty, they Avill save themselves while they are saving the countiy. If they 
 I'efuse to do it their adversaries will be the party of the country, and will claim the 
 advantages of that position."* 
 
 Fortunately for the conntry and for mankind, principles were 
 stronger than men. Tiie case did not admit of compromise ; the 
 conflict was irrepressible, and the forces moved on to the trial, the 
 question, too plain for future misunderstanding, being, Tepiiblic- 
 anism, and its government^ or slavery and its revolution ? 
 
 As our people were willing, so w\as our system of government 
 competent. There has been no occasion whatever for the anxious 
 solicitude with which many have looked for deliverance from our 
 troubles by some great man or some special wisdom. The way out 
 of them was already clearly laid down by our fathers in our Con- 
 stitution and laws — too ])lainly for misunderstanding or mistake. 
 " The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United 
 States of America" — he shall swear: "I will faithfully execute 
 the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best 
 of my ability, preserve, protect and defeiui the Constitution of 
 the United States" — "The President shall be commander-in- 
 chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia 
 of the several States when called into the actual service of the 
 United States " — -"he shall take care that the laws be faithfully 
 executed." Such are the provisions of the Constitution. The 
 laws correspond ; and congress, when called, was prompt to sup- 
 ply all needed additions. The path of duty was plain before the 
 Administration — as plain as it has ever been before any admin- 
 istration of any government. The politicians were uselessly offi- 
 cious who endeavored to contrive some method of avoiding tlie 
 issue so plainly presented to those whose duty it was to adminis- 
 ter. the govermnent; and the error of these latter was in hesitat- 
 ing to advance promptly in the path of the Constitution and the 
 laws — in waiting for somebody else to do Avhat the Constitution 
 had devolved on the federal executive. They were not answera- 
 ble for consequences. They were only answerable for duties. The 
 
 * Albany J'^vening ./tua-nri?, February 11, 1801. 
 
\\K CHOSE MODKRATION. 67 
 
 ijroat error of all, next to that of the rehuUioii itself, \\i\A hoeii too 
 littK' faith in tlie ]>ractical excellence of our I'epuhlican system 
 m1' H;(ivrniiiu'iit. Passing; events are wonderfully enlar«;ini^ and 
 contiriniui; this t'aith ; and, it is to he liojted that never ai^ain will 
 the iiieiuory of our lathers he wn^iijed, and the arm of our power 
 l)e in any degree paralyzed hy want of faith in the adequacy of 
 the government which they hequeathcd to us, and which W(^ have 
 so severely tried, and have not found wanting. Ilencel'orth, we 
 ii-ust it will he universally l)elieved — and not by our own ])eoplc 
 alone — that our national government may be, and should bo, 
 when retpiircd, the (piickest, the strongest, the most energetic and 
 enduring in the world. 
 
 But the administration of our government should not be blamed, 
 "xclusively, for what has been partici}>atcd in, and even caused,, 
 by the people themselves. Public sentiment in the loyal States 
 having shown itself harmonious now, in the purpose to sustain the 
 government and put down the rebellion, some have wondered why 
 it has not been more speedily done; and various and even con- 
 flicting reasons have been given for delay. Want of military 
 discipline, want of officers educated to war, want of arms, and of 
 ships, want of favorable weather, want of a policy in the admin- 
 istration, want of a delinite purpose in regard to slavery — as 
 some say, to crush it, or as others say, to preserve it — have been 
 assigned as the reasons ; but the true and more comprehensive 
 reason is to be found in our past course of opinion and action. 
 To the patient and candid. appears a divine justice, even in events 
 that we deprecate. Our jiolitical history and our political troubles 
 constantly show forth the relation of cause and effect ; and even 
 the tardy manner in which we are compelled to struggle out of 
 our present troubles, is due less to inherent necessity than to in- 
 cumbrances created by ourselves. 
 
 In the conduct of affairs the nation, now, has to look for salva- 
 tion to its executive head ; but how, and for what, was that head 
 selected ? It can not be forgotten that it was specially chosen 
 with a view to niode^Ation. Four years before, the Eepublican 
 partv, standing boldly uj)on principle, fought an open ]>olitical 
 battle. Triumphant in argument, and sustained by all the dem- 
 onstrations of fast occurring events, it yet failed then of attaining 
 governmental control. As the election of ISOO approached, the 
 clamor on the one hand against radical opinions, and the desire 
 
68 CONSERVATISM. 
 
 on the other to avoid another defeat, led to nmch talk and en- 
 deavor to "unite the opposition." Moderation and conservatism 
 were much commended and favored ; and the problem of secur- 
 ing:: these, and the support which tliev could bring, without aban- 
 donment of principles, was well solved by the selection and elec- 
 tion of our present executive head. But the election over, these 
 tliinfrs could neither be forgotten nor evaded. An election in this 
 country has a meaning ; and, how much soever political men may 
 be charged with dereliction of principle, candor compels the ad- 
 mission that principles are, notwithstanding, generally observed. 
 Even James Buchanan did what he could for the interest and 
 power which elected him, and did substantially as he was ex- 
 ]iected to do. That such is the general rule, and that it is more 
 and more strictly observed among us, vindicates our republican- 
 ism, shows that the people do govern, and shows, too, that the real 
 responsibility for national weal or woe belongs to the people them- 
 selves. What, then, was reasonably to be expected by this nation 
 from the present executive ? Not, indeed, that the policy of pre- 
 ceding administrations, in yielding implicitly to the dictates of 
 the slave interest, and the guidance of secessionists, should be fol- 
 lowed ; but, certainly, that the principles of republicanism should 
 be applied with moderation. 
 
 In the contest with Mr. Douglas for the senatorship in Illinois, 
 which did so much to give Mr. Lincoln his national reputation, 
 the particular charge against which he had most frequently and 
 anxiously to defend himself and his party, was, of radicalism — 
 of disregard of southern rights, in a desire to elevate the negro to 
 social equality. This charge was both made with pertinacity, and 
 repelled with care, because both men well understood that it was 
 regarded as an important matter by the people whose votes they 
 were seeking. Doubtless that contest, while it commended Mr. 
 Lincoln to the conservative men of the country, impressed still 
 more u[)on his own mind the conviction of necessity for modera- 
 tion in applying the principles of republicanism ; and not unrea- 
 sonably may he now sui)pose that, to the pt-evalence of the same 
 opinion among the people, he owes his election as President of 
 the United States. As a true representative man, is he not, then, 
 bound to be moderate ? and if he is so, even to a fault, upon 
 whom, more than upon the people themselves, rests the responsi- 
 bility? 
 
NKOAIIVK POLICY IIAIUKI) OK AnoLITloN'. (i!) 
 
 AVc can iiii;iiriiu' how n hold nijiii, roiniiiu^ wlien lie did to tlio 
 invsidi'iicv, iniiilit have led the nation; and liow jironipt decision 
 and actittn niii:;lit have aidvd the popuhir judi^ment ; and can mc 
 that nothing in (»ur system of i^ovi-rnnient stood in the way of 
 sucli action; but the nation had careluUy avoided choosinjxa bold 
 man, an«l hail tiiereby purposely imposed upon itself a Fabian, 
 rather than a Napoleonic, policy. Had the election of IsCO been 
 positive in its issues, instead of negative, a ])ositive jKilicy miuht 
 reasonably have been expected. Among people still claiming 
 to be loyal, both the friends and the opjionents of the successful 
 candidates, treated the success as negative. Prominent liepub- 
 licans e\en hastened to otter compromise; the supporters of Mr. 
 Douglas clamored '''- ])eacc — no coercioii^^^ challenging a declara- 
 tion of policy in order to oppose it, and only ram})ant rcliellion 
 was j)ositive. Large numbers seemed to exjiect that Mr. Lincoln 
 would do no more than Mr. Buchanan had done, when, in the 
 gentlest possible manner, he dismissed traitors from his cabinet, 
 and undertook to continue the government, ignoring rebellion. 
 Under such circumstances the i)retexts were treated with most 
 distinguished consideration. All may now see how utterly insig- 
 nificant they really were; that the crisis did not turn at all upon 
 them, but that it was an unavoidable collision of great and organ- 
 ized forces — a contest for mastery between democratic republic- 
 anism, as embodied in our constitutional system, and slavery, 
 with its now recognized necessities. 
 
 Yet, singularly enough, an imperfect consciousness of the truth, 
 stayed the arms of the forces on the side of the right. This gen- 
 eration of our people has been assiduously educated into hatred 
 of abolition. To fight against slavery seemed to them too much 
 like engaging in forcible abolition, and, therefore, large numbers 
 took arms under protest. They protested against any sympathy 
 for the slave, or any denial of tiie master's "right" to continue 
 slavery. They who have called on our government for a more 
 vigorous and anti-slavery policy should remember how strong are 
 the prejudices of a life-time, even among educated and reasoning 
 jieople. They might see that the same selfish indecision between 
 the right and the wrong, which nursed the rebellion into life, 
 stayed the hands of the people at first, when vigorous force and 
 decisive action should have suppressed it. The indecision of the 
 
70 CONSERVATIVES — KEPU15LICANS IJMMIGEANTS. 
 
 executive was but the reflex of the previous indecision of the 
 people. 
 
 But the educational influences of the times liave heen great and 
 effective. Our government and our liberties being attacked, our 
 people have been compelled to think of their defence, and what 
 that defence requires. The actual necessities of rej>ublicanisni 
 and its government occupy their thoughts, M-hicli before were 
 too much occupied with tlie clamorous demands of slavery. Not 
 merely by the booming of cannon and the clash of arms, not 
 merely by great national perils at home and abroad, but also by 
 small and still voices, and through a thousand avenues of reason 
 and affection, have patriotic convictions come to tlie minds and 
 hearts of the people; and not greater is the contrast presented 
 now, by our martial hosts, compared with our former peacefulness, 
 than is presented in the change of our public opinion. There is 
 no mistaking the character of the determined conviction becom- 
 ing unanimous. The cob- web sophistries woven about us are bro- 
 ken and scattered to the winds ; the principles of republicanism are 
 restored to their legitimate ascendancy ; men, previously blinded, 
 see what really is the government founded by our fathers ; they 
 recognize tlieir own duties, and resolve upon their performance; 
 and, instead of shrinking and cowering under the denunciations 
 and threatenings of slavery, they clasp their arms around the pil- 
 lars of the republic, rejoicing in liberty and security. 
 
 Yet with many, very many of our people, no change of opin- 
 ion was needed. Tiie character of our government and the char- 
 acter of slavery were understood by them, substantially, as lierein 
 exhil)ited, and, therefore, the contest which we witness has not 
 found them surprised or unprepared. To these it comes, indeed, 
 not unattended by a kind of sad satisfaction, like a long breath 
 of suspense relieved — even like the breaking of morning after a 
 night of darkness. 
 
 Another large class of our people fall naturall}' and harmoni- 
 ously into the ranks of the defenders of our republican institu- 
 tions — our citizens from other lands. They came here because 
 they are republicans. By all their sad and pleasant memories of 
 the past, by all their bright hopes of the future, they must coop- 
 erate zealously and heartily to maintain the cause of the Ameri- 
 can republic, supported by the stout hearts and strong arms of its 
 own people, against the assaults of the American despotism, seek- 
 
DISSOLVING OK IJ-l-l SU»NH. 71 
 
 ins; alliance and 6ui)p<»rt ln»ni European monarcliies, Tlieir iinan- 
 iniity in duin^ so, is neither aceidental nur itree<:»ncerted, l)ut re- 
 sults from the natural operations of iidierent causes, as reliable as 
 the principles of human nature. 
 
 The yieldinj^ act|uieseL'nce in the encroachments of shnery, 
 which has characterized the people of this country for many years, 
 is justly attril)utal)le, in larire deirree, to their love of our repub- 
 lican goverunu'iit, paradoxical as the ])roposition may seem. 
 Slavery seemed to them a part of our system. It has been called 
 an institution. The ijovernmental system itself they realized to 
 be good ; and they were deceived into acquiescence in the de- 
 mands of slavery by the threatened danger to rcj)ublicanism. It 
 had become the standard method with ])oliticians, in extorting ac- 
 quiescence, to praise the T^nion and the Constitution ; in so much, 
 that when a speaker or an editor entered upon the subject, all 
 knew at once that he meant Slavery. The Union^ the Condita- 
 tion., and the cnforecment of the lairs^ practicall}' interpreted, meant 
 — The Union, to be preserved only by acquiescing in whatever 
 terms the slave interest might demand ; the Constitution, that is, 
 the guarantees for slavery claimed to be in the Constitution ; the 
 enforcement of the Laws, that is, the enforcement of the Fugitive 
 Slave Law. 
 
 But slavery, in striking at our republican system of govern- 
 ment, has dissolved this illusion, and at once emancipated the 
 masses of the people from the mental thraldom which held them 
 while slavery seemed to them a part of our government. The 
 very aifection for our republican system which had caused them 
 to seem friendly to slavery, made them its determined enemies, 
 when slavery, in its doomed career, undertook to overthrow our 
 government, and the error, which connected slavery with its pre- 
 servation, is banished forever. 
 
 It would have been wise in the Administration of our govern- 
 ment to tiike immediate and full advantage of this change — it 
 should even have been antici]x\ted. Yet, that the Administra- 
 tion was slow to trust to its reality and extent, was, as has been 
 shown, the natural result of our antecedent histor}-. The chance 
 at that time, and the only chance, for arresting civil war, was to 
 be found in an immodiatc and overwhelming array of national 
 force; and not merely in its array, but in an unmistakable de- 
 termination to use it immediately to suppress the insurrection. It 
 
72 FOIIBEAE^^CE. 
 
 was useless and dangerous to intimate that United States officers 
 would not be appointed where they were not acceptable to the 
 disalfected, to treat with " distinguished consideration " governors 
 who refused or neglected to comply with sworn constitutional du- 
 ties, or to substitute, in any other particular, the suggestions of 
 tem])orizing expediency, for the plain and positive injunctions of 
 the Constitution and laws. These were wiser than any policy. 
 No countenance should have been given to the idea, bj" any hesi- 
 tation implying choice, that resistance to insurrection was a pol- 
 icy ; but all should have been made immediately to see and feel 
 that it was a necessity — that it was the government of the United 
 States, and not a political party — the president of the United 
 States, and not Abraham Lincoln or his advisers — the laws of 
 the land, and not the policy of an xldministration, that resisted 
 rebellion and revolution. Forbearance was wasted on predeterm- 
 ined revolutionists. It embarrassed, not them, but the govern- 
 ment ; encouraged spies and traitors everywhere, and naturally 
 led to the exercise, on other occasions, of doubtful and arbitrary 
 power. Possibly it was then already, of necessity, a case in which, 
 without the shedding of blood — even of much blood — there 
 could be no remission of sins ; and yet, it seems possible that su- 
 perior forces arrayed everywhere against insurrection might have 
 prevented a battle anywhere. Meeting the enemies of our gov- 
 ernment so often with inferior forces, and especially in the contest 
 at Bull liun, insured the conversion of insurrection into civil 
 war ; and the tolerant policy of fighting rebellion gently, gave the 
 first real alarm to the staunch friends of our government, and 
 aggravated our national difficulties and dangers at home and 
 abroad. 
 
 Yet this very policy has, in another aspect of results, afforded 
 to the country and to the world magnificent evidence of the re- 
 cuperative power of our popular republican system. Had the 
 man on whom devolved the duty of exercising the executive 
 power of the nation seen, in the beginning, as clearly as he proba- 
 bly now does, our great national resources, and the duty of using 
 them promj)tly, national salvation might have seemed to come 
 from the man, rather than, under Heaven, from the people them- 
 selves ; and history might have attributed the nation's survival 
 of the crisis to accidental or providential interposition, rather tluxn 
 
INI'KliKXCES. ,3 
 
 to the philosopliiciil cxccUunco ul" our "govern mental systuiii, ami 
 tlic noiinal iuspirtitiun ui" ti wliulu i)L't)j)le. 
 
 Duulitful, and even (lisustroiis, iniw;lit have been the result, if 
 our federal ])oliey had been nK)ulded at this time upon the pre- 
 eoneeived iileas or iLiupori/iii^ ^u;.'•^a'^stions of politieiaiis, called, 
 by their admirers, (ji\at t>tatti<in< >i. As it is, and despite a presi- 
 dent justly credited for integrity of purposi', their schemes have 
 doubtless wrought the country much mischief; not merely through 
 the ])eculatit)n and patronage attending enormous expenditures, 
 but thr^'Ugh the jealous rivalries that would obstruct national sal- 
 vatic»n. These things being ]»art of the rationale of the crisis, 
 mention of them is not inipro])er, but their further consideration 
 not being essential to the purpose before us, they are gladly dis- 
 missed. 
 
 AVe have seen what are the essential ]n-incip>les and chaiacter 
 of our constitutional system of government, and, on the other 
 hand, what are the necessities of slavery, and how naturally it has 
 come to rebel against our government — have seen what is really 
 the impelling power behind the persons who have advanced to 
 represent and sustain tiie proposed revolution — have, also, glanced 
 at Some leading events in our political history affecting particu- 
 larly the questions before us, and have considered somewhat the 
 action of the men wlio support our government. Certain infer- 
 ences flowing logically and inevitably from the facts and jirinci- 
 ples hereinbefore stated, demand our attention, and will now 
 briefly be considered. 
 
 First. The length of the war dei)ends, chiefly, upon the Federal 
 Executive. 
 
 Sceo)id. The ])roper end and object of the war is, the restora- 
 tion of the legitimate supremacy of the General Government 
 throughout the land. 
 
 I. Regarding the first of these propositions, it has been shown 
 that the contest being one of principles essentially irreconcilable, 
 is necessarily a contest of forces — a trial of strength between re- 
 publicanism and slavery. They who have failed to recognize this 
 fundamental truth have failed, utterly and continually, to a}>pre- 
 ciate the magnitude and persistency of the contest. Recognizing 
 the nature of the crisis, it was easy, a year ago, to prescribe the 
 national force as the remedy for our national ailment. Looking 
 then at the relative strenE^th of the rijrht side and of the wronjr 
 
74: FOKCES AYArL^VELE FOR TIIE REBELS. 
 
 side ill the contest of force, it seemed easy, also, to foresee which 
 must ])revail. But the result of a contest depends upon the forces 
 used, ]-atlier than upon the forces possessed. Many reasons have 
 herein been given, and many more must have suggested them- 
 selves to the thoughtful reader, why those engaged in this rebel- 
 lion would put forth their strength ])romptly and fully. They 
 understood the rationale of this crisis sooner and better than those 
 did whom they opposed ; and, when they resolved on rebellion, 
 had already emancipated themselves from conscientious restraints. 
 In this they were helped by their known inferiority of real 
 strength, and it was because they expected to use a greater rela- 
 tive proportion of their strength, and to use it faster, that they 
 counted, nevertheless, upon success. They believed that the sup- 
 porters and representatives of republicanism, less earnest than the 
 supporters and representatives of slavery, would hesitate to use 
 force, and would cling rather to ])eace and acquiescence. Many 
 of the false hopes with which loyal people have deluded them- 
 selves as to the fiiilure, diversion, or arrest of the rebellion, were 
 exposed in our earlier pages. Experience is demonstrating not 
 only that it could not and would not stop of itself, or be arrested, 
 save by the exercise of superior national force, but that its power, 
 in men, money and means, was not insignificant. They M^ho 
 thought otherwise forgot that all the possessions of slavery were 
 necessarily staked on success ; and that the rebellious interest be- 
 ing strong enough in a given section of country to start on its ca- 
 reer, could not and would not afterwards wait for volunteers. 
 They forgot the essential nature of military despotism into which 
 the whole people of that section were inevitably plunged by the 
 first rusli, and that, b}'^ allowing headway to the rebellion, every 
 man and every dollar within its reach were subjected to its con- 
 trol. 
 
 A Savannah (Georgia) correspondent wrote to the Richmond 
 (Virginia) DcMpatcli: 
 
 "Oiu- citizens (tlie few wlio rciiuuiicd) liavc been arrested on the street, di'agged 
 to camp, shown a tent, and iufuruied that there their habitation sliould be. And this 
 has been done by a parcel of beardless boys, who have been mustered into the State 
 service." 
 
 This specimen accords with the system which we know, from 
 the nature of the case, must prevail wherever the rebellion domi- 
 
HOSTILITY OF ANTI-REPUBLICAN GOVEnXMENTS. 7!} 
 
 nates. ICvcii I'liioii stroiigtli counts fur the n-hL-ls where tliey,uiul 
 not we, ean ai>j)ropriate it. To tlu-ir jiowi-r ol" coercing all iioiiii- 
 iially tVt'e people within their reach to contrihiitc ijoods, services, 
 and life to sustain the rebelliun, must be added, also, that which 
 they have loncf possessed and e.xercised — the i)owcr to extort 
 their livinir, in the mean time, from the labor of their slaves. Still 
 another great element of power at the service of any enemy of 
 our republicanism, is, the hostility of other and anti-republican 
 fijovernments. Slavery knew this, and did not omit to prc])are in 
 time to secure its full advantages. 
 
 The correspondent of the Charleston Mercxiry^ in tiie letter from 
 which some extracts have ali-eady been iriven, Nvritten from Wash- 
 ingt«in, January 11, 1S57, when Mr. Buchanan was about making 
 up his cabinet, says: 
 
 "Tlio rt'])rosi.'ntativos from tlu; Ccmtinciital Powers aro studious in their attentions 
 to southern Senators and Kej)resentatives, and it is to be hoped the interest will lie 
 returned with a good will. We siiould seek, by all the means in our jiower, to pro- 
 mulgate, through these official sources, the principles and ideas of the South. 
 
 '•It would be very desirable, even if our politicians were to lend their influence in 
 favor of the Continental party in Europe, by having the right sort of men at the 
 most imjiortant points commercial and diplomatic. The elements contending for ad- 
 mission into Mr. Buchanan's cabinet here indicate how watchful and earnest the 
 South should be iu this crisis." »*»»»•#»# 
 
 '•We may accomplish a great deal, however, by building up alliances and friend- 
 ships on the Continent of Euro)>e. We may, through proper co6peration, do much, 
 very much, for ourselves abroad." 
 
 The hasty recognition of the rebels as belligerents, by the two 
 nations of Europe who could be most dangerous to ours, shows that 
 these precautions of slavery were not fruitless. Not the least of 
 the foolishness and wickedness of our past Administrations, and 
 of the people who sustained them, has been the sending to other 
 nations of anti-republican men, as the re])resentatives of our na- 
 tion. The inherent hostility of anti-republican governments to 
 our own, as illustrated by the conduct of Eurojican nations at this 
 time, is a marked and significant feature of this crisis ; but its 
 full consideration would require more space than can here be 
 spared. It was wisely calculated on as an effective ally of the 
 rebellion against our republican government, and this we would 
 doubtless more fully have learned to our cost, if the demonstra- 
 tion of our vitality and force had been but a little longer delayed. 
 Added to the other resources of the rebels, the possible advantages 
 
7 b OUR NATIONAL FORCE. 
 
 wliicli tliey ini^lit derive from this, would make an array of force 
 against our government greater than has generally been suppused 
 possible. 
 
 But, on the other hand, there seems to have been even a greater 
 failure to ajtjireciate the national force which could be opposed to 
 rebellion. The nature of the contest l)eing such as we see, the 
 whole resources of the people of the republic, counting eveiy man 
 and every dollar, and including even the rebellious districts, as 
 fost as they could be reached, are, by the nature of the case, 
 pledged to the support of our republican government against any 
 and all of its enemies. We have, as has been shown, a govern- 
 ment fully organized, capable of n.])plying these resources to any 
 needed extent. The will to use them to the needed extent un- 
 doubtedly exists in the people, and, though slow in its manifest- 
 ations, it exists, also, in the Administration of our government. 
 How great this power really is, we may not now know, and the world 
 may never know ; but if, by demonstration, it shall ever be known, 
 the world will be astonished at its magnitude. Unwisely, in this 
 contest, many have been seeking the limitations of our national 
 power. They can only be found by trial; and this contest, great 
 as it is, can not even approximate to its measurement. Had 
 England and France joined hands with slavery against our repub- 
 licanism, and had our Government, responding to the sentiments 
 of the people, rallied for the contest, the array against us, includ- 
 ing all whom those two great nations of Europe, with their navies, 
 could bring to our shores, would, even then, have been no cause 
 for des|)air. Necessity is the rule and the only limitation in mil- 
 itary defence by a republic, as well as by other governments; and 
 in circumstances sufficiently urgent, not only our four millions of 
 white men, ca23able of bearing arms, but another million, also, of 
 our darker brethren might then be deemed worthy to strike with 
 us the enemies of republicanism. 
 
 Our numerical force, our isolation as the masters of a con- 
 tinent, our grain-producing facilities and extended territory, are 
 by no means our only, and scarcely are they our distinguishing, 
 advantages. j\[an i\>v man, there has never existed, anywhere, a 
 peo])le ca[)able of being so terribly dangerous in war. They have, 
 it is true, been addicted rather to the arts and the policy of peace. 
 But they are wonderfully inventive and versatile. The old art 
 of war is, in these daj's, subjected to rajud changes under the in- 
 
oru rAi'AHii.irv i-oi: wau. 77 
 
 flueiu'o of invriition and iiiijirnvoiiu'iit. iMakc war tlio ^nvaf mar- 
 ket tor Aiiu'ricaii iiivi-iitioii ami i-ntci-prisi', and now (]c\eli)j)ini'nts 
 woiiM l»e ^ivcii to (Kstnictivo jxiwcr, licloi-c wliicli tlu- itri'stip;e 
 oftlie liuinaii inachiiicrv of standinu: ariiiit.'.s and the jn-owcss of 
 old navios woidd wane. Already has this been illustrated to such 
 extent in this wai- as to afti-act attention from aliroail.and to raise 
 the ([uestion amoni; ourselves, whi'lher our own military ami naval 
 systems are not too antiipiated, and to suiTi^est comparisons of 
 effective results not always fa\'oralilo even to those whom our 
 country has sjieeially educateil to war. In the old art of the or- 
 ganization and movement of armies, the men of this country have 
 advantaijies. They are trained in or<j;anization. Our ])olitical or- 
 fj^anizations, our voluntary relii^ious orixani/ations, our industrial, 
 educational, eleemosynarv, artistic, and social orijanizations, in 
 \vhich our people so generally particijiate, make the business of 
 organization familiar to all; and, as necessity refjnires, the same 
 people readily and handily iipply its principles to war. They 
 make good soldiers and good officers, because they understand 
 their mutual duties and obligations. Not years, and scarcely 
 months, are required to give to their movements and disci])line 
 the perfection usually predicated only of veterans ; and, impatient 
 of domination as sovereigns are supposed to be, American soldiers 
 do not mutiny. Not satisfied with cheerful conformity in essen- 
 tials entrusted to Government, our people, through voluntary as- 
 sociations, afford cflTective assistance in incidental and important 
 details. "Witness the Sanitary Commission, guarding the health 
 of our soldiers, nursing the sick and the wounded, and demonstra- 
 ting that our women, as well as our men, can, by making it more 
 usei'ul and eft'ective, greatly augment the national force. 
 
 But the occasion which we have supposed as possibly most try- 
 ing to our national f*)rce, can never come unattended by other 
 great elements of power. Our traditional policy, according, also, 
 with our principles, is peace. Other nations will never have op- 
 portunity to attack us, even when we may be taken at a disad- 
 vantage, except by placing themselves in the wrong. In such a 
 war, waged against us by even two or three of the most powerful 
 nations of Europe, we should stand as the representatives of re- 
 publicanism for the world; and the growing republicanism of the 
 world would help us. The cause of our Federal Union would be 
 the cause of oppressed nationalities everywhere, and the cause of 
 
To Tins LENGTH OF THE WAR DEPENDS UPON TIIE EXECUTIVE. 
 
 our people would be the cause of man. We are already too big 
 and strong to be crushed out of existence at once. Our seaboard 
 cities and exposed positions might be taken or destroyed ; but, 
 ere the life of the nation could be touched or greatly endangered 
 by the combined despots and aristocracies of the world, they 
 would be called home to defend their own possessions. No; it is 
 too late in the history of the world for outside enemies success- 
 fully to attack our American republicanism. If true ourselves to 
 its principles, their array against it would seem like the signal 
 for the last great conflict — ''the Armageddon of the world." 
 
 Such being our national power and capability, notwithstanding 
 the array against us, little more is needed to establish the first 
 proposition of our conclusion. That force is the proper remedy 
 for the rebellion, is demonstrated now by experiment, and it was 
 morally certain before. A power, too great and dangerous to be 
 despised or. disregarded, is arrayed against us, and it will cer- 
 tainly yield to nothing but the actual cogency of a greater power. 
 We have that greater power, and, though it is capable of long 
 endurance, all the economies urge us to use it quickly. Our 
 force is abundant, our government is competent, our people are 
 willing. The executive department of our government is pur- 
 posely organized and adapted for such use. It is the nation's 
 agent for the exercise of the nation's force. It has the simplicity 
 and directness of a single head, and within its legitimate sphere, 
 which certainly includes this case, it may, congress supplying 
 the means, have all the effectiveness which any government can 
 ever have — even were it a monarchy or a despotism. Not the 
 vigorous exercise of executive power, but the neglect to exercise 
 it now, would be unconstitutional. Allowing only the time nec- 
 essary for the production of results, we must infer, therefore, that 
 the length of the war depends, and has from the beginning de- 
 pended, upon the Federal Executive. 
 
 II. They who have had the patience carefully to follow our 
 course of investigation, and es])ecially all who agree substantially 
 with the statement of ])rinci]>les herein, will find little difiiculty 
 in agreeing, also, that the ]n*o])er end and object of the war is the 
 restoration of the legitinuite supremacy of the General Government 
 throughout the land. 
 
 In the beginning, they who did not see the way clear for the 
 restoration of the United States authority, in all the States, were 
 
sr.AVKUY DANGKUULB, liUT M>T DIlilCtTI.V I'UMSIIAllI.i:. 79 
 
 sulliciciitly munerons to f^lve just causu for anxiety, on account 
 of tlio (lan<^('rs which niii^ht, at such a time, result iVoni divided 
 ctmnsels. 1'licir iiiciiiicnt phiiis antl su<rij;cstions for Pe])aratiun 
 ami reconstruction were e.\cee<liiii;ly mischievous. I'ew doubt 
 now ', and nearly all agree that the federal authoiity must every- 
 where be restored. IJut all do not ai^ree that fhis is enour^h. 
 Some, reactinjj; from the alarm which lirst made them despair of 
 the integrity uf the llepublic, and others, anxious to seize what 
 they deem a rare and most favorable o})j»ortunity, would direct 
 the action of the (reneral (iovernment against slavery, as the cause 
 of the rebellion. Jf the i'acts and inferences in these ])ages be cor- 
 rect, slavery undoubtedly is the cause of the rebellion and tlic 
 war; but it is in such sense the cause, as a defective organization 
 or constituti(jnal tendency is often the cause of crime in an indi- 
 vidual. AVisc pulilic authorities do not, in such case, punish tlie 
 tendency. They punish the criminal ; and encourage moral agen- 
 cies tor the reformation of the tendency. 
 
 Slavery is, for reasons which ^ve have given, and which might 
 be enlarged and multiplied, a dangerous element in a republic 
 It is bad for any government or any people, and its principle, as 
 has been shown, is utterly irreconcilable with republicanism. That 
 it must certainly cease, in each and every of these United States, 
 is as certain as that our people are wise — as certain as that God 
 is just. But that its immediate cessation in every State is neces- 
 sary to the life and development of the republic is disproved b}' 
 years of general republican prosperity, while it has continued. 
 It must, of course, be conceded, that if its existence for a time in 
 some of the States will lead to its perpetuation and extension, 
 and so to the destruction of republicanism, then its immediate 
 and utter extermination is a necessity ; also, that if, in the present 
 war, or in any other that may occur, proclamation of immediate 
 freedom for all, should become necessary in order to cripple our 
 enemy, or to bring us needed allies, it should be made, and should 
 be sustained by our national power; and this on the principle 
 that the safet}' of the peo])le is the highest law. But if, on a fair 
 examination and understanding of our political system, it clearly 
 appears that we ])0ssess therein, and through its normal action, 
 abundant and certain means of resisting all encroachments of 
 slavery, and also abundant and certain means of supj^ressing re- 
 bellion, even this rebellion for slavery, then it docs not ajtpear 
 
80 SLAVERY NEITHER ATTACKED NOR PROTECTED. 
 
 S 
 
 that the proper remedy for this rebellion, or the jDroper method 
 of avoiding similar calamities in the future, consists in the use of 
 abnormal means, or in changing or modifying our system of gov- 
 ernment ; and if, in addition, we can plainly see that our present 
 tribulations are chargeable to ourselves — to our OAvn selfishness, 
 corruption and neglect, and not to the system of government fur- 
 nished us l)y our fethers, it would obviously be a self-deceptive 
 blunder to tinker the system. 
 
 Notwithstanding the relation of cause and effect existing be- 
 tween slavery and the rebellion, in the sense herein explained, it 
 is easy to conceive of, and to treat, the one abstractly from the 
 other. This rebellion, caused by slavery, should be treated by 
 our Government substantially as rebellion against our government 
 arising from any other conceivable cause should be treated. It 
 should be crushed ; and the men engaged in it should be pun- 
 ished by our General Government /or heing engaged in rebellion., 
 and not for their connection with slavery. 
 
 On the other hand, there is no obligation resting on our Gov- 
 ernment to proceed gently with tlie rebellion, on account of sla- 
 A'ery. Slavery has, as has been shown, no guaranties in our con- 
 stitution, the guaranties claimed for it being general guaranties 
 for States or for people, and which are right and proper in them- 
 selves, independently of slavery ; and slavery being, in and of it- 
 self, a wrong, it can claim no moral rights whatever. Unhesi- 
 tatingly, therefore, should our Government advance in the sup- 
 pression of tliis rebellion. Having itself no care or responsi- 
 bility whatever for slaves as such,t]ie United States Government 
 is not to be expected, and should not be persuaded to try, to pre- 
 serve their character of slaves, when, in the j^erfoi'mance of its 
 military duty of suppressing the rebellion, it goes, with its ofiicers 
 and soldiers, into territory where slavery has been recognized and 
 protected bj' State governments. The men, and all the men, 
 whom it encounters there, are to be recognized and treated as men 
 — as loyal or rebellious, as friends or as enemies, accordingly as, 
 through their own personal conduct, the3M'espectively deserve ; 
 and if, in the absence or abeyance of State jurisdiction over the 
 social relations of the inhabitants, tiie United States Government 
 has, through its military furce, and during its militarj' occupation, 
 to assume the regulation of social relations, it should undoubtedly 
 do so, on the principles of right, and not on the ])rinciple3 of wrong 
 
LOCAL Mir.lTAKY OoVIJKXMKNT 1!V TIIK IMTKI) STATES. 81 
 
 — on the |)rincii>le.s of lihorty, mid m)t on the ])riiK'i|)les of sla 
 very. The United Stiites ( lovernnient teniitonirily iKhuini.sterin:^ 
 social and K)t'al ^<ivernnu-nt in Smiih ("an>liii;i, lias no mure oljli- 
 iiatioii (If ri^ht to en!j;ai;e in, or to conntenanee shivery, than it 
 wonhl have, (hiring military occupation of tiio Fegee Island-, to 
 engage in. or to countenance, cannihalism. 
 
 ^lueh has heen said of the moral obligations of the L'niled 
 States Ciovernnient to protect the " rights " of loyal slave owners 
 residing among disloyal people. The answer to this is two-fold : 
 ^p'rfif^ as slave owners, these jieople have no moral rights, nnd, 
 therefore, towards them, as such slave owners, the United States 
 Oovcrnment is under no moral obligations; and, secondly^ if not 
 their fault, it is at least their misfortune, that their State Govern- 
 ments, under which only, their legal "right" to hold slaves was 
 secured, have failed in their functions. They held their slaves 
 subject to this risk. The United States Government is under no 
 obligation to indemnify them. But in States where the social 
 relations of the people are still under the peaceful jurisdiction of 
 the State authorities, the United States forces can not properly 
 interfere. 
 
 This subject will be more fully understood by referring to the 
 character and nature of our respective governments. The United 
 States Government, though of limited jurisdiction, is nevertheless 
 n government^ i\\\(S. is the only war-making or war-conducting gov- 
 ernment which we constitutionally have. There is no constitu- 
 tional authority whatever for the war now being carried on in 
 this country, except as it is carried on on the part of the 
 United States Government. As a military governmental power, 
 the United States Government may, most undoubtedly, adminis- 
 ter local government wherever it may be required by military 
 necessity, and also where, during the abeyance or demoralization 
 of any State Government, by reason of war. the inhabitants of any 
 State or locality belonging to the United States, might otherwise 
 suft'er for want of governmental protection. This temporary local 
 government by the United States may be either with or without 
 the formal declaration of martial law. But the United States 
 Government has no right or constitutional power to establish or 
 maintain slavery in the course of such local government. More- 
 over, government by military law is government by force. Sla- 
 very, also, is maintained by force. But two separate systems of 
 6 
 
82 UMTED S I'ATES GOVEKNMICN f NOT A SLAVE GOVEKKMENT. 
 
 force can not bannoniously prevail at the same time, in tlie gov- 
 ernment of the same locality. The United States mnst, in such 
 case, have entire control over all the inhabitants of such locality, 
 with power to punish each individual for his own wrong acts, and 
 can not safely permit tiiat absolute control of individuals by others 
 .which is necessarily imi)lied by the system of slavery. There- 
 fore, constitutionally and by necessity, the United States Govern- 
 ment can not, in administering local government, undertake to sus- 
 tain slavery. Shaves, therefore, become free in such locality, not so 
 much because the United States Government does anything directly 
 to make or declare them free, as hecause there is no longer any govern- 
 inental authority to hold them as slaves. The United States Govern- 
 ment simply treats them as men, to be dealt with by its military 
 government as necessity, humanity and duty may dictate. It -can 
 not effectively declare them " forever free," because, its local gov- 
 ernment being only temporary, the State Government, on resum- 
 ing its functions, may I'educe them again to slavery. But the 
 United States Government may undoubtedly do as it has already 
 assumed to do, in certain cases, by law of congress, extinguish 
 entirely the claim which a rebellious individual may have to the 
 services of another individual, so that that claim can no longer 
 stand under State law, or any law, as the sanction for farther en- 
 slavement of the person thus freed. 
 
 According to these principles there is no more difficulty, and 
 there should be no more embarrassment, " in the United States 
 Government's performing its functions in the slave States, than in 
 its performing them in the free ; and, certainly, there should be 
 no more embarrassment in the necessary military occupation of 
 South Carolina, than there was in the military occupation of Mex- 
 ico. In both cases, local regulations and usages, not in their na- 
 ture wrong — not conflicting with the rights of man — and not 
 liostile in their cluiracter, should, doubtless, be respected ; but 
 th(j.se falling within these exceptions can properl}^ claim no aid 
 from the occupying power. In other words, the United States 
 Government, having neither rights nor obligations in respect to 
 slavery in the slave States, is as free to exercise its military au- 
 thority in them, as in the free States, in doing whatever may be 
 proper and effective to su]ipress the rebellion ; but, being under 
 both mcn-al and constitutional obligations to treat all men justly, 
 it can not without gross wi-ong and inconsistency, assume, during 
 
CAI.A.MiroiS TIMK I't "U si.AV KK V. S3 
 
 ti'iiipoiary miliUiry oc'ciipiition of any Stati', any i>f tlie luiictiun.s 
 jiocMiliar to a Slave (invernnu'nt. To do go, wouUl l)c voluntarily 
 and i;|•atuU(«ll^ly to [larticipate in the wiekcdnuss ot" ciislaviii;^ 
 Mit-n. 
 
 The (.'nil)arrassnK'nt.s in some minds on this subji'ct have, douht- 
 less, f^rown out ot" the ndschievous fallacy, havini;, itself, a modern 
 and fntifjjous j^rowtli, that slavery is, in some way, under the i)ro- 
 tection of the United States (Jovernment. It is not so; ^SVaA'.vand 
 '/)c'oj)Ii\ where slavery may exist, are under the protection of the 
 United States Government; l)ut slavery is solely dependent upon 
 State protection, save, till latel}', in the District of Columbia and 
 some other jtlaces, where the comity of the United States Govern- 
 ment has been extendi to cover wrong. When the people of 
 slave States rebelled, and thus invited military occupation of 
 their territory by United States forces, they voluntarily subjected 
 their darling "institution" to exposure, stripped of governmental 
 protection. Let them take the consequences. Neither the loyal 
 people of the United States nor the United States Government 
 can justly be called on to assume for them any part of the re- 
 sponsibility. To the Government it should not be of the least 
 consequence that slavery may greatly suffer in the course of, and 
 in consequence of, suppression of the rebellion; and to the people 
 it should be just canse of congratulation, that a stupendous wrong 
 is writhing under tlie wheels of the advancing car of the Almighty. 
 The moral sense in which slavery stands in the relation of cause to 
 this war, justifies the people now, and will forever hereafter justify 
 the historian in rejoicing that calamity has, in this case also, at- 
 tended wrong. 
 
 The measure of that calamity will inevitably be great, and be- 
 yond what the most comprehensive Iniman understanding can 
 now calculate. In the popular estimation — which is controlled 
 always by moral considerations — slavery stands already, every- 
 where, as the cause of this rebellion. Its mere tailure of success 
 destroys its political prestige. "When it was supposed to elect 
 our presidents, it was feared and respected, even if disliked. 
 Henceforth, and perpetually, till its last vestige shall disappear 
 from the land, it must carry with it the burden and disgrace of 
 this wicked war against "the best government on earth," and of 
 the disastrous and utter failure in which its war must inevitably 
 terminate, on the mere restoration of our legitimate national su- 
 
S-i THE WAK GREATLY AFFECTS SLAVERY. 
 
 premacy. Our legislative halls, our deliberative assemblies, our 
 churclies, our hustings, our streets, fields and homes, must con- 
 tinually reecho with the story of its deep damnation. 
 
 The war will greatly have affected the slaves themselves. Num- 
 bers of them will have become practically free beyond tlie possi- 
 bility of reenslavement, and in tlie minds and hearts of all, 
 thoughts and as23irations will have been introduced and stimu- 
 lated, prej^aring and leading them towards a change which, sooner 
 or later, must surely come. They will have seen their masters 
 vanquished, and this, of itself, means much. It is a lesson that 
 no time can erase, and no blind conceal. Wise masters will know 
 the lesson also, and ponder it thouglitfully ; and their wisdom 
 will, we are confident, not be without us'eful results. The deso- 
 lations spread by the war over the slave States will be lasting and 
 terrible remembrancers, drawing upon slavery the curses of the 
 people. The millions of money tliat must annually be contrib- 
 uted in taxes to pay the interest and principal of the war debt, 
 are items in the account which this and coming generations will 
 charge against slavery. And, more than all, mourning for the 
 dead, saddening the hearts of the living, will, in every neighbor- 
 hood, and almost in every family through the land, especially in 
 the slave States, call slavery to the bar even of human judgment. 
 The non-slaveholders of the slave States, on whom this burden 
 has already fallen fearfully, can scarcely fail to ask themselves, 
 and then, also, to ask their leaders : for what good have they been 
 led into this slaughter? Slavery would not, in the past, bear 
 questionings. These are questionings which it can not now escaj^e. 
 Ignorance has long closed the eyes and the ears of the peo])le 
 where slavery exists ; but some things, even the blindest eyes have 
 now seen, and the deafest ears heard. 
 
 They who fear that restoration of the legitimate authority of 
 the United States Government throughout the land will prove in- 
 adequate to the security and peace of the republic, can not have 
 sufficiently considered Avhat, and how much, this necessarily 
 means. It is a commanding of the peace in every State and Ter- 
 ritory. This is one of the great and peculiar functions of the 
 Federal Government, and the whole force of the nation is pledged 
 to its constant maintenance. It is also the restoration of State 
 government, in every State, to tiie care and adnunistration of loyal 
 men. Tlio remark near the clo^^e of the first \r.\rt of tliis exposi- 
 
KTvSTOUATION OF I.OVAI- STATK C.OVKRNMKNTS. 85 
 
 tion, to the eUcct that State i^vivormuciits wouKl nut ho j»iit into 
 tlio hands of nilnoritios, must be undcrstocid as rclorrini; to jjossi- 
 l)!#inaji)ritios, nutre or less disaffected, ])erhaj)S, but not yet ont- 
 hiwed by rebellion. The Constitution of the United States pro- 
 vides (Art. 6): "The members of the several State legislatures, 
 and all executive and judicial olKcers, both of the Unitccl States 
 and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or aflirinatittn 
 to support this constitution.'" Men who refuse to take such oath 
 can not ])roperly be recognized by the United States Government 
 as State olKcers. By the same article it is declared that the 
 United States constitution, laws and treaties "shall be the supremo 
 law of the land ; and the judges in every State shall be bound 
 thereby, any thing in the constitution or laws of any State to the 
 contrary notwithstanding." When physical resistance to the 
 United States authority is overcome in any State, it can not bo 
 difficult to recognize the loyal citizens. The disloyal, they who, 
 by active rebellion, nnrepented of and unatoned for, have abdi- 
 cated their citizenship, have no more right to control the State, 
 or even to share in the management of its government, than alien 
 enemies, who, having made a descent upon any State, should set 
 u]) a claim to control it. If, by insurrection and war, the ma- 
 chiner}' of any State government has become disorganized, the 
 loyal people of the State, protected, and, if need be, assisted, by 
 the United States Government, can readily restore it. liestora- 
 tion of the legitiniate authority of the United States Government 
 means, therefore, the restoration of loyal State Governments and 
 authority, executive, legislative, and judicial. 
 
 Thus the governmental system established by our fathers, shown 
 to be inherently democratic re])ublicaii, and ])rove(l by experi- 
 ment to be not adapted to slavery and its necessities, becomes re- 
 established in every State, backed by the whole force and author- 
 ity of the General Government to sustain ir. That this condition 
 can not possibly be made sufficiently to subserve the jmrposes of 
 slavery, is proved by the rebellion against it. Rebellion was a 
 necessity for slavery, because it could not maintain itself with- 
 out It had, before, exhausted every means of perverting our 
 government as it is, to the subservience of its necessities. The 
 election of Mr. Lincoln showed that republicanism was inevita- 
 bly to resume its legitimate sway ; and that slavery had only the- 
 alternative, on the one hand, to submit — to subside from na- 
 
SG TIIK liEUELLIOX MAKES SLAVERY FUNDAMENTAL, 
 
 tional domiiuition, and to contend with republicanism in the sev- 
 eral States, sure to be gradually overcome there, also — or, on the 
 other hand, to rebel. It chose the latter ; and, failing in thi% it 
 will be thrown back again upon the other alternative, and under 
 far greater disadvantages than before, crippled, disgraced, ab- 
 horred. 
 
 Regard for State sovereignty and State rights was wisely devel- 
 oped in this country, and the philosophical teachings of our early 
 southern statesmen contributed largely to such development. But 
 it is a mistake to suppose that regard for this doctrine now char- 
 acterizes the slave States. As perverted by the slave interest, it 
 had, for some time previous to the rebellion, been used only as a 
 kind of fetch to sanction aggressions of slavery, and to oppose i"e- 
 publicanism in the General Government. The uniform course of 
 Senators and Representatives in congress from the slave States, 
 with regard to Kansas, and uf all northern men under their influ- 
 ence, clearly shows this. 
 
 For further illustration, and also to show furtlier the inherent 
 and conscious hostility of slaver}' to republicanism, we give here 
 certain propositions, regarded as fundamental, introduced by Mr. 
 Collier, as a joint resolution, May 15, 1802, into the senate of the 
 pretended Confederate State of Virginia : 
 
 "The General Assembly of Virginia doth hereby declare, that negroes in slavery 
 in this State and the whole South (who are, withal, in a higher condition of civiliza- 
 tion than any of their race has ever been elsewhere), having been a property in their 
 masters for two hundred and forty years, by use and custom at first, and ever since 
 by recognition of the pu)>lic law in various forms, ought not to be, and can not justly 
 bo, interfered with in that relation of proi)erty, by the States, neither by the peoi)le in 
 convention assembled to alter an existing Constitution, or to form one for admission 
 into the Confederacy, nor by the rejn-esentatives of the people in the State or the Con- 
 federate legislature* nor by any means or mode which the popular majority might 
 adopt, and that the State, whilst remaining republican in the structure of its govern- 
 ment, can lawfully get rid of that species of property, if ever, only by the free con- 
 sent of the individual owners, it being true, as the General Assembly doth further 
 declare, that for the Stale, without the free consent of the owner, to deprive him of 
 his identical property, Ijy comiielling him to accept a substituted value thereof, no 
 matter how ascertained, or ))y the pod nati policy, or in any other way not for the 
 ])ublic use, but with a view to rid the State of such property already resident therein, 
 and so to destroy the rigiit of property in the subject, or to constrain the owner to 
 send his slaves out of the State, or else to expatriate himself and carry them with him, 
 would contravene and frustrate the indispensable jjrinciples of the government ; and, 
 whereas, these Confederate States being all now slaveholding, may J[)e disturbed by 
 some act of the majority, in any one of them, in derogation of the rights of the mi- 
 nority, unless this doctrine above declared be interposed ; therefore, 
 
AND UKl'l'KlATES BTATK KKMIIM AM) I'ol'l LAK HOVKKKIONTV. S7 
 
 ^^Jiesolved, by the llencral Assiinbli/ <>/ I'ln/iJi/'j, That tlu' (iovt-niDr nf N'irpriiu Ijo, 
 ami ho in luTcliy. iT(|iu'st('(l lo coiniiiiiiiii'alc lliis iiroccnliiin to llic Kt'vcrul (idvcrixiifi 
 lit' till' Coiil'i'ik'iute Stuti's. ami to ri'(|iii'sl llu'iii to lay Hk* kuiiu' hdiiic thi-ir r«'s|ii'plivt' 
 l('i;ishituivs, and to reqiu'st tht-ir coiiciirrt'iicc thorfin in sucii way as tliry may hcv- 
 t-nilly dcoiu best calruldted to semre stabilHi/ lit the fundattieulal iliwtriiic <f snuthi in 
 ficil'uatkm, icliirh w hirvbi/ declared and prujiosed to be advanced." 
 
 It will l)e scon that that, airiii'i^^t which this rosohitioii is pai'tic- 
 ularly directed, is, control over tlic sulijcct {){ AiWQvy hi/ t/if jh <tj>le 
 of a ^tutc. It is jiruposed to i^iuuxl "• the i'nndaniciital d(.»ctriiie 
 of southern civilization, which is hereby declared" by interposing^ 
 this doctrine above deduced, lest the "Confederate States, l)eing 
 all now slaveholdin«j^, may be disturbed In' some act of the major- 
 ity, in any one of them, in deroi!;ation of the rii^hts of the minor- 
 ity."' There is nothini;- here of State rights or of popular sover- 
 eignty ; but, on the contrary, a careful guarding against State 
 action or control, and against the people — ''the majority," eitiier 
 in convention assembled to alter or to form a constitution, or by 
 State legislation, or " by any means or mode which the po])ular 
 majority might adopt." 
 
 An immediate vote on the resolution was not requested, and, 
 accordingly, the subject was laid o\er; but the mover, in the 
 carefully considered remarks which accompanied his introduction 
 of the resolution, fully confirms our deductions as to the ])rinci- 
 ples involved in this rebellion. lie says: "It is the repudiation 
 of this doctrine that is at the top and bottom, and in all the cir- 
 cumference, of the struggle in which we are engaged," and that, 
 if this doctrine be not sound, slavery ought to be, and will be, 
 abolished. He is right, also, as we have already shown, in be- 
 lieving that the true way to secure slavery from all disturbance 
 or interference, is to leave it, not to the States nor to the people 
 of tne States, but to the voluntary action of slaveholders ; but lie 
 is, we thiidc, unnecessarily ditJident as to the reception of his doc- 
 trine in a Slave Confederacy. It is the doctrine which will cer- 
 tainly be acted on, whether avowed or not, by the controlling in- 
 terest in this rebellion. AVe quote from his remarks as reported: 
 
 "His reason for foihcarinfr to ask a voto at this tiiiio. he said. was. that he did not 
 believe the juitilic men of tho South appr(>('iat»'d the doctrine announced. They do 
 not appreciate it at its vit.il and most valiial)le jioint, which is its denial of the power 
 of the majority, in mal<in£: a constitution for u .^tate. to di.stur)) a iireexistinjr and res- 
 ident projierty. The prevait'nce of this doctrine in the intellicrence of the world can 
 alone irive the shneliolding States e.\emi)tion from war. It i^ ti.. rejuidiation of this 
 
S3 OUK CONSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS SUFFICIENT. 
 
 doctrine that is at tlie top and bottom, and in all the circumference of the struggle in 
 which we are engaged. If the princijial sentiments asserted in that declaration, and 
 from which the doctrine proposed as the practical result is educed, be not sound in 
 the j)liilosophy of the subject, and ought not to be adopted into the public law, then 
 negro slavery ought to be abolished, and Divine wisdom will accomplish the deliver- 
 ance. But, he said, he did believe the sentiments sound and the doctrine logically 
 inevitable, and that negro slavery will exist in the countries governed by the white 
 race until the native land of the black man shall have been civilized and Christian- 
 ized. Mr. Collier said he would only now add the desire that every ne\\ spaper in 
 the Confederacy, and as many elsewhere as will, would publish that declaration." 
 
 Seeing what doctrine the rebellion requires for its support, we 
 may better understand, by contrast, the excellence of the doc- 
 trines embodied in our popular constitutional system ; and that 
 tlie rebellion, if successful, would entirely subvert them in both 
 the State and the General Governments. 
 
 There is no necessity now, for additional safeguards for our Gen- 
 eral Government against slavery. Our system as it is, enabled 
 the people, when they desired to do so, to oust slavery from its 
 control, and to restore republicanism. When the rebellion, which 
 slavery thereupon initiated, is suppressed, republicanism and its 
 governmental system will be safe. Only culjiable neglect by the 
 people themselves can endanger either; and against the conse- 
 quences of such neglect, there can be no reliable safeguard, and 
 it would not be well for the people themselves if there could. If 
 this war were attributable to our system of government, or to its 
 want of an}' constitutional safeguards, the case would be difi'er- 
 ent. We can see clearly that, not the system, l^ut the past ad- 
 ministration of it, was defective; and that the system itself ailbrds 
 abundant remedies. Dangers overcome are no longer dangers. 
 
 The right, and even the duty, of the General Government, if 
 necessary, to arm and use as soldiers, against tiie natioiuil eneniies 
 of whatsoever kind, negroes who may have been held as slaves 
 mider State laws, can not properly be disputed. It is a right 
 which should be unhesitatingly exercised, and to its fidlest extent, 
 rather than submit to national destruction ; but considering our 
 abundant national strength, the necessity to employ them as 
 soldiers is not likely to occur at this time, except, possibly, to a 
 limited extent, in districts wliere, for a season, tiie lives of unac- 
 clinuited troops would be otherwise endangered. Tlie right, also, 
 to extinguish any claim of rebels to ])er8onal services of other 
 men, and to confiscate their property as punishment for treason, 
 
NKGKO LALtoKKKS IN SOUTIIKUN STATKS. 8U 
 
 and towards iiidciunity I'ur naliuiial (.'.xin-iises, ctinscd l»y the iv- 
 belliuii, i-aii not bo successfully dis|iutcd. Slavery should he no 
 shield or sateijuard for tiio rebellion; and should alloi'd not the 
 least indeninilication ai^ainst condij:;n jiunibhiuent of the patrieidal 
 enemies of the repuijlic. 
 
 But the riirhts luM'e clainietl ean nut properly i)e used as j)re- 
 toxts ; and if they couKl, they could not bo made ellectual, perma- 
 nently to liberate the slaves in any State, allowiii^' them to remain 
 there, without so altering the llniteil States constitution as to 
 confer upon the General Government the power to protecf and 
 perpetuate their freedom. Acconling to our system and Consti- 
 tution as they now stand, the condition of the various classes of 
 inhabitants of each State, is matter for State regulation. This 
 was one of the reasons for removal of the Indians from within 
 State limits. 
 
 Some would suggest pursuing a similar policy with the negroes. 
 This would be an immense undertaking, and seems neither wise, 
 nor timely, nor humane. But, setting aside many practical ditH- 
 culties which present themselves, the discussion of which would 
 lead us too far from our principal object, it may, perhaps, bo 
 properly suggested that such removal is not even desirable. The 
 negroes and white people of the South are adapted to each other. 
 The antipathies of race, so strong in northern States, do not ex- 
 ist in the southern States, to nearly the same extent. The indus- 
 try which sustains the whole population is supplied almost exclu- 
 sively by negroes. Capitalists, being chiefly white people, are 
 accustomed to direct and utilize this industry, and they are not 
 accustomed to any other, and could not, for a generation, become 
 thoroughly and advantageously accustomed to any other. "Were 
 the negroes at once removed, it would be economical to restore 
 them, even at an equal expense. Immediate substitution of t»ther 
 laborers in their stead, would be diificult and almost imi)ratica- 
 ble ; yet, to the people and their industrial interests, it would bo 
 depressing to spend a generation in the forced substitution of other 
 laborers for negroes. The negroes would probably be subjected, 
 during such a transition, tt^ far greater hardships, neglect and 
 abuse, than what ordinarily attend the condition of slavery. Es- 
 pecially would this be the case, under any system forced upon 
 the people of a State by the United States Government. Better 
 immediate and universal removal, and immediate substitution of 
 
90 TIIE PEOrLE OF TITE STATES SHOULD ABOLISH SLAVERY. 
 
 anotlier system of labor, than tlie long agony of any transitional 
 system, coddled by external authority. 
 
 This l)rings us to a conclusion on this point, harmonizing with 
 the philosophical and practical excellence of our governmental 
 system, as it is. The people themselves should conduct their own 
 reforms. They may not even know, from time to time, more than 
 the first step in advance, hut, taking that, the next becomes plainer. 
 That slavery .is wrong, and ought at once everywhere to cease, all 
 can see ; l)nt the way out of it can best be found by those who 
 then'selves have that way to travel. The United States Govern- 
 ment ought not, in time of peace, to exercise jurisdiction in the 
 States over this subject; and no amendment to the Constitution, 
 giving to the General Government such jurisdiction, ought to 
 he made, if it could. Marring the principles and harmony of 
 the system by the introduction of an exceptional provision spe- 
 cially to reach slavery, would be, in itself, useless and mischiev- 
 ous ; for the principle here insisted on is right, not because it is 
 in the Constitution, but it is in the Constitution because it is 
 right. 
 
 The principles, system and actual necessities of slavery have 
 been shown to be irreconcilable with our established constitutional 
 democratic republican system of government. We have seen that 
 our republican system must certainly be sustained ; and the log- 
 ical inference that slavery can not he, but must certainly pass 
 away, has been decidedly and unequivocally expressed in these 
 pages. But it seems also plain that the way in which it must 
 pass away, is through the voluntary action of the people of the 
 respective States where it exists ; and that, save by example and 
 moral influence, the United States Government can best and most 
 effectively aid in the work, by confining itself faithfully to its 
 constitutional obligations of guaranteeing republicanism antl 
 peace in every State, with the right of haheas corjms, and to 
 l)eaceably assemble and petition for redress of grievances, with 
 freedom of speech and of the press, so that the people thereof 
 may Jiave fair opportunity — in the language of Mr. Calhoun, be- 
 fore given — "for the free and full operation of all the moral ele- 
 ments in favor of change." How great are the obligations laid 
 on the General (lovernmcnt to comply with these guarantees- — ■ 
 which it has too much neglected in the past — may be more fully 
 understood bv reflcctino; that ''the sacred rii-'ht of revolution " 
 
THK MOKAr, IXCCnUS NOT TO UK KKIT-ACKD. 1)1 
 
 ai!:ainst 0])i>rcssivo poverniiieiit, which l)C'h>ii<x.s to ull iiieii, is, in 
 elloct, nearly nullilied as to thu inhabitants of the respective States, 
 by that other provision j^uaranteeiiii; State j^overninents against 
 insurrection. Tiiesc respective {guaranties by the Ignited States 
 Government, arc not merely absolute, but are also relative. As 
 it commands and guarantees ]»eaec in every State, so also, Ity para- 
 mount obligation, must it guai*antee republicanism to the inhabit- 
 ants thereof, and the right and o])portunity for free discussiorn, as 
 their rightful means to relieve themselves from any oppression 
 against which the right of revolution might be exercised, but for the 
 interposition of the United States Government, in pursuance of its 
 duty to guarantee peace. The free and full operation of the moral 
 elements in favor of change, thus guaranteed to the peo])le of the 
 respective States, richly compensates for any abridgment of their 
 right of revolution, by reason of the other guaranty ; and, using 
 again the language of Mr. Calhoun, with regard to these moral 
 agencies, we add : " Nor ought their overpowering efficacy to ac- 
 complish the object intended, to be doubted. Backed by perse- 
 verance and sustained by these powerful auxiliaries, reason in the 
 end will surely prevail over error and abuse, however obstinately 
 maintained ; and this the more surely, by the exchision of so dan- 
 gerous an ally as mere brute force." Thus we see that no rej)e- 
 tition, on a larger scale, of the scenes through which the slaves 
 of St. Domingo became free, is necessary here, if we will but un- 
 derstand and use our excellent system oi" government ; for it fur- 
 nishes the sure means of dealing peacefully, yet effectively, with 
 even so gigantic a social evil as slavery. 
 
 Let it not be inferred that a return is contemplated, to the con- 
 dition on the subject of slavery, including the state of j>ublic opin- 
 ion, which preceded this rebellion and war. This is neither pos- 
 sible nor desirable. Slavery, we repeat, must cease ; and it must 
 enter immediately into its process of cessation and disa])pearance 
 from this entire land ; and immediately, from this time forth and 
 fore\ er, it must cease to dominate, or even to dictate, the course 
 of the General Government. They who think otherwise, they who 
 hope, and they who fear, that the incubus of slavery upon our po- 
 litical action and modes of thought, is to l)e replaced, do not know 
 what has happened. The moral revolution in this respect, accom- 
 plished by the election of Mr. Lincoln, and sealed now by the 
 blood shed in this rebellion to resist it, can not possibly be turned 
 
92 DIFFICULTIES OF EMA^X'IPATION EXAGGERATKD. 
 
 back. Every man in the nation who contributed to accomplish 
 it, is, if possible, ten times more in earnest now to perpetuate it; 
 and many, very many, of those who timidlj^ or otherwise opposed 
 it, would, with still more earnest zeal, now oppose a counter-rev- 
 olutiun. The people of this country, with whatever prejudices 
 they may enter u])on any subject which they are compelled to 
 consider, do gradually become educated in it ; and the masses, hav- 
 ing^no [lernuiuent interest to go wrong, and led by their instincts, or 
 a higher power, toward the right, do rest, finally, in wiser and juster 
 conclusions. The one iVict that they will never again consent to 
 the restoration to the slave interest, of the control and manage- 
 ment of the General Government, will be very eifective to aid 
 the downfall of slavery in the States. It will speedily dispose 
 almost entirely of the most numerous and most mischievous class 
 of men laboring to advance its interests — the men, namely, in 
 all the States, free as well as slave, who, without having, perhaps, 
 any direct interest in slavery, have, nevertheless, found its advo- 
 cacy the reliable road to political preferment. This will soon leave 
 to the peo])le in the several States, only the actual slaveholders 
 themselves to deal with. It will do more. It will raise up, in 
 every slave State, on the side of republicanism, men who will engage 
 openlj- in its support. It has been shown that from slaveholders 
 themselves, as a class, nothing is to be hoped towards the volun- 
 tary relinquishment of slavery. But henceforth, in every State, 
 the men who, from interest or principle, are opposed to slavery, 
 must certainly be heard ; and ere long, these will naturally and 
 rightfully control every State, shape its policy, and enact its laws. 
 Out of their own necessities and aspirations will the people of each 
 State build themselves up. 
 
 Thi-ough the interested cupidity of the slaveholders, and the no 
 less interested selfishness of their jDolitical advocates, inclining 
 them to asperse those whom they have wronged, and through the 
 groundless tears of the timid and the ignorant, the difficulties in 
 the M'ay of enumcipation have undoubtedly been greatly exag- 
 gerated ; and to these, we think, is chiefly owing the tendency to 
 connect always with the idea of enumcipation, some great and 
 costly onter])rise which deters ])eople from the undertaking. A 
 people who lia\c demonstrated the iblly of so many popular 
 alarms, intended to repix'ss development of different classes of 
 men, and who have invariably found that every kind and class 
 
I'KKKlKiM IS (iOOl) Idi: All,. 93 
 
 of moil iirc iiiatlo hotter, and not woi-sc, l>y IVfctloin, iiii<l l»y the 
 roeoi^iiitioii (.>!' all the eoiiiinnn rii^hti? of huiiumity, ouj^ht nut, so 
 readily, to suppose that a rule whieh has always worked well, and 
 never ill, will he ti>tally reverseil the moment it is applied to jier- 
 sons of Afriean hirth or descent. No State in which ne^^roes are 
 now free would be at all bcnetited, hut, on the contrary, would he 
 greatly injured, by reducing the negroes in it to slavery ; and, 
 according to the same principle, were the present slaves in any 
 slave State emancipated, it would he a change for the worse, to 
 restore the system of slavery. It is better fur the people of any 
 State, antl for all of them, that the negroes who may be in it 
 should be free, than that they should be enslaved. In other 
 words, freedom is better than slavery for all men, and for all races 
 and classes of men (except such as may have forfeited the right 
 by crime), and it is better, also, for all with whom they may be, 
 for a longer or a shorter time, in contact. 
 
 If these simple propositions «ire true, there can be no necessity 
 for providing in advance an elaborate and costly system of colon- 
 ization, or any other method of disp(.ising of the negroes, before 
 doing what is right in itself and advantageous to any State where 
 they may be. Pertinent to this subject we quote here some sug- 
 gestions which seem deserving of consideration, renuirking, also, 
 that their inherent force can not fairly be held any the less, be- 
 cause their author is of African descent, and has himself been for 
 many years a slave : 
 
 ">[y answer to (he question, what shall be done with the four million slaves, if 
 emancipated ? shall be short and simple. Do nothing with them, but leave them just 
 as you leave other men, to do with and for themselves. We would be entirely re- 
 spectful to those who raise this inquiry, and yet it is haid not to say to them just what 
 they would say to us, if we manifested a like coneern for them, and that is : please to 
 mind your business and leave us to mind ours. If we can not stand up. then let us 
 fall down. We ask nothing at the hands of the American people but sim]>le justice, 
 and an ecjual chance to live ; and if we can not live and flourish on such terms, our 
 case should be referred to the Author of our existence. Injustice, oppression and 
 slavery, with all their manifold concomitants, have been tried with us during a jteriod 
 of more than two hundred years. Under the whole heavens you will tind n<> jiarallel 
 to the wrongs we have endured. We have worked without wages ; we have lived 
 without hope, wept without synqiathy. and bled without mercy. Now, in the name 
 of a common humanity, and according to the law of the Living God, we simjily ask the 
 right to bear the responsiliility of our own existence." • » ♦ * "Do nothing 
 with us, for us. or by us, as a jiartieular class. What you have done wilh us thus far 
 ha.s only worked to our disadvantage. We now simply a.sk to be allowed to do for 
 
9i COLONIZATION NOT OBJECTED TO. 
 
 ourselves. I submit that there is nothing unreasonable or unnatural in this request. 
 The black man is said to be unfortunate. I alfirm that the l)roa(Iest of the black man's 
 misfortunes is the fact that he is everywhere regarded and treated as an excejition to 
 the principles and maxims which apply to other men.'' 
 
 Jefi'erson said, "the world is governed too nmcli." Is it not 
 possible that much of the excessive anxiety to dispose of the ne- 
 gro, before recognizing his rights, is a part of this same error? 
 
 Tlie slaves of the South enjoy advantages for information de- 
 cidedly superior to those of the groat majority of white people 
 there, because of their contact with the educated whites, from 
 which the poor whites (who can not read for themselves) are 
 mostly excluded. This fact added to the other, above mentioned, 
 that they perform nearly all the useful labor, may reasonably 
 raise doubts, not only of the wisdom of their exportation, but of 
 their being the best class to spare, in case all can not remain to- 
 gether. 
 
 Let it not be supposed that colonization, or any other enter- 
 prise, beneficial to the parties interested, and not morally wrong, 
 is objected to. We are only insisting that such measures shall 
 come in their proper way and order, and be adopted, if at all, be- 
 cause they are seen to be good, rather than because outsiders pro- 
 pose them. Good and useful measures ought not to be prejudiced 
 by being awkwardl}^ and rudely thrust forward. The same philo- 
 sophical reason Mdiich makes it wiser and more practical for local 
 governments to conduct local affairs, makes it wiser and more 
 practical for the people who are themselves to be afiected by any 
 enterprise intended for their benefit, to be themselves engaged — 
 not forcibly and sullenly, but spontaneously and cheerfidly — in 
 carrying it into eflt'ect. 
 
 Successful colonization is not only conceivable, but its contem- 
 ]>lation may reasonaljly ])resent pictures to warm the heart, and 
 to kindle the imagination. But, if po3sil)le, let there be no ex- 
 ce])tion to the rule, that the children whom our country may send 
 forth from her teeming bosom to carry our arts and enterprise 
 and civilization where they may be in denumd, shall be led by a 
 conscious aftinity i'ov their undertaking, and shall go forth, not as 
 enemies, and with no envenomed stings rankling in their memo- 
 ries, to convert them into enemies. 
 
 It is not impossible that when the absolute necessity of eman- 
 cipating the slaves shall 1)0 fully realized by the people of the 
 
KAl'Il) l-liOSKClTION OK TIIK W A U IS Sri'l'oSKD. 05 
 
 slave States, they will themselves manitest miexpeeteil wisilom 
 aiul facility in devising how to do it easily ; ami also in disposing 
 of that venerable stuiul)lin<^ l)li»ck — what to do with the negroes? 
 Indeed, it should hanlly l)e matter of surprise if some (»f the most 
 ultra advocates of slavery, and of a government adaj>ted to it, 
 should be prompt to labor for its speedy and entire removal and 
 the thorough establishment of republicanism, when the reliellion 
 and its objects shall have completely failed ; or if some of the 
 more southern slave States should thereupon take the lead in 
 cmanei[)ation — if TexaS, for instance, should leap forward, disen- 
 thralled, while Maryland, hugging her bonds, continues to sacri- 
 fice independent prosperity, for the doubtful benefits of a state of 
 hetwcen'ity. 
 
 These views of the rationale of the crisis, are presented on the sup- 
 position of a rapid prosecution of the war to its natural conclusion- 
 If it shall be so prosecuted, and the end accordingly reached ere 
 long, or if, by au earlier and larger use of the national force, the 
 end had been at any time heretofore reached, results, such as are 
 here indicated, might, with reasonable confidence, be expected from 
 the nature and character of our government and peo])le, and the 
 nature and character of the rebellion. In such case, the wisdom 
 and propriety of making the restoration of the legitimate su- 
 premacy of the General Government throughout the land, the end 
 and object of the war, would abundantly and satisfactorily appear. 
 But the fundamental principles of slavery and of republicanism 
 res]>ectively, being such as have been described, their antagonism 
 may, through modified circumstances, lead to modified results. 
 
 If, for instance, the conductors of our government, lacking con- 
 fidence in the practical excellence of our governmental system, 
 should, in any manner whatever, compromise this rebellion, or 
 again attempt to commit the General Government in any maimer 
 whatever to the support of slavery, the irrepressible conflict be- 
 tween its real principles and those of slavery might be indefinitely 
 protracted, to culminate, possibly, in results very difierent from 
 such as are here foreshadowed. So obvious, however, is the un- 
 wisdom of such course, and so improbable its adoption, that it is 
 dismissed without consideration. 
 
 Another possible course is not so entirely improbable, and, 
 therefore, deserves some attention. In ordinary contests, where 
 
96 UNTIMELY CONCILIATION PEOTKACTS THE WAR. 
 
 numbers of men have become engaged in hostility, even in deadly 
 hostility, a spirit of conciliation and kindness manifested by one 
 side, acts favorably upon the other, and prepares both for acqui- 
 escence in reasonable and amicable relations. But this is where 
 — as in most contests among men — a misunderstandino- is at the 
 bottom of the difficulty, and reconciliation is easy when passion 
 is subdued. In the present case, the real difficulty becomes more 
 irreconcilable the better it is understood. It is, as has been shown, 
 a contest of irreconcilable principles. The principles on one side 
 harmonize with, and are incorporated into, our system of govern- 
 ment ; those on the other must, if allowed to prevail, overthrow 
 our system of government. Tor the sake of peace, too far, al- 
 ready, has been carried the attempt to acquiesce in their joint 
 recognition ; but, in the nature of the case, their joint control was 
 impossible. The arbitrament of force became a necessity ; hence, 
 conciliation and kindness have, in this case, failed of their usual 
 efficacy. But conciliation and kindness, on the part of our 
 Government, are j^erseveringly tried, as though it were still hoped 
 that these can be substituted for force. This necessarily protracts 
 the war. 
 
 Slavery, the common interest which provoked the rebellion, 
 unites and controls, in a consolidated whole, all the men and 
 means throughout the disaffected territory, in the same manner 
 and by the same necessity, described in our earlier pages, in re- 
 lation to the control of State governments in slave States. State 
 rights, used as a pretext to start the rebellion, are no longer nec- 
 essary, and are not now heard of in rebeldom, any more than 
 popular rights, or democratic principles ; but all governmental 
 agencies are, in effect, consolidated and wielded by tlie power 
 which raises and controls their armies. That power is perfectly 
 inabcessible through conciliation and kindness. The people for 
 M'hom these are intended, are not reached and can not be reached 
 by them, till that power is beaten down, and with it the barriers 
 of prejudice and hatred M'hich it has raised so high and strength- 
 ened so broadly. 
 
 That power will never voluntarily submit to the restoration of 
 the legitimate supremacy of our republican government. It says 
 so, emphatically and continually, and it is time to believe that, 
 in this, it says truly. Not unreasonably, perhaps, does it calcu- 
 late on the ctintimiance, and ]iossibly the increase, of the anxiety 
 
WAR SUFFOCATES SLAVERY ; HUT I'KACK IS IJEST. 97 
 
 to conciliate, with the protraction of the war; and it hopes fur all 
 the chajices which might still render possible the attainment of 
 its object. Days and months as they pass, accnstum to its sway 
 the people whoui it can reach ; and while this ])ower is embodied 
 anywhere in a State, thf United States Government can only liold 
 by its sn])eriur power any territory in the State. ]>nt it has been 
 shown that the United States Government can not properly lend 
 itself to the support of shivery. It is not, theoretically or consti- 
 tutionally, a slaveholding government, and, by al)ulishin<r slavery 
 wherever it has the power, it is harmonizing its i)ractices with its 
 priuci})les. It can not properly make the temporary administra- 
 tion of local government in States an exception; and thus, any 
 State law of slavery, is, for the time, in abeyance during the ad- 
 ministration of local government in a slave State by the United 
 States Government, under military necessity. Kot, thercfire, by 
 any direct act of the United States Government abolishing sla- 
 very in the States, but simply by neglect and refusal to adminis- 
 ter the State law, slavery lacks enforcement where the armies of 
 the Union go. If this continues, slavery rapidly dies. It is not 
 probable that this result has been contemplated as one of policy; 
 but it is not the less sure. Its poetic justice might suggest the 
 idea of design; but we can not safely pursue justice in this way. 
 Its cost is too enormous, and its results can better be obtained in 
 the direct and normal way. War is not the business of this peo- 
 ple, and it should not be permitted to become such, even for the 
 sake of thereby suffocating slavery. The volunteers enlisted in 
 military service should, as soon as possible, become peaceful and 
 industrious citizens. Their officers should cease to exercise arbi- 
 trary authority, and the people should again become the dispens- 
 ers of patronage. The General Government should, as soon as 
 may be, cease to direct all the public energies, and the States 
 should resume their relative significance and importance. Great 
 as would be the future benefit to the country and to mankind, if 
 slavery in the States were extinguished, protracted war, with its 
 centralizing tendencies, its enormous expens^ its demoralization, 
 its alienation, its sufferings, bereavements and desolations, is too 
 much to pay for the accomplishment of such purpose; especially 
 when this desired result is so sure to follow the restoration of the 
 legitimate supremacy of the General Government, guaranteeing 
 peace and republicanism throughout the land ; a result, lot us re- 
 
9S ONLY THE " CONFEDERACY " CAN SUSTAIN GUERRILLAS. 
 
 peat, that is by none so well nnderstood as by those who initiated 
 tliis rebellion on purpose to escape it. 
 
 A continued guerrilla warfare by tlie minions of slavery is not 
 to be apprehended from the omission to extingiiish slavery by 
 United States force. The t)rganized forces of tne rebellion are 
 what now sustain such guerrilla warfare, wherever it exists ; and 
 when the armies of slavery shall be overcome and dispersed, and 
 its quasi national organization annihilated, the people of the sev- 
 eral States, through their State Governments, sustained by the 
 General Government, will easily dispose of guerrillas. It will 
 plainly be for tlieir interest to do so. State Governments are in 
 no respect dangerous or unfriendly to our General Government ; 
 but the only real and considerable dangers proceed from combi- 
 nations, extending through many States, and assuming to oppose 
 or to usurp the functions of the General Government. When the 
 rebellious Confederacy that slavery has organized, shall be entirely 
 overcome and extinguished, the rebellion itself will be ended, and 
 the legitimate supremacy of the General Government be reestab- 
 lished throughout the land. 
 
 This idea brings into view the exceeding folly of the j^roposi- 
 tion sometimes suggested, from ignorant or unfriendly sources, 
 of an armistice, negociation, or compromise with the hostile 
 power. The very source of all the difficulty is in the mere exist- 
 ence of such hostile power. To negociate with it or to recognize 
 it in any way whatever, is to sanction the greatest possible polit- 
 ical evil. No political power has a riglit to exist here for one 
 moment, save the States and the General Government; and the 
 only way towards peace is the complete annihilation and disap- 
 pearance of any such pretended intermediary power. It can not 
 exist one moment after the legitimate supremacy of the General 
 Government is reestablished throughout the land ; and the mo- 
 ment this js done, there is peace. 
 
 It is, therefore, so simple as to seem but the repetition of an 
 identical proj^osition, to conclude — as we unhesitatingly do, after 
 this review of all essential suggestions on the subject — that 
 the jyn'Ofer end arm ohjeet of the toar is the restoration of 
 the legitimate si(2>r€macy of the General Govermnent throxKjhoxit 
 the land. 
 
 Not only does this method commend itself to our judgment, 
 but we see that it is the one designed by the fathers of the repub- 
 
I'KorniOlS (.IKi TMSTANCKS. 99 
 
 lie. It li:is only failcil liitlio-to in ciTtaiii respects, because of our 
 culpable neglect to ajij^ly our n'i)ublieaii j)riiici|>l(.'S. Attempting 
 to be wise above wliat wat? writtt-n, uiui trusting t<» expedients 
 rather than t(» ]»riiiciplos, we liavo eiiltiv.ited (li^alilL■l•tiun \nU) re- 
 belliiiii and cIn il wai-. Ai't.- wl- not Ju.-tly puni>lK'd I'ni- our polit- 
 ical sins^ Our system ut" govern mc-nt as it is, is cumj)etent, not 
 only tVtr the present emergency, but fur all future emergencies 
 which now socm likely tu arise; and the suggestions to amend it, 
 as though it were meehanieal nuichinery which wears out, instead 
 of being, as it is, a philosophical application of eternal ])rinciples, 
 oi'iginate, not in the wisdom of statesmanshij), but in the tempo- 
 rizing plans of political exj)ediency. Let us elevate ourselves to 
 the coiuprehensiou and management of this most excellent and 
 beautiful system. It is intended and adapted for the people's 
 use. Discussion and agitation shouhl not be avoided. They are 
 always and everywhere the necessary atten«Iants of wise delil)er- 
 atiou. Adopting again the language of ^[r. Calhoun: ''Tl|^y 
 are indisj)ensible means, the only school (if I may be allowed the 
 exju'essiou) in our case, that can diffuse and fix in the mind of the 
 commmnty the principles and duties necessary to uphold our 
 comjilex but beautiful system of governments. In none that ever 
 existed are they so much retpiired; and in none were tbey ever 
 calculated to produce such powerful effect." 
 
 As our Government is good, so are our circumstances, in some 
 most important respects, propitious. 
 
 Not accidentally, but designedly, the American people have 
 now, as the executive head of their General Government, a man 
 of honest purpose, logical mind, and such firmness as requires 
 not the aid of wordy demonstration. If cautious and concilia- 
 tory, he is also true, lie is not stationary, like the Bourbons, but 
 progressive, like Channing, because, in spite of conservative ten- 
 dencies in his prditical education, he believes in princijiles, and 
 fears not to follow where he sees they lead. Some, who have 
 praised him as conservative, may yet be shocked by his radical- 
 ism ; and some, who think him slow, may find themselves aston- 
 ished at liis advance. For ourselves, we believe that his course 
 of administration, as it proceeds, will prove a new illustration of 
 the old truth : ''The jtath of the just is as the shining light, that 
 shineth more and more unto the perfect day." 
 
100 
 
 HOPES. 
 
 Our people are now showing themselves worthy of their gov- 
 ernment and of their destiny. Suppressing, by their united and 
 almost omnipotent power, the violence that would not submit to 
 reason, they are, while in this performance of a home duty, sub- 
 duing, also, the prejudices of a world. That respect, which at- 
 tends the exhil)ition of gigantic national power, gives us new 
 security for national peace. The revival of rejjublicanism among 
 ourselves encourages its revival evei-ywhere, 
 
 " and our hopes 
 Go forward to the glorious traiu of j-ears, 
 When all the clouds of strife that darken earth 
 And hide the face of heaven, shall roll away ; 
 And like a calm, sweet sunshine, peace and love 
 Shall lidit the drearest walks of human life." 
 
 o|p^3^ 
 
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