Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
We, here at the North, have been accustomed to look at the
strength of the foundations, and of the consistent massive
frame-work; they, at the South, admired the incongruous ornaments
and decorations, and they did not forget any of the exceptional
timbers. We were shocked when the great structure seemed ready to
tumble about our ears; they expected it all the time, and were
working for it, ready to perish in the general downfall, if that
were inevitable. I have seen a drop of water spread over a small
orifice in a layer of melting ice, which was brilliant red in
color to me, but it was the intensest blue to my friend, who was
standing at my side. The moral vision is quite as largely
dependent upon the angle at which it receives its rays of
reflected light. North and South represent the extremes of the
moral spectrum. The equalizing of labor and capital, which is a
beautiful violet to us, is a very angry red to them; and the
soft-toned hues of their system of servitude are crimson with
blood-guiltiness to ourselves. If we stood where the perfect and
undivided sunbeams could fall upon us, we should see all men
under the common radiance of that pure white light, of which
Providence has an unlimited supply.
No more unanimity of sentiment or principle existed among our own
people in the war of the Revolution, than in this. Democracy,
asserting its rights, brought on the conflict then, though
aristocracy, goaded by the instinct of self-preservation and
self-interest, joined hands and aided it to its consummation.
Patriotism grew in the hearts of each, and held us together as a
nation for about eighty years; but the subordinate antagonism,
tortured by its unnatural alliance during all those years, now in
turn strikes also for independence. Predominance, precedence,
pre-eminence, might have satisfied it for a time; but, from the
nature of our institutions, that was impossible. It encroached at
every point, and was generally rewarded for its self-assertion;
but it was inherently and constitutionally subordinate, and must
have remained so forever in the federation of the United States.
It struck for independence, and it did well! It did all it could
do, if it would not die inanely. One must always admire that
instinct of the grub which leads it to weave its own
winding-sheet, and lie down fearlessly in its sepulcher,
preparatory to its resurrection as a butterfly; but immeasurably
more to be admired is the calculating courage of men who are
ready to stake their all upon any issue--even upon one so
mistaken, so false, so partial to one class and so unjust to
another, as the cause of the slave-holders. Every earnest purpose
must have its own baptism of blessings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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