The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 71, September, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
Religion
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 71, September, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
By the representations of Secessionists encountered in the Free States,
as well as from disloyal newspapers which the "Lincoln despotism" never
sought to suppress, Mr. Dicey was convinced that the sole purpose of the
Rebellion was to get possession of the vast regions which lie west of
the Mississippi, wherein to establish Slave States and Territories. "The
North," he declares, "is fighting against, the South is fighting for,
the power of extending slavery across the American continent; and if
this was all that could be said, it is clear on which side must be the
sympathies of any one who really and honestly believes that slavery is
an evil and a sin." But it is not here that Mr. Dicey rests the case of
the North as appealing to the Christian sentiment of the world. He shows
that the inexorable logic of facts must work the overthrow of slavery
where it now exists. The suppression of the slave-trade, the recognition
of Hayti, abolition in the District of Columbia, and finally the
Proclamation of January have one tendency and can have but one result.
We state these views as one more confirmation of the fact, that, whether
agreeable to us or not, the sympathies of liberal men in Europe are to
be had on the sole ground that ours is an anti-slavery war.
Mr. Dicey's predilections lead him to make a generous, although
discriminating, estimate of those men who, in time past, have endeavored
to serve their country by leaving the level commonplaces of respectable
citizenship. It is no slight praise to say that his chapter upon the
New-England Abolitionists is clear and just. Their points of
disagreement with the Republican party are stated with no common
accuracy. Careful sentences give the precise position of Garrison and
his adherents: the intrinsic essence of the movement of these reformers
is divested of the subordinate and trivial facts so often put forward to
misrepresent it. Although Mr. Dicey endeavors not to commit himself upon
the vital differences in the agitation of anti-slavery sentiments by the
Abolitionists and by the Republican party, it is very evident that he
inclines to the belief that the former, in their advocacy of disunion,
acted not from a perverse and fanatical philosophy, but from the logical
compulsions of a critical understanding, stimulated by an intense
conviction of the national sin.
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