The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 76, February, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 76, February, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
When Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire, he
supposed that one-thirteenth part of his people were Christians. He was
statesman enough to know that a minority of one-thirteenth, united
together because they had one cause, would be omnipotent over a majority
of twelve-thirteenths, without a cause and disunited. So, if any one
asks for an example in our history,--the Territory of Kansas was thrown
open to emigration with every facility given to the Southern emigrant,
and every discouragement offered to the Northerner. But forty men,
organized together by a cause, settled Lawrence, and it was rumored that
there was to be some organization of the other Northern settlers, and at
that word the Northern hive emptied itself into Kansas, and the
Atchisons and Bufords and Stringfellows abandoned their new territory,
badly stung. These are illustrations, one of them on the largest scale,
and the other belonging wholly to our own time and country, of the worth
even of a very small minority, in such an initiative as is demanded now.
What was done in Kansas can be done again in Florida, in Texas, if Texas
do not take care for herself, in either Carolina, in any Southern State
where the "righteous men" do not themselves appear to take this first
step on which the President relies.
Take, for instance, this magnificent Florida, our own Italy,--if one can
conceive of an Italy where till now men have been content to live a
half-civilized life, only because the oranges grew to their hands, and
there was no necessity for toil. The vote of Florida in 1860 was 14,347.
So soon as in Florida one-tenth part of this number, or 1,435 men, take
the oath of allegiance to the National Government, so soon, if they have
the qualifications of electors under Florida law, shall we have a loyal
State in Florida. It will be a Free State, offering the privileges of a
Free State to the eager eyes of the North and of Europe. That valley of
the St. John's, with its wealth of lumber,--the even climate of the
western shore,--the navy-yard to be reestablished at Pensacola,--the
commerce to be resumed at Jacksonville,--the Nice which we will build up
for our invalids at St. Augustine,--the orange-groves which are wasting
their sweetness at this moment, on the plantations and the
islands,--will all be so many temptations to the emigrant, as soon as
work is honorable in Florida. If the people who gave 5,437 votes for
Bell and 367 for Douglas cannot furnish 1,435 men to establish this new
State government, we here know who can.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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