United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Foreign public opinion; United States -- Politics and government -- 1861-1865
The Republican leaders do not talk to the public of these almost
certain results of success in the present conflict. They talk but
little, in the existing emergency, even of the original cause of
quarrel. The most ordinary policy teaches them to inscribe on their
banner that part only of their known principles in which their
supporters are unanimous. The preservation of the Union is an object
about which the North are agreed; and it has many adherents, as they
believe, in the South generally. That nearly half the population of
the Border Slave States are in favor of it is a patent fact, since
they are now fighting in its defence. It is not probable that they
would be willing to fight directly against slavery. The Republicans
well know that if they can reëstablish the Union, they gain everything
for which they originally contended; and it would be a plain breach of
faith with the Southern friends of the Government, if, after rallying
them round its standard for a purpose of which they approve, it were
suddenly to alter its terms of communion without their consent.
But the parties in a protracted civil war almost invariably end by
taking more extreme, not to say higher grounds of principle, than they
began with. Middle parties and friends of compromise are soon left
behind; and if the writers who so severely criticize the present
moderation of the Free-soilers are desirous to see the war become an
abolition war, it is probable that if the war lasts long enough they
will be gratified. Without the smallest pretension to see further into
futurity than other people, I at least have foreseen and foretold from
the first, that if the South were not promptly put down, the contest
would become distinctly an antislavery one; nor do I believe that any
person, accustomed to reflect on the course of human affairs in
troubled times, can expect anything else. Those who have read, even
cursorily, the most valuable testimony to which the English public
have access, concerning the real state of affairs in America--the
letters of the _Times'_ correspondent, Mr. Russell--must have observed
how early and rapidly he arrived at the same conclusion, and with what
increasing emphasis he now continually reiterates it. In one of his
recent letters he names the end of next summer as the period by which,
if the war has not sooner terminated, it will have assumed a complete
anti-slavery character. So early a term exceeds, I confess, my most
sanguine hopes; but if Mr. Russell be right, Heaven forbid that the
war should cease sooner; for if it lasts till then, it is quite
possible that it will regenerate the American people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account