The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1862: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1862: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
It is to be regretted that the native of Virginia who penned this volume
has not published his name, that the world might know who it was that
produced the most vigorous, unflinching, and brilliant work which has
thus far resulted from the war. In sober seriousness, we have not as
yet, in any journal or in any quarter, encountered such a handling of
facts without gloves; such a rough-riding over old prejudices,
timidities, and irresolution; such reckless straight-forwardness in
declaring what should be done to settle the great dispute, or such
laughing-devil sarcasm in ripping up dough-face weakness and
compromising hesitation. Its principle and refrain, urged with abundant
wit, ingenuity and courage, is simply EMANCIPATION--not on the narrow
ground of abolition, but on the necessity of promptly destroying an evil
which threatens to vitiate the white race. In the beginning the author
points out the inevitableness of the present war, and that our political
system has been hitherto a sacrifice to Slavery for the time, but also a
running up of arrears in favor of Liberty.
'In forming this government, Slavery clutched at the strength of
the law; Freedom relied on the inviolable justice of the ages. They
have both had, they must have, their reward. That it was and is
thus, is apparent from the very clauses under which Slavery claims
eminent domain in this country; they are all written as for an
institution passing away; the sources of it are sealed up so far as
they could be; and all the provisions for it--the crutches by which
it should limp as decently as possible to the grave--were so worded
that, when Slavery should be buried, no dead letter would stand in
the Constitution as its epitaph. It is even so. No historian a
thousand years hence could show from that instrument that a single
slave was ever held under it.' ... 'Slavery now appeals to arms
because Freedom, in her slow but steady progress, has left no
informality--no flaw--which can be seized on to reverse the
decision she has gained in any higher court.'
The style of this book is remarkable. The wealth of simile which bursts
out genially and involuntarily is only paralleled by its strange
variety, recalling CARLYLE in pleasant, piquant singularity.
Its humor is irresistible; none the less so for being keenly satirical.
We regret that our limits forbid copious extracts from these treasures,
but do the more earnestly entreat the reader to buy the volume and make
himself familiar with it. Whoever our Virginian may be, he is a rising
star, well worth observing. We find him at times a gleaming
enthusiast,--a man burning with the spirit of the war, involuntarily
uttering the most thrilling passages of Scripture,--and again provoking
laughter by dry humor and cutting jests. Let the reader in illustration
take the following paragraphs in the same sequence in which they occur
in the original work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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