The Contest in America — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Contest in America
John Stuart Mill · en
original cause of quarrel, the freedom of the Territories; if it
resigns to them when out of the Union that power of evil which it
would not grant to retain them in the Union--it will incur the pity
and disdain of posterity. And no one can suppose that the South would
have consented, or in their present temper ever will consent, to an
accommodation on any other terms. It will require a succession of
humiliation to bring them to that. The necessity of reconciling
themselves to the confinement of slavery within its existing
boundaries, with the natural consequence, immediate mitigation of
slavery, and ultimate emancipation, is a lesson which they are in no
mood to learn from anything but disaster. Two or three defeats in the
field, breaking their military strength, though not followed by an
invasion of their territory, may possibly teach it to them. If so,
there is no breach of charity in hoping that this severe schooling may
promptly come. When men set themselves up, in defiance of the rest of
the world, to do the devil's work, no good can come of them until the
world has made them feel that this work cannot be suffered to be done
any longer. If this knowledge does not come to them for several years,
the abolition question will by that time have settled itself. For
assuredly Congress will very soon make up its mind to declare all
slaves free who belong to persons in arms against the Union. When that
is done, slavery, confined to a minority, will soon cure itself; and
the pecuniary value of the negroes belonging to loyal masters will
probably not exceed the amount of compensation which the United States
will be willing and able to give.