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 MUST THE WAR GO ON? 
 
 AN INQUIRY 
 
 WHETHER THE UNION CAN BE RESTOHED BY ANY 
 
 OTHER MEANS THAN WAR, AND WHETHER 
 
 PEACE UPON ANY OTHER BASIS 
 
 WOULD BE SAFE OR 
 
 DURABLE. 
 
 BY HENRY JLANDEBS. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEX, 
 
 606 Chestnut Street. 
 
 1863. 
 
 
H.T. Pub. Lib, - 
 
 " We ought with reverence to apjDroach that tremendous divinity that 
 loves courage, but commands counsel. War never leaves, where it found a 
 nation. It is never to be entered into without mature deliberation; not a 
 deliberation lengthened out into a perplexing indecision, but a deliberation 
 leading to a sure and fixed judgment. When so taken up, it is not to be 
 abandoned without reason as valid, as fully, and as extensively considered. 
 Peace may be made as unadvisedly as war. Nothing is so rash as fearj 
 and the counsels of pusillanimity very rarely put off, whilst they are 
 always sure to aggravate, the evils from which they would fly." 
 
 Burke. 
 
 ' In a theme so bloody-faced as this. 
 
 Conjecture, expectation, and surmise 
 
 Of aids uncertain, should not be admitted." 
 
 Seco7id Fart of King Henry IV. Act i. scene iii. 
 
 "Is all our travail turned to this effect? 
 After the slaughter of so many peers, 
 So many captains, gentlemen, and soldiers, 
 That in this quarrel have been overthrown. 
 And sold their bodies for their country's benefit, 
 §hall^we ^t last conclude effeminate peace! 
 
 .•^ •, \' • *• " ; ^ir»t Part «/> 
 
 SiiNci Henry VI. Act v. scene iv. 
 
 ' rk'(i> wejCf ^ Vo?'.s ^ide! 'PcffSt for shame. 
 And hanff a calf's skin on those recreant limbs.' 
 
 King John. Act iii. scene i. 
 
 DUPLiCATEj 
 
It must be confessed that the war which the Ameri- 
 can people are now prosecuting, whether we con- 
 sider the forces engaged, or the result sought to be 
 accomplished, is one of the most momentous that 
 has ever engaged the attention of mankind. Nearly 
 or quite a million and a half of men are assembled in 
 hostile array, and the great question in debate is the 
 American Union. Whether the arbitrament of arms 
 might have been averted, whether the best or wisest 
 policy has been adopted by the party in power, 
 whether our generals have displayed capacity or 
 incapacity, still, the great question which the Ameri- 
 can people have to determine for themselves and 
 their posterity, is, whether, in the actual posture of 
 affairs, the Union can he restored hy any other means 
 than tear? and whether war itself can in the end 
 accomplish that result? 
 
 If the people come to know or believe that war 
 alone can cut the gordian-knot, that an undivided 
 country, and an unshorn greatness, can be pre- 
 
4 
 
 served only by war, then war, under whatever dis- 
 couragement of military disaster, or financial embar- 
 rassment, or administrative folly, will be prosecuted 
 until success crowns and justifies their efforts. 
 
 First, then, can any other means be adopted — an 
 armistice, a convention — which will accomplish the 
 desire of all our hearts, which will place the country 
 in the proud position she occupied before this mad 
 outbreak, " the stars of union on her brow, and the 
 rock of independence beneath her feet" — any other 
 means but the genius of arms which can exorcise 
 burning passions and wild ambitions, and constrain 
 within the golden circle of law and constitution 
 the dissevered portions of our common political 
 heritage 1 
 
 Whoever can believe this in the face of the public 
 acts and declarations of the so-called Confederate 
 Congress; the public and reiterated declarations of 
 the envenomed and implacable Jefferson Davis;* 
 the public and solemn acts of the legislatures of the 
 seceded States; and the repeated and trenchant de- 
 
 * In his recent message to the Confederate Congress, Jefferson Davis 
 says: — "Earnest as has been our wish for peace, and great as have been 
 our sacrifices and sufferings during the war, the determination of this 
 people has, with each succeeding month, become more unalterably fixed 
 to endure any sufferings, and continue any sacrifice, however prolonged, 
 until their right to self-government and the sovereignty and independence 
 of these States shall have been triumphantly vindicated and firmly estab- 
 lished." The date of this message is January 12, 1863, and it is the latest 
 official expression of the purpose and determination of the Southern 
 people. 
 
clarations of the Southern press, in far greater degree 
 the organ of Southern sentiment than is the North- 
 ern press the organ of Northern sentiment; all 
 supported and enforced by the greatest intensity of 
 military effort; whoever can believe this, is a marvel 
 of political credulity, a babe and suckling, at a time 
 which requires the sinewy and robust qualities of a 
 man. No; the object of the South is to sever and 
 divide this Union. Not an act inconsistent with that 
 object has been done, nor a voice in opposition to it 
 been uttered by any Southern man who enjoys the 
 confidence of the Southern people. They tell us 
 through public bodies, through every organ of public 
 sentiment, through all forms and modes of speech, and 
 through the fire, and blood, and desolation of war, 
 that they mean disunion. And shall we be lulled 
 into a fatal security, be induced to grant an armis- 
 tice, withdraw our blockade, and disband or reduce 
 our army, because some member of Congress, or 
 some member of the New Jersey legislature, upon 
 some loose hypothesis of history or human nature, 
 believes that if the land and naval forces were not in 
 the way, the North and South, from mere passional 
 attraction, would rush into each other's arms in a 
 fond, eternal embrace! 
 
 Besides, if these people who have rebelled, who 
 have cast off", and defied the national authority, 
 desire to make terms, if they desire to return again 
 into the bosom of the Union, let them announce 
 
their wishes. They began the war, (we do not 
 here inquire as to the antecedent causes,) let them 
 initiate the peace. But for our part, let us not 
 make advances which will be received with con- 
 tempt and rejected with scorn.* Let us maintain 
 the honour and uphold the dignity of the Govern- 
 ment, and not hawk them in the marts of rebellion. 
 If we must fail in the present contest, let us fail 
 without dishonour, and make a record which our 
 posterity can read without shame. 
 
 Upon all the evidence accessible to the public, we 
 are justified in asserting that the only mode of 
 restoring the Union, if it is to be restored at all, is 
 by arms. The path of safety for us and our 
 children is the path of war. Intimations and sug- 
 gestions of peace, when there is no peace, will only 
 have the effect to sickle over and unnerve our en- 
 terprise, and pluck victory from our grasp. The sen- 
 timent of union is the natural and master sentiment 
 of this people, and when the conviction enters into 
 their heart of hearts that war alone can insure it, 
 they will support its burdens, and bear up under its 
 difficulties and embarrassments with a cheerful and 
 heroic spirit. 
 
 But will war produce the result at which we aim, 
 liamely, the extension of the national authority over 
 the seceded States'? That, we conceive, depends, 
 
 * We refer, of course, to advances looking to peace, ou the basis of a 
 restoratibn of the Union. 
 
under God, upon ourselves, upon our spirit and 
 perseverance. Where the preponderance of numbers 
 and resources are so greatly upon our side, nothin<T 
 but a plain abandonment of our duty and our inte- 
 rest can accomplish our feilure and our ruin. Our 
 obvious difficulty, at present, is a financial one; but 
 " whilst our heart is whole, it will find means or make 
 them." Our resources of every kind are abundant, 
 and should be employed to the utmost, if necessary, 
 to insure and compel success. Our agriculture is 
 flourishing; our industry, in most of its. branches, 
 vigorous and remunerative. No man in any de- 
 scription has been deprived of his conveniences, and 
 perhaps, we might add, of his luxuries, in conse- 
 quence of the war. But to make our resources 
 available, we should adopt a sound system of finance. 
 The most alarming symptom of our present condi- 
 tion is the depreciation of our paper currency. This 
 must be arrested, or the most disastrous conse- 
 quences will follow. We may preserve the confi- 
 dence of the people in the capacity of the Govern- 
 ment to ultimately redeem its credit; but the 
 moment the issue of Treasury notes exceeds the 
 amount necessary or useful as a circulating medium, 
 they will begin to depreciate, and this depreciation 
 will be irregular, rapid, increasing, and out of all 
 proportion to the excess. It is the duty of Congress 
 to save the Government and the country from the 
 fearful evils of a depreciated currency. • This can 
 
6 
 
 be done by a combined system of taxation and 
 loans. 
 
 There may be other methods; and that which pro- 
 poses to get rid of the circulation of the Banks, has 
 much to commend it, though it may perhaps en- 
 counter constitutional objections; but this is direct 
 and certain. Under the present tax law, an annual 
 revenue of possibly two hundred millions may be 
 derived. Enlarge the objects of taxation, and in- 
 crease the rate upon all those now taxed, two or 
 three-fold, and we would have a revenue of five or 
 six hundred millions. And this would not press 
 insupportably upon any class of the community. 
 Indeed, as compared with the policy of an unlimited 
 issue of Treasury notes, it would be an incalculable 
 saving to the creditor class, and to all those classes 
 who are dependent on fixed incomes and the wages 
 of labour. Upon these classes a depreciated cur- 
 rency bears with inexorable severity. It robs the 
 capitalist of his fortune, and the labourer of the 
 fruits of his toil. In efi'ect, it takes from the sailor 
 and the soldier, who are to the country its assurance 
 of safety and success, one-half, or one-quarter, more 
 or less, of their pay, according to the ratio of depre- 
 ciation. It is due in a peculiar sense to the army 
 and navy, that they be paid in a sound currency. 
 
 A system of taxation which of itself would go far 
 to defray the current expenses of the war, would at 
 the same time insure a ready sale of Government 
 
bonds to meet the other requirements of the Trea- 
 sury. Temporary expedients will not enable us to 
 carry on a protracted war. A permanent system 
 must be adopted, a system which will not be dislo- 
 cated or deranged by occasional defeat or unexpected 
 disaster, or which, in supplying a present necessity, 
 will have the effect to impair its capacity to supply 
 all future ones. With regular and unfailing means, 
 the Government must in the end triumph. What 
 man has done, man may do. What other nations 
 and other people have done to accomplish what they 
 deemed important objects, we can do to accomplish 
 what is necessary to our safety, our honour, and our 
 peace. The Peloponnesian war lasted twenty-seven 
 years; the first Punic war, twenty-four; and the 
 second, eighteen years. Germany has witnessed a 
 thirty years' war; and the war against Louis XIV., 
 ending with the Treaty of Ryswick, was a war of 
 eighteen years' duration. There are those now living, 
 the first twenty years of whose existence were co- 
 temporaneous with the wars growing out of the 
 French Revolution. What may be the duration of 
 the present war, is known only to the Great Disposer. 
 But it should have been foreseen from the outset, 
 that with a considerable population and resources, 
 with an immense territory, with a vast system of 
 railroads, insuring a speedy transmission of troops 
 and supplies to any threatened point, and with the 
 impetus of revolutionary zeal and fanaticism, the 
 
10 
 
 South possessed the elements of a prolonged resist- 
 ance. Undoubtedly, the light and facile predictions 
 of men in power, that the rebellion would be speedily 
 overthrown, has had an injurious influence. The 
 utter failure of these predictions has had a tendency 
 to produce discouragement at home, and to create 
 doubt of our success abroad. 
 
 It seems, however, characteristic of the Anglo- 
 Saxon race, wdth all their hardihood and tenacity, to 
 be easily elated and easily depressed. They enter 
 upon a war with the most sanguine expectations, 
 and at the first reverse give way to unmanly appre- 
 hensions. " I remember," says Mr. Burke, " in the 
 beginning of what has lately been called the Seven 
 Years' War, that an eloquent writer and ingenious 
 speculator. Dr. Brown, upon some reverses which 
 happened in the beginning of that war, published an 
 elaborate philosophical discourse to prove that the 
 distinguishing features of the people of England had 
 been totally changed, and that a frivolous effeminacy 
 was become the national character. Nothing could 
 be more popular than that work. It was thought a 
 great consolation to us, the light people of this 
 country, (who were and are light, but who were not 
 and are not eft'eminate,) that we had found the causes 
 of our misfortunes in our vices. Pythagoras could 
 not be more pleased with his leading discovery. But 
 whilst in that splenetic mood, we amused ourselves 
 in a sour critical speculation, of which we were our- 
 
11 
 
 selves the objects, and in which every man lost his 
 particular sense of the public disgrace in the epi- 
 demic nature of the distemper; whilst, as in the 
 Alps, goitre kept goitre in countenance ; whilst we 
 were thus abandoning ourselves to a direct confession 
 of our inferiority to France; and whilst many, very 
 many, were ready to act upon a sense of that inferi- 
 ority, a few months effected a total change in our 
 variable minds. We emerged from the gulf of that 
 speculative despondency, and were buoyed up to the 
 highest point of practical vigour. Never did the 
 masculine spirit of England display itself with more 
 energy, nor ever did its genius soar with a prouder 
 preeminence over France, than at the time when 
 frivolity and effeminacy had been at least tacitly 
 acknowledged as their national character by the good 
 people of this kingdom."* 
 
 We are now having our season of doubt, uneasi- 
 ness, and dissatisfaction. But, after all, notwith- 
 standing the failure of our military efforts at certain 
 points and on certain lines of operation, caused, it is 
 said, (we know not with how much or how little 
 truth,) by the interference of the civil department of 
 the Government, and, in part, by an unprovided for 
 and unexpected power of resistance on the side of 
 the enemy; by delays, by incapacity, by prodigal 
 waste of strength and resources on the part of some- 
 
 * Burke's Works, Vol. IV. p. 336. 
 
12 
 
 hodij^ we have nevertheless gained very considerable 
 and substantial successes. To say nothing of our 
 acquisitions on the seaboard, we have redeemed Mis- 
 souri, Kentucky, and a large portion of Tennessee. 
 Western Virginia is safe from the grasp of secession ; 
 and the capture of New Orleans* subjects Louisiana 
 practically to our sway. But since we have been 
 baffled at Richmond, at Vicksburg — since, in fact, 
 our reasonable or our unreasonable hopes have not 
 all been fulfilled, we are disposed, such is the temper 
 of the public mind, to regard nothing gained. 
 
 It is vain, however, to look for uniform and unin- 
 terrupted success. Man is fallible as well as mortal, 
 and the best laid plans often go awry. The most 
 successful v/ars, in their results, that have ever been 
 prosecuted, were wars of very variable fortunes. But 
 while there will be, from the incapacity of man, or the 
 accidents of fortune, reverses, with consequent disap- 
 pointment and discouragement, there never should 
 be despair. The Romans, with Hannibal at their 
 gates, with the fairest portions of Italy subject to his 
 sway, preserved a high and unconquerable spirit, 
 would listen to no terms that might tarnish the 
 honour or reduce the weight and power of their 
 
 * Mr. Edouard Laboulaye, in his Essay in the Revue Nationale, ivhich 
 has been republished in our press, says: " To possess New Orleans is to 
 command a valley which comprises two-thirds of the United States.' 
 This is what an intelligent foreigner thinks of the value of that city to the 
 pjwer which liolds it. 
 
13 
 
 country; and the result of the struggle was the 
 total overthrow of Carthage. The preponderance 
 of strength was on the side of the Romans ; and, 
 though suffermg defeat after defeat, that fact, 
 together with their inexorable resolution, deter- 
 mined and made sure their triumph and ascendency. 
 Mr. Stille, in his recent excellent pamphlet, 
 has shown us what England did, and in the face 
 of what obstacles and discouragements, in the pro- 
 secution of the Peninsular War. There is another 
 instructive chapter in her history, of an earlier 
 date, which is equally worthy of our attention. 
 We refer to the war which was concluded by the 
 Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Throughout the whole 
 of it, England's principal strength, as has been 
 said by Mr. Burke, was found in the resolution 
 of the people. What was her condition at that 
 period] Scotland dissatisfied and discontented; 
 Ireland held in subjection by an army of forty 
 thousand men; the current coin of the realm 
 "reduced so low as not to have above three parts 
 in four of the value in the shilling;" the revenue 
 arising from commerce comparatively trifling; and 
 the public credit a thing which could hardly be 
 said to exist. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 "with the Lord Mayor of London at his side, 
 was obliged, like a solicitor for an hospital, to go, 
 cap in hand, from sliop to shop, to borrow an 
 hundred pounds, and even smaller sums." Yet, 
 
14 
 
 says Mr. Burke,* "in that state of things, amidst 
 the general debasement of the coin, the fall of the 
 ordinary revenue, the failure of all the extraordi- 
 nary supplies, the ruin of commerce, and the almost 
 total extinction of an infant credit, the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer himself, whom we have just seen 
 begging from door to door, came forward to move a 
 resolution, full of vigour, in which, far from being 
 discouraged by the generally adverse fortune, and 
 the long continuance of the war, the Commons 
 agreed to address the crown in the following manly, 
 spirited, and truly animating style : 
 
 '"This is the eighth year in which your Majesty's 
 most dutiful and loyal subjects the Commons, in 
 Parliament assembled, have assisted your Majesty 
 with large supplies for carrying on a just and neces- 
 sary war, in defence of our religion, and preservation 
 of our laws, and vindication of the rights and liber- 
 ties of the people of England. 
 
 " 'To show to your Majesty and all Christendom, 
 that the Commons of England will not be amused or 
 diverted from their firm resolutions of obtaining by 
 wai\ a safe and honourable peace, we do, in the 
 name of those we represent, renew our assurances to 
 sup[)ort your Majesty and your government against 
 all your enemies at home and abroad; and that we 
 will effectually assist you in carrying on the war 
 against France.' " 
 
 * Letters on a Regicide Peace. 
 
15 
 
 The real object of that war was to reduce the 
 power of France, and to maintain the ascendency of 
 England in the affairs and councils of Europe. It 
 was believed to be an important object, and the 
 courage and constancy she displayed in prosecuting 
 and accomplishing it, should serve as a lesson and a 
 guide to us in the noble endeavour to provide for 
 our future security by preserving our country un- 
 broken. Let not the historian have it to record, 
 that the American people, in their fresh and vigor- 
 ous manhood, in the light of the great examples fur- 
 nished them by the states of ancient and modern 
 times, had not the fortitude to suppress and put down 
 an insidious rebellion, but for the sake of their ease, 
 permitted their country to be torn in twain! 
 
 But suppose that our resolution should give way, 
 and we should be brought to that state of humiliation 
 in which we should be ready to make terms with the 
 seceded States on the basis of their independence! 
 What would be the character of those terms'? 
 Where would the boundary lines be fixed] Could 
 we abandon and give up the fortresses that com- 
 mand the commerce of the gulf, and are essential to 
 its protection'? Could we give up Fortress Monroe, 
 and our controul of the waters of the Chesapeake ^ 
 Could we surrender Western Virginia, which has 
 shown throughout an undivided and unsuspecting 
 loyalty, and which, in the possession of a foreign 
 power, would be a sort of natural fortification, com- 
 
16 
 
 manding the upper waters of the Ohio, and from 
 which predatory forces could issue to plunder and lay 
 waste the valleys of Pennsylvania, or armies to dis- 
 pute their permanent possession'? Could we, as men 
 of honour or humanity, abandon the loyal citizens of 
 East Tennessee, who throughout this contest, amid 
 persecution, suffering, and death, have remained 
 firm and undaunted and true to the flag and country 
 of their fathers'? Could we abandon Kentucky, 
 which, under sore trials and temptations, has in the 
 main been 
 
 " faithful found 
 
 Amous; the faithless 
 
 and be shorn of our absolute controul of the naviga- 
 tion of the Ohio'? Could we consent that Missouri, 
 which is directly in our pathway to the States of the 
 Pacific, and which contains within itself an imperial 
 domain, and a population which approaches in num- 
 bers to an equality with that of North and South 
 Carolina combined, should take her place in the 
 rival and hostile confederacy"? Could we permit 
 the frontier of a foreign power to be the line of the 
 Potomac, and the capital of our country to be com- 
 manded by batteries on Arlington heights'? 
 
 Yet, if in our abasement we should be ready to 
 offer terms at all, this is the entertainment to which 
 we would be invited — this the sort of submission 
 that would be required of us; submission, in the first 
 
17 
 
 place, to the dismemberment of our country, and 
 then to the surrender of States which have clung to 
 us in all our fortunes, and whose possession is neces- 
 sary to our security! In a word, it would be sub- 
 mission to a present full of ignominy and disgrace, 
 and a future full of peril ! 
 
 But even were we base enough and abject enough 
 to think submission, and such submission, we 
 should have no peace; we should not only have 
 perpetual cause of collision with the rival power 
 placed in such audacious neighbourhood, but we 
 should have contention and war within our own 
 borders, and at our own hearthstones. No sooner 
 would the separation be accomplished, than political 
 intrigue would seek to withdraw Pennsylvania and 
 the States of the Northwest from their relations to 
 the Federal Government, and attach them to the 
 Southern Confederacy. The men of lead and influ- 
 ence at the South know full well that the vast and 
 fertile regions watered by the Mississippi and its 
 tributaries, will, within a short flight of time, have a 
 population of forty or flfty millions ; and that mean- 
 while, the South, slowly recovering from the loss and 
 exhaustion of this conflict, with her system of slavery 
 practically excluding emigration, will be in presence 
 of this irrepressible population, like an infant 
 beneath an overhanging mass of earth or rock, 
 which any accident may precipitate with crushing 
 force upon its head. They would endeavour, there- 
 2 
 
18 
 
 fore, to form a union with the Northwest, and thus 
 avert the otherwise inevitable future conflict for the 
 control of the Mississippi. Pennsylvania, too, would 
 be brought within the circle of these intrigues and 
 designs. But would they be likely to succeed here 
 or elsewhere'? There are those who think that so 
 f:ir as the Northwest is concerned they inevitably 
 would. Have these persons considered the obstacles 
 in the way] Have they considered the character of 
 the western population, and its origin'? Have they 
 ever heard of the Western Reserve'? Do they reflect 
 that the ever-increasing population of the northern 
 portion of those States in the vicinity of the great 
 rivers and lakes is in the main, exclusive of Euro- 
 j^.ean emigration, from New England, from New 
 York, from New Jersey, from northern and western 
 Pennsylvania; and that the Union of their fathers 
 is the only Union to which they would voluntarily 
 belong'? 
 
 AVe have referred to the northern portions of those 
 States; but we have no evidence that the southern 
 portions would greatly differ from their northern 
 neighbours. Nevertheless, in certain political con- 
 tingencies, the men in favour of a union with the 
 South might hold the reins of power in Pennsyl- 
 vania and elsewhere, and endeavour to consummate 
 it. But does anybody who has ever read the great 
 volume of human nature suppose that such a move- 
 ment could be essayed without being resisted to the 
 
19 
 
 utmost, and to the last gasp. AVill the fathers, 
 brothers, sons, of those who have poured out their 
 blood and laid down their lives in resisting the 
 secession of the South, consent that their own 
 States shall imitate the abhorred example — shall 
 strike hands, and join the authors of their calamity 1 
 Will the survivors of the hard-fought fields of this 
 sanguinary contest, the sad remains of war, consent 
 that the theatre of a successful revolt shall be their 
 country'? Will all those classes who, in their 
 respective spheres, have supported the war, and 
 devoted to its prosecution their property and all 
 that they hold dear, submit that such should be the 
 inglorious fruit of their endeavours'? No; they 
 would resist, they would spurn the political act or 
 ordinance that sought to deliver them over to the 
 South, and internecine and neighbourhood war 
 would be the result. 
 
 Meanwhile, would the general Government re- 
 main an idle spectator of the contest '? Would it 
 permit, unmoved and unresisting, these jewels to be 
 wrested from its crown'? Certainly not. The 
 general Government would come to the support of 
 its friends, and the southern Government to the 
 support of theirs, and thus the war would be 
 renewed, and would be a local and general, a 
 national and neighbourhood war, at one and the 
 same time. In such a war, farewell, a long farewell, 
 to the prosperity and happiness of Pennsylvania. 
 
20 
 
 The springs and sources of her greatness would be 
 <lried up ; her fair and fertile plains, her vast system 
 of industry, her public works, her towns and cities, 
 would be swept as with the besom of destruction. 
 Let her look on Virginia, and contemplate an 
 outline, but not the finished picture, of what would 
 then be her condition. To save her from that con- 
 dition and that fate, to save our whole country from 
 the terrible evils that would ensue from the success 
 of the South, it is necessary to prosecute the war 
 with unceasing effort, with unflagging energy, until 
 our objects are fully attained.* And those objects 
 
 * M. Laboulaye, in the Essay already referred to, makes the following 
 striking observations, which deserve the serious consideration of those 
 who vainly suppose that peace will be a panacea for all our ills: 
 
 "Now suppose the separation accomplished, and that the new confede- 
 ration comprises all the slave States, the North loses in one day its power 
 ;md its institutions. The republic is struck in the heart. There are in 
 America two nations in the presence of each other, two rival peoples 
 always on the point of quarrelling. Peace, in short, will not put an end 
 to enmity; the remembrance of past greatness, of the destroyed Union, 
 will not be effaced. The South, as conquerer, will not be less the friend 
 of slavery, nor less fond of domination. The enemies of slavery, masters 
 of their policy, will certainly not be softened by separation. What will 
 the confederation of the South be to the North? A foreign power estab- 
 lished in America, with a frontier of fifteen hundred miles, a frontier 
 exposed on all sides, and consequently always menacing or menaced. 
 This power, hostile even from its vicinity, and still more so from its insti- 
 tutions, will possess some of the most considerable portions of the new 
 world; it will have half the coast of the Union; it will command the Gulf 
 of Mexico, an internal sea which is the third of the Mediterranean ; it will 
 be mistress of the mouths of the Mississippi, and able, at pleasure, to ruin 
 the populations of the West. It will, therefore, be necessary that the 
 remains of the old Union be always ready to defend itself from its rival. 
 
21 
 
 can be attained as certainly now, as economically in 
 point of blood and treasure, as at any future period. 
 We assume that at some time, either now or here- 
 
 Questions of customs, dues, and of frontiers, rivalries, jealousies, all the 
 curses which T^eigh upon old Europe, will overwhelm America at once. It 
 will be necessary to establish custom-houses over a space of five hundred 
 leagues, to construct and arm forts on this immense frontier, maintain 
 large standing armies and a navy; in other words, it will be necessary to 
 renounce the old Constitution, weaken municipal independence, and con- 
 centrate power. Adieu to the former glorious liberty! Adieu to those 
 institutions which have made America the common country of all those 
 who had no room to breathe in Europe ! The work of Washington will be 
 destroyed ; men will find themselves in a situation full of difficulties and 
 perils. That such a future should rejoice those who cannot pardon 
 America her prosperity and her greatness, I can readily understand. 
 History is full of such sad jealousy. That a people accustomed to liberty 
 should risk its last man and its last cent to preserve the heritage of its 
 fathers, I can still better understand, and I approve of it. What I do not 
 understand is, that there are in Europe persons who believe themselves to 
 be liberals even while reproaching the North for its generous resistance, 
 and while advising it to make a shameful abdication. War is a fearful 
 evil, but out of it may come a durable peace. The South may become 
 tired of a contest which exhausts it. The old Union may rise up again, 
 the future may be saved. But what can come of separation, except war 
 without end, and calamities without number? This tearing of a country 
 to pieces is a downfall past remedy: such a misfortune can only be 
 accepted when we are crushed. 
 
 "Hitherto I have reasoned on the hypothesis that the South will remain 
 an independent power. But, unless the West shall join the Confederates, 
 and the Union shall be reestablished minus New England, this independence 
 is a chimera. It may last some years ; but in ten or twenty years, when 
 the West shall have doubled or trebled its free population, what will the 
 confederation be, (weakened as it will be by servile culture,) alongside of 
 a nation of thirty millions of men, which will enclose it on two sides? In 
 order to resist it, the South will have to lean upon Europe; it can exist 
 only on condition of being protected by a great maritime power; and Eng- 
 land alone is in a state to guarantee to it its sovereignty. This will be a 
 
22 
 
 after, they must in the main be attained. For, if we 
 would have permanent peace and security, it is an 
 indispensable condition that there should be substan- 
 tially a restoration of the Union. 
 
 Between us and our objects stand the southern 
 armies in Virginia and the Southwest.* Defeat, 
 break up, and scatter these armies, and the basis of 
 the rebellion falls. It is supported by force, and 
 when the force fails, there 's an end. Undoubtedly, 
 it will require courage, skill, and time, to overthrow 
 this force; but if our heart remains whole, if our 
 finances are kept in a sound condition, the issue is 
 not uncertain. 
 
 new danger to free America and to Europe. There is no marine in tiie 
 South, and while slavery lasts there never -will be any; it will be England 
 who, from the very first moment, will seize the monopoly of cotton, and 
 furnish the South with capital and ships. In two words, the triumph of 
 the South will result in the reinstallation of England on that continent 
 whence the policy of Louis XVI. and Napoleon expelled her ; weakened 
 neutrals and France will again be involved in all those questions relative 
 to the freedom of the seas which have cost us two hundred years of 
 struggle and suffering. The American Union, in defending its rights, has 
 established the independence of the ocean. The Union destroyed, English 
 preponderance will instantly revive. Peace will be exiled from the world; 
 there will be the return of a policy which has benefited only our rivals. 
 This is what Napoleon felt, but what is forgotten now. It seems that 
 history is nothing but a collection of tales fit to amuse youth; no one is 
 willing to understand the lessons of the past. If the experience of our 
 fathers were not lost in our ignorance, we should see that in asserting its 
 independence, in maintaining the national unity, it is our cause as 
 well as its own which the North is defending. All our prayers should be 
 for our old and faithful friends. The weakening of the United States will 
 be our own weakness. On the first quarrel with England, we shall regret 
 too late our having abandoned a policy which for forty years has been our 
 security." 
 
23 
 
 It is vastly important that the Democratic party, 
 which has in the past exercised so controling an 
 influence in the State and National Governments, 
 should not — from opposition to the present Admin- 
 istration, from opposition to its conduct and policy, 
 as being in some things unwise, and in others 
 unconstitutional, and in many things wanting in 
 elevation and dignity — be betrayed, even in appear- 
 ance, into opposition to the war, which is the cause 
 of our country, and, for weal or woe, involves its 
 fate. In every war which the Government has 
 hitherto waged, that party has rallied with unbroken 
 and unfaltering ranks to its succour and support. 
 In the far more stupendous contest in which we are 
 now engaged, let it do no discredit to the bright 
 examples of the past, but, animated and inspired by 
 the old feeling and the old patriotism, 
 
 " Stand for its country's glory fast, 
 And nail her colours to the mast." 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 012 029 033 2' 
 
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