E 458 .4 .M95 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DDDDbl3'^t.5b y^. '' J' ti <^°^ ^^^.^ ■■i° ^-^.^^ ' ^-^ % -.^^z /'\ '-yw.' *-^ % -3 ^° ^°*^^^ i* t- %' \ J^ * ,5^^^. •'ov^ ,^* v-».. .0 i^_ ^^^^^-^^^ ^^ .-^^ 0^ ♦•'■J,:'' *^o, -^^ ■^^^* S'-'-V\ ^^-n^. V o.. *.-» .^^, ^^ * •n^.0^ > ..L^' <•. A* *: \ i^'\/% \ijK" /\ "»y • .*'% • ," jp-n^. -.' 0' .-lo. ^■J'" ^^'^ % v^*:.. • .^" v^ .^i:^ <> *'...• .^G ^^ 'o . » * A <^ v;^ 0^ .'V'-V - V ". -^^0^ ,-iq* <;*► V. *"^- -ftp ■Aq^ '%V •• ^^'\ • * A •. -^O '" A^'cO--."lisliing order among multitudes teeming with life and activ- ity — each seeking, in his own way, the broadest vent for his God-given ener- gies. These human energies are given to men for the very purj^ose that they may flow forth in a thousand modes of activity and industrj', and that, thus, men may mutually impart an exalted happiness upon each other. These energies are to l)c repressed only when they are wrong, when they take a wrong direction, when they conflict with the welfare of the community. When these energies, these human im- pulses to act, are right, when they aim at useful results, then they must have every facility, every possible channel opened to their outflow. And the very first and most essential condition of this free outflow of life among multitudes is, that there be order among them — that there be some system, some method- ical arrangement whereby concert and unity of action may be eft'ected among this diversified life. Witliout this order — without systems or common methods of action in the thousand afiairs which concern every community, it is evident that there must be fZisorder, confusion, and clashing. The activity of each in- dividual, and of each class of individu- als, will come into collision, and be re- pressed by the like activity of others. It is utterly impossible, in a community where there is no order, no mutually understood arrangement of relations, duties, and pursuits ; in other words, where there is no government ; it is im- l^ossible, under such conditions, for in- dividuals, if even of the best intentions, to live and do as they wish. For many wills must come into conflict, unless they can be harmonized, unless they have a mutual understanding and con- sent among each other that there shall be common and well-defined methods of procedure, under the countless cir- cumstances in which men mu^t act to- gether, or not act at all. Now, it is the true function of gov- ernment to establish these common or general modes of procedure, termed laws, among masses, and to punish de- partures from them. Government is thus the great social harmonizer of these otherwise necessarily conflicting and mutually interfering human ener- gies. Government coordinates, harmonizes, concentrates the efforts of multitudes. It does this by establishing and main- taining o/v/er, an orderly arrangement of human activities— anangements, meth- ods of procedure, which are adapted to The Value of the Uiiioii. )81 the wants of the community, and into which men's activities flow freely and spontaneously, and without ct)mi)ul.sion (except in the case of violators of law), because of their adai)tati()n to the pub- lic wants. But now, what constitutes order ? What is its essential nature ? The answer is, that order is the har- monious relation of parts in a whole ; and parts can have no orderly, that is, symmetrical and harmonious, relation to each other, except through their re- lation to a common centre. Order is the sw&ordination of things, of things lower to something that is higher ; and si^ordination is the ordi- nation or ordering of parts under some- thing that is above — something to which the rest must cowform, that is, must form themselves or be formed with it, in harmony with it, if order is to result. This something is thus, of course, that which is central — the chief ele- ment in the group ; that which is the most prominent feature, and which gives character to all subordinate parts. It is thus clearly evident that the very essence of government, of order, of harmony, of subordination, is the grouping of individual parts around centres ; of these compound units as larger individuals, arouiffl some higher centre again, and so on, until a limit is prescribed by the very nature of the thing thus organized into an ascending series of compounds. This method of grouping and organ- izing parts into wholes, is, as we have already seen, the divine method ; an.d, of course, being such, as has also been said, it is seen in every created object — in minerals, plants, animals, and in the systems of suns and planets. It is the method of man's bodily or- ganization, and much more, if possible, is it the method of his mental organiza- tion. Man's mind consists of powers of affection and thought. His affec- tions, loves, desires, or whatever they may be termed, all group themselves arounil some leading motive, some rul- ing passion, which is central for a part or the whole of a lifetime. All minor motives and ends of action are subordi- nate, and only subservient as a means to satisfy the central, dominant pas-sion. They revolve around it, like satellites around their primary, or like planetd around their sun. His thoughts, likewise — the method of his intellectual operations, obey the same law. In every subject which he investigates, he marshals a multitude of facts around central principles or conclusions. He shuts them up under a general, chief, leading fact or law. A number of conclusions, again, are mar- shalled around one still more general and comprehensive, and thus he mounts up into the highest and most universal principles. All the knowledge stored away in his mind is thus organized, al- most without his consciousness, into groups of lower and higher facts and details, ranged under or around their central principles. The closer and more symmetrical is this grouping of i)articulars and gene- rals in the intellect, or, rather, the greater the power thus to arrange them, the more logical and compactly reason- ing is that mind. The looser and less connected is this grouping, the less logical is the mind ; and when the proper connection fails to be made be- tween particulars and generals, be- tween facts and their principles, or between parts and their centre, then the mind is in an idiotic or insane con- dition. Now, man's mental movements, being thus themselves obedient to this great order-evolving method, then, of course, when he applies his fiicultics to investi- gate the objects and phenomena of the outer world, he classifies, arranges, and disposes them strictly after the same method, because he cannot help doing so. The naturalist studies minerals, plants, animals— and each kingdom, at his bidding, marshals itself into order 5S2 The Value of the Union. before him. Each resolves its otherwise confused hosts into groups and series of groups, each with its ovm centre and leading type. The animal kingdom has its sub-kingdoms, classes, orders, families, and species. Botanists speak of divisions, classes, orders, genera, and species, &c., species being the fii'st as- semblage of individuals. It is, therefore, seen that, by the very necessity of the case, when men them- selves are to be massed into communities and nations, they come inevitably under the same universal method of organiza- tion. Whether the government be free, or whether it be despotic, it must, in either case, be organized, and organized according to this universal method. It must consist of parts with their centres, compounded into wholes, and of these compound units formed into still larger ones ; until the entire nation, as a grand whole, revolves upon a ccntfal pivot, or national government. But here there presents itself a vast distinction between despotic and free governments — a distinction which arises out of the different relations sustained, in these respective modes of administra- tion, between the government and the people — between the centre and the subordinate parts. "What is this diifer- ence? If we look around through nature, we shall find that aU organized beings, that is, beings composed of diiaFerent parts or organs, all aiding, in their sev- eral ways, to the performance of a com- mon function, or a number of harmonized functions — in such an organized struc- ture, whether it be a plant, an animal, the hmnan body, or even the globe it- self, we shall find two reciprocal move- ments — one from the centre, outward, and another from without, inward, or toward the centre ; and further, that the integrity of the life of the indivi- dual depends upon the harmonious re- lation or balance between these two opposite inovcmcnts. The individual man, for instance, is a centre of active energies that are ever radiating from himself toward men and things around him ; and he receives from them, in return, countless impressions and various materials for supporting his own life. What is thus true of the man himself, is also true of the organs and systems of organs of which his body is composed. The nervous system exhibits nerves with double strands; one set (the motor fibres) conveying nervous force from the centre as motor power to the limbs ; the other, convey- ing sensations to the centre, from with- out. The heart, again, the centre of the circulating system, sends forth its crim- son tide to the farthest circumference, and receives it back as venous blood — to send it forth afresh when purified in the lungs. The jjlant has its ascending and de- scending sap ; it drinks in the ak and sunshine, and gives these forth again in fragrance and fruit. The very globe receives its life from the sun — and radi- ates back, forces into space. Human governments — human politi- cal and social organizations, are no ex- ceptions to this general law. Every government, even the most despotic, while it rules a nation with a rod of iron, dejoends for its life upon the peo- ple whom it oppresses. While the cen- tral head radiates its despotic will through its pliant subordinates, down through all ranks and classes of the community, it receives from them the means of its own preservation. A free government likewise radiates authority from the central head, and also depends for its life on the people whom it governs. What is the point of difierence between them ? It is simply this : There are two elements of power in a nation. One is moral, %az., the free-will and consent of the people. The other is physical, viz., military service, and revenue from taxation. The free consent of the people is the aoul of the national strength. The Value of the Union. 68S The treasure and the armies wliich they furnish, constitute the liody. For the highest efficiency, soul and body must act as one, whether in the individual or in the collective man. They must not be separated. Hence the perfect right of men who would be free to refuse to be taxed by govern- ment without being represented — Avith- out having a voice in its nuin;igenient. The material support must not be given without the moral — that is one form of slavery. But of these two elements of national strength, a despotism, a government of force, possesses and commands only the physical or material, viz., military ser- vice and revenue. It controls only the locly of the national powers. Not rest- ing upon the broad basis of the free choice and consent of the people, it is like a master who can force the body of another to do his bidding, while the spirit is in concealed rebellion. Such a government, in proportion as it severs this national soul from the body, is weak through constant liability to overthrow, from any chance failure of its material props. A free government, on the other hand, possesses both the elements of strength. It rests upon the free will and aftection of the people, as well as upon the abun- dant material support which they must ever yield to a government of their own creation, and which exists solely for their own use and benefit. Such a government is capable and strong in exact propor- tion to the virtue and intelligence of the masses from whom it emanates. Thus it is seen that a despotism dif- fers from a free government as to the reciprocal action that takes place be- tween the people and the government. In a despotism, all authority flows only in one direction, viz., from the central head down to the different ranks of subordinate officers, and through these numerous channels it reaches all classes of the people. But there is no returning stream of authority from the people to the government, from the parts to the centre. The only return flow ia that of military service and revenue. But a free government returns to the people all that it receives from them. From the masses there converges, through a thousand channels, to the central government, both the elements of national strength, viz., authority to act, and the means of carrying out tliis authoritj', that is, money and military service — the body, of which tlie popuhir will and authority is the soul. The people declare their will that such and such individuals shall be clothed with, and represent their united power, and act for them in this representative ca- pacity. The persons thus chosen, and who constitute the government or cen- tral head, with its suliordinate agencies, declare from this central position of authority with which they have been invested by the people, that such and such things are necessary for the wel- fare and orderly activity of the people, and in the name, and with the coopera- tion of the people, they will to carry these measures out. Thus life, energy, power, from the people, flow from all points to the gov- ernment, to the centre ; and from the government it flows back again to the people as order, as the force that ar- ranges, methodizes, harmonizes, and regulates the outflow of the popular energies in all the departments of hu man activity. It clears the channels of national industry of all obstacles. By its legislative, judicial, and executive functions, it establishes, on the one hand, common methods of action among multitudes having common interests and aims, and thus obviates clashing and confusion ; and, on tlie other, it punishes those who would interfere ■n-ith and obstruct or destroy this order. The government is the concentrated will and intelligence of tlie people, di- rected to the wise guidance of the na- tional life — directed to the harmonizing of the diversified activity and industry of the nation, to the opening of all possible channels for that activity, and 684 The Value of the Union. to the removal of everything that would obstruct and counteract the nation's ut- most development and progress. In this way, a free government ex- hibits, as far as human imperfection admits, the union of the two great prmciples, liherty and order. The peo- IjIc are free to think, talk, W'rite, and act as they see fit ; but since there can be no liberty, but only license, or law- lessness, without order — without bene- ficent methods, symmetrical forms and arrangements, in ichich that liberty can be enjoyed by individuals and commu- nities, without conflicting with other individuals and communities, i:)arts of the same free whole — therefore govern- ment is created by the people to pre- scribe and maintain this order, essential to this common liberty ; an order which is thejhnn, or forms, under which both individuals and communities shall act, singly or in concert, in the countless relations in which the members of the same community or nation come into contact with each other. Now, in the United States, the chart of this orderly and symmetrical net- work of political arrangements for the free movement among each other of the individuals in the township, of the townships in the county, of the coun- ties in the State, and of the States in the Union — and within the protecting lines of which political arrangements, the people are enabled to pursue their industrial avocations without mutual interference and collision, and to attend in peace and security to all the employ- ments that tend to elevate, refine, and freely develop the individual man (for government is only and solely a means to this great end) — the chart, we say, of all tliese orderly arrangements, is our immortal national Constitution, togeth- er with the State constitutions that cluster around it, as their centre, axis, and support. Tlirough each State constitution, the national and central one sends down an iron arm, clasping them all by a firm bond to itself and to each other. And in each, the grasp of this arm is riveted and double riveted, above and below, by these two comprehensive, unmis- takable articles, without which the others had else been valueless ; and for which the framers of this great instru- ment are entitled to our lasting grati- tude and admiration. The articles are these, viz. : Ai't. 6th, sec. 2d : ' This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof . . . sJmll he the supreme law of the land . . . any- thing in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.' And art. 4th, sec. 4th : ' The United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a repuUiean form of govern- ment, and shaU protect each of them against invasion. . . .' The first of these admits of no separ- ation or secession. The second pre- serves everywhere that form of govern- ment under which alone the fullest pol- itical freedom can be enjoyed. In fight- ing, then, for the Constitution, we fight for an undivided Union on the one hand, and, on the other, for a Union that guarantees to each member of it that form of government which secures the greatest liberty to those w^ho live under it. May we not, we say again, rest in an all but certain hope that the Divine Being will see fit to preserve His own work ? For such, though accom- plished through human agency, we feel constrained to believe, have been this Union and its remarkable constitu- tion. We have regarded the Union as the cuhiiination of a long series of endeav- ors, so to call them, on the part of Providence, to bring men from a social condition characterized by the multi- plicity, diversity, separation, antagon- ism, and hostility of independent, war- ring, petty states, into that larger, higher form of political and social life, that shall combine in itself the three conditions of unity — variety in unity, and of the ut- most li])crty with order — as the soul and life of the political body. And that it has The Value of' the Union. 135 also been the aim of Providence, m the formation of this Union, to accomplish the above object on as large a scale as possible, in the present moral and intel- lectual condition of the race. Can we be far wrong in such a view ? Think of our republic embracing in its wide extent, one, two, three, or more hundred millions of human beings, all in political union, enjoying the largest liberty possible in the present life, as well as the ever-increasing influence and light of religion, science, and edu- cation, giving augmented power to pre- serve and rightly use that liljerty. Ex- tent of territory in the present age, is no bar to the union of very distant re- gions. When the telegraph, that mod- ern miracle, brings the shores of the Pacific within three hours' time of the Atlantic seaboard — when railroads con- tract States into counties, and counties into the dimensions of an average farm, as to the time taken to traverse them — when spaces are thus brought into the closest union, it is but the counterpart and prophecy of the close moral and industrial union of the people who in- habit the spaces. When slavery, that relic of barbarism, that demon of dark- ness and discord, is destroyed, we can conceive of nothing that shall possess like power to sunder one section of the Union from another — of notliing that shall not be within the power of the people to settle by rational discussion or amicable arbitration. No ! Slavery once destroyed, an unimagiued Future dawns upon the republic. The South- ern rebellion, and the utterly unavoid- able civil war thence arising — as these are the two instrumentalities by which slavery will be cut clean away from the vitals of the nation, and the Union left untrammelled, to follow its great destiny — these twin events, we say, will, in after ages, be looked back upon as blessings in disguise — as the knife of the surgeon, that gives the patient a new lease of a long, prosperous, and happy life. We have contemplated the Union, and seen something of its matchless .symme- try, beauty, and indefinite cupabilitica, ever unfolding, to promote human wel- fare, through its unity with variety, iU* liberty with order, its freedom of actiurt of each jjart in its own sphere, coexist- ing with the harmonious working of all together as one grand whole — all of which arises, as was said, from the un- conscious modelling (on the part of its authors) of our political structure upon the Divine and universal plan of organization in mineral, in plant, in animal, in the planetary systems, and, above all, in man himself, body and mind. We saw that the method of this or- ganization was the grouping of indi- vidual parts into wholes around a cen- tre ; of many such compound units around a yet higher centre, and so on, indefinitely, onward and upward. That by such an organization, individual freedom was secured to each part, within a certain limit, wide enough for all its wants, and yet perfectly subordi- nated to the freedom and order of all the parts collectively, revolving or act- ing freely around the common centre and head. We saw that in the Divine creations — in all the objects of the three kingdoms of nature, the two great prin- ciples of liberty and order were thns perfectly reconciled and harmonizeci (true order being only the forin under which true Uhcrti/ appears, or can ap- pear) ; and, further, that in proportion as human afiairs and institutions obcj the same law, or, rather, in proportion as men individually and collectively advance in virtue and mtelligencc, do they unconsciously, and more or leas spontaneously, come into this Divine order, both in the regulation of person- al motive and conduct, and in outward political and social matters. Hence, as has already been stated, the near approach to this method in the political organization of the United States was the result of an amount of moral and intellectual culture, first in the colonies, and afterward in the con- 586 The Value of the Union. trivers and adopters of our political ply the same method of organization to framework, without which it could the less general affairs of industrial and never have been formed ; and in the social life. Now, all this Is not fancy ; degree that this mental condition is human progress in the direction in- maintained and advanced yet more and dicated, can be scientifically demon- more, will the citizens of the Union ap- strated THE VALUE OF THE UNION. Having taken a hasty survey, in our first number, of the value and progress of the Union, let us now, turning our gaze to the opposite quarter, consider the pro-slavery rebellion and its tend- encies, and mark the contrast. We have seen, in glancing along the past, that while a benevolent Provi- dence has evidently been in the con- stant endeavor to lead mankind on- ward and upward to a higher, more united, and happier life, even on this earth — this divine effort has always encountered great opposition from hu- man selfishness and ignorance. We have also observed, that never- theless, through the ages-long external discipline of incessant political revolu- tions and changes, and also by the in- ternal influences of such religious ideas as men could, from time to time, re- ceive, appreciate, and profit by, that through all this they have at length been brought to that religious, politi- cal, intellectual, social, and industrial condition which constituted the civiliz- ation of Europe some two and a half centuries since ; and which was, taken all in all, far in advance of any previous condition. Under these circumstances, the period VOL. in. — 41 was ripe for the germs of a religiooa and political liberty to start into being or to be quickened into fresh life, with a far better prospect of final develop- ment than they could have had at an earlier epoch. Born thus anew in Eu- rope, they were transplanted to the shores of the new world. The results of their comparatively unrestricted growth are seen in the establishment and marvellous expansion of the re- public. Groat, however, as these results have been, the fact is so plain that he who runs may read, that they would have been vastly greater but for a malignant influence which has met the elements of progress, even on these shores. Dis- engaged from the opposing influences which surrounded them in Europe — from the spirit of absolutism, of heredi- tary aristocracy, of ecclesiastical des- potism, from the habits, the customs, the institutions of earlier times, more or less rigid, unyielding on that ac- count, and hard to change by the new forces, disengaged from these hamper- ing influences, and planted on the shores of America — these elements of progress, so retarded even up to the present moment in Europe, found them- selves most unexpectedly side by side The Value of the Umon. 587 with an outbiith of human selfishness in its pure and most undisguised form. This was not the spirit of absohitism, or of hereditary aristocracy, nor of ec- clesiastical and priestly domination. All of these, which have so conspicu- ously figured in Europe, have perhaps done more at certain periods for the advancement of civilization, by their restraining, educating influence, than they have done harm at others, when less needed. All of these institutions arose naturally out of the circumstances, the character, and wants of men, at the time, and have been of essential service in their day. But the great antagonist which free princijjles encountered on American soil ; which was planted alongside of the tree of liberty ; whicli grew with its growth, and strengthened with its strength ; which, like a noxious parasitic vine, wound its insidious coils around the trunk that supported it — binding its expanding branches, rooted in its tissues, and living on its vital fluids ; — this insidious enemy was sla- very — a thoroughly undisguised mani- festation of human selfishness and greed ; without a single redeeming trait — simply an unmitigated evil : a two-edged weapon, cutting and maim- ing both ways, up and down — the mas- ter perhaps even more than the slave ; a huge evil committed, reacting in evil, in the exact degree of its hugeness and momentum. Yes! this great antago- nist was slavery — an institution long thrown out of European life ; a relic of the lowest barbarism and savagism, the very antipodes of freedom, and flourish- ing best only in the rudest forms of so- ciety ; but now rearing its hideous vis- age in the midst of principles, forms, and institutions the most free and ad- vanced of any that the world has ever witnessed. In the presence of this great fact, one is led to exclaim : ' How strange ! ' How monstrous an anomaly ! What singular fatality has brought two such irreconcilable opposites together? It is as if two individuals, deadly foes, bhould by a mysterious chance, encoun- ter each other unexpectedly on some wide, dreary waste of the Arctic soli- tudes. Whither no other souls of iho earth's teeming millions come, thither thtse two alone, of all tlie world beside, are, as if helplessly impelkd, to settle their quarrel by the death of one or the other. Thus singular and inexplicable does it at first sight seem — this juxta- position of freedom and slavery on the shores of the new world. On second thoughts, liowcvcr, we shall find this apparent singularity and mystery to disappear. We are sur- prised only because we see a fomiliar fact under a new aspect, and do not at once recognize it. What wc see before us in this great event is only an under- lying fact of every individual's ^ewowzi experience, expanded into the gigantic proportions of a natioii's experience. In every child of Adam are the seeds of good and of evil. Side by side they lie together in the same soil ; they are nourished and developed together; they become more and more marked and individualized with advancing years, swaying the child and the youth, hither and thither, according as one or the other prevails ; until at some period in the full rationality of riper age comes the deadly contest between the power of darkness and the power of light — one or the other conquers ; the man's character is fixed ; and he travels along the path he has chosen, upward or downward. So it is now with the great collective individual, the American republic. So it is and has been with every other na- tion. The powers of good and evil contend no less in communities and nations than in the individuals who compose them ; and, according as one or the other influence prevails in rulers or in ruled, have human civilization and human welfare been advanced or retarded. In the American Union, the contrast has been more marked, more vivid, and of greater extent than the world hag 5S8 The Value of the Uidon. ever seen, because of the higher, freer, more humane character of our institu- tions, and the extent of region which they cover. The brighter the sunshine, the darker the shadow ; the higher the good to be enjoyed, the darker, more deplorable is the evil which is the inverse and oj^posite of that good. Hence, with a knowledge of this prev- alent fact of fallen human nature, and also of the fact that nations are but in- dividuals repeated — one might almost have foreseen that if institutions, more free and enlightened than had ever be- fore blessed a people, were to arise upon any region of the globe — something proportionately hideous and repulsive in the other direction would be seen to start up alongside of them, and seek their destruction. Is this so strange then ? It is only in agreement with the great truth, that the best men endure the strongest temp- tations. He who was sinless endured and overcame what no mere mortal could have borne for an instant. So the highest truths have ever encoun- tered the most violent opposition. The most salutary reforms have had to strug- gle the hardest to obtain a footing ; in a word, the higher and holier the heav- en from whence blessings descend to earth, the deeper and more malignant is the hell that rises in opposition. With the truly-sought aid of Him, however, who alone has all power in heaven, earth, and hell, victory is cer- tain to be achieved in national no less than in individual trials. But in both national and individual difficulties it is indispensable, in order that courage may not waver, that hope may not falter — it is indispensable that there should be, as already urged, a clear intellectual comprehension of the full nature of the good thing for which battle is waged. The brilliant vision of attainable good must be preserved undimmed — ever present in sharp and radiant outline to the mental eye ; and 8o its lustre may also fall in a flood of searching light on tlio evil which is battled against, clearly revealing all its hideousness. A clear understanding by the people at large, of what that is in which the value of the Union consists, is only next in importance to the Union itself ; since the preservation of the Union hangs upon the nation's appreciation of its value. Then only can we be intensely, ardently zealous ; full of courage and motive force ; full of hope and determi- nation that it shall be preserved at whatever cost of life or treasure. But without the deep conviction of the untold blessings that lie yet undevel- oped in the Union and its Constitution, without the hearty belief that this Union is a gift of God, to be ours only while we continue fit to hold it, and to be fought for as for life itself (for a large, free individual life for each one of us is involved in the great life of the Union), without this deep, rock-rooted conviction in the heart of the nation, we shall tend to lukewarmness — to an awful indifference as to how this contest shall end ; and begin to seek for pres- ent peace at any price. We say 'present peace, for a permanent peace, short of a thorough crushing of the rebellion, is simply a sheer imijossibility — a wild hallucination. Nor is it a less mad fantasy to suppose that the rebellion can be effectually crushed without anni- hilating slavciy, the sole and supreme cause of the rebellion. Such lukewarm- ness and untimely peace sentiments, widely diffused through the loyal States, would be truly alarming. Those who feel and talk thus, are like blind men on the verge of a fathomless abyss ; and should a majority ever be animated by such ideas, wc; are gone — hopelessly fallen under the dark power, never perhaps to rise again in our day or generation. But we have no fears of such a dismal result ; the nation is in the divine hands, and we feel confi- dent that all will be right in the end. We have presented two reasons why the Union is priceless. Still further The Value of the Union. 589 may this be seen by a glance at the op- posite features and tendencies of the rebellion ; and by the consideration of three or four points of radical diver- gence and antagonism between slavery and republicanism. We set out with the following gen- eral statements : The less selfish a man Ijccomes — the more that he rises out of himself— in that degree (other conditions being equal) does he seek the society of others from disinterested motives, and the ■wider becomes the circle of his symjia- thies. On the other hand, the more selfish he is — the lower the range of faculties •which motive him — in that degree, the more exclusive is he — the more docs he tend to isolate himself from others, or to associate only with those whose character or pursuits minister to his own gratification. Beasts of prey are solitary in their habits — the gentle and useful domestic animals are gregarious and social. Now the same is true of communities. The more elevated their character — the more that the moral and intellectual faculties predominate in a community ; or the more virtuous, intelligent, and industrious — in short, the more civil- ized it is — the closer are the individ- uals of that community drawn togeth- er among themselves, and the greater also is its tendency to unite with other communities into a larger society, while it preserves, at the same time, all neces- sary freedom and individuality. The more civilized and humanized a nation is, the greater are the tendency and ease with which it organizes a diversified, as distinguished from a homogeneous unity; or, the greater the ease with •which it establishes and maintains the integrity and freedom of the compo- nent parts, of the individuals and com- munities of individuals, as indispen- sable to the freedom and welfare of the whole national body. Thus advancing civilization will multiply the relations of men with each other, of communities with communi- ties, of states with states, of nationa with nations ; and will also orguuizo these relations with a perfection pro- portioned to their multiplicity ; and thus draw men ever closer in the fra- ternal bonds of a common humanity. On the other hand, the more a com- munity becomes immoral, ignorant, and indolent — the lower its aims and mo- tive, the less it cultivates the mental powers, the fewer industries it prose- cutes, and the less diversified are its productions — in proportion as it de- clines in all these modes, in that de- gree does it tend to disintegration, to separation and isolation of all its parts, and toward the establishment of many petty and independent communities ; in other words, it tends to lapse into barbarism. Such a movement is, however, against the order of Providence, and thus is an evil that corrects itself. Men are hap- pier (other conditions being equal) in large communities than in small ; and when selfishness and ambition have broken up a large state into many small and independent ones, the same princi- ple of selfishness, still operating, keeps them in perpetual mutual jealousy and collision, until, whether they will or not, they are forced into a mass again by some strong military despot, or con- quered by a superior foreign power, and quiet is for a time again restored. From these considerations we con- clude that civilization, as it advances, is but the index of the capacity of human beings to form themselves into larger and larger nationalities (perhaps ulti- mately to result in a federal union of all nations), each consisting of numer- ous parts, performing distinct func- tions; yet so organized harmoniously that each part shall preserve all the freedom that it requires for its utmost development and happiness, and yet depend for its own life upon the life of the entire national body. It may also be concluded that this 590 The Value of the Union. capacity of men so to organize is just in proportion to tlie development of the liigher elements and foculties of the mind, the religious, moral, social, and intellectual, and the diminished influ- ence of the lower, animal, and selfish nature. Consequently, when in such a large and harmoniously organized national- ity as the American Union, there arises a movement which, wdthout the slight- est rational or high moral cause, aims to break away from this advanced, this free and humanizing political organiza- tion ; and not only to break away from the main body, but also maintains the right of the seceding portion itself to break up into independent sovereign- ties ; then, the conclusion is forced upon every impartial mind that the spirit which animates such a disrup- tive movement is a spirit opposed to civilization, since it runs in precisely the opposite direction ; as, instead of tending to unity, to accord, to a large organization with individual freedom, it tends to disunity, separation, the splitting up of society into many inde- pendent sovereign states, or fractions of states, certain, absolutely certain to clash and war with each other, espe- cially with slavery as their woof and warp ; and thus bring back the reign of barbarism, and the ultimate subjec- tion of these warring little sovereignties to one or more iron despotisms. The inevitable tendency of the rebel- lion, if successful, and its doctrine of secession ad libitum, is (even without slavery — how much more with it!) to hurl society to the bottom of the steep and rugged declivity uj) which, through the long ages, divine Providence, the guide of man, has been in the ceaseless and finally successful endeavor to raise it. The American repuljlic is the high- est level, the loftiest table land yet reached by man in his political ascent; and the forces that would drag him from tlience are forces from beneath, the animal, selfish, devilish element of depraved human nature, which so long have held the race in bondage ; and which, now that they see their victim slipping from their grasp, and rising beyond reach into the high region of unity, peace, and progress, are moving all the powers of darkness for one final and successful assault. Will it be suc- cessful ? We cannot believe it. What is the cause of this wacked, heaven-defying, insane movement on the part of the South ? The answer ia written in flames of light along the sky, and in letters of blood upon the breadth of the land. Slavery first, slavery mid- dle, and slavery last. Accursed slavery ! firstborn of the evil one — the lust of dominion over others for one's own selfish purposes, in its naked, most shameless, and undisguised form. Do- minion of man over man in other modes, such as absolute monarchy, aris- tocray, feudalism, ecclesiastical rule — all these justify their exactions under the plea of the welfare of the subject, or the salvation of souls. Slavery has noth- ing of the kind behind which to hide its monstrosity ; nor does it care to do so, except when hard pushed, and then it feel)ly pleads the christianization of the negro ! A plea at which the com- mon sense of mankind and of Christen- dom simply laughs. Now slavery, we know, is just the re- verse of freedom, and hence it is only natural to expect that the fruits, tho results of slavery, wherever its influence extends, would closely partake of the nature of their parent and cause. Sla- very, then, as the antipodes of freedom, mu.st engender in the community that harbors and fosters it, habits, senti- ments, and modes of life continually diverging from, and ever more and more antagonistic to, whatever proceeds from free institutions. Let us look at some of these. There are four points of antagonism between free and slave institutions that seem to stand out more prominently than others ; at any rate, we shall not now extend our inquiry beyond them. The Value of the Union. m Slavery, then, begets in the ruling class : 1. An excessive spirit of domineering and command ; 2. A contempt of labor ; 3. A want of diversified industry ; 4. These three results produce a fourth, viz., a division of slave so- ciety into a wealthy, all-powerful si aveholding aristocracy on the one hand ; and an ignorant, impover- ished, and more or less degraded non - slaveholding chiss on the other. It is at once seen how slavery devel- ops to the utmost, in the master and dominant race, a habit of command, of self-will, of determination to have one's own way at all hazards, of intolerance of any contradiction or opposition ; of quickness to take ofifence, and to avenge and right one's self. The jjossession and exercise of almost irresponsible power over others tend to destroy in the master all power of self-control ; foster intolerance of any legal re- straint, of any law but one's own will, that must either rule or ruin. It is a spirit that is cultivated assiduously from childhood to youth, and from youth to full age, by constant and ubiquitous subjection of the negro, young and old, to the petty tyranny, the whims and caprices of little master and miss, and by the exercise of au- thority at all times and in all jjlaces by the white over the black race. It is a spirit that is essential to the slave driver ; and when the habit of dictation and command to inferiors has grown into every fibre of his nature, he cannot dismiss it when he deals with his equals, whenever his wishes are opposed. Hence the violence, the lawlessness, the carrying and free use of deadly weap- ons, the duels and murders that are so rife in the South, and the haughty man- ners of so many Southern Congressmen. The rebellion is simply the culminatiem and breaking forth of this arrogant, domineering, slavery-fostered spirit on a vast scale. Failing to hold tlic reins of the National Government, it must needs destroy it. Such a temper and disposition is evi- dently incompatible with human equal- ity and equal rights; and in it wc have one of the roots of Southern ill- concealed antagonism to free repub- lican government. 2d. The second Southern, or slavcry- cngendered element that is antagonistic to free institutions, is contempt of la- bor. Could anything else be expected ? Because slaves work, and are compelled to it by the overseer's lash, all labor necessarily partakes of the disgrace which is thus attached to it. It is sur- prising how perverted the Southern mind is uj^on this point. Because sla- very degrades labor, they maintain that the converse must also be true, viz., that all who labor must unavoidably possess the spirit of slaves ; and hence they supposed that the North would not make a vigorous opposition, be- cause all Northerners are addicted to labor. The truth however is this : Where labor is dcsj^ised no conununity can flourish as it is capable of doing ; much less one with free institutions. We might just as well talk of a body with- out flesh and bones ; of a house without walls or timbers ; of a country without land and water, as of free institutions without skilled and honorable labor. It is the very ground on which they stand. This then is another source of antag- onism between slave and free institu- tions. 3d. A third point, not only of diflcr- ence, but also of antagonism between slave society and free, consists in the permanent contraction or limitation of the field of labor in the former, and its perpetual expansion and multiplication of the branches of industry in the lat- ter. Not only does the slave perform as little work as he can with safety, but besides this, the sphere m which slave ait '2 The Value of the Union. labor can be profitably employed is a limited one. Agriculture on an exten- sive scale, on large plantations, is the only one that the slaveholder finds to repay him. All articles, or the vast majority of them, used by the South, that require for their production a great number of different and sub- divided branches of labor, come from the North. "We have said that labor, skilled, honored, educated labor, is the material foundation, the solid ground upon which free institutions rest. We now further add this undeniable and impor- tant truth, viz., that as branches of la- bor are multiplied ; as each branch it- self is sul)divided and diversified ; as new branches and new details are es- tablished by the aid of the ever-increas- ing light of scientific discovery, and the exhaustless fertility of human in- ventive genius ; as all these numerous industries are more or less connected and interlocked ; as this great network of ever-multiplying and diversified hu- man labors expands its circumference, while also filling up its interior meshes, in the degree that all this takes place, the broader and firmer becomes this industrial foundation for free institu- tions. It is on this broad platform of diver- sified and interlocked labors that man meets his brother man and equal. The variety and diversity of labors adapts itself to a like and analogous diversity of human characters, tastes, and indus- trial aptitudes and caj)acities. And the mutual dependence and interlock- ing of these multiplied branches of in- dustry bring the laborers themselves into more numerous, more close, and independent relations. i\Ien are first drawn together by their mutual wants and their social impulses ; but when thus brought together, they tend to re- main united, not merely by affinity of character, l)ut also, and often mainly by their having something to do in common — by tlieir common labors and pursuits. Advancing civilization, since it ever brings out and develops more and more of man's nature, must, as a natural result, ever also multiply his wants. These multijilying wants can be satisfied for each individual only by the diversified activities of multitudes of his fellows ; the results of whoso united labors, brought to his door, are seen in the countless articles that go to make up a well-built and well-furnished modern dwelling. Labor is thus the great social cement; and can any one fail to see that it is upon the basis of such a diversified and interwoven in- dustry that a corresponding multiplici- ty, intermingling, and union of human relations are established ; and also that it is only under free institutions in the enjoyment of equal rights, where all are equal before the law, and where political authority and order emanate from the people themselves, that labor itself can be free ; and not only free, but ennobled, and at full liberty to ex- pand itself broadly and widely in all departments, without any conceivable limits ? "While at the same time, by the interlacing of its countless details, it cements the laborers, the resjjective communities, the entire nation into a noble brotherhood of useful workers. "We have yet to learn the elevating, refining power of labor, when organ- ized as it can, and assuredly will be. At present we have no adequate con- ception of this influence. It is solely for the sake of labor, for the sake of human activity, that it may fill as many and as wide and deep channels as pos- sible, and thus permit man's varied life and cajjacities to flow freely forth, and expand to the utmost ; it is solely for this end that all government is in- stituted ; and under a free, popular government, under the guidance of re- ligion and science, labor is destined to reach a degree of development and a perfection of organization, and to exert a reactive influence in cnnoljling hu- man character that shall surpass tho farthest stretch of our present imagin- ings. Our rare political organization ia The Value of the Union. i93 but the coarse, bold outlines — the rug- ged trunk and branches of tlie great tree of lil)erty. Out of this will grow the delicate and luxuriant foliage of a varied, beautiful, scientific, and digni- fied industry and social life. This is the glorious, towering, ex- panding structure, which the insane rebellion, the dark slave power, is rag- ing to destroy ! to tear it, brancli by branch, to pieces, and scatter the ruins to the four winds, in order to set up, what ? — in its place. A foul, decaying object — a slave oligarchy, which, do what it will, is, at each decennial cen- sus, seen to fall steadily farther and far- ther into the rear even of the most lag- gard of the Free States, in all that goes to make up our American civilization.* And all this because it sees that the life of the republic is the death of slavery, and free labor the eternal enemy of slave. This difference in the conditions of labor, then, forms the third point of antagonism between free and slave in- stitutions. It is an antagonism that is ever on the increase — ever intensifying, and ut- terly irremediable in any conceivable way or mode. Much as the nation longs for peace, this is utterly hopeless, let it do what it will — compromise, try arbitration, mediation — nothing can bring lastmg peace but the death of slavery. Freedom may be crushed for a season, but as it is the breath of God himself, it will live and struggle on from year to year, and from age to age, and give the world no rest until it has vanquished all opposition, and asserted its divine right to be supreme. If slave society, therefore, thus neces- sarily diverges ever farther and farther from the conditions which characterize, and those which result from the opera- tions of free institutions, such society must of course be fast on its way to a monarchical, or even an absolute and despotic government. The whites of the South even now may be considered * See Hon. R. J. Walebb's invaluable papers on 'The Union,' in Continental Monthly. as separated into two distinct classes — the governing and the governed. The slaveholders are virtually the governing class, through their .superior wealth, education, and inllucnre ; and the non- slaveholders are as virtually the subject class, since slavery, being the great, paramc^unt, leading interest, overtop- ping and overshadowing all things else, tinging every other social element with its own sombre hue, ia fatal to any movement adverse to it on the part of the non-slaveholder. Everything must drift in the whirl of its i)owerfuI eddy, a terrible maelstrom, into which the North was fast floating, when the thun- der of the Fort Sumter bombardment awoke it just in time to see its awful peril and strike out, with God's helj), into the free waters once more. From these considerations, can wc be surprised at the rumors that now and then come from the South, of incipient movements toward a monarchical gov- ernment ? Not at all. Should the re- bellion succeed — a supposition which is, of course, not to be harbored for a moment — but in such an improbable contingency there can be hardly a rea- sonable doubt that a monarchy would be the result. Not probably at first. The individual States would like to amuse themselves awhile with the game of secession, and the joys of inde- pendent sovereignty. State rights, etc., as Georgia has already begun to do, in nullifying the conscription law on their bogus congress. But eventually their mutual jealousies, their ' quick sense of honor,' their contentious and intestine wars (and nothing else can rea- sonably be looked for) will bring them under an absolute monarchy, more or less arbitrary, or under the yoke of some foreign power. The antagonism between free and slave institutions, which we have in- ferred, from a glance at the peculiar workings of each, finds its complete confirmation in certain statements made 594 The Value of the Union. by JMr. Calhoun, some twenty years ago, which were to this eflfcct, viz. : ' Democracy in the North is engen- dering social anarchy ; it is tending to the loosening of the bonds of society. Society is not governed by the will of a molj, but by education and talent. Therefore the South, resting on slavery as a stable foundation, is a principle of authority : it nmst restrain the North ; must resist the anarchical influence of the North ; must counterbalance the dissolving influence of the North. Ue upheld slavery because it was a bul- wark to counterbalance the dissolving democracy of the North ; that the dis- solving doctrines of democracy took their rise in England, passed into France, and caused the French Revolu- tion ; that they have been carried out in the democracy of the North, and will there ultimate in revolution, an- arcliy, and dissolution.' (Taken from Horace Greeley, in Independent of De- cember 25th, 18t52.) These are Mr. Calhoun's own words, and he will probably be allowed to be a fair exponent of Southern sentiment : we may gather from these utterances how the free republicanism of the North is regarded by the slave oligarchy. We cannot forbear adding another statement of Mr. Calhoun, made to Commodore Stuart, as far back as 1812, in a private conversation at Washing- ton, which was in substance as follows, viz. : That the South, on account of slavery, found it necessary to ally her- self with one of the political parties; but that if ever events should so turn out as to break this alliance, or cause that the South could not control the Government, that then it would break it up. Comment upon this is unnecessary. Let no loyal man forget these expres- sions ; they reveal the egg from whence, after fifty years' incubation, this rebel- lion has been hatched. But our theme, ' The Value of the Union,' contiimally expands before us; nevertheless we nmst bring our article to a close. We do so with the follow- ing remarks : An individual is truly free, not in the degree only in which he governs himself, but in the degree that he gov- erns himself according to the central truth and right of things, or according to the loftiness of the standard by which he regulates his conduct. It is by the possession of truth, and by obedience to what that truth teaches, that a man rises out of evil and error, and out of bondage thereto. The i)ossession of truth constitutes intelligence. But intelligence is worse than useless without obedience to its highest re- quirements, which is virtue. Virtue, or morality, in its turn (or decent exterior conduct), is nothing without that which constitutes the soul's topmost and central faculty, viz., the religious sentiment, or that which links the soul to God, the centre of all things. As the parts of any organism, as we have seen, fall into confusion and discord when the central bond is want- ing; so do the powers of the soul, when it closes itself by evil doing against the entrance of the beams of life and light that unceasingly flow upon it from God, the spiritual sun and centre of the universe. Now, as individuals make up the nation, this wall be free, and the Union valued and preserved, in the degree that each individual is intelligent, vir- tuous, and religious. Upon those, then, who educate the individual, those to whom the infant, the child, the youth, is entrusted, to mould and imbue at the most pliant and receptive period of life — on those, whose office it is to form the young mind into the love and practice of all things good and true, and an abhor- rence of their opposites; upon these, the parents, the teachers, and the pastors of the land ; upon these, when this hurri- cane of civil war shall have passed away, do the preservation of this Union and the hopes of mankind more than ever depend. Upon home education and influence ; on the schools and on the churches : on these three forces centred The. Valne of th. (J; 596 upou, Interwoven, and vitalized by true republic. May those who wield them Christian doetrine, as revealed in the live and act with an ever more vivid Sacred Scriptures or inspired Word of and growing consciousncHS of tlieir God, rest the destbnes of the American great responsibility. ♦' » 6 /•;^'*-^ /WV' /»j^.\^ *'7V.* ^"^. c«-»* '>i> ^^'^ ^ * -^ ■^," \,.* '^ Ov". .^ii/':^,*?^- ^^o^ ^ :^' o^\ \/ ;^^. \^^<^ /■ ^^ o. •\- .«, r-<. 4^ "^.. o .• .G^ -^o^^ 9-^. .° ^"-^^^ -. ,-^0, ll^\ , V - . . '^^ • **^% '-.^i^-./v-^w- -ov^^ \.,^* •^ A> nU, <*, ^-^ -LI.- -^ V .0 I* . » • o . ' ^^0^ ^9^ c^ /- ^•/ \^^??:^*\/ ". i^" .' > ^^ :* -^^^ > ,c,^„