.^«^° r.^^'^t. '-^W^*' a^^ \.^^^>t. cP^.^L'^.% .,-J.*\'^%** , )'^ .iv- -^ • « <> Ay ^^.,^* ♦ >^ .^^-^^^ ^-^^^^^ .-^^^^^ -J ♦ aV ^^ . ^o. '^P>' X;^^ ./ V*' ^''.!i;k.%^. \. °-!?^^^** ** "^ '•♦^HK*' «^^^\. ''^^^S « • ^ ^y&i^%* ^y ^. '^ *"^' ♦'e* THE AMERICAN WAR. Bt NEWMAN HALL, LL.D. % Wtthxxz, DELIVERED IN LONDON. OCTOBER 20, 1862. l^. ISTEW YORK: AXSON D. F. RANDOLPH, G83 BROADWAY. 1862. THE AMERICAN WAR. By NEWMAN HALL, LL.D, > A LECTURE, DELIVERED IN LONDOJST, OCTOBER 20, 1862. NEW YORK : ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH, No. 683 BROADWAY. 1862. fss t .HlfS EDWARD 0. JENKINS, ^Drinter & Sttrrtitaprr, Nil 2C) NoitTH AViLUAM St. THE AMERICAN "WAR. In this lecture I propose briefly to trace the course of American history in relation to the present war, and then to reply to the questions — Had the South a right to se- cede ? Is the North justified in waging war to restore the Union ? How far is the question of Slavery mixed up with the quarrel ? On which side should the sympa- thy of England be enlisted ? HISTORICAL SKETCH. The quarrel between the North and the South, though it has only just developed in war, is of long growth. There are physical differences of climate, causing differ- ences of labor, of production, of commercial interests, and of character. Added to this, we must bear in mind the original difference between the colonists. Tlie North was peopled chiefly by the puritan and republican party, escaping from the tyranny of the Stuart kings. The South was peopled chiefly by the cavalier, aristocratic, and monarchical party. The result of the combined ac- tion of difference in the original settlers, and difference in the physical features of the countries occupied, was imavoidable. Moreover, emigration naturally flowed (3) 4 THE AMERICAN WAR. more to the North, as better suited for the energies of Europeans. The labor market of the South was supplied by tlie importation of Negro slaves. This increased the difference between the North and the South. In the North, partly from motives of political economy, still more from a deeply-rooted love of freedom and from re- ligious considerations, slavery was gradually abolished, while in the South it rapidly increased. Thus, from the beginning, the North and South were different in charac- ter, with interests which from being not identical, eventu- ally became antagonistic. The colonies, having revolted from Great Britain, were constituted as tlie United States, and on July 4, 1776, the famous Declaration of Independence was issued. The fundamental principle of the Union was this — that while imited with the other States for general national objects, each State retained its own sovereign right to regulate its separate affairs. The Union, as such, miglit deal with commerce, taxation for national purposes, peace and war, foreign relations, and the territories belonging to the States in common ; but it could not, as a Union, in any way interfere with the local taxation and expenditure, or tlie domestic institutions of the several States composing that Union. Each State was to send two members to tlie Senate, or Upper House of Congress. And for every 33,000 of population, subsequently raised to 120,000, one member was to be sent to tlie Lower House, or House of Hepre- THE AMERICAN WAR. 5 sentatives. It is evident that those districts which most increased in population would enlarge their power in Congress, by the increased number of their representa- tives. Though the Soutli increased, the ratio of increase was much greater in the North. Thus, while originally Virginia sent ten members as compared with six from New York, now, Virginia sends eleven members, while New York sends thirty. Thus the power which rested originally with the South, has gone over to the North by the operation of natural causes and in accordance with the constitution. But tliis transfer, in every stage of its process, has increased the rivalry between North and South. The States forming the original Union were thirteen. The thinly occupied districts where as yet there was no sufficient population for self-government, were called Ter- ritories, and, as tlie common property of the Union were governed by Congress. A certain amount of population was a qualification for the Territories to claim admission as new States. As each State sent two members to the Senate, it soon became a question of importance whether the State applying for admission would strengthen the interests of the North, or those of the South. This de- pended on whether the new State was a Slave State or a Free. The original desire and intention of the foun- ders of the Union was to get rid of slavery altogether. This was seen in the decree of Congress in 1787, forbid- ding slavery in any of the territories N. W. of the river THE AMERICAN WAR. Ohio ; as- well as by the gradual abolition of slavery in the several Northern States, by the action of their respec- tive governments. In 1820, a great struggle took place on the question of the admission of Missouri. This district formed part of the territory of Louisiana, where slavery existed when it was purchased from France in 1803. " If admitted, it must be as Free,^^ said the North ; " because it is N. W. of the Ohio, and therefore subject to the law of 1787." " If admitted, it must be as Slave" said the South ; " be- cause in fact, slavery exists there already." Agreement was brought about by what is called the Ilissouri Com- 2)romise. Missouri was admitted as a Slave-State ; but it was decreed that slavery should not be allowed in any State hereafter to be annexed above a certain geograph- ical line ; viz., 36° 30' N. Latitude. South of that limit, the question might be determined by the inhabitants of the district ; in American phrase it was left to " Squatter Sovereignty." In 1832, another fierce controversy arose. There had been during many years a conflict of interests in relation to tariffs. During war Avith Great Britain no manufac- tures were imported. The demand had to be supplied by home produce. Factories sprang up in the North. Wlien peace was proclaimed, and British goods threat- ened to deluge tlie market, a high protective duty was put on them ])y the United States Government, in the interest of their own manufactures. But these manufac- THE AMERICAN WAR. 7 turers were Northerners. The produce of the South was agricultural only. There were advocates of both systems in the Slave States and in the Free. Yet for the most part the North became protectionists, while the South were cliiefly in favor of free-trade. A high tariff in 1832 caused great discontent in South Carolina, which State proceeded to pass an act of " Nullification," refusing to obey the laws of the united government. Their opposi- tion was yielded to, and a modified tariff hastily adopted, in order to preserve the Union from the threatened dan- ger of dismemberment. But on that occasion, President Jackson, in his annual " message" protested that " The right of a single State to absolve themselves from the most solemn obligations cannot be acknowledged." Another contention arose in connection Avitli Texas, which was a province of Mexico, where slavery had been abolished. A land of freedom in their close neighborhood was a grievance to the Southerners. So, a party of them entered Texas, fomented an insurrection, and raised the standard of revolt. The Mexican army was defeated, and the Southerners demanded that Texas should be rec- ognized and admitted as a new and Slave State. Their cry was " Texas or disunion." Long discussions arose, terminating in the admission of Texas, and consequently a war with Mexico. Slaves were continually escaping from the southern into the northern States. Here, by the constitution, they were not safe, as-the southern masters might claim and 8 THE AMERICAN WAR. take back their " property." But there were many thor- ough friends of freedom, who, preferring God's laws to any constitutional enactments, were always ready to pro- tect thci fugitive, or convey him safely to Canada. The Southerners complained of the inadequacy of the existing laws to secure their property ; and on their demand, the odious " Fugitive Slave Law" was passed, by which tlie local authorities were enjoined to aid in the capture and i*endition of run-away slaves. The terror caused by this law swept like a hurricane through the North. It took effect on the best examples of the Negro race. In one colored church, 130 members at once fled to Canada. In another, of 114 members, only two remained. The law had not passed without angry controversy, and vehement protests. From many a pulpit the congregation were exhorted to obey God rather than man. Furious riots were caused by attempts to carry back into slavery ne- groes who for years had been respected for their industry, virtue, and godliness. This still further increased the alienation between North and South. In 1856, Mr. Sumner, an eloquent opponent of slavery, was sitting in his place in the House of Representatives, when a pro-slavery member named Brooks, incensed by a recent speech of Mr. Sumner, came behind him, and with a heavy stick, beat him on the neck and back of his head, so that he fell stunned and did not recover for sev- eral months. We cannot even conceive of such an outrage in our own House of Commons. Any man acting in such a THE AMERICAN WAR. 9 way would be scouted by the whole nation, and if he pro- fessed our particular opinions, we should regard him as the greatest scandal and foe to our party. But what took place in the Southern States ? Brooks was extolled as a hero ! While the only penalty awarded by the law was a trumpery fine, the ladies of South Carolina presented liini with a richly mounted cane ; from several cities he received presentation sticks inscribed — " Hit him again ;" and after his deatli, a speaker in Congress publicly com- pared him to Brutus! Such an outrage, so rewarded, was a still further aggravation of the social feud. The " Dred Scott decision " added fresh combustibles to the smouldering heap. Dread Scott, a slave, taken by his master into free Illinois, and then beyond the line of 36° 30^, and then back into Missouri, sued for and obtained his freedom on the ground that having been taken where by the constitution slavery was illegal, his master had lost all claim. But the Supreme Court on appeal reversed the judgment, and Dred Scott with his wife and children was taken back into slavery. By this decision in the highest court of American law it was affirmed that no free nes-ro could claim to be a citizen of the United States, but was only under the jurisdiction of the separate State in which he resided : that the pro- ])ibition of slavery in any territory of tlie Union vras unconstitutional : and that the slave-owner might go where he pleased with his property, throughout the United. States, and retain his right. The progress of^ 10 THE AMERICAN V/AR. the trial was attended with great excitement, and the final decision convulsed society throughout the North. Kansas was long a cause of disquiet. Was it to be received as a Free State, or was it to be claimed by Slavery? Companies of Free-soilers settled there. But organized bands of ruffians from the South entered it, and by numberless acts of violence endeavored to expel the friends of freedom. In these encounters mucli blood was shed. You remember that, in 1859, John Brown, who, with his sons, had been very active in these struggles, seized the arsenal at Harper's Ferry for tlie purpose of facilitating the escape of slaves in the neigh- borhood. His well-intended and heroic, but ill-advised and illegal enterprise failed. He was tried and sen- tenced to be hung. No northern statesman nor party was proved to have liad any connection with the aff'air. But the excitement produced was very great. A vast array of soldiery was drawn up to prevent a rescue. The South was determined to secure its victim. A woman was among tlie competitors for the executioner's office, and several States vied Avith one another for the privilege of providing the hemp for tlie halter. The crisis was now at hand. In order to understand it we must bear in mind that in the North tliere are tliree parties. Tlie Republicans, or Federals, uphold the constitution as it is; and wliatever reforms are required, they would accomplish only by the working out of its established principles ; they would not interfere with THE AMERICAN WAR. 11 the affairs of individual States ; but they are opposed to the extension of slavery into the Territories. This ren- ders them antagonistic to the Southerners. Moreover, they are protectionists in commerce. The Democrats are the opposition party, and are in favor of Free-trade. This formed tlie first link of sympathy betv.^een them and the Southerners. "Evil communications corrupt good manners ;" and so it came to pass that the North- ern Liberal, contradicting his own principles of freedom, became an ally of the Southern Slave-owner, not only in commerce but in slavery too. The Republican party is Anti-slavery, but this term in America implies only opposition to the extension of slavery into new soil. The Abolition party advocate its entire overthrow. Some of them would accomplish this gradually: but others have earnestly contended that it is a first duty to get rid of so great a wickedness, even at the cost of national existence, and that it would be better that the Union be at once dissolved than that slavery should any longer defile the land. Owing to the weakening of the North by this opposition between the Abolitionists and Republicans, the South has succeeded, by its alliance with the Democrats, in carrying nearly all elections for the office of President. But when Buchanan was elected, the Anti-slavery Fremont so nearly won thp day that the South began to take measures in ei^pectation of a reverse at the election of I860. The agreement of Abolitionists and Republicans iii 12 THE AMERICAN WAR. the nomination of Abraham Lincohi secured his election. His history is remarkable. His father died when he was a child. He had only six months' schooling. When a little hoy he earned his own living by wielding an axe, driving a cart, shepherding flocks, and afterwards work- ing on a river-steamer. Then he took to rail-splitting, and tlien was clerk in a store, all the while educating himself. He was chosen a member of the parliament of his State ; then became a barrister ; then was sent to Congress. An avowed opponent of slavery, he was adopted by tlie Abolitionists. Pledging himself to abide by constitutional law, and under that law to prevent the extension of slavery into the Territories, he was adopted by the Eepublicans. The election of 1860 placed him by a large majority at the head of the poll. The news no sooner reached Charleston than the Federal flag was hauled down, and that of the State run up in its place. At a great meet- ing it was resolved that as the North had elected a president whose opinions and purposes were liostile to Slavery, South Carolina seceded from the Union. A Federal fort was seized, and the Federal Major Ander- son retired to Fort Sumter. Other States soon followed the example of South Carolina, and preparations were made for war. But before Mr. Lincoln came into office, treason in the cabinet had been ])romoting the secession. Mr. Toucey, in the navy department, had dispersed the fleets, and THE AMERICAN WAR. 13 Mr. Floyd, in the army department, had transferred military stores to Southern arsenals, appropriated public moneys, and put Southern partizans into offices of tinist. Thus the Southerners gained a great advantage at the breaking out of the Avar, having possession of govern- ment propert}'', and being able to carry forward their designs for some time unchecked. The first act of war was the firing into a Federal steamer while carrying supplies to Fort Sumter, in Jan- uary, 1861. In March the new President was inaugu- rated. In his address he declared that he had no law- ful right and no inclination to interfere with slavery where it existed, and that he would maintain inviolate the rights of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment. But this had no effect in staying the progress of seces- sion. In April Fort Sumter was bombarded, and Vir- ginia joined the Confederacy. In July occurred the Federal defeat at Bull Bun ; in August the indecisive battle at Sprin.gfield ; in September the Federal victory at Somerville ; in October the Confederate victory at Leesburg. In November took place the affair of the Trent. Thank God that we were then preserved from being carried into the strife ! The present year 1862 opened amidst mutual prepara- tion for continued conflict. In February Fort Donel- son and the city of Nashville was taken by the Federals. In March the Confederate Ram Merrimac destrovcd two 14 THE AMEraCAN \YAE. Federal ships at the mouth of the James river. In April Island No. 10 surrendered to the Federals, and New Orleans fell into the hands of General Butler. During April and May many fierce battles were fought before Richmond. In June the besieging army suffered a sanguinary defeat ; after wliich McClellan changed his base of operations, but was soon compelled to i-etire altogether from the Confederate capital, leaving behind him the bodies of tens of thousands who had perished either in battle or from pestilence. By rapid marches, the Confederate Generals Lee and Jackson were enabled to attack the Federal army under Pope before his junc- tion with McClellan, and on August 29, the Confederates gained their second victory of Bull Run. The Federal army then retreated beyond tlie Potoma^c, and fell back on Washington. The Confederates entered Maryland and advanced towards Baltimore ; but not receiving from the Marylanders the support they expected, and being severely handled by McClellan, they recrossed the Poto- mac into Virginia. After spending several hundred millions of pounds sterling, and after sacrificing several liundred thousands of precious lives, the two great armies still confront each other. A civil war on sucli a scale, the world has never witnessed. Humanity stands aghast at the contemplation of it. Piety lifts up lier liands in supplication and says — " How long, Lord, how lono:!" THE AMERICAN WAR. 15 HAD THE SOUTH A RIGHT TO SECEDE? If they had, it was either a constitutional or a revolu- tionary right. Had they a constitutional right ? If so, this was derived either from the fundamental principles of all government, or from the peculiar constitution of the United States. Do the fundamental principles of government give the right to any section of a nation at its own option to secede from that nation? If a province may do this, so may a county, so may a town. Scotland, Wales, Ireland, might severally separate from Great Britain ; then Yorkshire, or Surrey, or this bor- ough of Southwark ! There could be no such thing as nationality were such secession to be recognized as law- ful. What security would there be for the payment of debts incurred by the nation, if any portion of that nation might, by secession, escape its share of the lia- bility? Who would advance money on such terms? What dependence could be placed on any national engagement ? In case of war, tlie province or city most threatened might secede and make a separate treaty with the foe, or declare its neutrality ; and where then would be national safety? The claim of an integral part of an empire, when union appears to itself no longer desirable, to secede without the general consent of the empire of which it forms a part, is destructive to all nationalitv. 1^ THE AMERICAN WAR. But does the peculiar constitution of the United States give a special right of secession ? It has been main- tained that the several States composing the Union, reta^in their individual sovereignty. They have their local governors and parliaments, and as by their own decree they originally joined the Union, so, it is said, by a reversal of that decree, they may separate. If so, as we have just shown, the United States never constituted a nation. To unite with such an understanding was not to unite. A constitution witli such a proviso would be self-destructive. If one State may secede from tiie rest, it is obvious that two States may agree to do tlie same. Therefore also a majority may agree to secede from the minority. Therefore also all the States but one, may combine to secede from that one. That is to say, according to this notion, any single State may at any time be expelled from the Union without its own consent. This unavoid- ably follows from the right of any single State to secede. Again we say that a constitution with such a proviso would be self-destructive. It is not the fact that the States retained their sove- reign rights uncurtailed. They retained those in respect of which they did not combine : but those wliich tliey surrendered as individual States and handed over to tlie central Government, they liad no longer any right to exercise. General taxation for general purposes, coin- age, postage, tariffs, peace and war, treaties with foreign THE AMERICAN WAR. IT powers — these were prerogatives merged in the Union by the individual States, and could not therefore be re- sumed except by general consent of the contracting par- ties. The second of the " Articles of Confederation " declares that every State retains its sovereignty, and every right ivMch is not by this Confederation especially delegated to the United States in Congress assembled. Obviously therefore these delegated rights can no longer be claimed. Article Y. says that no two or more States shall enter into any treaty, confederation, or alliance whatever between them, without consent of the United States in Congress assembled. But the southern States have done this. They have there rebelled. The con- stitution of 1787 (Art. III. Sec. 3.) declares that treason against the United States consists in levying war against them or adhering to their enemies. In levying war against the Federal Government, the southern States are therefore, according to the constitution, traitors and rebels. But where there is no constitutional right of secession, there may be a rational right of rebellion. In case of glaring abuse of power by the executive, where gross injustice has been perpetrated, where tyranny is unen- durable, then the ultimate right of rebellion must be conceded. Thus we rejoice in the recent revolutions in Italy : thus we boast of our own " Glorious Revolution " to which Queen Victoria owes her throne. Had the southern States such a plea ? It is sometimes said, that 18 THE AMERICxVX WAR. as the American colonies seceded from Great Britain, so the South may secede from the Xorth. The colonies seceded because they were oppressed, and taxed without being represented. But the South were not oppressed, were not unrepresented. They formed a constituent part of the government. In fact they had a greater proportionate share in tlie representation than the Xorth. In the North, population alone determined the fran- chise, one member being allotted to every 120,000. Persons alone were represented, not property. But in the South, in addition to persons, property was allowed to send members to Congress. Slaves are by the law not persons but mere chattels. Of course they have no votes. Nevertheless, five slaves in the South are rec- koned as equal to three free whites, in order to increase the number of representatives. Estimating the slaves at four millions, these would count for 2,400,000 of popu- lation, entitling to twenty representatives. Estimating the free population of the South at 6,000,000, their quota of members is fifty. But by the addition of the property qualification they can send 70. Thus tlie value of a Southern vote exceeds tliat of a Northern in the propor- tion of 70 to 50 ; i. c, is equal to one vote and two- fiftlis. So that five voters in the South have as much influence as seven voters in the North. They could not therefore, maintaining as they do that the slaves are not persons but mere chattels, complain of not being allowed a fair sliare in the re|)rcscntation. THE AMERICAN WAR. 19 Nor could tliey aver that they had been tyrannically overborne by the North. On the contrary, the North had habitually deferred to them, as we have seen in the admission of Missouri as a slave State contrary to the act of limitation ; in altering the tariff on the demand of South Carolina ; in the admission of Texas, and in pass- ing the Fugitive Slave Law. Moreover, the South had almost always, through alliance with their democrat sympathizers in the North, secured their own candidate for the presidential chair. As long as by securing a majority in Congress they ruled the country, they upheld the Union. As soon as they were in a decided minority and saw the sceptre transferred to their rivals, they seceded. How can any committee work, any society hold together, any government be carried on, unless the minority yield to the majority ? If we submit to laws only so long as our own opinions prevail, what is such submission worth ? Power had changed sides, not through violence, but simply by the operation of natural causes, and in accordance with the constitution. As soon as the Southerners found themselves outvoted, before the new ruler had performed one official act, before he was even inaugurated, while yet their own President retained office, without the plea that any law had been broken, without resorting to any legal method of redress, they threw off their allegiance, and in so doing violated the constitution to which they had sworn, on a plea sub- versive of the fundamental principles of national exis- 20 THE AMERICA:?^ WAR. tence. They are therefore rebels, rebels moreover des- titute of the only plea by which rebellion can be justified. II. IS THE NORTH JUSTIFIED IX WAGING WAR TO RESTORE THE UNION? The answer is already given. Putting aside abstract peace principles, if the South rebelled, the North was justified in resisting the rebellion. If the South at- tacked the government the government had a right of self-defence. If national existence is desirable, should not whatever threatens it be resisted ? Is it not the right, is it not the duty of a government to guard the trust committed to it, and sustain its own authority ? What is evident on general principles, is expressly pro- vided for by the Constitution of the United States which, declares (Art. I. sec. 8) that Congress has power to call out the militia to execute the laws of the Union, to sujy- jpress insurrection and to repel invasion. It is urged as a complaint against the North that they are fighting for empire. How much more should the South be condemned, '' avIio having always before suc- ceeded in domineering, break off from the Union at the first moment that they can domineer no longer !'' The North fight for empire ! Of course they do — but to con- serve tlieir own, not to extend by seizing anotlier's. Self preservation is tlie first of instincts. Of all nations THE AMERICAN WAR. 21 in the world Great Britain should be the last to con- demn it. Let the battle-fields of India testify how many bloody wars we have waged, not simply for the preservation, but for the extension of empire. Would not our government engage in any war at once, however costly and sanguinary, rather than submit to its forcible dismemberment? The Americans have an empire of whicli they may well be proud, so vast in area, so varied in its productions, so inexhaustible in wealth, so unparal- leled in progress. They have special motives for pre- serving it one and indivisible. If divided, there will be great difficulty in settling territorial limits. Commerce may bo injured by varying and hostile tariffs. The prin- ciple of disintegration may develop until there are num- berless rival republics. There would be frequent strife between themselves, and peril from foreign foes. Stand- ing armies would be required, and heavy taxation to maintain them. We cannot be surprised that the Fede- ral government should exercise its undoubted right, and fight to avoid these perils and preserve a Union under which their nation has become so great. We may have our own opinion as regards the expedi- ency of the war. We may think that the North and the South are so incompatible in character and interest, that a permanent union between them is impossible. We may think that the area embraced by the Secession is so vast that its subjugation is impossible. Looking on from tlie outside we may consider that although every Southern •22 THE AMERICAN WAR. port be blockaded, and victory crown the Federals in every fight, they can never hold the South by force of arms, and that if they could, such enforced union would be worthless. We may think that it would have been wise to have accepted the fact of Secession at the first, even as we may deem it inevitable in the end ; and that thus the lavish expenditure of treasure and of blood might have been spared. We may regard that expenditure as wasted, because unlikely to lead to any result ; and that even should the end be the restoration of the former Union, that end would not repay the cost. Implicated as the North have so long been in the crime of Southern slavery we may think it would have been better if they had said at once — " You are rebels — you deserve the se- verest chastisement — but if you choose to go, go ! — it will be your loss and our own inestimable gain — for hence- forth and for ever we are innocent of any participation in slavery — our land is now cleansed from the stain that has so long polluted it — no more recognition of property in man — no more Fugitive Slave Law — henceforth Can- ada is virtually brought to the banks of the Potomac, and every slave crossing the border, shall feel as safe under our star bespangled banner, as if the blended crosses of Great Britain waved above his liead." Perhaps the majority of Englishmen entertain such views as tliese respecting the expediency of the war. But there can be no doubt respecting its lawfulness, that is, granting the general right of governmcrits to wage war THE AMERICAN WAR. 23 for national existence. And we cannot be surprised that the right shouhl be exercised in this case when Ave con- sider the grandeur of the empire to bo maintained, the special reasons why Americp.ns must desire its preserva- tion, the importance of checking, by this example of firm- ness, any similar attempts in future, and the sanguine hope of ultimate success wdiich a consciousness of Right imparts, and which is always felt by those who see much more of their own power than that of the foe. III. HOW FAR IS THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE? The South seceded and took up arms in order to pre- serve and extend slavery. The immediate object of the North is the suppression of the rebellion and the preser- vation of the Union. But that resistance to slavery is the real cause of the war, and the promotion of freedom its ultimate tendency, seems to me most evident. Bear in mind that during many years the North and South have been struggling for supremacy, and that al- most all those struggles have had reference to slavery. The South ever sought to extend the slave territory and increase the pro-slavery influence in Congress. Tlie North ever strove to confine slavery to its original limits. The South maintained that every citizen had a right to go with his property to every part both of the States and 24 THE AMEraCAX WAR. the Territories. The North maintained that Congress had tlie right to legislate for tlie Territories ; that in the exercise of tliat right it had decreed that slaver}- should not pass beyond a certain limit ; that human beings could not there be held as " proper t}' ;" and that while by the constitution, slavery could not be interfered with in the States where it existed, it should not spread further. On this question the Xorth and the South practically joined issue. The great Republican party are pledged to this Anti- Slavery policy. To carry it out, Abraham Lincoln was elected President. The Xorth were resolved that the long controversy should at length end, and the question be set at rest for ever. Henceforth all the world must know that the North would concede no more, and that slavery should make no further advance. But the South were equally resolved to extend it. For this and this alone tliey took up arms. They did not allege as their plea hostile tariffs or illegal oppression, but, as we shall see, the opposition of tlie North to their favorite institu- tion. Had tlie North been fighting only for empire, they could have secured the object without the cost of war, simply by yielding this point to the South. But they re- fused to do so. Wliile then their immediate object in the war was to suppress the rebellion, it is evident that their purpose also was to prevent the extension of slavery. But in preventing tlie extension of slavery, the North believed they were promoting the gradual but ultimate THE AMERICAN WAR. 25 extinction of slavery itself. It is admitted that slavery needs scope for development, and that if restrained within narrow limits it destroys itself. To be remun- erative, many laborers must be concentrated and kept to one kind of work, thus exhausting the soil and needing new fields. The South urge this as a plea for secession. " There is not a slaveholder," said Judge Warner, of Georgia, " in this house or out of it, but who knows perfectly well that whenever slavery is confined within certain specified limits its future existence is doomed ; it is only a question of time as to its final destruction. You may take any single slaveholding county in the southern States, in which the great staples of cotton and sugar are cultivated to any extent, and confine the pre- sent slave population within the limits of that county. Such is the rapid natural increase of the slaves, and the rapid exhaustion of the soil in the cultivation of those crops (which add so much to the commercial wealth of the country), that in a few years it would be impossible to support them within the limits of such county. Both master and slave would be starved out ; and what would be the practical effect in any one county, the same result would happen to all the slaveholding States. Slavery cannot be confined within certain limits without produ- cing the destruction of both master and slave ; it re- quires fresh lands, plenty of wood and water, not only for the comfort and hapi)iness of the slave, but for the benefit of the owner." The North tell us they are fight- 2 26 THE AMERICAN WAR. iug for the ultimate suppression of slavery by constitu- tional means. Some people do not give them credit for this. Let us then receive the testimony of their enemies. Surely we should believe the Nortli when they tell us tliey intend to do what the South complain of as the inevitable effect of their policy. It is often asked, Why did not the North at the first proclaim a war of freedom ? There have always been a band of witnesses in America who have declared that it would be better for the Constitution to perish and the Union to be dissolved, than that such monstrous wicked- ness as slavery should be tolerated. But the abolition- ists have been in a minority, and were always outvoted by the Republican party, who, while opposed to slavery, -were, determined to abide by the Constitution. The union of a majority of the Abolitionists with Republi- cans in the election of Mr. Lincoln, has turned the scale against the South. But this has been done on the ex- press understanding that the Constitution is to be adhered to. AYar is waged with the South for violating it ; the North, in quelling the rebellion, is bound to observe the laws for wliich they figlit. At the risk of repetition I must draw your attention once more to the fundamental principle of the Constitu- tion, whicli forbids Congress to interfere with the domes- tic institutions of the several States. Mr. Lincoln took a solemn oath on entering his office, to observe this Con- stitution. He pledged himself again and again that he THE AMERICAN WAR. 27 would be faithful to this principle. He cannot, as an honest man, use his power as president except as allowed by tlie laws. But in accordance with those laws, the Government, of which he is the head, has already done much towards the final triumph of freedom. Considering how slowly nations move, how tardy is the general progress of reformation, the following acts form no trifling result of less than two years' adminis- tration. Slavery has been formally forbidden in all the Territories of the Union. Slavery has been abolished . in the District of Columbia, over which Congress has power by the Constitution. Compensation has also been offered from the treasury of the United States, to any separate State which shall emancipate its slaves. A treaty has been entered into with Great Britain for the more efi'ectual suppression of the Slave trade. And where- ever the Northern armies go, fugitive slaves are received in large numbers. As many as 60,000 are said to have escaped from Missouri alone, and 80,000 from Virginia. At Port Royal 10,000 are protected by the Federal flag within a few miles of Charleston. Above all, the Presi- dent has proclaimed that after the first of January, the slaves in all States continuing in rebellion shall be de- clared free, and that the power of the United States government shall be employed in accomplishing such emancipation. Many people in England object to this proclamation. They say — " Why was it not issued at first, on the 28 THE AMERICAN WAR. ground of principle, and not after a period of ineffectual conflict, as a mere exigency of war ? And why proclaim liberty only to the slaves of rebels, thus compelling to do right to the negro, those who do wrong to the gov- ernment ; and rewarding those who do right to the government, with the power of continuing to do wrong to their slaves ?" It must again be remembered that President Lincoln was restrained by the laws he was sworn to administer, from interfering with the domestic institutions of the several States. The most he can do is to offer compensation. He cannot himself emanci- pate. But what he cannot do at all in any loyal State, nor by ordinary law in any rebel State, he can do in his military capacity, when required by the exigencies of war. He is restrained by the Constitution from abolish- ing slavery because he thinks it impolitic or wicked. This is a question for each State to decide. But in quell- ing a rebellion he may use whatever means become necessary for sustaining the government. With the slaves as laborers, the white population of the Soutli are disengaged for the war. Proclaim freedom to those slaves, and they will either escape, or the Southern army will be crippled by the large numbers needed to guard them. It is on tliis ground that the President justifies his proclamation as being in accordance with law. He is Ijlamcd for doing tliat which alone he considered within his power ; while that which lie is censured for not doing, was impossible without breaking his oath and THE AMERICAN WAR. 29 violating the Constitution. Feeling strongly, but not too strongly, the monstrous wickedness of slavery, and not experiencing the difficulties of Mr. Lincoln's position, it is natural we should think that had we his power, we would at the first have declared slavery to be sinful, and fought against it on the highest and holiest grounds. Had the North done this they would at once have re- ceived the sympathy of the friends of freedom through- out the world. But the abolitionists of America who wished to do this, were the minority and had not the power. It was surely better to take instalments of liberty than to get nothing. So they strengthened the Republican party against the Southerners, and if they did not advance as rapidly as they desired, were glad to advance at all. But is it not a grand advance ? No slavery in the Territories ! Compensation offered to all States remain- ing in the Union who will emancipate ! Several hun- dred thousand slaves already free ! And on the first of next January, all the slaves of rebel States free — the United States Government which formerly guaranteed them to their owners, now pledged to their emancipa- tion! After so many years during which slavery has seemed not only holding its own, but increasing in influ- ence, is it possible that Englishmen can view emancipa- tion advancing by marches so rapid, without delight and devout thankfulness? But whatever doubts may be entertained in reference 30 THE AMERICAN WAR. to the sincerity of the Xorth in fighting against Slavery, there can be none as regards the sincerity of the South in fighting for it. They openly avow that their object is to perpetuate and extend this hateful system. When South Carolina seceded it stated as her reasons — that the North had denied the right of property in slaves, had pronounced the institution sinful, had permitted Abolition societies, had aided the escape of slaves, and had elected a president whose opinions were hostile to slavery. Tlie Richmond Inquirer vindicated the war on the ground that " the experiment of universal liberty has failed — the evils of free-society are insufferable — free-society is impracticable in the long run — it is every- where starving, demoralized and insurrectionary ; policy and humanity alike forbid the extension of its evils to new people and coming generations — and therefore free- society must fall and give way to a slave-society, a social system old as the world, universal as man." The Vice- President of the Southern Confederacy said — " Our new government is founded on the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man ; that slavery is his natural and normal condition. Our new government is the first in the history of the world based on this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This stone Avhich was rejected by tlie first builders is become the cliief stone of tlie corner in our new edifice. Negro slavery is but in its infancy. We ouglit to increase and expand our institutions. All nations when they cease THE AMERICAN WAR. 31 to grow begin to die. We should then endeavor to ex- pand and grow. Central America and Mexico are all open to us." Dr. Palmer, preaching at New Orleans, said — " The providential trust of the South is to per- petuate the institution of domestic slavery as now exist- ing, with freest scope for its natural development. We should at once lift ourselves intelligently to the highest moral ground, and proclaim to all the world that we hold this trust from God, and in its occupancy are prepared to stand or falL These slaves form part of our liouse- holds, even as our children. It is a duty we owe to ourselves, to our slaves, to tlie world, to Almighty God, to preserve and transmit our existing system of domestic servitude, with the right, unchallenged by man, to go and root itself wherever Providence and Nature may carry it." The conduct of the Southerners has been in accord- ance with this explicit avowal of their purpose. When they took Harper's Ferry they seized 2,000 negroes, many of whom were free, and marched them away to slavery. Tlie National (U. S.) Anti-Slavery Standard, of September 15th, says that a party of colored men sent to Manassas under a flag of truce to bury the dead we«re seized by the Confederates as soon as they had dis- cliarged their humane office and driven away to bondage. General Phelps reported that many negroes sought refuge in the Federal camp, loaded with chains and barbarous irons, deeply scored with lashes, or bleeding from bird- shot wounds. 32 THE AMERICAN WAR. With sucli evidence as this, how absurd is the state- ment sometimes heard that slavery has nothing to do with this war ! Nothing to do with it, when but for slavery in the South, resisted in the North, the rebellion would never have broken out ? Nothing to do with it, when the Southerners avowedly declare that they fight to maintain and extend it ? Nothing to do with it, when tens of thousands in the Federal army would not draw a sword nor fire a shot but in the hope of now and for ever smiting down this Goliath of wickedness ? Noth- ing to do with it, when the Northern army liberates wherever it goes, while the Southerners drive to bondage all in whose veins is a trace of African blood ? Ask the multitudes who, since the war broke out have ob- tained their freedom, whether it has nothing to do with it ! It has everything to do with it. It is virtually, if not ostensibly, a war of Emancipation. The South, from the first, declared that it was so on the part of the North. We think it would have been well had the North as explicitly proclaimed it themselves. But whether so intended or not at the beginning, this it has now Ijecome by tlie inevitable progress of events. His- tory has no such conflict on the roll of Freedom's strug- gles. Never before was tyranny so terrible, contended for so openly, and on such a scale. Never before were millions of one race banded togetlier to fight to the death in defence of a claim to treat another race as mere cattle, and for the further right to spread this pestilence THE AMERICAN WAR. 33 far and wide through the world, unchecked. Shall slav- ery continue to degrade millions of our fellow-creatures through future generations, and to extend its deadly influence over new empires — or shall it now receive its death-blow, the children of Africa be free, and America be delivered from what has so long marred her beauty, destroyed her peace, hindered her usefulness, and pro- voked the wrath of God ? This is the great issue now pending ! lY. ON WHICH SIDE SHOULD THE SYMPATHY OF ENGLAND BE ENLISTED ? There can be no hesitation as to the reply to this question. Our glorious history, the struggles of our forefathers, the memory of freedom's heroes whose names are household words, our equal laws, the emancipation of our own slaves, our open and inviolable asylum for fugitives from tyranny of every hue and from every land, our frequent remonstrances with our American brethren on this subject, our reiterated and unqualified condemna- tion of this great sin, our churches, our bibles, our pray- ers, all demand that every heart should beat in sympathy with those who are banded together to accomplish what we liave so long urged upon them, the total abolition of slavery throughout the empire. How then can we explain the apparent lack of this sympathy ? Partly by the prevailing ignorance and mis- 2* 34 THE AMERICA:^ WAR. conception respecting American affairs caused by the gross unfairness of our leading newspapers. Tlie Times especially, by letters to the editor, and one-sided narra- tives from correspondents, and clever leading articles, has systematically cast ridicule or condemnation on the North, while it has held up the South to admiration. But the suppression or perversion of truth secures only a temporary purpose, England's heart ever beats true to liberty, and her sympathy will be all the more emphatic from having been thus for a while restrained. Mere politicians think that it would be better for Europe that the great Republic of America should be divided, and thus many wlio detest slavery, do not sym- pathize with the Nor til in their effort to restore the Union. It is generally considered that this effort is hopeless, and that the blood and treasure expended in it are absolutely wasted. Thus the sympathy felt with the North so far as the North is opposed to slavery, is checked in its expression by disapproval of a war so sanguinary, yet so unlikely to lead to any equivalent result. It has been supposed that the North has hitlierto been fiQ:htinA' for the Union as it was. But bv that Union, slavery was guaranteed in the States wliere it already existed, and fugitives were sent back to their incensed owners. Not because they are indifferent about slavery, but because they so deeply abhor it ; many in this country liave no sympathy with the North in a strug- gle, the issue of which, if they succeed, will in their THE A.AIEUICAN TTAR. 35 Opinion, rivet more tightly the fetters of the slave, and render his escape more difiicult than ever. They there- fore wish the South to become a separate Confederation in order that slavery may cease to liave the entire power of the Union to prop it up, and that slaves may the more easily escape by the land of freedom being brought so much nearer to them. But this tendency to favor tlie final separation of the southern States will be checked as the true nature of the quarrel is better understood. The South are strug- gling not about tariffs, not to resist tyranny, not from a noble desire for self-government, but to preserve and extend slavery. We have seen by their own confession, that the maintenance of the Union as it was, would be the destruction of the system. It must spread or die. We have seen how, after years of struggle, the North finally said to the South : " Hitherto shall thou come but no farther," and how, by such restraint of slavery they designed its final extinction. Though when the war first broke out the avowed purpose was to restore the Union as it was, this is no longer the case. We have seen how, since the secession of the South, great advances liave been already made towards emancipation. Tf the Soutli is brought back, it will be no longer as an arrogant dictator, but humbled, crippled, impotent to carry out its evil purposes. After the first of January its slaves will be legally free, and then iis restoration will secure a vast tei'^itory where the negro race, already 36 THE AMERICAN WAR. domiciled, will cultivate the soil as free-laborers, their liberty guaranteed by the whole power of tlie Union. But if the South become a separate nation, they do so avowedly to perpetuate and indefinitely extend all the horrors of slavery. The Westminster Quarterly Revieio of this month says, " Should these conspirators succeed in making good their independence, and possessing themselves of a part of the territories, being those which are in immediate contact with Mexico, nothing is to be expected but the spread of the institution by conquest (unless prevented by some European power) over that vast country and ultimately over all Spanish America, and if circumstan- ces permit, the conquest and annexation of the West Indies ; while so vast an extension of the field for the employment of slaves would raise up a demand for more, which would in all probability lead to that reopening of- the African slave-trade, the legitimacy and necessity of which have long been publicly asserted by many organs of the South. Such are the issues to humanity wliich are at stake in tlie present contest between free and slave-holding America ; and such is the cause to which a majority of Englisli writers, and of Englishmen who have the ear of tlie public, have given the support of their sympathies." But 1 repeat, the heart of England beats true to lib- erty. It is impossible she should sympathize with Slav- ery. It is impossible therefore, when the question is THE AMERICAN WAR. 37 clearly imderstood, that she can sympathize with this Southern conspiracy against humanity. An excellent tract, " Federals and Confederates/' published by Caud- welL 335 Strand, says : " In a war of law against licence, of freedom against slavery, shame upon Christain Britain if she waver in her choice. '^ The New York Christian Advocate, quoted in that tract, asks — " How can civilized nations, and particularly Great Britain, answer to God and their consciences for withholding their sympathy from us in this struggle ? '' Count Cavour, in a despatch at the outbreak of tlie war, wrote to the Italian minister at Washington : " This reserve will not prevent us from manifesting our sympatliies for the triumph of the North- ern cause, for their cause is the cause not only of consti- tutional liberty, but of all liumanity. Christian Europe cannot wish success to a party which bears on its stand- ard the preservation and extension of slavery.'^ Is Italy just emancipated, thus to pour out her ungrudging sym- pathy, and England, during so many centuries the chosen asylum of liberty, to appear indifferent ? We lament that the negro, though free in the North, is deprived of the rights of citizenship, and is often treated, even when learned and refined, as socially inferior to the white man, even when ignorant and vulgar. Let us hope for better days — but meanwhile let us not confound the condition of the Northern free men with that of the Southern slave. Are those Northern negroes themselves willing to go South ? Do fugitive slaves ever voluntarily 38 THE AMERICAN WAR. return? They are witnesses that tliougli their condition is not what it should be, it is infinitely superior to what it was. But we must not forget that Americans may retort on us and say that by the preference given in our markets to siave-grovrn cotton we have largely contrib- uted to prop up the system. I know you feel sore at the insults America has offered to our government, and the hostile threats she has often uttered. But let us bear in mind that those insults were chiefly given wlien the South- erners were in power. On them therefore, not on the North, let our displeasure rest. You do not like the brag of some Americans wlio come over here. But the conduct and language of individuals must not be taken as a fair representation of a whole people. Many Eng- lishmen who travel are rude and haughty, but we do not wish to be judged by such specimens. Some Americans have recently uttered very violent sentiments in reference to us, and the language of some of their journals is most insulting and unjust. But are ice willing that the foolish utterances of some of our public men shall be taken to be those of the whole nation ? Have the Americans notliing to complain of in the tone of some of oz/r newspapers ? On the otlier hand have they never sliown kind sympathy towards ourselves? Witness the generous hospitality with wliicli they welcome our public men — the excitement of deliglit with wliicli they liailed the " Great Eastern'^ — the enthusiastic homage they paid to our Prince of Wales, who was insulted in the Soutlicrn capital alone. THE AMERICAN WAR. 39 Be sure that the heart of the great masses of the people in the Free States beats in sympathy with the heart of the people here. Why are we asked to sympathize with the South? Because they are supposed to possess qualities which England must always admire. They are so high-minded a race, uncontaminated by what is mercenary and sordid ! Yes — one portion of them breeding human beings as you breed cattle, which the other portion buy for using up in the plantations. They are so courteous ! Yes — and at the public mart, without a blush examine the teeth and handle the muscles of men and women as you feel a hor^^Cj and unmoyed by tears, wrench the wife from the hus- band's folded arms, the child from the mother's last em- brace. They boast of ancestry ! Yes — but what of brothers, sisters, children ? They are so generous ! Yes — and brand with serfdom their own offspring, and bar- ter them away for gold. They are so braye ! But braye- ry neyer bullies and cannot be cruel : yet they threaten and strike the unarmed, unresisting, and crouching sup- plicant ; and would torture eyen to the death any slaye who should persist in claiming to be treated as a man and not a chattel. They are so chiyalrous ! Yes — and scourge the naked, quiycring, bleeding backs of shrieking maidens who resent the dishonor of their lustful adyances. They fight for freedom and independence ! Yes — free- dom to enslaye others, and independence of control in practising and extending the area of these abominations. 40 THE AMERICAN WAR. If we refuse our sympathy to the North, do you suppose we shall ever secure, even if we were sufficiently like themselves to desire it, the sympathy of these Southern- ers ? While we continue to be Britons, and therefore neither slaves, nor, what is worse, slavemasters, is it pos- sible that they can ever love us ? For political ends they may at present court our favor. They want to have the blockade broken, to sell their cotton, to be recognized as a Confederacy. But do tliey not know that England de- tests and abhors the system whicli they regard as essen- tial to their existence, the " Corner Stone" of their social fabric ? Let them come here and publicly proclaim their principles ! Let them come with their iron chains, and bull-hide scourges, and well trained blood-hounds, and witli these illustrations of their system advocate their hellish doctrines on our soil sacred to Freedom ! We ■would not do as Southern mobs do to any one who whis- pers a word about emancipation. No — they should have full liberty to utter their blasphemies — so that they might the more discover how impossible it would be, in any assembly of the people, to obtain any response to their diabolic teaching but that of disgust and execration. We cannot liave sympathy with impenitent slavers. We cannot admit them to our holy sacraments, for they are violating every law of humanity, and trampling on the Gospel they have the audacity to profess. We dare not bid them God speed. We cannot sit at tlie same table with them. W^e shrink from receiving them into our THE AMERICAN WAR. 41 houses. Our hand is polluted by grasping theirs. We loathe them as the representatives of the concentration of all villainies. They know it. Can there ever be alli- ance between us ? Can there ever be real sympathy ? Impossible ! England may alienate the North — she can never embrace the South ! Think again what Slavery is in America. Four mil- lions of negroes are held as mere chattels. It is a terri- ble power to give one man over another. Knowing what human nature is, we know how such power may be abused. We need no evidence to prove the actual occurrence of any conceivable atrocity. Slaves are held by men of all temperaments. There are slavemasters originally of a kind and gentle disposition. There are others malignant, cruel, and of ungovernable temper. Imagine a slave in the hands of such a master ! We are told that people will take care of their own property from self-interest. But we have heard of men stabbing their own valuable horses, and driving them to death. How much more may the fury of passion be aroused when the victim of it has a tongue which can speak and an eye that can flash its remonstrances ! No key to " Uncle Tom's Cabin" was needed to prove that the cruelties narrated have actually occurred. It is said that by extracting reports of assaults and murders from our newspapers, it would be possible to convey a very horrible but false notion of our social sys- tem. But these offences are opposed to and punished by 42 . THE AMERICAN WAR. the law of England : the cruelties of slavery are protect- ed by the law of the South. We publish these crimes far and wide that they may be punislied and execrated : the South conceal from other nations the atrocities of their system, so that what we hear is nothing compared with wdiat is practised. We are told that the condition of many working men in England is worse than that of the slaves ; and that it is a harder lot to toil in a dark coal mine than in a sunny cotton field. Insulting to British workmen is such sophistry ! Would not every one of you rather, as a free-man, spend all your days in dark- ness, dirt and danger, than with a palace as your prison, and pampered with luxury, like a slave, body and mind enthralled, and subject to every caprice of the fellow-man who claims you as he does his horse or his dog ? We are told that all labor is compulsory, and that if the negro, able to subsist with little toil, needs the com- pulsion of the whip, so in England men have the compul- sion of hunger. But who does not feel that such an ar- gument is a contemptible fallacy ? To work to live is a Divine law. Our own nature prompts such industry. Work so done is work done voluntarily — no other will than our own compels it — we are free. But if, willing to incur the natural consequences, I refuse to work, and then ani driven to my task through terror of tlie whi]i and for another's benefit, tlien my work is totally changed in its cliaracter. It is false that the negro will only thus la- bor. The davc will not. Why should he, when his mas- THE AMElilCAN WAP. 43 ter reaps all the fruit ? But let him be sure of receiving and retaining a fair remuneration, and all experience proves that he will labor as cheerfully as others. But if not, who has a right to compel him ? Are all men to be forced to labor who will not labor of their own accord ? Then the rule will apply to the white man as well as to the black. Then all whose limited wants or acquired property enable them to subsist with little or no toil, are to be compelled as slaves to do for others what they have no incentive to do for themselves ! If some of you save money enough to give up work, on this principle you must be compelled to w^ork on ! If you can provide for all your wants by working six hours a day, you must be compelled, for the benefit of others, to work twelve ! See how these doctrines of slavery threaten the laborer all over the world ! They say the mind of the negro cannot be raised to the level of the white man. But the negro slave is al- lowed no opportunity of mental improvement. It is a crime in the eye of the law to teach him to read or w^rite ! If his mind were so very weak, would there be such fear lest by education he should become unfit for slavery? It is false. Many negroes are far more intelligent than many whites. The slaves in the South, nobly patient, are far superior morally to the masters who oppress, rob and torture them. But if not, does mental superiority give a claim to hold others in bondage ? Then the aristocracy in all lands, whose wealth and leisure enable them to at- 44 THE AMERICAN WAR. tain a higher mental cultivation, have a right to enslave the masses of the people. See how your interests are involved in this question ! Mr. Ludlow, in his "Sketch of the United States," which has been very useful to me in preparing this lec- ture, says — " The safety of the world demands that these dangerous monomaniacs, however estimable they may be in private life, should be put down, and the sooner the better. Why, you may ask me, for the interests of the world? Because the principles put forth threaten the freedom of the working classes throughout tlie world. Listen to Mr. Cobb : — " There is, perhaps, no solution of the great problem of reconciling the interests of the labor and capital, so as to protect each from the en- croachments and oppressions of the other, so simple and effective as negro slavery. By maldng the laborer him- self capital^ the conflict cecises, and the interests become identicalJ^ Is there a working man here, or anywhere, whose freedom is not involved by such a doctrine ? Are you prepared to be made " capital " that the problem of reconciling labor and capital be solved ? Is it not yoiir cause, then, that the North is fighting at this moment ? No, — it is not a war between black and white which is being waged beyond the Atlantic, it is the war, the world- okl war between freedom and tyranny, between God and the devil. For the sake of all mankind, once more, these dangerous Southern lunatics must be put down. They are called lunatics in this passage because many THE AMERICAN WAR. 45 of them seem to have persuaded themselves that their cause is that of humanity and God ! The slave owner of the present day maintains that slavery is commanded by the Bible, and is ready to declare with ex-governor Hammond, of South Carolina, that slavery is an Eden, and that Satan enters it " in the shape of an Abolition- ist." Before, then, you express sympathy with the South, ponder carefully for what it is that, with lunatic frenzy, they are now in arms. They are fighting for the right to regard a fellow human creature as a mere chattel — to appropriate all the produce of his labor — to deny him education — to punish any who tries to teach him — to buy and sell him — to separate husband from wife, parent from child — to deny the marriage relation altogether — to accept no evidence from a negro in a court of justice — to punish and torture him at will — to insult woman's honor without redress— for this the Soutli is fighting. They are fighting for the privilege of perpetrating un- checked, all the cruelties which characterize their sys- tem, and which were never more generally practised than at present. Mr. Olmstead, in his work on "' Slavery in the South," says that he was told that rich men bid for the overseer who can make the most cotton, and never ask how many niggers they kill. An overseer, superior to most of his class, said to him, " Why, sir, I would not mind killing a nigger more than I would a dog." In the South, when a negro connnits an offence for which the 46 THE AMERICAN WAR. law would punish him, cases sometimes happen when the whites, anticipating tlie law, roast him to death before a slow hre. On behalf of such a cause, shall any sympathy be felt in the laud of Clarkson, and Wilberforce, and Buxton — in the land every pebble, every grain of sand of whose shore testifies its abhorrence of slavery in the fact that the moment the captive touches it he is free ? We never can wish to recognize a government whose programme to the world, whose motto and banner, whose purpose and boast, is the upholding of a system which turns earth into hell wherever it prevails. Our recognition of bel- ligerent rights was merely admitting the fact of war, a step required for the maintenance of perfect neutrality. Both North and South misjudged us if they inferred from it more than this. It is well that Mr. Gladstone has ex- plained that his hasty statement that Jefferson Davis had made a great nation, meant merely his private opinion that the South would never be re-united to the North. Not even his high character and commanding eloquence would win assent from the people, were lie to urge the recognition of the slave-confederacy by our country. The nobly patient workmen of Lancashire and Yorkshire will starve rather tlian utter a word in favor of slavery. The workmen of England will universally advocate the cause of the workmen in America — and as their sympa- thies have unmistakeably l)ocn manifested in favor of Hungary, Venice and Rome, so they will not refuse their THE AMERICAN WAR. 47 compassion for tlie negro slave, far more cruelly oppress- ed. Tliey wiio have exulted at the achievements of Garibaldi and the liberation of Sicily from the yoke of the Bom^bon, will not grudge their shout of encourage- ment to those who on many a bloody field are striving to put down the most terrible conspiracy against freedom the world has ever witnessed. America is now undergoing severe discipline. It is not my habit to link suffering with sin, and trace a divine judgment in every calamity. But we must be blind if we do not see how, by the operation of natural causes, God is punishing, chiefly the South as the perpetrator of the wickedness, but also the North for long and guilty connivance. There has been wicked compromise. To uphold a constitution of man's devising God's laws have been set at naught. Slavery has been sanctioned and guaranteed in order to preserve the Union, and now by that very slavery the Union is now broken up. There must be no compromise in duty. This is the lesson sternly taught by the war. But let England sympathize with and pray for America. They beyond the sea are our brethren and kinsmen. They read the same Bible, and sing the same hymns, and reverence the same holy and heroic names. Their forefathers lie buried in our ancient church-yards. Multitudes among them are Brit- ish-born. Many have but recently exchanged an English for an American hom.e. Their missionaries with our own, go forth throughout the world to preach the gospel of 48 THE AMERICAN WAR. universal freedom. We must not, we cannot be alienated from one another. Our mutual mistakes will soon be corrected. Meanwhile, let Christian congregations send over to them assurances of sympathy. Let the voice of the people be heard in public meetings throughout the land. Especially let prayers ascend to the Prince of Peace — the great Liberator of humanity — that the sword may soon be sheathed and the fetter broken — that Ame- rica may come forth from the furnace seven times puri- fied — that the eldest daughter of Britain, cleansed from the foul spot, which, indeed, she derived from her mother, may emerge from this cloud of trial the admiration of the world — that the parent, not jealous of, but rejoicing in, the growth of the child, and without any airs of arro- gant superiority ; that the child, with no childisli wilful- ness or fretfulness — that thus mother and child, or, if they prefer it, the elder and younger born daughters of Freedom, may go forth hand in hand diffusing among the nations the blessings of civilization, peace, liberty and religion ; and, foremost amongst the ministering servants of the Lord Jesus Christ hasten on the fulfillment of the grand old prophecy, which tells of a golden age when " a King shall reign in righteousness, who shall judge the poor of the people, and break in pieces the oppressor, and deliver the needy when he crieth, and him tliat hath no helper, in Avhose day the righteous shall flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth." a V''''^*\<«^'' ... ^-^. 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