012 027 629 3 Hollinger pH8.5 Mill Run F3-1719 E 458 • 4 ^ -m a T , HS/EOTI^ES OF THE FLBBELLjIOlsr. .D435 f Kngland was laid bare, whilst a great portion of tho English press and reviews was shown to be suborned into the service of the most atrocious objects and purposes that ever disgraced the annals of civilization. This article, whilst it elucidated to our own countrymen tho secret motives of the rebellion, assisted powerfully to bring a new phase over a perverted English public opinion. The result has been that the vitiated disposition of the English aristocracy to assist the rebels, through intervention, has slunk away before British morality, and is now seen only in aid of piracy on our com- X^=-Thus much is here said for the purpose of showing that no document can now be circulated by loyal men with better prospects of promoting the loyal cause. Thousands who at an earlier day would have passed lightly by such appeals are now convinced, by the events of the Rebellion, that the causes of that traitorous convulsion he deeper and fouler than was not long ago generally supposed. Thousands upon thousands, who before the Rebellion stood flrmly by the Democratic. Partv, aro now realizing tho necessity of merging old party names for the present in a zealous support of the National Government against the Slave-drivers, whose Rebellion was prompted by tho desire of subverting Demo- cratic Principles as well as destroying our National Unity. The aid of all such men in and out of tho Loyal Leagues, is now earnestly invoked to further the g 1 cause by circulating among their neighbors a document like this now republished, after the ACCURACY OF ITS STATEMENTS and the C< dllil-'CTVESS OF ITS PRINCIPLES have been so vividly illustrated by the progress of events in this unparal- leled CONTEST FOR DEM' ICRATIC PRINCIPLES and for NATIONAL EXISTENCE. New Yoke, Sept. 1864. HENRY O'RIELLY, Sec. J3®-The audacity with which tho " Democratic " name is used by tho Copperhead apologists of the Slaveholders' Rebellion— the factionists who advocato an " armistico" and " oeaco on any terms" with the Rebels— may well justify the inquiry — WHO ARE THE REAL "DEMOCRATS"? The bare definition of the word democracy answers this question. The term democracy, in its practical, ideal sense, signifies popular government. This is formed by enfranchising the masses, giving them political power, and throwing upon the people the responsibility of protecting themselves. Aristocracy aims to deny to the common people the right of voting, or any voice as to who shall make laws and fill offices. Tliese two opposing principles in government are now at war with each other. After the secession of the Southern States, when the Southern Confederacy was supposed to bo established, the leading Rebels threw off all disguises, and boldly declared in favor of an aristocracy. In all the leading presses, re- views, and political literature of rebeldom, has this project of overthrowing democracy and establishing an aristocracy been declared and advocated. The rebel orators and letter-writers have been equally explicit. The arguments put forth by the conspirators have assumed different forms, but all have the same meaning. Jeff. Davis rails against the demo- cratic doctrine of a popular government, and calls it "tho tyranny of a majority." On another occasion, more re- cently, he characterizes the popular will as " tho despotism of a majority." It has been a favorite declaration with the Secessionists of the South for years that " government through the will of the majority must be abrog ,t.-,l." Th - S mlvrn Literary Messenger, assuming to speak as tho exponent of the views of the Southern leaders, says : "Let us seek to eradicate every vestige of radical democracy, every feature tending to make ours a popular govern- ment," etc. Again, in tho sameprint : " We would not be understood as uniting in the belief of tho impossibility of a successful republic, that we cry out for the re-eslablUhmcnt of royally in this freo country." * * * " We have no 6b- jtctbmstoroiialU/ when restrained by constitutional barriers." "You well object to the term Democrat" — (says Mr. Garnett in liis letter to .Mr. Trescott, of S. C ) " Democracy, in its original, philosophic sense, is indeed incompatible with Slavt ryand the whole system of Southern society ; yet, if you look back, what change will you find made in any of ourState Constitutions, or iu our legislation in its general course for tho last fifty years, which was not in the direc- tion of democracy ?" II -re i-s m mifested th" 1 same, repugnance to the will of the majority. De Bow's Review is equally explicit, wherein itcontemns tho democratic axiom of " the greatest good of the greatest number" as "a pestilent and pernicious dogma." The same articlo winds up with the declaration that " an hereditary Senate and Executive are the political form best suited to the genius, and most, expressive of the ideas of the South." 7he Richmond Examiner, of a very late date, assumes that the priwijilea of popular government, and protection to popular right through popular government, i« the mistaken civilization of the age, which a perverse generation has liftodup in the face of ancient institutions ! De Bow's Review puts in the rejoinder . " Th-- real ci\ ilization of a country is in its aristocracy. The masses are moulded tatosoldiers and artisaus by intellect, ju?t as matter and the element.- of nature ar* paupers. Yet we vi al 1 b The Unionists of the South, who for thirty years have faced the monster Rebellion, and listened to the reasonings in which it originated, are equally explicit in declaring the contest to be a battle between aristocracy and democracy. The whole intelligence of the world understands it as Richard Cobden, of England, understood it when he pronounced the conspiracy " an aristocratic Rebellion against a democratic govenum nt " We might compile a volume of tho same kind of evidence, to show that the Rebellion involved a conspiracy not only against the nationality, but against all the princijtes if republican or democratic government — that the strongest feature of the conspiracy was hostility to the political rights of the non-slaveholding masses oi the South. These were the forces in tho South against whom the jealousies of tho Calhounites u.-ie mosl intensified Mr. Spratt, of South Carolina, well expressed it in his speech in the Vicksburg Secession Convention of IS.V.i He assumod that " separation from the North would merely adjourn the contest" — " that, as this Southern 1>, m entry [alluding to the non-slaveholders] grappled Slavory in its homes and on its hearthstones, it would involve a still more'bloody contest in the future " In all this evidence, thero is manifest and made apparent, a bloody pre-determination to give to slaveholders a mo- nopoh/ of political power, and to mako such power the agency to perpetuate Slavery. We' accept this issue directly with the conspirators against popular government. If men, calling themselves Democrats, choose to go down on their knees into '• dirt-eating" subserviency to their Southern overseers, we cannot help their degeneracy. It may bo a fitting attitude for men who have no appreciation of the term democracy as ap- plied to protective popular government ; but, if wo mistake not, there is a power of appreciation in the demo- cratized masses of the people that will, sooner or later, spurn all the reasoning and motives in which the Rebellion originated. THE VITAL QUESTIONS INVOLVED IN THE SLATE-HOLDERS' REBELLION, AGAINST DEMOCKATIC PRINCIPLES AS WELL AS AGAINST THE NATIONAL UNITY. THE CASE FAIRLY STATED, IN AN ADDRESS TO ALL TRUE DEMOCRATS, SLAVERY AND NOBILITY versus DEMOCRACY. Few political convulsions have hitherto trans- pired, which have so much puzzled the world to get at the entire motives of the revolt, as the present insurrection in this country. Were public opinion to be made up from the politi- cal Literature of Great Britain, or its leading jour- nals, very little certainty would be arrived at as to the merits or demerits of the attempted rev- olution. The articles of De Bow's Review smack little more of a secession origin that the late dissertations on American politics appear- ing in the British periodicals. The statements of most of the leading English journals are quite in keeping. Any one accustomed to the " ear- marks" of secession phraseology and declama- tion would be at little loss to identify the Southern emissary in connection with the .-peri- odicals and press of the British Islands. Hence the hypocrisy and studied concealment of those hidden motives necessary to be made apparent, in order to judge of the merits of secession. The world has known, that for thirty years past there has been a feverish and jealous dis- content expressed in the cotton States. It had its first ebullition in 1832, when South Caro- lina assumed the right to nullify the revenue laws of Congress. Since that time the North has continually been accused of an aggressive policy. Various extravagant pretences have ] from time to time been raised up by the South, and urged as causes for dissolving the Union. They have always, until recently, been met by forbearance and compromise. The extension and perpetuation of slavery has been prominent as the open motive for Southern political activity ; and equally prom- inent as one of the motives for dismembering the Union. There has been another project, however, in connection with the attempted dis- solution of the Union, of a most alarming na- ture ; that project was the intended prostration of the democratic principle in Southern politics. While a privileged order in government was made the basis of political ambition by the as- pirants or leading spirits, it was also to be made the means of perpetuating the institution of slavery. Whether these adjuncts, slavery per- petuation, and government through a privileged class, were twins of the same birth, is not very material ; but whether they existed together as the joint motive to overthrow the national juris- diction, involves very deeply the present and continuing questions in American politics. To many gentlemen of intelligence and high standing in the South, the intended establish- ment of a different order of government, based on privilege of class, has appeared to be the ruling motive. They have set down the ex- pressed apprehension as to the insecurity of slavery as a hypocritical pretext for revolution ; believing that the more absorbing motive was to establish an order of nobility, either with or without monarchy. There is some plausibility for giving the ambitious motive the greater prominence ; but a more severe analysis of the whole question will, it is believed, place slavery perpetuation in the foreground as the origin of all other motives for the conspiracy. In classifying slaveholders, it is undoubtedly true that a small portion of them were Demo- crats in principle, and ardently attached to the National Governments— perhaps would have pre- ferred the abolition of slavery to the subversion of its jurisdiction. Another class, composing a majority, though distrusting the National Gov- ernment, connected as it was and must be with a voting power representing twenty-six or '-seven millions of free labor, yet more distrust- ed the attempt at revolution. This class saw more danger in the proposed revolt than from continuing in the Union. Another class was politically ambitious ; had ventured upon the revilemcnt of* the Democratic principle ; had become secessionists per se, and were the in- struments and plotters of the treason. This was substantially the condition of public opinion among slaveholders at the time of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency. These throe classes, embracing the slaveholders and their families, composed about one million five hun- ched thousand of the white population of the South. Of the seven millions non-slaveholding pop- ulation South, a small portion was engaged in 'i 11-go THE SLAVEHOLDERS CONSPIRACY trade and commerce, and naturally inclined to oppose secession ; but timid in its apprehen- sions as to protection, was ready to acquiesce in the most extravagant opinions ; in other words, like trade and commerce everywhere, too much disposed to make merchandise of its politics. The balance of the non-slaveholding population, if we except a venal pulpit and press, had not even a specious motive, pecu- niary or political, moral or social, that should have drawn it into rebellion. It was part and portion of the great brotherhood of free labor, and could not by any possibility raise up a a plausible pretence of jealousy against its na- tural ally — free labor in the North, In estimating the strength of a cause, we are obliged to take into account the actually exist- ing reasons in favor of its support. Delusion, founded on a fictitious cause of complaint, is but a weak basis for revolution. It may have an apparent strength to precipitate revolt, but has no power of endurance. There is a re- flection that comes through calamity and suffer- ing that rises superior to sophistry in the most common minds. If not already, this will soon be the case with the whole Southern population. The slaveholder and the man of trade and com- merce who feared the tumult, and would have avoided it, will have seen their apprehensions turned into the fulfilment of prophecy. The non-slaveholding farmer, mechanic, or laborer, will be made to see clearly that his interest did not hie on the side of treason. The political adventurer who planned the conspiracy, is already brought to see the fallacy of his dream. He may now consider the incongruous mate- rials of Southern population. He may view that population in classes. He may contem- plate it through the medium of its natural mo- tives of fidelity to the Government on the one hand, and of its artificial delusion on the other. He may now go to the bottom of Southern society, and find in its conflicting elements the antagonistic motives that render the plans of treason abortive. These will be sure to continue, and sure to strengthen on the side of fidelity to tho National Govern- ment. "When the South is made a solid, com- pact unit in political motive, it will become so disarmed of all purposes of treason. It has been repeatedly asserted that the ^outh was a political unit on the question of attempted revolution. This declaration has been reiterated by the Southern press, by trav- ellers, and by all the influences connected with the rebellion. It is not now necessary to de- lineate tho quasi military organization of the Knights of the Golden Circle, or their opera- tions in cajoling and terrorizing the Southern population into acquiescence. Much unanim- ity through this process was made to appear on the surface ; but it is more palpable to the analytic mind acquainted with Southern so- ciety, that the very means employed to enforce acquiescence afforded also the evidence that there was a strong under-current of aversion. "Willing apostacy from allegiance to the Union needed no terrorizing from mobs or murderers. The ruffianism of the South had been fully armed in advance of the full disclosure of the plot to secede. Loyalty had as carefully been disarmed by the same active influences. It had nothing to oppose to arms but its unpro- tected sentiments. As soon as the law of force was invoked by the conspirators, the day of reasoning was wholly past. Flight or con- formity became the condition precedent of safety, even for life. The bulk of the South- ern population was as much conspired against as the Government at "Washington ; and force against the same population was rigorously called into requisition to consummate what fraud and political crime had concocted. This was the boasted unity of the South. The inquiry is often made : ' ' How was it possible to have inaugurated the rebellion, without the bulk of the slaveholders, at least, acting in concert ?" This inquiry is not easily answered unless its solution is found in the fact that slaveholders, through jealousy, had parted wdth their active loyalty to the National Government. This was generally the case. Whilst the bulk of them hesitated for a little to take the fearful step of revolt, their hesita- tion was more connected with apprehension of* its consequences than with any attachment to the Government. The deceptive idea of peace- able secession first drew them within the lines of the open traitor. The supposed probability of success made them allies in rebellion. Un- der this belief, they made their imaginary adieux to the Government of their fathers with- out apparent regret. There has been much misapprehension as to the process of reasoning that brought slave- holders in the main to repudiate their Govern- ment. They were influenced by no apprehen- sion of present danger to the institution of slavery. It was something far beyond the power of any party to stipulate against. Their apprehensions were connected with the laws of population and subsistence, and the certain motive to political affiliation that underlies the platform of free-labor society. "When indul- ging in the belief of peaceable secession, they expressed their sentiments truly in the delara- tion that ' ' they would not remain in the Union, were a blank sheet of paper presented, and they permitted to write their own terms." This decla- ration merely characterized the foregone con- clusion. It was the evidence of a previous de- termination, merely withheld for a season in order to gain time. But to come to a more definite delineation of the reasons that operated to raise up the con- spiracy. There was a partial feud that had long existed in the mutual jealousies between the slaveholding and non-slaveholding popula- tion. Nothing very remarkable, however,. had transpired to indicate an outbreak. Southern | white labor was continually annoyed with the .appellation of " white trash," and other con- i temptuous epithets ; but still was compelled to toil on under the continuous insult. The i supercilious conduct of slaveholders and their | families toward white labor, indicated but too | plainly that white labor did not command their I respect. Too many of the accidental drop- i pings of foolish and stupid arrogance were let fall within the hearing of white labor to make AGAINST DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. it fully reconciled to the pretended monopoly I of respectability by slaveholders. Under this i corroded feeling, much of the white labor of the South had emigrated to the free States. In 1850, seven hundred and thirty-two thou- sand of these emigrants were living. Their communications and intercourse showed to their old friends, relatives, and acquaintances, that they had found homes and friendly treat- ment on Northern soil ; and in addition there- to, a much better and more encouraging con- dition of society for the industrious white man. The feeling reflected back from the free to the slave States was analogous to that thrown back from the United States to Ireland. Its effect was also the same. Under its influ- ence nearly two millions are now living in the free States who are the offshoot and increase of a Southern extraction. Slaveholders merely complained of this flow of population, on the ground that it contributed to overthrow the balance of political power. It woidd not, per- haps, be amiss to conclude that they saw with equal clearness the incentives that induced the emigration — a silent logic of facts against slavery. The census statistics, commencing with 1840, have contributed much to play the mischief with the equanimity of slaveholders. They have always known that thorough education in the South was mainly confined to their own families. When, however, the discovery was made public that only one in seven of the aggregate white population of the South was receiving instruction during the year, the dis- closure became alarming. * It stood little bet- EDCCAT10XAL CONDITIOX— CENSUS 1850. Maine . .1 in S'g New Hampshire 1 in 3)4 Vermont. 1 in 3 ',' Michigan 1 in 3?< Ohio 1 in3. 3 4 New York, native- born 1 in 3% Aggregate 1 in 4)4 Massachusetts, na- tive-born 1 in 3% Aggregate. . . .1 in 4)4 Pennsylvania, na- tive-born 1 in 4 Aggregate 1 in 4% Rhode Island 1 in 4)4 Connecticut 1 in 4)4 Indiana 1 in 4)4 i Illinois 1 in 4)4 I Delaware 1 in EUROPEAN STATES. Denmark 1 in 4)4 Sweden 1 in b)4 Saxony 1 in 6 Prussia 1 in 6 y Norway 1 in 7 Great Britain 1 in 8# Actually receiv- ing instruction. 1 in 7 Ireland 1 in 14 Iowa Florida Louisiana. . Texas 1 in 8 Virginia 1 in 8 Alabama 1 in 7 Arkansas 1 in 7 Georgia 1 in 7 Maryland 1 in 7 South Carolina 1 in 7 Mississippi 1 in 6 Kentucky 1 in 6 Missouri 1 in 6 New Jersey 1 in 5 North Carolina 1 in 5 Wisconsin 1 in 5 Tennessee I in 5 1 in h)4 1 in 10 1 in 8 Belgium a in 8)4 France 1 in lOjijf Austria 1 in 13% Holland 1 in 14£ Greece 1 in 18 Russia 1 in 50 Portugal 1 in 81 Spain Not known. M.'I.K COLOKK!) I'lirUT.vmV — UMTKIi STATU.-. Maine 1 in 5 Rhode Island 1 in 6)4 Massachusetts 1 in 6J£ New Hampshire 1 in 7 Vermont 1 in 8 Connecticut 1 in 6 Pennsylvania 1 in 8 New York 1 in 9 It may be seen, by the foregoing table, that a thorough System of education for the masses requires that one third of the aggregate population should he kept at school for a goodly portion of the year. This is essential, under Demo- cratic Government, in order to bring each generation up to the appreciative point. ter than the educational progress of the British Islands, which had crept up, under the fight with Toryism, to the alarming extent of one in eight. That one in four and a half of the aggregate population of the free States was re- ceiving school instruction, made the contrast unpleasant to the mind of the slaveholder. He knew that the fact was ' world-wide, ' that slaveholders had always controlled the policy of Southern legislation. He was aware that slaveholders had made themselves responsible for this neglect of the children of the South ; and knew also that public opinion would visit the blame where it legitimately belonged. Pro-slavery sagacity was quick-sighted in its apprehensions that it could not dodge the in- quiry, ' "Whence comes this disparity ?" The statistics of the two sections presented a still more obnoxious comparison to the pro- slavery sensibilities, as it respects the physical condition of the respective populations. The cotton States have mostly been the advocates of 'free trade,' some of them tenaciously so. They deemed it impossible to introduce manu- facturing, to much extent, into sections where the yearly surpluses in production were wholly absorbed by investment in land and negroes. The consequence has been, want of diversified industry and want of profitable occupation for the poorer classes. In the Northern States, a different industrial policy has been pursued. Diversified occupation has raised up skilled labor in nearly every branch of industry. Not- withstanding the greater rigor of climate, adult labor on the average, under full and compen- sated employment, performs in the free States nearly three hundred solid days' work in the year. The eight millions of white population in the South, in consequence of this want of profitable occupation, perform much less, per- haps not one hundred and fifty days' work on the average. The following table published in 1856, 1857, by Mr. Guthrie, then Secretary of the Treasury, discloses a condition of things very remarkable ; but nowise astonishing to those who have investigated the causes of the disparity. The ratio of annual per capita pro- duction to each man, woman, and child, white and black, in the respective States, exclusive of the gains or earnings of commerce, stood as follows : Massachusetts $166 Rhode Island 164 Connecticut 156 California 149 New jersey 120 New Hampshire 117 New York 112 Pennsylvania 99 Vermont 96 niinois 89 Missouri 88 Delaware 85 Maryland 83 Ohio 75 Michigan 72 Kentucky 71 It is seen by this table that the income, or product of the non-slaveholding poprdation South, mainly disconnected as it is with me- chanical industry, is reduced to the extreme level of bare subsistence, while the population $71 11 61 05 60 Indiana Wisconsin Mississippi 69 12 68 41 . 67 50 65 47 17 Louisiana . 65 30 . 63 10 30 . 61 45 . 59 42 94 South Carolina . 56 91 . 55 72 27 Florida 54 77 52 04 82 54 82 District of Columbia Texas North Carolina . 52 00 51 13 . 49 38 6 THE SLAVEHOLDERS CONSPIRACY of the States which have introduced diversified industry stands on a high scale of production. Contrast Massachusetts and South Carolina, the two leading States in the promulgation of oppo- site theories. These two States have often been censured for the contumelious manner in which they have sometimes sought to repel each other's arguments. The one is in favor of ' free trade. ' The other says : ' No State can flourish to much extent without diversified industry.' The one says : ' Open everything to free competition. ' The other replies : ' Are you aware that the in- terest on manufacturing capital in Europe is much lower ; that skilled labor is more abun- dant ; and that free trade would dash to the ground most of the manufacturing we have started into growth under protection through our revenue laws?' 'Let it be so,' says Caro- lina ; ' what right exists to adopt a national policy that does not equally benefit all sections ?' ' The very object of the policy,' replies Massa- chusetts, ' is, that it should benefit all sections ; and the most desirable object of all, in the eye of beneficence, would be. that it should benefit the laboring white population of the cotton States, as well as others. ' ' But, ' says Carolina, ' this diversified industry can not be introduced, to much extent, where slavery exists. ' ' That is an argument by implication, ' says Massachu- setts, ' that you more prize slavery than you do the interests and welfare of the bulk of your white population. ' ' Who set you up to be a judge on the question of the welfare of any part of the popidation South ?' ' I assume to judge for myself,' rephes Massachusetts, ' as to that national policy which is designed to affect beneficially the twenty-seven millions of people who are obliged to obtain subsistence through personal industry ; theirs is the great cause of white humanity in its shirt sleeves ; and it be- hooves the National Government to take care of that cause, and to foster it ; and not to sub- mit to the narrow selfishness of a few slave- holders. ' It may readily be seen that this controversy, growing out of the opposite theories of selfish slaveholders on the one hand, and a spirit of beneficence, blended with the idea of a wide- spread advantage on the other, not only involves directly the demerits of slavery in its prejudical effect on the non-slaveholding population, but also the great question of raising up skilled labor in all the States. It is thus clearly de- monstrated that our national policy should be exempt from the control of an arrogant and selfish class. Slaveholders have had little sym- pathy with the great bulk of the white people in the Union ; at most, they have never mani- fested it. Few of them can be trusted politi- cally, where a broad industrial policy is con- cerned. No one is better aware than the polit- ical slaveholder of the crushing effect of slavery on the interests of the non-slaveholding popu- lation in the slave States ; hence their jealousy of this population as a voting, governing power. The Southern political mind, connected with slaveholding, is astute when sharpened by jeal- ousy. There -is no phase in political economy, bearing on the disparity of classes in the South, that has not been taken into the account and analyzed. The fear with slaveholders has been , that the great majority, composed of the white laboring population South, would become able to subject matters to the same scrutinizing anal- ysis. It would be difficult to convince the Ameri- can people that slavery is not ' the skeleton in their closet,' Any one who has encountered for years the pro-slavery spirit : who has watched it through its unscrupulous deviations from rectitude, morally, socially, and politically, will have been dull of comprehension not to have appreciated its atrocious disposition. Its great instrumentality in the management of Southern masses, consists not only of a disre- gard, but of a positive interdict of the princi- ples of civil liberty, in all matters wherein the prejudical effects of slavery might directly, or by implication, be disclosed. It is, true, people are permitted to adulate slavery — so they are allowed to adulate kings, where kings reign. No one in recent years has been allowed to open expression or argument as to the bad effect of a pro-slavery policy on the great majority of Southern white popidation. This woidd bring the offender within the Southern definition of an ' incendiary,' and the offence woidd be heinous. The pro-slavery spirit has always demanded sycophancy where its strength was great enough to enforce it, and has ever been ready to involve the law of force where its theories were contra- dicted. Even the fundamental law of the South, contained in Southern State Constitutions in favor of the ' freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, ' is mere rhetorical flourish, where slavery is concerned. It means that you must adulate slavery if you speak of it ; and woe to the man that gives this fundamental law any broader interpretation. In its amiable moods, the pro-slavery spirit is often made to appear the gentleman. In its angry, jealous moods, it is both a ruffian and an assassin. Mr. Sumner, of the Senate, once sat for its picture — twee in his turn he drew it — each portrait was a faith- ful resemblance. Had we been exempt from slavery and its influences, it is difficult to conceive what pos- sible pretence coidd have been raised up for revolution. What position could have been taken showing the necessity of disenthral- roent from oppressive government ? There would have existed no element of political dis- content that could by any possibility have cul- minated in rebellion, aside from the active, jealous, and unscrupulous influence of slave- holders. Rebellion and treason required the lead and direction of an ambitious and reck- less class ; a class actuated by gross and selfish passions, in disconnection with sympathy for the masses. It required a class stripped and bereft by habits of thinking of the spirit of po- litical beneficence, devoid of national honor, national pride, and national fidelity. Nothing less unscrupulous would have answered to plot, to carry forward, and to manage the incidents j of the attempted dismemberment of the Union. I It required something worse in its nature than I Benedict Arnold susceptibility. His might | have been crime, springing from sudden re- j sentment or imaginary wrong. The other is AGAINST DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES the result of thirty years' concoction under I atrocious wrong, is the same. The disposition adroit, hypocritical, and unscrupulous leaders. I to crash by force any attempt to vindicate The slaveholders' rebellion has assumed a mag- i natural rights, or to modify the status of so- nitude commensurate only with long contem- ! ciety under the severity of oppression, is the plation of the subject. Making all due allow- same ; and no tyranny has yet been found so ance for the honorable exceptions, this is sub- tenacious or objectionable as the tyranny of a stantially the ifliase of rjro-slavery infidelity to class held together by the "bond of iniquity." the Union. ! Our forefathers had a just conception of the Were further argument needed to establish I nature of the case, on one hand, when they in- this position, it is found in the fact that the ! terdicted, by fundamental law, the establish- of rebellion are wanting in proportion to j ment of any order of nobility. Many of them ' were sorely distressed at the contemplation of slavery on the other hand, in connection with its probable results upon the national welfare. Our calamity is but the fulfilment of their prophecies. They well knew the nature of the evil we have to deal with. It is matter of astonishment to most minds that slaveholders should have contemplated the bold venture of subordinating the Democratic principle in government. It will be less aston- ishing, however, when it is duly considered that it is utterly impossible for democracy and slavery to abide long together. The one or the other must, ere long, have been prostrated under the laws of population, and it is not very likely that the twenty-seven millions and their increase would consent to be subordinated l- | to the policy of three hundred and fifty thou- mine its national pride. It still retains its rep- sand slaveholders. Slavery must exist as the resentation in Congress against the influences ruling political power, or it cannot long exist of surrounding treason. There is a cheering at all. This the slaveholders well knew ; hence satisfaction in the belief that this plateau of the necessity of fortifying itself through some the absence of slavery. There is no reason to believe that Kentucky or Maryland, without slavery, would have been less loyal than Ohio. In Eastern Kentucky, Western Virginia, East- ern Tennessee, Western North Carolina, a small portion of Georgia, and Northern Ala- bama, the Union cause finds a friend's country. These sections, in the main, contain a popula- tion dependent upon its own labor for subsist- ence. Schooled by diligent industry to habits of perseverance, and learning independence and manhood by relying on itself, it has pre- served its patriotism and attachment to the Government under which it was born. It saw no cause of complaint, imaginary or real. Six or seven per cent, of slave population has not proved sufficient as a slave interest, to prostrate or corrupt its national fidelity, nor to under- civil liberty and freedom, even unassisted could not have been permanently held in sub- jection by the myrmidons of rebellion. The secessionists themselves bestow a high com- pliment to the patriotism of v this people, when they complain of its "idolatrous attach- ment to the old government. " The time has come when the American people, from necessity, must analyze to their root the whole aptitudes and incidents of slavery. They are now obliged to deal with it, unbridled by the check-rein of its apologists. Under the best behavior of slaveholders, the institution could not rise above the point of bare toleration. There is so much inherent in political arrangement against the Democratic power of the masses. The South Carolina platform for a new gov- ernment had a close resemblance to the ancient Roman — a patrician order of nobility, founded on the interested motive to uphold slavery ; but, allowing plebeian representation, to some extent, to the non-slaveholding classes. Others in the South had preference for constitutional monarchy, with a class of privileged legislators and House of Commons, composing a govern- ment of checks and balances, analogous to the English government. Whatever the plan adopted, the leading idea was to institute a government that should be impervious, through the system that will not bear analysis, so much j one branch, to the future influence of the non- of collateral mischief, so much tending to over- | slaveholding majority. turn and discourage the principles of justice that ought to be interwoven into the relation- It is difficult to make entirely clear the am- bitious motives and mixed apprehensions that of society, that it is impossible for the j have combined to precipitate the Southern ingenuous mind to advocate slavery per se. It 1 slaveholders into rebellion. The defectiveness is not, however, to the bare dominion itself, of the educational system of the South, and that the objection is exclusively raised up. It is the inevitable result of that dominion, in con- nection with the worst cultivated passions of human nature, that the exception is more broadly taken. The dominion of the master over the slave involves, in a great measure, the necessary dominion over the persons and in- terests of the balance of society where it exists. The lust of power on the part of slaveholders, and on the part of the privileged classes in Europe, in nature, is the same. The deter- mination through the artificial arrangements of power, to subsist on the toil of others, is the >. interests were identified with the Northern cdu- same. The arrogant assumption of the right I cational and industrial policy. _ They appre- to maintain as privilege what originated in j ciated fully that through these interests, free the known responsibility of slaveholders for such defect and its consequences ; the de- fect in the industrial policy, and the responsi- bility of slavery itself for the depressing conse- quences to the non-slaveholding population, were fearful charges. A knowledge that the causes of depression must soon be brought to the examination of Southern masses, in con- trast with a better state of things in the North, filled the minds of slaveholders with jealous and fearful apprehensions toward the non- slavsholding population. They knew that its THE SLAVEHOLDERS CONSPIRACY labor in the South had every motive to affinity pings' from secessionists in their cups, has had with the North, educationally, politically, and : little difficulty in determining the ultimatum in industrially. They were astute in the discov ery that under the operation of the Democratic principle, free discussion, and fair play of rea- son, the pro-slavery presto- aust soon go down in the So" +1 - ' jater numeri- " ol f fc was, there- ed, to over- : — oocs m the South, but L ^di^e thein the instruments of their own overthrow as to political power. The measurable acquiescence of the non- slaveholding population was indispensable to the revolutionary project. Without it, there was but little numerical force. It was, there- fore, of entire consequence to make this pop- ulation hate the North— to hate the National Government, and to train it for the purposes of rebellion. The press was suborned wherever it could be. The pulpit manifested equal alac- rity, in order to keep pace with the workings of the virus of treason. Leading men, assum- ing to be statesmen and political economists, taxed their ingenuity in the invention of false- hood. The effort of the press and politicians was directed to misrepresenting and dispara- ging the condition of free labor in the North ; whilst the Southern pulpit was religiously en- gaged in establishing the divinity of slavery. It would require a volume to delineate the arts and hypocrisy resorted to, and the false reason- ing employed, to impose upon the masses of white labor South, and to make them contented with their disparaged condition. It is needless to say, the work of imposition was too effectual- ly accompUshed. It must be confessed that too much of the non-slaveholding population had been induced to follow the political Iagos of the South, and thus to assist the first act in the plan for its own subversion — separation from the North. The next step in the plan of subversion, the ' ' abrogation of a government of majorities," was carefully kept from the public view. The inquiry naturally arises, as to how or why this design for the arrangement of political power in the Southern Confederacy has been confined within such narrow degrees of disclo- sure. The answer is plain. A bold proposition to change the principles of their government would have alarmed the people of the South into an intensified opposition. The politicians of South Carolina, more open and frank in the exposition of their views than other leaders in the South, have been obliged to submit the con- trol of their discretion to the more crafty and subtle influences of other States. Policy re- the designs of treason. He will have become convinced that it is nothing less than a warfare against the continuation of Democratic govern- ment in the South' — that this warfare is stimu- lated by the fixed belief that a government of majorities must be superseded, in order to per- petuate the institution of slavery. Were argument wanting to force this conclu- sion on the mind, it would be supplied in the established affinity between the emissary of secession in Europe and the virulent haters of Democratic government there found. The lib- eralists of England and elsewhere have been sedulously avoided ; not so those who would connive to bring Democratic government into disrepute. With these last-mentioned classes, the secessionists have met with a ready sym- pathy and encouragement, almost as much so, as if treason in America involved directly the stability of privileged power on that continent. The Tories of England, the anti-democratic forces of France, the nauseous ingredients of the House of Hapsburg, the degenerate nobility of Spain, and from that down to the ' German Prince of a five-acre patch, ' have been the con- genial allies of secession emissaries in Europe. It mattered not to these haters of enfranchised masses, how much misery might be inflicted on the American people. They cared little for the anguish of mind that was being everywhere felt by the supporters of liberalized opinions. They rejoiced at the supposed calamities of that gov- ernment whose beneficent policy had always been to keep the peace, to avoid the necessity of standing armies, to foster industry and edu- cation, and in addition thereto, to encourage the depressed of Europe to come and accept homes and hospitable treatment on the soil of the country. These revilers of Democracy in Europe were long advised with, were consulted beforehand, and knew the plottings of the pro- slavery spirit in its preparation for rebellion. They were indifferent as to the character or hateful deformity of the agency to be employed, provided it could be made instrumental in breaking the jurisdiction of a government, heretofore more esteemed by the enlightened liberalists of the world than any other that ever existed. Neither the secessionists nor their co- plotters in Europe required seducing or pros- elyting. They stood on the same level of affin- ity, the moment the secessionists proposed the overthrow of the Democratic principle.. This was the promise, the condition precedent, and this the basis of alliance between the plotters of treason in free America and their coadjutors It would be both shallow and useless quired that the contemplated new form of gov- | abroad, ernment should be confined to the knowledge to charge the origin of sympathy with rebellion of the leading spirits only. It would not bear projects, expressed by political circles in Eu- tne hazards of submission to the people as a rope, to the mercenary motives of commerce, basis ot revolution. Its success depended upon | trade, or manufactures. Those were stand- secresy and coupling the adoption of the plan I i ng on a board foundation of contented re- with a sudden denouement after revolution. Any | ciprocitv, and were the first to dread the tu- one conversant with the pages of De Bow's Re- j mult that could not fail to prove prejudicial mew, tor the last ten years, and who has watched We shall hunt in vain to find the motive for the drift ot argument mrevilmg the masses, and I European sympathy in rebellion, elsewhere condemning their connection with government ; I than in hatred of Democracy. We shall also and accustomed also to the ' accidental drop- i search in vain to find the motive for the wide- AGAINST DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. spread sympathy expressed by the liberalists of Europe in the Union cause, elsewhere than in their attachment to liberalize institu- tions. Having glanced at the compound motive for establishing the Southern Confederacy, that is, slavery perpetuation through prostration of the Democratic principle, it may not be amiss to refer to the contemplated management of its politico-economic interests. These were to be built up, of course ; but not through a system of diversified industry ; for free trade, as is well known, would have the effect to prostrate what little manufacturing had been commenced in the Southland afford a perpetual bar to the success of future undertakings. It was believed that the foul elements North and South, and the illicit traders of the world beside, could be brought together in the business of free trade and smuggling. The immense frontier would render it impossible for the Northern States to protect themselves to much extent from illicit trade through any preventive service possible to be adopted. The Mexican frontier would be entirely helpless. Thus reasoned Sccesh. This was to have been the basis of competition with Northern mechanism. The reasonings of the conspirators were consistent with the merits and morals of the conspiracy. They calculated upon the active co-operation of the mercenary in the North, and actually believed that the temptation to gain would prove predominant over any efforts the Northern Government could make to protect its revenue policy. They boldly ventured upon the assumption that the influence of illicit traffic would soon become too strong to be resisted, and that in this manner, in conjunction with the agency of ' King Cot- ton, ' the commerce of the North would be trans- ferred to the South. Another item in Southern political economy was the project of reopening the African slave- trade. The leaders of the secession programme had made this a prominent feature in starting the rebellion into growth. The various phases which this branch of the question afterward underwent, was owing to the opposition of the Border States. So much were the people of the Border States averse to being brought into competition with slave-breeding in Dahomey, that the original conspirators were obliged to forego, for a time at least, this incident in the motives of the earlier revolutionists. A government founded on the supremacy of a class, and that class to be composed of slave- holders ; a political economy founded on slave labor, free trade, illicit trade, and African kidnap- ping, were associations that would require great strength and influence to sustain them, The strongest military organization was therefore contemplated. In this, much employment could be given to the non-slaveholdiug masses, while military qualities of supposed superiority would enable the Southern Confederacy to en- ter into a successful contest with the North for empire. The potency of ' King Cotton ' was to be made the powerful agency with which the rest of the civilized world was to be dragooned into acquiescence, on this delusive dream was built the fabric of that mighty empire, whose history, from its origin to its subversion, is nearly ready to be written. It must be acknowledged that the leading in- fluences of the rebellion were as sharp-sighted as political vice, or political irnmorality is ever capable of becoming. Like all other vice, however, it based its reasonings and suppositi- tious strength exclusively on its powers of de- ception, in conjunction with the iniquitous ap- titudes of itself and its coadjutors. It found co-plotters in the stockholders of the African Slave-trade Association, scattered from Maine to Texas, and in its suborned press in New York, Baltimore, Charleston, and New Orleans. It had bargained with the politically vitiated portion of the Northern Democracy for assist- ance, and had received a wicked though falla- cious assurance from the Northern kidnappers, to the effect, that the Democracy of the North would neutralize any attempt to oppose seces- sion by force. They had arranged for their diplomatic influence on the other side of the Atlantic, and bargained for the, subversion of Democracy in the South. It planned before- hand for arming treason and disarming the Union, and most adroitly were its plans in this respect earned into effect. It had gained over to its side most of the Southern material in the little army and navy of the country, and pre- pared it for perfidy, in committing devastation or theft on the public property. Thus allied and thus equipped, in the confidence of its per- nicious strength, it commenced its warfare on society. ' How much injury can we inflict upon the North? How much of the debts owing to Northern citizens can we confiscate? How much property in the South owned by North- j era men can we appropriate ? How much can I we make Northern commerce suffer by depres- I sion of business, privateering, or otherwise ? | To what extent can we paralyze Northern me- chanical industry, subvert Northern trade, and ! lay it under disabilities ? How much can we [ distress the laboring classes in England, in I France, in other countries in Europe, whereby I we may compel them to clamor for the inter- | vention of their respective governments against the North, and against its attempts to uphold the Union ?' The whole reasoning of the con- i spirators was based on the supposed power, coupled with the intent and effort to inflict wide-spread and common injury. The 6cheme and all its contemplated and attempted inci- dents of management were such as the pro- slavery spirit in politics only could engender. It required many years of gradual develop- ment, in connection with the ultimate culmi- nation of treason, to shake the confidence of the North in the disposition of the people of j the South. There was, and could be, no pos- sible intelligent motive for the masses of the ! South to change their form of government, or j to enter into rebellion against it. The argu- ments of the plotters of treason against a 'gov- I eminent of majorities' — the doctrine of ' State rights,' with the right to secede at the option of a State — the quasi repudiation of the ' white trash,' so called as an clement of political equality, were regarded as the ebullitions of a 10 THE SLAVEHOLDERS CONSPIRACY politically vitiated class who would be willing to overthrow the National Government, but who were supposed to be too few in numbers to taint with poisonous fatahty the pobtical mind of the South. It is not established as yet that the Southern political mind in the main has become depraved. It is, however, estab- lished, that the leading political influences South have cajoled and terrorized the bulk of the Southern population into apparent ac- quiescence in treason. It yet remains to be seen what despotism will be disclosed by the Southern people as soon as protec- tion is guaranteed to them against the tyranny and usurpations of the rebel influ- ence. It is prophesied that there will be found a heart in the bulk of the Southern population ; that it will still cling with affec- tion and pride to that government which was their guarantee, and which no power now on earth is competent to shake. It is not against the deluded, the timid, or the helpless of the South that we would make the indictment for political crime. It is the perfidious pro- slavery spirit in politics that we seek to ar- raign. The analysis of developed motives in which the slaveholders' rebellion had its origin, must naturally excite the inquiry in the American mind, as to how far the slaveholding element can be trusted. As a political force, we find it sowing the seeds of political discontent. As an anti-democratic element, we find it plotting the overthrow of democratic government. In its efforts to denationalize republican govern- ment in America, it has not scrupled to seek aid from, and alliance with, the haters of re- publican institutions everywhere. Under such calamitous teachings as it has inflicted can we longer conclude that it can, from its aptitudes and nature, be converted into an element of national strength? There is a South, and a great South, and would continue to be, were there not a negro or slaveholder sojourning there. The seven millions non- slaveholding population in the Southern States have rights, social and political, based on the motive to maintain republican government. The Con- stitution of the Union, as the highest principle of fundamental law, guarantees in express terms, to every State, the form of a republi- can government; and not less by implica- tion, the essential qualities of an actual one. It matters not how much the non-slave- holding population of the South may have been deluded, nor how much it may have been incited, under that delusion, to act as the in- strument of its own overthrow. This popula- tion is not less the object of just political sobcitude than any equal number of people North. That its general education has not been advanced to the appreciative point, is its misfortune. That it has been surrounded by a , pro-slavery influence, selfish, arrogant, and contemptuous of the interest of tho masses, is equally so. That it has been less favored than its brotherhood of free labor in the North — that it has been placed under disabilities in the \ comparison, are only additional reasons for in- j creased solicitude for the welfare and future | advancement of this portion of Southern popu- lation. While it has been imposed upon, and much of it deluded in its motives to action, its actual condition is in reality coupled with every natural incentive to alliance and adhesion to the National Government. It has drunk the bitter cup of calamity in rebellion. It has tasted the dregs of treason that he at the bot- tom of pohtical vice, and been victimized by destitution, by the diseases of camp-life, by the casualties of the battle-field, and by the widowhood and orphanage that have followed the train of rebellion. This population is a natural element of national strength, having the same incentives as its brotherhood in the North. Arms will soon remove the blockade to its intercourse with the North, and civil liberty once established, will most likely secure it to the side of national patriotism. There is a question of equal magnitude respecting the colored population, not only of the South, but of the whole country. It is in- volved in the inquiry : Can the colored popula- tion be converted into an element of national strength? Physiologically and mentally, the native negro race stands as the middle-man in the five races— the Caucasian and Malay being above, and* the American aborigines and the Alforian below. The mixture of blood with the Caucasian in America, places the negro element of the United States at least upon a level with the Malay race in natural powers, and from association, much the superior in practical intelligence. Notwithstanding the crushing laws designed by slaveholders to per- petuate the ignorance and helplessness of the negro, he would improve. Notwithstanding the brutal and studied policy of" slaveholders to slander and disparage the negro capacity for improvement, all the arts of lying hypocrisy have occasionally been set at naught by somo convincing exhibition of truth, springing from a fair experiment on the colored man's suscep- tibilities. The white man's dishonoring in- clination to strike the helpless — made helpless by brutal laws— has occasionally recoiled in an exposure of the atrocious practice. The late attempt to introduce a bill into the South Carolina Legislature, providing for the sale of the free negroes of the State into slavery, led to a disclosure worthy of contemplation. The Committee to whom the bill was referred stated that— ' Apart from the consideration that many of the class wero good citizens, patterns of in- dustry, sobriety, and irreproachable conduct, there were difficulties of a practical icharacter in the way of those who advocated the bill. The free colored population of Charleston alone pay taxes on $1,561,870 worth of property ; and the aggregate taxes reach $27,209 18. "What will become of the one and a half mil- lions of property which belongs to them in ( 'harloston alone, to say nothing of their prop- erty elsewhere in the State ? Can it enter into the mind of any Carolina Legislature to confis- cate this property, and put it in the Treasury ? We forbear to consider anything so full of in- justice and wickedness. While we are battling for our rights, liberties, and institutions, can AGAINST DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 11 we expect the smiles and cotmtenance of the Arbiter of all events, when we make war on the impotent and unprotected, enslave them against all justice, and rob them of the prop- erty acquired by their own honest toil and in- dustry, under your former protection and sense ot justice ?'* This slight exhibition in. the Carolina Legis- lature presents an epitome of the whole argu^ ment of cultivated brutality on the one hand, and of human sense and rationality on the other. What were the protection and sense of justice here spoken of ; and what the sequences flowing from such protection and justice ? The whole question is answered in three words : Improvement, following encouragement. What was the ' robbery* proposed by the bill, other than the concomitants of slavery, that have robbed the colored man from generation to gen- eration, not only of his toil, but of every prac- tical motive to be a man? It would be need- less, however, to discuss the question of the colored man's rapacity to improve, were it not for considerations that now make it neces- sary, under national calamity, to take into truthful account. The white man's cultivation of barbarity under the teachings of slaveholders has hitherto proved an overmatch for the color- ed man's claims in the abstract. Things and conditions are now changed. The slaveholders' rebellion has softened the obduracy of manufac- tured prejudice, and necessity has become allied with humanity. The pro-slavery spirit in politics is now discovered to be little short of a demon — a snake's egg that hatches treason. The American mind is nearly forced to the conclusion, that as long as colored women are compelled to breed slaves their white mistresses will continue to breed rebels. Slavery, of course, must yield to the necessity of national security. A remnant may exist for a while, and linger through modifications of a broken and helpless pro-slavery prestige, the duration depending entirely upon the disposition of slaveholders to become subordinated to law. Perpetuation, however, has become a word that has no meaning in connection with the duration of slavery. The word in that sense has become obsolete ; and what shall become of the colored man, and how shall he be treated is, and is to be, the sequence of the conspiracy to overthrow the jurisdiction of the Govern- ment. It being established that the pro-slavery spirit by nature, is the antagonist of the demo- cratic principle — the antagonist of the inter- ests of the masses, the hot-bed for the cultiva- tion of brutality, devoid of fidelity, and a rebel by practice, it has become an intolerable ele- ment of national weakness. We cannot avoid the inquiry, now to be made on the basis of hu- manity : Can the colored man, by proper and just encouragement, be converted into an ele- ment of patriotism and national strength ? * The free colored population of Charleston, in I860, did aot var,y materially from lour thousand. Th.; . valae of their property would givo to each $390. Each family of six persons would possess, according to this estimate, $2,340. This would be a full averago of wealth to the free population of tho United States — the amount varying fn the different States from $2,200 to $2,500 to each family of six persons. What is the solution of the riddle as it re- spects the strength of democratic government? It has heretofore been said by the revilers of the masses in America, that ' for two hundred years the scum, the crime, and poverty of Eu- rope have been cast upon the shores of the At- lantic. ' It is immaterial to the question of hu- manity, whether such has been the seed from which a new nation has been raised up in the wilderness. A few months since, ' Democracy on its trial, ' was the favorite theme of Demo- cracy-haters in Europe. The indictment against our free institutions was freighted with fearful charges. The government of the Union was a ' delusive Utopia. ' ' The people of the North had degenerated into a mob. ' ' Society was drifting into the maelstrom of anarchy, and law and order becoming extinct. ' A little time, and an apparently unwarlike people had changed into an astonishing organization, dis- ciplined for warfare. Seven hundred thousand bayonets, as if by enchantment, bristled in menace to the slaveholders' rebellion. The navy-yards and arsenals resounded with the clang of hammers, and soon the suddenly created armaments appeared on the waters. Power in finance exhibited by the Government, based on the confidence and patriotism of the people, was no less astonishing. New inven- tions of warfare changed the scoffings in Eu- rope into alarm for their own security. The trans-Atlantic revilers of republicanism in America have discovered a people who had a heart in them. Patriotism in America is reas- sured of success by the exhibition of a deep- seated attachment on the part of the Northman to his Government. Seven words suffice to solve the riddle of free democratic strength — THE MASSES CONVEKTED INTO BEINGS OF POWEB. This is the theory, the basis, the strength of free institutions in America. They have no other ftnindation. They have nothing else to rely on for enduring support. Let the Southern rebel attempt to disguise it as he may, the colored man of the South is already a patriot on the side of the Union. He has heard of a people in the North who believed that every human being, by nature, was entitled to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi7iess.' He knows that his oppressor hates this people of the North, and for the sole rea- son that they entertain this generous sentiment. While the Pharisaic theologian of the Southern pulpit is expounding his Bible-doctrine in jus- tification of kidnapping, and appealing to Hea- ven for assistance, the colored man turns in disgust at the impiety, and turns into secret places to beseech Omnipotence to favor the suc- cess of the national arms. Perhaps there is an interfering Providence already manifest in re- sults. H the plagues of Egypt had been visited on the rebellious States by an overruling Power, they would scarcely have afforded a parallel to the calamity which rebel slaveholders have in- flicted on their country. They have exhausted and destroyed much of what the long toil of the colored man South had assisted to raise up. Devastation has followed the train of rebellion. The blood of the first and of the second born has been the sacrifice on the altar of slavery. 12 THE SLAVEHOLDERS CONSPIRACY The brutal ruffianism of the pro-slavery spirit has far enough disclosed its natural aptitudes to have become disgustingly odious in compari- son with the positively better characteristics of the colored man. The rebel himself has taught a lesson to the world, which he can never unteach. The twenty-seven millions of free labor in the Union have learned a lesson through the teachings of slaveholders in rebel- lion, which they can not forget. This teaching is nothing less than that the colored man is capable, by protection and encouragement, of being converted into a better element of na- tional strength and national prosperity than slaveholders, as such, would ever become. Could any contemplative mind doubt for a moment the ability of the white population of the Union, if justly disposed, to raise the col- ored population of the country, in a short time, to the platform of a decent respectability? With unjust prejudice laid aside, and the work of beneficence acquiesced in, no one coidd rea- sonably doubt it. Who deserves best at the hands of the nation's power, the oppressor or the oppressed? The one that grasps at the throat of the nation and attempts its overthrow merely to perpetuate his power of oppression, or the other who is crying to humanity for pro- tection ? The voice of nature, if undefiled, will answer this question on the side of humanity — if not, NECESSITY WILL. The democratic theory, which seeks to ab- solve humanity from oppression, is not confined to the resistance of a single despot. It goes in the same degree to a privileged class that arro- gates to itself the right to oppress ; nor does it stop at the halfway house of mere negative pro- tection. It allows in its onward course the full fruition of ' equality before the law. ' In the- ory, the law is the sovereign, and we seek to attach such qualities to that sovereign as are compatible with the general good of society. That theory places no man above the law, nor any man below its protection. As soon as the individual in society is raised to the point of negative protection, he is in a measure con- verted into a being of power. He can then ap- peal to his sovereign, the law, for the vindica- tion of his rights. Experience is continually demonstrating that men are respected in pro- portion to their power to command respect. The very existence of slavery requires and de- mands the brutalization of the governing power that upholds it. Were society absolved from this tyranny, matters would begin to mend. Equalized protection would be the consequence. Protection, not only to the colored man, but protection in an almost equal degree to the non- slaveholding white population, hitherto brought under the ban of disability by a depressing pro- slavery policy. Until recently, when the colored race in the United States was spoken of in connection with the subject of its release from oppression, it was subjected to the same arguments that kept the white men in slavery in olden times. The argu- ments of slaveholders were never truthful, and only convenient for themselves. They damaged the slave ; they damaged every collateral inter- est ; they damaged the strength of nationality ; and more than all, they damaged every humane principle of civilization. The whole reasoning in favor of slaveholding has been a vicious fal- lacy ; and perhaps the time has come, attended by sufficient calamity, to set the American pop- ulation to thinking and acting in the right direction. The colored people South are better fitted for freedom than is commonly imagined. They are quite well skilled in practical industry, more especially in agricultural pursuits. There are many of them qualified in skilled labor in the coarser mechanic arts. The whole of this population has been trained to diligent labor, under habits of continuous toil, It has acquired patience in performing labor, by the discipline which unremitting labor gives. The colored man South has not been brought up in idle- ness, or with habits calculated to make him a renegade. Were he permitted to enjoy the fruits of his industry, there can be no doubt of his disposition and patience to toil on. In case his rebel master would not hire him for wages, there would be enough amongst the non-slave- holding population who woidd. Production in the South, under emancipation of the slaves of rebel masters, would not materially fall off. Give to colored men the fruits of their industry, and many of them would soon set up for them- selves. Perhaps in connection with the soil of the South, that yields most abundantly in an- nual value of product, the rest of the colored population would soon get to emulate the free colored people of Charleston. The law of sub- sistence would as much compel the South to go on without compulsory labor as it does the North, and there are just as many reasons for it in one section as in the other ; that is, just none at all. Under emancipation, there is little doubt that actual production could and would soon be put on the increase, with better distri- bution of wealth, more widely diffused comforts, and a broader and better public policy. The only things that would be curtailed of their pro- portions would be slave-breeding, rebel-breed- ing, and ruffian cultivation. It may, perhaps, continue to be easier for a time to strike the colored man than to strike off his shackles. There is a mean and low side of humanity, a sort of defiled infirmity, that runs into a disposition to strike the helpless. This is the bravery of ruffianism. There is apt to be a shrinking away from duty, when the con- test involves a conflict with arrogant power. This is the cowardice of pusillanimity. The American citizen has been noted for his supe- rior bravery. He has certainly shown himself brave in the battle-field, and more brave and determined than any other nation in the vindi- cation and maintenance of the natural rights of the white man ; but he is not done with the business of disenthralment. His language is the language of liberty. It must not, it will not long continue to be spoken by slaves . This was the meaning of Jefferson, when he penned the text-words of disenthralment : ' All men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' Where is to be found the evidence that these AGAINST DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 13 rights have been forfeited ? Who dare deny the right of the colored man morally, religiously, or politically, to assert them ? It is true, we have hitherto acted in defiance of these ac- knowledged rights. "We have outraged them. We have waged a shameful and shameless war- fare against them. The sequences of that war- fare are now upon us. The sin is now being atoned for in blood. It has not yet been or- dained that the principles of injustice should have permanent duration. If not restrained by humane rationality, they will culminate in con- vulsion. The light is now breaking upon the heretofore obscured vision of the American people. We can now begin to see with clear- ness that the colored man's disenthralment is to become the white man's future security, This would almost seem to be the harmony of divine justice in the affairs of men. No substantial amelioration in the depressed condition of race or class has yet been brought about in disconnection with the powerful agency of such race or class. Human nature forbids it. The selfish tenacity of advantage, resting on what is misnamed ' vested rights, ' but having its foundation in vested wrongs, yields only on compulsion. It is only when the depressed race or class, acting in somewhat intelligent concert, exhibits the disposition to aid in the purposes of protection, that the mercenary power succumbs to necessity. His- tory furnishes no example to the contrary. It may not be impossible that our own times may make history to corroborate the truth of these premises. When it is asserted that the colored man is wanting in bravery, and is not endowed with the natural courage to assert and maintain his his rights, we are apt to forget that physical bravery is a thing of cultivation. There is not the least evidence that, with military discipline and something to fight for, the colored popula- tion of the United States would not prove as brave as the black regiment of the Revolution. With such bravery as that regiment exhibited, the four millions and their prospective increase would require a gigantic force to make profit- able slaves of them. Again, there is something beyond the protection from domestic violence that demands consideration, in connection with the military discipline of the colored man. We may reasonably expect that a large colonization in some quarter will soon take place, and be carried forward. Education and military dis- cipline, in addition to knowledge in practical industry, are necessary concomitants to suc- cessful colonization. With these qualities, the colored man will cease to feel helpless, and be fitted for enterprise. He will have the confi- dence to go forward, and the aspirations to im- pel him. It may be the lot of the colored man to encounter in some foreign land, powers and influences quite as barbarous as those he has hitherto encountered in the white man's pre- judices. If he is armed for the encounter, he will have little inclination to shrink from it. Every humane consideration clusters to the policy of disenthralling the colored man, and making him a being of power. Nothing can oppose it but the pro-slavery spirit that seeks to enslave the American mind to barbarism and the colored millions and their increase to per- petual bondage. GENERALS GRANT, ROSECRANS, AND " FIGHTING JOE HOOKER," DEMOCRATS OF THE JACKSONIAN CHARACTER, AND NOT OF THE CHICAGO COPPERHEAD COMPLEXION. GRANT UPON REBELS AND COPPERHEADS. " All we want now to insure an early restoration of the UNION is a determined UNITY OF SENTIMENT at the NORTH," says General Grant, in his late Washburn letter. " The only hope of the Rebels," he adds, " is in a DIVIDED NORTH. They are exceed- ingly anxious to hold out until after the Presidential Election, for," he continues, " they have many hopes from its effects— they hope the election of a Peace Candidate— in fact, like Micawber, they hope for something to turn up." And, if loyal men successfully resist these schemes, and vote down the Copperhead treason of the Chicago Convention, the Rebel leaders (the main-spring of the infernal treason) will, after the re-election of a loyal President, soon be skedaddling, Micawber-like, to foreign lands— leaving behind them not only a UNITED NORTH, but an UNDIVIDED UNION. GRANT UPON "PEACE." " Our peace friends, if they expect peace from separation " of the Union, " are much mis- taken ;" for the General rightly says, " it would be but the beginning of war, with thousands of Northern men joining the South because of our disgrace in allowing separation. ' To 14: THE SLAVEHOLDERS' CONSPIRACY have peace on any terms,' the South would demand the restoration of their slaves already- freed — .they would demand indemnity for losses sustained — and they would demand a peace which would make the North slave-hunters for the South." Aye, and " they would demand pay or restoration of every slave escaping to the North." Such are the opinions of General Grant-^a man whom even the Copperheads will not charge with " fanaticism," inasmuch as he, like Holt, Hamilton, Dix, Butler, and others of the most prominent loyalists, was a Democrat of the straitest sort till this Rebellion (at least temporarily) erased all other distinctions except friends and enemies of our National Unity. GENERAL HOOKER ON COPPERHEADS. At the overwhelming meeting for the reception of " Fighting Joe Hooker," at the Brook- lyn Academy of Music, after hearing of Sheridan's great victory over Early's rebel army, Genera] Hooker said : " We have not even yet put forward all our energies and resources, although we have shown, and we have employed, resources which have amazed the world. But in the North, the North has not yet made that one great effort to crush this revolt by a blow ; it could do it, and can do it, any day when it moves for that purpose. (Cheers.) The people in these loyal States — and I am proud to say it — the people have been in advance of the authorities in all of this rebellion (cheers), and they will be until they reach the end, and the end is not remote. (Cheers.) I am rejoiced to meet you, and to meet you under such auspices as I do to-night. Tidings — glorious tidings — reach us from all of the armies ; the work goes bravely on. There are NO COPPERHEADS— (great cheers)— there are NO COP- PERHEADS IN THE ARMY. (Cheers.) They will fight well, and they will vote well. (Cheers.) More devotion, more loyalty, never, never animated the hearts and the hands of men more brave." GENERAL ROSECRANS UPON THE ATROCITIES OF THE REBELLION. In his reply to the complimentary resolutions of the Ohio Legislature toward General Rosecrans and his troops, that gallant officer spoke of the rebels much as he handled them in his campaigns — without mittens. He said — and his words should be remembered throughout the land : — " This is, indeed, a war for the maintenance of the constitution and the laws — nay, for national existence — against those who have despised our honest friendship, deceived our just hopes, and driven us to defend our country and our homes. By foul and wilful slanders on our motives and intentions, persistently repeated, they have arrayed against us our fellow- citizens, bound to us by the triple ties of consanguinity, geographical position, and com- mercial interest. " Let no man among us be base enough to forget this, or fool enough to trust an oligarchy of traitors to their friends, to civil liberty, and human freedom. Voluntary exiles from home and friends, for the defence and safety of all, we long for the time when gentle peace shall again spread her wings over our land ; but we know no such blessing is possible while the unjust and arbitrary power of rebel leaders confronts and threatens us. Crafty as the fox, cruel as the tiger, they cried ' no coercion,' while preparing to strike us. Bully-like, they proposed to fight us, because they said they could whip us five to one ; and now, when driven back, they whine out 'no invasion,' and promise us of the West permission to navi- gate the Mississippi, if we will be ' good boys,' and do as they bid us. " Whenever they have the power, they drive before them into their ranks the Southern people, and they would drive us. Trust them not. Were they able, they would invade and destroy us without mercy. Absolutely assured of these things, I am amazed that any one could think of ' peace on any terms.' He who entertains the sentiment is only fit to be a slave ; he who writes it at this time is, moreover, a traitor to his country, who deserves the scorn and contempt of all honorable men. When the power of the unscrupulous rebel leaders is removed, and the people are free to consider and act for their own interests, which are common with ours, under this government, there will be no great difficulty in fraternization. Between our tastes and social life there are fewer differences than between those of the northern and southern provinces of England or Ireland. "W. S. Rosecrans, Major-General." AGAINST DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 15 THE IRISH IN THE NORTH. The extracts from the Rebel Journals, show the most extraordinary abuse of the Irish, connected at the same time with the liveliest hope that their former devotion to the Demo- cratic Party will induce them now to vote the Copperhead Chicago ticket, which promises " amnesty and peace " to the Rebels and traitors who thus infamously abuse them. Generals Meagher, Shields, Corcoran, Mulligan, and other heroic Irishmen, among the thousands of that class who risked death, and captivity worse than death, in defence oi their adopted country, have shown examples which should not be lost upon their well meaning countrymen who are enjoying the rights and privileges for which those gallant soldiers fearlessly breasted the horrors of this Slaveholders' Rebellion. , ON THE CHICAGO SURRENDER. What ! hoist the white flag when our triumph is nigh ? What! crouch before Treason? make Freedom a lie? What ! spike all our guns when the foe is at bay, And the rags of his black banner dropping away ? Tear down the strong name that our nation has won, And strike her brave bird from his home in the sun ? He's a coward who shrinks from the lift of the sword ; He's a traitor who mocks at the sacrifice poured ; Nameless and homeless the doom that should blast The knave who stands idly till peril is past ; But he who submits when the thunders have burst And victory dawns, is of cowards the worst ! Is the old spirit dead ? Are we broken and weak, That cravens so shamelessly lift the white cheek To court the swift insult, nor blush at the blow — The tools of the Treason and friends of the foe? See! Anarchy smiles at the peace which they ask, Ami the eyes of Disunion flash out through the mask ! Give thanks, ye brave boys ! who by vale and by crag Bear onward, unfaltering, our noble old Hag ! Strong arms of the Union, heroes living and dead, For the blood of your valor is uselessly shed ! No soldier's green laurel is promised you here, But the white rag of " sympathy" softly shall cheer ! And you, ye war martyrs ! who preach from your graves How captives are nursed by the masters of slaves, Or, living, still linger in shadows of Death, — PulF out the starved muscle, recall the faint breath, And shout, till those cowards rejoice at the cry : " By the hands of the Union we fought for, we die !" By the God of our Fathers ! this shame we must share, But it grows too debasing for freemen to bear, And Washington, Jackson, will turn in their graves When the Union shall rest on two races of slaves, Or, spurning the spirit which bound it of yore, And sundered, exist as a nation no more! Bayard Taylor. 16 THE SLAVEHOLDERS' CONSPIRACY. DOUGLAS AND DICKINSON, DEMOCRATS OF JACKSONIAN TIMES— BELIEVING IN THE DOC- TRINE OF OLD HICKORY, "THAT THE UNION MUST AND SHALL BE PRESERVED." DOUGLAS AND HIS DEMOCRATIC FRIENDS. Nothing in the political history of the times was more cheering to all loyal men than the frankness and promptness with which Senator Douglas broke through all partisan distinc- tions in proffering a hearty support to his successful competitor Lincoln, when the Rebellion first raised its assassin-like arm against the National Government. This practical example is worth a volume of comments on the patriotism of Douglas and his confidence in the in- tegrity of President Lincoln ; and it is creditable alike to themselves and to their country that so many of the Democratic friends of Douglas, like Grant. Dix, Dickinson, and others, have so cordially united with former opponents in giving " a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together," in defence of the National Union. DICKINSON UPON REBELLION-" AM I FOR PEACE ?"-YES ! The reply of Daniel S. Dickinson to a person who wrote inquiring " if he was for peace," is just what might be expected from that thorough-going Democrat, and is worthy of repetition everywhere through the land, as a general answer to the Copperhead slang- whanging about " armistices," and " peace-upon-any-terms" with the Slaveholding Traitors. " AM I FOR PEACE ?"— YES !— For the peace which rings out from the cannon's throat, And the suasion of shot and shell, Till Rebellion's spirit is trampled down To the depths of its kindred hell — For the peace which shall follow the squadron's tramp, Where the brazen trumpets bray, And, drunk with the fury of storm and strife, The blood-red chargers neigh — For the peace that shall wash out the leprous stain Of our slavery — foul and grim — And shall sunder the fetters which creak and clank On the dowi>tr,pjlden black man's limb. I will curse him as traitor, and false of heart, Who would shrink from the conflict now, And will stamp it with blistering, burning brand, On his hideous Cain-like brow. Out ! out of the way ! with your spurious " peace ;" Which would make us Rebellion's slaves ; We will rescue our land from the traitor's grasp, Or cover it over with graves. Out ! out of the way ! with your knavish schemes. You trembling and trading pack ! — Crouch away in the dark, like a sneaking hound, That its master had beaten back. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS You would barter the fruit of our fathers' blood, j And sell out the Stripes and Stars, '| jjj \ To purchase a place with Rebellion's votes, j jj l] j Or escape from Rebellion's scars. || ]\ jl J | By the widow's wail, by the mother's tears, 012 027 629 3 # By the orphans who cry for bread, By our sons who fell, WE WILL NEVER YIELD , TILL REBELLION'S SOUL IS DEAD ! 012 027 629 3 # Hollinger pH8.5 Mill Run F3-1719