YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1936

ExTEKED accordlDg to Act of Congress, In the year 1864, by
JAMES G. GREGORY,
In the Clerk's OfDce of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New York.

W. H, TiKSON, Stereotyper C. A. Altord, Printer.

TO THE
WHILOH, AND IN THE HAFFIEB DATS OP THE REPUBLIO,
(Kofiirnor o! t^e ^tat« of Neio gorfe,
THIS TOLtrUE IS DEDICATED AS A HUMBLE TESTIMONIAL OF GRATITUDE, RETERBNOB,
AND AFFECl'ION, BY THE AUTHOR.

PREFATORY NOTE.

Thkoughout the following pages, I have in general
excluded from consideration such features of the existing
situation, either with respect to onr internal affairs, or
our relations to the insurgents, as will exercise but an
ephemeral influence upon the solution of the grand problem.
But I have found it impossible always to avoid references
to passing events, and conjectures respecting their results,
the correctness or falsity of which a few months, perhaps
weeks, will render manifest. It will therefore be neces
sary for the better understanding of some portions of this
work, that the reader should bear in mind that it was pre
pared for publication during the months of November,
December, and January last.
M. H. T
Utioa, N. T., March 1, 1804

CONTENTS.

INTEODtrCTION.
The Object of the Work — The Propositions which it aims to establish
— The Spirit in which the Author will endeavor to discuss them —
The propriety and importance of such a Discussion at the present
time — Practical Questions alone to be considered, . . 9
CHAPTER I.
State Sovereignty — Mr. Sumner's Attack upon it in " Our Domestic
Relations" — The Articles of Confederation — State Sovereignty
imder the Confederation — Origin and Theory of the Constitution —
The Powers which it grants to Congress and denies to the States,
compared with those granted and denied by the Articles of Confe
deration — Tlie Federalist on the changes made by the Constitution
and on State Sovereignty — The question of Supremacy consid
ered — Recognition of State Sovereignty in the Constitution — Con
stitutional and Legislative Provisions of New York and Massachu
setts on that Subject — Its recognition in the proceedings of the two
States and of Congress, relative to the Cession of Boston Corner
to New York — Mr. Sumner's Opinion In 185S, ... I'?
CHAPTER II.
The Constitutional Power of the General Government to suppress a
Rebellion — That Power not affected by the unwarrantable sanction
of a Rebellion by a State — The impossibility of a Constitutional
Collision between the State and National Sovereignties— The course
of the General Government in the Nullification Controversy — A
similar course in thia Controversy will not expose us to the charge
of coercing Sovereign States — Consideration of the Doctrines of
Forfeiture of State Rights by State Treason, of State Suicide, and
of the Abdication by a State of its Place in the Union, . 48

vi CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.-
Answer to Senator Sumner's Theory of a " Tabula rasa " in conse
quence of the vacancy of the State Offices — The unconstitution
ality of the project to disfranchise Individuals or Classes by Act
of Congress — The recognition of the Insurgents as Belligerents
will not give us the rights of Conquerors over Territory wrested
from them — State Rights, not being derived from the Constitu
tion, cannot be forfeited to the General Government — That Gov
ernment has no power to disturb the balance of our Political
System by accepting such a Forfeiture  60
CHAPTER IV.
The Theory upon which we entered into the War — The Assurances
respecting its Object and Termination which were given to For
eign Nations — The Adoption of the Crittenden Resolution — Its
Obligatory Character as a National Pledge, ... 74
CHAPTER V.
The Emancipation Proclamation as a War Measure — Consideration
of the Rights of a Belligerent over the Slaves of Citizens of an
Invaded Nation regarding them as Property-^The same Rights
regarding them as occupying a Peculiar Status under the Local
Law — The Owner's Rights after the Restoration of Peace — Rea
sons why the Emancipation Proclamation exceeds the Rights of
a Belligerent, and manifests a Revolutionary Intention ou the
part of our Government,  88
CHAPTER VL
How the Southern People were induced to Favor the Rebellion —
Relations of the Slaveholders and of the Institution of Slavery to
the Masses of the People — Theories of the Constitution and of
Public PoUcy which were prevalent in the South — The Manner
in which the Southern Union Party was Extinguished — Action
of the Border Slave States,  103

CONTENTS. vii
CHAPTER VII.
Effects of the Policy thus far pursued by our Government towards
the People of the South — The " Anti-Rosewater " Military
Policy — The Penal, Confiscation and Exclusion Statutes — Result
of those Measures in arousing the Resentment and Hatred of the
Southern People — Falsity of the Theory that the Masses at the
South will regard with complacency the Ruin and Outlawry of
their principal Citizens — Exaggerated Effects attributed at the
North to Dissensions between the Confederate Authorities and
their People — Practical Results of the Pohcy of Severity in the
Districts which we have already conquered. . . . 124
CHAPTER VIII.
The impossibility of Governing the People of the South by means
of State Governments, depending upon the Popular Vote, with
out allaying their Discontent — Results which attended the
Attempt in Utah to maintain the Federal Government over a
Dissatisfied People — Collisions which a similar Attempt in the
South would provoke — The impracticability of introducing a
new Element of Political Power, by means of the Blacks, or of
Foreign Immigrants, or of Immigrants from the North — The
practical Result of the Power of Government, popular in Form,
to coerce its Subjects to obedience, compared with the Theory —
Action of President Jackson in the Nullification Controversy —
His Opinion respecting the possibility of maintaining the Union
by Force alone — Madison, Benton, Everett, Douglas and Web
ster's Opinions upon the same subject  IRI
CHAPTER IX.
Senator Sumner's Plan of Territorial Governments for the South —
The President's Plan of " Reconstruction " — A detailed Explana
tion of the latter — Delusive character of the apparent Intention to
submit the Emancipation Proclamation to the Supreme Conrt —
The Plan contemplates the AboUtion of Slavery by a revolution
ary overthrow of the State Constitutions — Nature of the Popular
Element of the "reconstructed" State Governments — Probability
of the acceptance of the Terms of Amnesty by the Southern

viii CONTENTS.
People now within our Lines— Readiness of the Baser Element
of a Conquered People to ingratiate itself with the Conqueror —
Illustrations of this Principle by the Conduct of Individuals in
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Carolina during
the Revolutionary War — Efforts of the British Authorities to
reestablish Civil Rule in South Carolina in the years ITSO-lTSl —
Their apparent success in bringing the People back to their
Allegiance — Their Severities towards those who refused to ac
knowledge themselves British Subjects, .... 180
CHAPTER X.
The FaciUty of putting the President's Plan into Execution in the
early Stages of the Experiment — The Difficulties will thicken as
the Problem approaches Solution — Feelings with which the un-
corrupted Part of the Southern People wiU regard the Tender of
the Oath — ^Nature of the Undertaking which it requires from the
Pardoned Rebel — Character of the first Officials under the new
State Governments — ^Feelings of Animosity which wiU exist be
tween them and a large Portion of the Conquered People — The
Necessities of the National Government will require that such Men
shaU be kept in Power — The Aid of the Military wUl be invoked
for that Purpose — Impossibility of effecting the Pacification of the
Country under such Circumstances— Worthlessness of Forced Oaths
of Allegiance — The inevitable Tendency of Military Rule over a
Conquered People is to Severity — The Evil is thus increased by
the Means employed to remove it— These Propositions iUustrated
— Results of the British Efforts to reestablish the King's Authority
in South CaroUna in 1'?80-1'781 — How Military Force agrees with
a Popular Form of Government in Maryland and Delaware  The
MUitary Establishment which the Policy of Subjugation wUl re
quire us to maintain — Expense of such an Army — Questions as to
our AbiUty to defray the Expense or to keep the Ranks filled—
Other Questions relating to the Subject, .... 210
CHAPTER XL
Consideration of the Policy of Subjugation, under Mr. Sumner'a
Plan or the President's Plan, with reference to its effects upon

CONTENTS ix
Popular Institution at the North — ^The Constitutional Restric
tions upon the General Government were framed for the purpose
of preventing the DownfaU of PubUc Liberty — The tendency of
the Government to disregard them — The Barriers erected to
check that tendency — The Independence of the States was one
of those Barriers — ^The effect of the proposed " Reconstruction "
wUl be to destroy it — The Independence of the Legislature and
Judiciary constitutes another Barrier — It was secured by the
Dependence of the President upon them and of the Legislature
upon the People — It was further secured by the President's Per
sonal ResponsibiUty — The Provisions to protect the Liberties of
the individual Citizen added to give it greater Strength— Con
sideration of the Doctrine that the Provisions protecting Personal
Liberty are not applicable to a time of Civil Commotion — Its
effect in destroying the ResponsibiUty of the President and of the
Legislature to the People — ^Its effect in destroying the Independ
ence of the Legislature and Judiciary, and rendering the Pesident
independent of both — The President's Plan is even more dan
gerous than Mr. Sumner's — The poUcy of Subjugation under
either Plan frees the Executive from Control or ResponsibUity,
and leaves the Liberties of the People at his mercy — Effect of the
vast Increase of the Annual Expenses of the Government which
it involves, in disposing the Wealthy Classes to the Abolition of
Popular Government — The presence of a large Standing Army
will destroy the Popular Appreciation of the existing Form of
Government,  2,42
CHAPTER XIL
The Danger to Popular Institutions from Party Spirit was over
looked by the Authors of TAe Federalist— Ihe Honesty and
Patriotism of the present Executive and his Party conceded —
But their Political Training menaces PubUc Liberty with Destruc
tion—The Dangerous Tendency of the Doctrine that Rulers must
be UnconditionaUy Supported, pending a Great National Crisis-
Causes of the excessive Party Spirit which has hitherto raged—
Alarming Results which it has already produced— Further Ex-
1*

X CONTENTS.
cesses which it threatens during the statea^f Civil Commotion
which will follow the Military Repression of the South — They will
render the Preservation of Popular Liberty impossible — The
situation of the President and his Necessities — Inefficiency of the
restraining Power of Conscience over a Ruler so situated — The
manner in which the Constitution will probably be overthrown
and the Pretexts by which its Overthrow will be justified — ^Viru-
lency of Party Spirit during Washington's Administration — His
Warning to his Fellow-countrymen against its Effects — His Warn
ing against Usurpation — Results of the Teachings of aU the
Writers upon the Constitution — Incidents of the Maryland Elec
tion of November, 1863,  280
CHAPTER XIII.
Suggestions as to the PossibiUty of restoring the Union without
destroying PubUc Liberty — The most important Object to be ac
complished is to impress upon the PubUc Mind a correct under
standing of the Conditions of the Problem — Also to modify the
Spirit with which the War has been carried ou — There wUl be no
difficulty in framing a plan when those Objects have been attained
— Reasons for believing in the existence of a Disposition at the
South to return to the Union upon honorable Terms — The Utility
of a further prosecution of the War discussed — Purposes for
which it should be prosecuted — The Effect of the Emancipation
Proclamation should be left to Judicial Decision — The political
Power of Slavery is at au end — Urgent Necessity of RemodelUng
the Constitution — Reasons why the holding of a National Con
vention at an early day is indispensable, irrespective of its Influ
ence in promoting the Restoration of the Union — ^But such a
Convention can be and should be made a Powerful Instrument to
hasten the end of the War — Reforms which it should accomplish
—Effect of those Reforms upon the Pacification and Prosperity of
the Country, and the Future Permanence of the Union. . 316

THE FUTURE.

INTKODIJCTION.
The Object of the Work — The Propositions which it aims to estab
lish — The Spirit in which the Author wiU endeavor to discuss
them — The propriety and importance of such a Discussion at the
present time — Practical Questions alone to be considered.
In one of the earliest of the diplomatic dispatches
of the Secretary of State, the instructions to Mr.
Dayton, dated April twenty-second, eighteen hun
dred and sixty-one, will be found this passage :
" The American people, notwithstanding any
temporary disturbance of their equanimity, are yet
a sagacious and practical people, and less expe
rience of evils than any other nation would require,
will bring them back to their customary and habit
ual exercise of reason and reflection, and through
that process, to the settlement of the controversy
without further devastation and demoralization, by
needless continuance in civil war."
It is supposed, less from the context of the dis
patch, than from the Secretary's well-known skep
ticism at that time, respecting the possibility of the

10 THE FUTURE.
northern people feeling to any considerable extent
the pressure of the then impending civil war, that
the men of the South constituted that portion of the
American people to whom he particularly referred,
when he penned the sentence quoted. But his
remark is general, and the characteristics which he
ascribes to the nation are those to which the men
of the ISTorth lay peculiar, if not exclusive claim.
I propose to appeal to the " reason and reflec
tion " of my " sagacious and practical " fellow-citi
zens, in a few earnest, but I hope calm and mode
rate observations. Assuming that we propose to -
prosecute the war until the authority of the Union
is completely reestablished in all the territory over
which it extended when the rebellion broke out,
and that the fortune of arms, and the course of
political events, have been such as to place such a
consummation within our reach, I will assign the
reasons for two conclusions to which I have arrived,
and to which it is the object of this work to lead
also the reader's mind. These are, first, that no
calamity could befall the nation, not even disunion,
which would compare in its disastrous consequences,
to a successful termination of the war, under such
circumstances as to leave behind it a permanent
feeling of hostility and hatred to the Government
of the Union, on the part of the people over whom
our victorious arms wiU have extended our sway ;
and secondly, that such a feeling will naturally and

THE FUTURE. H
inevitably result from further persistence in many
of the measures of civil and military policy which
we have already adopted, and from adopting other
measures, having the same general tendency which
are now urged upon us by several leading states
men. Although I wish to expose my work to the charge
of partisanship as little as the nature of the discus^
sion will allow, I am fully sensible of the impossi
bility of gratifying that wish except to a very lim
ited extent. I am not vain enough to suppose that
I can succeed by any efi'ort, however honestly and
strenuously made, in divesting my own mind en
tirely of party bias, while treating of subjects which
have provoked at such recent periods so much
acrimony of debate in political conflicts, " quorum
pars fui." And I know very well that at a time
like this, when the passions of my countrymen are
heated, as it were, to the boiling point, even if it
was possible for me to bring to the discussion of my
subject the calmness and impartiality with which
posterity, aided by experience, will judge of the
men and measures of to-day, I should appear to
many honest, intelligent, and patriotic men, to have
written purely as a partisan.
But I will approach as nearly to the accomplish
ment of my purpose as the adverse circumstances
under which I write will permit. To that end, I
will treat copiously of principles and sparingly of

12 THE FUTURE.
men, and when the nature of the discussion com
pels me to advert to the acts of individuals, I will
avoid, as far as possible, captious and unfair criti
cism of their conduct and uncharitable construction
of their motives. And I will advance no argument
which I do not myself believe to be sound, and make
no assertion, of the truth of which I am not myself
fully persuaded. If, nevertheless, I shall justly ex
pose myself to censure for the spirit in which I
shall write, I can only plead the infirmity of human
nature in extenuation of my fault.
The time has been when many men who would
have agreed with me in some, perhaps all, of my
general . conclusions, would have deprecated this
discussion, however moderate and candid might
have been the spirit in which it might be conducted.
They held that while the very existence of the Gov
ernment was trembling in the balance, it did not
become good citizens to criticise unfavorably well-
intended, though possibly unwise measures, of those
to whose hands was irrevocably confided the duty
of preserving the nation from annihilation.
But the time has passed when such an argument
had any weight. A presidential election is ap
proaching, the result of which will determine the
policy of the nation for four long years to come —
years during which its destiny, as aff'ected by the
termination of the war, will be in all probability
irrevocably fixed for weal or for woe. Tlie powers

THE FUTURE. 13
which the present national Administration have
wielded during the whole continuance of the war,
are now again to be committed to the hands of the
people, to be recommitted by the latter to such per
sons as they shall deem most worthy of the high
trust — that is to say, to the men whose principles,
as illustrated by their past conduct, and whose
pledges of future action shall be those which, in the
opinion of the people, will most conduce to the
national safety and prosperity. It is therefore no
longer possible, even were it desirable, to avoid the
discussion of the future policy of the nation, and
consequently of the measures which have already
been adopted. The wisdom of those measures, the
propriety of longer adhering to them, the adoption
of a permanent basis of the settlement of the con
troversy — these are the very issues which, divested
of extraneous considerations, are to be presented in
November next for direct adjudication at the bar
of public opinion. And all men, even those who
have heretofore believed that such discussion should
be discountenanced, must now form their own opin
ions respecting the future policy of the nation, and
act in accordance with their conclusions.
It will be my endeavor to avoid, as far as possi
ble, all doubtful questions which are not of imme
diate and practical importance. And in general, I
shall also prefer to discuss such theories of constitu
tional law or of political science, as my subject will

14 THE FUTURE.
from time to time force upon me, with reference
rather to their practical operation, and to the results
to which they will lead in the present state of the
country, than to their abstract correctness or falsity
as general propositions. The principal exceptions
which I shall make to this rule, will occur when the
proposition under consideration involves a question
of right or wrong : that is to say, when it is or has
been used to justify a particular measure or a general
policy, and its decision is therefore necessary to de
termine whether the course which we have pursued,
or which is recommended for our adoption, is a mere
assertion of our unquestionable rights, or a lawless
and unjustifiable usurpation. In such a case the
question, however abstract apparently, will become
practical in the course of the discussion : for although
there are many among us who scorn to inquire what
the Constitution requires at our hands in dealing
with rebels, I shall endeavor to show in the pro
gress of this work, that we cannot expect to secure
the pacification of this distracted country, or to
preserve our own liberties, if we allow our national
Government to make the rebellion a pretext for dis
regarding its own constitutional duties, or assuming
powers which the fundamental law has withheld
from it.
There is one great question, the solution of which
would be eminently practical in considering how
we can restore peace and harmony to the country.

THE FUTURE.

15

which I am compelled to ignore, except to a limited
extent, for another reason— it is, what was the real
coiuse of the war? By which I mean, not the
ostensible subject of the quarrel, for that was the in
stitution of slavery ; nor the direct and immediate
causes which made that institution the subject of a
quarrel, for these may in general terms be stated to
have been dislike and suspicion of the people of
each section among the people of the other ; but the
means by which those feelings were aroused and
the causes which led to them. If we could accu
rately ascertain the cause of the war, in that sense,
we should have made considerable progress in dis
covering a remedy for our difficulties, and a basis
of lasting pacification. I shall make the attempt to
show how, when disunion was once determined
upon by the leading politicians of the South, the
masses of that section were induced to favor it.
But beyond that point the ground is too dangerous
to tread upon, with the hope of producing any satis
factory results in a work of this character, till the
excitement of the present shall have passed away.
Among those who sincerely deplore the commence
ment of the war, and long for its termination, in
such a manner as to secure future harmony and
mutual good-will among all sections of the country,
there is the widest difl'erence of opinion as to the
degree of responsibility for its existence which at
taches to particular men aud particular factions.

Ig THE FUTURE.
The events are too recent, the actors in them are
too closely connected with us in our every-day
avocations, and the feelings which they have aroused
are yet too keen, to permit of their being considered
with the calmness with which I hope to be able to
treat the subjects which I propose to discuss. All
moderate men will concede that iu both of the lead
ing parties, at least in the North, there has been a
sincere and unqualified attachment to the Union on
the part of a vast majority ; and that what has been
done to destroy it, has been the result chiefiy of
passion, prejudice, ignorance, error, and timidity,
and partly, but to a much less extent, of venality
and unscrupulous ambition on the part of the lead
ers of public opinion, and the incumbents of public
office. In what proportion these faults and errors
are to be ascribed to particular factions or particu
lar men, I shall not undertake to determine.
To that extent " forgetting those things which
are behind and reaching forth to those things which
are before," and asking my reader's forbearance
and indulgence, if, as is probable in the present
diversity of opinion respecting every measure of
public policy, I shall fail to command his approba
tion in every particular, I invite moderate and
thinking men to consider with me the all-absorbing
FDTTJEE, and the mighty events which lie hidden
beneath its veil.

THE FUTURE.

17

CHAPTER I
State Sovereignty — Mr. Sumner's Attack upon it in " Our Domestic
Relations" — The Articles of Confederation— State Sovereignty
under the Confederation — Origin and Theory of the Constitution
— ^The Powers which it grants to Congress and denies to the
States, compared with those granted and denied by the Articles
of Confederation — Tiie Federalist on the changes made by the
Constitution and on State Sovereignty — The question of Supre
macy considered — Recognition of State Sovereignty in the Con
stitution — Constitutional and Legislative Provisions of New York
and Massachusetts on that Subject — Its recognition in the pro
ceedings of the two States and of Congress, relative to the Cession
of Boston Corner to New York — Mr. Sumner's Opinion in 185B.
The doctrine of State sovereignty enters so largely
into the discussion of all questions connected with
the commencement or the termination of the war,
that it is essential in a work of this land, to have a
clear understanding at the outset respecting its
soundness and the results to which it leads. Had
these pages been written a few months earlier, I
should have assumed that the sovereignty of the
States was so generally admitted by the public men
of the North, as well as of the South, that I could
proceed at once, without occupying the reader's
time with a demonstration of its existence, to con-

Ig THE FUTURE.
sider the consequences which legitimately flow from
it, and the perversions to which it has been sub
jected. But " the world moves," and it is not the
least significant indication of the maimer in which
the passions generated and the new interests created
by nearly three years of civil war, have upset all
preconceived ideas of political science and of the
theory of our Constitution, that many of my fellow-
citizens are now questioning the soundness of a
proposition, which but a short time ago, they would
have treated as axiomatic. It is because this doubt
exists, that I am compelled, much against my
wishes, to defer the consideration of matters per
haps better calculated to interest the general reader,
till I have completed the discussion of this question
of constitutional law.
The most noticeable of the recent attacks upon
the doctrine of State sovereignty, as well from its
boldness and its elaborate character, as the reputa
tion and position of its author, is to be found in an
article in a recent number of The Atlantic Monthly
Magazine, written by Senator Sumner of Massa
chusetts, and entitled " Our Domestic Relations."
I shall have occasion, in a subsequent portion of
this work, to consider some of the other proposi
tions which the author of that article has attempted
to establish : at present I will confine my attention
to that portion of his argument which aims to prove
that State sovereignty has no existence xmder the

THE FUTURE. 10
Constitution. As Mr. Sumner is beyond question
the most distinguished ,of the champions of that
doctrine, I presume that if I can successfully refute
the reasoning contained in " Our Domestic Rela
tions," I shall have overthrown the best argument
which can be adduced in its support.
That part of " Our Domestic Relations " which is
devoted to the consideration of what it styles " the
miserable pretension of State sovereignty," refers
also to the " pestilent pretension of State rights,"
in terms (not merely the different adjectives) which
lead me to conjecture that the author draws in his
own mind some line of distinction between the two
supposed political heresies. But as he does not
explain that distinction in such a manner that I
have been able to discover of what it consists, I am
compelled to consider the two doctrines as identical,
State rights being, as ordinarily understood, the
right of the States to enjoy unmolested that portion
of sovereignty which the Constitution has not be
stowed upon the Federal Government.
That no such right or no such sovereignty exists,
is a conclusion which is announced in the article in
question in the following words, succeeding a de
tailed statement of the origin of the Constitution
and a recapitulation of its provisions respecting
Congress and the States.
"Thus, whether we regard the larger powers
vested in Congress, the powers denied to the States

20 THE FUTURE.
without the consent x>f Congress, or those q*!her pro
visions which accord Supremacy to the Updted States,
we shall find the pretension of BtaJv« sovereignty
without foundation, except in the,Janagination of its
partisans. Before the Constitutj/6n such sovereignty
may have existed ; it was deckBred in the Articles of
Confederation ; but since tMen it has ceased to exist.
It has disappeared and >(5een lost in the supremacy
of th^e^ational Goverumient, so that it can no longer
be recognized." /
I shall consider y^parately the reasons which are
thus assigned fo;jn;he disappearance of the sovereign
ty of the Stains ; but before doing so, it is neces
sary for me/to have more satisfactory evidence that
such sovereignty existed under the Articles of Con
federation, than is contained in the qualified and
hesjiiating admission of that fact, which the forego-
jmg extract contains. For if it is distinctly under
stood that the States were sovereign when the Con
stitution was adopted, the Vgument will be nar
rowed down to the singlVi question whether there is
such a radical difl'erence between the relations which
now exist between the Federal Government, the
States, and the people, and those which existed be
tween the Congress of the confederation, the States,
and the people, as to lead to the conclusion that the
Constitution has stripped the States of rights of
such incalculable importance, which they confess
edly enjoyed imder the Articles of Confederation.

: THE FUTURE. 21
By the Declaration of Independence, the colonies
asserted that they were "fide and independent
States," and the Articles of Confederation, which
were made in 177T and ratified in 1778, purport to
be the compact of the several States whose inde
pendence was thus asserted. It was expressly de
clared in them that " each State retains its sover
eignty, freedom, independence," and every power,
&c., not expressly delegated to the United States,
and also that " the said States hereby enter into a
firm league of friendship with each other." In the
determination of questions each State had one vote
in a congress consisting of one house only, and cer
tain questions, enumerated in the Articles, could
only be decided by " the assent of nine States," thaf
is, by the vote of the delegations of nine Statil^^
the Congress. The President was merely tl^e p^
siding officer of Congress, that body having execu^
tive as well as legislative authority, and the com
mander-in-chief was sr n military officer as Con
gress might appoint. iTio Union was to be indis
soluble — that fact being asserted expressly and by
implication no less than five times iri the Articles of
Confederation and their ratification. The title of the
cpnfederacy was, as thetitle_of ojafr present national
Government is, " The United btates," and the word
" Union " was used as descriptive of the confede
racy and of the bond by which the States were held
together. Of course the constitutions of the several

22 THE FUTURE.
States were appropriate for the exercise of that
sovereignty which was expressly reserved to them.
After recapitulating some of these provisions, the
author of " Our Domestic Relations " finds it impos
sible to withhold his unqualified admission that the
States were then sovereign. He says, "The gov
ernment thus constituted was a compact between
sovereign States, or, according to its precise lan
guage, ' a firm league of friendship ' between these
States, administered in the recess of Congress by ' a
committee of the States.'* Thus did State rights
triumph." The Union thus constituted is aptly compared in
'he Federalist (No. 18) to the Amphyctionic
affiie, and the " weaknesses and disorders " which
resul^d from it were similar to those which afflicted
/the .Alfcphyctionic states. They led to the calling
* I ha ve>, copied the italics in the extract as they stand
in the origii^al text. The clear implication of this parar
graph is, that the States themselves appointed a commit
tee to managdv the affairs of the Union during the recess
of Congress. Iri truth, the " committee of the States " was
merely one of the\regular committees of Congress, consist
ing of one delegate selected by Congress from the delega
tion from each State, and empowered to act during the
recess. The necessitj of such a committee will be appa
rent, when it is remembered" that Congress was the execu
tive as well as the legislative authority of the Union.
There are other errors of a similar character in " Our
Domestic Relations ;" of course I assume that they result
from carelessness in the author's mode of expression.

THE FUTURE. 23
of the convention of 1787, which formed our present
Constitution. That instrument undertook to remedy the defects
of the confederation, partly by enlarging the powers
conferred upon the Federal Administration, but
chiefly by enabling the latter to operate directly
upon individual citizens and their property, instead
of relying, as did the Congress of the confederation,
upon the States to carry into effect most of its laws
and mandates. In other words, the Constitution
created a government, that is, a sovereignty, to which
obedience, and therefore allegiance was due from
each citizen within its territory, to the full extent
of the powers conferred upon it. But those powers
were expressly defined, and they were limited to
the transaction C^ the external business of the na
tion, and to a few specified matters of internal
administration, which it was necessary that the
general Government should regulate, in order to
enable it efficiently to fulfil its functions respecting
-external aff'airs, or which could not be committed
to the separate action of each State, without pro
ducing confusion or internal discord. And it was
expressly declared in an amendment which was in
substance contemporaneous with the Constitution
itself, that " all powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to
the States, are reserved to the States respectively
or to the people." Bearing in mind, therefore, that

24 THE FUTURE.
the States were sovereign uohsn the Constitution
\was adopted, it is manifest that all sovereignty not
granted to the United States remained in the States
themselves, and it is necessary to examine the in
strument itself, to ascertain first, whether the sov
ereignty of the States was affirmatively ceded, and
secondly, if that was not the case, whether the
attributes and powers of sovereignty were so far
ceded that those which remained in the States con
stituted such a mere shadow of sovereignty, that
the name itself is no longer appropriate to describe
them. The first question is speedily answered.
The Constitution itself nowhere uses the word " sov
ereign " or " sovereignty " when treating either of
the States or of thenational Government. It recog
nizes the former as then existing with certain rights
and privileges which it makes no attempts to define,
and it proceeds to orgam,ize and create the latter.
And an examination of the powers which it confers
upon the general Government will show very con
clusively that its object was to effect what Tlie
Federalist (No. 32) very correctly calls a " division
of the sovereign power." They are far from being,
as the author of " Our Domestic Relatipns " calls
them, " all those powers which enter into sover
eignty." Let us divide them into two classes;
first, those which were precisely or substantially
the same under the two systems, and secondly,
those which are altogether new

THE FUTURE. 25
The first class, those which were common to both
systems, are the following : to borrow money on the
credit of the United States ; to pay debts ; to appro
priate money for the public expenses ; to regulate
commerce with the Indian tribes ; to coin money
and regulate its value ; to fix the standard of weights
and measures throughout the Union ; to establish
post-offices ; to define and punish piracies ; to enter
into treaties and alliances ; to declare war ; to con
clude peace ; to grant letters of marque and reprisal ;
to make rules concerning captures by land or water ;
to raise and support armies ; to appoint naval and
military officers ; to provide and maintain a navy ;
and to make rules for the government and re
gulation of the land and naval forces. Some of
these powers were conferred upon the Congress of
the confederation, in language varying somewhat
from that employed in the Constitution, and the
mode of execution of some of them was by means
of the machinery of the State governments; but
they were, nevertheless, powebs granted to the
Union under the former system, and the obligation
of the States to carry into execution such of them
as the latter were required to execute, rendered
them theoretically as effective as they are at pre
sent. Upon this subject The Federalist may be
consulted ^as5iOT, particularly numbers thirty-eight
and forty.
The second class, consisting of powers which Con-
2

26 THE FUTURE,
gress has under the Constitution, and whicn were
not granted to the Congress of the confederationj
are the following : to lay taxes, duties, imposts, and
excises ; to regulate commerce with foreign nations
and among the States ; to establish uniform rules
of naturalization and of bankruptcy; to provide
for the punishment of counterfeiting the United
States coin and securities ; to grant copyrights and
patents to authors and inventors ; to define and
punish offences against the laws of nations ; to pro
vide for calling forth the militia to execute the
laws, repel invasions, and suppress insurrections;
and to provide for organizing, arming, and disci
plining the militia — the power to train the militia
and to appoint the officers being reserved to the
States. The restrictions upon the powers of the States
which the present Constitution establishes may be
classified in the same manner. Those which were
common to both systems are the following : citizens
of each State are to have the privileges of citizens
of all the States ; criminals fleeing from one State
to another are to be surrendered ; full faith and
credit are to be given in each State to the records,
acts, and judicial proceedings of the others ; no State
shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confedera
tion without the consent of Congress ; nor without
the consent of Congress keep troops or ships of war
in time of peace, or enter into any agreement or

THE FUTURE 27
compact with any other State, or a foreign power,
or engage in war, unless actually invaded or in im
minent danger. All these restrictions are estab
lished by the Articles of Confederation, substantially
in the same manner, and in the same language, as
by the Constitution. In two particulars there is
a difference in the terms of the prohibition, without
any substantial difference in its practical effect.
The Constitution forbids any State to grant letters
of marque or reprisal. The Articles of Confedera
tion forbade such letters being granted, except by
the consent of and under regulations to be estab
lished by Congress. The Constitution forbids the
States to coin money ; -the Articles of Confederation
vested in Congress " the exclusive right and power
of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck
by their own authority, or that of the respective
States." The restrictions upon the States, which were
added by the new system to those which formerly
existed, are the following : no State shall emit bills
of credit ; make anything but gold and silver a legal
tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attain
der, ex-post facto law, or law impairing the obliga
tion of contracts, or grant any title of nobility ; nor
shall a State lay imposts or duties on imports or
exports, or any duties of tonnage, without thfe con
sent of Congress ; fugitive slaves escaping fi*om one
State to another are to be surrendered ; the United

28 THE FUTURE.
States shall guaranty to each State a republican
form of government. So far as the prohibition to
pass acts of attainder, or ex-post facto laws, or grant
titles of nobility, amount to an argument against
the existence of sovereignty, the same prohibitions,
in the same words, are made applicable to Congress ;
and generally it may be stated, that the law-making
power of the Union is much more restricted by the
Constitution, not only by the absence of grants of
power, but by express prohibitions of particular
acts of. its exercise, tlian the corresponding power
of the States.
Now, without entering into a detailed considerar
tion of the nature and effect of the different trans
fers of power which have been effected by the Con
stitution, I think it will be very apparent, from
even a superflcial consideration of the classification
which I have made, that with reference to the ex
tent of powers granted to the Federal Government
or denied to the States, the Constitution^4|iBi made
no radical change in the relati^^'f^.e^vck the
States and the central power. J^^frv^^ stated
before, the great and essential d^i,; full^&^tween
the Constitution and the Articles oi (Vdfed oration
is that the former creates a government to take the
place of the " league of friendship " which formerly
existed. It might, perhaps, open to an adept in
the science of court etiquette a promising field
for the exercise of his skill, to propound to him the

THE FUTURE. 29
question whether, given a limited sovereign, it best
comports with "that divinity which doth hedge"
him, that he should be compelled to exercise cer
tain functions of sovereignty at the will of another,
and without power to approve or disapprove, or
that his functions should be confined to those cases
in which he knows no master save his own will.
But as a question of political science, I apprehend
that it is of no importance whatever. Such is,
however, the principal change which has been made
in the former relations between the States and the
Government of the Union. For it is impossible to
lay the finger upon any grant of power to the new
Government which, as an attribute of sovereignty,
is not inferior in dignity and importance to many
of the powers conceded to the Congress of the con
federation, or upon any restriction of the States in
the exercise of a power which, as an attribute of
sovereignty, is not at least equal in dignity and im
portance to some power which the States were re
stricted from exercising under the former system.
As examples illustrating simultaneously the truth
of each of these propositions I will refer to the
powers to declare war, to conclude peace, to main
tain land and naval forces, and to enter into treaties
and alliances, all of which were granted to the
Congress of the confederation and denied to the
States as they are under the existing system. There
are no attributes of sovereign power which can out-

30 THE FUTURE.
rank either of these ; and we happen to have at
hand (curiously enough), very conclusive evidence
of the relative rank which the framers of the
Articles of Confederation assigned to those very
attributes of sovereignty ; for in the Declaration of
Independence, adopted by a Congress composed
mostly of the same men who framed and recom
mended for the adoption of the States the Articles
of Confederation, we find the united colonies first
declai*ing in general terms that they are free and
independent States, and then adding, " that as free
and independent States they have full power to
lemy war, conclude peace, contract allicmces, establish
commerce, and to do all other things which inde
pendent States may of right do." There are thus
four attributes of sovereignty which our forefathers
deemed worthy of special mention in the great fun
damental charter of their liberties, three of which
they immediately granted to Congress, without
any suspicion that such a grant affected the right
of the States to complete sovereignty over the sub
jects of which they retained jurisdiction.
With reference to the additional grants of power
made to Congress by the Constitution, I will copy
from Number 46 of The Federalist, adding two
short notes, intended to show how little reason
there is to deduce a loss of sovereignty by the
States, from the "two most important of the addi
tions.

THE FUTURE. 3I
" If the new Constitution be examined with accu
racy and candor, it will be found that the change
which it proposes consists much less in the addition
of NEW POWERS to the Union than in the invigora-
tion of its OEiGiNAi. POWERS. The regulation of
commerce is, it is true, a new power, but that seems
to be an addition which few oppose, and from
which no apprehensions are entertained.*
" The powers relating to war and peace, armies
and fleets, treaties and finance, with the other more
considerable powers, are all vested in the existing
Congress by the Articles of Confederation. The
proposed change does not enlarge those powers : it
only substitutes a more effectual mode of administer
ing them. The change relating to taxation may be
regarded as the most important,"!- aud yet the pre-
* Among other arguments used elsewhere by The, Fede
ralist in favor of this clause of the proposed Constitution,
it is mentioned that similar powers over internal commerce
were then enjoyed by the federal authorities of Switzer
land, Grermany and the Netherlands. The author of "Our
Domestic Relations " lays great stress upon the power of
Congress •" to put limits roundabout the business of the
several States," but I opine that the king of Prussia would
be astonished to learn from a grave senator of the United
States, that his predecessors (Frederick the Great, for
instance) were not sovereigns.
f Numbers 30 to 36 of The Federalist are devoted to
the discussion of this power. Their object is to show the
propriety of granting to the United States a " concurrent
jurisdiction with the States in the article of taxation."

32 THE FUTURE.
sent Congress have as complete authority to eequipvE
from the States indefinite supplies of money for the
common defence and general welfare, as the future
Congress will have to require them of individual
citizens ; and the latter will be no more bound than
the States themselves have been to pay the quotas
respectively taxed on them."
The new restrictions of the powers of the States
consist partly of such as were necessary to render
effective the new powers granted to Congress, and
partly of covenants or compacts that no State
shall exercise its powers so as to infiict certain
injuries upon the others. As I have already stated,
they exclude the States from but a very small por
tion of the privileges which were left to them by
the Articles of Confederation. In " Our Domestic
Relations" the powers of Congress are styled " that
commanding sovereignty which emhraces and holds
the whole country within its perpetual and irreversi
ble jurisdiction ;" and those of the States are desig
nated, by way of contradistinction, as " that special
local control which is essential to the business and
convenience of life." One would suppose that the
In Number 32 it is said, that such jurisdiction can never bo
so construed as to interfere with the State right of taxa
tion, because the possibility of inconvenience in the exercise
of its powers by the national Govermuent could not " by
implication ahenate and extinguish a preexisting right of
sovereignty."

THE FUTURE. 33
latter sentence (even without dwarfing its subject
by juxtaposition with the " tumultuous grandeur "
of the phrase which precedes it) was employed to
describe a village corporation, instead of a State
vested with full legislative power over the lives,
liberty, and property of millions — power which is
absolute and supreme, except in the very few in
stances when it is specially limited by the Federal
Constitution. Let me again refer to The Federalist
for a proper description of the relative functions of
the National and State Governments ; and as the
author of " Our Domestic Relations " cites Mr.
Madison in support of the theory that the States
are not sovereign, I will select my extracts from
some of the articles written by that distinguished
statesman. From No. 45 : " The powers delegated by the
proposed Constitution to the Federal Government
are few and defined. Those which are to remain
in the State Governments are numerous and indefi
nite. The former wiU be exercised principally in ex
ternal objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign
commerce, with which last the power of taxation
will, for the most part, be connected. The powers
reserved to the several States will extend to all ob
jects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, con
cern the Uves, liberties, and property of the people,
and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity
of the State." 2*

34 THE FUTURE.
From No. 40 : " We have seen that in tne new
government, as in the old, the general powers are
limited ; and that the States, in all unenumerated
cases, are left in the enjoyment of their sovereign
and independent jurisdicl/ion.'''
From No. 39 : " But if the government be na
tional with regard to the operation of its powers, it
changes its aspect when we contemplate it i/n rela
tion to the extent of its powers. The idea of a national
government involves in it not only an authority
over the individual citizens, but an indefinite supre
macy over all persons and things, so far as they are
objects of lawful govemment  In
this relation, then, the proposed government ca/nnot
he deemed a national one, since its jurisdiction ex
tends to certain enumerated objects only, and leaves
to the several States a residuary and inviolable
sovereignty over all other oijects."
I have thus considered all the grounds upon
which the author of " Our Domestic Relations "
bases his denial of State sovereignty, except the su
premacy which the Constitution accords to the
United States Constitution and to the laws ^^ which
shall he made in pursuance thereof." But it is evi
dent that this objection is already answered by
what precedes. The real question is, have the
States lost their sovereignty, or do they still retain
it ? If, in fact, they retain " a residuary and invio
lable sovereignty " it makes no difference that the

THE FUTURE.

35

United States Govemment is supreme in the exer
cise of that portion of sovereignty which has been
conceded to it.
The Feder'alist very correctly gives the reason
why State officers are bound by oath to support the
United States Constitution, while United States
officers are not bound by oath to support the State
constitutions, which is, that the State officers con
stitute an essential part of the machinery employed
in the operation of the Federal Government, where
as Federal officers are not in any degree relied
upon to keep in motion the wheels of the State
governments. And as to the language of the
clause of the Constitution which confers supremacy,
it is but a mode of expressing the object to accom
plish which both the Articles of Confederation and
the Constitution were framed, that is, to cleave
down in certain pa/rticulars the State constitutions.
As The Federalist says (No. 33), the clause of
supremacy " only declares a truth which flows im
mediately and necessarily from the formation of a
Federal Government," and I may add, that it is a
mere form of expression, scarcely available to settle
a question of etiquette ; for while it provides that
the national Govemment shall be supreme within
its designated limits, the clause withholding from
the Federal Government all powers which the Con
stitution does not affirmatively confer upon it,
amounts to aa assertion of supremacy in the States

36 THE FUTURE.
for all other purposes — a supremacy which the
national Government must bow to as weU. as the
humblest citizen, so long as the Constitution is not
overthrown by force or by usurpation. Mr. Sumner
has himself expressed the idea very appropriately
in a speech delivered by him in the Senate on the
26th of August, 1853, in which he says, " While
the nation within its wide orbit is supreme, the
States move with equal supremacy in their own.
From the necessity of the case, the supremacy of
each in its proper place excludes the other." Here
is the whole case in a nut-shell.
Let me now refer to a few of the express provi
sions of the Constitution itself. I have previously
stated that while it organizes and creates the na
tional Government, it simply recognizes the States
as existing — and I may add, that it recognizes them
as governments exercising the attributes of sover
eignty. It speaks repeatedly of the States as political
bodies possessing a " legislature," " executive," " ex
ecutive authority," " executive and judicial officers,"
"judges," "constitution," "laws," "jurisdiction,"
"militia," "public acts, records and judicial proceed
ings," and, finally, a " form of government " — and
in the latter connection it provides that these organ
izations, which we are now told are merely a species
of corporations, shall not convert themselves into
monarchies or aristocracies. It even goes farther,
for it recognizes the possibility of the crime of trea-

THE FUTURE. 3^
son being committed by those whom the author of
" Our Domestic Relations" styles " the individuals
of whom the several corporations were composed,"
against the " several corporations" themselves. In
truth, the following extract from the second section
of the fourth article of the Constitution, contains in
itself a complete refutation of the theory that the
States lost their sovereignty when the Constitution
was adopted.
" A person charged in any State with treason,
felony or other crime, who shall flee from justice
and be found in another State, shall, on demand of
the executive authority of the State from which he
fled, be delivered up to be removed to the State
having Jurisdiction of the crime."
This clause is not a transcript, but a remodelling
of a clause to the same effect in the Articles of Con
federation, the language having undergone suffi
cient alteration to show that it had been carefully
revised. The significance of this clause as it stands
will become apparent, by considering what an argu
ment it would have offered to those who deny the
existence of State sovereignty, if this word treason
had been omitted in the revision.
I have stated that the constitutions of the States
were appropriate to the exercise of that sovereignty
which they confessedly possessed under the Articles
of Confederation. It is another most significant
circumstance that those constitutions remained in

38 THE FUTURE.
full force and unchanged for a long time after the
adoption of the Constitution. The constitution of
New York was not changed (save by certain amend
ments made in 1801 and relating exclusively to
matters of local administration) till the year 1823.
The constitution of Massachusetts remained entirely
unaltered till 1820, and with the exception of some
amendments, relating likewise to local matters, the
same constitution continues in force to the present
day. I copy two of .its paragraphs, which yet re
main a part of the fundamental law of that State,
whose senator has now discovered that it is merely
a political corporation.
"The people of this Commonwealth have the
sole and exclusive right of governing themselves, as
a free, sovereign and independent State, and do
and forever hereafter shall exercise and enjoy every
power, jurisdiction and right, which is not or may
not hereafter be bt them delegated to the United
States of America in Congress assembled." — Decla
ration of Siyhts, Article I V.
" The people inhabiting the territory formerly
called the Province of Massachusetts Bay do hereby
solemnly and mutually agree with each other to
form themselves into a free, sovereign and in-de
pendent body politic or State, by the name of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts." — Preamble to
Form of Qovarnment.
In New York, we fiad in the constitution adopted

THE FUTURE. 39
in 1846, the following : " The people of this State,
in their right of sovereignty, are deemed to possess
the original and ultimate property in and to all
lands within the jurisdiction of the State." — Arti
cle I., Section II.
The legislation of the two States has been equally
explicit. " The General Statutes of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts," enacted in the year 1859, contain
the following, which is a transcript from a law
which has been reenacted in the same manner at
every revision of the statutes of Massachusetts, since
the foundation of the Govemment.
"The sovereignty a/nd jurisdiction of the Com
monwealth extend to all places within the bounda
ries thereof, subject to the rights of concurrent
jurisdiction granted over places ceded to the
United States."— Pari^ /., Chap. I., Title 1, Seo..2.
* A statute of equal antiquity in the. State of New
York, reenacted for the last time in 1828, provides,
" The sovereignty amd jwrisdiction of this State
extend to all places within the boundaries thereof
as declared in the preceding title, but the extent
of such jwrisdiction over places that have been or
may be ceded to the United States, shall be quali
fied by the terms of such cession." — R. S., Pa/rt I,
Chap. L, Title 2, Sec. 1.
By subsequent sections it is made the duty of
the Governor " to maintain and defend its sover-

40 THE FUTURE.
eignty and jurisdiction,." and " if any suit be com
menced to recover lands held under a title derived
from the State under pretence of any claim incon
sistent with its sovereignty and jurisdiction," it is
made the duty of the Governor to provide for the
defence of such suit.
But if these assertions of their own sovereignty,
made by the States, notwithstanding the number
of years during which they have passed unchal
lenged, are unsatisfactory to the discoverers of the
new political theory that no such sovereignty ex
ists, I will adduce in further evidence, an act of
the same character to which the national Govern
ment was a party. I refer to the proceedings by
which the district of Boston Corner was ceded by
the State of Massachusetts to the State of New
York, and the consent of Congress was given to
the cession.
The Massachusetts statute, passed May 14, 1853,
commences as follows : " Be it enacted, &c.. Sec. 1,
Sovereignty and jwrisdiction over that portion of
this commonwealth known as the district of Boston
Corner, situate, &c., is hereby ceded to the State
of New York, with all the powers, &c., now exer
cised over the same by this commonwealth."
• The New York statute, passed July 21, 1853,
commences also :
" The people, &c., do enact as follows : Sover
eignty am,d jwrisdiction over that portion of the ter-

THE FUTURE. 41
ritory of the commonwealth of Massachusetts known
as the district of Boston Corner, situate, &c., ceded
to the State of New York by an act of the legis
lature of said commonwealth passed, &c., and en
titled, &c., is hereby accepted by the State of New
York." Each of these acts was by its terms to take effect
only upon the consent of Congress being procured, it
being somewhat doubtful whether the third section
of the fourth article of the Constitution would not
apply to such a case. Such consent was accord
ingly given by an act passed January 3, 1856,
which recites that " whereas the commonwealth of
Massachusetts by an act, &c., ceded the sovereignty
and jurisdiction over that portion of territory
known, &c., to the State of New York . . . and,
whereas, the State of New York, by an act, &c.,
accepted the sovereignty and jurisdiction over that
portion of the territory of Massachusetts above de
scribed — ^Therefore, be it enacted by the Senate
and House of Representatives of the United States
of America in Congress assembled, that the consent
of the Congress of the United States be and the
same is hereby given to said cession and annexa
tion." If, therefore, the author of " Our Domestic Rela
tions " is worthy of the honorable appellation of the
great man whose seat in the Senate he fills, we
have here the extraordinary spectacle of the legis-

42 THE FUTURE.
latures of two of the principal States of the Union,
the Congress and President of the United States,
ignorantly or wickedly uniting to disgrace the
statute books by an affirmation of the correctness
of a doctrine which contravenes the whole theory
of the Constitution, strikes at the very root of sound
government, and if made the basis of practical
action, would subject its advocates to the penalties
of treason. For Mr. Sumner tells us distinctly
that " the Constitution . . . can bear no sover
eignty but itself;" that "there is but one sover
eignty recognized, and that is the sovereignty of
the United States ;" that " State sovereignty . . .
has disappeared and been lost in the supremacy of
the national Government, so that it can no longer
be recognized ;" and that when " the Constitution
was adopted . . . the miserable pretension of State
sovereignty was discarded."
Who were the men through whose ignorance or
corruption, if these sentences enunciate political
truths, such a foul wrong was done to the majesty
of the nation ? I will not allude to the members
of the two Houses of the Legislature or the gover
nors of the two States, or to the Federal House of
Representatives. I will content myself with refer
ring to the United States Senate, a body which
then comprised, to say nothing of men of lesser
note, or men whose southern residence might lead
to their rejection as expounders of constitutional

THE FUTURE. 43
law — ^Messrs. Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine ; Charles
Sumner, of Massachusetts ; William H. Seward, of
New York ; Lewis Cass, of Michigan ; Salmon P.
Chase, of Ohio ; and Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois.
Mr. Rockwell, of Massachusetts, the colleague of
Mr. Sumner, moved that the bill pass, and it was
passed accordingly without debate, the ayes and
noes not being called for. Why did none of these
gentlemen rise and disclose the disorganizing politi
cal heresy, which we are now told is contained in the
act referred to ? Is it not clear that it was because
the discovery of that heresy dates from the period
when State rights became an inconvenient obstacle
to the success of particular personal or political
schemes? In truth, I have at hand evidence, in
the published writings and speeches of each of the
gentlemen whom I have designated by name, except
Messrs. Hamlin and Chase, of his full concurrence
in the doctrine of State sovereignty ; and I doubt
not that sufficient research would enable me to ad
duce evidence that those two gentlemen also hold,
or at least held, the same doctrine.
Did space permit, I could furnish innumerable
extracts to the same effect from the writings and
speeches of the most illustrious jurists and states
men from the earliest times to the present day.
And it is a curious and significant fact that the re
searches of the author of "Our Domestic Relations"
have enabled him to fortify his argument with no

44 THE FUTURE.
citations to the point, except extracts from speeches
made in the Constitutional Convention by members
who, in their zeal for the new system of government,
were betrayed into saying that, even under the
then existing system, the States were not sover
eign. But a fear of wearying my readers at the very
commencement of my work, confines me to a few
extracts from a single speech, that delivered by
Senator Sumner, in the Senate of the United States,
on the twenty-third of February, eighteen hundred
and fifty-five. The subject of the speech was the
fugitive slave law, and the extracts will suffice to
show in what a different light he viewed " the pes
tilent pretension of State rights " as well as " the
miserable pretension of State sovereignty," when —
if the force of the expression will excuse its home
liness — the United States buU was goring Mr.
Sumner's ox. The author of " Our Domestic Rela
tions " then spoke as follows :
" Suffice it to say that it [the fugitive slave law]
is an intrusive and offensive encroachment on
State rights, calculated to subvert the power of the
States in the protection of their citizens. . . .
" There is an argument against it which has espe
cial importance at this moment, when the fugitive
act is made the occasion of a new assault on State
rights. This very act is an assumption by Congress
of power not delegated to it under the Constitution,

THE FUTURE. 45
and an infraction of rights secured to the States.
You wiU mark, if you please, the double aspect of
this proposition, in asserting not only an assump
tion of power by Congress, but an infraction of
State rights. And this proposition, I venture to
say, defies answer or cavil.
1: * * * * *
" And yet, sir, in zeal to support this enormity,
senators have not hesitated to avow a purpose to
break down the legislation of States, calculated to
shield the liberty of their citizens. ' It is- difficult,'
says Burke, ' to frame an indictment against a
whole people.' But here in the Senate, where are
convened the jealous representatives of the States,
we have heard whole States arraigned, as if guilty
of crime. The senator from Louisiana has set forth,
in plaintive tones, the ground of proceeding, and
more than one sovereign State has been summoned
to judgment. . . . . .
" And now, almost while I speak, comes the
solemn judgment of the Supreme Court of Wiscon
sin, a sovereign State of this Union, declaring this
act to be a violation of the Constitution."
Yerily the author of " Our Domestic Relations "
should have prefixed to his ingenious essay a quota
tion from a poetic colldboratewr —
" "Weep not that the world changes— did it keep
A stable, changeless course, 'twere cause to weep."

46 THE FUTURE.

CHAPTER H.
The Constitutional Power of the General Government to suppress a
Rebellion — That Power not affected by the unwarrantable sanc
tion of a Rebellion by a State — The impossibility of a Consti
tutional Collision between the State and National Sovereignties — ¦
The courSe of the General Government in the Nullification Con
troversy — A similar course in this Controversy wUl not expose
us to the charge of coercing Sovereign States — Consideration of
the Doctrines of Forfeiture of State Rights by State Treason, of
State Suicide, and of the Abdication by a State of its Place in the
Union, Let us now proceed to inquire what effect the
doctrine of State sovereignty has upon the consti
tutional right of the general Government to use its
military power for the purpose of reducing to
obedience rebels against its authority, who plead
the mandates of their own States in justification of
their rebeUion, and what objects the general Govern
ment can lawfully propose to accomplish by the use
of force in such a case.
And first, has the general Government power to
employ its military arm against rebels in any
case whatever « I do not understand that there is
any conflict of opinion among us upon this point.
It is true that there is no express grant of any such

THE FUTURE. ^.ij
power in the Constitution — ^the provision authorizing
Congress to provide for calling out the militia " to
execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrec^
tions and repel invasions," being generally regarded
as limiting the power of the Federal Government
over the militia to those three cases, rather than as
an affirmative grant of authority to do the several
acts specified. Still those words lead irresistibly to
the conclusion that the power " to suppress insur
rections " is in fact lodged in the central Govern
ment ; and their connection with the rest of the
sentence, and the ample powers which the States
enjoy over their own militia, indicate very conclu
sively that the insurrections referred to, are those
against the authority of the Union, and not of the
several States. In truth, it is not necessary to
resort to this clause, to justify the use of force to
suppress a rebellion. Such a right results, by neces
sary implication, from the establishment of a gov
ernment empowered to require the obedience of all
its citizens, to the extent of the authority conferred
upon it, and consequently entitled to their allegi
ance to that extent. Auy such govemment, pos
sessing a military arm, has the unquestionable right
to use that arm to compel its subjects to obey its
laws and respect its rightful authority, whenever
the civil power proves to be insufficient for that
purpose. We find accordingly in that part of the
Constitution which treats of the powers of Congress,

48 THE FUTURE.
a provision that the writ of habeas corpus shall be
suspended only when " in cases of rebellion or inva.-
sion the public safety may require it." Aud our
history shows that such a power was exercised in
the earliest days of the republic, and while the
Government was administered by the framers of the
Constitution, and their immediate contemporaries,
with Washington at their head.
Nor will the right to exercise such a power be
affected by the circumstance that the rebellion
purports to be justified by a State, when the insur
gents are resisting the lawful and constitutional
authority of the Federal Governraent.
The doctrine of State sovereignty does not legiti
mately lead to any such conclusion, because it does
not require its advocates to deny the sovereignty
of the national Government. As stated in the
preceding chapter, the Constitution divides the
sovereign power, and allots distinct and different
portions of it to the Federal Government and to the
States respectively. It was evidently the design of
the framers of that instrument to render a conflict
of jurisdiction between the two impossible, by
drawing a clear line of demarkation, which should
restrain each within certain distinctly defined limits.
Every citizen of the nation was to owe a double
allegiance, that is, an allegiance to two separate
sovereigns— but this double allegiance was never to
require from him inconsistent duties and obliga-

THE FUTURE. 49
tions. A clash of rightful jurisdiction between the
States and the nation was rendered impossible by
the enumeration of specific powers granted to the
latter, and the provision that "the powers not
delegated to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to
the States respectively or the people." And as it is
entirely clear that no case of the exercise of
authority can be suggested, which will not fall
within one of the two classes, that is, powers dele
gated, or powers not delegated, it is apparent that
the two governments can never rightfully require
from the citizen obedience at the same time to two
contradictory mandates. Whenever such a conflict
apparently occurs, one of the two must necessarily
be a usurper.
The fact that cases have continually arisen where
each govemment claimed that the Constitution
authorized it to exercise jurisdiction, does not mili
tate against the soundness or the application of this
principle. Such conflicts of authority have resulted,
not from any actual omission in the Constitution to
provide for every possible case, for, as we have
seen, every possible case is provided for ; but merely
from the imperfection of human language, which
has frequently rendered it impossible to ascertain
immediately, by reference to the words used in the
Constitution, whether in a particular case jurisdic
tion was granted to the Federal Government or re-
3

50 THE FUTURE.
served to the States. A precisely similar state of
things, and for the same reason, frequently occurs
under the provisions of the constitutions and sta
tutes of the different States, when the question
arises between the State government and the citi
zen, or between different departments of the State
government. In neither case was it intended that
any doubt should exist; and in each case, when
the question arises, the object of the tribunal which
settles it is to ascertain, not how to provide for the
contingency which has occurred, but how the con
stitution or statute in question provided for it ; and
when that is once ascertained, the effect is the same
as if such a provision, for such a particular case,
was incorporated into the body of the instrument
itself. And the object of creating a national tri
bunal, with power to settle such questions as they
might arise, was to avoid all danger of a resort to
the sword, and to protect the citizen against the
consequences of mistaking the sovereignty to which
obedience was due.
It is one of the results of the impossibility that
any conflict of rightful authority between the State
and Nation should ever occur under the Constitu
tion, that neither can, in any case, have the power to
molest the other, or empower the common subjects
of both to molest the other, in the full and unre
stricted exert;ise of its allotted portion of the sover
reign power. It is, therefore, clear that the doc-

THE FUTURE. 51
trine of State sovereignty does not justify a rebel
lion against the rightful power of the general Gov
ernment, notwithstanding liiat such rebellion may
be sanctioned by the authority of the State.
The great point of difference between us and the
South, respecting the constitutionality of the war on
our part, arises not out of the doctrine that the States
a/re sovereign as to all matters not delegated to the
United States by the terms of the Constitution, but
because the southern statesmen affirm the existence
of a State sovereignty which overrides the Constitu
tion. They contend that any State has the constitu
tional right to withdraw at pleasure from the Union ;
and that whenever it exercises that right, the alle
giance which the individual citizen of that State
owed, under the Constitution, to the national Go
vernment is at once dissolved, the entire allegiance
of the citizen is ipso facto transferred to the State,
thus rendered, by its own act, completely sovereign
and independent ; and an attempt on the part of
the general Govemment to coerce obedience from
the citizen becomes an act of usurpation. It fol
lows from their premises that a war waged for such
a purpose is a war of conquest merely, a striking
coincidence with the conclusion to which those who
deny the existence of any State sovereignty what
ever have also arrived from thei/r premises. It is
by no means the first time that moderate men have
had occasion to notice the remarkable similarity of

52 THE FUTURE.
the conclusions upon constitutional questions which
the extremists of the northern and southern sections
have reached, starting from promises as wide apart
as the poles, and pursuing their converging course
with mutual hatred and reviling.
I shall not encumber these pages with a disserta
tion upon the constitutional right of secession. So
far as I am informed, no public man at the North
maintains, at least openly, the existence of such a
right, and its fallacy has been demonstrated repeat
edly by arguments which appear to us to be entirely
conclusive. It is impossible at present to procure
the adjudication of the Supreme Court upon this
question, and its consequent determination as a pro
position of constitutional law. That tribunal is en
tirely competent to dispose of it (so perfect were
the provisions which our forefathers made for the
peaceful settlement of all our disputes), but the
sword has been appealed to, and the sword alone
can now decide the issue.
But it has been maintained, by statesmen of both
sections of the country, that the Federal Govem
ment has no power to coerce the States, because
the very idea of sovereignty is inconsistent with the
right of coercion by any other power, and hence
it is said that when a State attempts to exercise the
pretended right of secession, the national Govem
ment is powerless to redress the wrongful act by
force of arms. There would be considerable force

THE FUTURE. 53
in this argument, if it was necessary to assail the
sovereignty of the States in order to reinstate the
Federal Government in the exercise of its rightful
jurisdiction over rebel territory. But no such ne
cessity exists ; we have only to follow out the prin
ciples which I have laid down to their legitimate
conclusion. A State having, as we hold, no power
to withdraw from the Union, its attempt to do so
is simply an excess of jurisdiction, and therefore
absolutely void, and to be treated in all respects as
a nullity. The case is precisely the same as if it
had undertaken to do any other act which the Con
stitution prevents it from doing. 1 need not resort
to my imagination to suppose such a case, for it is
well known that South Carolina undertook at one
period of our history to nullify the laws of the
United States providing for the collection of the
duties upon imports. The United States authori
ties treated the act as entirely void, and proceeded
to collect the revenue under the protection of the
navy, at the same time menacing those who should
resist such collection with criminal proceedings,
and, if necessary, with the employment of the land
forces. But these menaces were directed against
individuals wrongfully resisting the Federal author
ity, the question whether they were or were not
State officials being entirely ignored ; and no sug
gestion was made that the State authorities should
be deposed, or that the armed power of the nation

54 THE FUTURE.
should be employed to coerce them, even to re
verse the wrongful action of the State. This course
was perfectly consistent with the sovereignty of the
nation and the sovereignty of the State, and so long
as we pursue the same course in dealing with indi
viduals who are now in rebellion, we are not justly
chargeable with coercing States ; we are, on the con
trary, "letting the seceded States alone," and merely
refusing to allow individuals to commit treason, and
justify themselves under an enactment which is
entirely void for want of jurisdiction.
It seems to me that these conclusions involve no
metaphysical subtlety or too finely drawn distinc
tions : but if any portion of the argument is justly
chargeable with those faults, it is that which main
tains the right of the Government to carry on the
war, notwithstanding the mandates of the States.
The proposition that the only legitimate object
of the war is to restore the " status quo ante hel
ium," by reestablishing the federal authority in
its original integrity over those individuals who
have rebelled against it, is but the natural con
clusion to be drawn from the principles upon which
we defend the authority of the national Govern
ment to carry on the war at all. Whether we
deduce that authority from the implied right of
every government to cause its legitimate authority
to be respected by force, or whether we find it
in the clause authorizing the militia to be called

THE FUTURE. 55
out " to suppress insurrections," it is manifest that
the power is exhausted whenever the unlawful
resistance is at an end, and the civil power of the
Government has become adequate to the due ad
ministration of the Federal laws.
But some of our statesmen now contend that
although such may be primarily the only legitimate
object of the war, yet that as a necessary conse
quence of the attempt on the part of the States to
secede, and their subsequently wrongfully making
war upon the United States, they have forfeited
their constitutional rights, and the restoration of
their territory to the jurisdiction of the general
Government wiU be unaccompanied with any con
stitutional restriction whatever upon the latter in
the exercise of power within that territory. Several
reasons are given for that conclusion. In the first
place it is said that the States have committed
treason by making war upon the nation. I have
already shown that it is a constitutional impossi
bility that a State should make war upon the nation,
and that if the forms of State authority are used by
usurpers to carry on such a war, the national Govern
ment cannot recognize it as a war carried on by the
State, and make even a defensive war upon the State
in retum, without committing an equally flagrant
usurpation. But other principles, equally funda
mental, forbid the conclusion that such a war can
result in the loss of the constitutional rights of a

56 THE FUTURE.
State. In the strict legal sense of the term it is
impossible for a sovereignty to commit treason ;
stiU, it is not to be denied that in a federative form
¦ of govemment, one of the members of the confede
ration may commit an offence against the federative
compact, which will have practically the same
consequences as the commission of the crime of
treason by an individual subject against his sover
eign. Such were the offences which, under the
Germanic confederation, were punished by the
offending sovereign being placed under the "ban
of the empire," the consequences of which were the
loss of the sovereign rights and possessions of the
offender, to be enforced by the armed power of the
confederation, or of particular states to which the
execution of the decree might be committed.
But can an offence involving such consequences,
be committed against the federative compact by a
state possessing a eepdelioan form of govemment ?
In a monarchy the crown is the individual inherit
ance of the monarch, just as the dukedoms, mar-
quisates, &c., are the individual inheritances of the
nobles respectively, and the case may well occur
when it will be no offence against common right to
punish him for a crime by depriving him of the
dignity which he has abused. But those who ad
minister the government in a republic have no per
sonal interest in the government itself; they are
mere temporary occupants of public station ; and

THE FUTURE. 57
to deprive the State of its powers and jurisdiction
for their misconduct is to punish the innocent com
monalty, who have already been aggrieved by the
unjustifiable acts of men who may have owed their.
positions to corruption, fraud, or perhaps violence,
and who have certainly exceeded, in committing
unconstitutional acts, the authority which was con
fided to them by the people. Nor would the case
be altered by the submission of the ordinance of
secession to the people themselves. The rights of
majorities, as well as of public officials, are defined
by the terms of the State and national constitutions,
and for a majority to commit an unconstitutional
act, in defiance of the wishes of a minority, is a
usurpation of the same character as the commission
of a similar act by a public official. But in point
of fact, the ordinances of secession were adopted by
the vote of the people in only two of the States.
I think, then, that the idea that a State can com
mit treason, in consequence of the unconstitutional
acts of those who are administering its government,
is utterly at war with the theory upon which our
whole political system is constructed. But a con
sideration of the provisions of the Constitution, and
of the principles to which I have already adverted,
will make it manifest that no treason against the
general Government can possibly be committed by
a State. For the latter mjoes no allegia/nce to the
general Govemment in any respect. As I have
3*

58 THE FUTURE.
previously stated, the Constitution has provided for
such a perfect division of the functions of govern
ment between the two sovereignties, that neither
occupies a position of constitutional subordination
to the other. They are planets with entirely differ
ent orbits, which cannot by any possibility collide
with each other, until the whole system is wrecked.
The struggle on the part of the South is to wreck
the system, but we profess to be fighting to save it
from destruction. By recognizing the war, as made
by the States upon the general Government, we are
actually aiding the rebels in their unlawful purpose
to usurp in the name of the States a jurisdiction
which the Constitution has withheld from them.
To aid in that usurpation and to make it a pretext
to deprive the States of powers which they hold by
a tenure even stronger than that under which the
general Government holds all its powers, is first to
become parties to the conspiracy against the Con
stitution, and then to make the existence of the
conspiracy an excuse for a crime even more stu
pendous than that which the original conspirators
contemplated. Such a course of conduct cannot be
justified by those who are equally unwilling to
allow the southern revolution to triumph, and to
become revolutionists themselves, unless it can be
shown that the States hold their reserved sover
eignty under the Constitution during good beha
vior — " quamdiu se bene gesserint " — or until it has

THE FUTURE. 59
become an established maxim in political science
and public morality that two wrongs make a right.
The same argument answers two other theories
by which it has been attempted to establish the
doctrine that the States have lost their riehts in
consequence of the rebellion carried on in their
name, to wit, that they have committed political
suicide, and that they have abdicated their places
in the Union. These may, in fact, be regarded as
two different methods of stating the proposition
that they have forfeited their rights by their treason.
There are, however, other reasons assigned for
the alleged disappearance of State rights, which
call for a cursory examination. They will be con
sidered in the next chapter

(50 THE FUTURE.

CHAPTER HI.
Answer to Senator Sumner's Theory of a " Tabula rasa" in conse
quence of the vacancy of the State Offices — The unconstitution
ality of the project to disfranchise Individuals or Classes by Act
of Congress — The recognition of the Insurgents as Belligerents
will not give us the rights of Conquerors over Territory wrested
from them — State Rights, not being derived from the Constitu
tion, cannot be forfeited to the General Government — That Gov
ernment has no power to disturb the balance of our Political
System by accepting such a Forfeiture.
The author of " Our Domestic Relations " brushes
aside the theories of State forfeiture, State treason,
and State abdication, as " endless mazes in which
a whole Senate may be lost," and prefers to rest his
argument on the fact that the rebel States have
now no State officers who have taken the constitu
tional oaths of office ; therefore, he says, their go
vernments are vacated, and there are no officers who
are capable of superintending new elections, or of
administering oaths of office to such persons as might
be selected to fill the vacancies ; and from these
premises he deduces the conclusion, that "the whole
broad rebel region is tabula rasa, or ' a clean slate,
whereon Congress, under the Constitution of the
United States, may write the laws."

THE FUTURE.

61

I will not stop to consider the question whether,
inasmuch as the requirement that an oath of office
to support the Constitution shall be taken by State
officers, is mandatory merely, and not made a con
dition precedent to the discharge of their official
functions, an omission to comply with it authorizes
the Federal authorities to treat the offices as vacant,
while their functions are discharged by officers de
facto, at least until the latter shall be ousted by
legal proceedings ; nor whether, if the Federal au
thorities would have such a right, the State officials
may not at any future time qualify themselves by
taking the oath required. No lawyer will hesitate
to say that these are grave questions for the judi
cial department of the Govemment, and which it
would be rash for executive or legislative authority
to dispose of summarily ; but it seems to me that
there is an obvious answer to the conclusion, drawn
from such questionable premises, which cannot fail
at once to impress the general reader with its force.
For the argument, resting as it does upon the
mere fact of the State offices being vacant, and not
depending (as indeed it could not depend without
judicial ctovictions) upon the misconduct of the
individuals who are de facto filling them, would
be equally applicable to any other case where, by
accident or from necessity, the terms of all the
officers of a State had expired, and no constitu
tional elections had been held to fill the vacancies.

62 THE FUTURE.
Therefore if it should happen, in the course of a
war between our country and a foreign power, that
one of the States should be invaded by an enemy,
who should hold possession of the invaded territory
for a period extending beyond the official terms of
legislative and executive officers, superceding the
local laws meanwhile by martial power, it would
fi)llow, if the argument which I am considering is
sound, that upon the restoration of peace the State
would present a tabula rasa upon which Congress
might write the laws. And by a parity of reason
ing, if the invasion should extend so far, and con
tinue so long, that it should be impossible to obtain
a quorum in the national Senate, House of Repre
sentatives, and the Electoral College, of members
duly elected from the different Stated, the whole
Government would be dissolved, the whole nation
would become a tabula rasa, and the people of the
United States, having ceased to possess any govern
ment whatever, further resistance to the invader
would become the irregular act of an unorganized
community, and therefore no lawful warfare. I am
unable to see why the argument of a " tabula rasa,"
in consequence of vacancies in the pulslic offices,
does not lead to both of these conclusions, and
many others of equal absurdity, with which I will
not take up the time of the reader. The result is
instructive, as showing into what quagmires of poli
tical doctrine men fall when they are no longer

THE FUTURE. g3
content " stare super antiquas vias," to cling to the
old established doctrine of the limitation of the
powers of the general Govemment aud the inviola
ble sovereignty of the States.
It has also been said, that even if a State cannot
theoretically forfeit any of its constitutional rights,
yet that the general Government, after the rebelHon
is subdued, will be practically left free to accom
plish such reforms in its Constitution as may be
deemed advisable, because the whole community
having committed treason, there will be no citizens,
at least not enough to be worth regarding, who can
insist upon a strict fulfilment of constitutional obli
gations ; that the constitutional rights will therefore
remain in abeyance for the want of the individuals
to assert an'd exercise them ; that Congress can
provide by law for the exclusion of traitors from
the exercise of the elective franchise ; and that be
fore the population which has committed no offence
against the laws, will increase sufficiently to entitle
it to resume the functions of self-government, the
institutions of the State may be permanently mod
elled as may be desired. But a careful considera
tion of the subject wUl show that however plausible
such a theory may appear, a palpable violation of
the Constitution by Congress can alone reduce it to
practical operation.
Among the various modes of exercise of legisla
tive power none is more unequivocally condemned

64 THE FUTURE.
by the Constitution than that of passing acts of
'attainder, which was, till comparatively recently,
the practice of the English Parliament, and the use
of which disgraced even our own legislatures during
the Revolution. Judge Rawle, in his treatise on
the Constitution (p. 119) defines a bill of attainder
as one "by which a person without judicial trial is
declared by the legislature to be guilty of some par
ticular crime ;" and he adds, that " the definition
itself shows the atrocity of the act." Judge Story,
in his treatise, says, that such an exercise of power
in a free government would be intolerable; and
the most eminent modem jurists and publicists of
all nations have condemned it. Accordingly, the
Constitution, in its restraints upon the power of
Congress, says explicitly — " Wo hill of attainder
shall he passed f and it secures the citizen, by two
separate and distinct provisions, against any pun
ishment for crime, except upon conviction by a jury
of the State where the crime shall be alleged to
have been committed. So long as the Constitution is
recognized as subsisting, it will therefore be impos
sible to declare any of the citizens of the southern
States guilty of treason by act of the Federal legis
lature, or in any other way than in pursuance of the
sentence of a regular judicial tribunal, and the
verdict of a jury taken from the State in which the
treason was committed. I doubt- not that it will
be practicable so to legislate as to procure a jury

THE FUTURE. 5-5
which will convict of treason in isolated cases, but
I think that I need not spend any time in demon
strating the impracticability of indicting and con
victing of treason the people of a whole State, or a
sufficient number of them to make any appreciable
difference in the number of those who will wield
the political power of the State. Nor can the same
result be accomplished indirectly by a test oath.
The Constitution confers no power upon Congress,
either expressly or by implication, to prescribe the
qualifications of electors for members of the national
House of Representatives, much less for members
of the State legislature, or any of the State offices.
On the contrary, those matters are expressly and
exclusively left to State legislation. So paljaable
is the want of power in Congress to overthrow
State power in the South by prescribing the quali
fications of voters, that the author of " Our Domes
tic Relations " concedes the impossibility of effect
ing his cherished scheme by any such means.
It has also been argued that inasmuch as the
southern people have been recognized as belliger
ents, not only by foreign powers but by the United
States Supreme Court, and our legislative, executive
and military authorities have dealt with them, in
aU respects, as if we were waging a foreign war, we
shall enjoy at the conclusion of the war all the
rights of conquerors, including the right of reor
ganizing the southern territory as we shall think

66 THE FUTURE.
proper. But the answer to this suggestion is that
we have never treated our war as a foreign war,
but as a civil war merely ; and that the belligerent
rights which we have assumed, and the belligerent
liabilities to which we have held the insurgents,
were imposed by us partly to mitigate the horrors
of the war, by subjecting its operations to the rules
of civilized warfare, and partly for our own con
venience, and to increase the efficiency of our inili-
tary operations. The necessity and convenience
which led us to treat our adversaries as bellige
rents, did not at all depend upon the fact that the
State governments profess to be actors in the war,
but they arose solely from the magnitude of the
scale upon which the war was waged. The result
would have been the same if the State govern
ments had been overpowered by the insurgents at
the outset of the rebellion, and if the latter had
attempted to obliterate the States entirely, and tq
set up an imperial government, embracing the
whole insurgent territory, instead of a union of con
federate republics similar to our own. And as we
still profess that the restoration of the Union is the
object for which we are fighting, the assumption of
belligerent relations between us and the rebels is
necessarily temporary only, and must be abandoned
when the war results in the accomplishment of that
object. This is, in fact, confessed by the confisca
tion and penal laws, and the avowed purpose of the

THE FUTURE. g^
administration party to punish the leaders of the
rebellion for treason, if the fortune of the war shall
place them in our power. I find the principles to
which the decision in the prize cases leads, so ably
defended in another recent decision, from the revo
lutionary imputation which it is attempted to put
upon them, that I copy a portion of the latter. It
is from the opinion of Judge Sprague, of the United
States District Court, pronounced at Boston in
April, 1862, in the case of the "Amy Warwick."
He says :
"An objection to the prize decisions of the
district courts has arisen from an apprehension of
radical consequences. It has been supposed that if
the Government has the rights of a belligerent, then,
after the rebellion is suppressed, it will have the
rights of conquest : that a State and its inhabitants
may be permanently divested of all political privi
leges, and treated as a foreign territory acquired by
arms. This is an error — a grave and dangerous
error. " Conquest of a foreign country gives absolute
and unlimited sovereign rights. But no nation
ever makes such a conquest of its own territory.
If a hostile power, either from within or without a
nation, takes possession and holds absolute dominion
over any portion of its territory, and the nation by
force of arms expels or overthows the enemy and
suppresses hostilities, it acquires no new title, but

68 THE FUTURE.
merely regains the possession of which it had been
temporarily deprived. The nation acquires no new
sovereignty, but merely maintains its previous
rights. . . . Under our Government, the right
of sovereignty over any portion of a State is given
and limited by the Constitution, and will be the
same after the war as it was before. When the
United States take possession of any rebel district,
they acquire no new title, but merely vindicate that
which previously existed, and are only to do what
is necessary for that purpose. Confiscations of
property .... are primitive, and punishments
should be infiicted only upon proof of personal
guUt. What offences should be created and what
penalties affixed, mast be left to the justice and
wisdom of Congress within the limits prescribed by
the Constitution. Such penal enactments have no
connection whatever with the decisions of prize
courts enforcing belligerent rights upon property
captured af sea during the war."
I have thus adverted, I believe, to all the theories
by which it has been attempted to show that the
southern States have surrendered, abdicated, or
forfeited, their political rights, in consequence of
the war which has been carried on in their name.
That they are so numerous, so dependent upon
metaphysical subtleties, so conducive to political
disorganization, and in many instances so discord
ant with each other, is, to say the least, strong

THE FUTURE.

69

prima facie evidence that they have their origin in
a lust of power, or in the real or fancied necessities
of a faction, rather than in a calm and disinterested
search after the truth.
The importance of the subject will, I hope, be a
sufficient excuse for my adding to this discussion,
already too much prolonged, a few observations
which are applicable to each of the theories which
I have thus separately considered. They relate to
the origin and structure of the Federal Govern
ment itself, and their general design is to show that
even if it was a constitutional possibility for a State
to forfeit or abdicate its reserved rights, in conse
quence of the misconduct of the persons tempora
rily administering its government, the Federal
Government is not the authority 'to which such for
feiture would enure.
In constitutional monarchies, even in liberaUy
governed Great Britain, the constitutional rights of
the subject are so many encroachments upon the
prerogative of the crown, which is theoretically the
source from which the liberties of the people are
derived, and the ultimate depository of all power
not delegated to the representatives of the nation.
If, therefore, any portion of the people of such a
country should rise in rebellion against the rightful
powers of the sovereign, there might be some foun
dation for an argument that by their rebellion they
had forfeited their own constitutional right.s. After

70 THE FUTURE.
it was subdued, the sovereign power might perhaps
legally declare the occurrence of such a forfeiture,
and in that case, as the forfeited rights would at
once revert to the source from which they were
derived, the sovereign would to that extent be
liberated from constitutional restraints in the exer
cise of power over the offenders and over their ter
ritory. But the same reason does not apply to a
similar case arising in this country, because the
process by which the existing relations between the
States and the people on the one hand, and the
Federal Government on the other, were created,
was exactly the reverse of that by which the rela
tions between the sovereign and the people have
Deen created in constitutional monarchies. Instead
of the rights of the States and of the people origin
nating in grants from the general Government, they
were derived from a successful rebellion against the
British crown, and the general Govemment was
created by them, for their own convenience, safety,
and prosperity, and aU its powers depend upon
affirmative grants made by them. And instead of
the general Government being the ultimate deposi
tory of all power not delegated to the States and the
people, its powers are specifically enumerated, and
the States and the people are expressly made the ulti
mate depositories of all other powers. There is,
therefore, a complete failure of all analogy between
the relations which the general Government will

THE FUTURE. 7I
oear to the southern States after the suppression of
the rebellion and those which would exist between a
victorious sovereign and discomfited rebels. There
are, indeed, certain privileges and rights which are
the creatui-es of the Constitution, and dependent
exclusively upon it, and which a State or a people
may therefore forfeit by its own misconduct. But
these are merely the benefits of the Union ; and the
only method of enforcing their forfeiture, is to allow
the State which seeks to secede to " depart in peace."
It is also evident that the constitutional limita
tions and expansions of Federal and State powers
are graduated in accordance with the general
interest, as well as the interest of the particular
State. They therefore exist for the benefit of all as
well as of each particular member of the Union.
For instance, one State cannot constitutionally
establish a monarchy, even if Congress, her autho
rities, and a majority of her inhabitants should
agree to waive the constitutional requirement that
her form of government should be republican,
because the existence of the monarchical form of
govemment within any part of the territory of the
Union is prohibited, not for the benefit of a par
ticular State, but as being prejudicial to the inter
ests of all.* For the same reason, a State cannot
* " The more intnnate the nature of such an Union may
be, .the greater interest have the members in the political

72

THE FUTURE.

even with the consent of Congress and a majority
of her citizens, vohmtarily surrender to the Federal.
Government any one of her constitutional rights.
How, then, can she be deprived for any miscon
duct of her authorities, or even of her citizens, of
rights which she cannot voluntarily cede? It is
the right and interest of all the States that their
common Government shall not, anywhere in the
Union, exercise any other jurisdiction than such as
the Constitution has confided to it. Citizens of
New York, Ohio or Pennsylvania would be injured
by an expansion of Federal jurisdiction in South
Carolina, Georgia or Alabama, for many reasons,
which nlay be briefiy comprehended in the general
expression that the whole balance of our political
system would be disturbed thereby. We have,
therefore, a right, for our own sakes, to insist that
the constitutional balance of power shall remain in
all respects intact throughout the whole territory
of the nation, and that it shall not be disturbed by
the central Government drawing to itself powers
and functions which our forefathers for wise reasons
denied to it. This is a right of which we cannot be
institutions of each other, and the greater right to insist
that the forms of government under which the compact
was entered into, should be substantially maintained. . .
' Greece was undone,' says Montesquieu, ' as soon as the
king of Macedon obtained a seat among the Amphyctions.' "
—The Federalist, No. 43.

THE FUTURE.

73

deprived by any action of Congress, because that
body has not been vested with power to give our
consent to any such modification of the relations
between the Federal Government and the people
of any State. Such modifications can only be made
by an amendment of the Constitution in the man
ner provided for that purpose in the instrument
itself. The futitee to which the nation stands committed
by the instrument which alone legalizes the war, is
therefore the restoration of the States and the peo
ple of the South to their former position in the
Union, and that the former political rights and
privileges of all the individuals within the seceded.
States shall remain intact, except so far as they may
be affected through the regular operation of the
ordinary courts of justice. I will now consider
the manner in which we reaffirmed that pledge, and
the circumstances which attended its reaffirmation.

74 THE FUTURE.

CHAPTER IV.
The Theory upon which we entered into the War — The Assurances
respecting its Object and Termination which were given to For
eign Nations — The Adoption of the Crittenden Resolution — Its
Obligatory Character as a National Pledge.
When this war broke out, it is not probable that
one in fifty of the American people would have
hesitated to announce his perfect concurrence in all
the sentiments expressed in the two preceding chap
ters, and to ridicule the idea that the war would
result in the slightest interference with the consti
tutional sovereignty of the southern States and the
political independence of the southern people.
The Administration and its party, and a very
large number of the opposition, were firmly per
suaded that outside of South Carolina, the condi
tion of the South in 1861 was very similar to the
condition of England in 1688. It was well known
that a very considerable portion of the southern
people did not consider Mr. Lincoln's election a
sufficient cause for secession : that in every State
except South Carolina, the Union party was not
overpowered without a severe struggle : that in
several of the States a majority of the delegates to

THE FUTURE. 75
the convention were elected as unionists : that in
one of them the ordinance of secession was rejected
by the people and then subsequently adopted by
the convention : and that of the four border States
which seceded after the outbreak of hostilities, in
only two was the ordinance submitted to the peo
ple. In those two (Tennessee and Yirginia) the
State authorities had, in advance of the popular
vote, assumed to form an alliance with the South
ern Confederacy, introduced the armies of the lat
ter into the teiritory of the State, and raised large
forces of State troops for the confederate side of the
war. Hence, although in Tennessee there was a
majority of 57,675, and in Yirginia a majority of
105,577 in favor of secession, it was argued that
there had been no fair election, and that the ex
pression of the popular will had been prevented in
those States by the presence of the confederate sol
diery, as it had been in other States by the treach
ery, timidity or venality of the members of the con
ventions. The bulk of the northern people firmly believed
that tliroughout the whole Soutli a system of
bribery and threats had been employed upon the
members of the State conventions by desperate
men, eager to convulse the country with civil war,
in order to realize their own schemes of power and
dominion ; and that by such means the conven
tions had been induced to adopt the ordinance of

76 IHE FUTURE.
secession contrary to the known wishes of the
people. It was also believed that the executive and legis
lative departments of the southern States had fallen
into the hands of unprincipled men, who, having
obtained power, partly by misrepresentations of
their own intentions, and partly by artful appeals
to the prejudices, passions and interests of their
constituents, had first abused the confidence and out
raged the loyalty of their people ,by assuming with
the assistance of the conventions, to precipitate the
States into rebellion, and had then suppressed the
indignant and active repudiation of their conduct
on the part of their betrayed constituents, which
would otherwise have followed, by crushing the
whole country under the iron heel of a military
despotism. Hence it was said that in every ham
let of the South, aching hearts were looking eagerly
for tliat army of northern deliverers which was to
rescue the people from a hated bondage ; and that
as soon as the national flag should be displayed,
supported by a sufficient force to form the nucleus
of an organization, hundreds and thousands of fight
ing men of the soil would array themselves under
the protection of its folds, break the military power
of their oppressors, inflict condign punishment upon
the leading traitors, and bring the great body of
their deluded followers back to their allegiance, by
e-\posing the frauds aud deceptions by which the

THE FUTURE. 77
latter had been seduced into the infamy and folly
of rebellion.
My readers' recollection will bear me out, I think,
in this statement of the opinions and expectations
of the northern people, without incumbering these
pages with extracts from speeches, newspapers and
public documents. I shall content myself with a
short quotation from one document, which, from
the exalted position of its author, and the gravity
of the occasion which called it forth, merits a pecu
liar distinction. It is from the message of Presi
dent Lincoln to the extra session of the thirty-
seventh Congress, held in July, 1861. Considering
the caution with which a document of tliis kind
would naturally be framed, the extract which fol
lows may be regarded as an epitome of all the
hopes, expectations, opinions and theories which I
have stated more in detail :
" It may be well questioned whether there is to
day a majority of the legally qualifled voters of any
State, except perhaps South Carolina, in favor of
disunion. There is much reason to believe that the
Union men are the majority in many, if not in
every other one of the so-called seceded States.
The contrary has not been demonstrated in any one
of them. It is ventured to affirm this even of Yir
ginia and Tennessee ; for the result of an election
held in mUitary camps, where the bayonets are all
on one side of the question to be voted upon, can

78 THE FUTURE,
scarcely be considered as demonstrating popular
sentiment. At such an election, all that large class
who are at once for the Union and against coercion,
would be coerced to vote against the Union."
Such a theory affords a full explanation of the
conduct of the Administration which has been the
subject of so much criticism in calling out seventy-
five thousand men to serve three months, notwith
standing General Scott's opinion that the conquest
of such a country as the South would require two
years and two hundred thousand men. For it was
not a war of conquest upon which the nation wa.s
bent, but a war of deliverance of oppressed mUlions,
who wanted only a fulcrum to enable them to move
themselves the mighty lever by which the usurpers
would be overthrown.
Of course, under such circumstances, it would
have been idle to. suggest that the war could, in any
contingency, result in a change of the relations
between the general Government and the people of
the South, or the injury of any of the citizens of
the southern States, except those who might fall
in battle, and the few leaders of whom even such a
mild and lenient Government as ours, might find it
necessary to make an example.
If the suggestion of such a result was made by
any doubter in our own midst, it was considered as
an indication of the weakness of his intellect or the
depravity of his morals, and he was accordingly

THE FUTURE. 79
either ridiculed or denounced as a sympathizer with
the enemy. But it was apprehended that foreign
nations might not so readily discover the consist
ency between the absolute political freedom of the
citizen and the reestablishment of the Govemment
by the bayonet, which this theory involved, and
hence, at the very outset of the troubles, care was
taken to set them right in that respect.
Before the actual coUision of arms, and during
the anxious days which elapsed between the sailing
of the expedition for the relief of Fort Sumter and
the attack upon that fortress, the Secretary of State
gave the necessary instr-ictions to Mr. Adams for the
information of the English Government. I copy
from his dispatch of April 10, 1861.
" He (the President) would not be disposed to
reject a cardinal dogma of theirs (the southern
States), namely, that the Federal Government could
not reduce the seceding States to obedience by con
quest, even although he was disposed to question
that proposition. But, in fact, the President wil
lingly accepts it as true. Only an imperial or des
potic government could subjugate thoroughly dis
affected and insurrectionary members of the State.
This federal republican system of ours is of all
forms of government the very one which is most
unfitted for such a labor."
Equal care was taken to prevent the French
court from misapprehending the character and

80 THE FUTURE.
extent of the rebellion, or the work which the
seventy-five thousand men were expected to do.
Immediately after the call for troops the Secretary
wrote to Mr. Dayton a dispatch, dated April 22,
1861, from which I make the following extract :
" There is not even a pretext for the complaint
that the disaffected States are to be conquered by
the United States if the revolution fails ; for the
rights of the States, and the condition of every hu
man being in them, will remain subject to exactly the
same laws and forms of administration, whether the
revolution shall succeed or whether it shall faU.
In the one case, the States would be federally con
nected with the new Confederacy; in the other,
they would, as now, be members of the United
States; but their constitutions and laws, customs^
habits, and institutions in either case will remain
the same."
The battle of Bull Run gave a rude shock to the
theory under which the war had been prosecuted
up to that time ; but it took not only weeks but
months to shake the faith of the northern people
in their favorite theory, that the mass of the people
of the South were at heart pining for deliverance
from the tyranny of the Confederate Government ;
and in fact there are many among us who have not
yet abandoned that idea. It became very apparent
however that the task before us was much more
serious than had been at first supposed, and that it

THE FUTURE.

81

was indispensable to our success that the whole
strength of the North should be united in moral and
material support of the Government. Nor was any
considerable number, either of the people or of
theii- representatives, prepared at that time to sus
tain any policy looking to the overthrow of pohti
cal institutions which they had been taught from
chUdhood to regard as the very corner stone of the
edifice of public liberty. Under such circumstances
Mr. Crittenden had no difficulty in procuring a
nearly unanimous vote upon the celebrated resolu
tion which bears his name, which was introduced
by him into the House of Representatives a few
days before the battle of Bull Run, and passed on
the day after that battle, the 22d July, 1861. It
reads as follows :
" Resolved by the House of Representatives of the
Congress of the United States, That the present
civil war has been forced upon the country by the
disunionists of the southern States, now in arms
against the constitutional Government, and in arms
around the capital : that in this national emergency
Congress, banishing all feelings of mere passion or
resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole
country : that this war is not waged on their part
in any spirit of oppression, or for any pui-pose of
conquest or subjugation, or purpose of overthrow
ing or interfering with the rights or established
institutions of those States, but to defend and main-
4*

82 THE FUTURE.
tain the supremacy of the Constitution ana to pre
serve the Union, with all the dignity, equality and
rights of the several States unimpaired, and that
as soon those objects are accomplished the war ought
to cease."
This resolution was passed in the House by a
vote of one hundred and seventeen ayes and two
nays (Messrs. Riddle, of Ohio, and Potter, of Wis
consin, both republicans). A resolution in the
same language was introduced into the Senate on
the twenty-fourth of the same month by Mr.
Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, and after a few
verbal alterations of no material consequence,
passed by a vote of thirty yeas to five nays (Messrs.
Breckinridge, secession democrat, of Kentucky;
Johnson, democrat, of Missouri; Polk, secession
democrat, of Missouri ; Powell, democrat, of Ken
tucky ; and Trumbull, republican, of Illinois).
Among the ayes in each House, are to be found men
of all shades of political opinion, and from all the
sections of the country which then adhered to the
Union. So anxious did all parties seem to be to
place the nation upon the platform of principle
which the resolution laid dowJi, that notwithstand
ing the first part of the resolution was deemed offen
sive and objectionable by some of the democratic
members, because it failed to include abolitionists
and others of the North, in pointing out the origi
nators of the war, and an unsuccessful attempt was

THE FUTURE. g3
made to amend it accordingly, it commanded the
votes of the extreme democrats of the slaveholding
States, as well as the ultra-republicans, with the
exceptions which I have named. And all of those
who voted nay, in the Senate, except Mr. Johnson,
explained their dissent as resting upon some objec
tion to the phraseology of the resolution ; so that
there was no jnember of either House, except pos
sibly Messrs. Potter aud Riddle, who can be sup
posed to have dissented from the principles laid
down in the resolution, as the only object for which
the war could rightfuUy be prosecuted.
Thus did the people of the North, standing just
within the threshold of this great convulsion, an
nounce, through their chosen representatives, their
unanimous adhesion to the political and constitu
tional principles which I have attempted to defend.
The minds of the nation, differing upon almost every
question of administrative policy, differing upon the
meaning and effect of nearly every one of the prin
cipal clauses of the Constitution, by which the
details of our scheme of government were provided
for, nevertheless met upon one common ground in
reaffirming distinctly the two grand principles
which form the framework of the system. These
are a strict adJierence by the general Government,
under all contingencies, to the limitations of powers
which the Constitution has prescribed, and the invio-
labiUty upon amy pretext of the reserved rights of the

84 THE FUTURE.
States. I cannot regard this unanimous decision in
any other light than as a final settlement of the
questions which I have been discussing. The
theories of State treason. State forfeiture. State
abdication. State suicide, rights acquired by con
quest, "tabula rasa," and congressional disfranchise
ment, all assume that the nation was in eiTor when
it adopted the Crittenden resolution as its declara
tion of principles, and that it has grown wiser by
the lapse of time. But will it be pretended that
the course of events since July, 1861, has been such
as to justify men in deliberately discarding theories
of political science and constitutional law, which
more than eighty years of discussion and practical
experience had impressed upon their minds, as the
axiomatic rudiments of the science of republican
government? Have the times been favorable to
a calm review of our former political tenets, and to
a discovery and correction of siich of them as were
erroneous ? 1 assume that they have not, and of
experience we have as yet had nothing, for while
I write, the storm is yet raging in every quarter of
the horizon, and the eye is strained in vain to dis
cover the speck of blue sky which foretells the
clearing. For these reasons I have not doubted
that the new theories which I have been considering,
however honestly entertained by many, were the
products of the prejudice and passion excited by
the civil war, cr, what is worse, the result of the

THE FUTURE. gg
selfish teachings of those who fear the loss of politi
cal power from the restoration of the Union of
equal rights which formerly existed. To adopt
those theories and to make them the basis of the
future of the nation, will be to enter upon a career
of never-ending agitation, by substituting a forcible
usurpation in place of that lawful and constitutional
Government, which alone can command the wiUing
respect and obedience of the people of both sections,
and insure the ultimate pacification of this distracted
country. But the Crittenden resolution is something more
than a declaration of principles: it is a solemn
pledge for the future. It went forth to the nations
of Europe, together with the official dispatches of
the Secretary of State, as a basis for the regulation
of their conduct, in the course of a war so deeply
affecting their own- interests; and it undoubtedly
had a powerful influence in contributing to avert
an interference, which the prospect of the utter ruin
of the South, by an attempt to reduce its citizens to
political vassalage, might have rendered inevitable.
It went forth to the men of wealth and high posi
tion in our own land, and produced among them a
unanimity of all parties and of all interests to
support the Govemment in the great crisis which
was upon it — ^nay, a competition for the foremost
place in tendering assistance. It went forth to the
masses of the people, and an army of volunteers at

86 THE FUTURE.
once rose up in such mighty swarms, that the
Government itself soon cried enough. It went forth
to the border States, which were yet trembling in
the balance, and enabled the noble band of Union
ists in those States to decide the pending contro
versy in our favor. It stands now upon record as
the solemn covenant of the nation with its citizens,
with its enemy, with the world. Its violation, after
we have acquired the object to attain which it was
given, would be an act of perfidy which would
break up all the foundations of future confidence in
the nation's plighted word. And the retribution
which would follow, would be swift and ample.
But of that hereafter.
But adherence to the principles of our national
pledge will not alone suffice to restore peace and
quiet to the nation when the storm of war shall
have passed away. In fact, its violation, the per
manent usurpation of unconstitutional powers by
the national Government, and the destruction of
State institutions at the North and the South, are
among the certain events of the future, unless the
southern people can be inspired with affection for
the Union, and a willingness to cooperate heartily
with the national authorities in the work of admin
istering the Government. The Crittenden resolu
tion contemplates as the end of' the war the res
toration, to the very persons who are now engaged
in carrying ou the contest under the confederate

THE FUTURE. 87
flag, of the political rights and privileges which
they formerly enjoyed. Their armies may be dis
persed, their so-called government overthrown, their
leading men executed or exiled, a Federal garrison
stationed in every fortress and in every city. Federal
gunboats in every river and in every bay, a Federal
custom-house, defended by Federal guards, in every
seaport, and yet the whole of that vast political
power appertaining to the sovereignty of the State,
will still be as completely in the hands of those who
were so lately in arms against the conquerors, as
the same power in the State of New York is now
in the hands of our citizens.
I shall have occasion hereafter to examine the
practical working of such a scheme in the midst of
a hostile and exasperated people,, and it is because
a persistence in the policy which we have in fact
pursued, can result in nothing but to produce and
keep up a feeling of hostility and exasperation, and
not by reason of objections to their legality, that I
shall condemn the leading measures which make up
that policy. There is one of those measures, how
ever, which is open to graver objections than those
arising out of considerations of mere expediency.
I allude to the emancipation proclamation, as it
is generally called, the lawfulness and effect of
which I shall discuss in the next chapter.

88 THE FUTURE.

CHAPTER V.
The Emancipation Proclamation as a War Measure— Consideration
of the Rights of a Belligerent over the Slaves of Citizens of an
Invaded Nation regarding them as Property— The same Rights
rcardiiig them as occupying a Peculiar Status under the Local
Law— The Owner's Rights after the Restoration of Peace — Rea
sons why the Em.i,noipation Proclamation exceeds the Rights of
a Belligerent, and manifests a Revolutionary Intention on the
part of our Government.
In treating of the emancipation proclamation, -
(including in that term the two proclamations of
the President, dated respectively the 22d of Septem
ber, 1863, and the 1st of January, 1863,) I shaU
not deny that martial law sanctions the suspension,
within an invaded country, of the relation of mas
ter and slave, by the military edict of the com
mander-in-chief of the invader's armies, or in fact
of any general having a separate command. And
I shall also concede that a military commander can
lawfully remove any number of slaves from the ter
ritory of an invaded nation whose laws sanction the
institution of slavery, and thus enable them perma
nently to acquire their freedom. But I condemn
the emancipation proclamation as going far beyond
those limits, and manifesting a purpose on the part

THE FUTURE.

89

of the general Government to overthrow the rights
and sovereignty of the States, and to inaugurate a
system of coercion of State action, revolutionary and
unlawful, and in its ultimate effects fatal to the
permanent pacification of the country.
This measure has become such a shibboleth of
party, and its discussion, even in grave state papers,
and official and semi-official documents and speeches
of the highest functionaries, has involved to such
an extent the consideration of the institution of
slavery in its religious, moral and politico-economi
cal aspects, that it is exceedingly difficult to divest
the question of those features sufficiently to consider
exclusively its lawfulness as a military measure and
the line of policy which is indicated by it. Never
theless I will make the attempt to treat it in that
aspect, asking from my readers no other admission
respecting the institution of slavery itself, than that
the Constitution grants to the Federal Government
no right whatever to interfere with it, in the States
where it exists, and that consequently its abolition
by Federal power, if lawful at all, is only lawful as
au exercise of the war power, the extent and nature
of which are not defined by the Constitution, but
are left to be gathered from the general rules of
international law, so far as the latter are applicable
to a contest of this nature. Upon this common
ground I can meet nine-tenths of uiy fellow-
citizens, the President included ; the remainder

90 TEE FUTURE.
belong to that class upon whom argument is
wasted. Since the decision of the Supreme Court in the
prize cases, it may be deemed settled law with us,
that the Government may, notwithstanding its
claim of sovereignty over the insurgents and their
territory under the provisions of the Constitution,
exercise in the course of the war, and whUe it lasts,-
all the belligerent rights to which it could lay
claim in case of a war between it and a foreign
power : or in other words that belligerent rights are
temporarily substituted for the constitutional rights
which the war is waged to reestablish. Therefore
whenever the Government lays claim to exercise
during the war any particular power not conceded
to it by the Constitution, it can justify itself in so
doing, provided it can show a warrant for the exer
cise of that power in the rules of international law
touching the rights of belligerents.
Those rights with respect to property real and
personal, situated in a country invaded and occu
pied by a hostile army, are now well settled and de
fined. So far as they relate to private property and
to the present subject, they are, in general, that pri
vate property must be respected, but the belligerent
may take and use what may be needed by the
invading army, and may destroy, retain or carry
away whatever may be useful to his enemy for
military purposes, with compensation to the owners

THE FUTURE. 91
in certain cases and without compensation in
others. What then are the rights of a belligerent over
slaves, regarding the latter simply as the private
property of the subjects of the enemy ? They are
the same (subject to the laws of humanity) which
he has • over the horses and cattle found in the
invaded country — that is, a right to take and use
them himself in any way consistent with the ob
jects of the invasion ; and not forbidden by the
rules of international laiw, or to adopt any means,
within the same limits, to prevent their increas
ing the military efficiency of the enemy. There
fore, if the law of humanity did not forbid such
barbai-ity, a belligerent might, if he saw fit, in
order to weaken his enemy, destroy that species
of property by the actual kiUing of the slaves,
and he may, without violation of any recognized
principle, carry it away with him, by transporting
the slaves out of the country ; or he may keep it
from the use of the owners, either du'ectly, by
retaining the slaves in his own possession, or indi
rectly, by simply declaring them free for the time
being and protecting them against their master's
claims. Such are unquestionably the rights of a bellige
rent over slaves, considered merely as personal
property, but the owner's rights to the same kind
of property after the return of peace are equally

92 THE FUTURE.
well defined by the law of nations. If provision is
made respecting his title by the treaty of peace,
of course no question will arise. And if the pro
perty has been actually and physically destroyed
by the invader, there is no redress, and the owner
must bear the loss, unless his own government
remunerates him. The same result ensues if the
invading army has carried the property to its
own country. But on the other hand it is equally
clear that if the property has been left behind by
the invading army, it reverts at once to the posses- •
sion and ownership of the person from whom it was
originally taken. Martial law being ended, the
civil law, temporarily interrupted, resumes its sway,
and restores all rights of property to the " status
quo ante bellum." No writer upon international
or military law has ever advanced the proposition
tha-t a military edict can accomplish a constructive
destruction of property, wliich remains physically
intact, after martial law has ceased to operate.
Regarding the slave therefore in the light of pro
perty, tbe United States, in the exercise of martial
law can do nothing but suspend the master's power
over him till the termination of hostilities, and when
the sway of tlie civil law returns, the right and the
ownership of the master will return with it.
But in treating a subject of this kind, we must
also consider the slaves as persons occupying a
peculiar status under the local law. This is the

THE FUTURE. 93
aspect in which the law of nations has usually con
sidered them in modern times ; and in fact, as we
have already seen, it is impossible to lose sight
altogether of their human character, even when
treating them as property.
There seems to be no doubt that while the hostUe
occupation lasts, all the laws and institutions of an
invaded nation stand or fall, in whole or in part,
within the district occupied by the invader, at the
will of the latter. This is the necessary result of
that substitulaon of martial law for civil law which
attends every invasion. The mihtary leader of the
conquering army becomes, for the time being, the
autocrat of the country over which his occupation
extends, and the only rule of action of all persons
within that district is his will and command — " Sic
volo, sic jubeo — stet pro ratione voluntas." But
from the very nature of its origin, personal rights
acquired during the existence of this anomalous
state of things, are of a temporary character merely,
and cease with the restoration of the suspended
jurisdiction of the invaded nation. And therefore,
although there can be no doubt that during the
time while the hostUe occupation lasts, every slave
must be considered as a freeman if the military com
mander so orders, it seems equally evident that in
order to entitle himself to a permanent enjoyment
of his freedom, the newly made freedman must
take care to keep himself under the protection of

94 THE FUTURE.
that law from which his freedom is derived, and
out of the reach of that law under which he was a
slave, and whose temporary suspension changed his
status. This he can only accomplish by leaving
the invaded territory, which he may do, either
while the occupation lasts, or by accompanying the
invading army, with the permission of its com
mander, when it shall return to its own country.
At whatever time he may thus expatriate himself,
he will still be under the protection of military law
until he reaches the territory of the invader, and
upon his arrival there, his title to freedom will be
come complete by the permanent cessation of the
operation of that law under which he was a slave.
I am saved the labor of examining or citing
numerous authorities to sustain these different pro
positions by the compilation made by Dr. Francis
Lieber, and entitled " Instructions for the Govern
ment of the Armies of the United States in the
Field," which were " approved by the President,"
and promulgated to the army by an order dated
April 24, 1863. As this manual of martial and
military law was specially designed for the present
emergency, and " revised by a board of officers "
after its preparation by its distinguished author, it
unquestionably states the law as strongly in our
favor, as the most liberal construction of doubtful
precedents will warrant. I refer the reader, who
wishes to examine the subject in detail, to para-

THE FUTURE. 95
graphs 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 10, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 23, 31,
32, 37, 38, 42 and 43 of these instructions. It will
be sufficient for me to copy paragraph 32, which
reads as follows : " A victorious army, by the mar
tial power inherent in the same, may suspend,
change or aboUsh, as far as martial power extends,
the relations which arise from the service due
according to the existing laws of the invaded
country, from any citizen, subject, or native of the
same to another. The commamder qf the army
must leave it to the ultimate treaty of peace to settle
ths permanency of this change."
Our own history furnishes us two memorable
instances of the temporary character of emancipa
tion under martial law, not followed by transporta
tion of the freedman to the country of the emanci
pator. In both of our wars with Great Britain,
that of the revolution and that of 1812-15, our
country was invaded, and numbers of negro slaves
took refuge within the British lines, attracted by
military proclamations offering them freedom. It
was, in each case, made one of the terms of the
treaty of peace which followed, that such of the
refugees as had not left the country, should be
delivered up to their masters, and this result was
accomplished simply by an agreement on the part
of the British that they should not be taken away
The provision to that effect in the treaty of Paris,
dated Sept. 3, 1783, and bearing the signatures of

96 THE FUTURE.
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Jonn Jay,
was as follows : "Article 7. His Britannic majesty
shall, with aU convenient speed, and without caus
ing any destruction, or carrying away any negroes
or other property of the American inhahita/nts,
withdraw all his armies, garrisons and fleets from
the said United States, &c." The treaty of Ghent,
dated Dec. 24, 1814, and signed by John Quiney
Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Jonathan
Russell and Albert Gallatin, provides in like man
ner : " Article 1. All territory, places, &c 
shall be restored without delay, and witliout ca/rry-
ing away .... any sla/oes or other private pro
perty." The negroes thus left behind were at once
reclaimed by their masters, and no doubt has ever
been suggested that, whether they were considered
as property or as persons, the relation formerly
existing between them and their masters was at
once restored.
Thus it will be seen that the military power of
the President, as commander-in-chief qf the army,
would extend no further than to proffer tempoeart
freedom to such slaves as should be found within
any territory occupied by our forces ; and if deemed
expedient, such safe transportation beyond the
limits of the slaveholding States, as would ensure
them against being reduced again to slavery, after
the cessation of the war. Whether such protection
could be secm-ed on this side of the Canada line,

THE FUTURE. 97
need not now be considered. For no suggestion of
the expatriation of the slaves, in any form or at any
time, is made in the proclamations, and none of
the preliminary measures have been taken by exe
cutive or legislative action, which such a gigantic
task would require. On the contrary, the evident
and openly acknowledged purpose of the proclama
tions is permanently to guaranty to the negroes
their freedom and continued residence within the
limits of the slaveholding States.
The proclamation of September, 1862, declares
that on the first of January, 1863, " all persons held
as slaves within any State or designated part of a
State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion
against the United States, shall be then, thencefor
ward am-d forever free " — that such freedom wUl be
maintained by the whole power of the Umted
States, and that in due time the Executive will
recommend that loyal citizens should be compen
sated by Congress for the loss of their slaves. The
proclamation of the first of January, 1863, recites
that of the preceding September, designates the
States and parts of States within which all persons
held as slaves " are and henceforward shall be
free," renews the promise to guaranty such freedom
by the whole military and naval force of the nation,
exhorts the freed negroes " to labor faithfully for
reasonable wages," and finally, " upon this act, sin
cerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted
5

98 THE FUTURE.
by the Constitution upon military necessity," the
President invokes "the considerate judgment of
mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty
God." Reluctant as I am to attribute any intention to
the President to overthrow the Constitution, or to
violate the pledge contained in the Crittenden reso
lution and the dispatches written under his direc
tion by the Secretary of State, I am unable to resist
the conclusion, either that these proclamations were
intended to delude the unfortunate beings for whose
freedom he professed to make provision, by .promises
which he had no design or ability to fulfil, or else
that they indicate his intention to continue the war
tiU " the permanency of the change " has been
settled by " the ultimate treaty of peace." A
decent respect for the personal character of the
President as well as the dignity of his office, forbids
us to impute to him the base perfidy which the first
of these alternatives implies. And as the " treaty
of peace " to which the Crittenden resolution
pledged the nation, would throw the negroes back
into a state of slavery, from which he had power
only temporarily to release them, it seems impos
sible to entertain the supposition that he intends or
expects that the national pledge contained in that
resolution will be redeemed.
I have said nothing respecting that extraordinary
feature of the proclamation, extending the proposed

THE FUTURE. 99
emancipation beyond our military lines, and to
States in which we have scarcely occupied an islet
upon the coast or a narrow strip along the frontier.
Its effect, as applied to those States, would be
to prevent the restoration of the former constitu
tional relation between their people and the general
Government, even if they should at once volun-
rarily abandon their rebellion and return to the
Union. Grave, however, as this consideration would
be under other circumstances, its importance nearly
disappears in view of the fact that the so-called
military measure is, even in districts in which our
sway is undisputed, an act of permanent legislation,
as revolutionary in its character as the act of seces
sion itself.
But it wiU be said tha,t the proclamations show
on their face a design to maintain the constitutional
rights of the States, for the September proclama
tion commences with this assurance, " that here
after, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for
the object of practically restoring the constitutional
relation between the United Sta.tes and each of the
States and the people thereof, in which States that
relation is or may be suspended or disturbed."
I know not by what process the President has
satisfied his own mind that he can sustain his so-
called military decree for the perpetual abolition of.
slavery, and yet restore the States, whose local laws
he has thus permanently attempted to a:lter, to the

100 THE FUTURE.
full enjoyment of their rights and sovereignty as
they existed before the war broke out. But I know
of no rule of constitutional law or of martial law by
which the two objects can be accomplished, so as
to render the body of the September emancipation
proclamation at all consistent with its preamble.*
* This chapter was written before the promulgation of
the President's message and the accompanying proclama
tion, dated December 8, 1863. I will consider hereafter
in detail the President's plan of reconstruction, and its
practical effects. It suffices to say, in this place, that the
documents referred to contain a substantial confession of
the impossibihty of fulfilling the guaranty of permanent
freedom to the slaves, contained in the emancipation pro
clamation, without revolutionizing the States by military
power. For the President's proposition amounts simply to
this, that one-tenth of those who would be voters under
the existing State constitutions, shall form a State govern
ment with a new constitution, " which shall recognize and
declare their (the slaves) permanent freedom," and that the
United States Government will sustain the government so
formed as the lawful government of the State. What is
this but revolution ? Even if the cooperation of a majority
of the voters was requhed, it would be revolution, though
of course of a much less reprehensible character. But
there is no substantial difference between the plan actually
proposed, and one which should dispense altogether with
the cooperation of any part of the citizens, except those
who would fill the new offices. For there is no more con
sonance to the theory of republican government (the Con
stitution being entirely laid out of view) in allowing one-
tenth to erect a government over the other nine-tenths,
than there would be to confer the same privilege upon one»
hundredth, one-thousandth, or even a smaller fraction.

THE FUTURE. 101
1 have intended to comment upon this inconsistency
temperately and with the respect due to the Presi
dent and his office, and thus to fulfil the pledge of
moderation which I gave at the commencement of
this work. But I will state a case, which is exactly
parallel to the one before us, and which will give
rise to no suspicion of bias, either for or against the
person who represents the President, and let the
reader decide it for himself. I will suppose that
Great Britain had commenced a war with us to
settle an international dispute — say respecting the
construction of the extradition treaty — and, sus
picions having been excited that she meditated to
effect, by means of the war, a permanent conquest
of a portion of the southern States or a forcible
abolition of slavery, that she had solemnly pledged
herself through her parliament, and by diplo
matic communications to foreign courts, that the
war was prosecuted for no other object than to
obtain the delivery of the refugees, whose case had
occasioned the dispute, and that it should cease
when that object was effected. I will further sup
pose that she had invaded the southem States ; that
her armies held a portion of those States ; and that
the queen should issue a proclamation, declaring
that the war would continue to be prosecuted, as
it had been for the sole object of procuring the sur
render of the refugees ; and that as a mUitary mea
sure, and as an act of justice, upon which she

102 THE FUTURE.
invoked the considerate judgment of mankind and
the favor of Almighty God, she declared all slaves
in the United States, whether within or without her
military lines, " thenceforth a/nd forever free" and
would maintain their freedom with all the military
and naval force of the British crown.
I turn the English government, in this suppo
sititious case, over to my reader for judgment. Let
him pronounce sentence, and then mete out the
same measure of justice to his own.

THE FUTURE.

103

CHAPTER YI.
How the Southern People were induced to Favor the Rebellion —
Relations of the Slaveholders and of the Institution of Slavery to
the Masses of the People — Theories of the Constitution and of
Public Policy which were prevalent in the South — The Manner
in which the Southern Union Party was Extinguished — Action
of the Border Slave States.
I PROPOSE to examine in this chapter, how much
foundation there was for the opinion, which was so
generaUy entertained at the North, that the south
em people were forced against their own will into
an attitude of rebellion, by the violence and usurpa
tion of their leaders ; to what extent a Union senti
ment existed among them at the outbreak of the
war ; and in what manner it was stifled or extin
guished in the course of the events which succeeded
the commencement of hostilities. The object of
my work cannot be accomplished v/ithout making
this investigation, for it is impossible to form any
reliable opinion concerning the effect of the policy
which has been pursued, or to determine with any
accm-acy the probable effects of any pohcy which
we may contemplate pursuing, without attaining,
approximately at least, a correct understanding of

104 THE FUTURE.
these subjects. Many extravagant theories to ac
count for the unanimity of the southern people in
carrying on the war have been broached, and have
found ready credence at the North. It is not diffi
cult, I think, to ascertain the truth, if we wUl discard
passion and prejudice from our minds, and conduct
our investigations by the light of our reason, our
common sense, and our experience of the operations
of human nature, aided by our knowledge of the
political and social institutions of the South, and
the theories of government, political economy, and
constitutional law, which were prevalent among the
southern people when the war broke out.
I shall say nothing concerning the leading south
ern statesmen — those I mean with whose names we at
the North have been Tnade familiar, as conspirators
of more or less recent standing, against the integrity
of the Union, because it would be impossible for
me to do full justice to the subject without entering
upon a discussion, the reasons for declining which
I have stated in the Introduction. And it is not
necessary for the elucidation of the subject, within
the limits to which I have confined it, to comment
upon their actions or their motives : for my concern
is with the great body of the southem people, who
were honest and patriotic in intention, and actuated
by feelings, passions, and interests, very similar to
those which actuate corresponding classes of our
own people. Nor are they ujion the whole less

THE FUTURE. 105
intelligent or less capable of judging correctly of
passing and future events, than the body of the
people with us ; for although education and informa
tion are less generally diffused'in the South than in
the North^ they have not yet reached in either sec
tion that point which enables the masses to form
their own opinions concerning great questions of
international or internal policy. And although we
are apt to plume ourselves upon the superior politi
cal sagacity of our people (which necessarily means
the superior sagacity of those who give tone to pub
lic opinion), yet the South has always made the
same boast on its part ; and further information and
calm refiection upon past events, may possibly lead
each section to modify its extravagant claim of
superior sagacity, as it has' already modified an
equally extravagant claim of superior personal
courage and military efficiency.
In the State of South Carolina, a property quali
fication, or the payment of taxes within a year, is
requisite to create an elector. In North Carolina,
electors for the State senate must possess fifty acres
of freehold land, and for all other offices must have
paid a tax. With these exceptions, universal suf
frage prevails in the South as with us, the elective
franchise being extended to all adult white male
citizens who have the necessary quaUfication of
residence. Thus it will be seen that political power
is practically lodged with the masses of the people

106 THE FUTURE.
at the South as weU as at the North. With them
as with us, a popular majority has always been
essential to the success of measures of public policy,
and to the gratification of the ambitious hopes of
politicians. With them, as with us, there has been
for years a great diversity of opinion upon political
questions, and the people have been accustomed to
be appealed to at short intervals through the press
and upon the rostrum by candidates for their favor.
With them as with us, there has been an enthusiastic
and universal devotion to the principles of popular
government and an exalted opinion of the rights of
the people. And therefore it was quite as impossible
with them, as it would be with us, that a few scores
or even hundreds of scheming politicians could seize
upon the reins of power, and without any standing
army, or any accumulation of public treasure, could
overthrow a republican government in all but the
name, establish a practical despotism over a coun
try far exceeding our section in territorial extent,
raise an unprovoked rebellion against a Government
enthroned in the hearts of the people, and carry on
for years a war against overwhelming odds to sustain
such a usurpation. The rebellion, unless.it had com
manded the support of a very large majority of the
people, would have committed felo-de-se in the first
month of its existence. Our seventy-five thousand
volunteers would not have reached their destination
in time to pull down the crumbling edifice : it

THE FUTURE. IO7
would have fallen from its own inherent weakness
upon the heads of its architects and builders, bury
ing them forever beneath its ruins.
It is manifest, therefore, that for some reason, the
great body of the southern people either favored
the rebellion from its earliest stages, or were induced
to favor it by^he events which immediately suc
ceeded its inception. And inasmuch as it has
brought upon them hardships, which nothing but a
conviction of duty and patriotism, or a sense of
necessity would have enabled them to sustain, it is
also evident either that it still appeals successfully
to their convictions of right, or that they see no
way of abandoning it without dishonor, or exposing
themselves to greater calamities than perseverance
in the struggle will bring upon them. For although
the war has resulted, with them as with us, in the
discovery that the Government wields powers which
plain men would search the Constitution in vain to
discover ; yet the basis of their system is also univer
sal suffrage, and the legislative power of the States
and of the Confederacy, without the support of
which the war could not be carried on, is annually
or biennially renewed by the votes of the people.
Their government is also much more dependent than
ours upon the support of popular opinion for its
ability to carry on the war, not only because it is a
revolution struggling for existence against fearful
odds, aud under almost hopeless financial embar-

108 THE FUTURE.
rassments, but also because the principle upon which
it was founded recognizes the right of every one of
the members of the Confederacy to make a separate
treaty for itself and return to the former Union,
should it see fit to do so.
Let us therefore ascertain, in the first place, as
well as the means of information accessible to us will
allow, the process by which the people of the South
were induced to believe originally that it was right
and expedient to embark in the rebellion.
Although a philosophical observer may be able to
trace the real origin of the dispute between the two
sections back to differences of climate or race, or to
radical defects in our system of govemment, it can
not be denied that the institution of slavery was the
outward manifestation of the cause of the quarrel.
Many of our people believe that the rebeUion pro
ceeded from a calculation, on the part of the slave
holders, of the comparative pecuniary profit and
personal aggrandisement to accrue to them, as own
ers of slaves, from union or disunion ; and that hav
ing reached the conclusion that the latter promised
them more benefits than the former, they delibe
rately plunged the country into the miseries of civil
war for the purpose of realizing them. This theory
extends the number of selfish, unprincipled and cal
culating conspirators against the Union, so as to
embrace not only the leading politicians, but also
the great body of the slaveholders, or at least the

THE FUTURE. 109
principal slaveholders. But apart from the fact
that the large slaveholders as a body include as
many conscientious and patriotic men, as the social
class which corresponds to them at the North, it
wUl be apparent from a consideration of their rela
tive numbers, as compared with the rest of the peo
ple, that it would be utterly impracticable for them
to carry out any scheme to sacrifice the interests
of their feUow-citizens in order to promote their
own. I have not been able to procure, notwithstanding
considerable research, any reliable figures indicating
the present number of slaveholders, and the amount
of slaves owned by each, but returns of those statis
tics are contained in the census of the year eighteen
hundred and fifty, which will sufficiently answer
my purpose. From these it appears that the total
white population of all the slaveholding States,
including the District of Columbia, Delaware, Ken
tucky, Maryland and Missouri, was 6,222,418, of
whom 347,525, or about one in seventeen, were
slaveholders. But of the latter, 255,268 owned
less than ten slaves, and only 92,257, or about
one in sixty-seven of the white population owned
ten slaves and upwards. Of course this propor
tion would be greatly diminished by rejecting
those who are minors and women, and therefore
incapable of exercising any political control over
the rest of the people. But the aggregate number

110 THE FUTURE.
of slaveholders is in fact much less than the returns
indicate. Mr. Helper, in " The Impending Crisis "
(p. 147), states upon the authority of Professor
De Bow, the superintendent of the census, " that
the number includes slave-hirers," and further
more, " that where the party owns slaves in different
counties or in different States, he will be entered
more than once," and he adds (p. 148) certain data,
from which he concludes that the number of slave
holders bears to the number of " non-slaveholding
slave-hirers" the proportion of fifty-one to forty-
three. It can hardly be supposed that the owner
ship of a less number of slaves than ten would
create such an interest in the institution of slavery,
as to induce a citizen to act against his own convic
tions of right and duty, in incurring the guilt of
rebellion and the miseries and hazards of civil war,
merely in the hope of realizing personal advantages
by the increase either of his individual consequence,
or of the value of his slaves, or of the security of
that species of property. And the foregoing state
ment shows how powerless the larger slaveholders
were to influence the course of public events, so as to
promote their own interests at the expense of those
of the rest of the community.* And if we concede
* I might add that it has been repeatedly proved that
the largest slaveholders were from the beginning opposed
to the whole scheme of secession, either from patriotism or
because it tended to the ruin, instead of the benefit of their

THE FUTURE. HI
that their weaith and social position would give
them a greater influence over public opinion in their
own section, than the corresponding class could
command at the North, it is stiU impossible to sup
pose them capable of inducing such a large class of
their fellow-citizens, composed, measurably at least,
of intelligent and independent men, accustomed to
control the event of public affairs, to consent to

interests. I append two distinct admissions of this fact
from distinguished republican sources :
" Throughout all the agitations pending the outbreak of
the rebeUion the more extensive and wealthy among them
(the slaveholders) steadily resisted disunion as involving
the overthrow of slavery. Governoi- Aiken, the largest
slaveholder in South Carolina, slipped away to Europe, if
we mistake not, very early in 1861, and there remains.
At all events, he has never had a word of cheer for the
rebellion. Governor Hammond, another South Carolina
patriarch, rich, shrewd, and a most intense devotee of ' the
institution,' has been ominou.sly silent ever since Lincoln's
election  The men who had most at stake upon
¦ slavery hesitated to play the desperate game to which they
were impelled, knowing well that by playing it they risked
their all." — New York Tribune.
" Every man acquainted with the facts knows that it is
fallacious to call this ' a slaveholders' rebelhon.' 
A closer scrutiny demonstrates the contrary to be true ;
such a scrutiny demonstrates that the rebellion originated
chiefly with the non-slaveholders resident in the strong
holds of the institution, not siiringing, however, from any
love of slavery, but from an antagonism of race and
hostility to the idea of equality with the blacks involved in
simple emancipation." — General Frands P. Blair

1]2 THE FUTURE.
commit treason and inaugurate civil war to the
direct ruin of their own interests.
The real explanation of the attachment of all
classes of society at tlie South to the institution of
slavery, is to be found, not in the tyranny over
public opinion exercised by a few selfish men, but
in the fact that the whole industrial system of that
section, com prising its manufacturing and trading,
as well as its agricultural interests, is based upon
the institution of slavery, precisely as our whole
industrial system is based upon free labor. Thus
the institution had intertwined itself \<^th the inter
ests of the whole people, whether slaveholders or
not, so that its violent overthrow would dry up,
temporarily at least, nearly every source of indi
vidual and public prosperity. It would besides, as
the southerner believed, transform a body of useful
and profitable laborers into a mass of shiftless,
thieving, idle paupers, a burden to the public and a
curse to the whole country in which they resided.
He was taught by his political leaders that the North
was endeavoring to accomplish this result, and that
Mr. Lincoln's election was the first step towards
its accomplishment.* Pride, self-respect, his very
* The theory upon which the South founded its fears
that the North would attempt the abolition of slavery, may
be found in the leading speeches made in the Senate by
Mr. Clmgman, of North Carolina ; Mr. Mason, of Vir
ginia ; Ml'. Davis, of Mississippi ; and Mr. Douglas, of

THE FUTURE.

113

attachments to the principles of self-government,
combined with his own interest to attach him more
firmly to the institution thus menaced from without,
and to make him ready to resist by force of arms any
attempt to ruin his section of the country, to deprive
him of his constitutional rights, and to degrade him
as a freeman, by compelling him to regulate his
IlUnois, in the early part of the session of Congress, com
mencing in December, ] 860. The argument was that Mr.
Lincoln's election, and the manner in which the canvass in
his behalf had been conducted, manifested a purpose on the
part of the North to accomplish that object, and that the
danger was only postponed, and not removed, by the fact
that all parties agreed that Congress had no constitutional
power to interfere with slavery in the States. The North
had acquired by the admission of Cahfornia, and the subse
quent admission of Oregon and Minnesota, a clear majority
in the Senate, as it had previously had in the House of
Representatives and the electoral college. The South had
failed in all its efforts to create any further slave States,
and the recent election had settled the destiny of the vast
territories of the United States. It was therefore evident
that all the States which should hereafter be carved out
of the vast tract of country yet remaining, would be non-
slaveholding States, and that they would soon be sufficiently
numerous to constitute, with the other non-slaveholding
States, thi-ee-fourths of the whole number. By the pro
visions of the Constitution itself, it could be amended by a
two-third vote of Congress and a three-fourth vote of the
States, and hence it was only a question of time, and that
not very distant, before the free States would have the
power, as it was said that they had the disposition, to
grant to Congress the constitutional right to abolish the
institution of slavery in the States.

114 THE FUTURE.
domestic institutions in accordance with the opinions
of others who had not the shadow of a right to
interfere. Such were unquestionably the sentiments of a
very large majority of the southern people. That
there was not absolute unanimity among them we
know. Many southerners have long doubted the
abstract policy of perpetuating the institution of
slavery ; a much larger number have doubted
whether it was worth preserving at the cost of dis
union and civil war. The numbers of each of these
classes in any particular portion of the southern ter
ritory increased in magnitude in proportion to its
distance from the Gulf, and its consequent proximity
to the northern border ; and in the States of Mis
souri and Kentucky, and in the mountainous por^^
tions of "Virginia and Tennessee, they constituted a
preponderating majority of the people.* But the
* The soil and climate of Western Virginia and Eastern
Tennessee are, it is well known, comparatively unfitted for
slave labor, and the institution of slavery has consequently
failed to procure in those regions a sohd and permanent
footing. The zeal pf the people for the Union and their
determined opposition to secession, was, however, the indi
rect rather than the direct result of that fact. For the
legislation of both of the States being controlled by the
more populous slaveholding sections, has been for many
years shajied by them so as to protect and foster their own
interests at the expense of those of the non-slaveholding
sections. Strenuous efforts have been made by the latter
to coiTect this evil, but without success ; and the result of

THE FUTURE.

115

Union party included stUl another and much more
numerous class of the people.
Throughout the whole of the southern section of
the country there has always been a deep and
earnest attachment to the Union, which, though
greatly weakened by the slavery controversy, had
undoubtedly in the winter of 1860-1861 a strong
hold upon the great majority of the southern peo
ple, except in the State of South CaroUna. In
that State it would seem that the people had per
suaded themselves that disunion was desirable per
se ; but in all the other States it was regarded by a
large majority of the people as a great calamity, an
the conflict has been to substitute a feehng of hostility to
the institution of slavery, for that lukewarm interest which
might otherwise have existed in its favor. The sympathies
of Eastern Tennessee and Western Virginia have conse
quently been with the North, in the course of the slavery
controversy which agitated the country before the rebellion
broke out ; and when that event occurred, the people of
those regions did not wait for the advent of our armies to
rise in counter-revolution.
There are very few parts of the South where there was
anything to prevent the same course of action on the part
of the people, had the acts of secession been regarded as an
attempt to sacrifice the rights and interests of the mas'ses,
for the benefit of a few pohticians or large slaveholders.
Even in Eastern Tennessee the Union feehng was far from
being unanimous, for the sufferings of the Union men were
due to a considerable extent to their own neighlibrs, and
at the election held in February, 1861, for delegates to the
State convention, there were 5,577 disunion votes polled in
that section.

116 THE FUTURE.
injury to all their material interests, aud a violent
severing of ties endeared to them by the traditions
of their childhood and the associations of their
maturer years. And among those who were pre
pared to resist by force of arms, if necessary, any
attempt to overthrow the institution of slavery by
the action of the northern majority, there were
many who doubted whether the election of Mr. Lin
coln afforded sufficient evidence of the hostile inten
tions of the North, to justify them in seceding from
the Union and involving the country in civil war.
A large majority of the people of the border slave
States, who had an interest in the question of seces
sion more direct and immediate than the people of
the Gulf States, were evidently unwilling to make
the result of the election the ground of dissolution,
and those States accordingly took action looking to
a reconciliation of the alienated sections, and to
obtaining such guaranties against interference with
the institutions of the southerii section, as would
dissipate the alarm of the latter. A large number
of the inhabitants of the Gulf States desired to await
the result of those negotiations before withdrawing
from the Union, and manifested that wish by their
votes when the elections for the conventions were
held. But the fact that no considerable number of
the people of those States entertained any such
feeling of loyalty to the Union under all circum
stances, as was supposed to prevail among them, is

THE FUTURE.

117

sufficiently apparent by the designation which the
opponents of immediate secession adopted. They
styled themselves " Cooperationists," signifying
generally by that name that they favored seces
sion, only in case the border slaye States would
also secede, although a few of that party limited
their requirements to the cooperation of all the
cotton States.
In fact, no State except South Carolina seceded
till after the failure of the committee of thirteen of
the Senate to agree upon the Crittenden compro
mise. And whatever opinion may be entertained
respecting the propriety of that measure; or the
sincerity of the two principal southem senators
(Messrs. Davis and Toombs) in the promise which
they made in the committee to maintain the Union,
if it should be adopted ; or of the effect which its
adoption would in fact have had upon the action of
the seceding States, no candid man can doubt that
the refusal of the incoming party to accept that
measure as a basis of settlement, and the debates
in the two Houses during the first six weeks of the
second session of the thirty-sixth Congress, enabled
the disuniouist leaders to create the impression
among their people that the door was finally closed
against all hopes of reconciliation. That impres
sion abundantly accounts for the trifiing vote against
the ordinance of secession which was cast in the
different conventions of the Gulf States, notwith-

118 THE FUTURE.
standing the results of the elections, without resort
ing to suspicions of bribery or threats on the part
of the secession party in or out of the conventions.
The members elected as " cooperationists," doubt
less reflected the opinions of the mass of their party,
in believing that the events which had occurred
since their election, afforded a sufficient reason for
voting at once in favor of the ordinance of secession.
But whether that was or was not the case, the politi
cal training of the southern people was such, that
after the ordinance of secession was in fact passed,
and war ensued, all or nearly all of the former
opponents of the measure would become equally
unanimous and determined with its supporters in
defending their independence at all hazards. For
the constitutional right of a State to secede, and by
that act to absolve all its citizens from their alle
giance to the general Government, was a cardinal
dogma of nearly all the southern people. And
those few who denied or doubted it, as an abstract
constitutional right, fully adhered to the doctrine
that the general Government had no constitutional
power of coercion in such a case, and that the suc
cessful exercise of coercion would result in the
destruction of State independence. These two doc
trines, especially the latter, were as prevalent in the
border States as in the Gulf States, with the excep
tion of the districts of Tennessee and Yirginia, to
which allusion has been made. The zeal and uuan-

THE FUTURE. 119
imity with which they have been maintained by
southern statesmen, for many years past, are fre
quently considered as proofs that the leading poU
ticians of the South have been for a long time
engaged in a conspiracy to break up the Union,
and that Mr. Lincoln's election was the pretext of
its explosion and not the cause of dissolution. It is
not impossible that such a theory may be well
founded ; but whether it is correct or not, tjie fact
is well estabUshed that opinions such as I have
described, were universally held by honest and con
scientious men as well as those who were neither.
And it would foUow as a natural result of such
opinions, that as soon as secession became a fait
accompli, its original opponents would at once con
cede, as readily as their antagonists, that their
allegiance was rightfully due only to their own
State, and to the new confederacy of which she at
once became a part. Thus the act of secession
extinguished the Union party as soon as it was
adopted, except as a reconstructionist party, in
which form it continued, though much enfeebled,
to exist till after hostilities commenced. One of the
best known illustrations of the working of this doc
trine is afforded by the conduct of Mr. Alexander
H. Stephens, who, whUe the question of secession
was yet open, was one of the most decided Unionists
and a bitter assailant of the secessionists. Never
theless he gave in his adhesion at once to the new

120 THE FUTURE.
order of things, and so little doubt was entertained
of his sincerity, that he was elected the first Yice-
President of the new confederacy.
General Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and many others
of the most eminent military and civil leaders of the
Confederates, were also decided Unionists, down to
the time of the actual passage of the ordinance of
secession by their respective States.'
The border slave States, Yirginia, Tennessee,
North Carolina and Arkansas, remained in the
Union till the President's call for troops in April,
1861. Without attempting to criticise the policy
of that measure, I may say that with the opinions
which they held, it was as certain to lead to a war
with those four States as with the States which had , ,
already seceded.
They immediately seceded also, and joined their (
fortunes to those of their sister States ; and similar
causes produced results similar to those in the Gulf
States in destroying the Union party, at least for ;
the time being, excepting of course in the moun-;:,
tainous region. Maryland and Kentucky would
have gone too, but the gripe of the armed hand of
the nation was upon the throat of Maryland, before
she could act; and Kentucky was saved by the
statesmanship of a few of her noblest patriots, chief
among whom was the honored and lamented John
J. Crittenden. They succeeded in inducing that
State to assume for a time an attitude of neutrality ,;

THE FUTURE. 121
in the war, whereby the people of the State gained
time for reflection and the subsidence of their angry
passions, and the Union party gained time for
organization ; and the result was, that the promi
nent secessionists were driven out, and the State
was saved to the Union — -let us hope forever.
I may remark here that there is no evidence to
show that the sentiments of the citizens of Tennes
see and Yirginia were not correctly expressed by
the votes of those States, to which reference has
been made. The natural result of an attempt to
coerce the seceded States, would be to precipitate
the border slave States into the arms of the South
em Confederacy. In truth, that is the only intel-
Ugible explanation of the remark of Mr. Lincoln,
which I quoted on page 78, from his message in
July, 1861. " At such an election, all that large
class who are at once for the Union and against
coercion, would be coerced to vote against the
Union." The coercion upon the voter would how
ever be that of circumstances merely ; it would
exist because he had no choice between secession,
and submission to and participation in a policy
which he regarded as unconstitutional and destruc
tive of public Uberty.
The vote of the two States does not indicate any
other kind of coercion. The total vote of Tennes
see for President in 1860, was 145,333 ; the vote
upon the secession ordinance in 1861 was 152,161,
C

122 THE FUTURE.
over a third of which was in the negative, and the
negative vote was not confined to Eastern Tennes
see, but a fair proportion of it was cast in all paits
of the State. These figures show that there was a
full vote upon the ordinance, and that the negative
vote, though doubtless affected by the circumstances
of the election, was not excluded. If a strong cur
rent of public opinion or fear of personal conse
quences deterred any considerable number of people
from voting in the negative, they could not have
been prevented from staying away from the polls,
and consequently if there had been a very large
party opposed to secession, the result would have
appeared 'in a diminished aggregate vote. In Yir
ginia the vote for President in 1860 was 167,223,
and upon the ordinance 146,323, of which 20,373
votes were cast in the negative. When it is remem
bered that all of Western Yirginia was then occu
pied by our troops, and the votes of that region
were consequently not counted, it will be seen that
the figures lead substantially to the same result as
in Tennessee.
As has already been intimated, the collision of
arms could not fail at once substantially to extin
guish the Union party in the South. In truth it
accomplished more. The original opponents of
secession would deem themselves at once called
upon, actively to participate in what they regarded
as a righteous war of self-defence, against an attempt

THE FUTURE. 123
on the part of our Government to accomplish by
the conquest of their country the overthrow of pub
lic liberty. No doubt there were some who re
mained unconvinced and dissatisfied. But they
constituted throughout the South generally too
insignificant a proportion of the population to pro
duce any effect upon the course of public affairs, or
even to raise their voice above the din of arms.
The mass of their fellow-citizens, however great
might have been originaUy their disapproval of the
measures which led to the collision, and their want
of confidence in the men by whom those measures
were carried through to their consummation, found
themselves compelled by their ideas of duty, patriot
ism, self-interest and self-protection, to join heartily
and actively in supporting their new government in
its struggle for independence. Our own Congress
having disclaimed, by the passage of the Crittenden
resolution, any design in prosecuting the war incon
sistent with the supremacy of the Constitution, the
people of the North found themselves impelled by
the operation of precisely the same causes, to give
their united support to the Government of the
Union, irrespective of differences of opinion touch
ing the conduct of the Administration, and the men
of whom it was composed. And thus each section
confronted the other in battle array, substantially
with the united strength of its whole people.

124 THE FUTURE.

CHAPTER YIl.
Effects of the Policy thus far pursued by our Government towards
the People of the South — The "Anti-Rosewater" Military
Policy — The Penal, Confiscation and Exclusion Statutes — Result
of those Measures iu arousing the Resentment and Hatred of the
Southern People — Falsity of the Theory that the Masses at the
South will regard with complacency the Ruin and Outlawry of
their principal Citizens — Exaggerated Effects attributed at the
North to Dissensions between the Confederate Authorities and
their People — Practical Results of the Policy of Severity in the
Districts which we have already conquered.
We know, not from conjecture but from positive
evidence, that a very large proportion of those
southerners who could discover no course of action
consistent with their ideas of duty and of self-pro
tection, but to unite with the rest of their fellow-
citizens in prosecuting the war, did so with extreme
reluctance, and in the hope, desperate as it might
seem, that some avenue of reconciliation might yet
be opened. But such a hope, and even such a
desire, was speedily extinguished, partly by events
which were the natural consequence of a civil war,
and partly by an unwise legislative, executive and
military policy pursued by us, which will be the
subject of comment in this chapter.

THE FUTURE. 125
At the commencement of the struggle, great
pains were taken, by order of the President, to
observe the usages of modern warfare in our inva
sion of the southem territory, and our commanders
were instructed to assure the southern people, by
acts and by words, that we meditated no infringe
ment upon their constitutional rights, and were
animated by no spirit towards them inconsistent
with the restoration of those fraternal feelings,
which were then deemed essential to the existence
of our form of Government. But the whole South
was soon filled with the mourning relatives of those
slain in battle, and with tales of suffering from the
waste and destruction, which are inevitable accom
paniments of the passage of ill-discipUned armies
through a hostile territory. The sympathy excited
by the tears of mothers, widows, and children, and
the distress of famiUes plunged at once from com
fort and opulence into destitution, could not fail to
be joined with a deep feeling of indignation against
those by whom these acts were perpetrated, in a
lawless attempt, as the southerner regarded it, to
prosecute a scheme of conquest of his country.
Increased and constantly renewed by fresh appeals
to his sympathy, and a constant widening. of the
circle of sufferers, this feeling would naturally
become intensified into active hatred of the authors
of these misfortunes, and a burning desire for ven
geance upon them.

126 THE FUTURE.
More fuel was added to the fire by the language
of many of the newspapers, civil and military
officials, and other representatives of public opinion
among us. The war produced its natural effect
in increasing their hatred towards the South,
which found vent in the most intemperate invec
tives against the people of that region, and fero
cious threats of servile insurrection, indiscriminate
slaughter, and spoliation during the war, and
judicial massacres and political degradation in case
of its successful termination. The newspapers and
public speakers of the South, actuated by a pre
cisely similar spirit, carefuUy culled and spread
before their readers the choicest of these flowers of
rhetoric, and retorted upon their opponents by
similar denunciations, taunts and insults, which
formed the occasion of renewed outbursts of fury
on the part of the latter. This process was repeated
ad infinitum, till the people of each region were
taught to consider the people of the other as fero
cious, blood-thirsty, and implacable enemies, bent
upon gratifying the most cruel instincts of savage
hatred without restraint from the laws of man
or the laws of God. And in truth the South was
soon able to point to more than words as evidence
that such were the feelings of the North. The
policy of moderation and restraint at first imposed
upon our troops, was attacked with the utmost
vehemence by men and presses whose counsels

THE FUTURE. 127
ultimately became dominant, and so the " rose-
water system of warfare," as it was called, was
abandoned, and the doctrine introduced that " rebels
have no rights which even a negro is bound to
respect." A shameful series of outrages ensued, I
hope not with the direct sanction of the Executive,
but with the sanction of his most trusted advisers
and commanders, and without rebuke, punishment,
or check from himself.* Their horrors for a

* I regret my inablKty to exonerate the President in
stronger terms than I have employed, from responsibility
for the inauguration of the barbarous system of warfare,
which for a time disgraced the nation ; but General Pope
was his chosen commander and trusted friend, and in daily,
almost hourly, communication with him, while the " anti-
rosewater policy " was in operation in Virginia. That the
excesses to wliich it led were contemplated either by the
President or his general, I have no reason to believe ; but
they might have been and should have been foreseen, and I
know of none, even of the worst offenders, being punished.
I do not overlook the fact that the Confederate forces
were guilty in the early stages of the war of excesses of the
same character ; although their conduct in the Maryland
and Pennsylvania invasions refutes the charge that they
only wanted an equally extensive field of operations to pro
duce an equally disgraceful record. I am merely consider
ing the effect which such acts on our part would naturally
produce upon the minds of the people of the South — an
effect which would not be diminished by proof, were it pos
sible to make it, that their own forces had committed
equally atrocious excesses. The indignation which has been
aroused at the North by stories of outrages of the same
kind committed by their troops, has not been at all dimin-

128 THE FUTURE.
time made the title of American citizen a by-word
and reproach throughout the civilized world, and
ultimately caused a reaction in public opinion
among ourselves, which has led, it is hoped perma
nently, to their suppression. But it is their effect
upon that portion of the southern people who
regretted the continuance of the war, and looked
for reconciliation and reunion, that I have princi
pally to consider. It may well be imagined with
what emotions they would hear the sad history —
how not only isolated dwellings and public build
ings, but whole villages and cities were wantonly
burned to the ground ; public and private libraries
scattered to the winds; scientific collections and
apparatus destroyed ; churches sacked and profaned
with every conceivable insult to the majesty of God ;
elegant mansions pillaged of their contents, the
family paintings and rich furniture hacked to
pieces or bumed; the jewels, pianos, and even
dresses of the ladies carried away (frequently by
officers of high rank) ; the crops, orchards, and agri
cultural instruments of the farmers destroyed;
cattle and other farming stock killed in very wan
tonness when it could not be consumed ; robbery,
abuse, insults, not unfrequently murder, perpetrated
ished by the fact that we have retaUated these injuries,
either to a greater or less degree than we have received
them, and the same effect "mutatis mutandis" would be
produced upon the southern people.

THE FUTURE. li;^
upon unoffending non-combatants; in short, of every
horror which attended the marches of Tilly and
WaUenstein, except one crowning disgrace, from
which the early education of all Americans saved
us, that of outrages upon women. And while so
much of our open warfare has been of this savage
character, the conduct of many of the pro-consuls,
to whose arbitrary rule the people of such regions
as we have conquered have been delivered up, has
been such as to intensify the feelings which the
excesses of our marching armies aroused ; to satisfy
the southern people that our tender mercies to the
vanquished were even more to be dreaded than our
hostiUty to those who resisted ; and to convince
those who had entered with doubt and reluctance
into the struggle, that their leaders had not misap
prehended or misrepresented the malignancy of the
northern people towards them.
But our national Executive and our national legis
lature removed all doubt, if any yet remained in the
southern mind, that there was no hope of personal
safety or of poUtical liberty in the future, except in
successful resistance. The former issued the eman
cipation proclamation, in which he announced the
intention to guaranty to the negroes forevee, that
Uberty which he could only permanently secure to
them by an overthrow of the State constitutions, and
an abolition of the right of self-government. The
latter, in a series of acts justly styled " incendiary
6*

130 THE FUTURE,
and infei-nal" by one of the ablest men of the
dominant majority, closed the door of return in the
faces of the southern people. Abolition of slavery
being the first subject of their attention, laws were
passed to accomplish indirectly that object in every
conceivable method, short of an act of direct eman
cipation, the unconstitutionality of which had been
declared by Congress in the days when the true
policy of the nation was supposed to be to restore a
Union, resting " upon the consent of the governed."
But destruction of the slave property of the citizens
of the seceded States, irrespective of their actual
complicity in the rebellion, was not sufficient. Pro
vision was made to strip every man who had been
engaged in the rebellion, no matter what might be
his social or military rank, of everything which he
possessed ; to render the tenure of the lives and
liberties of a whole people dependent upon execu
tive clemency ; and to complete their political and
social degradation even beyond the reach of execu
tive clemency. The severity of the punishment of
treason, and the rules of evidence applicable to
trials for that crime, rendered it certain that if the
rebellion was suppressed, only the few leaders could
be punished. Hence to reach aU classes of the
community, an act was passed in July, 1861, to
punish a conspiracy to overthrow the Government,
by a fine of from five hundred to five thousand dol
lars, and imprisonment from six months to six

THE FUTURE. 131
years ; and in the succeeding year, full provision
was made for the punishment of every case from
" assisting " any rebellion up to actual treason, by
fines and imprisonments graduated according to the
offence and in the discretion of the court. A
sweeping system of confiscation was also estab
lished. At first, provision was made whereby each
State's proportionate share of the direct tax, was to
be levied upon the real estate within any district
which might be occupied by our forces, and the
property was to be sold to the highest bidder, and
not to be redeemed without proof that the owner
had taken no part in the insurrection. This was of
itself a very ingenious scheme for rewarding the
loyal and punishing the rebeUious at the same time.
But a more sweeping statute for that purpose was
soon passed, whereby all the property of those who
did not return to their allegiance within sixty days
after a proclamation (which has been issued), was
forfeited, and it was made the duty of the President
to seize and sell it, and apply the proceeds to the
support of the army.
Such acts would be considered bad policy in any
constitutional monarchical government, endeavoring
to suppress a rebellion ; but one would suppose that
even a despotism would endeavor to make it for the
interest of rebels to abandon or betray their asso
ciates, and for that purpose would desire in some
cases to grant a full amnesty for all offences, and to

132 THE FUTURE.
appoint the repentant rebel to office. But oui
legislature has provided that even the President ¦
and the people of the whole nation shall be unable
to bestov; a public office upon any person, who has
been in any way, no matter how remote, impli
cated in the rebellion ; nor can such a man ever
serve as a juror in any of the Federal courts. By
the act of June 17, 1863, it is a ground of disquali
fication to any juror, not only that he has himself
been engaged in the rebellion, but that he has " given,
directly or indirectly, any assistance in money, &c.,
or anything whatever, to or for the use or benefit "
of armj person whom he hnew to be a rebel or to be
about to become a rebel ; and the act of July 2, 1862,
provides that no person can hold office without
taking an oath that he has never borne arms against
the United States, or " given aid, countenance,
counsel, or encouragement to persons engaged in
armed hostiUty thereto."
It is manifest that these acts cover the case of
nearly every individual within the limits of the
seceding States, south of the Tennessee line and
east of the Blue Ridge; and that the result has
necessarily been to join despair to supposed patriot
ism, love of liberty, pride, self-respect, self-interest,
and human sympathy, in inspiring the people of the
South with the resolution to endure every sacrifice
in the struggle for independence, rather than to
suffer the degradation, tyranny and ruin which sub-

THE FUTURE. I33
mission to the Government of the Union would
bring upon them.
Is it possible to remove this feeling and to arouse
anew in the hearts of the southem people that affec
tion for the Union ahd loyalty to its Government
which prevailed among them before the outbreak
of the rebellion ? This is a grave problem, the solu
tion of which will require the patient and cautious
labor of the ablest, purest, wisest and most mode
rate statesmen. I shall throw out in the con
cluding chapter a few suggestions, which may assist
the reader in forming some conclusion as to the
practicabiUty and the proper mode of attaining such
a result. For the present I must confine myself to
such observations, as will show that it never can be
attained by the policy which we are now pursuing.
And first, let me glance at the theory, which is held
by many, that the miseries and calamities which
the rebelhon has brought upon the people, and its
faUure to attain success, will turn a current of pub
lic indignation against the leaders of the insurrec
tion, and lead the masses to cling to the old Govem
ment as. the source of the prosperity and happiness
which they formerly enjoyed, and which they will
expect to see equalled or even exceeded in the
future. I have repeatedly said that I should not discuss
the conduct or the deserts of the leading southern
politicians, and the same reasons which led me to .

134 THE FUTURE.
refrain from so doing, will exclude from my consi
deration the question, whether it is possible by any
line of policy which we may adopt, so to separate
the feelings and interests of the people, from those
of the few leaders who rendered themselves most
"prominent before the war broke out, that the former
would look with complacency upon the ruin of the
latter as the result of a rebellion instigated by them.
.For that question is wholly irrelevant to the pre
sent subject of inquiry. The policy which I am
condemning does not contemplate the punishment of
a few of the leading conspirators merely — ^for the
former laws punishing the crime of treason were
ample and more than ample for that purpose — but
its object is to reach all classes of the community.
Not that I suppose that its authors intend actually
to fine, imprison, or execute all the white people of
the southern States, but they evidently do intend
to strip a great part of them of their property ; to
render them all incapable of holding office ; to pun
ish criminally such of them as they shall select as fit
objects of their revenge ; and to hold a sword for
ever suspended over the heads of every man who
shall be spared, to fall whenever his conduct shall
fail to meet the approbation of those in power.
Else why were the laws passed ; and why are the
confiscation acts being daily put into operation in
such regions of the country as we have conquered ?*
* I have heard the policy of these laws defended by men

THE FUTURE. I35
It is evident that the result of carrying out such a
policy will be, as it has been heretofore, to identify
the people in feeling with the leaders against whom
who freely concede the impossibility of putting them into
practical operation after the rebellion shall have been
quelled, on the ground that they were temporarily neces
sary to prevent disloyal men from filling pubhc ofiice while
the war was progressing, and to increase the motives for
the msurgents to return to their allegiance. If it was con
ceded that they were merely temporary measures, many of
the objections to them would be removed, for the discussion
respecting the policy of such laws would be confined simply
to their effect upon the duration of the war, a subject
which I have considered already. But they are in no sense
temporary by their terms, and although the President has
been authorized by one of them, " to extend to persons who
may have participated in the existing rebellion pardon and
amnesty," the power to dispense with the two test-oaths has
not been confided even to him ; and many of those who en
acted the penal and confiscation laws, and sustain the pohcy
which they indicate, openly support them as permanent
measures, indicating a permanent policy towards the peo
ple to be conquered. The reader will find a few pages
farther on an extract from a speech of General Butler, in
which he announces as his plan oi pacification that the pro
perty of all who have taken part in the rebellion shall be
divided among the volunteer soldiers of our army. The
proofs that the laws in question are regarded by many pub
lic men as the permanent policy of the Government, might
be indefinitely multiphed, but my space confines me to two
short extracts from " Our Domestic Relations," which will
at least satisfy the reader that 1 am not fighting a shadow.
Mr. Sumner says : " Holding every acre of soil, and every
inhabitant of these States within its jurisdiction. Congress
can easily do, by proper legislation, whatever may be need
ful within rebel limits in order to assure freedom and save

136 THE FUTURE.
it is expected that their indignation wiU be directed.
rA tolerable familiarity with the workings of human
nature and the lessons of history, will show that
the result will be precisely the reverse of that which
was anticipated from their enactment. Among a
people thus consolidated by common suffering and
a common political ostracism, the man who has
suffered most in the common cause, will be the man
who will arouse the deepest emotions of reverence,
admiration, and affection, and his martyrdom will
efface the memory of all his faults and all his
crimes. Men are never convinced that opinions
are erroneous by persecution and suffering. ¦ And
if we wish to make the name of Davis awaken in
the hearts of the present and future generations of
southerners, the emotions which that of Emmett
awakens in the hearts of Lishmen, the true method *
to attain the object is to execute him and enforce
the savage penal and confiscation laws against the
citizens of the South.
society. The soil may be divided among patriot soldiers, poor
whites, and freedmen." Further on, after reciting the sub
stance of the disquahfying acts he adds : " This oath wUl
be a bar against the return to national of&ce of ant who
have TAKEN PART wlth the rebels. It shuts out in advance
the whole criminal gang. But these same persons rejected
by the national Government are left free to hold office in
the States ; and here is a motive to further action by Con
gress. The oath is well as far as it goes ; more must be
done in the same spirit "

THE FUTURE.

137

Nor will the case be altered if the poorer classes
of the community are suffered to retain their Uves,
Uberties, and humble property, and the penalties of
the confiscation laws (either with or without those
of the penal laws) are visited only upon the princi
pal citizens of each neighborhood. For the South
is preeminently not one of those communities in
which the rich and the poor occupy a position of an
tagonism with respect to each other. That antago
nism, which the institutions of aU other countries
develop to a greater or less degree, is replaced in
the South by an antagonism of race. The preva
lence of universal suffrage, in connection with the
existence of slavery, has created a species of aristo
cracy of color, in the real or fancied glories of which
aU of the whites have participated, and which has
served to bind them together in a species of clan
ship. Hence, whatever exceptions may exist in
isolated cases to the general rule, the ruin of the
principal men, so far from awakening a feeling of
complacency in the hearts of their fellow-citizens,
wUl excite only the sympathy of the latter, and com
passion for their sufferings will be mingled with
hatred of the Government which inflicted them,
and of those who will proflt by the misfortunes of
martyrs to a common cause. Nothing but radical
antagonism of class could produce any other result.
Indeed, the idea of having been blindly led into
the commission of a political folly by the sophistry

138 THE FUTURE.
and misrepresentations of a superior, is one of the
most offensive which can possibly be presented to
the mind of a free citizen of Anglo-Saxon blood, at
the North or at the South. His pride— perhaps it
might be rather styled his conceit — revolts at the
suggestion that he has been made a tool in the'
hands of another, and impels him to defend the wis
dom and propriety of the course which he has pur
sued, and to regard every circumstance whic% is
urged as a demonstration of its folly, as patent
proof to the contrary. I suppose that no man will
contend that even if the rebellion had resulted in
the South conquering us, the mass of the Repub
lican party would have rejoiced at the execution
or the ruin of the leading politicians who urged
them, in 1860, to bid defiance to the threats of the
South ; laughed at the suggestion that civil war
would ensue as the result of Mr. Lincoln's election ;
and assured them that the only fight which we
should have would be a contest among the southern
ers for the offices at his disposal. Much less would
they have sympathized with the spoliation of the
property-owners among their own neighbors. The
case supposed would not have been at all beyond
the limits of possibility, had the war been followed
by foreign intervention, aud it will present precisely
the same case which will occur in the South after
its conquest, when the penal and confiscation laws
shall be enforced against the men who have at-

THE FUTURE. 139
tained social, political, or financial preeminence in
their respective neighborhoods.
The vindictive policy, which we have thus adopted
as the foundation of the future relations between us
and the southern people, after the war shaU be
closed, must necessarily stifie any attempts, pend
ing the war, to organize a peace party in the
southem States, if any disposition to do so exists
in consequence of the subsidence of the angry
passions which were at first aroused, and the ap
parently impending failure of the insurrection.
It has already, in all probabiUty, produced that
result in North CaroUna, in portions of which
State the nucleus of an organization was formedj
having as its object, not the unconditional submis
sion of the South, but the inception of negotiations
for the purpose of agreeing upon terms of submis
sion. We have no means of determining with exact
accuracy why the project was abandoned, but there
are adequate reasons for its abandonment, which, in
the absence of certain information, we must con-
jecturally assign as those which prevailed. It is
hardly possible that the men by whom this project
was inaugurated, comprising the govemor and seve
ral of the members of the North Carolina legisla
ture, should ever have contemplated a voluntary
submission to a government which had already
excluded them forever from public office and from
the juries in its courts, and offered them no other

140 THE FUTURE.
terms than enforcement of the penal and confisca
tion laws, and the overthrow of the right of self-
government implied in the emancipation proclama
tion.* The fact that the door to the restoration of such
a union as formerly existed has been effectuaUy
closed, is continuaUy overlooked by our people
when speculating upon the present as well as the
future disposition of the people of the South, to end
the war by submission to the Government. Hence
they overestimate the significance of those jars in
the working of the machinery of the revolutionary
government, which are continually occurring in
every country in times of great public excitement,
and from which our own section of the country is
only comparatively more exempt than the other.
Riots in the leading southern cities, evasions of and
acts of violent resistance to the Confederate con
scription law ; collisions of opinion between the cen
tral Government and the governments of the States;
dissatisfaction with particular measures or the gene
ral poUcy of the Confederate administration, ex
pressed in emphatic terms through the public press
or upon the rostrum ; the unpopularity of certain
officers, civil or military ; the longing for peace
* The exceptions in the President's proclamation of
amnesty, dated December eighth, eighteen hundred and
sixty-three, wUl exclude from pardon most of the men who
were said to be the leaders in this movement.

THE FUTURE. 141
which evidently pervades all classes of the people ;
occasional acts of mutiny and insubordination in
the Confederate army ; fiattering stories of desert
ers, refugees and " intelligent contrabands " anxious
to propitiate favor in their new homes ; individual
acts of Christian charity and human sympathy
towards prisoners of war captured from us ; kindly
intercourse between the soldiers of both armies ;
and the occasional discovery of an unquestionable
unionist in the South ; all these things have been
BO exaggerated by our credulous people, that the
belief that the southem people are suffering from a
military despotism which they are eagerly longing
to shake off", still retains, absurdly enough, a hold
upon the minds of many men, who, in cases in
which their feelings and hopes are not so strongly
enlisted, are cool and sagacious observers.*
These men overlook the fact that when the for
tunes of the war were apparently against us, a very
similar state of things was continuaUy occurring
upon our side of the lines, and that to a considera
ble extent we can yet match the same indications
of popular discontent in the South with similar inci
dents of our own history. In truth the South has
had nearly if not quite as much reason to believe
from external indications that we are crushed by a
military despotism, which the majority of our peo-
* See Note at the end of this chapter, page 152.

142 THE FUTURE.
pie are longing to throw off, as we have to enter
tain the same belief concerning them. In the South
as well as in the North the proof that the hearts of
the people are yet in the war, is to be found in the.
fact that the war is sustained by the representatives
of the people elected at frequently recurring inter
vals. As an ounce of experience is said to be worth a
pound of theory, let me now consider whether our
occupation of certain portions of the southem terri
tory, furnishes us with any indications concerning'
the probability of regaining the affections of the
people, by the policy which we have been pursuing.
We have a few data from which to form an opinion
upon that subject, but they will enable us only to
approximate to correctness, for we have not yet
occupied any portion of the southern country, under
the same conditions which will present themselves
when we shaU have subdued and occupied the
whole, and this for the reason that the intellectual
and physical flower of the people fied before us
when the Confederate army retired, except in the
State of Tennessee, where a peculiarity of circum
stances has existed which will mislead us, if we take
that State as a standard of comparison. For the peo
ple of Tennessee, as late as the ninth of February,
1861, declared in favor of remaining in the Union
by a vote of nearly four to one, notwithstanding

THE FUTURE. I43
that the Gulf States had then seceded.* And the
comparatively early occupation of a large portion
of the State by our forces ; the exemption of the
inhabitants from many of the mortifications of con
quest by the embodiment of Tennessee troops in the
army of occupation ; the comparative discipUne, good
order, and respect for private property which have
characteiized the miUtary administration ; and above
all, the assurance, implied by the exemption of their
State from the emancipation proclamation, that
they wiU ultimately be permitted to govern them
selves, have subjected the Tennesseans only in a
minor degree to the operation of those causes
which have elsewhere infiuenced' the southern peo
ple. So that although thousands ef her most valued
citizens have fied the State and cast their fortunes
with the Confederates, and it has not been deemed
safe after a year and a half of occupation to commit
the civil govemment to the hands of the people, it
seems probable that the State of Tennessee has been
permanently saved to the Union with the approba
tion of a majority of its inhabitants. But this
result is not due to the general policy which I have
* The vote in detail was as follows :
Union. Secession.
East Tennessee  30,903 5,511
Middle Tennessee  36,809 9,828
West Tennessee  .24,091 9,344
91,803 24,'749
Majority for the Union, 6'7,054.

144 THE FUTURE.
been condemning. .It has occurred because a dif
ferent policy has been pursued in that State. The
people of Kentucky are almost unanimous in their.
condemnation of the measures which I have criti
cised ; can we doubt what is the public opinion of
Tennessee respecting them ?
Our principal acquisitions in Arkansas are too
recent, and we still hold too little of North Caro
lina, South Carolina or Georgia, to render popular
indications of any value in either of those States ;
but we shall find a tolerably fair indication of the
probabiUty that a vindictive policy will restore the
affections of the southern people to the Union, in
the results which ensued from pursuing the same
policy after our occupation of Louisiana. New
Orleans was captured in April, 1862, and the poUcy
of severity was at once put into full operation by
the miUtary commander of that department, his
theory of private rights under martial law hav
ing been stated by him in a speech delivered
at New York in AprU, 1863, in the foUowing
words :
" They " (the conquered people, whom he styles
alien enemies) "have the right, so long as they
behave themselves and are non-combatants, to be
free from personal violence; they have no otlier
rights ; and therefore it was my duty to see to it,
and I believe the record will show that I did see to
it (great applause and cheers). I did see to it that

THE FUTURE. I45
order was preserved, and that .every man who be
haved well and did not aid the Confederate States
should not be molested in his person. I held every
thing else they had was at the m.ercy of the con
queror (cheers). . . . Has it not been held from
the beginning of the world till this day, from the
time the Israelites took possession of tiie land of
Canaan, which they got from alien enemies, has it
not been held that the whole property of those alien
enemies belonged to the conqueror, and that it has
been at his mercy and clemency what should be done
with it ? For one, I would take it and give the
loyal man, who was loyal in the heart of the South,
enough to make him as well as he was before, and
I would take the balance of it and distribute it
among the volunteer soldiers who have gone (the
remainder of the sentence was drowned in a tre
mendous burst of applause)."
Let us see how far the policy thus announced has
tended to produce such a state of public feeling in
New Orleans, as to authorize us to expect that the
loyalty of the people of Louisiana will soon be suffi
ciently aroused, to enable a civil government to
assume the reins of power and to support itself,
without relying upon the military forces of the
Federal Government, by the voluntary action of
the citizens. In none of the seceding States except
Tennessee was there a district in which we should
have expected to find as large a proportion of
1

146 IHE FUTURE.
Unionists as in that which comprises the city of
New Orleans. A considerable proportion of the
population of that city has always consisted of men
of northern birth or northern education, and its
commercial and financial relations with the North
and the Northwest have been of such an intimate
character, as to render it the first and greatest suf
ferer by the war, among the principal cities of the
South. Yery soon after its occupation, its citizens
were required to choose between taking an oath of
allegiance to the Union, and registering themselves
as " enemies of the United States." Large num
bers took the oath, many no doubt from sincere con
viction and with a purpose to keep it honestly,
many others simply because they had to choose
between doing so and submitting to military plun
der with a prospect of exile. In truth, the " regis
tered enemies" were afterwards exiled. To the
immense force which the United States sent to the
city and the military department, were .added seve
ral regiments raised in Louisiana, white and black,
the latter consisting chiefly of New Orleans negroes
and colored people, the most intelligent of the black
population of the whole South. And yet, after more
than a year of occupation, the purification of tlie
city from all the friends of the rebellion who could
be discovered, an immense influx of northern men,
and the transfer of the chief command from General
Butler to a gentleman whose humanity and modera-

THE FUTURE. 14 7
tion none wUl question, it is found necessary for the
public safety and the preservation of public order,
notwithstanding the overwhelming military force
within the city, to adopt measures even more strin
gent than the Austrian military regulations in
Venice. Witness the following order :
" Headqtjaktees Defences of New Oeleans, )
New Oelean.s, July Sd, 18i53. )
" General Okdees No. 18.
"Hereafter no public assemblages, except for
pubUc worship, under a regular commissioned priest,
wUl be allowed in this city, for any purpose or
under any pretence whatever, by white or black,
without the written consent of the commander of
the defences of New Orleans : and no more than
three persons wUl be allowed to assemble or congre
gate together upon the streets of the city. When
ever more than that number are found together by
the patrol, they shall be ordered to disperse, and
faiUng to do so, the offenders shall be placed in
arrest. All bar-rooms, coffee-houses, stores and
shops of every description wUl be closed at 9 o'clock
P.M. AU club-rooms and gambUng-houses are here
by closed until further orders. No citizen or other
person except the police and officers in the United
States service, or soldiers on duty or with passes are
to be allowed in the streets after 9 o'clock p.m.
" By command of Brigadier-General Emoey.
<' W. D. Smith, Lieut.-Col., A. A. A. G.'

148 THE FUTURE.
So much for the progress which has been made
in re-kindling the extinguished flame of loyalty in
the hearts of the people of Louisiana. In other
regions which we have occupied for a sufficient
length of time to develop public sentiment, the
result has been simply the depopulation of the
country, or an obstinate refusal to acknowledge the
authority of the Government by any participation
in the administration of pubUc affairs. In the city
of Norfolk, two hundred and forty votes were cast
for mayor at the spring election of 1863. The city
contained in 1860 a population of eleven thousand
three hundred and twenty-flve, exclusive of slaves,
or a little less than two thousand voters. In Alex
andria, our first capture, nestling under the very
wing of the Federal Government, the successful
candidate for the mayoralty received at the same
election thirty-seven votes and his opponent thirty-
one. The city contained in 1860, eight thousand
seven hundred and fifty-two inhabitants; deduct
ing people of color, the voting population would be
between twelve and flfteen hundred.
In cities, the means of enforcing strict military
law and the habits of the people are such, that it
is only by such indications as I have mentioned
that it is possible to ascertain the real feelings of
the inhabitants. In the rural districts there have
been greater facilities for determining the senti
ments of the people by their conduct, and those

THE FUTURE.

149

have been expressed in a manner which renders
it impossible to mistake them. It is true that when
resistance has become hopeless, we have been able
to enforce peaceable submission ; that fear has
induced many to take the oath of allegiance, and
that occasionally our troops have fallen in with men
who profess themselves, some of them doubtless
with sincerity, to be our friends, and render us
services which secure them protection, and gene
rally lead to their pecuniary profit. But the great
body of the people have been too sincere to feign
what they do not feel ; and what they do feel, they
have expressed so as to render it evident that the
Federal rule over them was sustained by force and
fear only ; that they were subdued, not regained to
the Union ; that their country was subjugated, not
their hearts. Our armies have been received upon
their arrival with the suUenness of fear and hatred,
and with the most unequivocal assurances in words
and by deeds that their presence was accepted as a
forced necessity. Even the love of gain has gene
rally proved insufficient to induce the inhabitants
voluntarily to supply the wants of our men, and
the stringent laws of war have been futile to restrain
them from acting as spies and informers for the
Confederate army. When reverses have overtaken
us and necessity has compelled our retreat, the
fierce and vindictive exultation of the people has
been too great to wear a mask ; and while the men

150 THE FUTURE.
who remained in the country have drawn forth
their rifles and fowling-pieces from hidden recesses,
and sallied forth to cut oft' stragglers, not even the
natural timidity of the sex has restrained the women
along the line of march from heaping curses and
taunts upon the heads of their hated enemies as our
forces passed by. Neither the events of the past,
nor the light which they cast upon the dark and
momentous future, authorize us to reject as exag
gerations the statements and predictions contained
in the following extracts from a recently published
address of the southern clergymen of aU denomina
tions, to Christians throughout the world :
" Though hundreds of thousands of lives have
been lost, and many millions of treasure spent;
though a vast amount of valuable property has
been destroyed, and numbers of once happy homes
made desolate; though cities and towns have been
temporarily captured, and aged men and helpless
women and children have suffered such things as it
were even a shame to speak of plainly ; though
sanctuaries have been desecrated and ministers of
God dragged from sacred altars to loathsome
prisons ; though Slaves have been instigated to
insurrection, and every measure has been adopted
that the ingenuity of the enemy could devise, or
his ample resources afford by sea and by land ; yet
we aver without fear of contradiction, that the only
possession which the United States hold in the Con-

THE FUTURE, 151
federate States, is the ground on which United
States troops pitch their tents ; and whenever these
troops withdraw from a given locality in our terri
tory, the people resident therein testify a warmer
devotion to the Confederate cause than even before
their soil was invaded. Nothing is therefore con
quered — ^no part of the country is subdued; the
civil jurisdiction of the United States, the real
test of their success, has not been established by
any force of arms. Where such civil jurisdiction
exists at aU along the border, it has existed all the
while, was not obtained by force, and is not the
fruit of conquest 
" Notwithstanding the gigantic exertions of the
United States, they have not been able to secure
the return of a single county, or section of a county,
much less a single State that has seceded. No civil
order and peace spring up in the track of their
armies. All in front of them is resolute resistance,
and behind them, when they have entered our ter
ritory, is a deep, uncompromising opposition, over
which only military force alone can for a moment
be trusted.
" The only change of opinion among our people
since the beginning of the war, that is of material
importance to the final issue, has been the change
from all lingering attachment to the former Union,
to a more sacred and reliable devotion to the Con
federate Govemment. The sentiments of the people

152 THE FUTURE.
. are not alterable in any other respects by force of
arms. " If the whole country were occupied by United
States troops, it would merely exhibit a miUtary
despotism, against which the people would struggle
in perpetual revolutionary effort, while any south
rons remained alive. Extermination of the inhabit
ants could alone realize civil possession of their
soU." Note. — If our people would but carefully consult the
history of our revolutionary war, they would find it studded
with warnings against many of the errors, civil and miUtary,
into which we have fallen during the present contest. The
obstinate attachment of the ministry of George III. to a
policy which appealed only to the fears of the Americans,
was caused to a considerable extent by a total misconcep
tion of the feelings which prevailed among the people ; and
it rendered irreparable a breach, which the seasonable
adoption of wiser and more moderate counsels would have
closed. The embarrassments of the Confederate Govern
ment, referred to in the text, are strikingly sunilar to
those which Congress encountered in all except the earliest
and latest stages of the revolution, and the significance of
the latter was misinterpreted by the British ministerial
party, precisely as the administration party now misinter
pret the significance of the former. The reader will find,
in the ninth chapter, a passage from Botta's History,
which describes some of the dangers to which the Ameri
can cause was exposed, immediately after the battle of
Long Island, in consequence of the fears and despond
ency of many of the people, and the remnants of the
spirit of loyalty to the crown which the war had not yet
extinguished. I will here add a brief outUne of some of
the subsequent events, with extracts from the same work.

THE FUTURE. 153
On the 30th of May, 1777, Lord Chatham was carried
from his sick-bed to the House of Lords, where " in a strain
of admirable eloquence " he delivered an address in favor
of repealing the laws which had occasioned the dissatisfac
tion in America. In the course of his remarks, he said :
" It is difficult for government, after all that has passed, to
shake hands with the defiers of the king, defiers of Parlia
ment, defiers of the people . I am a defier of nobody ; but
if an end is not put to this war, there is an end to this
country  But you would conquer, you say I Why
what would you conquer, the map of America ? .... If you
conquer them, what then ? You cannot make them respect
you ; you cannot make them wear your cloth. You will
plant an invincible hatred in their breasts against you 
We have tried for unconditional submission ; try what can
be gained by unconditional redress. We shall thus evince
a concUiatory spirit, and open the way to concord 
Mercy cannot do harm ; it will seat the king where he
ought to be, throned in the hearts of his people ; and mil
lions at home and abroad, now employed in obloquy and
revolt, would pray for him. The revocation I propose, and
amnesty, may produce a respectable division in America,
and unanimity at home. It will give America an option ;
she has as yet had no option. You have said, ' Lay down
your arms,' and she has given you the Spartan answer,
' Come — take.' "
But all was in vain. The ministry would hear of no
thing but unconditional submission. Botta continues :
" Neither the authority of such a man, nor the force of his
speech, nor present evils, nor yet fear of the future, were
sufficient to procure the adoption of his proposition. Those
who opposed it contended that it would by no means
satisfy the Americans, since from the outset they had
aimed at independency. They talked of the dignity of the
nation, .... of the number of loyalists ready to declare
themselves, the moment an occasion should offer itself ;
they harangued upon the tyranny of Congress, already
1*

154 THE FUTURE.
become insupportable to the Americans, upon the empti
ness of its treasury, and the rapid depreciation of bills of
credit ; finally they enlarged upon that impatience, which
was universaUy manifested for the return of order, and the
blessings enjoyed by the rest of the subjects of the British
government." — Otis's Translation, vol. ii., pp. 73-75.
So another grand effort was made to " break the back
bone of the rebeUion" by the force of arms alone, the
ministry having perfect confidence that it could be accom
plished in one more campaign. That campaign ended in the
surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, and the fruitless
British victory of the Brandywine, which, as Botta says,
only resulted in procuring good winter quarters for Howe's
army. The dreadful winter of 1777-1778 followed, made
memorable by the encampment at Valley Forge, in which
Washington's army endured hardships which the Confede
rate soldiers have not yet even dreamed of The success
at Saratoga fixed the wavering resolution of the French
court to declare in favor of the colonists, and iu February,
1778, the treaty between Prance and the United States
was signed. Then the British ministry began to perceive'
the consequences of their infatuation, and made an effort
to be reconciled with the colonists. Having procured
unofficial knowledge of the execution of the treaty, they
introduced into Parhament a bill to appoint commissioner
to settle the differences between the colonists and the
mother country, on the very basis proposed by Lord
Chatham in the- preceding year, to wit, the repeal of the
obnoxious laws, the surrender of the right of taxation, and
a universal amnesty. The bill passed, but on the thirteenth
of March, before anything was done under it, official news
of the treaty was communicated to the British court. A
resolution to test the sense of the House of Commons on
the subject of declaring war against France was intro
duced by the ministry ou the seventeenth of March. It
was at once alleged by the opposition that the propositions
for reconciliation with the colonies were now too late, and

THE FUTURE. 155
it was proposed that before fighting Prance, England
should rid herself of her American enemy by acknowledg
ing the independence of the United States. The answer
of the ministry showed that their erroneous opinions
respecting American affairs had become too inveterate to
be overcome even by the experience which they had under
gone. The speech of Mr. tienkinson, the minister of war,
bears a striking resemblance in many features to those
which we now hear every day in Congress. He calls the
expose which had been made by the opposition of the
blunders of the government, and the disasters to which
they hau led, "indulging their favorite whim of j-eviling
their country, expatiatmg with apparent delight upon its
weakness, and magnifying the power of its ambitious
enemy :" he assures the House in the most confident man
ner that if the colonists decline the proposals of accommo
dation, one more campaign must crush the rebellion, an
opinion which he supports in the following language :
" T shall begin with asking these bosom friends of rebels,
if they are certain that it is all America, or only a seditious
handful, whose craft and audacity have raised them to
the head of affairs, who claim independency ? For my
own part, I confess that this independence appears to me
rather a vision that floats in certain brains, inflamed by the
rage of innovation, on that side of the Atlantic as well as
on this, than any general wish of the people. This is what
ah men of sense declare, -who have resided in the midst of
that misguided multitude ; this is attested by the thousands
of royahsts who have flocked to the royal standard in New
York, and who have fought for the lang in the plains of
Saratoga, and on the banks of the Brandywine. This,
finally, is proclaimed by the very prisons, crowded with
inhabitants, who have chosen rather to part with theur
hberty, than to renounce theu aUegiance  There is
every reason to think tiiat to such subjects as remained
faithful until England set up the pretension of taxation,
many others will join themselves, uow that she has

156 THE FUTURE.
renounced it ; for already all are convinced how much
better it is to live under the mUd sway of an equitable
prince, than under the tyranny of new and ambitious men.
.... Nor should I omit to mention a well known fact ;
the finances of Congress are exhausted ; their soldiers are
naked and famishing ; they can satisfy none of the wants
of the State ; creditors are without remedy against their
debtors ; hence arise scandals without end, private hatreds,
and unanimous maledictions against the Government.
" There is not an individual among the Americans, but
sees that, in accepting the terms offered by Great Britain,
the public credit wUl be reSstabUshed, private property
secured, and abundance in all parts of the social body
restored  Yes, methinks I already see, or I am
strangely mistaken, the people of America flocking to the
royal standard ; everything invites them to it ; fidehty
towards the sovereign, the love of the English name, the
hope of a happier future, their aversion to their new and
unaccustomed allies, and, finally, the hatred they bear to
the tyranny of Congress." — Id., pp. 90-99.
It is well known how conclusively the result proved that
Mr. Jenkinson and his associate ministers were "strangely
mistaken." May God grant that the people of my unhappy
country may not need a simUar catastrophe to open their
eyes to the consequences of a sunUar folly I

THE FUTURE. 157

CHAPTER YHI.
The impossibility of Governing the People of the South by means
of State Governments, depending upon the Popular Vote, with
out . allaying their Discontent — Results which attended the
Attempt In Utah to maintain the Federal Government over a
Dissatisfied People — Collisions which a similar Attempt in the
South would provoke — The impracticability of introducing a
new Element of Political Power, by means of the Blacks, or of
Foreign Immigrants, or of Immigrants from the North — The
practical Result of the Power of Government, popular in Form,
to coerce its Subjects to obedience, compared with the Theory —
Action of President Jackson in the Nullification Controversy —
His Opinion respecting the possibility of maintaining the Union
by Force alone — Madison, Benton, Everett, Douglas and Web
ster's Opinions upon the same subject.
Let us now examine what prospect a persistence
in the policy which I have discussed in the pre
ceding chapters, holds out of securing the ultimate
pacification of the southern country, after the peo
ple shaU have been subdued by the complete victory
of our arms, and State governments controlled by
the free and unbiassed votes of the whole people, shall
have been established over them. Such, as has been
fuUy stated in chapters iu. and iv., is the conclusion
of the war which the Constitution requires, to which
the Govemment has pledged itself to foreign powers,
and which the Crittenden resolution contemplates.

158 fUE FUTURE.
In the language of that resolution, " the war is not
waged for the purpose of conquest or subjugation, or
of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or
established institutions of those States, but ... to
preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality,
and rights of the several States, unimpaired, and
that as soon as those objects are accomplished, the
war ought to cease." In the language of Mr. Sew
ard, if the revolution fails, " the condition of every
human being " in the seceded States " will remain
subject to exactly the same laws and forms of
administration " as before, and their " constitutions
and laws, customs, habits and institutions will
remain the same."
If these words mean anything, they mean that as
soon as the Federal armies have driven the Con
federate armies out of the field, the people of the
southem States are to resume the right of being
governed by a govemor and legislature, freely
elected by themselves, and possessing, so far as any
interference by the United States is concerned,
unlimited power to raise money by taxation, and
to appropriate it to any purpose whatever ; to
embody the people into a military force, and organ!-
ize and arm them; to regulate the police system,
the tenure of property, internal trade, and all the
details of internal government. They will also
possess a judiciary, elected or appointed by them
selves, and empowered to decide (in most cases ulti^

THE FUTURE. I59
mately and without appeal) all controversies which
may arise between inhabitants of the State ; and
finally, they will have their proportionate vote in
the election of the President and their propor
tionate part of the members of each House of
Congress, to whom is confided the national Gov
ernment of themselves and their conquerors. As
I have shown in the third and fourth chapters,
there is no method known to the Constitution
and laws of the country, whereby such of the
southern people as may escape the sword, the
gibbet and the prison, can be deprived of the full
exercise in their States of all the rights which free
men in the loyal_ States enjoy; and however great
may be the thirst of the conquerors for vengeance
upon their conquered enemies, the instinct of
humanity and the public opinion of the civilized
world will revolt against its gratification to an
extent which will appreciably diminish the popula
tion. The men who have composed the armies
which have hitherto retired before us, and those
other men, more or less prominent by their social
position, their wealth, their talents, their acquire
ments, and their virtues, who have accompanied
them, will return to their homes and resume their
former occupations. The vast powers to which I
have already referred, are therefore to be exercised
by a proud and high-spirited people, who will be
animated with the spirit towards the North and the

160 THE FUTURE.
Federal Government, which has been already de
scribed, and which will naturally be greatly inten
sified by that crowning mortification to any free
and sensitive people, a foreign conquest. The cir
cumstances necessarily attending such a conquest —
the grief and mourning for those who have fallen
in battle, the impoverishment of the country by the
annihilation of its currency and the miseries of inva
sion — and the national humiliation which the fact
of conquest involves, would render the attempt to
reconcile such a people to their condition a trying
task for the ablest statesmen. But the idea of recon
ciliation is to be completely ignored ; on the con
trary, the policy marked out for us, is one calculated
to render that condition absolutely intolerable,
which under the most favorable circumstances
would be extremely galUng. The leaders of this
people, whom they regard with a reverence and
affection which Uving statesmen and warriors can
not hope to inspire, except in revolutionary times,
are to be brought to the block or exiled ; the system
of labor upon which aU the industrial interests of
the country are founded is to be destroyed; an
immense portion of the property of the country is
to be swept away beyond the reach of even Execu-.
tive clemency ; the remainder and the lives and
liberty of each individual are to be held at the
mercy of the conqueror ; and all are to be inexora
bly excluded from filling any office whatever under

THE FUTURE. 161
the Government of the conqueror, or from sitting as
jurors in his courts. If some of them shall by a
pardon earned by early submission be relieved from
the weight of such of these hardships as are capable
of aUeviation by the act of the Executive, or shall
be exempted from the operation of the vindictive
laws by accidental peculiarities of their circum
stances ; or if an infusion of northern men shall be
introduced among the people ; those who are thus
fortunately raised above the calamities of their
fellow-citizens, wUl be " rari naiites in gurgite vasto,"
a few scattered loyaUsts in a nation of sufferers,
seething with hatred and suppressed rebellion.
Such will be the people who are to exercise the
almost unlimited power of a sovereign State by
means of universal suffrage. And it is expected
that this power wiU be exercised, voluntarily or
through fear of consequences, in harmony with and
in subordination to the Govemment by which they
have been ruined, degraded and oppressed. I will
present a few suggestions, to show that such a
scheme is impracticable, although a simple statement
of the facts seems to me so forcible, that argument
can add but little to it. I have endeavored in vain
to discover in any public speech or document, or to
procure in private conversation with those who
believe in the possibility of the restoration of the
Union by force and a policy of severity, any lucid
explanation of the manner in which such a scheme

162 THE FUTURE.
is to be practically carried into effect. To me it
appears that the only escape from the conclusion,
that the country would be delivered up to hopeless
anarchy and perpetual civil strife, is to suppose that
a state of things would supervene similar to that
which attended the attempt of President Buchanan
to restore by force the authority of the United
States over the rebellious Territory of Utah.
Although the Mormon rebels were the objects of
universal detestation throughout the civilized world ;
although our people were united as a man in the
determination that they should be put down ;
although a force was sent against them which ren
dered open resistance hopeless ; although they at
once nominally yielded, and our troops occupied
their country without opposition ; and although
they wielded only the limited power of a territorial
government, yet the result showed how utterly
dependent is the operation of our whole poUtical
system upon the wishes and affections of the people
of the different localities over which it extends.
The laws of the United States were practically mil-!
lified ; its actual jurisdiction was cfrcumscribed by
the line of sentinels around the encampments ; its
loyal citizens were plundered with impunity under
the forms of law ; its judicial and civil officers
owed their lives only to the continual protection of
a guard ; every species of crime was committed by
the Mormons with impunity ; in short, a nest of

THE FUTURE.

163

outlaws, contemptible in numbers, and thoroughly
depraved in morals, but united in purpose, and
wielding the numerical majority of the territory, set
at utter defiance the authority of the whole nation.
"What then can we expect as the result of placing
the whole power of a State in the hands of a people
animated by such sentiments as I have described ?
An utter abandonment for a season of the authority
of the United States within the State, and a surren
der of all rights acquired under the penal statutes or
proclamations, would prevent collisions, and conse
quently avoid the continued irritation to which this
would give rise ; and when the lapse of time had
assuaged the violent passions of the people, and
repaired the immense damage which the war has
occasioned to individuals and the public, the com
plete absorption of the State into the Union might
possibly be effected. But such a course is utterly
impracticable and inconsistent with the object of the
war; and whether practicable or impracticable, it
is the exact reverse of the policy to which the nation
now stands pledged, a poUcy which involves a per
petual collision between the Federal authorities and
the infuriated people. Apart from the negro con
troversy, there will be an abundant crop of quarrels
springing daily from the dragons' teeth which have
been so plentifully sown by the war. The collec
tion of the customs and the administration of
justice by the Federal courts in ordinary cases,

164 THE FUTURE.
could not fail, under the disqualifying statutes, .to
keep up a perpetual irritation. What then may bo
expected from an attempt to enforce the internal
revenue law — a measure, the operation of which,
extending as it does into nearly every portion of the
every day business of every man, is exceedingly
galling to our own people? Can any one doubt
what will be the result of an attempt to collect
from a conquered people, the price of their own
subjugation by means of a law so vexatious in
itself, and administered by men the very sight of
whom, and the recollection of the oath they have
taken are a perpetual reminder to the people of
their own misfortunes and degradation ? What wiU
be the result of an attempt to enforce the confiscar
tion law, by officers of the same character ? What
popular demonstrations will accompany the march
and follow the train of a Federal judge, with a
standing panel of jurors, and an army of marshals —
every man, judge, juror and marshal, considered by
the people a traitor or a foreigner — travelling around
the southern country to enforce the vindictive penal
statutes to which I have referred ? What protec
tion will the purchaser of a confiscated estate find
for his life and his property in the State tribu
nals and from State officers, elected by the free
votes of the sufferers and their fellow-countrymen
and friends ?
Here are but a very few of the questions which

THE FUTURE. 165
wiU arise as a consequence of an attempt to restore
the independence and sovereignty of the southern
States after conquering their armies, and occupy
ing their soil, without having secured the coopera
tion of a majority of the people ; but I think that
whoever attempts to answer them will find himself
compelled to give up the problem as insoluble,
except by one of these two alternatives, viz., (1) the
people must be exterminated, or (2) a new element
must be introduced in sufficient numbers to reverse
the present majority. As I have already said
several times, tbe first of these two alternatives is
out of the question. There are many persons, how
ever, to whom the second seems to afford a means
of escape from the difficulties with which the
question is surrounded ; but a careful examination
of the subject will dissipate this illusion in the
minds of men yet open to conviction.
Whence is the " new element " to come ? Some
wiU answer, from the negroes. Supposing it were
possible to transform the negroes into voters, the
difficulty would be but partiaUy overcome, for only
in Mississippi and South Carolina do they exceed
the whites in numbers. In some of the seceded
States the disproportion is so vast that the newly
introduced element would not affect the result. In
Arkansas the whites outnumber the blacks three to
one ; in North Carolina, Texas, and Yirginia, about
two to one. But a difficulty meets us at the very

166 THE FUTURE.
threshold, in the circumstance that every one of the
State constitutions rigidly excludes negroes from
voting or holding office; and hence the Federal
Government, in order to entitle them to exercise
the elective franchise, must commence by over
throwing the State constitutions and creating new
ones, or, in other words, must subjugate the Southi
Apart from this consideration, it seems impossible
tliat any sane man can seriously propose to endow
the semi-civilized negroes of the South, whose whole
Uves have been passed in the most degraded igno
rance and bondage, with the responsibility of exer
cising the elective franchise. A community com
posed of such a population would at once fall into
hopeless anarchy, and the ordinary instinct of self-
preservation would compel its neighbors to seize its
country, abolish its government, and to estabUsh
over it a protectorate, in order to insure that ordi
nary security of life and property, without which
even the most rudimentary government cannot exist.
And would any State inhabited by the white free
men of the North, be willing to acknowledge such
a State as its equal? Would our senators allow
blacks to sit with them as equals in the Senate?
Would our representatives tolerate the presence of
black delegations in the House ?
I do not think that any considerable number of
reflecting men of our country would hesitate to re
ject the theory of superseding or nullifying the

THE FUTURE.

167

poUtical power of the whites of the South by en
dowing the negroes with the elective franchise.
But many talk of an immigration of whites as a
means by which order may be established, and a
population created capable of sustaining a State
govemment. A few figures will, I think, dissipate
this theory. The following table shows the total
white population of the several seceding States, by
the census of 1860, omitting Tennessee, for reasons
which I have already given. White Population.
Virginia (less Western Virginia), . . 112,490
North Carohna,  631,100
South Carolma  291,338
Georgia,  591,588
Florida,  11,1i8
Alabama,  526,481
Mississippi,  853,901
Louisiana,  351,629
Texas,  421,294
Arkansas,  324,191
Total in ten seceded States, . . 4,281,110
Whence is to come the deluge of immigration that
is to neutralize the votes of these four and a quar
ter millions of population ? From Europe ? The
total arrivals of immigrants from foreign countries
into the United States since 1854, when the effects
of the Irish famine ceased to influence the course of

168 THE FUTURE.
immigration, did not exceed two hundred and fifty-
two thousand in any one year, and the yearly aver
age for the six years ending January 1, 1861 (when
the census tables end), is about one hundred and
seventy-six thousand. Of these a large portion
merely pass through our country and ultimately
settle in Canada. If, therefore, the population of
the seceding States should remain stationary, and
all the immigrants from Europe should settle among
them, it would still take over twenty-four years
to enable the immigration to equal in numbers
the native white population. But what induce
ments are to be offered to the foreign emigrant'
to persuade him to go to the southern States in
stead of to the West? The inevitable negro will.
continue to confront him at the South as he does
now; and the negro's freedom, if it shall be se
cured to him, will not make a place for the Euro
pean. For if the freed negro will be willing
to labor, there will be a labor market already
overstocked with men who can work during the
whole year, in a climate which compels the white
man to be idle during about oncrthird of the time.
If the negro will not work, he will become a vaga
bond, a thief, and a nuisance, whose presence will
afford a white man no additional attraction to the
prospect of labor under a broiling sun, in the rice
swamps, the sugar plantations, and the cotton
fields, in a climate notoriousJy fatal to the stranger.

THE FUTURE. 169
What privUege or bonus can the Govemment offer
which will be adequate to induce even one million
of foreign emigrants to settle in such a country,
when the West lies before them with a demand for
labor and a rate of wages increased by the war,
with a climate similar to that in which they were
born and brought up, and countless acres of the
best land at almost nominal prices ?*
Most clearly nothing can be done to make any
appreciable change in the course of immigration.
Were the contrary possible, can it be supposed that
the western States, which employ (or until recently
employed) agents to reside abroad to compete with
each other for the foreign emigration, would tole
rate for any length of time an attempt on the part
of the Government to turn the stream of immi
grants away from them ?
The same remarks apply to a northern immigra
tion. If abolition of slavery and confiscations are
to be the order of the day, a considerable stream of
inqtmigration southwards from the northern States
may set in at the close of the war. It is not impos
sible that these immigrants may, in the three or
four large cities of the South, soon constitute a class
of the population, engaged in industrial occupations
of all kinds, and sufficien-tly numerous to stand alone,
* It is hardly necessary to say that the whole European
continent, except a portion of Portugal, Spain, Italy, and
Greece, lies north of the parallel of New York.
8

170 THE FUTURE.
socially and politically. But when that period shall
have an-ived, no serious impression will yet have
been made Ijy them upon the politics of the State.
The rural districts must also be overrun, and what
attraction is it proposed to offer to induce the settle
ment of the interior by northeimers ? Is it to be a
general confiscation of the estates of the conquered
rebels under the sava.ge penal laws, and the sale of
those estates at low rates to " loyal " men, or a do
nation of them to the volunteers ? But the capa
city of the Government to supply a population in
this way must be very limited ; and I surmise that
any northern gentleman, who may propose to enjoy
his " otium cum dignitate " upon an estate so ae
quired, will find it essential to his comfort, to say
nothing of the security of his life and property, pre
viously to surround himself with a population whose
interests and sympathies are similar to his own.
In other words, the masses in the rural districts
must also be composed of immigrants ; and what are
to be the inducements for the laboring men of the
North to expatriate themselves? and how are we
to spare from among us the vast numbers of them
requisite to create a new political power in the
South ?
In fact the more we study the problem of esta
blishing by force one of our free State governments
over an unwilling people, the further its solution
recedes. It has no solution ; it is an utter impos-

THE FUTURE. lYl
sibility; an absurdity; " segri somnium." As Mr.
Seward truly says, our federal repubUcan system is
of all forms of government the very one which is
the most unfitted for the subjugation of " thoroughly
disaffected and insurrectionary members of the
State." It is true that all the inhabitants of a State
owe an allegiance to the general Government as in
dissoluble as that which they owe to their own State
authorities ; it is true that the acts of secession were
usurpations of power, and the insurrection a crimi
nal rebellion against a lawful government. But
although the rebellion may lawfully be suppressed
by force, yet the fruits of victory will be worse than
apples of Sodom in our hands, if we are to rely
upon force and fear to retain dominion after the
victory shall have been achieved. For baseless as
the theory is that States have the right to secede, yet,
as a practical proposition, it is utterly impossible
permanently to retain eight or ten States within
such a Union as was estabUshed by our fathers,
against the will of a preponderating majority of
their inhabitants. Although the Constitution, as
we construe it, neglects to provide for a separation
from the Union, and evidently intended to make
that Union perpetual, it did provide, by the mere
fact of establishing a popular form of government,
that its own existence should depend upon the
Union retaining the confidence and affection of the
people in all sections of its territory.

172 THE FUTURE.
All governments have the same general powers
and functions ; but with governments, as with indi
viduals, one system will permit without hazard the
exercise of particular functions to an extent which
would endanger or destroy the life of the other.
Despotic governments find their strength in the
very place where popular governments find their
weakness ; for while the one rests on force, and its
prolongation by force is a mere question of the
extent of force at its command, in the other, every
successful exercise of force beyond the ordinary
administration of the police laws, is a stab at its
own vitals, which must always infiict a dangerous
wound, and the frequent repetition of which must
inevitably be fatal. Hence, when the majority, the
embodiment of whose wishes forms the governing
power of a free nation, only slightly preponderates
in numbers over the minority, although it has the
undoubted right to perpetuate its sway by force,
yet freedom is sure to perish if the necessity for the
exercise of force is imminent and continued. This
may be laid down as an axiom of political science
in nations where the party divisions are denomina
tional merely. But when they are sectional other
considerations supervene. For if a contest arises
between the two sections, whether it be constitu
tional or revolutionary, rational or physical, when
ever it has attained such intensity and duration,
that the people of the two sections have become

THE FUTURE. 173
thoroughly and permanently alienated from each
other, in thoughts, feelings, wishes and interests,
the name of their common country becomes but a
geographical designation. They are to all practical
intents and purposes two separate nations, and if
the bond of union is preserved by force of the arms
of the stronger against the will of the weaker, by
whatever designation they may formally style the
relation between them, it is that of conquerors and
conquered ; a relation in which even the forms,
and above all the spirit of a free popular govern
ment, can have but a transient existence.
The dissolution of the Union and its forcible
restoration have from time to time been the sub
ject of the speculations of American statesmen ;
but until within the last three years, I have never
heard or read of any person of note advancing the
proposition that it can be permanently maintained
by force. Certainly the republican party did not
advocate any such theory in the canvass of eighteen
hundred and sixty. The argument that their suc
cess would lead to disunion and civil war, though
vehemently m-ged by their opponents, was regarded
even by most of the democratic party at the North,
moro as the statement of the ultimate tendency of
republican tenets, than as the announcement of the
immediate and direct result of their triumph. By
the Republicans themselves it was received with
such incredulity as to elicit no response but ridicule.

174 THE FUTURE.
The progress, either of wisdom or its reverse,
lias been so great since that time, that the doc
trine is now maintained with seriousness by some
of the most eminent politicians of the day, that
force and fear alone will be sufficient to reestabUsh'
the Union in its original integrity. If I am wrong
in the conclusion which I have endeavored to main
tain, that this is a dangerous fallacy, I have the
satisfaction of knowing that my error has been
shared by the most distinguished jurists and states
men of the present as well as of the past generations.
I will select a few quotations from the expressed:
opinions of those whose names may possibly carry
a weight which would be denied to my reasoning
alone. And flrst let us hear Andrew Jackson. Or rather
before I quote his words, let me advert for a mo
ment to his deeds. His great name is daily ap
pealed to by those who believe or affect to believe
in the possibility of restoring the Union by fear
and coercion alone. How little our present policy
accords with that of Jackson in the Nullification
controversy will appear- by a brief reference to any
history of the times— say Mr. Benton's Thirty
Years in the United States Senate. Jackson's
theory, by which he redeemed his famous pledge,
that the Union must and shall be preserved, was
that force and conciliation should go hand in hand,
and he therefore devoted as much energy to build-

THE FUTURE. I75
ing up a party in South Carolina favorable to the
repeal of the Nullification ordinance as to overaw
ing the promoters of the latter. I quote from Mr.
Benton : " His proclamation, his message, and all
his proceedings therefore bore a two fold aspect —
one of relief and justice in reducing the revenue to
the wants of the Government in the economical
administration of its affairs ; the other of firm and
mild authority in enforcing the laws against offend
ers. . . . Many thought that ho ought to relax
in his civil measures for allaying discontent, while
South Carolina held a military attitude of armed
defiance to the United States, and among them Mr.
Quiney Adams. But he adhered steadily to his
purpose of going on with what justice required for
the relief of the South, and promoted, by all the
means in his power, the success of the bill to reduce
the revenue." How little he relied upon force
to maintain the Union will appear from the follow
ing extract from his farewell address to the Ameri
can people.
" If such a struggle (civil war) is once begun, and
the citizens of one section of the country arrayed in
arms against those of another in doubtful conflict,
let the battle result as it may, there will be an end
of the Union, and with it an end to the hopes of
freedom. The victory of the injured would not
secure to them the blessings of liberty ; it would
avenge their wrongs, but they would themselves

176 THE FUTURE.
share in the common ruin. But the Constitution
cannot be maintained, nor the Union preserved in
opposition to public feeling, by the mere exertion
of the coercive powers confided to the general Gov
ernment ; the foundations must be laid in the affec
tions of the people : in the security it gives to life,
liberty, character and property in every quarter of
the country; and in the fraternal attachment which
the citizens of the several States bear to one another,
as members of one political family mutually con
tributing to promote the happiness of each other."
Mr. Madison, in the convention which framed
the Constitution, said : " Any government for the
United States formed upon the supposed practica
bility of. using force against the unconstitutional
proceedings of the States, would prove as visionary
and fallacious as the government of Congress " (the
confederation). He nevertheless approved of the
proceedings of General Jackson, because they were
characterized by conciliation and not a reliance
upon force alone ; but he distinctly admitted the
" impracticability of retaining in the Union a large
and cemented section against its will." Mr. Ben
ton, the friend and supporter of General Jackson
throughout the whole of the Nullification contro
versy, says : " The authors of our present form of
government . . . formed a government in which
the law and the popular will, and not the sword,
was to decide questions, and they looked upon the

THE FUTURE. I77
first resort to the sword for the decision of such
questions as the death of the Union."
Mr. Edward Everett (now " quantum mutatus
ah iUo ") expressed himself to the same effect as
General Jackson, in his letter of acceptance of his
nomination for the vice-presidency in 1860.
" The suggestion that the Union can be main
tained by numerical predominance and military
prowess of one section, exerted to coerce the other
into submission, is in my judgment as self-contra
dictory as it is dangerous. It comes loaded with
the death smell from the fields wet with brothers'
blood. If the vital principle of all republican gov
ernments is the consent of the governed, much more
does a Union of co-equal sovereign States require
as its basis the harmony of its members, and their
voluntary co5peration in its organic functions."
Mr. Douglas went even further. He maintained
that the inauguration of civil war would forever
destroy the possibility of reunion. On several
occasions during the second session of the thirty-
sixth Congress, while addressing the Senate in sup
port of the Crittenden compromise, he asserted this
opinion in emphatic terms : " An amicable settle
ment is a perpetuation of the Union. The use of
the sword is war, disunion and separation ; now and
forever." ..." I repeat, then, my solemn con
viction, that war means disunion — ^final, irrevocable,
eternal separation."

178 THE FUTURE.
Daniel Webster had previously expressed the
same opinion.
" In March, 1850, when I found it my duty to
address Congress on these important topics, it was
my conscientious belief, and it still remains un
shaken, that if the controversy with Texas could not
be amicably adjusted, there must in all probability
be civil war and bloodshed ; and in contemplation
of such a prospect, although we took it for granted
that no opposition could arise to the authority of
the United States that would not be suppressed, it
appeared of little consequence on which standard
victory should perch  But what of that ?
I was not anxious about military consequences;
I looked to the civil and political state of things,
and their results, and I inquired what would be the
condition of the ,counti^#>fn j,iija(^state. of agitay
tion, if in this vastly extended thcv^,n not generally
pervadi^ng feeling of the South, war should break
out, ahd bloodshed should ensue in that quarter of
the Union ? That was enough for liie to inquire
into and consider ; and if the chances had been one
in a thousand that civU war would be the result, I
should have felt that that one-thousandth chance
should be guarded against by any reasonable sacri
fice ; because, gentlemen, sanguine as I am of the
future prosperity of the country, strongly as I
believe now, after what has passed, and especially
after the enactment of those .measures to which I

THE FUTURE. I79
have referred, that it is likely to hold together, I
yet beUeve that this Union once broken is incapable,
according to aU human experience, of being recon
structed in its original character, of being rece-
mented by any chemistry, or art, or effort, or skill
of man."
While I cannot doubt the correctness of the con
clusion, in which all these great men agree, that
constitutional Union cannot be preserved without
the cordial cooperation of the people of every sec
tion of the country, I am unwilling to surrender
the hope that common interests, mutual dependence,
and the associations of the past will not suffice agaifl
to bind together the dissevered parts of the nation,
if we shaU adopt a policy of moderation and mag
nanimity which will permit the jealousies and fears
which caused this great convulsion to be allayed, and
the angry passions which it has aroused to subside.
But the policy of coercion contemplates another
alternative : that of subverting the existing consti
tutions of the States now in rebellion, and readmit
ting them into the Union with such modifications
and restrictions of their constitutional rights as we
shall deem most consistent with our own future
prosperity. The consequences of such a course to
them and to ourselves will form the subject of the
foUowing chapters.

180 THE FUTURE.

CHAPTER IX.
Senator Sumner's Plan of Territorial Governments for the South —
The President's Plan of " Reconstruction " — A detailed Explana
tion of the latter — Delusive character of the apparent Intention to
submit the Emancipation Proclamation to the Supreme Court —
The Plan contemplates the Abolition of Slavery by a revolution
ary overthrow of the State Constitutions — Nature of the Popular
Element of the "reconstructed" State Governments — Probability
of the acceptance of the Terms of Amnesty by the Southern
People now within our Lines — Readiness of the Baser Element
of a Conquered People to ingratiate itself with the Conqueror —
Illustrations of this Principle by the Conduct of Individuals iu
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Carolina during
the Revolutionary War — Efforts of the British Authorities to
reestablish Civil Rule in South Carolina in the years 1780^1781 —
Their apparent success in bringing the People back to their
Allegiance — Their Severities towards those who refused to ac
knowledge themselves British Subjects.
I ASSUME that the people are nearly unanimously
of the opinion that the existing military govern
ments of the southern States must be superseded by
civil governments of some kind, as soon as it is
practicable to do so, with safety to the authority
of the nation, and with due regard to the principles
which pervade our political framework. I need
not, therefore, consume any time in pointing out the
inconveniences and dangers, attending an attempt
permanently to maintain the present system.

THE FUTURE. I3I
There are two schemes of reestabUshing civil
rule, which have met with favor among those who
desire to escape, for a time at least, from the neces
sity of confiding the reins of Govemment in the
States to the hands of officers elected by the people,
and responsible to the people. One of these is the
plan, the recommendation of which is the object of
the article which has already been frequently com
mented upon in these pages, entitled, " Our Domes
tic Relations." It is stated in the words of that
article to be " the establishment of provisional
governments under the authority of Congress, or
simply by making the admission or recognition of
the States depend upon the action of Congress."
The latter clause of the sentence is not very intelli
gible, if the whole is regarded as the statement of
two alternatives ; but as the article commences
with an attack upon the system of military govern
ments, and as its whole scope is designed to show
that the southern States have been reduced to the
territorial condition, and that the public interests
will not for the present allow the participation of
the people in the Govemment, the author's meaning
is sufficiently clear. It is that Congress shall create
in the conquered region, governments corresponding
to those which have formerly been erected in the
western part of the country, in the first stages of
territorial existence ; that is to say, that the legis
lative, executive, and judicial functions shall be

182 THE FUTURE.
administered by officers nominated by the Presi
dent, and appointed by him, with the advice and
consent of a Senate, composed wholly of members
from the States which have remained loyal through
out the war. Whether the boundaries of the new
territories are to correspond with thos.e of the exist
ing States, is not very apparent, nor, as I should
judge from the author's course of reasoning, is it
considered as very important. The time during
which the' territories thus erected, would be gov
erned in the manner pointed out, is not designated ;
except that it is said in terms rather vague and
indefinite in themselves, but sufficiently intelUgible
to those who are familiar with the idiosyncrasies of
the class of politicians to which the author belongs,
that the jurisdiction of Congress is to be " employed'
for the happiness, welfare and renown of the Ame
rican people, changing slavery into freedom, and
present chaos into a cosmos of perpetual beauty
and power." And when the indefinite future shall
have brought around the period in which the
" cosmos " alluded to shall be in full working order,
it is proposed that Congress shall erect new States
out of the territories, and admit them into the
Union. Such is the future to which a senator of
the United States, the idol of his own State, and
one of the recognized leaders of a great and now
dominant party, invites the American people.
StartUng as it may appear ; dangerous and destruc-

THE FUTURE. 183
tive to peace, public order, public liberty and
national prosperity as it is sure to prove, it will
lead us to our ruin by a less direct road, and topple
the nation over a precipice less awful than the
other plan, the deformities of which are disguised
under an appearance of respect to popular rights,
and observance of the forms of popular government.
I refer to the " plan of reconstruction " proposed by
the President of the United States in his message to
Congress of the eighth of December, eighteen hun
dred and sixty-three, which derives a peculiar im
portance from the official station of its author, and
which I shall therefore consider at some length.
In discussing this proposed measure, it must be
observed at the outset, that the scheme is as yet
(January, 1864) but partially developed. The pro
posed " reconstruction " cannot be completed with
out the action of Congress. For the Constitution
reserves to each branch of the national Legislature
the exclusive right " to be the judge of the election
returns and qualifications of its own members ;"
and consequently it will devolve upon Congress
to provide, by legislation or by the separate action
of the two Houses, in what manner and upon
what terms the " reconstructed " States shall be
represented in that body. This the President con
cedes; and at the same time he intimates his wil
lingness to accept such modifications of his plan as
shall not be inconsistent with its leading features.

184 THE FUTURE.
We may therefore reasonably expect that the Presi
dent's plan will receive further developments of its
details, and probably some new features, before it
will be adopted as the one plan, which commands
the approbation of all those who are unwilling to
have the war close with a simple restoration of the
seceding States to the Union, so that " their consti
tutions and laws, customs, habits and institutions
will remain the same." * But it is not probable that
its foundation or its framework will undergo any
material alteration ; and these contain within them
selves the germ of mischiefs and dangers, which
cannot be averted or indeed appreciably dimin
ished by any modification of its details. We will
therefore consider it with reference to such of its
features as are likely to remain unaltered.
The foundation of the plan is contained in an
executive proclamation, a copy of which, bearing
even date with the message, is appended to the
latter, and in which the President declares and
makes known to all persons who have participated
in the rebellion, with the exceptions thereafter
specified, that a full pardon is granted to them, with
the restoration of all rights of property (except as
to slaves and in cases where the rights of third per
sons have intervened), " upon the condition that
every such person shall take and subscribe an oath,
* Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton, AprU 22, 1861.—
Ante, p. 80.

THE FUTURE. 185
and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath
inviolate," which oath is then set forth in the fol
lowing words :
" I,  , do solemnly swear, in presence of
Almighty God, that I will henceforth' faithfully
support, protect and defend the Constitution of the
United States and the union of States thereunder,
and that I will in like manner abide by and faith
fully support all acts of Congress, passed during the
existing rebeUion, with reference to slaves, so long
and so far as not repealed, modified or made void
by Congress or by decision of the Supreme Court ;
and that I will in like manner abide by and faith
fully support all proclamations of the President
made during the existing rebellion, having reference
to slaves, so long and so far as not modified and
declared void by the Supreme Court. So help me
God !"
The President excludes from the benefit of the
proclamation, all who are or have been civil or
diplomatic officers or agents of the Confederate
government, or military officers above the rank of
colonel, or naval officers above the rank of lieuten
ant ; all who left judicial stations under the United
States, or seats in the United States Congress, or
resigned commissions in the United States army or'
navy to aid the rebellion ; and all who have been
engaged in treating colored soldiers or persons cap
tured while in the United States service, or white

186 THE FUTURE.
persons in charge of them, otherwise .than as prison
ers of war. It is proper to say in this place, that
the message obscurely intimates that at some future
time (not specified) some of these exceptions may
possibly be' removed; but as it is obviously impos
sible to give any practical effect to such a vague'
and indefinite intimation, it must necessarily be
laid entirely out of view in considering the work
ing of the scheme.
Upon this foundation the President proposes to
erect the superstructure of State government. He
declares in the proclamation that whenever in any
of the seceding States, except Virginia, a number
of persons, equal to not less than one-tenth of the
voters at the last presidential election, " each hav
ing taken the oath aforesaid, and not having since
violated it, and being a qualified voter by the elec
tion law of the State existing immediately before
the so-called act of secession, and excluding all
others, shall reestablish a State government, which
shall be republican, and in no wise contravening
said oath, such shall be recognized as the true
government of the State," and shall receive from
• the United States the benefit of the constitutional
guaranty of a repubUcan form of government, and
against invasion or domestic violence.
The first question which will naturally suggest
itself to the mind is, what is to be the constitution
of a new State formed under this scheme ? Does

THE FUTURE. 187
the President contemplate merely that loyal and
anti-slavery persons are to be designated to fill the
offices created under the existing constitution, and
that they are to administer the functions of govern
ment under that constitution, leaving it to the
Supreme Court to decide whether the emancipation
proclamation has had the effect to alter it by
abolishing the institution of slavery ? Or, on the
other hand, is his scheme an invitation extended to
one-tenth of the inhabitants of a State, to organize
a new poUtical community with such a constitution
as they may choose to adopt, provided that it shall
be republican in form, and shall prohibit slavery ?
This doubt arises in consequence of the obscurity
which lurks in the phrase, " shaU reestablish a State
government, which shall be republican, and in no
wise contravening said oath." It would seem at
first sight, from the fact that the decision of the
Supreme Court is apparently invoked, that the first
of these two alternatives is the one contemplated ;
and yet if that is the case, why did the President
provide that the new State government was to be
" republican," thus intimating that its form was not
to depend upon the existing constitution, but to be
prescribed by him ; and why did he not say ex
pressly that it was to be established under the
former constitution ? A further examination of the
details of his scheme will show that with respect to
the proposed submission of his emancipation pro-

188 THE FUTURE.
clamation to a judicial decision, the word of promise
is merely kept to the ear ; and that what he really
requires, as a condition of recognizing the new
government, is that the loyal one-tenth shall assume
TO FOEM A NEW CONSTITUTION, which shall by its
terms make the peoglamation valid, and thus pre
clude the possibility of procuring a judicial decision
upon it. I quote from another part of the procla
mation of December 8, 1863, italicizing two pas
sages, which show conclusively that abolition of
slavery by the authority of the new govemment, is
a condition of recognition sine qua non :
" And I do further proclaim and make known
that any provision which may be adopted by such
State government in relation to the freed people
of such State which shall recognise a/nd decla/re their
permanent freedom, provide for their education, and
which may yet be consistent as a tempora/ry ar
rangement with their present condition as a labor
ing, landless and homeless class, will not be objected
to by the national executive."
And in the passage which immediately succeeds,
the design thoroughly to revolutionize the State is
openly avowed. So little concealment is attempted,
that the " loyal " one-tenth are left to decide for
themselves, the name, constitution and boundaries
of the new State which they may elect to form ; and
the President " engages " that it shall not be deemed
'^ improper " for them to retain in those respects,

THE FUTURE. ISQ
the characteristics of the particular State in which
the new government shall be estabUshed, provided
that the other " conditions " are duly complied
with. I quote :
" And it is engaged as not improper that in con
structing a loyal State govemment in any State,
the name of the State, the boundary, the subdi
visions, the constitution, and the general code of
laws as before the rebellion, be maintained, subject
only to the modifications made necessary by the
conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if
any, not contravening said conditions, and which
may be deemed expedient by those framing the new
State government." *
* If further proof of the design to revolutionize the
constitution of the State is needed, it may be found in the
circumstances which attended the germination of this plan,
which did not, as many suppose, originate with the message
of last December. On the 12th of June, 1863, General
Shepley, miUtary governor of Louisiana, ordered a regis
tration of aU free white adult male citizens, who should
take an oath of aUegiance to the United States, of renun
ciation of allegiance to the Confederate government, of the
necessary age, and that the registration was made " for
the purpose of organizing a State government in Louisi
ana loyal to the Government of the United States." A
short time previously, a committee of citizens of that State
had addressed to the President a request that he would
permit an election to be held under the existing constitution.
On the 18th day of June, 1863, the President denied the
request, aUeging among other reasons, " that a respectable
portion of the Louisiana people desire to amend their State

lyO THE FUTURE.
The reader will therefore perceive that I was not
lacking in charity towards the Executive, when in
my comments upon the emancipation proclamation,
I asserted that it contained internal evidence of a
revolutionary design upon his part, and that its pre
amble was either a premeditated deception of the
public or a proof of self-deception on the part of its
author. The new State governments thus ushered
into being by an insignificant minority, and main
tained by the Federal arms, will be entirely revolu
tionary, as well with respect to the persons who
will administer them, as to the source of their
authority, and the provisions of their organic laws.
If I have not entirely mistaken the rightful object
of the war, and the powers and duties of the
national Government in its prosecution and at its
termination, the successful establishment of these
new State governments will be a naked, lawless,
forcible usurpation. It will unsettle the very foun
dations of our whole poUtical system, and set us
afloat upon a sea of experiment, against the dangers
of which we have been warned by every eminent
statesman and political writer since the foundation

constitution, and contemplate holding a convention for
that object." For some reason, doubtless in pursuance of
orders from Washington, the further progress of the scheme
has been suspended ; but we may look for its revival at
an early day, with the oath modified as required by the
proclamation.

THE FUTURE. 191
of our Government. It will accomplish the con
quest and subjugation of the South, and disgrace
our national name by a shameless repudiation of
the public faith pledged by the Crittenden resolu
tion and Mr. Seward's assurances to foreign nations.*
And I shall endeavor in this and the two succeed
ing chapters to show that it will bring upon us
calamities, which, great as they are, the civilized
world of to-day, and the historians of the future will
* The following is an extract from the inaugural address
of Governor Bramlette, of Kentucky, a gentieman whose
loyalty is so undoubted, that the interference of the Fede
ral army was resorted to for the purpose of acoomplishirig
Ms election, though, as the canvass proved, without
necessity :
" No reconstruction is necessary. The Governraent is
complete — ^not broken — not destroyed ; bat, by the bless
ing of God, shall endure forever. A revolted State has
nothing, therefore, to do but to cease resistance to law and
duty, and return to its fealty, organize under its constitu
tion, as it was before, and would be now but for the revolt,
and thus place itself in harmony with the Federal Govern
ment. Thus, all that was suspended by revolt will be
restored to action. But will not the dominant powers
require terms other than these ? Will they not require the
revolted States, as condition precedent to a restoration of
their relations, to adopt either immediate or gradual
emancipation ? These are grave questions, and suggestive
of a dangerous and wicked experiment. We trust to
pUghted word and constitutional faith as guaranty against
such an issue. Nothing but disregard of honor and the
principles of humanity can force such an issue, and we wUl
not invite an evil by battUng it into being."

192 THE FUTURE.
acknowledge to be only a just retribution upon a
nation, which shall have signalized its career by so
much perfidy, wickedness and folly.
In examining the practical working of this scheme,
let us in the first place inquire who wiU set in
motion the machinery of the new State govern
ments, and what will be the composition of their
popular element in the early stages of their ex
istence. . .
It is not specified what tribunal is to determine,
whether the persons who, having taken the oath,
shall present themselves as electors, are in fact
qualified under the former State laws. It will be
readily perceived that questions of great importance
will at once arise upon this branch of the scheme, '
In two of these States, as we have already seen,* a
property qualification or the payment of a tax is
requisite to confer upon a man, otherwise qualified,
the privileges of electorship ; and in all of them",
residence for a period more or less extended, is
indispensable. It will doubtless be determined' by
act of Congress, or by another proclamation, or by
a special order of the commander-in-chief, whether"
the first of these conditions shall stand ; for of course
it would be idle to quibble about the power of the
executive or legislative department of the nation to
maintain or dispense with a law of a State, whose
* Chapter vi., page 105.

THE FUTURE. I93
whole constitution is about to be overthrown. But
Tvith respect to the fact of residence of the proposed
voter, it is evident that some tribunal must be
created to pass upon each particular case as it
arises ; and it will be readily seen that many of such
cases will present questions, which would cause no
little embarrassment and perplexity to any tribunal
having no other object to attain, than a fair admin
istration of the law. In the ordinary operation of
the election laws, in quiet times, cases of this
character rarely occur, and provision is made for a
summary determination of them when they do
arise; but in putting the President's scheme into
practical operation in the South, they will be so
numerous that the personnel, nay the very existence
of the new State governments, will probably depend
upon the manner of their solution. Every cotton
or sugar speculator, every camp-follower, every tide-
waiter of Providence who has foUowed in the train
of the conquering army, will prefer his claim to be
considered a " resident," and consequently a voter
and prospective office holder. It is quite possible
that a considerable number of the soldiers will also
offer their votes ; but without reckoning them, the
number of men belonging to the other classes, who
have already congregated in some of the States,
parts of which are occupied by our forces, is nearly
if not quite equal to one-tenth of the vote cast by
those States in the year 1860. And inasmuch as
9

194 THE FUTURE.
the new government is to go into operation when
ever the requisite one-tenth shall have been secured
in any State, it is evident that if such men shaU be
admitted to vote (and their " loyalty " is not only
unquestioned but uncompromising), they will con
stitute a very large, in some cases a preponderating
part, of the persons who will control the new
organizations in the early stages of their career.
Whether provision will be made by legislation, to
establish some tribunal to determine this question,
or whether its solution will be left to appointees of
the military power, we are yet uncertain. But we
shall doubtless be safe in assuming that whichever
course may be adopted, a very great liberality will
be exercised in admitting such " loyal " applicants
to vote, either directly and at the outset of the
experiment, or indirectly, by prescribing in the new
constitutions such qualifications as will include
them.* * It is assumed that those who favor the scheme under
discussion, will not consider this remark as unfair towards
the President or his party. It is not made in a satirical
spirit, but merely as the statement of a natural conclusion
from tile principles which they profess. Por if the scheme is
a good one, it is of course expedient to facUitate and expe
dite its operation by every lawful means ; and the greater
the number of thoroughly loyal persons which a liberal
construction of the law, or liberal provisions in the consti;
tution, wUl admit to a participation in the elective franchise,
the greater will be the basis upon which the new govern
ments will rest. There can be no doubt that the power of

THE FUTURE. I95
Supposing therefore that such men as I have
described will constitute a considerable proportion
of the popular element of the new State govern-
appointment of the officers charged with the duty of pass
ing upon the qualifications of the voters, will be so exer
cised as to insure that this principle will be fully recognized
in one of the modes suggested.
We have had practical proof in one instance that such
will be the case, although I will not charge in advance
that the precedent which was then set, will be followed
out in all its details. 1 refer to the elections for repre
sentatives in Congress, which were held in Louisiana under
the administration of General Butler, in December, 1862.
It has never been denied that the liberahty practised upon
that occasion in the reception of votes, was, to use no
harsher term, excessive. I have taken considerable pains
to ascertain the extent of the abuses which were alleged,
upon newspaper authority, to have existed in that canvass;
and for that purpose I have corresponded with Union men
of high character, residents of New Orleans at the time of
the act of secession, and also during General Butler's
administration. I annex extracts from two of the letters
upon the subject which I have received. One of my cor
respondents writes :
" The Federal officers at the polls decided who should
and who should not vote. I do not know of more than
five or six of the old residents who voted at that election.
No registry was required, and I have always been surprised,
under all the circumstances, that the vote was so small."
The following is au extract from another letter, written
by a gentleman who held a high oflScial position at New
Orleans in the year 1860, now, I beUeve, permanently a
resident of New York :
" According to the laws of Louisiana, the names of the
qualified voters in the city of New Orleans must be regis-

196 THE FUTURE.
ments, let us inquire whether any great number of
tbe native population will probably join with them;
either in inaugurating the new system, or in volun-
tered." (By an order of General Shepley, dated Novem
ber 22, 1862, this registry was dispensed with.) " Under
the administration of General Butler, no one was allowed-
to vote without having previously taken the oath of alle
giance. The great majority of the voters were in the
employment of the Federal authorities. Col. Thorp, the
street commissioner, iiad in his employment a large number
of Irishmen and Germans (not qualified voters) to clean
the streets and the levee, aud dig canals, &c. They took
the oath to get work, and having taken it, they were
allowed the privilege of voting, provided they voted as they
were told to. Soldiers and foreigners voted because they
had been six months in the State, and because it was for
their interest to declare themselves Union men. NaturaU- '
zation papers were not required — it was enough to have
been six months in the State, and to be a ' loyal ' citizen.
Great frauds were perpetrated ; tickets thrust into the box
by the quantity, in order to make it appear that the vote
was large. Such were the results of a popular election held
under the benign influence of bayonets."
I procured an early copy of Mr. Parton's new work,
" General Butler in New Orleans," expecting to find in so
bulky a history of so brief a period a detaUed account of
the circumstances attending this election— certainly one of
the most important events of General Butler's administra
tion, and aftbrding conclusive evidence of that wisdom and
abihty which the author claims for his hero, if it consti
tuted a true test of the loyalty of the people of New
Orleans. But it is disposed of in a few brief sentences on
page 595 of the book ; and the character of the vote is
described in words, which, if they were intended to bear
their most obvious signification, afford a rare instance of

THE FUTURE. 197
tarily accepting it after it shall be in operation ;
and if so, what will be the character and social
status of the repentant rebels.
I have already alluded to the feelings of the
people in the State of Tennessee. The adherents
of the Southern Confederacy being now pretty
effectually driven out of that State, and a large
part of its population having been not only Unionists
but anti-slavery men, during the whole of the con
troversy, probably a much larger proportion of the
actual and bond fide residents than the required one-
tenth will be willing to take the oath, and to set
the wheels of the new government in motion. In
Arkansas there have been, since its occupation,
some very unequivocal manifestations of Union
feeling ; but to what extent it prevails, and whether
any considerable number of the people yet remain
ing in that State, have become not only Union
ists but anti-slavery propagandists, we are yet
without sufficient data to determine. In those
parts of Louisiana which we hold, there is a class
of men (most of them, I am informed, original advo
cates of secession), whose numbers it is as yet
impossible to estimate, who are not only ready to
take any oath which may be prescribed as a con-
ingenuous candor, Mr. Parton says : " The canvass was
spirited, and no restriction was placed upon the voting, except
to exclude those who bad not taken the oath of alle
giance 1"

198 THE FUTURE.
dition precedent to holding office, but are now so
intensely anti-slavery, that they propose to admit
the blacks to the exercise of the right of suffrage.
Inasmuch however as our troops only hold in Louisi
ana the west bank of the Mississippi river, with
that portion of the State which lies between the
State of Mississippi and the Gulf, and a strip of
coast west of the mouth of the river, it is impossible
to determine at present by practical proof, whether
any considerable number of the population are
willing to return to their allegiance upon the terms
proposed. For a similar reason, we have no suf
ficient means of ascertaining the sentiments of the
people of ITorth Carolina, Texas, or the dismem
bered State of Virginia. In the other seceding
States, we do not occupy soil enough to call it cor
rectly a foot-hold.
Within the districts over which our lines extend,
there are a number of persons who have been pre
vented by age, sickness, poverty, accident, or other
causes, from leaving the country when the Cok-
federate army retired. Some of these persons are
doubtless Unionists from conviction, possibly als«
anti-slavery men ; but I have already assigned my
reasons for believing that outside of the State of
Tennessee, the class even of sincere Unionists com
prises but a comparatively small number of the
population. To these unfortunates the President
proposes to offer Mahomet's choice, the Koran or

THE FUTURE. I99
the sword. And human nature is so weak, that it
is not at all improbable that a considerable number
of them will take the requisite oath, rather than
expose themselves to their only other alternative of
military plunder, civil confiscation, and criminal
prosecutions. And we may also be sure that the
number of those who will have the constancy to
hold out against such powerful inducements to sub
mit, will be greater or less, as fortune shall in the
ensuing campaigns favor or frown upon the Con
federate arms. For modern history offers no ex
ception to the proposition that among every people
struggling for independence, however high-minded
the general tone of the national character, there
wUl be found many who, whenever the tide of
success has apparently turned against their cause,
will hasten to give in their adherence to that of the
conqueror, and purchase his forgiveness and their
own security upon any terms, however humiliating.
Tills proved to be true even among our ancestors
of the revolutionary war, whom we are accustomed
to regard as the purest people, engaged in the
holiest cause of which history makes mention.
And as I have already* stated in what manner the
ministerial party in England continued from time
to time to buoy up the hopes of their party with
assurances of a speedy triumph over the colonists, I
* See note at the conclusion of chapter vii.

200 THE FUTURE.
will conclude this chapter witb some passages from
" Botta's History of the War of Independence,"
which will exhibit some of the foundations upon
which they built their expectations. I insert these
extracts, chiefly because I shall use them in the
next chapter to fortify the a priori argument that a
govemment resting upon a hollow oath, compul-
sorily administered to the southern people, wiU
endure just as long as it is sustained by military
force and no longer. But incidentally the passages
in question may guard us against the error of
anticipating too speedy a downfall of the Southern
Confederacy, from causes which were in full opera
tion, it will be seen, among their and our common
ancestors, and which, nevertheless, did not prevent
tlie ultimate success of the Revolution.*
The first period to which the extracts relate, is the
fall of the year 1776, immediately after the battle
of Long Island, the battle of White Plains, and
* It is perhaps proper that I should say here that the
extracts contained in this and the next succeeding chapter
are introduced into the text, merely as aids in the prosecu
tion of a philosophical inquiry, and not actually to compare
the Confederate cause with that of our ancestors. To the
mind of the southerners there appears to be not merely a
resemblance, but a perfect coincidence between the two ;
and hence their conduct will in all probabUity be governed
by the same feeUngs, principles and motives as those which
actuated the revolutionary patriots under simUar circum
stances. But my comparison goes no further, and Dr.
Botta's expressions of partiaUty for the American side of

THE FUTURE.

201

the loss of Forts Washington and Lee. Dr. Botta
says :
" These successive checks, the loss of the two
forts, Washington and Lee, and especially the ex
cessive vigor of the attack, which had constrained
the first to surrender, produced a deplorable change
in the fortune of the Americans. They beheld all
at once what the fatal battle of Brooklyn had not
been able to operate — the dissolution of their
army. " The militia disbanded, and precipitately retired
to their habitations ; even the regular troops, as if
strack with despair, also filed off, and deserted in
parties. " Everything, at this period of the war, threatened
America with an inevitable catastrophe.
" The army of Washington was so enfeebled, that
it scarcely amounted to three thousand men, who
had lost all courage and all energy, and were
exposed in an open country, without instruments to
intrench themselves, without tents to shelter them
from the inclemency of the season, and in the midst
the war are transcribed, only because the sentences which
contain them contain also facts and illustrations which my
argument requires me to use, and they could not be altered
or suppressed without garbUng his language or rendering
his meaning obscure.
I should not have thought this explanation necessary
were it not that much of the loyalty of to-day is, in every
sense of the word, suspicious. 9*

202 THE FUTURE.
of a population little zealous, or rather hostile
towards the republic.
" The general of Congress had to face a victorious
army, more than twenty thousand strong, composed
entirely of disciplined and veteran troops. The
excellent generals who commanded it, using the
ardor inspired by victory, pursued their advantages,'
with vivacity, and fiattered themselves that a few
days would suffice to crush the wrecks of the repub
Ucan army, and put an end to the war 
The greater part of their " (the Americans) " feeble
army consisted in militia, almost all from New
Jersey. These were either of suspicious fidelity, or
desirous of returning to their habitations, to rescue
their property and families from the perils that
menaced them. The few regular soldiers who still
remained with their colors, completed their term of
service with the expiration of the year ; it was
therefore to be feared that this phantom of an
army would vanish entirely in the space of a few
days. " In so profound a distress, the American general
could not hope to receive prompt or sufficient re
inforcements  Upon the heel of so many dis
asters, was the imminent danger of seditions on the
part of the disaffected, who in various places loudly
invoked the name of England. An insurrection
appeared ready to explode in the county of Mon
mouth, in this very province of New Jersey, so that

THE FUTURE. 203
Washington found himself constrained to detach a
•part of his army, already a mere skeleton, to over
awe the agitators. The presence of a victorious
royal army had dissipated the terror with which
the patriots at first had inspired the loyalists. They
began to abandon themselves without reserve to all
the fury which animated them against their adver
saries. The English commissioners determined to
avail themselves of this disposition of the inhab
itants to revolt against the authority of Congress.
Accordingly, the two brothers Howe drew up a pro
clamation, which they circulated profusely through
out the country. They commanded all those who
had arms in hand to disperse and return to their habi
tations ; and all those who exercised civil magis
tracies, to cease their functions and divest them
selves of their usurped authority. But, at the same
time, they offered a full pardon to all such as
within the space of sixty days should present them
selves before the civil or military officers of the
crown, declaring their intention to take the benefit
of. the amnesty, aud promising a sincere return to
the obedience due to the laws and to the royal
authority. This proclamation had the effect which
the commissioners had promised themselves from it.
A multitude of persons of every rank, availing
themselves of the clemency of the victor, came daily
to implore his forgiveness, and to protest their sub
mission.

204 THE FUTURE.
" It was remarked, however, that they belonged,
for the greater part, to the class of the very poor, or
of the very rich. The inhabitants of a middle con
dition manifested more constancy in their opinions.
Several of the newly reconciled had occupied the
first stations in the popular order of things ; they
had been members either of the provincial govern
ment, or of the council of general safety, or of the
tribunals of justice. They excused themselves by
saying that they had only acted, in what they had
hitherto done, with a view to promote the public
welfare, and to prevent greater disorders; they
alleged, finally, that they had been drawn in by
their jparents and friends, wliom they were unable
to refuse. Those who had contemplated them in
all their arrogance, and who saw them then so
meek, so submissive, and so humble in their words,
could scarcely persuade themselves that they were
indeed the same individuals. But men of this
stamp dread much less to be considered inconstaiit
and perfidious, than rebels to the laws of the
strongest ; they much prefer to escape danger with
infamy, than to encounter it with honor. ]!for was
it only in New Jersey, and in the midst of the
victorious royal troops, that these abrupt changes
of party were observed ; the inhabitants of Penn
sylvania flocked in like manner to humble them
selves at the feet of the English commissioners, and
to promise them fealty and obedience. Among

THE FUTURE. 205
others, there came the Galloways, the family of the
Aliens, and some others of the most wealthy and
reputable. The example became pernicious, and
the most prejudicial effects were to be apprehended
from it. Every day ushered in some new calamity ;
the cause of America seemed hastening to irre
trievable ruin." — Otis's Translation, vol. i., pp.
389-391. Mortifying as this chapter of history cannot fail
to prove to our northern pride, the conduct of many
of our southern brethren, under similar circum
stances, was even more abject. The next period
to which I will ask the reader's attention, is no less
than four years later. It is that which succeeded the
fall of Charleston, in the year 1780. Our author
says: " As soon as General Clinton had taken posses
sion of that capital, he hastened to take all those
measures, civil as weU as military, which were
judged proper for the reestablishment of order ; he
then made his dispositions for recovering the rest
of the province, where everything promised to
anticipate the will of the victor. Determined to
follow up his success, before his own people should
have time to cool, or the enemy to take breath, he
planned three expeditions  All three were
completely successful ; the inhabitants flocked from
all parts to meet the royal troops, declaring their
desire to resume their ancient aUegiance, and offer-

206 THE FUTURE.
ing to defend the royal cause with arms in hand.
Many even of the inhabitants of Charleston, excited
by the proclamation of the British general, mani
fested a like zeal to combat under his banners. . . .
Such was the devotion, either real or feigned, of the
inhabitants towards the king ; such was their terror,
or their desire to ingratiate themselves with the
victor, that not content with coming in from every
quarter to offer their services in support of the royal
government, they dragged in their train, as prison
ers, those friends of liberty, whom they had lately
obeyed with such parade of zeal, and whom they
now denominated their 'oppressors." — Id., vol. ii.,
p. 251.
The author then describes Tarleton's victory over
Colonel Buford at Waxhaw Creek ; after which he
continues :
" This reverse destroyed the last 'hopes of the
Carolinians, and was soon followed by their sub
mission. General Clinton wrote to London, that
South Carolina was become English again, and
that there were few men in the province who were
not prisoners to, or in arms with' the British forces.
But he was perfectly aware that the conquest he
owed to his arms could not be preserved but by the
entire reestablishment of the civil administration.
To this end, he deemed it essential to put minds at
rest by the assurance of amnesty, and to oblige the
inhabitants to contribute to the defence of the

THE FUTURE. 207^
country, and to the restoration of the royal au
thority. Accordingly, in concert with Admiral
Arbuthnot, he published a full and absolute par
don in favor of those who should immediately return
to their duty, promising that no offence and trans
gressions heretofore committed in consequence of
political troubles, should be subject to any investi
gation whatever  General Clinton, seeing
the province in tranquillity, and the ardor, which
appeared universal, of the inhabitants to join the
royal standard, distributed his army in the most
important garrisons ; when, leaving Lord Corn
wallis in command of all the forces stationed in
South Carolina and Geopgia, he departed from
Charleston for his govemment of New York." — Id.,
pp. 252, 253.
Measures were then taken to reestablish com
pletely the English administration, which had the
greater effect, because the impression spread among
the people that Congress had abandoned them to
their fate. In truth, however, the expedition of
General Gates was rapidly organizing for their
relief. " But," says our author, " the prisoners of
Carolina knew nothing of what passed without, and
from day to day they became more confirmed in
the idea that their country would remain under
British domination. Thus, between choice and com
pulsion, the multitude resumed the bonds of sub
mission. But the English could have wished to

208 THE FUTURE.
have all under their yoke ; they saw with pain that
within as well as without the province, there re
mained some individuals devoted to the party of
Congress. Their resentment dictated the most ex
traordinary measures against the property and
families of those who had emigrated, and of those
who had remained prisoners of war. The posses-.
sions of the first were sequestrated and ravaged ;
their families were jealously watched, and subjected,
as rebels, to a thousand vexations. The second
were often separated from their hearths, and con
fined in remote and unhealthy places. These rigors
constrained some to retract, and bend the neck
under tbe new slavery ; others to offer themselves
as good and loyal subjects of the king. Among
them were found individuals who had manifested
the most ardor for the cause of liberty, and who
had even filled the first offices under the popular
government. They generally colored their conver-
^sion with saying that they abhorred the alliance of
France. Tims men will rather stain themselves-
with falsehood and perjury, than live in misfortune
and poverty !  Hence arose a distinction
between subjects and prisoners. The first were
protected, honored aud encouraged ; the second
were regarded with contempt, persecuted and ha
rassed in their persons and property. Their estates
in the country were loaded with taxes, and even
ravaged. Within the city they were refused access

THE FUTURE. 209
to the tribunals, if they had occasion to bring suits
against their debtors ; while, on the other hand,
they were abandoned to all the prosecutions of their
creditors. Thus forced to pay, they were not per
mitted to receive. They were not suffered to go out
of the city without a pass, which was often refused
them without motive, and they were even threat
ened with imprisonment unless they took the oath
of allegiance. Their effects were given up to the pil
lage of the soldiery ; their negroes were taken from
them ; they had no means of redress, but in yield
ing to what was exacted of them ; while the claims
of subjects were admitted without question 
In brief, threats, fraud and force were industriously
exercised to urge the inhabitants to violate their
plighted faith, and resume their ancient chains.
Tlie greater part had recourse to dissimulation, and,
by becoming subjects, were made partakers of British
protection; others, more firm, or more virtuous,
refused to bend. But they soon saw an unbridled
soldiery sharing out their spoils ; some were thrown
into pestilential dungeons ; others, less unfortunate
or more prudent, condemned themselves to a volun
tary exile."— Id., pp. 259, 260.

210 THE FUTURE.

CHAPTER X.
The Facility of putting the President's Plan into Execution in the
early Stages of the Experiment — The Difficulties will thicken as
the Problem approaches Solution — Feelings with which the im-
corrupted Part of the Southern People will regard the Tender of
the Oath — Nature of the Undertaking which it requires from the
Pardoned Rebel — Character of the first Officials under the new
State Governments — Feelings of Animosity which will exist
between them and a large Portion of the Conquered People —
The Necessities of the National Governmeut will require that
such Men shall be kept iu Power — The Aid of the Military will be
invoked for that Purpo.se — Impossibility of effecting the Pacifica
tion of the Country under such Circumstances — Worthlessness of
Forced Oaths of Allegiance — The inevitable Tendency of Military
Rule over a Conquered People is to Severity — The Evil is thus
increased by the Means employed to remove it— These Propo
sitions illustrated — Results of the British Efforts to reestablish
the King's Authority in South Carolina in 1780-1781 — How
Military Force agrees with a Popular Form of Government in
Maryland and Delaware — The Military Establishment which the
Policy of Subjugation will require us to maintain — Expense of
such an Army — Questions as to our Ability to defray the
Expense or to keep the Ranks filled — Other Questions relating to
the Subject.
Human nature being the same now as at the
time of the Revolution, we may reasonably conclude,
not only from our experience of its operations, but
from the practical illustrations, that have been fur-

THE FUTURE. 211
nished, that the President's plan is capable of
being put into execution with a degree of success,
in its earliest stages, which wiU encourage its
adherents to expect its ultimate acceptance as a
permanent system of government by the bulk of the
southern people. The same result would however
attend an attempt to carry out any similar scheme,
which might meet with the approbation of the
commander-in-chief of the army. For as long as
war is actually raging, and the civil Government,
whatever may be its form, must be upheld by the
sword, it matters Uttle what conditions of its exer
cise may be prescribed by him in whose hands the
sword is placed. He is to all practical intents a
despot ; and the civil as well as the military rulers,
whom he may set up over the country which his
armies occupy, however distasteful they may be to
the people, wiU receive prompt and implicit obedi
ence. If it suits his fancy that a portion of the
people should manifest their adherence to his
government by some outward act of submission,
he possesses the ability to gratify his wish, pro
vided he shall take care so to limit the requisite
number, that it wUl not exceed that proportion of
the population who are accessible to the infiuences
of fear or corruption. And if he shall also hold or
assume the power to manufacture new citizens out
of an immense horde of his own fellow-countrymen,
who have been attracted to the conquered country

212 THE FUTUJIE.
by the almost illimitable opportunities of gain which
it offers to them, it is easy to see that he may
readily estabUsh a system which will present the
outward appearance of commanding a considerable
degree of popular support.
But although it is highly probable that the Pre-.
sident's plan may be inaugurated in a few of the
conquered States, under apparently fiattering aus
pices, it is evident that the difficulties of establish
ing it as a general system throughout the South,
and of maintaining it in the regions where it shall
be established, will increase as the problem ap
proaches its final solution. For if the present rate
of progress of our arms should be maintained, the
time must ultimately come when it will no longer
be possible for us, as we are now doing, to drive the
physical and intellectual fiower of the people before
us. When the cause of the Confederacy shall be
completely overthrown, those who have now fled
from the approach of our armies, must return to
their homes and mingle again with the rest of the
population. This must take place in all the States^
the semi-loyal as well as the ultra-secessionist — ^in
Tennessee as well as in South Carolina. Let us
therefore inquire in what manner the tender of the
oath and submission to the new constitution, will
be really regarded by that part of the southei-n
people, from whom alone we can construct a stable
popular Government. I mean the men who pos-

THE FUTURE.

213

sess to an average degree the noble as well as the
sordid traits of our common nature.
And first, I will consider a circumstance which
will be operative only while the war is still raging,
which is therefore principally important, at present,
for the purpose of determining the number and char
acter of the people now within our lines, who will vol
untarily take the oath with an intention to observe
it ; and also of those who are yet within the Con
federate lines, as soldiers or as civilians, and who
will be tempted by the preferred amnesty to seek
our military stations, with a view of availing them
selves of its benefits. I refer to the fact that a
large number of the insurgents are expressly ex
cepted from the provisions of the proclamation.
On perusing the list of the proscribed, it will at
once be seen that no person who has voluntarily
participated in the rebellion, can procure his par
don without committing an act of such unequivocal
baseness, that every praiseworthy instinct of the
human soul will recoil from it. For he is required
to abandon to the vengeance of a hated and hating
enemy — not merely the political " chiefs of the
rebellion," against whom the advocates of the pre
sidential scheme suppose the mass of the people to
have become incensed — ^but a large number of men
whose only crime was an erroneous political creed,
<jr an inability to resist the strongest emotions which
influence mankind — men, many of whom battled

214 THE FUTURE.
for the Union during the political conflict which
preceded the act of secession, and whose motives in
taking up arms were as pure and as praiseworthy
as those which have actuated the most virtuous of
our own citizens. All the leading civilians of the
South, irrespective of their comparative complicity
in the outbreak of the rebeUion, are to be left to
the clemency of a government, of whose embittered
feelings against their adversaries, the character of
the warfare which has been waged, and the civil
rule of many of our military proconsuls, afford to
the southern people the most conclusive evidence.
Whatever we may think of those men, they are the
most honored and trusted of the citizens of the
South, and are regarded by their fellow-countrymen
with the respect and affection which patriotism,
however mistaken, preeminent ability, undoubted
integrity, and great sacriflces in a common cause,
always command even from indifferent lookers-on.
And as if this was not enough, the same doom is to
await the gaUant generals who have challenged
even our own admiration — the men whose names
are identified as household words, in the mind of
every southerner, with the most glorious reminis
cences of southern valor and southern heroism.
The case is, in that respect, precisely the same as
if we were asked to purchase an ignominious peace
by the surrender to the gibbet of McClellan, Grant,
Rosecrans, Meade — all the long catalogue of heroes

THE FUTURE. 215
who have inscribed their names in imperishable
lettere upon the most brilliant pages of our history.
We have therefore every reason to expect that,
as long as resistance shall be possible, all those
soutlierners who possess in any considerable degree
the instincts of honorable manhood, will spurn an
offer of reconciliation upon such degrading terms.
But a shameful abandonment of the purest and
bravest of his fellow-citizens is only the first step
of the journey through the valley of humiliation
which the repentant rebel must tread. The suc
ceeding stages will be equally offensive to his
prejudices and his pride, even if the amnesty should
be extended, so as to include all those whose antici
pated fate might awaken his sympathy, and induce
him to repel with scorn the proposition to purchase
his safety by his infamy.
For the terms of the prescribed oath couM scarce
ly have been made more galling, if they had been
framed for the express purpose of outraging the feel
ings of social order and constitutional law, which
have been so instilled into the southerner from his
childhood, that they have become, as it were, a
part of his very nature. He must not only assume
a title which he has always regarded as one of tbe
most reproachful epithets which could be applied
to a human being, but in so doing he must pledge
himseK to accomplish the objects which it implies
by a crime. He must swear to become not merely

216 THE FUTURE.
an abolitionist, but a revolutionary abolitionist.
Nay more, he must swear in advance that he wiU
abide by any abolition scheme that may hereafter
be devised by the masters, to whom he must sur
render the keeping of his conscience. Nor does the
obligation of the oath stop even here. He must
swear not only to " abide by " but '¦faithfully s^ip-
port " all past and all future measures which tho
President or Congress may adopt to accomplish
abolition. That is to say, he must consent to be
come an abolition propagandist — he. must agree to
aid in forcibly depriving the unpardoned rebels of
other States as well as his own, of the right of self-
government which he has himself surrendered.,.
And as if all this was not sufficiently degrading,
his own pardon is made conditional that he shaU
" thenceforward keep and faithfully maintain said
oath inviolate ;" so that he must continually crouch
under the impending sword, which his failure to
keep the oath at any time will let fall upon him.
The proposed terms of reunion are therefore such
as none will voluntarily accept save the ignorant,
the mean-spirited, and the venal. The occupants
of official station among the rebels not only are not
invited but are repelled ; the generous will find
themselves precluded from a pardon by the circum
stances of dishonor and degradation which will
accompany its acceptance ; the wealthy will not
voluntarily submit to a govemment which proposes

THE FUTURE. 217
to requite their submission by forcibly stripping
them of the most valuable part of their property.
All these classes will hold out as long as their aid
can support the tottering cause of the Confederacy.
Meanwhile, a new class of political leaders will spring
up among the " loyal " population of the South — -
composed partly of the soldiers of fortune whom I
have already described, and partly of a class of
venal wretches, lately the loudest in their cham
pionship of the rights and blessings of slavery, and
the most bitter and uncompromising revilers of the
" Yankees," to whom the power and profits to be
derived from adherence to the new order of things,
wiU prove irresistible attractions. These men, like
their prototyes whom Botta describes, will of course
faU in with the theories so prevalent among a certain
class of poUticians at the North, that they were
misled or coerced into rebellion. Like all other
apostates, they will seek to prove the sincerity of
their conversion by the intemperance of their denun
ciation of the principles which they have abandoned,
and by the persecution of those whose manly en
durance of the frowns of fortune, will shame their
own tergiversation and venality. We may confi
dently look to see the ancient Herods of abolition
ism outheroded by this new generation which will
spring up at the South. We have indeed already
seen the first fruits of the " new reckoning."
This class, and the northern immigrants who will
J")

318 THE FUTURE.
hasten to declare themselves citizens of the " recon
structed " States, will, from the absence of all other
prominent men, as well as from other obvious
causes, furnish the political leaders of the new-
State organizations. And when the fortune of war
shall compel the rest of the southern people to
submit to the power of the nation, they wiU find
themselves obliged to live under State govern
ments founded in usurpation, and controlled by
such men as these. To reconcile a high-spirited
people to such a fate — to induce the reputable, in
telligent, educated and gifted among them to par
ticipate in the administration of such a government.
would require years of labor on the part of the
wisest and most moderate statesmen. But there is
not the slightest probability that those who have
heretofore pursued a policy, which relied for its suc
cess upon fear and compulsion only, will adopt the
measures which will be requisite to soothe the feel
ings of an exasperated and humiliated people.
Even were they so disposed, it is impossible to
point out the means whereby they can carry out
their good intentions. To do so, they must com
mence by discarding, or allowing the people to dis
card, the men who will be found in power under
the new State governments when the conquest .of
the country shall be completed. These men, how
ever, will be the true and original " loyalists " —
they will have claims upon the party in pow«)

THE FUTURE. 219
which cannot be ignored— and unless they belie the
nature and history of their kind throughout the
world, they wUl have aroused such feeUngs among
the people, that the protection of the Federal au
thorities will be essential not merely to their con
tinuance in power, but to their personal safety. If
however an enlarged patriotism and sense of justice
should so far prevail with the Federal authorities,
as to make them willing fairly to commit to the
people the reins of govemment, a more appalling
embarrassment will at once present itself. I allude
to the impossibUity of preserving public order
unless the State and the national governments shall
act in harmony with each other, and to the neces
sity which consequently exists that the popular ele
ment which controls the elections in a State, shall
be sincerely attached to the Union. In the eighth
chapter of this work, I have illustrated the work
ing — or rather the failure — of any attempt to carry
on such a State government as our Constitution
provides for, unless the people shall heartily co
operate in the endeavor. The very case which I
have supposed, will be presented in every southern
State in which the President's policy of " recon
struction" shall be put into operation, whenever
the people shall be left free to control the result of
the elections.
The result will add another to the many proofs
which the history of the world furnishes, that — ¦

220 THE FUTURE.
" A sceptre, snatched with au unruly hand.
Must be as boisterously maintained as gaitfd."
The necessities of the national Govemment will
require repressive means to be employed, in order
to prevent " loyal " incumbents of office from being
superseded by those who may be, and probably
iustly, suspected of an intention to use thefr official
positions to foment another rebellion, or at all
events to embarrass the Federal Administration in
the performance of its functions within the State.
The officers of the State government will thus
necessarily become the mere creatures of the miU
tary power — they will be, in substance, civiUans
administering a military government — and the com
monalty will continue to be a subjugated people,
enjoying only the form of liberty without its sub
stance. This state of things must continue for an indefinite
period ; for every day of its duration wUl only make
more apparent the impossibility of abandoning it.
Those who fancy that the southern people will be
induced, through fear of consequences or frona
regard to their personal interests, to become at first
the peaceable, and in time the willing subjects of a
government owing its origin to usurpation, and sus
tained in its earlier stages by military power, found
their hopes upon their wishes, rather than the les
sons of experience. There is no part of a states
man's art which demands such consummate tact

THE FUTURE. 221
and ability as to close a breach between gov
ernors and governed — it is in the nature of such
a breach to widen from day to day, even when it
occurs between a people and their legitimate ruler —
but when the latter is a usurper and a conqueror,
the task becomes hopeless till time shall have sup
plied him vjith a new patent of sovereignty.
History affords no instance to my knowledge,
where any people have immediately become willing
and loyal subjects to a government imposed upon
them by conquest, and sustaining itself by military
force. It will perhaps be said, in answer to this
suggestion, that a conquered people were never
before required to submit to so mild a government
as that under which the southerners will live. But
the intensity of the feelings of animosity which will
exist between the rulers and a large number of the
governed, and the probable character of the former,
forbid us to entertain the expectation that the new
governments will pursue a career of mildness towards
the political and social enemies of those by whom
they are administered. The essence of military rule
is despotism, and it knows but one way to escape from
tlie difficulties and embarrassments of administra
tion ; that is to remove all obstacles by force, and to
compel obedience by terror. And after a career of
repression has once been entered upon, it cannot be
abandoned — the policy of the Government becomes
fixed, and a change impossible. This is the history

222 THE FUTURE.
of all mUitary governments. Yery few conquerors
Lave adopted a policy of severity towards the con
quered as a matter of choice, but only as a matter
of necessity, and because it has been found impos
sible to govern a conquered people without severity.
However much we may theorize about a Southem
Utopia, in which a ruined and vanquished people,
prostrate at the feet of a hated enemy, with the
bayonets of his infantry at their throats, and the
hoofs of his cavalry upon their bosoms, are to be
coaxed into love of the conqueror, or frightened
into willing submission to and participation in the
usurping govemment which he has established over
them, the result will prove that human nature in
this country is the same as in every other part of
the world, and that the same causes wiU produce
the same effects in this, as in every other case of
conquest and subjugation.
The extracts from Botta's history, with which the
preceding chapter concluded, described some of the
results of the attempt to reestablish by force British
rule in the Carolinas. They demonstrate the cor
rectness of my assumption, that a government es
tablished in such a manner over a high-spirited
people, will pursue a career of repressive severity
as a necessary law of its being. The impossibUity.
of checking such a career, when it has been once
entered upon, and the feebleness of the tie between
governors and people, created by a compulsory oath

THE FUTURE. 223
of aUegiance, will become apparent by pursuing the
same subject a Uttle further. The English au
thorities soon discovered that the apparent loyalty
of the people was but a mask assumed for tempo
rary purposes. Disturbances of all kinds speedily
arose — Sumpter, Marion, and their associate com
manders raised the standard of revolt, and numbers
of the inhabitants hastened to join them. "They
had no pay, no uniforms, nor even any certain
means of subsistence ; they lived upon what chance
or their own courage provided them. They ex
perienced even want of arms and munitions of war;
but they made themselves rude weapons from the
implements of husbandry ; instead of balls of lead,
they cast them of pewter, with the dishes which the
patriots gave them for that purpose  They
were seen several times to encounter the enemy
with only three charges of ammunition to a man.
While the combat was engaged, some of those who
were destitute of arms or ammunition, kept them
selves aside, waiting till the death or wounds of their
companions should permit them to take their place."
Soon Gates arrived with his army ; and he imme
diately issued a proclamation, inviting the people
to rise, and promising forgiveness to all those who
had taken the oath to the king, except such indi
viduals as had exercised acts of barbarity or depre
dation against the persons or property of their
fellow-citizens. The result showed how futile it was

224 THE FUTURE.
to expect to bind a people to the support of an
unpopular government by oaths extorted from their
fears. " Not only the people ran to arms in multi
tudes to support the cause of Congress, but even the
companies levied in the province for the service of
the king either revolted or deserted." Lord Raw
don had sent to Georgetown a convoy of sick
soldiers under escort of a regiment of Carolinians.
" About the middle of the route, these miUtia
mutinied, and having seized their officers, conducted*.
them with the sick English to the camp of General
Gates. Colonel Lisle, one of those who had taken
oath to the king, gained over a battalion of miUtia
that had been levied in the name of Cornwallis, and
led it entire to Colonel Sumpter." — Botta, vol. ii.,
pp. 286-288.
The battle of Camden followed. It terminated-
in a disastrous defeat of the Americans, but the
weather prevented Cornwallis from effectually pur
suing his advantage. He availed himself of the
breathing spell which it secVred him to undertake
new efforts for consolidating the royal authority.
. . . . " Unable to operate in the field, Cornwallis
turned his attention towards the internal adminis
tration, in order to consolidate the acquisition of
South Carolina. Resolved to have recourse to ex
treme remedies for terminating the crisis in which
that 'province found itself, he purposed to spreads
terror among the republicans by the rigor of pun-

THE FUTURE. 225
ishment, and deprive them of the means to do harm,
by depriving them of the means to subsist. Accord
ingly, he addressed orders to all the British com
manders, that without any delay they should cause
to be hung all those individuals, who, after having
served in the militia levied by the king, had gone
over to the rebels ; that they should punish with
imprisonment and confiscation those who, having
submitted at first, had taken part in the last rebel
hon, to the end that their effects might be applied
to indemnify those subjects whom they should have
oppressed or despoiled  All minds were pene
trated with horror ; all hearts were infiamed with
an implacable and never-dying hatred against such
ferocious victors. A cry of vengeance resounded
amidst this exasperated people. All detested a king
who had devoted them to the oppression of these
brutal executors of his will. His standard became
an object of execration. The British generals
leamed by cruel experience, that executions and
despair are frail securities for the submission of a
people planted in distant regions, actuated by a
common opinion, and embarked with passion in a
generous enterprise. Nor were these the only rigors
which Cornwallis thought it expedient to exercise,
in order to confirm the possession of the provinces
conquered by his arms. To complete the reduction
of the patriots, he employed arrests and sequestra
tions  These different measures, combined
10*

226 THE FUTURE.
with a vigorous watchfulness over the movements
of the suspected, appeared to the EngUsh a sure
guaranty for the return of tranquillity and obedi
ence in the province of ^outh Carolina." — Id., pp.
295, 296.
But the remedies only aggravated the evils which
they were designed to cure. The severities of the
British generals produced no other result than to
inflame the people w'ith a still deeper detestation of
the royal government and of its adherents. Their
anger was specially directed against those of their
own fellow-citizens who remained faithful to the
crown. " They observed the laws of war against
the English, but they displayed an excessive rigor
against the loyalists. They hung several without
listening to their remonstrances." The battles of
Cowpens, Guilford and Eutaw foUo/wed, and the
English were compelled to retire within their in
trenchments at Charleston and Savannah, which
two cities, with a slender portion of territory in
their immediate vicinity, alone continued to ac
knowledge the royal authority.*
* The case of Colonel Hayne affords another instance of
how Uttle obligation even men occupying the highest social
position, and distinguished for the noblest traits of charac
ter, attach to an oath of allegiance extorted from them by
threats of violence and plunder. After the surrender of
Charleston, Hayne, who was in every respect one of the
most honored and inflaential citizens of South CaroUna,
<vas prevented by the dangerous illness of his wife and

THE FUTURE. 22T
Should the Southern Confederacy be completely
overwhelmed, the resolution of the inhabitants of
the States which we shaU have subjugated, may not
alone be able to accomplish such decisive results.
But the parallel will hold good in all other respects.
Notwithstanding that we may compel an outward
submission to our rule and to the usurped State
governments which we may establish, it will be
impossible to subdue the spirit of such a brave,
proud, and passionate people, as those wlio have so
effectuaUy made a stand for nearly three years
against our immensely superior pow-er. Those who
will take the oath, will do so only through fear of
the immediate consequences of their refusal, with
hatred in their hearts, and with a settled purpose
children from fleeing the country. He surrendered himself
as a prisoner of war, and sought leave to return to his
home on parole. But the British ofBcers would allow him
no alternative, except to acknowledge himself a British
subject, or to undergo a rigorous captivity, with the cer
tainty that the soldiery would sack and devastate his plan
tations. He consented to take the oath of allegiance, and
received permission to return to his residence. Being
ordered (contrary to the promise which the British com
mander had given when his submission was accepted) to
take up arms for the king, instead of complying, he raised
a force for Congress. He was taken prisoner by the
British and executed at Charleston. The usual result fol
lowed. Universal sympathy for his fate pervaded the whole
country, and " the aversion of the Americans for their bar
barous foes acquired a new character of implacable ani
mosity." — Botta. vol. ii., pp. 377-319.

228 THE FUTURE.
of seizing the earliest opportunity to throw off a
detested yoke ; and a large number, exasperated by
the losses and sufferings which the war has brought
upon them, by the humiliation of defeat, by the bit
terness of conquest, by the political degradation to
which the exclusion acts condemn them, and by the
execution or exile of their leaders, will prefer to
endure every extremity, rather than submit to the
degrading terms, upon which alone they can pur
chase the privilege to drag out a dishonored ex
istence. If these men shall be left unmolested, they
will constitute a dangerous class, whose presence
will be a source of perpetual and well-founded
apprehension to the Government. If, as is most
probable, an attempt shall be made to compel them
to take the oath by enforcing the penal and confls-
cation laws against them, they will imitate their
ancestors, and betake themselves to the swamps and
forests, whence they will wage an unrelenting war of
extermination upon the conqueror, and those of their
own fellow-countrymen who may have made them
selves obnoxious by their zeal in his service.
But we need not resort to the records of the time
of the Revolution, or to the experience of other
countries, or to abstract speculations upon the ope
rations of human nature, to learn what will be the
effect of an attempt to carry on a popular form of
government under the auspices of military power.
We have at the present time and in our own country

THE FUTURE. 229
abundant instances of the working of such a system.
We need not even inquire how such a govemment
is now carried on in the conquered State of Louisi
ana. We have but to look to Maryland, a State in
which no ordinance of secession was ever passed,
which has never been humiUated by conquest, in
which the existing loyal State govemment com
mands, I hope, a larger popular support that one
of the President's governments could possibly com
mand in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, or South
Carolina. My readers are familiar with the compul
sory prayers for the President, the displays of flags
by military orders, the domiciliary visits, the seiz
ures of songs, photographs and music, the constant
succession of arrests, trials and punishments of citi
zens by court-martial, sometimes for words spoken
or written, sometimes for gestures, sometimes for
silence, and the thousand nameless other familiar
incidents of military rule, all of them intolerably
galling to a people born to freedom, which increase
disaffection, harden the disaffected, and from the
force of mere sympathy, weaken the loyalty of the
well-affected.* This is not the place to criticise the
* " Ex uno disce omnes." The following newspaper
extract is a recent instance of the working of the system.
The language in which the writer relates the incident would
alone suffice to prove his " loyalty " — ^in fact, the extract
is part of the Baltimore correspondence of the j^ew York
Evening Fast :
" A knot of cowardly traitors were arrested the other

230 THE FUTURE.
necessity of such acts when they have occurred. I
refer to them to show that they are the unavoidable
concomitants of such governments as it is proposed
to establish throughout the South.
In Maryland and Delaware it has been supposed
that inferior numbers, the overwhelming prepon
derance of the military power, and the geographical
situation of the States, have overawed the disaf-;
fected, and either banished them or reduced them
to sullen submission. But the events of November,
1863, demonstrate either that the spirit of disaffee-;
tion is yet so rife even in those States, that the pub-
night in the act of drinking the following infamous toast :
' Damn the goose that grew the quill that made the pen
that wrote the Proclamation of Emancipation I' They
were about to start on their travels to Jeff. Davis's domini
ons for this offence, when their wives aud children appeared
on the scene. Provost-Marshal Fish, moved by their
entreaties, released the offenders on their taking the oath
of allegiance."
There is an English precedent for this kind of treason,^
but it is as old as the reign of King Edward the fourth.^
A gentleman, whose favorite buck the king had killed in
hunting, said that he wished that the animal was, "horns and
all, in the belly of him who counseUed the king to kill it ;
and as the king killed it of his own accord, or was his own
counsellor, it was held to be a treasonable wish against the
king himself" Even in those days, however, there were
some who thought his " a hard case," and the chief-justice
(Markham) chose rather to .resign his office, than assent to
the judgment. — Chitty' s Blackstone, Book iv., p. 80, and
note.

THE FUTURE. 231
lie safety will not permit freedom of elections, or
else that politicians, wielding miUtary power, will
not tolerate freedom of elections when the popular
majority is against them. If we assume that the
military severity to which citizens have been sub
jected, and the measures by which the popular
vote was controlled by the military, were essen
tial to tbe public safety in States situated like
Maryland and Delaware,* what measures may
we not expect in the more distant regions and
immense territories of the South, and with a whole
people disaffected ? In those sections of the coun
try, even the enormous military force of which I
will presently give an estimate, will be unable to
suppress the spirit or the outward manifestations of
disaffection. The military authorities will be per
petually engaged in detecting or punishing real or
pretended plots and conspiracies. The presence of
the soldiers of the conqueror will lead to continual
collisions with the conquered people. The greater
the number of arrests, imprisonments and courts-
martial, the greater will be the necessity for them,
and the more frequent their recurrence. The hatred
of the conquered people will thus increase with
the means adopted for its suppression ; its cir
cle will continually widen ; it will be transmitted
* See in a note to the twelfth chapter, a detailed
statement of some of the acts which attended the military
interference with the elections in those States.

232 THE FUTURE.
from father to son ; and no man can foresee the end
'of the contest. It is the old story over again — the
same sad old story, which, told of other lands, has
so often aroused our sympathies for the conquered
and our indignation against the conqueror, in days ,
when none of us dreamed that he would live to see
the stars and stripes float over a Yenetia, or a
Poland. And is it possible to suppose that while
in one-half of the nation, the people are seething
with a rebellion suppressed by the armed hand, and
continually struggling against a usurped govern
ment, and the military power by which it is upheld ;
in the other half, an opposition, and such an oppo
sition as will he created by such events, can be allowed
free scope in the press and upon the rostrum daily
to inveigh against and denounce this system of
government, as a violation of the Constitution and
an outrage upon human rights, and to array the
Administration which has adopted it before the bar
of public opinion ? That the opposition will do so
if permitted, and that nothing but force or fear wiU
prevent them from so doing, no reader will for a
moment doubt ; and yet it is entirely clear that the
Government cannot exist and keep the South in
subjection if such a political warfare is allowed at
the North ; and it is equally clear that the latter
cannot be restrained without the presence of a large
military force scattered throughout the country.;
Let us inquire how large a force will be requisite

THE FUTURE. 233
to carry out the scheme which I am discussing, and
what will be its annual cost.
And first, a few words respecting the burdens to
which we shall be subjected, irrespective of the cost
of the army. The Secretary of the Treasury, in his
last annual report, estimates that the amount of our
public debt, on the first day of July, 1864, wiU be
$1,686,956,641 44, and that if the war should con
tinue with an undiminished expenditure, till the
first day of July, 1865, the debt will then reach the
amount of $2,231,935,190 57. The average rate of
interest, on the first of October, 1863, was 3.95 per
cent — this low rate being produced by the large
amount of the debt which bears no interest, the
lowest rate at which the funded debt is now
negotiated being six per cent, per annum, payable
in coin. The average rate of interest has, in fact,
been increasing since the first of July, 1863, and
as the Secretary states, " it is obvious that it
must continue to increase with the increase of the
proportion of the interest bearing to the non-interest
bearing debt ;" and the utmost limit of the latter
having now been reached, the average increase
must in the future be very rapid. I know of no
causes which will operate to diminish the expenses
of the war, in any material respect, until it shall be
closed, an event which, if force alone shall be
resorted to, can hardly be expected earUer than the
campaign of 1865. On the contrary, as it is pro-

234 THE FUTURE.
posed to augment the pay of the army, the next year
will probably see the expenses of the Government
consideraby increased over those of the last year.
But I will suppose that the end of the war will find
us with a debt of only $2,000,000,000 upon our
hands, and that the average rate of interest will not
go higher than five per cent. Upon this calculation,
we must raise annually the sum of $100,000,000
to pay the interest upon our debt alone. But it
must be remembered that this is payable in coin,
and unless the very improbable contingency should
occur, that our paper money will then equal coin in
value, there must be added to this sum the premium
upon gold to such an amount as shall equal the
difference between the receipts from customs (last ¦:
year $69,059,642 40) and the interest upon the
debt. To this sum, enormous as it is, which must-
be raised annually by direct or indirect, taxation of
the wealth and industry of the country, must be
added the amount of the current expenses of the
Government. Let us inquire in what manner these
will be affected by the policy which we are con
sidering. The returns of the census of 1860, show that'
there were in that year the following number
of free white male inhabitants between the ages of
eighteen and forty-five years, in each of the seced
ing States :

THE FUTURE

Alabama .... 99,967

Arkansas

.

65,231

Florida .

15,739
Georgia .
111,005
Louisiana
83,456
Mississippi
70,295
North CaroUna
115,369
South Carolina
65,046
Tennessee
. 159,353
Texas
92,145
Virginia
196,587
Total in eleven St
ates .
1,064,193
235
In this table are included many in Tennessee and
in the dismembered State of Virginia, who will be
a source of strength instead of weakness, in endea
voring to carry out the policy of subjugation. The
number which would remain, after making a deduc
tion for those, must undergo a still further diminu
tion for physical disabilities ; although in estimating
the portion of the population which is capable of
causing uneasiness to an unpopular government,
the percentage to be allowed for that cause is much
less than if we were estimating how many men were
capable of regular field duty.
Making all due allowances for each of these
causes, it will be seen that the population of the
States, over whom it is proposed to estabUsh and
maintain by force, the new State governments,
236 THE FUTURE.
contained in the year 1860 an enormous number,
probably not less than from six to seven hundred
thousand of arms-bearing men, who are or have
been secessionists and rebels. It is of course impos
sible to compute accurately how large a force wiU
be required to keep those men in subjection. Many
of them have been, and more will be killed or dis
abled in the course of the war ; and on the other
hand, in time of peace, a population rapidly fills up
gaps of that < kind, and the show as well as the
reality of military power is essential to keep down
a spirit of rebellion. Many of them will submit
to the new system outwardly — a few cordially —
and on the other hand, the number of such men will
be greater or less, according as the military force is
of itself adequate or inadequate to sustain the new
governments. Considering these circumstances ;
the vast extent of the southern territory ; the
character of the country over which the sway of
the nation is to be maintained by the armed hand ;
and the necessity of overawing the opposition party
by a strong military force stationed at different
points in the North, I think, after mature refiection,
that no prudent man would take the responsibility
of carrying on the government, unless when the
new policy is ushered into existence, it is sustained
by a military establishment of at least three hun
dred thousand men. These figures may perhaps
at first impress the reader as an exaggeration ; but

THE FUTURE. 237
when it is remembered that every large city North
and South will require a garrison ; that in the
South every custom-house must be guarded ; and
that military stations must be scattered throughout
the whole country to suppress guerriUas, to keep
the highways open by land and by water, to pro
tect obnoxiously "loyal" citizens, to enable the
State authorities to carry on the machinery of
government, and to act generally as a Federal and
State police, I think that the number of men which
I have named, will be found inadequate to all the
duties required of them, rather than a useless bui'den
upon the treasury.
It is impossible for an unofficial person, and pro
bably equally impossible for an official, to get at
the exact cost per man of maintaining the army at
the present time ; but we have a few data upon
which to base a tolerably accurate . calculation.
Several years ago it was estimated that the army
annually cost the Government about one thousand
dollars for each enlisted man. But as the establish
ment was small, the number of officers and the
expenses of the ordinance and engineering depart
ments was then greatly disproportioned to the num
ber of the rank and file ; and the restoration of the
proper proportions in those respects will probably
offset the increase of pay, &c., for tho purpose of
determining the present expense which the ratio
bears to the number of men. In December, eighteen

238 THE FUTURE.
hundred and sixty, the Secretary of War asked for
an appropriation of about three hundred and sixty
miUions of dollars to sustain for a year a force of
five hundred thousand men, which is at the rate of
seven hundred and twenty dollars for each man.'^ I
believe that the latter rate is too low, and that I
have under-estimated the number that the subjuga
tion policy will require ; but taking my estimate of
numbers, and the lowest estimate of expense per
man, as a basis of a calculation, the cost of the army
will reach the appalling sum of two hundred and
sixteen millions of dollars per annum. When to this
we add the expenses of the civil estabhshment, the
interest upon the debt, and the expenses of the navy,
which must be kept up to a considerable proportion
of its present size, the mind becomes overwhelmed
* According to the budget of 1862-3, it costs the
British nation £15,139,379 to maintain an army of 145,450
men, or in round numbers $520 per man. But nearly
every item of the expense of the British army is much
smaller than the corresponding item in our service. An
English infantry soldier gets 13 pence per diem, from which
there is an abatement for rations of about 8^ pence, leaving
hun for his daUy pay 4-^ pence, or $2 70 per month. The
monthly pay of an American infantry soldier is $13 besides
his rations, which are estimated at 30 cents per diem
against 17 for the Englishman. A corresponding differ
ence against us exists in every branch of the service, and
also, but to a less degree, in the expense of clothing, arms,
ammunition, and supplies of aU kinds. Upon the whole, I
doubt if the army costs the Government less than $1,000
for each enlisted man.

THE future: 239
in attempting to devise any plan by which our com
merce and industry can exist under such frightful
loads. And in what a condition will the nation be to
carry on a foreign war, already burdened with such
an enormous annual expenditure, and with a rebel
lious population in its midst, whose repression taxes
its utmost energies in time of peace ? The theorizer
who believes that we can safely consult only our
own interests or the gratification of our own pas
sions in dealing with the southern people after their
subjection, overlooks that law of retribution by
which foreign nations avenge the injuries which *
sovereigns infiict upon their own subjects. The
more completely a conquered people is crushed, the
more eagerly do they turn their eyes in hope, and
stretch out their arms in supplication to some rival
or hereditary enemy of their oppressor. Are we
prepared to create in our midst a people which will
look for the display of the " meteor flag " upon
their coasts and in their country, with the same
feelings with which Irishmen for more than one
hundred years longed to see the white flag of the
Bourbons and the tri-color of Napoleon ?
And again, whence is to come the vast army
which is to keep our brethren in chains ? Does
anybody believe that it can be kept up by volun
tary enlistments ? Is the population of the North
to be subjected to a perpetual conscription to main
tain it ? Can we permanently spare such a force

240 THE FUTURE.
of laborers from our country at any time — especially
at the close of a war, which has made such hug©
gaps in the laboring population, and when the pro
ductive capacity of the nation will be strained to its
utmost tensioa to raise the means to pay the interest-
on our enormous debt ?
To many persons the }.roblem of a supply of men
for the army will appear to admit of an easy solu
tion ; they will tell us to fill up the ranks with
negroes. But such a remedy would but aggravate
the disease. The employment of negro soldiers to
• keep the white men of the South in subjection,
would add immeasurably to the difficulty of doing
that, which under any circumstances presents dif
ficulties apparently insurmountable. Should such
a policy be adopted, the number of those in the
"reconstructed" States who would take, or having
taken, would keep the President's oath, would be
too small to affect appreciably a calculation based
upon the active hostility of the whole population.^
It would intensify beyond calculation throughout
the whole South the fierceness of the smothered
passions, and it would add a large population in
Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky to the number
of those who must be kept down by forcible repres
sion. Nor would the white men of the North sub
mit to be overawed by a negro army. No plan
could be devised better calculated to strengthen the
opposition and reduce the administration party to a

THE FUTURE. 241
shadow, than that of carrying out the repressive
policy by means of an army of blacks. The states
man who shall attempt it will need a force suf
ficiently large to establish at once a naked despotism
over the whole nation.
But I forbear to pursue the subject further.
There are two other grave questions involved in the
policy of subjugation, the discussion of which I will
waive. They are — of what use to us will be the
impoverished and ruined country acquired and
retained by such prodigious sacrifices ? And its
kindred question — will the freed negro work ?
Under any possible solution of those two problems,
as a mere matter of profit and loss, balancing the
expense of forcibly retaining the South in the Union,
against the expansion of commerce, the increase
of revenues, the military strength, or any other ele
ments of national greatness which we fancy will
result to us from so doing — the speculation will be
the most disastrous that any nation ever under
took. But considerations much graver than those of
revenue and expenditure are also involved in the
issue, to which I wiU now ask the reader's atten
tion.

11

342 THE FUTURE.

CHAPTER XI.
Oonsideration of the Policy of Subjugation, under Mr. Sumner's
Plan or the President's Plan, with reference to its effects upon
Popular Institutions at the North — The Constitutional Restric
tions upon the General Government were framed for the purpose
of preventing the Downfall of Public Liberty — The tendency of
the Government to disregard them— The Barriers erected to
check that tendency— The Independence of the States was one
of tliose Barriers — The effect of the proposed " Reconstruction "
will be to destroy it — The Independence of the Legislature and
Judiciary constitutes another Barrier — It was secured by the
Dependence of the President upon them and of the Legislature
upon the People — It was further secured by the President's Per
sonal Responsibility — The Provisions to protect the Liberties of
the individual Citizen added to give it greater Strength — Con
sideration of the Doctrine that the Provisions protecting Personal
Liberty are not applicable to a time of Civil Commotion — Its
effect in destroying the Responsibility of the President and of the
Legislature to the People — Its effect in destroying the Independ
ence of the Legislature and Judiciary, and rendering the Pesident
independent of both — The President's Plan is even more dan
gerous than Mr. Sumner's — The policy of Subjugation under
either Plan frees the Executive from Control or Responsibility,
and leaves the Liberties of the People at his mercy — Effect of the
vast Increase of the Annual Expenses of the Government which
it involves, in disposing the Wealthy Classes to the Abolition of
Popular Government— The presence of a large Standing Army
will destroy the Popular Appreciation of the existing Form ofi
Government. On the sixteenth of December, 1861, Senator
Hale, of New Hampshire, in the course of a debate

THE FUTURE. 248
in the United States Senate upon the arbitrary
arrests made in the loyal States by direction of the
Administration, spoke as follows :
" You may gain your victories on the sea, you
may sweep the enemy from the broad ocean, and
from all its arms, and from all its rivers, until you
may hoist, as the Dutch admiral once hoisted at the
head of his flag-staff, a broom, indicative that you
have swept the ocean of your foes ; and you may
crush every rebel that is arrayed against you and
utterly break their power; and when you have done
all that, when yon have established a military
power such as the earth never saw, such as England
never aspired to be, and constitutional Uberty shall
be buried amid the ashes of that conflagration in
which you have overcome and destroyed your foes,
then, sir, you will have got but a barren victory,
and with all your glory you will but have achieved
your everlasting shame."
I shall discuss in this and the next succeeding
chapter, the effect upon the free institutions of our
country, of the establishment throughout the South
of any system of government which must be main
tained by military force against the will of the
people, whether it shall consist of territorial govern
ments under Mr. Sumner's plan, or of revolutionary
State governments as contemplated by the Presi
dent's scheme of " reconstruction." I shall endeavor
to show that such a termination of the war must

244 THE FUTURE.
inevitably be followed by the aboUtion of the right
of the people to choose their rulers, or its corruption
to such an extent as to reduce it to a mere formality.
The system of arbitrary arrests, from which Senator
Hale apprehended the consequences so graphically
described by him, will constitute the principal ele
ment of a political complication that will render
the maintenance of constitutional liberty impossible,
and at the same time furnish one of the chief instru
ments of its overthrow. For that reason, I have
here put his warning upon record. The words are
those of an eminent and enthusiastic supporter not
only of the war, but of the objects with which it
has been prosecuted, and the means which have
been employed to accomplish them — of an extreme
anti-slavery man — of a zealous, not to say an intole
rant partisan — of a man whose political principles
and party standing preclude the supposition that
they were spoken for effect or for factious purposeSi-
Coming from such lips, and uttered in such a
debaite, they possess a significance and importance
which cannot be over-estimated. Let them fall
upon the ears of the American people " like a fire-
bell in the night ;" arousing the nation from a
fatal slumber— the torpor of indifference and incre
dulity — during which the flames which are now
raging around the ediflce of the Union, threaten
also to destroy the kindred fabric of public liberty.
I have referred in a preceding part of this work

THE FUTURE. 245
to the balance of power which the Constitution
establishes, and which I contended could not rigiit-
fully be disturbed in any part of the country with
out infringing upon the rights of every other part.*
I said that the exercise by the general Government
in any State of powers and authority which the
Constitution has withheld from it, would be an
injury not only to that State and its people, but also
to every other State, and to every citizen of every.
other State — that it would be a usurpation by which
every individual in the nation would be wronged.
As the principles upon which this proposition
depends have an important bearing upon the sub
ject which we are now considering, I will state them
somewhat in detail.
The Constitution was intended to be framed so as
to insure its own perpetuity, and its wise fi-amers
taxed their utmost ability to foresee and provide
against the dangers to which it might be exposed.
One of those dangers — the one in fact from which
the greatest apprehension was entertained — was the
tendency of the central Government to draw to
itself the powers and functions of internal adminis
tration. These were (with a few exceptions which
have been specified) reserved jealously to the
States; and the utmost care was taken to exclude
the general Govemment from their exercise. This
* See Chapter ui,, pp. 71 to 73.

246 THE FUTURE.
jealousy of the central power proceeded from
a well founded apprehension, that a government
to which should be confided the internal adminis
tration of such a vast extent of territory as the
Union comprised, must soon degenerate into a
despotism. It was thought that it would be en
tirely too colossal to survive ; that the diver
sity of interests between the different portions of
such an immense empire would lead to the tyranny
of one section over the other, or of the larger over
the smaller States ; that the passions which would
be aroused thereby would create too eager a contest
for the possession of its immense power and patron
age ; and that popular liberty must soon perish, if
such a briUiant prize was subjected at short inter
vals to the result of a heated canvass among the
masses of the people. Tlie evils of an elective chief-
magistracy in a single State has been apparent to
the whole world by the disorders and corruptions
to which the kingdom of Poland* had been for
centuries exposed, although the power of election
was confided in that country to a diet contioUed by
the nobles and men of wealth, and the State itself
was insignificant in territory and population, com
pared with the mighty domain that our fathers
expected would grow up under the Constitution
which they were framing. Hence the statesmen of
* Poland styled itself a repubUc, and it was, in fact, an
aristoeratic repubUc, with an elective chief magistrate.

THE FUTURE. 247
that day were almost unanimously of the opinion
that the powers of the general Government should
be restricted to the smallest possible compass, con
sistent with the discharge of the functions for which
it was created. In this manner it was supposed
that the danger of the conversion of the repubUc
into a monarchy would be averted. It was held,
first, that such a restriction, by confining the Gov
emment chiefiy to the management of the external
affairs of the nation, would greatly limit the amount
of its power and patronage, and prevent its opera
ting directly upon the interests and feelings of the
masses of the people ; thus the prize to be contended
for would be less brilliant, and the competition for
its possession would provoke less popular passion;
and secondly, it was supposed that the force of the
periodical struggle for power in the nation would
be greatly weakened by creating a similar struggle
for power in the States, the legislation and admin
istration of which more directly affected the peo
ple.* But the Umitations having been estabUshed, the
next question was, how should the national Govern-
* " Into the administration of these (the States) a
greater number of individuals will expect to rise. From
the gift of these, a greater number of offices and emolu
ments will flow. By the superintending care of these, all
the more domestic and personal interests of the people will
be regulated and provided for." — The, Federalist, No. 46.

248 THE FUTURE.
ment, powerful as it must be even with the restric
tions to which it was to be subjected, be prevented
from overstepping them and usurping the powers
which belonged to the States ?
Many opposed the adoption of the Constitution,
because they could see no means of escape from
this danger, without so circumscribing the powers
of the central authority as to render it but Uttle
more efficient than the Congress of the Confedera
tion. But the friends of the Constitution answered
their opponents, by a reference to certain features
of the system, which had, they said, erected two
ample barriers against usurpation. The first of
these was the estdependknoe and soveeeigntt of
THE States, and I find the argument as to its suf
ficiency, admirably condensed in the twenty-eighth
number of The Federalist, from which I make the
following extract :
" In a single State, if the persons intrusted with
the supreme power become usurpers, the different
parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it con
sists, having no distinct government in each, can
take no regular measures for defence. The citizens
must rush tumultuously to arras, without concert,
without system, without resource, except in their
courage and despair. The usurpers, clothed with
the forms of legal authority, can too often crush the
opposition in embryo  But in a confederacy,
the people without exaggeration may be said to be

THE FUTURE.

249

entirely the masters of their own fate. Power being
almost always the rival of power, the general
Government will at all times stand ready to check
the usurpations of the State governments, and those
will have the same disposition towards the general
Government. The people, by throwing themselves
into either scale, will infallibly make it prepon
derate. If their rights are invaded by either, they
can make use of the other as an instrument of
redress. How wise will it be in them by cherishing
the Union to preserve to themselves an advantage
which can never be too highly prized !
" It may safely be received as an axiom in our
political system, that the State governments will, in
all possible contingencies, afford complete security
against invasions of the pubUc liberty by the
national authority  They can readily com
municate with each other in the different States,
and imite their common forces, for the protection
of their common liberty  If the Federal army
should be able to quell the resistance of one State,
the distant States would have it in their power to
make head with fresh forces  When will the
time arrive that the Federal Govemment can raise
and maintain an army, capable of erecting a des
potism over the great body of the people of an
immense empire, who are in a situation, through
the medium of their State governments, to take
measures for their own defence with all the celerity,

250 THE FUTURE
regularity and system of independent nations?
The apprehension may be considered as a disease
for which there can be found no cure in the re
sources of argument and reasoning." *
Thus it will be seen that our forefathers antici
pated danger to public liberty from the centralizing
tendency of the national Government, and relied
upon the States in their separate and collective
capacities, to avert that danger by restraining the
general Government within its allotted limits, by
every means at their command, including force, if
necessary. But how does the policy of subjugation
propose to affect this safeguard of our liberties ?
"Whether Mr. Sumner's or the President's plan shall
be adopted, it is evident that we shall, to use a
* The paper from which this extract is taken, was
written by Mr. Hamilton. Precisely the same ideas are
expressed in the forty-sixth number, written by Mr. Madi
son, an extract from which is contained in the note to page
247. An unbroken series of commentators upon the Con
stitution attest the necessity, if we would preserve our
Uberties, of jealously maintaining in their full integrity the
State governments, which Mr. Jefferson aptly calls " the
surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies ;" and
Rufus Choate, even more tersely, " the police of the JJnion."
UntU the war broke out, there was no difference of opinion
among the people upon this subject. The " Chicago plat
form" of 1860 vies with the "Baltimore platform" in
affirming this doctrine ; it declares that " the maintenance
inviolate of the rights of the States" is "essential to that
balance of power, upon which the perfection and endurance
of our poUtical fabric depends."

THE FUTURE. 251
popular phrase, burn our candle at both ends. The
one contemplates that the conquered territory shall
be, for an indefinite future, governed by executive
and judicial officers appointed by the President,
and confirmed by the Senate, and that its legisla
tion shall be controlled either by the same officers
or directly by Congress ; the other proposes that it
shall be governed by officers chosen by a minority
of the people. In either case the system rests upon
a high-handed and forcible usurpation ; and in
either case, martial or military law must constitute
the most important ingredient of government;
indeed it will be, in most of the States, the only
element which gives the local government any sta
bility, and insures the officers who administer the
latter personal protection, as well as the ability to
discharge their duties. So that in the one case the
general Government directly, and in the other case
the President indirectly, will control the internal
administration of the vast territory and population
of the South ; and the patronage directly or indi
rectly at the command of the Executive will be
swelled to an amount exceeding, it is beUeved, that
of any crowned head in the world. Thus the prize
to be contended for at the national elections, will
be so immeasurably increased in value, as to offer
an irresistible temptation to such incumbents of
pubUc office as we are Ukely to have in these

252 THE FUTURE.
degenerate times, to retain their grasp of the reins
of power, by any measures, however violent and
iUegal, which are consistent with their personal
safety. And at the same time the ability of the
States to check usurpation will be correspondingly
destroyed, first by the immense aggregation of
material power which either scheme will place
within the control of the central Government ;
secondly, by the diminution of the importance of
the State governments which the process of centrali
zation is sure to produce ; and thirdly, by a dimi
nution of the number of the States, whose combined
action was relied upon to make head against usur
pation. Thus the policy of subjugation operates
directly to break down onk op the two great
BULWAEKS WHICH PEOTECT THE LIBERTIES OF THE
PEOPLE. And within seventy-five years after Ham
ilton characterized an apprehension, that the time
would ever arrive when the Federal Governmeni
could raise and maintain an army, capable of mena
cing the independence of a people protected hy
their State governments, as " a disease for which
there can be found no cure in the resources of argu- •
ment and reasoning," eminent statesmen are re
commending the American people to pursue a
policy, which will reduce the States everywhere to
but little more than boards of local police; will
convert eleven of them into mere satellites of the

THE FUTURE. 253
general Government ; and wiU place at the disposal
of the latter an army exceeding a quarter of a mil-
Uon of men !
The second great bulwark of popular liberty
established by the Constitution, was the independ
ence or the LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIAL DEPAET-
MENTS,* which it was said rendered them amply
able to protect themselves and the people against
the encroachments of the executive department,
from which the danger of usurpation was mainly
apprehended ; while the immediate dependence of
one branch of the Legislature upon tbe people, and
the fact that the other branch represented the
States in their sovereign capacity, was a sufficient
guaranty against the Legislature becoming so cor
rupted or influenced by the head of the executive
department, as to tolerate any attempt which he
might make upon the liberties of the nation. And
it was supposed that any such attempt, without
their toleration, was sufficiently guarded against by
the Uability of the President to impeachment.
That feature of the proposed system which exposes
the President to punishment, was kept prominently
before the people in the discussions which preceded
the adoption of the Constitution, for the purpose of
* See The Federalist, Nos. 41 to 51, written by Mr
Madison. His conclusion is, that the greatest danger to
be apprehended from usurpation, is that the Legislature
will usurp the prerogatives of the Executive

254 THE FUTURE.
allaying their apprehensions respecting the possi
bility of his subverting their liberties. Thus The
lederalist says (No. 39), " The President of tlie
United States is impeachable at any time during
the tenure of his office;" and again (No. 69), "The
President of the United States would be liable to be
impeached, tried, and upon conviction of treason,
bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,
removed from office  In this delicate and
important circumstance of personal responsibility,
the President of confederated America would stand
on no better ground tlian a governor of New York,
and upon worse ground than the governors of Yir
ginia and Delaware." And again, " The President
of the United States would be an officer elected by
the people for four years ; the king of Great Britain
is a perpetual and hereditary prince. The one
would be amenable to personal punishment and
disgrace ; the person of the other is sacred and
inviolable." And again, in No. 70, treating of the
Executive, " The ingredients which constitute safety
in the republican sense, are a due dependence upon
the people and a due responsibility."
Thus it was supposed, that by the independence
of the Legislature and the President's responsibility
to it, the liberties of the nation were effectually
secured against the usurpations of the Executive.
At the same time, great dissatisfaction was mani
fested at the omission of the convention to incorpo-

THE FUTURE. 255
rate a bill of rights into the Constitution, so as to
secure the liberties of the individual against the
exercise either of unlawful powers, or of lawful
powers in an oppressive manner. The eighty-fourth
number of I'he Federalist is principally devoted to
showing that the Constitution is not open to any
solid objections by reason of that omission ; but the
alarm which the absence of a bill of rights aroused
was so great, that although, after a long hesitation
on the part of some of the States, the Constitution
was ratified by the requisite number, several of the
conventions expressed officially an eamest wish to
have amendments immediately incorporated into it,
which should supply that omission. And accord
ingly, several " declaratory and restrictive" amend
ments to the Constitution were at once adopted, in
order, as expressed in their preamble, " to prevent
misconstruction or abuse of its powers," among
which were the following :
" Congress shall make no law .... abridging
the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right
of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Govemment for a redress of grievances. The
right of the people to be secure in their persons,
houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; and no
warrant shall issue but upon probable cause, sup
ported by oath or affirmation, and particularly
describing the place to be searched or the person to

2. 5 'J THE FUTURE.
be seized. No person shall be held to answer for a
'capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless upon a
presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except
in cases arising in the land or naval forces or in the*
militia, when in actual service, in time of war or
public danger ; nor shall any person .... be de
prived of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law. In all criminal prosecutions the
accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and pubUc
trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district
where the crime shall have been committed ; which
district shall have been previously ascertained by
law ; and to be informed of the nature and cause
of the accusation ; to be confronted with the wit
nesses against him ; to have compulsory process for
obtaining witnesses in his favor ; and to have the
assistance of counsel for his defence."
These provisions for the " due responsibility " of
the Executive, the independence of the legislature,
and the protection of the individual from arbitrary
punishments or seizures, in person or in property,
were therefore regarded by our forefathers as essen
tial to the preservation of public liberty, even in a
time when corruption and unregulated ambition were
almost wholly unknown, and party spirit compara
tively so, in the administration of our public affairs.
Now let us examine in what manner the efficiency
and stability of this, the second of the constitutional
bulwarks against usurpation, will be affected by

THE FUTURE. 257
the subjugation policy, under either of the two
plans to which I have referred. And for that pur-
j)ose I must consider the nature, extent, and practi
cal operation of the power which the President
assumes to exercise over the persons and property
of individuals during invasion and rebellion.* I
do not intend to discuss the question whether he is
correct in his conclusion that the Constitution con
fers such power upon him. I will assume, for the
pui-pose of considering the question, that it does ;
and this involves necessarily the further assumption
that he will use and exercise this power until the
complete pacification of the country, and conse
quently during all the time when the aid of the mili
tary is necessary to compel obedience to the Govern
ment. For whatever opinion may be entertained
respecting the existence of this particular power,
I apprehend that it wiU not be denied that any
power, which is in fact confided to the President's
* The reader wiU readily perceive that in my future
comments upon the abuses to which this power will give
rise, and the dangers to be apprehended from its exercise,
in case the policy of subjugation shall be adopted, no per
sonal allusion is intended to the present incumbent of the
executive chair. My argument is confined to what may
be expected during the term of oflice of his successor ; and
it is entirely immaterial to ray conclusions whether the next
President shall be Mr. Lincoln himself, or any other gen
tleman professing the principles of constitutional law and
of poUtical science, under which he is now administering
the government

268 THE FUTURE.
hands, to be exercised during invasion or rebellion,
will continue in full force until the one is com
pletely repelled or the other effectually subdued, so
that they are no longer imminent.
There have been, since the commencement of the
war, many military, or as they are called, arbitrary
arrests of citizens, for words spoken, written, or
printed, in addressing their fellow-citizens in con
demnation of the war, or the general policy or par
ticular acts of the administration. But before the
spring of 1863 it was generally supposed that these
acts were conceded by their authors to be illegal
violations of the clauses of the Constitution which
I have cited, and that they were justified solely
upon the ground of extreme public necessity. It
was said that the constitutional prohibitions and
guaranties were overridden by the supreme law of
self-preservation, applicable to nations as well as
individuals, and embodied in the maxim " Salus
populi suprema lex." Such was the character of
the debate in which Senator Hale made the speech
with an extract from which this chapter com
mences,* and in the letter of the President to the
* In the course of the same debate. Senator Dixon, of
Connecticut, arguing in favor of the propriety of tlie
arrests, said, " I shall not vote for an inquiry into the
legality of these arrests. They find their justification in
the dire necessity of the times." Senator Fessenden, of
Maine, on the same side, said, " I wiU say here that I do
not believe there is the slightest warrant of law for any

THE FUTURE. 259
Albany committee, which will be presently referred
to, the latter admits that 'it is only " by degrees "
that he has been " forced to regard " these measures
" as being within the exceptions of the Constitu
tion," as well as "indispensable to the public
safety." Accordingly a statute of indemnity was
supposed to be necessary in order to avoid the legal
consequences of such acts, and such a statute was
passed at the third session of the thirty-seventh
Congress. It appears however by two semi-official
letters of the President explaining the proceedings
in Mr. Yallandigham's case, one addressed to a
committee of citizens of Albany, and dated June
12, 1863, and the other to a committee of the Ohio
Democratic State Convention, and dated June 26,
1863, that the power to arrest and imprisoii citizens
iu any part of the country, for using language
which he shall judge to be calculated to diminish
the efficiency of the army, is lodged with him by
the Constitution itself during an invasion or insur
rection. It is therefore not subject to regulation,
modification, or repeal, by the legislature, but it is
to be exercised without any accountability on the
part of the President, except to his own con-
such proceeding, and I do not suppose you will find a
lawyer in the country who does thinli there is any warrant
of law for any such proceeduig, and yet I do not shrink
from it  I justify the act although it was against
law ; I justify it from the necessity of the case."

260 THE FUTURE.
science, and his ultimate Uability to impeachment.
And the President does not leave us in doubt re
specting the character of the language which he con
strues as being calculated to impair the efficiency of
the army, or the circumstances of its use which ex
pose the speaker to arrest and imprisonment. For
he says expressly that the man who excites hostility
to the continuance of the war, and appeals to the
people to elevate to power men who will make
peace, is employing language which damages the
army, and tiierefore gives the miUtary jurisdiction
over him : and he implies, almost expressly avows,
that any language tending to bring the military
policy of the administration into disrepute, is to be
regarded as falling within the same category. The
use of objectionable words, he says, amounts to
" warring upon the military," whether they are
addressed directly to soldiers or to individuals in
tending to enlist, or whether the same result is
effected " by getting a father, or brother, or friend
into a public meeting and there working upon his
feelings till he is persuaded to write to the soldier-
boy " in such a manner as to tempt him to desert.
I need not spend any time in showing that the
same argument by which it is proved that such
power exists over individuals, will also establish
the fact of its existence over a much more powerful
organ of the expression of public or individual
opinion, the newspaper press ; and in fact ob-

THE FUTURE. ggj
noxious newspapers have been repeatedly silenced.
And without discussing the question whether
the President's arbitrary power has been already
abused in any instance of its exercise, either over
individuals or newspapers, I may say that its use,
in truth the very object for which it is evoked from
the constitutional shades in which it has so long
lain hidden, is to repress criticism of the acts of the
President and his subordinates, to whatever extent
the President himself may deem proper, without
regulation, control, or review, by any other depart
ment of the Government. As I have already
stated, the President will, if the subjugation pro
gramme is carried out, enjoy this prerogative dur
ing the indefinite future which is to elapse before
the execution, imprisonment, and confiscation of
the property of the principal citizens, and usurped
military dominion over the whole community, will
have won back the affections of the southern peo
ple to the national Government, and rendered them
proper subjects for the enjoyment of free institu
tions. And although his own sense of propriety, or a
fear of arousing public feeling to such an extent as
to affect the next Presidential election, has of
late greatly limited its exercise, it rests entirely
within the President's own discretion to what ex
tent and for what causes it shall be employed in
future. Let us now consider what effect the exercise of

262 THE FUTURE.
such a power will have upon the President's
responsibility, in the discharge of the vast functions
of administration which either plan will devolve
upon him. And in the first place, it may be re
marked that the very object of its exercise is to
fetter the expression of public opinion, which even
when confined to public discussion, is one of the
most powerful checks upon misgovernment. The
importance even of public discussion to the liber
ties of the people is recognized in its careful preser
vation by the amendments to the Constitution
which I have quoted — an importance which is not
diminished by the circumstance, if such be the fact,
that those provisions were only intended to be
operative in time of peace. But our Constitution
provides for the expression of popular opinion by
periodical acts, which are to have a direct and con
trolling influence upon the action of the Govern
ment — the election of public officers to various
stations, high and low, in the Federal and the State
Governments. And liberty of speech and liberty
of the press have been for centuries recognized as
indispensable to the preservation of popular liberty
in all free governments, and to a fair expression of
the popular will at the polls. Their suppression is
invariably the flrst step accompanying the estab
lishment of a despotism. To suppress them and yet
allow popular elections to be held, amounts to
turning against the people their own weapons of

THE FUTURE. 263
self-defence. Dr. Lieber, from whom I have already
quoted, emphatically states that an election eon-
ducted under such circumstances is absolutely
valueless as an exponent of the popular will. I
copy from his work " On Civil Liberty and Self-
Government :" — " An election can have no value
wAafewer if the following conditions are not fulfilled ;
the question must have been fairly before the peo
ple, for a period sufficiently long to discuss the
matter thoroughly, and under circumstances to
allow discussion .... The liberty of the press,
therefore, is a condition sine qua non  The
indecency as well as the absurdity and immorality
of the government recommending what is to be
voted, ought never to be permitted  If any
one of these conditions is omitted, the whole election
or voting is vitiated."
Thus the direct result of the exercise of the
arbitrary power over the citizens and the public
press, which the President wUl assume to wield for
an indefinite future time, if the South shall be suc
cessfully subjugated, will be to render the elections
of executive officers and members of the State
legislatures in the North, as well as representatives
and senators in the Congress of the United States,
valueless as exponents of the popular will, and to
produce an antagonism of interest, principle, and
feeling between the Government and the people.
How greatly that tendency will be aggravated by

264 THE FUTURE.
the passions to which such a system will give rise
in both of the antagonistic parties, and the results
to which it will lead in rendering it impossible for
the President to surrender his power to the people,
will be the subject of particular consideration in the
next chapter. At present, my object is rather to
show the means by which free institutions may be
destroyed, than the motives which wUl lead to their
destruction. But while I am upon this subject, I must not
overlook the fact that military interference with the
exercise of the elective franchise, will not be con
fined to the indirect suppression of the popular will
by stifling free discussion ; but it will also .be
employed actively andr'afflnnaffvelyyby compelling
the election of persons who will cooperate with the
administration. That feature of the system under
discu^sfon will also be the subject of particular
illuitration hereafter ; at present, I will only allude
to it as an experiment which has already been suc
cessfully tried, and of which we can therefore con
fidently affirm that it will be tried again, whenever
and wherever it shall be necessary for the adminis
tration to resort to such a proceeding, in order to
secure the support of the local officials or of the
national Legislature.
But the corruption and emasculation of the
Legislature will not stop here, if the President's
plan shall be adopted, and I now come to the fea-

THE FUTURE.

265

tures of the latter, which render it even more dan
gerous than that of Mr. Sumner, ruinous and dis
organizing as the latter is sure to prove. For
under Mr. Sumner's plan, all the members of each
branch of Congress, even if many of them shall be
elected by minorities, will represent actual consti
tuencies ; and it will be impracticable, or at all
events very difficult to secure a controlling majority
in either House, of men utterly destitute of personal
dignity, independence, and a sense of ultimate
responsibility for their conduct, even if suppres
sion of popular discussion and military interference
with the elections shall attain its utmost possible
Umit. A President aiming at the overthrow of his
country's liberties, or unconsciously driven ou to
that consummation by events beyond his control,
will therefore be compelled to stop short, whenever
he shall have reached that point beyond which
neither intimidation, coiTuption, fanaticism or in
flamed party-spirit, will carry tlie bulk of his sup
porters. And although the process of disintegration
of the Constitution is equally certain under either
scheme, it wUl be more gradual under Mr. Sum
ner's plan than under that of the President ; and if
the former shall be adopted, there may be a possi
bility that the fears or the scruples of his followers
will arrest the Executive at some point short of the
grand catastrophe, and produce a disruption of hie
party ; when the people, by an armed or a bloodless
13

266 THE FUTURE.
revolution, will regain power, and by the reversal
of a suicidal policy, save their liberties from anni
hilation, ere it be too late.
But the President's plan, in connection with the
power of arbitrary arrests, will give the Constitution
a speedy and effective coup-de-grace. For when
eleven subjugated States, controlled by military
power, shall enjoy the rights and privileges of
eleven of the free and sovereign States which the
Constitution recognizes, the Executive will be prac
tically free from all personal responsibility, and he
will need but a small auxiliary body of inercenaries
in either House — much smaller than military regu
lation of elections-and the unlimited means of cor
ruption in his hands will enable him readily to
command — to place the entire affirmative action of
either House of the national Legislature within his
control. In the first place, he will have, in the
House of Kepresentatives, fifty-eight of his crea
tures — men whose oath of office requires them to be
strangers to the people whom they profess to repre
sent, or to have gone counter to the whole course
of public sentiment and every tie of neighborhood,
friendship or affection, at a time when the Uves,
liberty and property of their supposed constituents
were at stake — men, most of whom will owe their
nomination, their election, their personal safety,
and their ability to keep a house over their heads,
to the miUtary power which he will control, and

THE FUTURE. 267
to the system of which it will constitute the sole
¦prop and support. This is the number of repre
sentatives to which the seceding States are entitled
under the last apportionment, in a full House con
sisting of two hundred and forty-one members, of
whom one hundred and twenty-one constitute a
quorum. His power to arrest any citizen without
warrant or explanation, or review by any tribu
nal, wiU secure at any critical period the absence
of those representatives whose influence or whose
votes might endanger the success of any scheme
which he might have at heart ; and flfty-eight votes
lack only three of being the majority of a quorum.
Terrible as it is to contemplate the possession of
such a power by the executive department of the
Government over the popular branch of the Legis
lature, the worst has not been told. For the eleven
" reconstructed " States will send twenty-two sena
tors to a Senate consisting of seventy members —
only fourteen less than a majority of the whole, and
three more than the majority of a quorum. And
in the court of impeachments, these twenty-two
creatures of the President will have an absolute
veto. They will constitute more than one-third of
&full and hostile Senate ; and the Constitution ex
plicitly requires the concurrence of two-thirds of the
senators present to warrant a conviction.
I have alluded to the President's ability to affect
the affirmative action of either House by the use of

268 THE FUTURE.
his absolute and uncontrollable p.ower of miUtary
arrest. In truth this prerogative adds to the un
limited means of corruption at his command, not
only unlimited means of intimidation, but unlimited
power to annihilate every form of constitutional
check or opposition, whether it proceeds from the
State authorities, or the judiciary, or the legislature
of the nation. For there is no tribunal to review
his acts, and no class of citizens, official or unofficial,
who are not entirely at his mercy. The United
States judges, the representatives who impeach, tlie
senators who try, hold their liberties, and conse
quently their power to discharge their official
duties, entirely at his good pleasure. Even the
presidential electors who will choose his successor,
are completely at his mercy. Whatever suspicious
may be excited, that he is wielding his uncontrolled
power over individuals, so as to establish an im
perial throne for himself, there is no remedy but
submission or revolutioTjkl^*^ can proceed step by
step to grasp the reins p^sTS&^olute power, without
ovEESTEPPiNG IN ONE ^Bll^.^^S9!E his constitutional
authoeity. It will be impossible at any stage of
his career, until he shall have reached the crown--
ing catastrophe, to .place the finger upon any one
of his acts and say, this is v/nlawful, and it there
fore justifies resistance.
By the adoption of the policy of subjugation, the
American people wUl therefore deliver themselves

THE FUTURE. 269
over, bound hand and foot, into the power of the
individual who shall fill the office of President.
They will voluntarily part with every safeguard of
their Uberties ; they will place the whole destiny
of the republic in his hands, without check or
restraint ; they wiU grant him for four years patron
age almost boundless, and unlimited, imperial, des
potic power over every individual and every political
* institution in the country. As security for the dis
charge of this immense trust with wisdom, fidelity
and integrity, and with a view solely to promote
the common welfare, and for its surrender to the
people at the end of the allotted period, they have
.... what ?
History says — ^nothing. Psychology says — ^noth
ing. Political science says — nothing. But those
who assume to be wiser than history, psychology,
or poUtical science, say that we shall have abun
dant security in the attachment of the people to
their form of govemment and in the conscience of
the Executive.
These prophets are the same, the falsification of
whose many confident prophecies during the past
four years, is indicated by the very condition of the
country which gives rise to the doubt. But inas
much as they still appear to have credit with the
people, notwithstanding their past failures, it be
comes necessary to examine whether their present
opinion rests upon grounds any more solid than

270 THE FUTURE.
those, the falsity of which has been so conclusively
demonstrated by events.
In truth, the apparent conviction of a large part
of the American people, that they can safely pur
sue a career which has never before been pursued
by any other free nation upon record, without
resulting in its ruin, and that the laws of politi
cal science, and the experience of history are to
be falsified in order to preserve our liberties,
is a marvel to thoughtful observers throughout
the world. It is only paralleled by a similar in
fatuation which prevailed in 1860, respecting the
preservation of the Union, and which could not be
removed by arguments or warnings, or anything
but the actual crash of the falling edifice. To com
bat the present delusion, when a man has deUberately
allowed it to take possession of his mind, is an im
possibility; for its existence presupposes the dis
credit of the only sources from which arguments
against it can be drawn. But many who have
adopted it have done so without reflection, and in
consequence of a hasty assent to the opinions of
others ; and to a mind open to conviction, the pro
position that liberty cannot endure, even among
such a people as ours, if a large military force shall
be maintained for the purpose of keeping one sec
tion of the nation in subjection to the other, while
the Executive is rendered practically independent
of the people, is as susceptible of a demonstra-

THE FUTURE. 271
tion as complete as any of the laws of natural
science. The next chapter will be devoted to a considera
tion of the causes which wUl render the attachment
of the people to the repubUcan form of govemment,
and the conscience of the Executive, utterly inef
ficient to prevent that destruction of constitutional
liberty, to which irresistible events will impel any
President who shall undertake to carry out the
policy of subjugation. But before concluding this
chapter, I desire to call the reader's attention to two
circumstances, which wiU greatly smooth the way for ,
such a consummation, by weakening that very pre
ference for a popular form of govemment which is
now so universal among the people.
The first of these is even now in partial, I may
say in formidable operation. I allude to the cre
ation of a class among the people, holding the obli
gations of the Government to such an extent as to
render the payment even of the interest, a very
onerous burden upon the masses. At present, while
the war fever rages so high, and a sudden and
enormous expansion of the currency has created a
fictitious appearance of prosperity among the peo
ple, there is but Uttle difficulty in raising the neces
sary means to meet the interest upon the public
debt with punctuality, and thus to create a feeling
of security among its holders. And it may be that
if the current expenses of our Government shall be

272 THE FUTURE.
so reduced, before the debt shall receive a very
formidable addition to its present volume, as to con
stitute, together with the interest, an annual burden
upon the industry of the people which shall not be
too insupportable, we shall continue to be able to
pay the latter. Still many reflecting men are even
now doubtfully putting to themselves the question
A^hether, after the excitement of the war shall have
subsided, and the country shall be suffering from
that distress which will inevitably succeed the pre
sent apparent prosperity, it will be possible to
induce a people governed by means of universal
suffrage, voluntarily to impose upon themselves
such fearful burdens.
These men see that whatever form of taxation
may be devised, its principal weight will fall
upon that class of the community, which receives
nothing in return, and which is at once the most
numerous, and the least affected by appeals to a
sense of national honor, and by enlarged considera
tions of future welfare to proceed from immediate
sacrifices. They know that it is now accepted as
an unanswerable objection to the demands of the
people of Great Britain for a further extension of
the right of suffrage, that the interest of the holders
of the Government stock, and consequently the
honor and prosperity of the nation, require that the
elective franchise should continue to be controlled
by the men of property. They know also that the

THE FUTURE. 273
history of the northern, as well as the southern sec
tion of the country, shows that in such a form of
government as ours, there is a limit to popular
endurance of taxation in times of scarcity. Hence
a grave doubt is even now arising in their minds
whether the time may not come, when the repudi
ation of our present national debt will become a
political principle, which will command the support
of a majority of the people, whatever efforts may
be made to lighten its annual burdens by a rigid
reduction of current expenses of the Government to
the smallest possible compass.
But whatever weight such apprehensions may at
present be entitled to, there can be no doubt that
they will address themselves with irresistible force
to the holders of Government securities, if we shall
enter upon a career which will involve the increase
of the current expenses of the Government by the
enormous sums, which the adoption of the policy
of subjugation wiU require. As I have already
stated, the expenses of the military establishment
will alone be more than double the interest upon a
national debt of two thousand miUions of dollars.
To these must be added the expense of a corres
pondingly powerful navy and of a swarm of office
holders. And it may be affirmed without hesitation,
that whenever it shall become apparent that Gov
ernment cannot go on, without raising every year
over four hundred mUlions of dollars, by direct or
12*

274 THE FUTURE.
indirect taxation upon the industry of the country,
all the persons whose fortunes are involved in the
collection of such a tax, will become either secret
or open opponents of a system of government which
places all political power in the non-debthold-
ing masses. Those persons constitute the wealthy
classes ; and the direct operation of the policy of
subjugation will thus be to render them the allies
of the Government, in any scheme which will have
the tendency to prevent power from returning to
the hands of the masses of the people.*
While a direct antagonism of interest is thus
being created between the Government and the
governed, and the rich and the poor, another cause
will be in powerful operation to prepare the minds
of the people to witness passively the overthrow of
popular institutions. I allude to the presence
among them of an immense standing army, a cir
cumstance which will have the direct effect to
blunt the popular sense to the importance of free
institutions, especially when it is accompanied with
the constant interference of the army in the regular
operation of the laws, to which the disturbed con
dition of the country and the poUtical necessities of
the Administration will give rise. I find the opera
tion of this cause described by Alexander Hamilton,
in the eighth number of The Federalist, in language
* See Note at the end of this chapter.

THE FUTURE. 276
SO much more forcible than any which I can com
mand, that I will insert it in place of any obeerva-
tions of my own :
" There is a wide difference also between miUtary
establishments in a country, which by its situation
is seldom exposed to invasions, and one which is
often subject to them, and always apprehensive of
them. The rulers of the former can have no good
pretext, even if they are so inclined, to keep on
foot armies so numerous as must of necessity be
maintained in the latter. These armies being, in
the first instance rarely, if at all, caUed into activity
for interior defence, the people are in no danger of
being broken to military subordination. The laws
are not accustomed to relaxation in favor of military
exigencies; the civil state remains in full vigor;
neither corrupted nor confounded with the princi
ples and propensities of the other state  But
in a country where the perpetual menacings of
danger oblige the Government to be always pre
pared for it, her armies must be numerous enough
for instant defence. The continual necessity for his
services enhances the importance of the soldier, and
proportionably degrades the condition of the citizen.
The military state becomes elevated above the civil.
The inhabitants of territories of the theatre of war
are unavoidably subjected to frequent infringements
of their rights, which serve to weaken the sense of
those rights ; and by degrees the people are brought

276 THE FUTURE.
to consider the soldiers not only as their protectors,
but as their superiors. The transition from this
disposition to that of considering them as masters,
is neither very remote nor difficult ; but it is
very difficult to prevail upon a people under such
impressions, to make a bold or effectual resist
ance to usurpations supported by the mUitary
power." It will be noticed that the distinguished writer
did not contemplate the possibility that a large
army would be kept up in this country to repress
our own citizens. I need not say that its employ
ment for that purpose would vastly increase the
evils and dangers which he describes. Considering
the centralizing effect of the proposed policy of
subjugation, the destruction of the constitutional
antagonism between the States and the general
Government which it involves, and the manner
iu which the laws are already " accustomed ' to
relaxation in favor of mUitary exigencies,." the
words which I have quoted may almost be called
a prophetic warning addressed to the men of
to-day. Having thus adverted to two of the means by
which the way will be rendered smooth and easy
to the tread of a usurper, I will now consider the
operation of much more powerful causes, which
wiU irresistibly impel even a well-meaning Presi
dent and his supporters to accompUsh the overthrow

THE FUTURE. 277
of the Constitution, if the retention of the southern
States in the Union against the will of their people
shall be adopted as the permanent policy of our
Government. Note. — I append a few suggestions which may assist the
reader in determining, whether the holders of G-overnment
securities will continue to feel perfect confidence in the
disposition of the people, voluntarily to impose upon them
selves the taxation which the policy of subjugation will re
quire. Table 35, annexed to the preliminary report on the
eighth census, (i860), contains the valuation of all the
real and personal property in the United States. The
superintendent informs us that the figures may be relied
upon as accurate, the marshals having been instructed to
add the proper amount to the assessed valuation, " so that
the returns should represent as well the true or intrinsic
value, as the inadequate sum generally attached to property
for taxation purposes." The table foots up at $16,159,-
616,048. The value of the slaves in the southern States
is of course included in this computation, and if they are all
to be freed, so much productive and taxable property will
be stricken out of existence. I have not the necessary
data to enable me to determine how much must be de
ducted from the sum total for this item, as the table gives
only the gross value of property in each State, being $5,-
202,166,101 for the seceding States, and $10,957,449,961
for the others. A very large portion of the property in
the seceding States (besides the slaves) has been, and more
wEl be, destroyed in the course of the war. The productive
capacity of both sections has been, and wUl continue to
be, greatly diminished by the fearful losses of life, limbs,
and health among the producers ; and the negroes, even
under the most ^ favorable circumstances, will not produce
any more as freemen than they produced as slaves. The
extent to which the abiUty of the country to pay taxes has

278 THE FUTURE.
been lessened by the operation of these causes, can only
be conjectured ; we may be sure however that it is very
considerable. The amount of the annual expenditure of the G-overn
ment, under the subjugation policy, can only be esthnated
approximately ; but it is believed that we shall be safe in
assuming it to be, at the very lowest calculation, $216,-
000,000 for the Army, (300,000 men); $100,000,000 (five
per cent, upon $2,000,000,000), for the interest on the debt ;
$50,000,000 for the navy, (estimate for 1864-5, $142,-
618,785), and $50,000,000 for the civil service, pensions,
Indians, and miscellaneous items, (estimate for same year,
$47,604,498). These figures foot up at $416,000,000,
being about two and a half per centum per annum on the
whole taxable property of the country, as it existed before
the WOT broke out, indvding slaves. To this is to be added
the local taxation, swoUen in the loyal States to an enor
mous bulk by the bounties and other expenses of the war —
the two together probably exceeding at the North, five per
centum per annum upon the actual value of all the property
in the country ; or if the same ratio of valuation prevails
elsewhere, as in the rural districts of New York, about
fifteen per centum per annum upon the assessed valuation.
The Secretary of the Treasury estimates the probable
receipts, under existing laws, for the next fiscal year (ex
clusive of loans) as foUows :
From customs, - - - $ 70,000,000.
From internal revenue, - - 125,000,000.
From lands, - - - 1,000,000.
From misceUaneous sources, - 5,000,000.

$201,000,000.

So that our present rate of federal taxation, onerous as it
is, must be more than doubled. Possibly a legislature, elect
ed by universal suffrage, wiU continue to pass the necessary
laws to compel the people to pay such sums of money, in a

THE FUTURE. 279
period of distress and scarcity, as well as of plenty ; but I
am very confident that the time wiU come, when holders of
Government securities wiU fancy (upon grounds either
soUd or insufficient), that their interest requires that the
masses of the people shall no longer enjoy the power, to de
cide this question for themselves.
In considering these figures, and foUowing out the train
of reflections to which they give rise, two grave questions,
and the consequences to which affirmative answers will lead,
also force themselves upon the mind. WiU not national
bankruptcy overtake us before we have completed the sub
jugation of the South ? or, if we can sustain our national
credit so long, can even a mihtary government continue for
any length of time to collect such fearful taxes from the
people ? I suggest these questions for the reader's reflec
tion ; they have not escaped my attention ; but this work
was written with a specific object, and its plan precludes me
from discussing them. I have assumed for the sake of the
argument, that our arms would ultimately triumph ; and I
have attempted to point out the consequences to which suc
cessful subjugation would lead. But in doing so I have
arrested the discussion at the point where popular Uberty
faUs.

280 THE FUTURE.

CHAPTEE Xn.
The Danger to Popular Institutions from Party Spirit was over
looked by the Authors of Tlie Federalist — The Honesty and
Patriotism of the present Executive and his Party conceded —
But their Political Training menaces Public Liberty with Destruc
tion — The Dangerous Tendency of the Doctrine that Rulers must
be Unconditionally Supported, pending a Great National Criais^-
Causes of the excessive Party Spirit which has hitherto raged —
Alarming Results which it has already produced— Further Ex
cesses which it threatens during the state of Ciyil Commotion
which will follow the Military Repression of the South — They will
render the Preservtition of Popular Liberty impossible — The
situation of the President and his Necessities — Inefficiency of the
restraining Power of Conscience over a Ruler so situated — The
manner in which the Constitution will probably be overthrown
and the Pretexts by which its Overthrow will be justified — ^Viru-
lency of Party Spirit during Washington's Administration — His
Warning to his Fellow-oountrymenagainstitsEffects— His Warn
ing against Usurpation — Results of the Teachings of all the
Writers upon the Constitution — Incidents of the Marvland Elec
tion of November, 1863.
Having thus shown in what manner the policy
of subjugation, in combination with the political
principles and administrative practices involved'
in its adoption, will enable the Executive to accom
plish the ruin of public liberty ; and having also
explained how two causes will operate, the one to
create a powerful class disposed to sustain him in

THE FUTURE. 281
an attempt to accomplish that result, the other to
prepare the popular mind to acquiesce in its suc
cess ; I will now proceed to consider what in
fiuences will reconcile the President's conscience
to the commission of such an act, and overcome,
in the minds of his supporters, their attachment
to the principles which underlie our existing sys
tem of government. And the causes which wiU
produce such a result may be all comprehended
in one brief sentence — they are the effects of excessive
pa/rty spirit.
The authors of The Federalist, far-seeing and
sagacious as they proved themselves to be in other
respects, had evidently no adequate conception of
the extent and violence which party spirit is capa
ble of attaining, in a country in which the whole
policy of the Govemment, and the enjoyment of aU
the sweets of power in an immense empire, depend
upon the direct result of popular suffrage. In
truth, the political and social condition of our an
cestors was such that party spirit, although it
gave rise to numerous cabals, follies, and crimes,
during the Revolution, could not have full scope to
display itself in all its deformity, until the adoption
of the Constitution relieved it from the trammels
which had previously restrained its action, and
afforded it an ample field for the display of its
vices. For this reason, the argument of The Fede
raUst, relative to the* perpetuity of our system, of

282 THE FUTURE.
government, admirable as it is in all other respects,
contains a fatal flaw. It assumes that the principal
danger to public liberty would proceed from the
corruption, or the unprincipled ambition of rulers,
acting in antagonism to the mass of the people; and
having succeeded in demonstrating that those
crimes would be ineffectual to deprive a people,
Uving under such a government as it was proposed
to estabUsh, of Uberties which they should unite to
defend, the distinguished authors supposed that
they had exhausted the argument. As we have
already seen, from the copious extracts which I
have made from their work, while they were con
sidering the danger of the overthrow of the State
governments and of popular liberty, through the
encroachments and usurpations of the general
Government, they overlooked the possibility of the
existence of a political party in the States them
selves, acting in harmony with those who were
administering the general Government, to the ulti
mate destruction of the power and sovereignty of
the States, and of the liberties of the people. But
time has revealed the existence of this flaw in the
panoply of the Constitution, and through it popu
lar institutions are even now receiving the death-
stroke. Unless we shall at once arrest the hand
which is dealing the fatal blows, we may expect with
entire confldence to witness at an early day their
utter overthrow and destruction.

THE FUTURE. 283
I am far from charging upon the present Execu
tive, or his leading supporters, and still less upon
the masses of their foUowers, any deliberate design
to effect such a consummation. I frankly admit
that they are as patriotic as men can be, whose
first and principal thought is at all times in what
manner to promote the ascendency of their party.
I have no reason to doubt that they believe that
the subjugation policy is consistent with the pre
servation of the forms and the substance of popu
lar government, as firmly and sincerely as they
beUeved iu 1860, that their success was consistent
with the permanence of the Union, the preserva
tion of the Constitution intact, and a continuation
of the peace and prosperity which the country then
enjoyed. I will go further ; I will say with entire
candor, that they believe that if the President of
their choice shaU, at any future time lay violent
hands upon the Constitution, they will themselves
at once resist his unlawful attempt, pass into the
ranks of the opposition, and if necessary, raise the
standard of revolt.* But historical experience of
* As these pages are passing through the press, my at
tention has been attracted by a portion of tbe debate in
the Senate on the 28th of January, 1864, upon the reso
lution of Senator Wilson to expel Senator Davis, of Ken
tucky, for introducing resolutions, intended, it was alleged.
to excite the people of the North to revolt : —
" Mr. Howard (Adm., Mich.) expressed his dissent from
the views of Mr. Fessenden yesterday. He never could

284 THE FUTURE.
the conduct of men similarly situated — nay:, their
own history during the last three years — ^proves
conclusively that they will gradually adapt their
own consciences to the real or fancied, necessities
of the political complications that will from time
to time arise, till a complete revolution has gone
on in their own minds, and they are ready to
accept as wise, beneficent, and patriotic, princi
ples and practices the bare suggestion of which
would now shock their convictions of right and
duty.conceive it his duty as a senator, to call upon the people^
under any conceivable circumstances to rise in insurrec
tion. When any senator rises in his seat here and invokes
the people to resort to insurrectionary measures, he is act
ing contrary to his oath.
Mr. Fessenden (Adm., Me.) asked what was to be done
if tbe Executive was trying to break up the Government.
Must we not save the Constitution and the Government ?
Mr. Howard could not conceive of such a case. The
President himself would become a traitor, and deserve a
traitor's doom. He would not shield the Executive. He
held it right to express his opinion upon every act, though
they were acts sufficient to impeach. But when the ques
tion arises as to the guilt of the Executive, we must use
our proper judicial functions.
Mr. Fessenden said, ' Suppose tbe President had a large
army at his back. What would the senator do then ?'
Mr. Howard said he would become a rebel. He would
fight him as sharply as the senator from Maine."
I doubt not the sincerity of both these gentlemen, but
as Shakspeare says, " use can almost change the stamp
of nature."

THE FUTURE. 285
In truth, the political training of the administra
tion party, since the outbreak of the war, is as
admirably calculated to adapt them for acquiescing,
if not actively participating in the downfall of pub
lic Uberty, as the political training of the southem
people was to adapt them to the purposes of the
Becessionists. For even those among them (and I
know that there are many) who have condemned
the facility with which the provisions of the Con
stitution have been set aside, and have regretted
the existence of the rancorous spirit that the more
unscrupulous, fanatical or thoughtless of their fel
low-partisans have exhibited towards their politi
cal opponents, have also deprecated the public
criticism of any act of those in power, however
decided their own opinions may have been re
specting its injustice, inexpediency, and unconsti
tutionality. They have contended that all such
discussions should be discountenanced pending the
war ; that the exercise, no matter with what inten
tions, of the right of individuals to criticise and con
demn the conduct of rulers, must necessarily havie
a factious effect ; that at a great national crisis like
the present, those who are charged with the duty
of carrying on the war should receive the unhesitat
ing and unconditional support of all loyal citizens,
whatever folly or even wickedness they might com
mit ; and that retribution for such offences should be
exacted, if at all, only after peace shall have been

286 THE FUTURE.
restored to the country. I have never been satis
fied with the wisdom of this reasoning, ' however
great may have been my respect for the motives
of those who have adopted it. But whatever
weight may have been due to it in the past, I have
now to consider its practical operation in the
future. As I remarked before, respecting the Pre
sident's assumption of arbitrary military power over
the citizen, it is evident that whatever is lawful,
right, and expedient while war is raging, is lawful,
right, and expedient until a complete pacification
has been effected. And therefore those men who
have deemed it necessary in the past, tacitly to sub
mit to whatever the Executive has thought proper
to do, and to continue to sustain him with their
voices and their votes, wUl deem it necessary to do
the same in the future, at least until he shall openly
avow a design permanently to subvert popular
liberty, or shall pursue a course of conduct which
leaves no room to doubt that such is his intention.
But I do not suppose that any Executive will com
mit the inconceivable folly of avowing such a
design, or of acting so as to leave no doubt of its
existence, until it is too late to dispossess him with
out a civil war in which he will have all the advan
tage. It will be totally unnecessary for him to do
so ; for he can act for several years so as to consoli
date his power, with a view to its perpetuation,
without resorting to any measures winch have'

THE FUTURE. 281r
not already been resorted to during the war, and
the lawfulness of which will be established by his
election, so far as it can be established without
judicial sanction. And I have not supposed that the
Executive wiU at the outset deUberately plan the
subversion of the Constitution,and shape his course
so as to carry out such a design. My theory has
rather been that he would commence his career
towards absolutism from praiseworthy motives, and
in ignorance of its necessary termination ; and that
in his eagerness to carry out a policy which he re
gards as essential to the interest of the nation, and
to prevent the ascendency of opponents, from
whose action he apprehends embarrassment to
himself, or national disgrace or injury, he will be
led on step by step, to measures, from which at
first he would have recoUed, till he has gone so far
that the way of retreat is closed behind him. That
meanwhile his conscience wiU adapt itself to the
shifting exigencies of the case, and to the advice of
counsellors, some of them corrupt, and others doubt
less misled in the same way as their chief; and that
the same process will go on to a greater or less ex
tent, with the great bulk of his foUowers. To borrow
the language of one of the keenest observers of
human nature, himself a distinguished statesman
(Sir E. Bulwer Lytton), " Among the marvels of
psychology, certainly not the least astonishing is
that facility with which the conscience, being really

288 THE FUTURE.
sincere in its desire of right, accommodates itself to
the impulse which urges it to go wrong." And
Lord Macaulay conveys the same idea in words
still more appropriate to the present subject : " In
revolutions men live fast ; the experience of years
is crowded into hours ; old habits of thought and
action are violently broken ; novelties which at
first sight inspire dread and disgust, become in a
few days, familiar, endurable, attractive." My
reader needs only to refer to his own experience
during the last two or three years to acknowledge
the correctness of these words. Let me ask him
whether, starting from our present standpoint, the
practical abolition of the system of popular govern
ment, would require a revolution of the thoughts
and actions of men, more striking than that which
has actually occurred since the outbreak of the
civil war ?
But in considering the process which will pro
bably go on in the minds of the supporters of the
next administration, if it shall be one committed to
the policy which I have discussed, I must look
beyond that class from which the greatest amount
of opposition to the destruction of the Constitution
may be anticipated. I mean the men whose mo
tives are above suspicion, whose intelligence is at
least above the average, and whose political con
victions are moderate and untinged with fanaticism.
They constitute, I am glad to believe, a con-

THE FUTURE. 289"
siderable proportion of the present administration
party ; but in that, as well as in the other party,
they are largely outnumbered by the herd of mere
partisans. These consist in all political organiza
tions, partly of men who are actuated by a purely
selfish desire of personal profit or advancement
through party triumph ; partly of fanatics, who are
blind to every consideration except the gratifica
tion of their fanaticism ; and partly of that much
larger class, composed of men sufficiently honest
and well-meaning, but who have not the intelli
gence or education to form opinions of their own,
and therefore adopt those of others. And what
ever hesitation may show itself from time to
time in individuals, the experience of the past^
two years shows that the great bulk of the mere
partisans will be ready to sustain the President of
their choice, in any measure which tends to prevent
the opposition from coming into power, even if the
Constitution itself should receive a mortal wound,
from the thrust aimed at their political antago
nists. I will endeavor to point out the causes that
have led to party-spirit reaching its present alarm
ing development, and the manner in which it has
manifested itself ; and I think that the result of our-
examination wUl show that the very political edu
cation of the citizens of this country, that appa
rently protected our institutions against, those dan-.
13

290 THE FUTURE.
gers which have overthrown those of other free
nations, has been warped by recent events so as to
menace their destruction. For while many other
republics have lost their liberties through excessive
popular idolatry of an ambitious individual, our
training has been such that the popularity of an in
dividual among us could never equal the popularity
of a principle. That fact formed a conclusive an
swer to those who feared the overthrow of the Con
stitution from the energetic and indomitable wiU of
President Jackson, combined with the personal
idolatry with which he inspired his partisans.
Apart from his incapacity to entertain any idea of
personal aggrandisement, at the expense of the
liberties of his country, the frame of the popular
mind and the tenets of his party were such, that
General Jackson's first unequivocal attack upon the
principles of constitutional liberty would have cost
him the whole of that popularity, which alone ren
dered him dangerous. But exactly the reverse of
that state of things now exists with the administra
tion party. They are not actuated by devotion to
any individual ; so far from that, their present
leader, untU recent events gave him a sudden popu
larity, probably inspired less personal attachment
than any of his elected predecessors, except perhaps
the last incumbent of the presidential oflice. But
the course of public events has bfien such, as to
jeopardize the continued maintenance of an insti-

THE FUTURE. 291
tution, for which every American has been taught
in childhood to cherish an almost fanatical affec
tion — the unity of the nation. It is alleged by all
of the opposition that this jeopardy is due in a great
degree to the tenets and conduct of the administra
tion and its party ; in other words that the Eepub
licans are themselves measurably the authors of the
calamities under which the nation is suffering.
Some of the opposition also contend that the preser
vation of national unity has now become incom
patible with the further existence of still more im
portant constitutional principles. The consequence
is, as would be natural under such circumstances,
that the attachment of the Republicans to the Union,
and their determination to maintain its ascendency,
have increased wdth the dangers to which it is ex
posed, and which they are accused of having caused.
In itself this disposition, so far from being censura
ble, is praiseworthy ; but in politics, as in reUgion,
and even in science, devotion to a sound and benefi
cent principle may lead to such excesses, as to make
it the instrument of mischiefs even greater than those
which would result from its converse, however un
sound and pernicious the latter might be. That
such will be the case in this instance is the danger to
be dreaded. For the rebellion has intensified into
fury and hatred the passions and prejudices against
the southem people, to the existence of which the
Eepublicans owed their own success, and many, I

292- THE FUTURE.
think most of them, have allowed such feeUngs to
become so completely incorporated in their own
minds with their affection for the Union, that they
are unable to distinguish the operations of the latter '
from those of the former. In this way they have
persuaded themselves that those emotions are
emanations of patriotism, which are in reality only
emanations of angry passions ; and they confound
their thirst for revenge upon their enemies with
zeal for the cause of their country. This leads them
to regard an attack upon the expediency or law
fulness of any measure which may have the imme
diate effect of inj uring the enemy, as an attack upon
the cause of the nation, and to regard the opponent
of the former as the enemy of the latter; and thus
they transfer to their own fellow-citizens, who have
the same object in view with themselves, but differ
with them respecting the means of attaining it, a
considerable portion of the hatred which they bear
to the enemy. The consequence has been that
men of northern birth and northern education ;
whose patriotism and integrity do not admit of a
question ; who have not a dollar of interest in the
South ; whose future social, political, and pecuniary
prosperity or adversity, depends upon the prosperity
or adversity of the ISTorth ; who have liberally spent,
and are still liberally spending, their own blood and
treasure to assist in the prosecution of the war ; who
have not a friend or even an acquaintance south of

THE FUTURE. 293
the Potomac outside of the national armies, have
found themselves daily charged in the public press
and upon the rostrum, with the crime of treason,
and the charge accompanied with every insulting
epithet which malignant passion can devise. And
this style of political warfare has not been a mere
partisan trick, confined to the low and irresponsible
instruments of faction : for thousands, yes, hundreds
of thousands of kind, sensible, and reasonable men,
have persuaded themselves that the opposition party
is in league with the South, to accompUsh, by means
of the blackest of crimes, the dissolution of the
Union, irrespective of the consequences of such au
act to that section of the country, in which all their
own hopes and interests, present and future, are cen
tered. And men high in office, even among the
highest, have been weak enough or base enough to
countenance such an opinion ; to encourage the
spirit which inspires it; and to enter into an ignoble
rivalry with the most vulgar instruments of faction
in a search for foul epithets, with which to accom
pany the foul accusation, that citizens, eminent for
virtue, patriotism, and public services, are guilty of
crimes too base for any but the most degraded out
casts of society. Even the President is not guilt
less of having encouraged this spirit ; for although
he has hitherto exhibited a respect for his own char
acter and the dignity of his office, which has pre
vented him from disgracing himself and the nation,

294 THE FUTURE.
by a scurrilityin which many of his nearest and most
confidential civil and military advisers have indulg
ed, he has suffered the latter openly to administer
their respective departments in accordance with the
theory that the difference between the opposition
and the insurgents is only technical,* a theory
which he has himself publicly countenanced on
several occasions, though in language more decorous
than that employed by his subordinates.
These invectives have produced their natural re
sult in arousing a bitter and revengeful feeling on
the part of the opposition ; and the two great politi
cal parties are no longer composed of citizens differ
ing from each other in their views of public policy,
but conceding to each other equal patriotism and
equal sincerity. Party spirit has assumed on both
sides a character of personal rancor, which leads
* One instance, among thousands, will suffice to show
that this observation is not exaggerated : I copy it below :
" War Department,
Special Orhers, No. 19. Adjutant-Genkral's Office,
(Extract.) Wasliington, March 13, 1863.
"By direction of the President, the following officers are
hereby dismissed from the service of the United States :
Lieutenant A. J. Edgerly, 4th New Hampshire Volunteers,
for circulating ' copperhead tickets' and doing all in Ms
power to promote the success of the rebel cause in his State.
* * * ^ ' * *
" By order of the Secretary of War.
" L. Thomas, Adjutan1>Greneral.
" To the Governor of New Hampshire."

THE FUTURE. 295
men to distrust and hate their political opponents,
as their own personal enemies and the enemies of
their common country. To such an extent has
this spirit developed itself, that it is but yesterday
that heated partisans, high in office, high in the
favor of the President, were clamoring for the blood
of their political antagonists, amid the frantic ap
plause of most of their adherents and the passive
regret of a few. And it is at this time, when the pub-
lie mind is in the precise state of all others most dan
gerous to the permanency of the Constitution, even
if the original integrity of aU its barriers against
the excesses of party and of power was preserved,
that it is proposed to govern one half of the nation
by military force ; and to place for an indefinite
period in the hands of a partisan leader, entertain
ing such notions of public policy and such opinions
of his political opponents, the command of an army
of more than a quarter of a million of men, and
that vast, overshadowing, irresponsible power, the
extent of which I have described.
I have already hinted at the nature of the politi
cal warfare which the opposition would be sure fo
wage, upon an administration pursuing the policy of
holding the southern States in subjection by the
armed hand. There can be no doubt that fiercely
as party spirit now rages, such a state of things
would be certain to inflame it still further; and
that the opposition, if unrepressed, would assail the

296 THE FUTURE.
administration and its policy with a bitterness of in
vective and vehemence of denunciation, even ex
ceeding those which have, in the opinion of the
President, rendered it necessary for him to employ
his extraordinary military authority for their partial
repression. But invectives and denunciations, how
ever violent, do not at the present time affect any
hostile population ; they are addressed exclusively
to our own people ; and their most injurious ten
dency can only be to affect negatively the power of
the Government, by producing alienation of feeling
towards it, on the part of those who acknowledge its
lawful title to their allegiance, and have never yet
entertained the idea of open rebellion against it.
But as soon as the system of subjugation is in full
operation, there will be the same reason for pre
venting the public discussion of its policy and effects
throughout the South, which there has been for
years for preventing the public discussion in the
same region of the policy and effects of the system
of slavery ; and as it will be impossible to close the
avenues of communication between the two sections,
the denunciatory speeches and newspapers will be
scattered among a conquered people in that condition
of discontent and quasi-rebellion which I have already
described. Even moderate criticisms upon the ad
ministration, under such circumstances, would be sus
ceptible of construction as instigations and encourage
ments to revolt, and even unprejudiced men would

THE FUTURE. 297"
doubt whether it was possible to preserve order or
administer the functions of government in the con
quered States, while full liberty of discussion was
aUowed the presses and speakers of the North. That
heated partisans holding the reins of absolute power,
and unchecked, as they have been since the existence
of that power was disoovered, by the near approach
of another Presidential election, would not hesitate
under such circumstances to inaugurate a system of
severe repression, there cannot be a doubt ; and they
will be, as they have been, enthusiastically supported
in so doing by the most violent of their own party,
while the doctrine of passive obedience will pre
vent the more moderate from remonstrating.
It is impossible to exaggerate the dangerous ten
dency of such a state of things, even if it was con
ceded that the only excesses to which it would lead,
would be the injudicious and oppressive exercise of
the lawful powers of the Government ; but it must
be also remembered that those who will thus feel
the heavy hand of power, in the North as well as
the South, will regai-d their injuries as proceeding
from a lawless and criminal usurpation. For
although I have waived all discussion of the argu
ments by which the President sustains his assump
tion of transcendent power over the citizen, in time
of invasion or insurrection, yet the existence of
such a power is not only doubted by large numbers
of his supporters, but is vehemently denied by the
13*

298 THE FUTURE.
opposition. The latter look upon every act of its
exercise as a usurpation ; a forcible prostraition of
the law before military power ; a high-handed and
outrageous invasion of individual right, for which
redress will be exacted whenever the civil law
resumes its sway in the land.* And I may also
remark that although this question properly be
longs to the courts of justice, it is, in all its aspects,
purely political ; that is to say, the principles upon
which its decision will be predicated are political^
not legal. The accession to power of the party
which denies the existence of any such authority,
therefore involves their ability to procure a legal
adjudication against its existence; and the conse
quent exposure of every officer of the Government,
who shall have been concerned in exercising it, to
civil and criminal proceedings, ruinous to his for
tune, and menacing even his personal liberty.
Already a grave question is presented whether the
* I will remark here that the suspension of the writ of
habeas corpus, under the act of Congress of March 3, 1863,
does not affect the question of the legality oi the exercise
of the power claimed by the President. It merely takea
away the most expeditious and summary remedy for test
ing the question. Whether such a power really exists or
not, is, in the absence of the remedy by habeas corpus, to
be determined in civil or criminal prosecutions at the in
stance of those who have su£fered by its exercise. These
may be instituted at any time before the expiration of the
period prescribed by the statute of limitation applicable to
the case.

THE FUTURE. 299
personal safety and pecuniary interests of the present
incumbents of public office, will allow the restoration
to the ordinary courts of justice, of the ability to
adjudicate upon the legality of the arrests and ban
ishments which have already taken place, and the
constitutionality of the law depriving the State
courts of jurisdiction to entertain such questions,
and fixing a limitation to actions founded upon
them ; and it is to these as well as other considera
tions, that we owe the proposition to introduce into
the Supreme Court new judges, whose political
tenets will afford an unerring clue to their judicial
action, in sufficient numbers to create a majority
of the court. But such a measure, should it be
adopted, will allay only temporarily the alarm of
those who apprehend danger from an unbiassed
decision ; for they will remember that the same pro
cess can be repeated with a directly contrary result,
when the mutations of popular opinion shall trans
fer the political power to their opponents. WUen-
ever the system of repression shall have proceeded
to the extremities, which I apprehend from its un
checked continuance during another presidential
term, the only method by which the incumbents of
public office can feel themselves entirely safe, will
be the retention of power in their own hands, by
whatever means that object may be accomplished.
It is hardly possible however that the exposure
to damages in civil actions, or to fines and imprison-

300 THE FUTURE.
ment in criminal proceedings, will be the only con
sequence which those in authority will apprehend
from the success of their opponents. The measures
to which they will resort, in order to preserve their
power or to carry out their policy, will result, as
such measures have in all times resulted, in aggra
vating the evils which they were intended to
remedy. They will increase the fury and audacity
of those who will be subjected to them ; measures
of greater severity will, soon follow ; and the catas
trophe from which we have already had such a
narrow escape will ultimately fall upon us. We
shall see the blood of American citizens spilled, for
indulging in that freedom of speech and political
action, which we have been taught from childhood
to consider as our national birthright. The question
wUl then pass, if it shaU not have previously
passed, far beyond the dominion of politics or of
jurisprudence. The contest will then be no longer for
office or for the ascendency of political principles ;
passion will be aroused on one side and the other
to an extent of which our past history affords no
example ; and a desperate struggle wiU commence,
in which one party will seek for revenge, and the
other the preservation of their own lives from their
infuriated enemies. , •
But even if its effects should stop short of this
point, the system of subjugation of the South and
repression at the North, will divide the people into

THE FUTURE. 301
impassioned advocates of popular rights on the one
hand, and impassioned advocates of the preroga
tives of power on the other. It will array these
two parties into irreconcilable antagonism and hos
tiUty to each other. It will lead to such a series of
injuries infiicted by the one upon the other, and
generate such an intensity of passion, that defeat in
the contest for political ascendency will involve the
ruin of the President and his leading supporters.
Can it be supposed that such an autocrat as I have
described ; possessing the power to perpetuate his
authority ; surrounded by counsellors and accom
plices whose stake iu the result equals his own;
supported by a powerful party whose passions are
aroused to the highest pitch, and by an army of
overwhelming numbers; believing that he and his
associates are the only friends of the country, will
allow such a contest to take place at the polls of a
free and fair popul ar election ? WiU he not rememb er
that law of poUtical science, as unerring in its appU
cation as the law of gravitation, which renders it cer
tain that under any form of government, the oppo*
sition will im, time become the majority of the
people % WUl he overlook its equally inevitable co
rollary, that the use of violent means by a govern
ment to suppress the* expression of popular feeling,
hastens the arrival of that period ? Alas for the
country whose liberties are held by such a tenure
as the conscience of a man thus situated ! Lord

302 THE FUTURE.
Macaulay well says, that " men who have once en
gaged in a wicked and perilous enterprise are no
longer their own masters, and are often impelled
hj a fatality, which is part of their just punishment,
to crimes such as they would have shuddered to
contemplate." The law of self-preservation; the
necessities of his anxious associates ; the principles
for which he has risked so much, will impel him
irresistibly onwards in a road which presents no
turning-point. I will not attempt to point out the
mode in which the destruction of the Constitution
will be effected. It suffices for me to exhibit to
my readers the victim deUvered over to the execu
tioners, bound hand and foot for the slaughter,
without speculating as to the instruments which
will be used to accomplish the work ; the places
where the mortal wounds will be inflicted; or the
extent of the convulsive struggles which wiU fol
low. But the past affords us data which enable us
to conjecture how the overthrow of our liberties
will commence, and at the same time remove any
doubt from our minds, respecting the adaptability
to the purposes of a usurper, of an army officered
by his instruments. No doubt the title of Presi
dent, and the nominal cooperation of a legislature,
perhaps also the formality of popular elections, wiU
for a time be preserved ; but we have seen within
a few months in what manner unscrupulous parti
sans, wielding unchecked miUtary power, can ren-

THE FUTURE. 303
der a popular election a mere machine for the
registry of a military edict. We have seen military
orders issued for the express purpose of warning
from the polls those electors who were unwilling to-
vote in accordance with the wishes of their mili
tary masters ; we have seen soldiers stationed at
the polls to prescribe the ticket to be voted, to in
terrogate, threaten, and arrest those who offered
any other ; we have seen obnoxious candidates and
judges of election who hesitated to obey the unlaw
ful orders of military tyrants, insulted, maltreated,
and imprisoned ; we have seen such acts enthusias
tically applauded by frantic partisans, as the bold
and energetic measures of rulers who would not
allow the cause of the Union to suffer from tender
adherence to formalities ; we have seen men elected
by such means sitting unmolested in a House of
Eepresentatives, blinded by its partisanship to the
insult to its own dignity, which their presence in
volves, and to the ruinous consequences of the pre
cedent which has thus been established.* We can
therefore conjecture in what manner the early
stages of the usurpation will be accomplished — in
fact they have already been accomplished. With
a Constitution daily crumbling away, as the plea of
necessity saps its foundations ; with every citizen's
* For a detailed account of some of the incidents which
attended the congressional elections of 1863, in Maryland,
see note at the end of this chapter.

304 THE FUTURE.
life and liberty at the mercy of the Executive ; with
the laws insulted, despised and disregarded at the will
of petty miUtary commanders ; with our legislature
composed in part of nominees of military officers
imposed upon the electors by violence, it is only
because we have yet the means to redress our own
grievances that we can properly be styled a free
people. The struggle which we are about to enter
upon is not so much to preserve our liberties as it
is to regain them. The question is not whether we
shall establish a despotism upon the ruins of popu
lar Uberty, but whether we shall permit a partial
despotism to become total, a temporary despotism
to become permanent. Every day that the present
system endures increases the difficulties of abandon
ing it ; and soon its abandonment will become
impossible. The result to which it will lead is in
evitable, and when the time comes that the final
catastrophe can no longer be deferred, there will be
no lack of pretexts, plausible enough to satisfy the
usurper's conscience and the consciences of his par
tisans. Possibly the standard of revolt will be un
successfully raised in the early stages of the usur
pation, and thus facUitate its subsequent steps.
Possibly it will be said, as it has already been said
to justify similar acts, that the absence of the
" loyal soldiers " from the polls prevents the result
of the elections from being a true exponent of the
popular wishes ; that " disloyal " men have no

THE FUTURE. 305
moral right to vote under a government which they
oppose ; or that the all-absorbing necessity of pre
serving the Union overrides all other considera
tions ; possibly it will be discovered that the pro
visions for periodical elections and limited terms
of office are, like the equally explicit provisions
protecting the life and Uberty of the citizen, inap
plicable to a state of public danger. The history
of the world is full of proofs of the facility with
which the rulep of a free people can find an excuse
for the overthrow of its liberty, when power and
incUnation combine to induce him to make the
attempt, and of the large train of followers which
he can at once command, if his attempt shaU be
successful. I purposely refrain from pursuing the subject fur
ther. It is too soon to form anything beyond a
conjecture as to the events which would succeed
such a usurpation. We can only say, that so far
no Napoleon, no Cromwell, has arisen among us ;
and the history of our sister republic of Mexico
affords us some indications of the fate of a country
in which petty usurpers overthrow a governmeut,
and raise a storm which they cannot rule.
Before I conclude this chapter, I wish to present
to the reader an extract from the writings of a man
whose foresight and sagacity equalled his purity,
and whose purity has never yet been equalled by
any pubUc man of his nation. It needs only to add

306 THE FUTURE.
that he was an American, and the reader will at
once recognize to whom I refer.
I have said that our forefathers had comparatively
little experience of the effects of party spirit, whUe the
Federal Government was administered by the Con
gress of the Confederation, and while the nation was
insignificant in population, and yet suffering from
the effects of the hardships of the Eevolution.
But the adoption of the Constitution, and the altered
condition of our internal affairs which succeeded,
gave that spirit an ample field of action. Even the
purity of character and the distinguished services
of Washington did not avail to shield him from its
effects. His controversy with Genet, the treaty of
1795 with Great Britain, and the " whiskey insur
rection" in Pennsylvania, were successively occa
sions of attacks upon his character as well as his
policy, which wrung his great and patriotic heart.
To such lengths did the virulence of party passion
lead the people, whose independence was due in
so great a degree to his wisdom and his virtues,
that he was menaced with the fate of Louis XYI. ;*
that his impeachment was publicly called for ; that
" it was averred that he was totally destitute of
merits either as a soldier or a statesman," and that
he was charged with having plundered the public
treasury for his private emolument.f Even the
* Irving's Washington, vol. v., p. 166.
f Marshall's Washington, vol. ii., p. 370.

THE FUTURE. 307
equanimity which was such a conspicuous trait of
his character gave way under such provocation.
He repeatedly expressed his regret at having ac
cepted the Presidency. He declared, in the bitter
ness of his spirit, that " he had rather be in his grave
than in his present situation ;" and he asserted that
such " is the turbulence of human passions in party
disputes, where victory more than truth, is the palm
contended for, that the post of honor is a private
station." And when his approaching retirement'
into private life had assuaged the fierceness of the
envenomed attacks to which he had been subjected,
and disposed aU his fellow-countrymen to acknow
ledge the wisdom and perfect rectitude of his con
duct during his presidency, he left upon record, in
his farewell address, this solemn warning against the
spirit of party, from his experience of which he fore
saw a danger to the Uberties of his country, greater
than any that could proceed from the ambition or
corruption of its rulers.
" I have already intimated to you the danger of
parties in the State, with particular reference to the
founding of them upon geographical discrimina
tions. Let me now take a more comprehensive
view, and warn you in the most solemn manner
against the baneful effects of the spirit of party
generally. "This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from
our nature, having its root in the strongest pas-

308 THE FUTURE.
sions of the human mind. It exists, under different
shapes, in all governments, more or less stifled, con
trolled, or repressed ; but in those of the popular
form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly
their worst enemy.
" The ultimate domination of one faction over
another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural
to party dissensions, which in different ages and
countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormi
ties, is in itself a frightful despotism. But this
leads at length to a more formal aud permanent
despotism. The disorders and miseries which re
sult gradually incline the minds of men to seek
security and repose in the absolute power of an
individual; and, sooner or later, the chief of some
prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than
his competitors, turns this disposition to the pur
poses of his own elevation, on the ruins qf puhUc
liberty." StartUng as is the adaptation of these words
to the present condition of the country, they do
not constitute the only warning contained iu the
farewell address, against the follies and errors
of the policy which I have discussed at such
length. For Washington does not confine himself
with pointing out the passion that will predis
pose the nation to the overthrow of its liberties;
he indicates as the very method by which the
catastrophe will be effected, the destruction, hy

THE FUTURE. 309
usv/rpalion, of the checks established hy the Consti
tution. I copy :
" The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exer
cise of political power, by dividing and distributing
it into different depositaries, and constituting each
the guardian of the public weal against invasions
by the others, has been evinced by experiments,
ancient and modem, some of them in our country,
and under our own eyes. To preserve them must
be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opi
nion of the people, the distribution or modification
of the constitutional powers be in any particular
wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the
way which the Constitution designates. But let
THEKE BE NO CHANGE BT USURPATION ; for thoUgh,
this in one instance may be the instrument of good,
rr IS THE CUSTOilABT WEAPON BT WHICH FREE GOVEEN-
MENTS AEE DESTEOTED."
It has been my aim in this chapter to enforce
these emphatic prophecies ; to show that Washing
ton did not read amiss the signs of the times ; to
satisfy my reader that his earnest and affectionate
appeal was something more than a mere flourish
of rhetoric. I have elsewhere cited the language
of Hamilton and of Madison ; and I could have
filled this volume with quotations to the same
effect from a long roll of statesmen, philosophers,
jurists, publicists, and historians, who have dis
cussed the theory of our poUtical system, and the

310 THE FUTURE.
various provisions of the Constitution. They all
concur in their conclusions. They teach us that
a large debt, and a large national expenditure,
create a class of citizens inimical to popular in
stitutions ; and we have now a debt counted by
thousands of millions, and we propose to adopt
a future policy which will requfre an annual ex
penditure of four hundred millions. They teach
us that an uncontrolled and irresponsible executive
will ultimately convert himself into a despot ; and
we propose to make our President an unchecked
autocrat. They teach us that a large standing army
is the instrument by which executive power strikes
down free institutions ; and we propose to keep up
a stailding army of more than a quarter of a mU
lion of soldiers. They teach us that the in
dependent sovereignty of the States is the great
guaranty of the perpetuity of our Constitution ; and
we propose to convert the States into mere bureaux
of the central power. They teach us that the
spirit of party creates a usurper, and furnishes
him with his instruments; and we propose to
arouse party spirit till the two political parties
shall be ready to imbrue their hands in each other's
blood. Why so much incredulity as to a result so clear
ly predicted ? Why this confidence that there is no
danger? Why this blind refusal to beUeve those
who have so often warned us of the precipice at

THE FUTURE. 311
the end of the road down which we are so madly
rushing ?
For one, I cannot share the pleasing anticipations
pf those who believe that the Constitution can survive
the proposed experiment; I cannot allow my ap
prehensions to be soothed by the assurances of
optimists— the eager votaries of philanthrophical
theories of government, panting with the excite
ment of a civil war which is yet raging, whose
advent they derided with confident predictions
that have scarcely died upon my ears. I prefer
to rest my faith upon the teachings of the great and
good men who framed the Constitution ; of their
successors who administered the government under
it, in times favorable for the exercise of calm rea
son and the attainment of sound judgment ; of the
publicists and political economists throughout the
world, who have carefully studied the science of
government ; and of the historians who have re
corded the rise, progress, and fall of the republics
which preceded ours. I can therefore anticipate
nothing but the total overthrow of the Constitution,
and the extinction of the bright hopes, which in
this and other countries, have clustered around the
American experiment of self-government, from any
attempt to marry miUtary rule to free institutions;
under whatever name the monstrous alliance may
be disguised, or with whatever specious pretext of

312 THE FUTURE.
phUanthropy, or commercial or political ascendency,
it may be commended to our favor.
jfoTE. — ^The following account of some of the incidents
which attended the Congressional elections held in Mary
land in November, 1863, is copied from the newspaper
¦ press. It is, of course, not impossible that some of the de
tails may be exaggerated, but the general accuracy of
the narration is vouched for in the recent annual message
of Governor Bradford of that State, and confirmed by
documentary proof submitted by him to the Legislature.
Correspondence of the " New York Tribune."
A Provost-Marshal and Lieutenant-Colonel in Kent
County, issued an absurd order in regard to the election, in
which they undertook to designate who were loyal citizens,
by saying that only those could be so considered who voted
for the Government candidates, and then arrested and sent
to Baltimore the entire Copperhead candidates on the coun
ty ticket. These unhappy gentlemen arrived in Baltunore
the night before the election.
Correspondence of the Washington " National Intelligencer."
Mr. Arthur Crisfield advanced between the file of sol
diers to the judges' desk and offered his vote ; Capt.
Moore, who was standing by the desk immediately fronting
the judges, challenged his vote and inquired his name.
The reply was, " Arthur Crisfield."
Capt. Moore, puUmg a paper from his pocket examined
it, and proceeded to interrogate Mr. A. Crisfield, in sub
stance as follows :
Capt. Moore. — " Have you ever been in the rebel ser
vice?" Mr. A. Crisfield.—" No."
Capt. Moore. — " Are you loyal ? "

THE FUTURE. 813
Mr. A. Crisfield.--" I am."
Captain Moore. — "Have you ever sympathized with
those in rebehion against the Government ?"
Mr. A. Crisfield. — " I have never given aid, assistance
or encouragement to the South."
Capt. Moore. — "Do you acknowledge this to be a
rebeUion against the Government ?"
Mr. A. Crisfield. — " I acknowledge this."
Capt. Moore. — " Are you in favor of prosecuting the
war to put down the rebellion by every means, and of
voting men and money for this purpose, and that all your
property may be devoted to the prosecution of the war ?"
Mr. A. Crisfield. — " Define the means."
Capt. Moore. — " By blockade, cutting off supphes from
the South, and by every means known in civilized war
fare ?"
Mr. A. Crisfield. — " I think the Govemment has the
right to prosecute the war by all the means recognized by
international law and civilized warfare, within the limits of
the Constitntion and the laws of the country."
Capt. Moore. — " Are yon in favor of prosecuting the
war by evekt means ?"
Mr. Crisfield was repeating the same reply as that to
the former question, when Capt. Moore turned to the
judges and said, "administer the oath to him."
Mr. Pinto, one of the judges of the election, then rose
and said : " We disapprove of this mode of conducting the
election. We should never get through. We are sworn
to conduct the election according to the laws of Maryland;
and if we are not permitted to do so, we submit to
arrest." Capt. Moore. — " You refuse then to carry ont the order
of Gen. Schenck ?"
Mr. Pinto.—" We decide to obey the proclamation of
the Governor and the order of the President."
Capt. Moore then arrested the judges, and said, " the
arrest is for refusing to obey the ord6r of Gen. Schenck."
15

314 THE FUTURE.
The judges then said the election was closed, and Capt.
Moore required them to report themselves to him under
arrest at Twilley's hotel, which they promised to do. Capt.
Moore informed them they were to be taken to the city of
Baltimore. This statement is certified to be true by the judges of the
election (who add that they were carried under a military
guard to Salisbury, and then placed iu the guard-house),
and also by a large number of prominent citizens.
The sergeant in command at Potato Neck district, in
the same county mentioned above, stated to the judges of
election that he had received orders to enforce the Order
No. 53 ; to challenge every voter ; to examine all tickets
offered ; to administer the oath contained in the Order No.
53, and to decline to aUow any tickets but the yellow or
Creswell tickets to be polled. That after the proclamation
was received at camp, he was ordered to enforce Order
No. 53, as it had been modified by the President ; to
administer the oath ; to challenge every man who offered
to vote, and to prevent all from voting who presented any
but the yellow or Creswell ticket ; that he would examine
every ticket, and that if there should be a disturbance,
soldiers enough could easily be got to wipe all out who
attempted it. A very small vote was polled, the mass of
the people being deterred from coming out by fear of the
soldiers, who were reported to have received orders to
arrest all who voted for Mr. Crisfield.
In Barren Creek, the sergeant in command pulled out
of his pocket a yellow or Creswell ticket, and said, " This
is the only ticket that shall be voted to-day." The window
was guarded, and all were ejected who would not vote the
yellow ticket.
At Chestertown, the Lieut.-Col. commandmg, stated in
a printed order :
" It becomes every true loyal citizen to avail himself of

THE FUTURE. 315
the present opportunity offered, to place himself honorably
upon the record, by giving a full and ardent support to the
whole Government ticket, upon the platform adopted by
the Union League Convention. None other is recognized
by the Federal authorities as loyal or worthy of the support
of any one who desires the peace and restoration of this
Union."

Mr. Hamilton, in the sixtieth number of The Federalist,
speaking of the apprehension that the power confided to
the Union to regulate its own elections might be abused,
among other things, " in such a manner as to promote the
election of some favorite class of men in exclusion of
others," says, " of all chimerical suppositions, this seems
the most chimerical. On the one hand no rational calcu
lation of probabilities would lead us to imagine that the
disposition, which a conduct so violent and extraordinary
would imply, could ever find its way into the national
councils ; and on the other hand, it may be concluded with
certainty, that if so improper a spirit should ever gain
admittance into them, it would display itself in a form
altogether different and far more decisive. The improba
bility of the attempt may be satisfactorily inferred from
the single reflection, that it could never be made without
causing an immediate revolt of the great body of the peo
ple, headed and directed by the State governments."
But Mr. Hamilton, as I have already stated, had no
adequate experience of the lengths to which rulers will go,
and of the usurpations which the governed will not only
tolerate but applaud, under the influence of party-spirit.

316 THE FUTURE.

CHAPTER XIII.
Suggestions as to the Possibility of restoring the Union without
destroying Public Liberty — The most important Object to be ac
complished is to impress upon the Public Mind a correct under
standing of the Conditions of the Problem— Also to modify the
Spirit with which the War has been carried on— There will be no
difficulty in framing a plan when those Objects have been attained
— Reasons for believing in the existence of a Disposition at the
South to return to the Union upon honorable Terms — The Utility
of a further prosecution of the War discussed — Purposes for
which it should be prosecuted — The Eifect of the Emancipation
Proclamation should be left to Judicial Decision — The political
Power of Slavery is at an end — Urgent Necessity of RemodelUng
the Constitution — Reasons why the holding of a National Con
vention at an early day is indispensable, irrespective of its Influ
ence in promoting the Restoration of the Union — But such a
Convention can be and should be made a Powerful Instrument to
hasten the end of the War — Reforms which it should accomplish
— Effect of those Reforms upon the Pacification and Prosperity of
the Country, and the Future Permanence of the Union,
Is it then impossible to preserve at the same time
the Union and popular govemment ; or must the
American people resign themselves to the hard ne
cessity, of consenting to the destruction of one or the
other of those cherished institutions ? I feel reluc
tant to leave the reader who has patiently followed
me so far, as long as it is possible that any sugges
tions which I can make, will aid him in any degree

THE FUTURE. 317
in the solution of this grand and absorbing question ;
and yet it seems to me that I have already gone
over the ground so fully, that I can add but little to
the observations contained in the preceding pages,
with any useful or satisfactory result.
I have fully laid down the principles applicable
to our civU war, which distinguish right from
wrong — the enforcement of constitutional jurisdic
tion from usurpation of the prerogatives of a con
queror. I have endeavored to portray the con
sequences which will ensue from an attempt to
overstep the clear and distinct boundary Une, which
separates the one from the other. I have indicated
in what manner, if we would preserve our national
greatness and prosperity — nay, our existence as a
free people — the exercise of indisputable powers
must be controlled and regulated by the laws of
humanity, the established principles of political
science, and the theories upon which our govem
ment is based. And I have not confined myself to
the elucidation of abstract principles ; but I have
carefully appUed them to the various measures
which we have already adopted, and to the poUcy
which is urged upon us in the future. I have done
even more — for while condemning particular acts as
unlavrful or impolitic, and pointing out the mischiefs
which they have already produced, or the fatal con
sequences to which they will lead in the future, I
have also designated the lawful and regular mode

318 THE FUTURE.
of meeting the same emergency, and the benefits
and advantages to ensue from its adoption.
So fully has this been done that it is scarcely
possible to suggest any plan (except disunion) by
which the war can be brought to a close, whether
it contemplates the preservation or the destruction
of the Constitution, whose general features wUl not
depend upon principles that have been condemned
or commended in these pages, with reference to
considerations of expediency as well as of right.
And if I should attempt to add another to the many
plans for the settlement of our difficulties, now
occupying the public attention, its general outline
would consist of a mere repetition of what has al
ready been said ; whUe it seems to me that it would
be worse than unprofitable to attempt to mark out
at the present time, the details by which the scheme
could be carried into effect. For there is not the
slightest possibility that this work, even if it should
fall under the observation of our present rulers,
would in any respect infiuence their action. They
are committed to " the President's plan ;" and what
ever may be its merits or demerits, they will oc
cupy the remaining year of their power in efforts
to force it upon the southem people. And should
I attempt to devise, with reference to the present
situation of affairs, the details of a scheme that
will accomplish the results, by which alone we
can 7 ope to preserve our freedom and the Union,

THE FUTURE. 319
the rapid march of events might soon render some
of them impracticable, and perhaps mischievous.
Indeed the only object of real importance at the
present time, that should command the efforts of
those who agree with me that the policy which we
are at present pursuing, can end in nothing but in
volving the southern people and ourselves in a com
mon ruin, is to impress that fact. thoroughly upon
the public mind. Whenever the American people
shall fuUy appreciate the consequences of attempt
ing to maintain the Union by force, and clearly un
derstand the conditions of the problem involved in
its maintenance by any other means, there will be
no difficulty in settling the details of a scheme of
pacification, which wiU ensure at all events the pre
servation of our liberties, and will also accompUsh
the restoration of the Union, if that event is yet
capable of accompUshment by the art or the power
of man. And we have reason to believe that the
time has not passed when such a consummation
can be attained, by a retum to political and consti
tutional principles, that once commanded such
universal acquiescence, and by the exercise towards
the southem people of the great Christian virtues
of forbearance, magnanimity and charity — traits
which ennoble nations as well as individuals. I have
referred in the seventh chapter to some of the rea
sons which authorize us to entertain such an opin-

320 THE FUTURE.
ion.* It wUl be confirmed and strengthened by
observing the great change that has taken place,
within the last year or two, in the character of the
appeals by which southern newspapers and public
speakers animate their people to renewed efforts,
and the continued endurance of the hardships of the
war. At the commencement of the struggle, they
were never weary of depicting in glowing terms the
prosperity and greatness to which their section would
attain, by realizing the dream of Independence ;
they ascribed its misfortunes and comparative
poverty in the past, solely to the baneful effects of
the Union ; and they roused popular passion by re
presenting the ISTortherners as lacking in every one
of the manly virtues, and unworthy to be the politi-
cah associates of a chivalrous and high-minded peo
ple. But the burden both of vituperation and ar
gument is now entirely altered. We hear nothing
more of northern cowardice ; but little of northern
perfidy ; still less of the glories and advantages
of Southern Independence, or of grievances sus
tained by the South in years gone by. Denuncia
tions of our people are now levelled at the malig
nant and blood-thirsty spirit, with which the civil
and miUtary policy of our Government proves the
ruling majority to be imbued; and arguments are
' * See pages 139 to 141.

THE FUTURE. 321
predicated upon the political ostracism, degradation,
spoliation, and slaughter which await the insurgents,
whether they shall voluntarily submit or be con
quered. Those who still have faith in the success
of their cause, appear to have diverted the stream
of their vituperations from the administration party
to its opponents, evidently through apprehension
that a change of policy at the North will excite such
dissensions at the South, as to compel the abandon
ment of the struggle. All this indicates very conclu
sively that a great change has come over the minds
of the southern people since the commencement of
the war, and that a large number of them, including
several of their leading men, find their principal
motive for continuing the struggle in the impossi-
biUty of abandoning it, without sacrificing their
self-respect and the Constitutional rights of a whole
people, and exposing the Uves, liberties and property,
of their most beloved and venerated citizens to the
fury of a cruel and vindictive enemy.*
* The principal newspapers of the North copy from time
to time the most interesting paragraphs which appear in
the southern papers. Any person who has been iu the
habit of attentively reading those extracts will confirm my
statements respecting their tone and spirit, heretofore and
at the present time. I have only room here for a very few
recent paragraphs, which I select as among the most sig
nificant indications of a disposition entertained by many at
the South, to return to the Union whenever they can do so
with safety and honor. 14*

322 THE FUTURE.
To what extent this feeling extends is of course
only matter of conjecture ; but its existence autho
rizes us to beUeve that we may yet avoid the
From the Mobile Register, edited by Judge Forsyth :
" We thank God from the depths of our heart that the
authorities at Washington snubbed Yice-President Stephens,
in his late attempt to confer with them on international
affairs, without form or ceremony 
President Davis gave him full powers to treat on honora
ble terms and started him off to the kingdom of Abraham.
But Father Abraham told him there was an impassable
gulf between them, and the Vice-President had to steam
back to Richmond, a httle top-fallen. We hope this will
put a stop forever to some croakers about here, who inti
mate that there are people enough friendly to the South in
the North to restore the Union as it was. And we also hope
the Government at Richmond will not humiliate itself any
more, but from this time will look only to the one end of
final and substantial independence 
" There is only one party in the North who want the Union
restored, but they have no more power — legislative, execu
tive or judicial — than the paper we write on 
Should a strong Union party spring up in Ohio, the third
State in the North in pohtical iniportance, it might find a
faint response in some southern States and give us trouble.
But as long as the Repubhcans hold power, they will think
of conquest and dominion only, and we on the other hand
will come up in solid column for freedom and independ
ence, which we will be certain to achieve, with such assist
ance as we may now (after the refusal of the Washington
Cabinet td confer) confidently expect, before the Demo
crats Of the North get into power again, and come whisper
ing in our ears — ' Union, reconstruction, Constitution, con
cession amd gua/ranties.' Away with all such stuff I We
want separation. Give us rather men like Thaddeus

THE FUTURE. 323
disruption of the Uniou without trampling the
South and prostrating ourselves under the feet
of a miUtary despotism. And although I shall
Stevens and Charles Sumner. They curse the old Union
and despise it ; and so do we."
From the Richmond Enquirer : " But for the poisonous
embrace of the Democratic party, these States would have
been free and clear of the unnatural Union twenty years
ago. The idea of that odious party coming to life again,
and holding ont its arms to us. makes us shiver. Its foul
breath is malaria ; its touch is death. It was not the Sew
ards and the Sumners, the Black Repubhcans and Aboli
tionists, who have hurt us. They were right all along.
Let our enemy appear as an exterminating Yankee host,
we pray, and not as a Democratic Convention I Let him
take any shape but that 1 Already we have visions of the
men of feeble knees, tender feet, and undulating spines,
losing their sense and manhood by the contact, as they did,
alas, so often before."
These are the expressions of those who desire separation ;
the extract which follows reflects the views of the class of
men referred to in the paragraphs quoted ; those who per
severe because they have no other option. It is taken
from an address to the people of Georgia tay the Hon. B.
H. HiU.
" Extreme men novr govern the United States. They
mean our subjugation and ruin. We must fight as long as
those men are in power. When the people of the United
States shall drive these men from power, and repudiate
their extreme measures, and cease to invade and rob us,
there will be an honorable door open for discussion! But
never before. Until that door shall be opened by our ene
mies, let our people count no disaster as intolerable, aud
regard every interest as protected only by a vigorous pro
secution of the war. Let every man of the army be in

324 THE FUTURE.
not attempt, for the reasons already given, to ela
borate a scheme by which this result can be at
tained, I will briefly glance at some questions con
nected with the effort to accomplish it, the condi
tions of which cannot be materially affected by any
mutation in pubUc affairs that the progress of the
war will occasion, unless unexpected disasters to
our armies, or the intervention of European powers,
should enable the Confederates to dictate the terms
of peace to us.
I regret that the possibility of settling our diffi
culties by negotiations with our adversaries, con
templating their voluntary return to the Union, is
not one of these questions. Many of our ablest
statesmen and purest patriots believe that such a
settlement of the controversy could be attained at
the present time, in a manner and upon terms hon
orable to both parties, and which would ensure
the restoration of the feelings of fraternal attach
ment formerly existing between the different sec
tions of the nation. But it is useless to inquire
whether these hopes are now weU founded, since
there is no possibility, while the present Adminis
tration is in power, of testing the soundness of our
conclusions by a practical experiment. And it
camp, and let every man not of the army, produce some
thing to sustain those in camp. To fight the extreme men
and keep our ears open to the reasonable and just men of
the United States, is the only road to peace and honor."

THE FUTURE. 325
would be still more idle to speculate whether the
events of the succeeding year will dissipate or con
firm them.
But there is another question of paramount im
portance, and demanding a direct and immediate
answer, the solution of which necessarily lies at the
basis of an altered poUcy, in case negotiations shall
faU in their object, or the state of the country shall
be such that they could not be usefully or honorably
attempted ; and that is — shaU the war be further
prosecuted ? And it must be acknowledged that an
affirmative answer to this question can be justified,
less by the inherent force of the arguments in its
favor, than by a consideration of the consequences
which wiU result from answering it in the negative.
For I have endeavored to show that although the
war is a lawful and constitutional mode of restoring
the Union, yet that its object cannot be accom
plished under our existing Constitution, unless it
shall terminate with the voluntary and cheerful
acceptance by the southem people, of the restora
tion of the Govemment to its former authority over
them. To quote Mr. Seward again : " Only an im
perial or despotic govemment could subjugate
thoroughly disaffected and revolutionary members
of the State. This federal republican system of
ours is of all forms of government the very one
which is most unfitted for such a labor." No can
did man can doubt that the southem States are

326 THE FUTURE.
now thoroughly disaffected and revolutionary ; and
I have endeavored to expose the fallacy of the
theory that they have been brought to that condi
tion, or that they are maintained in it, in any other
way than by the voluntary action of the great ma
jority of their people. Hence it must be acknow
ledged that the attempt to inspire the southern peo
ple with attachment to the Union by the use of
force presents a perplexing problem.
But on the other hand, we must inquire into the
probable consequences of stopping the war. And
doubtful and uncertain as the results of its further
prosecution may appear, there can be but little
doubt or uncertainty respecting the consequences
of its cessation. To withdraw our armies from the
southern territory, and announce to the enemy and
the world that we had abandoned aU attempt for
cibly to reduce the insurgents to submission, would
lead a-t once to the recognition of the Southern Con
federacy by foreign nations, and to the complete
and undisputed establishment of its sway over aU
the people within its boundaries. It would then
become de jure and de facto one of the political
sovereign communities of the civUized world ; the
separation would be complete ; and the failure of
the negotiations, or the fact that they were so mani
festly useless that they were not undertaken, would
lead to the conclusion that it was final.
It is true that such a result might be due to the

THE FUTURE. 327
fact that power was in the hands of men, who in
that respect did not truly represent the wishes of a
majority of the southern people. For under their
form of government, as weU as under our own, the
temper of the people aud of their rulers may be for
a time antagonistic to each other. But for us to
assume the existence of such an antagonism, and to
wait tiU the time should arrive when the men
whom we should find in power, would be compelled
to give place to other and truer representatives of
the popular sentiment, would expose the cause of
the Union to innumerable hazards during the inter
vening period. And on the other hand, if the peo
ple of the South, notwithstanding what we have
done to merit their hatred, stUl cherish feelings
which would render a voluntary re-union possible,
there is no reason to suppose that such feelings
would undergo any diminution, if we should destroy
the power of their leaders by a farther prosecution
of the war, without adding to its horrors and the
passions which it has awakened, by a perseverance
in the policy of insult and aggravation that has
heretofore accompanied it. Hence we shall gain
nothing, and risk the loss of everything, by arrest
ing the war, and leaving the Confederates at liberty
to accompUsh tiieir own independence, or to reunite
with us, as those who may then chance to hold the
reins of power among them may think proper to
determine.

328 THE FUTURE.
Inconsistent as war may appear with the objects
which we propose to accomplish, it seems impossi
ble to avoid further prosecuting this bloody, hazard
ous and costly experiment of restoring the Union by
force, till the progress of events has dissipated our
present hopes that separation may be averted, or
till we have achieved a victory in the field, which
we must trust to statesmanship to convert into a
bond of future affection and harmony. It is truly
a sad necessity — but the follies of the past have left
us no other alternative. We can only say with
Macbeth — " I am in blood
Stept in so far, that should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er."
The gravity and importance of this question
entitle it to a much more elaborate discussion ; but
the length to which these pages have already ex
tended, admonishes me that I must subject these
concluding remarks to a strict condensation. And
I feel the less reluctance in dismissing the subject
after such a cursory and imperfect examination, that
its merits have apparently been already prejudged
by the American people.
1 But I have written so far in vain, if I have failed
to impress my reader with the conviction that a
¦ continuation of hostilities will be worse than useless,
unless it shall be accompanied with an entire revo-

THE FUTURE. 329
lution of feeUng, and an abandonment of some of
the objects which we have hitherto sought to attain.
The first and greatest victory which it behooves us
to achieve, is a victory over ourselves. We must
go back not only to the objects expressed in the
Crittenden resolution, but to the sentiments with
which that resolution declares the rulers of the
nation to be inspired. We must banish all feelings
of mere passion or resentment, and recollect only
owr duty to the whole country — to the South as weU
as to the North. We must recognize and keep ever
prominently before us this great fundamental truth,
that the end of the war, if it shall be commensurate
with our hopes, will find the men now arrayed in
arms against us our equals and our brethren, under
a system of government depending upon the volun
tary cooperation of the whole people — a system
that can endure only upon conditions, which have
been clearly and emphatically stated by one, whose
conduct at a similar political crisis I have repeatedly
commended as a model for imitation :
" The Constitution cannot he maimtamied nor the
Union preserved, in opposition to public feeling,
hy the mere exertion of the coercive powers confided
to tlie general Government; tlie foundations must
he laid in the affections of the people / in the security
it gives to Ufe, liberty, character and property in
every quanrter of the country ; am.d in the fraternal
attachment which the citizens of the several States

330 THE FUTURE.
hea/r to one another as members of one poUUoal
^amdly, mutually contributing to promote the happi
ness of each other."
We must therefore cease to look at the rebellion
in its legal aspect, and consider it from a political
point of view. We must abandon the idea of pun?
ishing our adversaries as traitors and disturbers
of the public peace, and leam to regard them
as a people imbued with political dogmas, pre
judices, feelings, and passions, which force, severity,
usurpation and humiliation will only strengthen,
and which can only be removed by the exercise of
justice, kindness, moderation and forbearance. The
war must be regarded as a mere instrument to
bring them within reach of those influences ; and
care must be taken that while hostile action is
repressed, the tenacity of hostile opinion, and the
intensity of hostile passion, be not left undiminished.
And we must never forget that we shall ourselves
be compelled in the end to heal every wound, which
we shall have infiicted upon the pride as well as the
sense of justice, of a high-spirited people, descend
ants of our common ancestors, and possessing the
same faults and the same virtues as ourselves.
We must therefore utterly abandon the idea that
we are fighting to accomplish the ends of public jus
tice, to avenge the injured majesty of the laws, or to
repair the defects of the Constitution. Still more
emphatically must we renounce the expectation of at-

THE FUTURE. 33I
taining by means of the war, poUtical advantages to
our own section, beyond those which the Constitu
tion secures to us ; the redress of grievances, real or
imaginary, which we have sustained in times past ;
the reformation of social institutions with which we
have no rightful concern, or the promotion of phi
lanthropic objects at the expense of others. We
must reiterate our solemn pledge that it is waged
SOLELY " to defend and maintain the supremacy of
the Constitution and preserve the Union, with all
the dignity, equality, and rights of the several
States unimpaired." And we must firmly resolve
that when those objects are accomplished, or when
it has been conclusively demonstrated that they
cannot be accomplished, the war ought to cease,
and shall cease.
There are many at the North who would gladly
welcome the adoption of an equitable, humane, and
constitutional policy towards the southern people,
and are willing, for the purpose of uniting upon
such a policy with other conservative and moderate
men, to waive all differences of opinion respecting
every measure, except one. These men hold that
the Emancipation Proclamation should be sus
tained ; some of them because they have faith in
its expediency as well as its legality ; others, be
cause, irrespective of its expediency, they believe it
to be legal, and that the faith of the nation which
it pUghted to the blacks, would be dishonorably

332 THE FUTURE.
violated hy its withdrawal. They assume that the
South, and the majority of conservative men at
the North, would be satisfied with nothing but its
immediate and unconditional repeal, and the abro
gation of all rights real or pretended, which may
have been acquired under it. Hence they are un
able to see any method whereby this stumbling-
block can be removed.
It seems to me, however, that imagination has
greatly overrated this difficulty, and that if the em
barrassments which attend the settlement of the
controversy with the South, or the union of mode
rate men at the North, can be narrowed down to
this point, it can be easily overcome. For one,
decided as my opinions are respecting the invalidity
and inexpediency of military emancipation, I am
willing not only to waive this question entirely, but
even to support a candidate for the Presidency who
entirely dissents from my views upon that subject,
provided that he will pledge himself to abide by
the regular operation of the laws. In truth the
Emancipation Proclamation has already accom
plished all its mission for good — would that I could
say the same of its mission for evil ! If the blacks
have acquired their freedom under it, their right to
freedom is as sacred and unalterable as our own ;
certainly neither the President as a military com
mander, nor the President and Congress as civil
functionaries, can lawfully remand freemen into

THE FUTURE. 333
slavery. Its repeal or its reaffirmance will not
therefore affect the condition of a single human
being in the land. Its future career presents only
three alternatives : it must pass the ordeal of a judi
cial decision ; or it must be upheld by a lawless ex
ercise of power ; or it must be trampled upon by
an equaUy flagrant usurpation. If our adversaries
wUl pursue the second of these alternatives, let
them stand alone in a career of lawlessness aud
violence. The first is the only one which we can
adopt with consistency, safety and justice to all
concerned. The people of the South, if reason shall take the
place of passion among them, cannot fail to recog
nize the force of these principles, and if the other
conditions of reunion shall be favorable, the Eman
cipation Proclamation wiU not prove a serious ob
stacle. Whether it shall be repealed or allowed to
stand, they must equally expect that its validity
will be determined by judicial proceedings. They
will demand a fair, competent, and impartial tribu
nal, and they should have one. They will demand
that the President shall not forcibly interfere be
tween them and the blacks till the relation between
them shall be judicially determined, and this
demand should also be acceded to. If, contrary to
their expectations, the decision should be in favor
of the blacks, it wiU be the duty of the Federal
authorities to enforce the mandates of the Federal

334 THE FUTURE.
Court. Such a decision would doubtless cause
great disappointment and serious pecuniary loss
to the slaveholding whites, but it would not inter
fere with the peaceful and regular action of the"
Government within their section of the country.
The injury would be pecuniary merely; it would
add another to the many calamities which the war
has brought upon the southern people; but it
would be unaccompanied with a sense of humilia
tion from which the greatest obstacles to future
harmony are to be apprehended.*
The people of the North may rest assured that if
all other questions can be equitably adjusted, the
institution of slavery will never again lead to a dis
turbance of the pubUo peace, whatever may be the
* " Fas est ab hoste doceri." — I find a sentence in a
recent number of that " loyal " periodical. The Atlantic'
Monthly, which expresses so forcibly the comparative
effects of insults and injuries upon the human mind that I
copy it : " We doubt if any strong enmity was ever cre
ated in the minds of men or nations through the infliction
of injuries, though injuring parties have an undoubted right
to hate their victims ; and we are sure that an insult was
never yet forgiven by any nation, or by any individual, whose
resentment was of any account."
The writer states this undeniable proposition with a naif
unconsciousness of the force of the argument which he fur
nishes against the whole plan of subjugation. He is dis
cussing, not the effect of injuring and insulting the southern
people at the same time, but of the insults which we have
received from England. Upon that subject his clearness
of mental vision is beyond criticism.

THE FUTURE. 335
result of the judicial test to which the Emancipa
tion Proclamation will be subjected. As an engine
of poUtical controversy its doom will be sealed by
the restoration of the Union. The misfortunes which
excessive devotion . to it have, brought upon the
southern people cannot fail to greatly discredit it
in their estimation, if we shaU cease to make its ex
istence the symbol of their own civil liberty, and
allow reason and reflection to combat it, without
interference from the promptings of pride and pas
sion. The destiny of the territories is fixed forever
by the laws of God as well as the laws of man.
Maryland and Missouri are now substantially free
States, and Delaware, Kentucky, Tennessee, and
Arkansas will soon follow their example, by the vol
untary action of their own people, unless an unjustifi
able attempt to destroy slavery by military force and
usurped power, shall frustrate all efforts to accom
plish its lawful and constitutional extinction. The
States where it yet exists are already in a hopeless
minority, in the Senate, the House of Kepresenta
tives, and the Electoral College — a minority which
must become more insignificant as time adds to the
number of the free States, without increasing that
of the others. In those States where the institution
shaU survive, it will exist purely as an industrial
system, the preservation or extinction of which the
people will regulate as their own interests may dic
tate ; and we mav be sure that the warnings of the

336 THE FUTURE.
past wiU not be lost upon either section of the
nation. K the people, "by repudiating the policy of sub
jugation, shaU manifest their determination that
popular institutions shall survive this struggle, it
will be necessary for our sake, as well for the sake
of the southern people, that the Constitution should
undergo an immediate revision. Before the war
broke out, experience had already demonstrated its
inefficiency to answer the requirements of such a
populous, powerful, and wealthy people as we have
become since its adoption. The events which
led to the war admonish us that we have post
poned for too long a period its adaptation
to the altered circumstances . of the nation.
And the war itself has already destroyed its
substance and reduced it to a mere shell. We
have yet a judicial department, an executive de
partment, and a legislative department, the latter
consisting of two Houses, the members of one of
which are elected by the people, with certain ex
ceptions which have been noted ; but what else
remains of the Constitution? The ability of the
judiciary to restrain the other departments within
their allotted spheres is gone; and the Presi
dent and the legislature acknowledge no limita
tion of their powers save their own ideas of pub
lic necessity. And, worse yet, the executive de
partment is rapidly assuming the functions of the

THE FUTURE. 337
legislature, with the consent or at least the acqui
escence of the latter. ,
It is true that the supporters of the administra
tion allege that this state of things is merely tem
porary ; but in the same breath they acknowledge
its permanency, by felicitating themselves and the
country upon the unexpected strength which the
Government has been found to possess. It is also
true that the opposition vehemently denounce the
administration for its assumption of unconstitu
tional powers, but the precedents having been
estabUshed, they will remain for the guidance of
aU future administrations, whatever may be their
political principles. A wild beast newly caught is
scarcely more impatient of its cage than power of
the fetters which restrain it. And from the moment
when a political emergency becomes recognized as a
key which unlocks them, the line which bounds it and
the features which distinguish it, commence to fade in
the eyes of those, who are alone authorized to deter
mine the application of the precedent. Soon they
disappear entirely; and the limits of power no
longer depend upon fixed boundaries, but fiuctuate
from time, to time according to the abiUty or the
disposition of him who wields it, or the strength of
the party which sustains him. As the boundary
lines of power advance, they push back those which
define the rights of the people : as they recede the
antagonistic force advances, and soon steps within
15

338 THE FUTURE.
the legitimate territory of the other; and thus
government bec9mes to-day a despotism, and to
morrow a mere advisory body. If such a state of
things shaU continue long, a bloody struggle will
ensue, the result of which wUl be a permanent des
potism, or a complete breaking up anew of that
Union which we are now endeavoring to recon
struct at such immense expenditure of blood and
treasure. It must be apparent to any reflecting man, even
if he believes that necessity has justified the eourse
of the administration during the past, three years,
that its acts cannot safely be aUowed to pass into
history, as precedents for the future action of
whatever party shall be strong enough to follow
them. As soon as comparative tranquillity allows
the people to turn their thoughts, from the preserva
tion of the Union to the preservation of popular
liberty, a cry for a national convention wUl arise
throughout the whole country. Would it not be
wise to base negotiations with the insurgents upon
this inevitable necessity, or in some other manner
to take advantage of it, for the purpose of shorten
ing the war ? It seems to me that much might be
gained by a standing offer to meet our rebellious
fellow-citizens, whenever they shall lay down their
arms, in a conventionj composed of delegates freely
and fairly chosen by the people of all the States,
and called together for the purpose of amending the

THE FUTURE. 33^
Constitution, so as to redress all real or imaginary
grievances, provide against the occurrence of quar
rels in the future, and establish the Union upon
a new and more satisfactory basis. Would not
such an offer produce a powerful effect in hasten
ing the period of submission, and possibly avoiding
the embarrassments which even a successful exer
cise of force wiU entail upon us ? It would cer
tainly open to the southern people a door for their
return to the Union without the humiliation of de
feat and conquest, and in entire confidence that
they would, be received as brethren, equals, and
fellow-citizens. If there is in truth a party among
them disposed to abandon the struggle whenever they
can secure honorable terms of submission, such an
offer would tend to strengthen its hands and increase
its numbers ; and we may fairly indulge the hope that
it would operate so powerfully in this direction, as to
spare any further effusion of blood, by satisfying
those wlio were still disposed to hold out, that the
cause of southern independence could no longer
command that united support among their own
people, ^yithout which its success would be hope
less. But even if the convention shall not meet till after
the war shall be ended, it may still be made a power
ful agency to allay the remnants of discontent, which
the prostration of the rebellion, even under the most
favorable circumstances, will leave behind. I wiU

340 THE FUTURE.
not prematurely attempt an enumeration of all the
objects which it should accompUsh. Certain evils,
however, obtrude themselves in such gigantic and
hideous forms upon the eye, that the bare sugges
tion of reform becomes at once associated with
their extinction. The most flagrant and abomin
able of these is the practice of ignoring fitness, ca
pacity, or integrity in the distribution of the enor
mous patronage of the Government ; of making the
tenure of office depend exclusively upon the poUti
cal opinions or party services of the candidates ; and
of signalizing the advent of every new administra
tion to power, by a radical change in all the public
offices throughout the country. It is impossible to
exaggerate the mischiefs to which this detestable
perversion of the executive power of appointment
and removal has already led, and to which its con
tinuance will lead in the future. Its most obvious
effects are seen in the violence, mendacity, and un-
scrupulousness which characterize our political can
vasses, the corruption which pervades every depart
ment of the Govemment, and the weakness and
incapacity of our public men. These are all trace
able directly to a system which has driven the
purest and ablest men of the country out. of public
life, aud compelled us to trust the administration
of the Government in a great measure to those who
are morally an d intellectually unfit for their post. In
this way I opine that the careful student of the

THE FUTURE. 34.I
causes which led to the present war will find that
this practice is really responsible for the creation of
the jealousies, fears, misrepresentations, and heart
burnings, of which the institution of slavery was
merely a vehicle and the pretext. And an infusion
into our public affairs of the wisdom, moderation
and integrity, in which of late years they have been
so deficient, by approaching our presidential elec
tion more nearly to the character of a struggle for
the simple ascendency of principles, would do more
than any other measure to 'heal the wounds left
open by the war, and to insure the nation against
another disturbance of the public peace.
The attention of the convention should also be
directed to precluding the possibility of future col
lisions between the general Government and the
States. The former, strengthened by the addition
of such powers as experience shows that its effi
ciency requires, should be limited by more clearly
defined boundaries ; and the language by which the
grants or restrictions of power are regulated, should
be so revised as to exclude oi* sanction the different
intei'pretations to which it has already given rise.
Greater and more lasting checks against the usur
pations of the various depositories of power over the
citizen, or over each other, should be introduced.
The rights and powers of the States, the nature,
character, and permanency of the Union, and the
relatione of the States to each other and to the

342 THE FUTURE.
central Govemment, should be as clearly defined as
language wiU permit. And some great tribunal,
with ample ability to enforce its mandates in time
of war or in time of peace, and to protect its own
independence against the encroachments, assaults
or corruptions of any department of . the Govem
ment, should be created, with a jurisdiction suffi
ciently enlarged to preclude the possibUity of
a resort to the sword, in order to settle such dis
putes as the imperfection of human language, and
the narrow range of human foresightj render it im
possible whoUy to avoid. Other measures, tending
to bind more closely together the now dissevered
fragments of the Union, and to " establish justice,
ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common
defence, promote the general welfare, and secure
the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos
terity," will suggest themselves to reflecting men,
when the proper period shall arrive for their con
sideration. But the public mind is not yet ripe for a
discussion of these measures, or of the means where
by the reforms suggested can be accomphshed.

And here I wUl bring to a close these observations,
which have already extended far beyond my original
Intentions, and to a length that nothing but the mag
nitude of the interests at stake could justify. Hope
ful as I try to be, that my country will survive its

THE FUTURE. 343
terrible ordeal, I have not been able to banish
from my mind the belief that it is rushing onward
toward an abyss, at the bottom of which lie national
destruction and individual ruin. Impressed with
this conviction, I have endeavored plainly and ear
nestly, but I hope temperately and with charity
towards those who differ from me, to point out the
signs of the danger and the fatal consequences of
the plunge. I have discharged my task with an
ever-present sense of the reponsibility resting upon
the man, who aims to influence public opinion at
such a crisis of the nation's destiny. And I have
been led at every step of my labors — and especially
in this last chapter — to feel acutely how fearful
and uncertain is the mysterious future which I
have endeavored to explore, and how blindly we
are all groping in the dark. In such a strait, while,
as becomes men, we bend all our physical and intel
lectual energies to extricate ourselves, let us also.
trust that a kind Providence, in its infinite wisdom,
will second our efforts, and ultimately lead us to
the way, whereby we can emerge from this- dark
ness into the Ught of peace, fraterm'ty, civU liberty
and prosperity. '' O, that a man might know
The end of this day's business ere it come 1
But it suflficeth that the day will end,
And then the end is known."