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diff --git a/old/10637.txt b/old/10637.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..49a24d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10637.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6454 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Uprising of a Great People +by Count Agenor de Gasparin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Uprising of a Great People + The United States in 1861. To Which is Added a Word of Peace on the Difference Between England the United States. + +Author: Count Agenor de Gasparin + +Release Date: January 8, 2004 [EBook #10637] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE UPRISING OF A GREAT PEOPLE *** + + + + +Produced by Virginia Paque and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + THE UPRISING OF A GREAT PEOPLE. + THE UNITED STATES IN 1861. + + + TO WHICH IS ADDED + A WORD OF PEACE + ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND + THE UNITED STATES. + + + + FROM THE FRENCH OF + COUNT AGENOR DE GASPARIN + + + BY MARY L. BOOTH. + + + NEW AMERICAN EDITION + FROM THE AUTHOR'S REVISED EDITION. + 1862. + + + + * * * * * + + + +TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE +TO THE REVISED AMERICAN EDITION. + + +The edition of the _Uprising of a Great People_ which we issue herewith, +has been carefully revised to conform to the new edition of the original +work, just published at Paris. The author has corrected several errors +of fact, which were noted by American reviewers on the appearance of the +translation, and has also made sundry changes in the work, designed to +bring it down to the present time, and to adapt its counsels to the new +light that is breaking in upon us in the progress of events. These +changes, however, have been few, and relate chiefly to the policy of +emancipation, for so truly has this remarkable book proved a prophecy, +that the author, on reviewing it after a lapse of several eventful +months, can find nothing to strike out as having proved untrue. We are +indebted to the kindness of Count de Gasparin for one or two corrections +of trifling biographical misstatements in the translator's preface. + +The pamphlet concerning the Trent affair, and the surrender of Messrs. +Mason and Slidell, which we append to this edition, will be read with +interest at the present crisis, as an able exposition of the views of +European statesmen on the international difficulty which has sprung so +unexpectedly upon us. While it justifies the surrender on the ground of +technical error, it utters a solemn warning in the name of Europe, that, +if the demand were a mere pretext to force us into a ruinous war, such a +proceeding will not again be tolerated. This pamphlet, entitled _Une +Parole de Paix_, is the article which appeared in the _Journal des +Debats_, December 11, 12, and 13, since published as a _brochure_, with +some additions. + +This new edition is especially valuable, inasmuch as it seals the faith +of our noble friend and sympathizer. "A few months ago," says Count de +Gasparin, in his preface, "I believed in the uprising of a great people; +now I am sure of it." Let not the issue shame us by disappointing his +trust! + +MARY L. BOOTH. + +NEW YORK, _February_, 1862. + + + + * * * * * + + + +PREFACE + +TO THE SECOND EDITION. + + +I have nothing to change in these pages. When I wrote them before the +breaking out of the American crisis, I foreboded, which was not +difficult, that the crisis would be long and grievous, that there would +be mistakes and reverses; but I foreboded, also, that through these +mistakes and reverses, an immense progress was about to come to light. +Some have undertaken to doubt it: at the sight of civil war, and the +evils which it necessarily entails, at the recital of one or two +defeats, they have hastened to raise their hands to Heaven, and to +proclaim in every key the ruin of the United States. + +This is not the place to discuss judgments, sometimes superficial, +sometimes malevolent, which too often pass current among us; to examine +what has been, what should be the attitude of our Europe, what is our +responsibility, what are our interests and our duties. We alone, I am +ashamed to admit it, we alone run the risk of rendering doubtful the +final triumph of the good cause; we have not ceased to be, in spite of +ourselves, the only chance and the only hope of the champions of +slavery. + +Perhaps I shall enter ere long, in a new study, upon the important +subject which I confine myself to indicating here, and which +pre-occupies the government at Washington to such a degree that it seems +inclined to order defensive preparations in view of an unnatural +conflict between liberal America and ourselves. Everything may +happen--alas! the seemingly impossible like all else. It is not enough, +therefore, to declare this impossible and monstrous, it is not enough to +prove that the present state of feeling in Europe is far from giving +reason to foresee an intervention in favor of the South; it is necessary +to sap at the base these deplorable sophisms, more fully credited than +is imagined, which may, in due time, under the pressure of certain +industrial needs or of certain political combinations, urge France and +England into a course which is not their own. + +For the present, I have only wished to repeat, with a strengthened +conviction, what I said a few months ago. I believed then in the +uprising of a great people; now I am sure of it. + +VALLEYRES, _November_ 2, 1861. + + + + * * * * * + + + +TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. + + +At this moment, when we are anxiously scrutinizing every indication of +European feeling with respect to the American question, the advent of a +book, bearing the stamp of a close philosophical, political, and +practical study of the subject, and written, withal, in so hopeful a +spirit as to make us feel with the writer that whatever may result from +the present crisis must be for good, cannot fail to be of public +interest and utility. So truly prophetic is this work in its essence, +that we can hardly believe that it was written in great part amid the +mists that preceded the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. All probabilities +appear to have been foreseen, and the unerring exactness with which +events have taken place hitherto precisely in the direction indicated by +the author, encourages us to believe that this will continue until his +predictions will have been fulfilled to the end. Clear-sighted, +philosophical, appreciative of American genius and accomplishment, +critical, yet charitable to tenderness, stigmatizing the fault, yet +forgiving the offender, cheering our nation onward by words of +encouragement, bravely spoken at the needed-moment, menacing Europe with +the scorn of posterity, if, forgetting her oft-repeated professions, she +dare forsake the side of liberty to traffic in principles; such is the +scope of what a late reviewer calls "the wisest book which has been +written upon America since De Tocqueville." + +Few men are better qualified to judge American affairs than Count de +Gasparin. A many-sided man, combining the scholar, the statesman, the +politician, the man of letters, and the finished gentleman, possessed of +every advantage of culture, wealth, and position, he has devoted a long +life to the advocacy of liberty in all its forms, whether religious or +political, and has ended by making a profound study of American history +and politics, the accuracy of which is truly remarkable. A few facts +with respect to his career, kindly furnished by his personal friend, +Rev. Dr. Robert Baird, of New York, will be here in place. + +Count Agenor Etienne de Gasparin was born at Orange, July 4, 1810. His +family is Protestant, and of Corsican origin; his father was a man of +talent and position, who served for many years as Prefect of the +District of the Rhone, and afterwards as Minister of the Interior under +Louis Philippe, by whom he was highly esteemed. He received a liberal +education, and devoted himself especially to literature, till 1842, when +he was elected by the people of the island of Corsica to represent them +in the Chamber of Deputies. Here began his political career. At that +time, religious liberty was in danger of perishing in France, assailed +by the powerful opposition of the tribunals and the administration. De +Gasparin declared himself its champion, and, in an eloquent speech in +the Chamber of Deputies, which moved the audience to tears, he boldly +accused the courts of perverting the civil code in favor of religious +intolerance, and claimed unlimited freedom for evangelical preaching and +colportage. He also made strenuous efforts to effect the immediate +emancipation of slaves in the French colonies, and published several +essays on the subject. He devoted himself especially to the protection +of Protestantism, and founded in France the Society for the Protection +of Protestant interests, and the Free Protestant Church, yet, detesting +religious intolerance everywhere, he did not hesitate to denounce the +Protestant persecutions of Sweden as bitterly as he had done the +Catholic bigotry of France. He was head of the Cabinet in the Ministry +of the Interior while his father was Minister, and was in the Ministry +of Public Instruction under M. Guizot. In 1848, while travelling in the +East with his wife, a talented Swiss lady, the author of several works, +he received intelligence of the downfall of the government of Louis +Philippe. This event closed his public career. He addressed a letter of +condolence to the dethroned monarch, to whom he was warmly attached, +then retired to Switzerland to devote himself to literature and +philanthropy, being too warm an adherent of the Orleans dynasty to take +part in the new administration. Politically, he is, like Guizot, an +advocate of constitutional monarchy. Since the Revolution, he has +continued to reside in Switzerland. He has published numerous works on +philosophical and social questions, among which may be instanced: +_Esclavage et Traite; De l'Affranchissement des Esclaves; Interets +generaux du Protestantisme Francais, Paganismet Christianisme, Des +tables tournantes, du surnaturel en general, et des esprits_, etc. + +His present work, so hopeful and sympathizing, recommends itself to the +attention of the American public; and even those who may dissent from +some of his positions or conclusions, cannot but admire his vigorous +comprehension of the outlines of the subject, and be cheered by his +predictions of the future. As the expression of the opinion of an +intelligent, clear-sighted European, in a position to comprehend men and +things, concerning the storm which is now agitating the whole country, +it can scarcely fail of a hearty welcome. I commend the following +interpretation, which I have sought to make as conscientiously literal +as due regard to idioms of language would permit, to all true lovers of +liberty and of the Union, of whatever State, section, or nation. + +MARY L. BOOTH. + +NEW YORK, _June_ 15, 1861. + + + + * * * * * + + + +PREFACE. + + +In publishing this study at the present time, I expose myself to the +blame of prudent men. I shall be told that I ought to have waited. + +To have waited for what? Until there shall be no more great questions in +Europe to dispute our attention with the American question? Or until the +American question has shaped itself, and we are able to know clearly +what interests it will serve, in what consequences it will end? + +I am not sorry, I confess, to applaud duty before it is recommended by +success. When success shall have come, men eager to celebrate it will +not be wanting, and I shall leave to them the care of demonstrating then +that the North has been in the right, that it has saved the United +States. + +To construct the philosophy of events after they have passed is very +interesting, without doubt, but the work to be accomplished to-day is +far more serious. The point in question is to sustain our friends when +they are in need of us; when their battle, far from being won, is +scarcely begun; the point in question is to give our support--the very +considerable support of European opinion--at the time when it can be of +service; the point in question is to assume our small share of +responsibility in one of the gravest conflicts of this age. + +Let us enlist; for the Slave States, on their part, are losing no time. +They have profited well, I must admit, by the advantages assured to them +by the complicity of the ministers of Mr. Buchanan. In the face of the +inevitable indecision of a new government, around which care had been +taken to accumulate in advance every impossibility of acting, the +decided bearing of the extreme South, its airs of audacity and defiance +have had a certain eclat and a certain success. Already its partisans +raise their heads; they dare speak in its favor among us; they insult +free trade, by transforming it into an argument destined to serve the +interests of slavery. And shall we remain mute? Shall we listen to the +counsels of that false wisdom that always comes too late, so much does +it fear to declare itself too early? Shall we not feel impelled to show +in all its true light the sacred cause of liberty? Ah! I declare that +the blood boils in my veins; I have hastened and would gladly have +hastened still more. Circumstances independent of my will alone have +retarded a publication prepared more than a month ago. + +ORANGE, _March_ 19, 1861. + + + + * * * * * + + + + CONTENTS + + + INTRODUCTION. + + I.--AMERICAN SLAVERY + + II.--WHERE THE NATION WAS DRIFTING BEFORE THE ELECTION OF MR. LINCOLN. + + III.--WHAT THE ELECTION OF MR. LINCOLN SIGNIFIES. + + IV.--WHAT WE ARE TO THINK OF THE UNITED STATES. + + V.--THE CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. + + VI.--THE GOSPEL AND SLAVERY. + + VII.--THE PRESENT CRISIS. + + VIII.--PROBABLE CONSEQUENCES OF THE CRISIS. + + IX.--COEXISTENCE OF THE TWO RACES AFTER EMANCIPATION. + + X.--THE PRESENT CRISIS WILL REGENERATE THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE + UNITED STATES. + + CONCLUSION. + + + + * * * * * + + + A GREAT PEOPLE RISING. + + + * * * * * + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The title of this work will produce the effect of a paradox. The general +opinion is that the United States continued to pursue an upward course +until the election of Mr. Lincoln, and that since then they have been +declining. It is not difficult, and it is very necessary, to show that +this opinion is absolutely false. Before the recent victory of the +adversaries of slavery, the American Confederation, in spite of its +external progress and its apparent prosperity, was suffering from a +fearful malady which had well-nigh proved mortal; now, an operation has +taken place, the sufferings have increased, the gravity of the situation +is revealed for the first time, perhaps, to inattentive eyes. Does this +mean that the situation was not grave when it did not appear so? Does +this mean that we must deplore a violent crisis which alone can bring +the cure? + +I do not deplore it--I admire it. I recognize in this energetic +reaction against the disease, the moral vigor of a people habituated to +the laborious struggles of liberty. The rising of a people is one of the +rarest and most marvellous prodigies presented by the annals of +humanity. Ordinarily, nations that begin to decline, decline constantly +more and more; a rare power of life is needed to retrieve their +position, and stop in its course a decay once begun. + +We have a strange way of seconding the generous enterprise into which +the United States have entered with so much courage! We prophesy to them +nothing but misfortunes; we almost tell them that they have ceased to +exist; we give them to understand, that in electing Mr. Lincoln they +have renounced their greatness; that they have precipitated themselves +head foremost into an abyss; that they have ruined their prosperity, +sacrificed their future, rendered henceforth impossible the magnificent +character which was reserved to them. Mr. Buchanan, we seem to say, is +the last President of the Union. + +This, thank God, is the reverse of the truth. But lately, indeed, the +United States were advancing to their ruin; but lately there was reason +to mourn in thinking of them; the steps might have been counted which +it remained for them to take to complete the union of their destiny with +that of an accursed and perishable institution--an institution which +corrupts and destroys every thing with which it comes in contact. +To-day, new prospects are opening to them; they will have to combat, to +labor, to suffer; the crime of a century is not repaired in a day; the +right path when long forsaken is not found again without effort; guilty +traditions and old complicities are not broken through without +sacrifices. It is none the less true, notwithstanding, that the hour of +effort and of sacrifice, grievous as it may be, is the very hour of +deliverance. The election of Mr. Lincoln will be one of the great dates +of American history; it closes the past, but it opens the future. With +it is about to commence, if the same spirit be maintained, and if +excessive concessions do not succeed in undoing all that has been done, +a new era, at once purer and greater than that which has just ended. + +Let others accuse me of optimism; I willingly agree to it. I believe +that optimism is often right here below. We need hope; we need sometimes +to receive good news; we need to see sometimes the bright side of +things. The bright side is often the true side; if Love is blindfolded, +I see a triple bandage on the eyes of Hate. Kindliness has its +privileges; and I do not think myself in a worse position than another +to judge the United States because they inspire me with an earnest +sympathy; because, after having mourned their faults and trembled at +their perils, I have joyfully saluted the noble and manly policy of +which the election of Mr. Lincoln is the symptom. Is it not true, that +at the first news we all seemed to breathe a whiff of pure and free air +from the other side of the ocean? + +It is a pleasure, in times like ours, to feel that certain principles +still live; that they will be obeyed, cost what it may; that questions +of conscience can yet sometimes weigh down questions of profit. The +abolition of slavery will be, I have always thought, the principal +conquest of the nineteenth century. This will be its recommendation in +the eyes of posterity, and the chief compensation for many of its +weaknesses. As for us old soldiers of emancipation, who have not ceased +to combat for it for twenty years and more, at the tribunal and +elsewhere, we shall be excused without doubt for seeing in the triumph +of our American friends something else than a subject of lamentation. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +AMERICAN SLAVERY. + + +If they had not triumphed, do you know who would have gained the +victory? Slavery is only a word--a vile word, doubtless, but to which we +in time become habituated. To what do we not become habituated? We have +stores of indulgence and indifference for the social iniquities which +have found their way into the current of cotemporary civilization, and +which can invoke prescription. So we have come to speak of American +slavery with perfect sang froid. We are not, therefore, to stop at the +word, but to go straight to the thing; and the thing is this: + +Every day, in all the Southern States, families are sold at retail: the +father to one, the mother to another, the son to a third, the young +daughter to a fourth; and the father, the mother, the children, are +scattered to the four winds of heaven; these hearts are broken, these +poor beings are given a prey to infamy and sorrow, these marriages are +ruptured, and adulterous unions are formed twenty leagues, a hundred +leagues away, in the bosom and with the assent of a Christian community. +Every day, too, the domestic slave-trade carries on its work; merchants +in human flesh ascend the Mississippi, to seek in the _producing_ States +wherewith to fill up the vacuum caused unceasingly by slavery in the +_consuming_ States; their ascent made, they scour the farms of Virginia +or of Kentucky, buying here a boy, there a girl; and other hearts are +torn, other families are dispersed, other nameless crimes are +accomplished coolly, simply, legally: it is the necessary revenue of the +one, it is the indispensable supply of the others. Must not the South +live, and how dares any one travesty a fact so simple? by what right was +penned that eloquent calumny called "Uncle Tom's Cabin"? + +A calumny! I ask how any one would set to work to calumniate the customs +which I have just described. Say, then, that the laws of the South are a +calumny, that the official acts of the South are a calumny; for I affirm +that the simple reading of these acts and these laws, a glance at the +advertisements of a Southern journal, saddens the heart more, and +wounds the conscience deeper, than the most poignant pages of Mrs. +Harriet Beecher Stowe. I admit willingly that there are many masters who +are very kind and very good. I admit that there are some slaves who are +relatively happy. I cast aside unhesitatingly the stories of exceptional +cruelty; it is enough for me to see that these _happy_ slaves expose +themselves to a thousand deaths to escape a situation declared +"preferable to that of our workmen." It is enough for me to hear the +heart-rending cries of those women and young girls who, adjudged to the +highest and last bidder, become, by the law and in a Christian country, +the property, yes, the property (excuse the word, it is the true one) of +the debauchees, their purchasers. And remark here that the virtues of +the master are a weak guarantee: he may die, he may become bankrupt, and +nothing then can hinder his slaves from being sold into the hands of the +buyer who scours the country and makes his choice. + +We should calumniate the South if we amused ourselves by making a +collection of atrocious deeds, in the same manner that we should +calumniate France by seeking in the _Police Gazette_ for the description +of her social state. There is, notwithstanding, this difference between +the iniquities of slavery and our own: the first are almost always +unpunished, while the second are repressed by the courts. An institution +which permits evil, creates it in a great measure: in saying that men +are things, it necessarily engenders more crimes, more acts of violence, +more cowardly deeds, than the imagination of romancers will ever invent. +When a class has neither the right to complain, nor to defend itself, +nor to testify in law; when it cannot make its voice heard in any +manner, we may be excused for not taking in earnest the idyls chanted on +its felicity. We must be ignorant at once of the heart of man and of +history to preserve the slightest doubt on this point. I add that those +who, like me, have had in their hands the documents of our colonial +slavery, have become terribly suspicious, and are likely to look with a +skeptical eye on these Arcadian descriptions, the worth of which they +can appreciate. + +Once more, I do not contest the humanity of many masters, but I remember +that there were humane masters too in Martinique, Guadeloupe, and +Bourbon; yet this did not prevent the discovery, on a rigid scrutiny, +sometimes of excesses, as fearful as inevitable, of the discretionary +power; at others, of a systematic depravation, and this to such a point +that in one of our colonies the custom of regular unions had become +absolutely unknown to the slaves. + +I cannot help believing that man is the same everywhere. Never, in any +time or in any latitude, has it been given him to possess his fellow, +without fearful misfortunes having resulted to both. Have we not heard +celebrated the delightful mildness of Spanish slavery in Cuba? +Travellers entertained by the Creoles usually return enchanted with it. +Yet, notwithstanding, it is found that on quitting the cities and +penetrating into the plantations, the most barbarous system of labor is +discovered that exists in the entire world. Cuba devours her black +population so rapidly that she is unceasingly obliged to purchase +negroes from abroad; and these, being once on the island, have not +before them an average life exceeding ten years! In the United States, +the planters of the extreme South are also obliged to renew their supply +of negroes; but, as they have recourse to the domestic instead of the +African trade, and as the domestic trade furnishes slaves at an +excessively high price, it follows that motives of interest oppose the +adoption of the destructive system of Cuba. Other higher motives also +oppose it, I am certain; and I am far from comparing the system of +Louisiana or the Carolinas to that which prevails in the Spanish island. +We exaggerate nothing, however; and whatever may be the points of +difference, we may hold it as certain that those of resemblance are +still more numerous: the tree is the same, it cannot but bear the same +fruits. + +It must be affirmed, besides, that slavery is peculiarly odious on that +soil where the equality of mankind has been inscribed with so much eclat +at the head of a celebrated constitution. Liberty imposes obligations; +there is at the bottom of the human conscience something which will +always cause slavery to be more scandalous at Washington than at Havana. +What happens in the United States will be denounced more violently, more +loudly, than what happens in Brazil; and this is right. + +This said, I pause: I have not the slightest wish to introduce here a +perfectly superfluous discussion on the principle and the consequences +of slavery. I know all with which Americans reproach us Europeans. It +was we, Frenchmen, Englishmen, Spaniards, Hollanders, who imposed on +them this institution which we take delight in combating--this +inheritance which we anathematize! Before attacking slavery, we would +do well to turn our attention to our own crimes--to the oppression of +the weak in our manufactories, for instance! But these retaliatory +arguments have the fault of proving nothing at all. We will leave them; +we have said enough on the nature of American slavery; let us proceed to +the special subject of our work. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +WHERE THE UNITED STATES WERE DRIFTING BEFORE THE ELECTION OF MR. LINCOLN. + + +I have spoken of the great perils which the United States encountered +before the election of Mr. Lincoln. The time has come to enter into some +details in justification of this proposition, which must have appeared +strange at first sight, but the terms of which I have weighed well: if +the slavery party had again achieved a victory, the United States would +have gone to ruin. Here are the facts: + +Formerly, there was but one opinion among Americans on the subject of +slavery. The Southerners may have considered it as a necessary evil; in +any case, they considered it as an evil. Carolina herself nobly resisted +its introduction upon her soil; other colonies did the same. Washington +inscribed the wish in his will that so baleful an institution might be +promptly suppressed. To pen up slavery, to prevent its extension, to +reduce it to the _role_ of a local and temporary fact, which it was +determined to restrain still more--such was the sentiment which +prevailed in the South, as in the North. And, in fact, slavery was ere +long abolished in the majority of the States composing the Union. +To-day, slavery has become a beneficent, evangelical institution, the +corner-stone of republics, the foundation of all liberties; it has +become a source of blessings for the blacks as for the whites. We not +only are not to think of reducing the number of slave States, but it +becomes important to increase them unceasingly: to interdict to slavery +the entrance into a new territory is almost iniquitous. Such are the +theories proclaimed by the governors, by the legislators of the cotton +States; they propose them openly, without scruple and without +circumlocution, under the name of political--what do I say? of moral and +Christian axioms. For these theories they take fire, they become +excited; they feel that enthusiasm which was inspired in other times by +the love of liberty. See entire populations, who, under the eye of God, +and invoking his support, devote themselves, body, soul, and goods, to +the _holy_ cause of slavery, its conquests, its indefinite extension, +its inter-State and African trade. + +And the conquests of slavery do not figure only in platforms; they are +pursued and accomplished effectively on the soil of America. In the face +of the nineteenth century, free Texas has been transformed into a slave +State. To create other slave countries is the aim proposed; and slave +countries multiply, and the South does not tolerate the slightest +obstacle to conquests of this kind, and it goes forward, and nothing +stops it--I am wrong, the election of Mr. Lincoln has stopped it, and +this is why its fury breaks out to-day. + +One would he furious for less cause! Every thing had gone so well till +then! The South spoke as a master, and the North humbly bowed its head +before its imperious commands. Its exactions increased from day to day, +and it was not difficult to see to what abysses it was leading the +entire American Union. Shall we give our readers an idea of this +crescendo of pretensions? + +We will content ourselves with going back to the last Mexican war and to +the Wilmot proviso. This was, as is known, a measure, or _proviso_, +stipulating that slavery could not be introduced into conquered +provinces. Such was the starting point. It was sought then, in 1847, to +prevent the territorial extension of slavery. This seems to me +reasonable enough; and I am not astonished that the Lincoln platform +tends simply to return to this primitive policy. The measure passes the +House of Representatives, but is defeated in the Senate. +Notwithstanding, the American people hold firm to the principle that +slavery shall henceforth no longer be extended; it elects, in 1848, the +upright Administration of Gen. Taylor. The cause of justice seems about +to triumph, when the death of the whig President, succeeded by the +feeble Mr. Fillmore, comes to restore good fortune to the Southerners, +the _proviso_ is forgotten, and the nation, weary of resistance, ends by +adopting a series of deplorable compromises. + +Beginning from this moment, the progress of the evil is rapid. Among the +compromises, the oldest and most respected, dating back to 1820, was +that which bore the name of the _Missouri Compromise_. On admitting +Missouri as a Slave State, it had been stipulated that slavery should be +no longer introduced north of the 36th degree of latitude. Of this +limit, so long accepted, the South now complains; it is no longer +willing that the development of its "peculiar institution" shall be +obstructed in any thing. Other combats, another victory. A bill +proposed by Mr. Douglas annuls the Missouri Compromise, and, based on +the principle of local sovereignties, withdraws from Congress the right +to interfere in the question of slavery. + +The Wilmot proviso could not subsist in the presence of these absolute +pretensions. The liberty of slavery (pardon me this mournful and +involuntary conjunction) finds an application on the spot. At this +juncture, Texas, a province detached from Mexico, is admitted in the +quality of a slave State. + +What happens then? The partisans of slavery, hampered by nothing any +longer, either by limits at the North, or limits at the South, or +provisos, or compromises, encounter, to their great horror, an obstacle +of quite a different nature. The local sovereignty which they have +invoked turns against them; in the Territory of Kansas, the majority +votes the exclusion of slavery. At once the Southerners change theory; +against local sovereignty they invoke the central power; they demand, +they exact that the decisions of the majority in Kansas shall be trodden +under foot; they put forward the natural right of slavery. Why shall +they be prevented from settling in a Territory with the slaves, their +property? When this Territory shall be by and by transformed into a +State, there will doubtless be a right to determine the question; but to +abolish slavery is quite a different thing from excluding it. + +If the South did not win the cause this time, it was not the fault of +the government of the United States, but of the inhabitants of Kansas. +As for Mr. Buchanan, he showed himself what he has constantly been, the +most humble servant of the slavery party. They came together into +collision with _squatter sovereignty:_ they found for the first time in +their path that solid resistance of the West which was manifested in the +last election, and which, I firmly hope, is about to save America. But +in the mean time, they had taken a new step forward--a formidable step, +and one which introduced them into the very bosom of the free States: +they had obtained a decision from the Supreme Court--the Dred Scott +decree. In the preamble of this too celebrated decision, the highest +judicial power of the Confederation did not fear to proclaim two +principles: first, that there is no difference between a slave and any +other kind of property; secondly, that all American citizens may settle +everywhere with their property. + +What a menace for the free-soilers! How easy to see to what lengths the +South would shortly go! Since slavery constituted property like any +other, it was necessary to prohibit the majority from proscribing it in +States as well as in Territories. Who knew whether we should not some +day see slaves and even slave-markets (the right of property carries +with it that of sale) in the streets even of Philadelphia or Boston! + +Let no one cry out against this: those who demanded and those who framed +the Dred Scott decision knew probably what they wished to do. With the +right of property understood in this wise, no State has the power either +to vote the real abolition of slavery, or to forbid the introduction of +slaves, or to refuse their extradition. And, effectively, horrible laws, +ordering fugitive slaves to be given up, were accorded to the violent +demands of the South. Liberty by contact with the soil, that great maxim +of our Europe, was interdicted America; the very States that most +detested slavery were condemned to assist, indignant and shuddering, in +the federal invasion of a sheriff entering their homes to lay hands on a +poor negro, who had believed in their hospitality, and who was about to +be delivered up to the whip of the planter. + +It was asking much of the patience of the North; yet, notwithstanding, +this patience was not yet at an end. The Administration was given up a +prey to the will of the Southerners. On their prohibition, the mails +ceased to carry books, journals, letters, which excited their suspicion. +They had seized upon the policy of the Union, and they ruled it +according to their liking. No one has forgotten those enterprises, +favored underhand, then disavowed after failure, those filibustering +expeditions in Central America and in the islands of Cuba. They were the +policy of the South, executed by Mr. Buchanan with his accustomed +docility. The point in question was to make conquests, and conquests for +slavery. By any means, and at any price, the South was to procure new +States. Cuba would furnish some, several would be carved out of Mexico +and Central America; for otherwise the slavery majorities would be +compromised in Congress, and slavery would be forced to renounce forever +the election of the Presidents of free America. To avoid such a +misfortune, there is nothing that they would not have been ready to +undertake. + +Thus, step after step, and exaction after exaction, overthrowing, one +after the other, all barriers, the Wilmot proviso, the Missouri +Compromise, the right of majorities in the Territories, the very +sovereignty of the States annulled by the Dred Scott decision, the South +had succeeded in drawing the United States into those violent and +dishonest political practices which filled the administration of Mr. +Buchanan. The barriers of public probity, and the right of men, yielded +in turn; the administration dared write officially that Cuba was +necessary to the United States, and that the affranchisement of slaves +in Cuba would be a legitimate cause of war. The United States were yoked +to the car of slavery: to make slave States, to conquer Territories for +slavery, to prevent the terrible misfortune of an abolition of slavery, +such was the programme. In negotiations, in elections, nothing else was +perceived than this. If the liberty of the seas and the independence of +the flag were proudly claimed, it was by the order of the South, and +there resulted thence, whether desired or not, a progressive +resurrection of the African slave-trade; if candidates in favor of the +maintenance of the Union were recommended, it was to assure the +conquests of slavery within and without, the invasion of neighboring +countries, the extradition of fugitive slaves, the subjugation of +majorities rebellious to the South, the suppression of laws disagreeable +to the South, the overthrow of the last obstacles which fettered the +progress of the South. + +And it was thus far, to this degree of disorder and abasement, that a +noble people had been dragged downwards in the course of years, sinking +constantly deeper, abandoning, one by one, its guarantees, losing its +titles to the esteem of other nations, approaching the abyss, seeing the +hour draw nigh in which to rise would be impossible, bringing down +maledictions upon itself, forcing those who love it to reflect on the +words of one of its most illustrious leaders: "I tremble for my country, +when I remember that God is just!" + +All this under the tyrannical and pitiless influence of a minority +constantly transformed into a majority! Picture to yourself a man on a +vessel standing by the gun-room with a lighted match, in his hand; he is +alone, but the rest obey him, for at the first disobedience he will blow +up himself with all the crew. This is precisely what has been going on +in America since she went adrift. The working of the ship was commanded +by the man who held the match. "At the first disobedience, we will quit +you." Such has always been the language of the Southern States. They +were known to be capable of keeping their word; therefore, there ceased +to be but one argument in America: secession. "Revoke the compromise, or +else secession; modify the legislation of the free States, or else +secession; risk adventures, and undertake conquests with us for slavery, +or else secession; lastly and above all, never suffer yourselves to +elect a president who is not our candidate, or else secession." + +Thus spoke the South, and the North submitted. Let us not be unduly +surprised at it, there was patriotism in this weakness; many citizens, +inimical to slavery, forbore to combat its progress, in order to avoid +what appeared to them a greater evil. Declivities like these are +descended quickly, and the deplorable presidency of Mr. Buchanan stands +to testify to this. The policy of the United States had become doubtful; +their good renown was dwindling away even with their warmest friends; +their cause was becoming blended more and more with that of servitude; +their liberties were compromised, and the Federal institutions were +bending before the "institution" of the South; no more rights of the +majority before the "institution;" no more sovereignty of the States +before the "institution." The ultra policy of Mr. Buchanan had coveted +Cuba, essayed violence in Kansas, given up the government of America in +fine to a cabinet of such a stamp, that a majority was nearly found in +it, ready to disavow Major Anderson, and to order the evacuation of +forts of the Confederation, menaced by Carolinian forces. + +During this time, an incredible fact had come to light. It was one of +the glories of America to have abolished the African slave trade before +any other nation, and even to have put it on the same footing with the +crime of piracy. The South had openly demanded the re-establishment of a +commerce which alone could furnish it at some day with the number of +negroes proportioned to its vast designs. What had Mr. Buchanan done? He +doubtless had not consented officially to an enormity which Congress, on +its part, would not have tolerated; but repression had become so lax +under his administration, that the number of slave ships fitted out in +the ports of the United States had at length become very considerable. +The port of New York alone, which participates but too much in the +misdeeds and tendencies of the South, fitted out eighty-five slavers +between the months of February, 1859, and July, 1860. These slavers +proudly bore the United States' flag over the seas, and defied the +English cruisers. As for the American cruisers, Mr. Buchanan had taken +care to remove them all from Cuba, where every one knows that the living +cargoes are landed. The slave trade is therefore in the height of +prosperity, whatever the last presidential message may say of it, and as +to the application of the laws concerning piracy, I do not see that they +have had many victims. + +We can now measure the perils which menaced the United States. It was +not such or such a measure in particular, but a collection of measures, +all directed towards the same end, and tending mutually to complete each +other: conquests, the domestic and the foreign slave trade, the +overthrow of the few barriers opposed to the extension of slavery, the +debasement of institutions, the definitive enthroning of an adventurous +policy, a policy without principles and without scruples; to this the +country was advancing with rapid strides. Do they who raise their hands +and eyes to heaven, because the election of Mr. Lincoln has caused the +breaking forth of an inevitable crisis, fancy then that the crisis would +have been less serious if it had broken forth four years later, when the +evil would have been without remedy? Already, the five hundred thousand +slaves of the last century have given place to four millions; was it +advisable to wait until there were twenty millions, and until vast +territories, absorbed by American power, had been peopled by blacks torn +from Africa? Was it advisable to await the time when the South should +have become decidedly the most important part of the Confederation, and +when the North, forced to secede, should have left to others the name, +the prestige, the flag of the United States? Do they fancy that, by +chance, with the supremacy of the South, with its conquests, with the +monstrous development of its slavery, secession would have been avoided? +No! it would have appeared some day as a necessary fact; only it would +have been accomplished under different auspices and in different +conditions. Such a secession would have been death, a shameful death. + +And slavery itself, who imagines, then, that it can be immortal? It is +in vain to extend it; it will perish amidst its conquests and through +its conquests: one can predict this without being a prophet. But, +between the suppression of slavery such as we hope will some time take +place, and that which we should have been forced to fear, in case the +South had carried it still further, is the distance which separates a +hard crisis from a terrible catastrophe. The South knows not what +nameless misfortunes it has perhaps just escaped. If it had been so +unfortunate as to conquer, if it had been so unfortunate as to carry out +its plans, to create slave States, to recruit with negroes from Africa, +it would have certainly paved the way, with its own hands, for one of +those bloody disasters before which the imagination recoils: it would +have shut itself out from all chance of salvation. + +It is not possible, in truth, to put an end to certain crimes, and +wholly avoid their chastisement; there will always be some suffering in +delivering the American Confederation from slavery, and it depends +to-day again upon the South to aggravate, in a fearful measure, the pain +of the transition. However, what would not have been possible with the +election of Mr. Douglas or Mr. Breckenridge, has become possible now +with the election of Mr. Lincoln; we are at liberty to hope henceforth +for the rising of a great people. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +WHAT THE ELECTION OF MR. LINCOLN SIGNIFIES. + + +I think that I have justified the fundamental idea of this work, and the +title which I have given it. If the slavery policy had achieved a new +triumph; if the North had not elected its President, the first that has +belonged to it in full since the existence of the Confederation; if +supremacy had not ranged itself in fine on the side with force and +justice, this unstable balance would have had its hour of downfall: and +what a downfall! Of so much true liberty, of so much progress, of so +many noble examples, what would have been left standing? The secession +of the South is not the secession of the North; affranchisement with +four millions of slaves is not affranchisement with twenty millions; the +crisis of 1861 is not that of 1865 or of 1869. The United States, I +repeat, with a profound and studied conviction,--the United States have +just been saved. + +There are those who ask gravely whether the electors of Mr. Lincoln have +a plan all ready to effect the abolition of slavery. We answer that this +is not in question. Among the influential and earnest men of the +victorious party, not one could be cited who would think of proposing +any plan whatever of emancipation. One thing alone is proposed: to check +the conquests of slavery. That it shall not be extended, that it shall +be confined within its present limits, is all that is sought to-day. The +policy of the founders of the Confederation has become that of their +successors in turn; and to this policy, what can be objected? Is not the +sovereignty of the States respected? do they not remain free to regulate +what concerns them? do they not preserve the right of postponing, so +long as they deem proper, the solution of a dreaded problem? could not +this solution be thought over and prepared by those who best know its +elements? + +The matter is, indeed, more complicated and difficult than is generally +imagined. Should we be imprudent enough to meddle with it, we might +rightfully be blamed. Here, summary proceedings are evidently not +admissible. Time and the spirit of Christianity must do their work by +degrees; they will do it, be sure, provided the evil be circumscribed, +provided the seat of the conflagration be hemmed in and prevented +henceforth from spreading further. + +Now, such is the great result acquired by the election of Mr. Lincoln; +it is nothing more than this, but it is all this: it is prudence in the +present, and it is also the certainty of success in the future. +Emancipation is by no means decreed; it will not be for a long time, +perhaps: yet the principle of emancipation is established, irrevocably +established in the sight of all. Irrevocability has prodigious power +over our minds: without being conscious of it, we make way for it; we +arrange in view of it our conduct, our plans, and even our doctrines. +Once fully convinced that its propagandism is checked, that the future +of which it dreamed has no longer any chances of success, the South +itself will become accustomed to consider its destiny under a wholly new +aspect. The border States, in which emancipation is easy, will range +themselves one after another on the side of liberty. Thus the extent of +the evil will become reduced of itself, and instead of advancing, as +during some years past, towards a colossal development of servitude, it +will proceed in the direction of its gradual attenuation. + +I reason on the hypothesis of a final maintenance of the Union, whatever +may be the incidents of temporary secession. I am not ignorant that +there are other hypotheses, which may possibly be realized, and which I +shall examine in the course of this treatise; but whatever may happen, I +have a full right to call to mind the true scope of the vote which has +just been taken. It does not involve the slightest idea of present +emancipation; it contents itself with checking the progress of slavery; +and to check its progress is, doubtless, to diminish the perils of its +future abolition. + +It was important to present this observation, for nothing perverts our +judgment of the American crisis more than the inexact definitions which +are given of abolitionism. We willingly picture abolitionists to +ourselves as madmen, seeking to attain their end on the spot, regardless +of all else, through blood and ruin! That there may be such is possible, +is even inevitable; but the men who exercise any political influence +over the North have not for a moment adopted such theories. This is so +true, that the other day, at Boston, the people themselves (the people +who nominated Mr. Lincoln) dispersed a meeting intended to discuss +plans of immediate emancipation. + +What if abolitionism, moreover, be a party? what if it make use of the +means employed by parties? what if it have its journals, its publicists, +its orators? what if it seek allies? what if it be based on interests +which may be given it by the majority? what if it appeal to the passions +of the North, as the slavery party appeals to those of the South? I do +not see, in truth, why this should astonish us. I am far from believing +that all the acts of abolitionism are worthy of approbation; I say only +that it would be puerile to repudiate a great party for the sole reason +that it has the bearing of a party. The duty of citizens in a free +country is to choose between parties, and to unite with that whose cause +is just and holy. Let them protest against wrong measures, let them +refuse to participate in them--nothing can be better; but to withdraw +into a sort of political Thebais because the noblest parties have stains +on their banner, is, in truth, to turn their back on the civil +obligations of real life. + +The abolition party is a noble one. Several of its champions have given +their lives to propagate their faith. But lately, indeed, the Texan +journals took pains to tell us that a number of them had just been hung +in that State; and, without even speaking of these noble victims, whose +death completes the dishonor of the Southern cause, are there any bolder +deeds in the history of mankind than those of the citizens of New +England who, to wrest Kansas from slavery, went thither to build their +cabins, thus braving a fearful struggle, not only with the slaveholders, +but with the President, his illegal measures, and the troops charged +with maintaining them? + +We must fight to conquer. This seems little understood by those who +reproach abolitionism with having been a party militant; to hear them, +the true way of bringing about the abolition of slavery was to let it +alone: to attack was to exasperate it. + +This argument is so unfortunate as to be employed in all bad causes. I +remember that when measures were taken against the slave trade, we were +told that the sufferings of the slaves would be thus increased, and that +the slavers would be _exasperated_. Later, when we held up to the +indignation of the whole world the Protestant intolerance of Sweden, we +were assured that these public denunciations would put back the question +instead of accelerating it. We persevered, and we did rightly. Sweden +is advancing, though at too slow a pace, towards religious liberty. It +would be difficult to cite any social iniquities that have reformed of +themselves; and, since the existence of the world, the method which +consists in attacking evil has been the one sanctioned by success. In +America itself, the progress made by the border States does not seem to +confirm what is told us of the reaction caused by the aggressions of +abolitionism. In Virginia, in Kentucky, in Missouri, in Delaware, etc., +the liberty party has been continually gaining ground; and the votes +received in the slave States by Mr. Lincoln prove it a very great +mistake to suppose letting alone to be the condition of progress. Would +to God that slavery had not been let alone when the republic of the +United States was founded! Then, abolition was easy, the slaves were few +in number, and no really formidable antagonism was in play. Unhappily, +false prudence made itself heard: it was resolved to keep silence, and +not to deprive the South of the honor of a voluntary emancipation--in +fine, to reserve the question for the future. The future has bent under +the weight of a task which has continued to increase with years, thanks +to letting it alone. + +A little more letting alone, and the weight would have crushed America; +it was time to act. The Abolition party, or rather the party opposed to +the extension of slavery, has acted with a resolution which should +excite our sympathies. The future of the United States was at stake; it +knew it, and it struggled in consequence. Remember the efforts essayed +four years ago for the election of Mr. Fremont, efforts which would have +succeeded perhaps, if Mr. Fremont had not been a Catholic. Remember +those three months of balloting, by which the North succeeded in +carrying the election of speaker of the House of Representatives. +Remember the conduct of the North, in the sad affair of John Brown, its +refusal to approve an illegal act, its admiration of the heroic farmer +who died after having witnessed the death of his sons. On seeing the +public mourning of the Free States, on hearing the minute gun discharged +in the capital of the State of New York on the day of execution, one +might have foreseen the irresistible impulse which has just ended in the +triumph of Mr. Lincoln. + +The indignation against slavery, the love of country and of its +compromised honor, the just susceptibilities of the North, the liberal +instincts so long repressed, the desire of elevating the debased and +corrupt institutions of the land, the need of escaping insane projects, +the powerful impulse of the Christian faith, all these sentiments +contributed, without doubt, to swell the resistance against which the +supremacy of the South has just been broken. This, then, is a legal +victory, one of the most glorious spectacles that the friends of liberty +can contemplate on earth. It was the more glorious, the more efforts and +sacrifices it demanded. The Lincoln party had opposed to it, the +Puseyistic and financial aristocracy of New York; the manoeuvres of +President Buchanan were united against it with those of the Southern +States. Many of the Northern journals accused it of treading under foot +the interests of the seaports, and of compromising the sacred cause of +the Union. + +To succeed in electing Mr. Lincoln, we must not forget that it was +necessary to put the question of principle above the questions of +immediate interests, which usually make themselves heard so distinctly. +The unity, the greatness of the country, the gigantic future towards +which it was advancing, were so many obstacles arising in the way. Then +came the reckoning of profits and losses, the inevitable crisis, the +Southern orders already withdrawn, the certain loss of money; it seems +to me that men who have braved such chances, have nobly accomplished +their duty. + +America, it is said, is the country of the dollar; the Americans think +only of making money, all other considerations are subordinate to this. +If the reproach is sometimes well-founded, we must admit, at least, that +it is not always so. Those who wish to persuade us that the +Abolitionists in this again have simply sought their own interests, by +seeking to break down the competition of servile labor, forget two or +three things: first, that the slaves produce tobacco or cotton, while +the North produces wheat, so that there is not a race in the world that +competes less with it: next, that the cotton of the South is very useful +to the North, useful to its manufactures, useful to its trade, both +transit and commission. The people of the North are not reputed to lack +foresight; they were not ignorant that in electing Mr. Lincoln, they +had, for the time at least, every thing to lose and nothing to gain; +they were not ignorant that Mr. Lincoln occasioned the immediate threat +of secession; that the threat of secession was a commercial crisis, was +the political weakening of the country, and the unsettling of many +fortunes. But neither were they ignorant that above the fleeting +interests of individuals and of the nation, arose those permanent +interests which must rest only on justice; they decided, cost what it +might, to wrest themselves from the detestable, and ere long fatal +allurements of the slavery policy. + +Let us beware how we calumniate, without intending it, the few generous +impulses which break out here and there among mankind. I know that there +is a would-be prudent skepticism which attacks all moral greatness that +it may depreciate it, all enthusiasm that it may translate it into +calculation. To admire nothing is most deplorable, and, I hasten to add, +most absurd. Without wandering from the subject of slavery, I can cite +the great Emancipation Act, wrested from Parliament by Christian public +opinion in England. Have not means been found to prove, or at least to +insinuate, that this act, the most glorious of our century, was at the +bottom nothing but a Machiavellian combination of interests? Doubtless, +those who have taken the trouble to look over the debates of the times +know what we are to think of this fine explanation; they know what +resistance was opposed by _interests_ to the emancipation, both in the +colonies and in the heart of the metropolis; they know with how much +obstinacy the Tories, representing the traditions of English politics, +combated the proposed plans; they know in what terms the certain ruin of +the planters, the manufactures, and the seaports, was described; they +know by how many petitions the churches, the religious societies, the +women, and even the children, succeeded in wresting from Parliament a +measure refused by so many statesmen. But the mass of the people do not +go back to the beginning; they take for granted the summary judgment +that English emancipation was a master-piece of perfidy. + +We hear very nearly the same thing said of that glorious movement which +has just taken place in America. We would gladly detect all motives in +it except one that is generous and Christian. As if a vulgar calculation +of interest would not have dictated a contrary course! And it is +precisely this that makes the greatness of the resolution adopted by the +North. It knew all the consequences; they had been announced by the +South, recapitulated by prudent men, stated in detail by the newspapers +of great commercial cities; it chose to be just. Despite the inevitable +mingling of base and selfish impulses, which always become complicated +in such manifestations, the ruling motive in this was a protest of +conscience, and of the spirit of liberty. + +The accounts that have come to us from America demonstrate the lofty +character of the joy which was manifested after the election. Men shook +hands with each other in the streets; they congratulated each other on +having at last escaped from the yoke of an ignoble policy; they felt as +though relieved from a weight; they breathed more freely; the true, the +noble destinies of the United States reappeared on the horizon, they +saluted a future that should be better than the present, a future worthy +of their sires, those early pilgrims who, carrying nothing with them but +their Bibles, had laid the foundation of a free country with poor but +valiant hands. + +I should like to quote here the sermon in which the Rev. Mr. Beecher +poured out his Christian joy at that time. He spoke of the strength of +the weak; he showed that principles, however despised they may be, end +by revenging themselves on interests; he recalled the fact that the +Gospel is a power in America. To rise up, to attack its enemy manfully, +to arraign the causes of the national decline, to approach boldly the +solution of the most formidable problem which could be propounded here +on earth, such is not the act of a nation of calculators. Something +else is implied in it than tactics, something else than combinations of +votes or sectional rivalries. To vote as they did, they had to overcome +almost as many obstacles in the North as in the South; for, in +consequence of the vote, the North had to suffer like the South, and +they knew it. + +If you wish to be just to the United States, compare them with other +countries in which slavery exists. In the United States there is a +struggle; the question is a living one; men do not turn aside from it +with lax indifference. I love the noise of free nations; I find in the +very violence of their debates a proof of the earnestness of +convictions. Men must become excited about great social problems; if +abuses exist, they must, at least, be pointed out, attacked, and +stigmatized; the prescription of silence must never be accorded them; +devoted voices must exclaim against them, unceasingly, in the name of +justice and of humanity. Such a spectacle does good to the soul; it +solaces the sorrows of the present, it carries within itself guarantees +for the future. + +The sad, profoundly sad, spectacle, is that of nations where crimes make +no noise. Look at Brazil. Like the United States, it has slavery, but it +is an honorable, discreet slavery, of which nothing is said. Whatever +may happen there, no one inquires about it; there are no discussions, +either through the press or in the courts. No party would dare insert +such a question into its platform. One thing, very properly, has been +found to disturb it, and the public sale of slaves has just been +forbidden. + +Look, above all, at Spain and its island of Cuba. There, too, is perfect +silence. Nothing, in truth, opposes the belief that Cuba is the abode of +felicity, and that the atrocities of slavery are the monopoly of the +United States. But inquisitive people, who like to search to the bottom +of things, discover that if the masters are very gentle at Havana, the +overseers are scarcely so on their account on the plantations; I have +already given the proof of it. Out of ten slavers that are seized on the +high seas, nine are always destined to Cuba. Spain has forbidden the +slave trade; she has even been compensated for it by the English; but +this does not prevent her from suffering it to be carried on before her +eyes with almost absolute impunity. Her high-sounding phrases change +nothing; the smallest fact is of more value. At Cuba, the landing of +slaves is continual, and the places of disembarkation are known. Now, +the American flag protects no one at the time of disembarking. Why is no +opposition made to this? Why has the importation of negroes tripled in +Cuba? Why does no slaver, American or any other, steer towards Brazil, +since Brazil has _desired_ to put an end to the slave trade? The answer +to these questions will be given us on the day when Spain shall +_desire_, in turn, to suppress it. In the mean time she prefers to keep +silence, unless when a word from London strikes out a concert of +protestations more patriotic than convincing; save in this case, the +government is silent, public opinion is silent, no colonial sheet is +found ready to hazard an objection, nor even a metropolitan journal that +is willing to disturb so touching an equanimity. The court of Madrid, in +which many questions are agitated, prudently stands aloof in the matter +of slavery and the slave trade; among the numerous parties disputing for +power, not one dares venture on a ground where it would meet nothing but +unpopularity. Ah! after this death-like silence, how the soul is +refreshed by the fiery contests of the United States, the great +word-combats carried on in every village of the Union, the appeals +addressed to the conscience, the battle in broad daylight! How +refreshing to see by the side of these nations, who sleep so tranquilly, +while regarding the inroads of slavery, a people whom, it disquiets, +whom it irritates, who refuse to take part in it, and who, rather than +conform to the evil, agitate, become divided, and rend themselves +perchance with their own hands! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +WHAT WE ARE TO THINK OF THE UNITED STATES. + + +We are not just towards the United States. Their civilization, so +different from ours, wounds us in various ways, and we turn from them in +the ill-humor excited by their real defects, without taking note enough +of their eminent qualities. This country, which possesses neither +church, nor State, nor army, nor governmental protection; this country, +born yesterday, and born under a Puritanic influence; this country, +without past history, without monuments, separated from the Middle Ages +by the double interval of centuries and beliefs; this rude country of +farmers and pioneers, has nothing fitted to please us. It has the +exuberant life and the eccentricities of youth; that is, it affords to +our mature experience inexhaustible subjects of blame and raillery. + +We are so little inclined to admire it, that we seek in its territorial +configuration for the essential explanation of its success. Is it so +difficult to maintain good order and liberty at home when one has +immense deserts to people, when land offers itself without stint to the +labor of man?--I do not see, for my part, that land is lacking at Buenos +Ayres, at Montevideo, in Mexico, or in any of the pronunciamento +republics that cover South America. It seems to me that the Turks have +room before them, and that the Middle Ages were not suffering precisely +from an excess of population when they presented everywhere the +spectacle of anarchy and oppression. + +Be sure that the United States, which have something to learn of us, +have also something to teach us. Theirs is a great community, which it +does not become us to pass by in disdain. The more it differs from our +own Europe, the more necessary is impartial attention to comprehend and +appreciate it. Especially is it impossible for us to form an enlightened +opinion of the present crisis, unless we begin by taking into +consideration the surroundings in which it has broken out. The nature of +the struggle and its probable issue, the difficulties of the present, +and the chances of the future, will be clear to us only on condition of +our making a study of the United States. A few details will, therefore, +be permitted me. + +Among the Yankees, the faults are on the surface. I am not one to +justify Lynch law, whatever may be the necessities which exist in the +Far West. Riots in the United States are cited which have performed +their work of fire and devastation, and which no one has dared treat +rigorously afterwards, for fear of incurring disgrace from the sovereign +people; but I remember, I fancy, that similar things have been seen in +Paris itself. We will not, therefore, lay too great stress on them. + +One thing that is not seen in Paris, is, unhappily, remarked in America: +the general tendency among women to substitute masculine qualities which +scarcely befit them, for the feminine qualities which constitute their +grace, their strength, and their dignity; thence results a certain +something unpleasant and rude which does no credit to the New World. I +by no means admire coarseness, and I do not admit that it is the +necessary companion of energy; the tone of the journals and of the +debates in Congress is often calculated to excite a just reprobation. +There is in the United States a levelling spirit, a jealousy of acquired +superiority, and, above all, of inherited distinctions, which proceeds +from the worst sentiments of the heart. What is graver still, the +tender and gentle side of the human soul, such as shines forth in the +Gospel, appears too rarely among this people, where the Gospel, +notwithstanding, is in honor, but where the labor of a gigantic growth +has developed the active instead of the loving virtues; the Americans +are cold even when good, charitable and devout. + +They may love money, and often concentrate their thoughts on the means +of making it; I will not contest this, although I doubt, on seeing what +passes among ourselves, whether we have the right to cast the stone at +them; especially as American liberality, as I shall presently show, is +of a nature to put our parsimony to shame. As to the bankrupt acts, of +which American creditors have many times complained, nothing can justify +them; yet here again the role of pedagogue scarcely becomes us. If more +than one American railroad company have taken advantage of a crisis to +declare without much dishonor, a suspension of payment, it is not proved +that these suspensions of payment must be converted into bankruptcy. If +more than one town or more than one county make the half yearly payments +of their debts with reluctance, the courts always do fair justice on +this ill will; there are some countries, Russia, for instance, where +the courts do not do as much. If, in fine, at one time, a number of +States failed to keep their engagements, and a single one dared proclaim +the infamous doctrine of repudiation, all have since paid, except one +State of the extreme South, Mississippi. Once more, are we sure of being +in a position to reprove such misdeeds; we, whose governments, anterior +to '89, made use, without much scruple, of the fall of stocks, and +bankruptcies; we, whose debt, on emerging from the Revolution, took the +significant name of _tiers consolide?_ + +Let us not forget that the population of the United States has increased +tenfold since the close of the last century; they have received +immigrants annually, by hundreds of thousands, who have not always been +the elite of the Old World. Must not this perpetual invasion of +strangers promptly transformed into citizens, have necessarily +introduced into the decision of public affairs some elements of +immorality? I admire the honorable and religious spirit of the Americans +which has been able to assimilate and rule to such a degree these great +masses of Irish and Germans. Few countries would have endured a like +ordeal as well. + +Remark that, in spite of all, public order is maintained without paid +troops, (Continental Europe will find it hard to credit this.) +Tranquillity reigns in the largest cities of the United States; respect +for the law is in every heart; great ballotings take place, millions of +excited men await the result with trembling; yet, notwithstanding, not +an act of violence is committed. American riots--for some there are--are +certainly less numerous than ours; and they have the merit of not being +transformed into revolutions. + +The greater part of the immigrants remain, of course, in the large +cities; here they come almost to make the laws, and here, too, noble +causes encounter the most opponents. Mr. Lincoln, to cite an example, +received only a minority of suffrages in the city of New York, whilst +the unanimity of the country suffrages secured him the vote of the +State. Contempt of the colored class, that crime of the North, breaks +out most of all in the large cities, and particularly among +agglomerations of immigrants; none are harsher to free negroes, it must +be admitted, than newly-landed Europeans who have come to seek a fortune +in America. + +As to crimes, they are numerous only in cities; still the criminal +records of the United States appear somewhat full when compared with +ours. I know how great a part of this must be assigned to the +insufficiency of repression; in America, criminals doubtless escape +punishment much oftener than among us. Notwithstanding, there is real +security; and a child might travel over the entire West without being +exposed to the slightest danger. + +M. de Tocqueville has said that morals are infinitely more rigid in +North America than elsewhere. This is not, it seems to me, a trifling +advantage. Whatever may be the depravity of the seaports, where the +whole world holds rendezvous, it remains certain that it does not +penetrate into the interior of the country. Open the journals and novels +of the United States; you will not find a corrupt page in them. You +might leave them all on the drawing-room table, without fearing to call +a blush to the brow of a woman, or to sully the imagination of a child. + +In the heart of the manufacturing States, model villages are found, in +which every thing is combined to protect the artisans of both sexes from +the perils that await them in other countries. Who has not heard of the +town of Lowell, where farmers' daughters go to earn their dowry, where +the labor of the factories brings no dissipation in its train, where the +workwomen read, write, teach Sunday-schools, where their morality +detracts nothing from their liberty and progress? When I have added +that the United States have not a single foundling asylum, it seems to +me that I have indicated what we are to think at once of their good +morals and good sense. + +And let not the Americans he represented as a people at once honest and +narrow-minded. If they are still far from our level--and this must +necessarily be true, in an artistic and literary point of view--we are +not, however, at liberty to despise a country which counts such names as +Hawthorne, Longfellow, Emerson, Cooper, Poe, Washington Irving, +Channing, Prescott, Motley, and Bancroft. Note that among these names, +men of imagination hold a prominent place, which proves, we may say in +passing, that the country where we oftenest hear the exclamation, "Of +what use is it?" agrees in finding poetry of some use. And I speak here +neither of orators, like Mr. Seward or Mr. Douglas, nor of scholars, +like Lieutenant Maury, nor of those who, like Fulton or Morse, have +applied science to art: judgment has been passed on all these points. + +But the true superiority of Americans is in the universality of common +instruction. The Puritans, who came hither with their Bibles, were of +necessity zealous founders of schools; the Bible and the school go +together. See, therefore, what the schools are in the United States! The +State of Massachusetts alone, which does not number a million of souls, +devotes five millions yearly to its public instruction. If other States +are far from equalling it in academies and higher institutions, all are +on a level with it as regards primary schools; a man or woman, +therefore, is rarely found outside the class of immigrants, who does not +possess a solid knowledge of the elementary sciences, the extent of +which would excite our surprise. By the side of the primary school, and +to complete its instruction in the religious point of view, the +Americans have everywhere opened Sunday-schools, kept gratuitously by +volunteer teachers, among whom have figured many men of the highest +standing, several of whom have been Presidents of the Confederation. +These Sunday-schools, not less than twenty thousand in number, and +superintended by one hundred and fifty thousand teachers, count more +than a million of pupils, of which ten thousand at least are adults. +Calculate the power of such an instrument! + +People read enormously in America. There is a library in the meanest +cabin of roughly-hewn logs, constructed by the pioneers of the West. +These poor log-houses almost always contain a Bible, often journals, +instructive books, sometimes even poetry. We in Europe, who fancy +ourselves fine amateurs of good verses, would scarcely imagine that +copies of Longfellow are scattered among American husbandmen. The +political journals have many subscribers; those of the religious papers +are no less numerous. I know of a monthly journal designed for children, +(the _Child's Paper_,) of which three hundred thousand copies are +printed. This is the intellectual aliment of the country. In the towns, +lectures are added to books, journals, and reviews: in all imaginable +subjects, this community, which the Government does not charge itself +with instructing, (at least, beyond the primary education,) educates and +develops itself with indefatigable ardor. Ideas are agitated in the +smallest market-town; life is everywhere. + +Accustomed to act for themselves, knowing that they cannot count on the +administrative patronage of the State, the Americans excel in bringing +individual energies into action. There are few functionaries, few +soldiers, and few taxes among them. They know nothing, like us, of that +malady of public functions, the violence of which increases in +proportion as we advance. They know nothing of those enormous imposts +under which Europe is bending by degrees--those taxes which almost +suppress property by overburdening its transmission; they have not come +to the point of finding it very natural to devote one or two millions +every year to the expenses of the State, and no theory has been formed +to prove to them that of all the expenses of the citizens, this is +applied to the best purpose. They have not entered with the Old World +into that rivalry of armaments in which each nation, though it become +exhausted in the effort, is bound to keep on a level with its neighbors, +and in which no one will be stronger in the end when the whole world +shall be subjugated. Their ten thousand regulars suffice, and they have +their militia for extraordinary occasions. Lastly, their Federal debt is +insignificant; and, if the private debts of a few States reach a high +figure, they are nowhere of a nature to impose on the tax-payers a large +surplus of charges. + +All of the great liberties exist in the United States: liberty of the +press, liberty of speech, right of assemblage, right of association. +Except in the slave States, where the national institutions have been +subjected to deplorable mutilations in fact, every citizen can express +his opinion and maintain it openly, without meeting any other obstacle +than the contrary opinion, which is expressed with equal freedom. + +But there is one ground above all where we should acknowledge the +superiority of America: I mean, religious liberty. We are still in the +beginning of doubts upon the point as to where the interference of the +State should cease; in what measure it should govern the belief of the +citizens, and its manifestation. These questions, alas, are still +propounded among us. And there are countries at our doors, where men +shudder at the mere idea that the law may some day cease to decide for +each in what manner he is bound to worship God, that the courts may +cease to punish those whose conscience turns aside from the path of the +nation. Protestant Sweden but lately condemned dissenters to fine and +imprisonment; Catholic Spain daily inflicts the severest penalties on +those who suffer themselves to profess or to propagate beliefs which are +not those of the country--those who sell the Scriptures, and those who +read them. + +The United States have not only proclaimed and loyally carried out the +glorious principle of religious liberty, but have adopted as a corollary +another principle, much more contested among us, but which I believe +destined also to make the tout of the world: the principle of separation +of Church and State. That believers should support their own worship, +that religious and political questions should never be blended, that the +two provinces should remain distinct, is a simple idea which seems most +strange to us to-day. It will make its way like all other true ideas, +which begin as paradoxes and end by becoming axioms. Meanwhile, the +American Confederation enjoys an advantage which more than one European +government, I suspect, would at some moments purchase at a high price: +it has not to trouble itself about religious interests, either in its +action without or its administration within. If there are conflicts +everywhere in the spiritual order, it leaves them to struggle and become +resolved in the spiritual order, without needing to trouble itself in +the matter. Hence arises for the State a freedom of bearing, a +simplicity of conduct, which we, who have to steer adroitly through so +many dangers, can hardly comprehend. The American government is sure of +never offending any church--it knows none; it does not interfere either +to combat or to aid them; it has renounced, once for all, intervention, +in the domain of conscience. + +The result, doubtless, is, that this domain is not so well ordered as in +Europe; the administrative ecclesiastical state has by no means +submitted to such regulation. Is that to say that this inconvenience (if +it be one) is not largely compensated for by its advantages? Is it +nothing to suppress inheritance in religious matters, and to force each +soul to question itself as to what it believes? In the United States, +adhesion to a church is an individual, spontaneous act, resulting from a +voluntary determination. This is so true that four-fifths of the +inhabitants of the country do not bear, the title of church members. +Although attending worship, although manifesting an interest and zeal in +the subject to which we are little accustomed, although assiduous +church-goers, and liberal givers, they have not yet felt within +themselves a conviction strong and clear enough to make a public +profession of faith. Think what we may of such a system, we must avow, +at least, that it implies a profound respect for sacred things; nothing +can less resemble that indolent and formal assent which we give, in +conformity with custom, and without binding ourselves, in earnest, to +the religion that prevails among us. + +Hence arises something valiant in American convictions. Hence arises +also, it may be said, that dispersion of sects, the picture of which is +so often drawn for us. I am far from loving the spirit of sectarianism, +and I am careful not to present the American churches as the beau ideal +in religious matters. The sectarian spirit, the fundamental trait of +which is to confound unity with uniformity, to transform divergencies +into separations, to refuse to admit into the bosom of the church the +element of diversity and of liberty; to exact the signing of a +theological formula, and the formal adhesion as a whole to a collection +of dogmas and practices, without tolerating the slightest shade of +difference--the sectarian spirit, with its narrowness, with its +traditions of men, with its exaggeration of little things, with its +separate denominations, is certainly not worthy of admiration. I reject +it in America as elsewhere, but I think it well to state that the +religious disruption produced by it has been much exaggerated. We must +greatly abbreviate the formidable list of churches furnished us by +travellers. Putting aside those which have no value, either as to +influence or numbers, we reduce the numbers of denominations existing in +the United States, outside the Roman Catholic church, to five, (and +these are too many;) namely: Methodist, Baptist, Congregational, +Episcopal, and Presbyterian. The remainder is composed of small +eccentric congregations which spring up and die, and of which no one +takes heed, except a few tourists, who are always willing to note down +extraordinary facts. + +We will add that the sectarian spirit is now attacked in America, and +that the essential unity which binds the members of the five +denominations together, in spite of some external differences, is +manifesting itself forcibly. Not only does the evangelical alliance +prove to the most sceptical that this unity is real, but a fact peculiar +to the United States, the great awakening produced by the crisis of +1857, has given evidence of the perfect harmony of convictions. In the +innumerable meetings caused to spring up by this awakening from one end +of the country to the other, it has been impossible to distinguish +Baptists, Presbyterians, or Congregationalists from each other. All have +been there, and no one has betrayed by the least shade of dogmatism +those self-styled profound divisions about which so much noise is made. +I invite those still in doubt to look at the manner in which public +worship is established in the West: as soon as a few men have formed a +settlement, a missionary comes to visit them; no one inquires about his +denomination, for the Bible that he brings is the Bible of all, and the +salvation, through Christ, which he proclaims, is the faith of all. It +suffices, besides, to see this entire people, so restless, so laborious, +leaving its business on Sunday to occupy itself with the thoughts of +another life; it suffices to observe the unanimous uprising of the +public conscience at the rumor of an attack directed against the Gospel, +to perceive that unity subsists beneath lamentable divisions, and that +individual conviction creates the most active of all cohesive powers in +the heart of human communities; I know of no cement that equals it. + +If individual convictions are a strong bond, they are also an +inexhaustible source of life. It is easy to assure ourselves of this by +a brief survey of the proofs of Christian liberality which are displayed +in the United States. Here, there is no legal charity, no aid to be +expected from the government, either for the support of churches, or for +that of the sick and poor; the _voluntary system_ must suffice for all. +And, in fact, it does suffice for all. + +What is the first thing in question? To collect thirty million francs +annually for the payment of the clergy. The thirty millions are +furnished: poor and rich, all give eagerly, and without compulsion. The +next thing in question is to provide for the construction of new +churches; now, it is necessary to finish not less than three of these +daily, for the clearing of the forests advances with rapid strides, and +a thousand churches, at least, are built every year. The majority of +these churches are doubtless composed of beams laid one upon another, +then painted white, or left of the natural color, and surmounted by a +bell; they are simple and inexpensive, and, in the infant villages, the +streets of which are still blocked up by trees left standing, the place, +serving at once for a church and a school, where the people gather round +an itinerant preacher, is not decorated with much sumptuousness; yet +these new edifices demand annually from twelve to fifteen millions. + +Next come the religious societies. In the West, preachers are needed, +hardy laborers, who live in privations, traversing vast solitudes on +horseback, and journeying continually, without repose, until their +strength is exhausted. Eight hundred missionaries or agents are required +for the American Board of Missions, for the Presbyterians, the Baptists, +and all the other churches. Now, they cannot send them to the four +quarters of the globe without providing for their wants. The Bible +Society, which prints three hundred thousand Bibles annually, the +Religious Tract Society, which publishes every year five millions of +tracts, and which, in New York alone, employs a thousand visitors or +distributors; the various works, in a word, expend from nine to ten +million francs. + +Such, then, is the budget of voluntary charity in the United States.[A] +It amounts to fifty or sixty million francs, without counting the very +considerable donations destined to public instruction; without counting +(and this is immense) the relief of the sick and the poor. You will +scarcely find a village in the whole United States that has not its +benevolent society, and private benevolence, which is the best, also +carries on its work, independently of societies. I know of no country +where acts of profuse liberality are more frequent; one man founds a +hospital, another an observatory. Asylums are opened for all human +unfortunates, for lunatics, the blind, the deaf, orphans, abandoned +children. + +Was I not right in saying that this is a great people? Whatever may be +its vices, we are not at liberty to speak of it with disdain. If the +Americans know how to make a fortune, they know, also, how to make a +noble use of their fortune; accused with reason, as they are, of being +too often preoccupied with questions of profit, we have seen them +retrenching much of their luxury since the commercial crisis, yet +economizing very little in their charities. The budget of the churches +and religious societies remained intact at the very time that +embarrassment was everywhere prevailing. I cannot help believing that +there are peculiar blessings attached to so many voluntary sacrifices +which carry back the mind to the early ages of Christianity. We may be +sure that the religion that costs something, brings something also in +return. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote A: It seems that I have understated the truth; but I prefer to +do so; I wish, above all, to avoid exaggeration.] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. + + +This leads me to examine a side of the American question upon which, +attention is, naturally fixed at the present time; how is it that the +iniquities of slavery are maintained among this charitable and liberal +people? how is it that such iniquities have subsisted under the +influence of so powerful a Christian sentiment? Can it be true that +Christians have deserted the cause of justice? Has the Gospel had the +place which belongs to it, in the great struggle that is going on +between the North and the South? yes; or no. This is perhaps the point +of all others most important to clear up; first, because it is the one +on which the most errors have accumulated; next, because it is the one +most closely connected with the final solution; for this solution will +not be happy, if the Gospel has no hand in it. + +To judge rightly, let us approach and endeavor to comprehend the true +position of those whose conduct we seek to appreciate. See the South, +for example, where the almost universal opinion is favorable to slavery, +where governors write dithyrambics on its benefits, where many +Christians have succeeded in discovering that it is sanctioned by the +Gospel, where men of sincerity are now placing their impious crusades in +behalf of its extension under the protection of God, where numerous +preachers expound in their own way the celebrated text "Cursed be +Canaan!" Do not these sentiments of the South, detestable as they are, +find, to a certain point, their explanation and excuse in the +circumstances in which the South is placed? + +The power of surroundings is incalculable. If we ourselves, who condemn +slavery, and are right in so doing, had been reared in Charleston; if we +had led a planter's life from our earliest infancy; if we had nourished +our minds with their ideas; if we considered our monetary interests +menaced by Abolitionism; if the image of more fearful perils, of violent +destructions and massacres, appeared to haunt our thoughts; if the +political antagonism between the North and the South came to add its +venom to the passions already excited within us, is it certain that we +ourselves should no be figuring at the present time among the +desperadoes who are firing upon the ships of the Union, and attempting +the foundation of a Southern Confederacy? + +It is well to ask this of ourselves, in order to learn to respect, to +love, and consequently to aid those whose conduct we blame the most +strongly. For my part, whenever I am tempted to set myself up as a judge +or an accuser of the South, I ask myself what I should do if I belonged +to the South, and this brings me back to the true position. I remember, +too, what I saw, with my own eyes, at the time when the discussion on +slavery was carried on in France; the colonial passions, the blindest +and most violent of all, broke out in Martinique and the isle of +Bourbon, as they had broken out before in Jamaica, where the circulars +of Mr. Canning, the proposition, for example, to suppress the +flagellation of women, had excited a veritable explosion. There were +some very honorable men among those who were indignant at this measure; +and, among us, likewise, the planters who determined to combat all +modification of the negro system, were good men. Severity is almost +always a defect of memory; we blame others without pity, only when we +begin by forgetting our own history. We Frenchmen, who had so much +difficulty in emancipating our own slaves, and who would not, perhaps, +have succeeded in it, had it not been for the bold decision of M. +Schoelcher; we, who have sought to take back, in part, through our +colonial regulations, the liberty accorded the blacks; we, who suffered +recruitals by purchase to be made on the African coast; who formerly +organized the expedition charged with re-establishing slavery and the +slave trade at St. Domingo; who suppressed the slave trade at the +Congress of Vienna only in stipulating its continuance for some years; +who carried into our discussions on the right of search, a very meagre +interest for the victims of the slavers; we, whose consciences are +burdened with these misdeeds, are bound to use indulgence towards the +States of the South. + +This remark was necessary: it is from the South that the Biblical +theories in favor of slavery proceed; it is on account of the South that +these theories have been adopted by certain Christians of the North, +desirous, above every thing, of avoiding both the dismemberment of the +United States, and that of the churches and religious societies. Take +away the South, and no one in America, any more than in Europe, will +dream of discovering in the Gospel the divine approbation of the +atrocities of slavery. + +I comprehend better than most, the sentiment of indignation that is +caused by these deplorable teachings, in which slavery is sometimes +excused, sometimes exalted; I comprehend, that, under the impulse of a +sentiment so justifiable, one may be led on to anathematize preachers +and churches in a mass, that he may even come to the point of +representing to himself the Christian faith as the true obstacle to the +progress of liberty. This is a great perversion of the truth, but we can +easily understand how it has succeeded in gaining the assent of generous +and sincere minds. I myself have read a sermon which was listened to +with sympathy in a certain Presbyterian church in New York, in which +slavery, declares right until the return of Jesus Christ, ceases to be +so, I know not why, during the millennium? I know the nature of that +theology, too truly styled _cottony_, which is displayed in the clerical +columns of the _New York Observer_. Notwithstanding, I hasten to say +that these revolting excesses seldom appear except in seaports, and +especially in New York. The interests of this great city are bound up to +such a degree with those of the cotton States, that, until very lately, +New York might have been considered as a prolongation of the South. We +need not be surprised, therefore, to find some congregations there which +are ruled by the prejudices of the South. Besides, even in New York, +other churches protest with holy zeal, and other journals, among which I +will cite the _Independent_, the organ of the Congregationalists, combat +slavery unceasingly in the name of the Gospel. + +Then people persist in seeing only New York, in taking notice only of +what passes in New York; but they forget that New York is ordinarily an +exception in the North, as much by its commercial position as by its +opinions and votes. Let us go ever so short a distance from the city +into the surrounding country, and we will encounter a different +spirit--a spirit thoroughly impregnated with Christian faith, and little +disposed to covenant with slavery. There we begin to see that race of +Puritan farmers, but lately represented by John Brown. Has not the +attempt been made to transform him also into a free thinker, a +philosophic enemy of the Bible, and, from this very cause, an enemy to +slavery? We need nothing more than his last letter to his wife, to show +from what source he had drawn that courage, so misdirected but so +indomitable, which he displayed at Harper's Ferry; the Christian, the +Biblical and orthodox Christian, comes to explain the liberal and the +hero. + +That Christians in general condemned the enterprise of John Brown, while +sympathizing with him, I hasten to acknowledge; and I am far from +blaming them. That many have committed the real wrong of recoiling +before the consequences of an open and decided conduct, I am forced to +admit. Yes, without even mentioning the South, where, as every one +knows, the reign of terror prevails, there are numerous Protestant and +Catholic churches in the remainder of the Confederation, which have +refused to declare themselves, as they should have done, in opposition +to the crime of slavery. Let us not hasten, however, to cry out against +falsehood and hypocrisy; most honorable and sincere men have believed +that they would do more harm than good by bringing on a rupture with the +South. Let us not forget that political rupture is complicated here with +religious rupture. Now, all the churches extend over both North and +South; all the charitable societies number committees and subscribers in +both North and South. The point in question then, (let us weigh the +immensity of the sacrifice,) the point in question is to rend in twain +all the churches, to break in pieces all the societies, to expose to +perilous risks all the great works that do honor to the United States. + +Doubtless, to have gone their way, to have done their duty, and not to +have troubled themselves about the consequences, was the great rule of +action. I grant it; yet, notwithstanding, I refuse to stigmatize, as +many have done, those men who have committed the fault of hesitating; I +feel that to rank them among the champions of slavery is to pervert +facts, and to fall into a blamable exaggeration. Again, to-day, after +the election of Mr. Lincoln, cannot citizens be cited in the North who +are devoted to the cause of the negroes, but who refuse to participate +in abolitionist demonstrations, because they fear (and the sentiments +does them honor) to encourage the impending insurrections? + +This said, I wish to prove by some too well-known facts, what has been +this forbearance, or even this pretended hesitation of orthodox +Christianity. On regarding the churches, I see two, and the most +considerable, which have openly declared themselves: the +Congregationalists and the Methodists. About six months since, the +General Conference of Methodists resolutely plunged into the current +without suffering itself to be trammelled by the protests which came to +it from the South. I read in a report presented to one of the great +divisions of this church: "We believe that to sell or to hold in bondage +human beings under the name of chattels, is in contradiction to the +divine laws and to humanity; and that it conflicts with the golden rule +and with the rule of our discipline." Last year, a numerous assemblage +of delegates of the Congregational churches adopted the following +resolution: "Slaveholding is immoral, and slaveholders should not be +admitted as members of Christian churches. We ought to protest against +it without ceasing, in the name of the Gospel, until it shall have +entirely disappeared." And this resolution has not remained a dead +letter: a Congregational church of Ohio has expelled from its bosom one +of its deacons, who had contributed in the capacity of magistrate to the +extradition of a fugitive slave. + +Other churches, without taking so decided a position, have at least +manifested by their internal convulsions the profound interest excited +among them by the question of slavery. In this manner a secession has +just rent the Presbyterian church in twain, because the declared +adversaries of slavery were unwilling to remain responsible for a +forbearance which appeared to them criminal. These things are signs of +life, and these signs are beginning to show themselves even in the midst +of ecclesiastical bodies which have acted, until now, in the most +unchristian manner. A warm discussion has been thus called forth, and +this signifies a great deal, among the members of the Episcopal church +in New York. The majority stifled the debate; will it be able to do this +always? + +If from the churches we proceed to the religious societies, we find the +same symptoms among them; here, they declare themselves openly against +slavery, in spite of the menaces of the South; there, they succeed in +staving off the question, yet at the price of excited debates, which +continually spring up again, of a great scandal, and of protests which +are heard by Christians through the whole world. The course of conduct +adopted by the great American Board of Missions is the more significant, +inasmuch as its committee is composed of members belonging to various +evangelical denominations; it stands, therefore, as their permanent +representative, yet this has not prevented its adoption, after long +hesitation, of resolutions indicating in what course it will henceforth +proceed: it has broken off its relations with the missionaries employed +among the Choctaws, for the sole reason that they obstinately refused +openly to attack Indian slavery, and the abominable practices which it +engenders. The Society, which long, too long, contented itself with a +timid and inconsistent censure, has been obliged, therefore, to resort +to more decisive measures. + +Another great body, the Tract Society, unfortunately, has not followed +this example; the general assemblies held at New York, and ruled by the +spirit of that city, have given a majority to the party opposed to the +discussion of the subject; but, be it said to the honor of American +Christians, the very large minority resisted to the end; the latter was +sustained by outside opinion, and many friends of the Gospel joined with +it in deploring the pusillanimity which yielded to the menaces of the +South. A crisis thence arose, which has not yet reached its height, and +the first fruits of which have been the foundation of a rival society in +Boston, to which adherents are gathering from all sides. + +These are grave events, for they manifest the inmost revolutions of the +human soul. Would you know what will take place in political societies? +Begin by informing yourself about what is taking place in the +consciences of the public. Now it is evident that the public conscience +is in motion in the United States. The vast obstacles by which this +movement was trammelled have been surmounted on every side. I wish no +other proof of this than the deplorable fact of which I have just made +mention: the conduct of the Tract Society, the internal crisis which it +has experienced, the reprobation which it encounters, in Europe as in +America. Are not these palpable proofs of the too little known truth +that the great moral force which is struggling with American slavery is +the Gospel? + +And how could it be otherwise? If we had not positive facts before our +eyes, if we did not know that one entire sect of Christians, the +Quakers, have devoted themselves, body and goods, to the service of poor +fugitive slaves, if we did not recognize the deep Puritan imprint in the +movement which has colonized Kansas, and in that which has borne Mr. +Lincoln to the presidency, should we not be forced to ask ourselves +whether it is possible that the Gospel remains a stranger to a struggle +undertaken for liberty? There exist, thank God, between liberty and the +Gospel, close, eternal, and indestructible relations. I know of one +species of freedom which contains the germ of all the rest--freedom of +soul; now what was it, if not the Gospel, that introduced this freedom +into the world? Remember ancient Paganism: neither liberty of +conscience, nor liberty of individuals, nor liberty of families--such +was its definition. The State laid its hand upon all the inmost part of +existence, the creeds of the fathers, and the education of the children; +moral slavery also existed everywhere, and if slavery, properly called, +had been anywhere wanting, it would have given cause for astonishment. +The Gospel came, and with it these new phenomena: individual belief, +true independence makes its advent here on earth, a liberty worthy of +the name appears finally among men. From this time we see men lifting up +their heads, despotism finding its limits, the humblest, the weakest +opposing to it insurmountable barriers. + +They act without reflection, who attempt to place in opposition these +two things: the Gospel and liberty. And remark that in the United +States, in particular, the Gospel and liberty are accustomed to go +together; they first landed together at New Plymouth with the passengers +of the Mayflower. Why had these poor pilgrims torn themselves from all +the habits of home and country, to seek in the dead of winter an asylum +on an unknown soil? Because they loved the Gospel, and because they +desired liberty; the chief of liberties--that of the conscience. From +the 21st of December, 1620, there existed on the shores of the New World +the beginning of a free people--free through the powerful influence of +the Gospel. All who have studied the United States with sincerity, will +ratify the opinion of M. de Tocqueville: "America is the place, of all +others, where the Christian religion has preserved the most power over +souls." This power is such, that we find it at the base of all lasting +reforms. In this country, in which the idea of authority has little +force, there is one authority, that of the Bible, before which the +majority bow, and which is of the more importance inasmuch as it alone +commands respect and obedience. + +If you doubt the decisive part which the Gospel fills in American +debates, look at the pains taken by parties to render public homage to +it, the Democrats as the Republicans, Mr. Buchanan as Mr. Lincoln. Then +look more closely at the Republican party, do you not find in it again +the visible traces of Puritanism? It is the ancient States, it is old +America, it is also the Young America of the farmers, of the pioneers of +the Western solitudes, the America of the clearers of the forests, the +America of the Bible and the schools. This America long since abolished +slavery, and prevented its introduction into the territories that +acknowledged its influence. In the meanest of its cabins, you will find +the Scriptures, hymn books, reports of religious societies; in the +majority of its families, domestic worship is celebrated; in its +prayer-meetings, it is not rare to see physicians, lawyers, magistrates, +marine officers, taking part publicly; its statesmen do not think +themselves dishonored by keeping a Sunday-school; the Gospel, in a word, +is a power to which no other can compare, and outside of which it would +be puerile to expect to succeed in accomplishing any thing of +importance. + +Here the action of the Gospel can be plainly detected; an important +religious event preceded and paved the way for the political event which +we have witnessed: before the election of Mr. Lincoln, an awakening took +place. The American awakening, which must not be confounded with those +_revivals_, the description and sometimes the caricature of which have +been transmitted us by travellers, the awakening, which had neither +ecstasies nor convulsive sobs, and the distinctive feature of which was +a tone of simplicity and conviction, produced one of those profound +agitations of the conscience, which give rise to generous resolutions. +The financial crisis had just overthrown the fortunes of the people; +they turned towards God and began to pray. On a route of three thousand +miles, wherever one might stop, he found a meeting, a simple, +spontaneous meeting, at which the pastors did not take the initiative, +where they were present instead of presiding. Ere long, public attention +became fixed on this movement, the greatness of which could not be +contested; the most hostile journals ended by rendering it homage. And +it lasted, it still subsists, it has produced something else than +meetings and prayers, it has induced extensive moral reforms, it has +closed places of debauchery and taverns by hundreds. The military and +commercial marine of the United States has been especially subjected to +its influence; captains, officers, and sailors in great numbers, have +shown by their lives that their habits of piety are more than a vain +form; American vessels are perhaps the only ones at the present day in +which groups of sailors assemble to converse on the interests of their +soul, and to make the praises of God resound over the ocean. + +In strengthening the religious element, in exciting the Puritan fibre of +America, the awakening certainly contributed a great share to the +success of the party opposed to slavery. South Carolina acknowledged +this herself lately, when she inserted the following phrase in her +declaration of independence: "The public opinion of the North has given +to a great political error the sanction of a still more erroneous +religious sentiment." Is this religious sentiment, assailed by the +slaveholders, that of free thinkers, or of Christians? The South is not +mistaken; it knows that the truly difficult acts of emancipation are +accomplished on earth only by the power of the Gospel; it saw the great +abolition impulse rise in England, and spread over the United States; +journals, committees, correspondence, all indicated that the English had +become the American movement, and was continued under the same banner. +Under this banner, and this alone, it has conquered. A colossal work in +fact is here in question, before which all purely human forces fall to +the ground. If such prodigious Christian efforts were needed to give the +victory to Wilberforce, what will be required in the heart of a country +where slavery is not exiled to distant colonies, and where it has +acquired formidable proportions with years. There are easy abolitions, +which are wrought in some sort of themselves, and which seem the natural +corollary of a political revolution; as, for instance, that which +occurred forty years ago in the Spanish republics. Bolivar, Quiroga, and +the other leaders, needed the support of all classes of the population +in their struggle against Spain; they adopted the expedient of +suppressing slavery. In taking this resolution, they accomplished a +most honorable deed, but they made little change in the condition of the +country, for large planting was rare, and both the blacks and the whites +were few in numbers, less numerous, indeed, than the Indians and the +half breeds. + +If political reasons then sufficed, it is evident that they are far from +sufficing to-day: we must seek elsewhere for the explanation of the +movement which, a long time wavering and suppressed, has just manifested +its irresistible power in the United States. We have recognized in it +the hand of the Gospel; and this is no indifferent matter, for if the +Gospel had no part in it, such a movement would end in destruction. + +The responsibility of Christians will be great in America; they can do +much for the favorable solution of a problem which menaces the future of +their country, and overshadows that of humanity. The mode of +pacification here is, to declare themselves; the pretensions of the +South, its fatal progress, the extreme peril to which but lately it +exposed the Confederation, are due much more than is imagined to the +deplorable hesitation of the religious societies and the churches. If it +had long since been brought face to face with a determined evangelical +doctrine, the South, which knows also, though in a less degree, the +influence of the Gospel, would have avoided falling into the excesses to +which it is now abandoned. The faults of the past are irreparable, but +it is possible to ward off their return. Let all Northern churches, let +all societies, let all eminent Christians take henceforth with firmness +the position which they ought to have taken from the first; let them +present to their Southern brethren a solid rallying point, and the +effects of this faithful conduct will not be slow in making themselves +felt. There is, in the slave States, especially in those occupying an +intermediate position, more disturbance of thought, and more conflicts +of feeling, than we generally suppose. Let the banner of the Christian +faith be openly displayed, and many good men will rally round it: this +is certain. + +And let no one put forward the shameful pretext: there are sceptics, +rationalists, free thinkers in the ranks of Abolitionism! Why not? +Questions of this sort, thanks to the Gospel, have entered in the domain +of common morality; shall I desert these questions in order to avoid +contact with men who reject the essential doctrines of Christianity? I +confess that the orthodoxy which should draw such conclusions would +appear suspicious to me. Voltaire pleading for the Calas will not make +me turn my back on religious liberty; Channing writing pages against +slavery, revealing a heart more Christian than his doctrine; Parker, +blending his noble efforts in favor of the negroes with his assaults +against the Bible, will not alienate me from a cause which was mine +before it was theirs. + +I say, besides, that the objections of these men against Christianity +force me to ask whether our conduct as Christians be not one of the +principal causes of their scepticism. Is it quite certain that Voltaire +himself would have been the adversary that we know him, if he had not +seen that thought was stifled, that liberty was crushed, that conscience +was violated in the name of the Gospel? Would not this same Gospel have +presented itself under a different aspect to Parker, Channing, and the +other Unitarians of Boston, if they had seen it at its post, the post of +honor, at the head of all generous ideas and true liberties? Yes; there +are Abolitionists who reject the Bible because they have heard certain +orthodox Christians maintain that the Bible is in favor of slavery. +Whoever preaches this, is of a school of impiety. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE GOSPEL AND SLAVERY. + + +How did they set to work to preach this? I will answer this question by +two others: How did Bossuet set to work to write his _Politique tiree de +l'Ecriture,_ to proclaim in the name of the Bible obligatory monarchy, +divine right, the absolute authority of kings, the duty of destroying +false religion by force, the duty of officially sustaining the truth, +the duty of having a budget of modes of worship, the duty of uniting +Church and State, without speaking of his Biblical apology for war, for +the use of Louis XIV.? How did certain doctors among the Roundheads, in +their turn, set to work to proclaim the divine right of republics, and +to ordain the massacre of the new Amalekites? The method is very simple: +it consists only in confounding the law with the Gospel. This confusion +once wrought, the political and civil institutions of the Old Testament +lose their temporary and local character, and we go to the New +Testament in search of what is not there: namely, political and civil +institutions. + +Though the Gospel is not the law, it is a truth which has been making +its way since the seventeenth century, and which seems to be no longer +contested to-day, except in the camp of the champions of slavery. The +Gospel, which addresses itself to all nations and all ages, does not +pretend to force them into the strait vestments of the ancient Jewish +nation; no more does it pretend to "sew a piece of new cloth on an old +garment, else the new cloth taketh away from the old, and the rent is +made worse." I speak here with a view to those who, in the law as in the +Gospel, in the New Testament as in the Old, venerate the infallible word +of God. A revelation, to be divine, does not cease to be progressive, +and nothing exacts that all truths should be promulgated in a single +day. If God deemed proper to give to his people, so long as they needed +it, a legislation adapted to their social condition, this legislation, +divinely given at that time, may be also divinely abrogated afterward. +And this is what has taken place. Those who quote to us texts from the +Old Testament concerning slavery, appear to have forgotten the saying of +Jesus Christ in reference to another institution, divorce: "It was on +account of the hardness of your hearts." Yes, on account of the hardness +of their hearts, God established among the Israelites, incapable, at +that time, of rising higher, provisory regulations,[B] perfect as +regards his condescension, but most imperfect, as he declares himself, +as regards the absolute truth. He who makes no account of this great +fact will find in the books of Moses, and in the Prophets, pretexts +either for practising to-day what was tolerated only for a time, or for +attacking the Scriptures, indignant at what they contain. + +It was Jesus Christ himself, therefore, who drew the line of demarcation +between the law and the Gospel--who announced the end of local and +temporary institutions. Has he revealed other institutions, this time +definitive? To form such an idea of the Gospel, we must never have +opened it. The Gospel is not a Koran. In the Koran, we doubtless find +both civil and criminal laws, and the principles of government; the +Apostles did not once tread on this ground. Fancy what their work would +have been, had they substituted a social for a spiritual revolution--had +they touched, above all, the question of slavery, which formed part of +the fundamental law of the ancient world. And here I wish my thought to +be clearly comprehended: I do not pretend that the Apostles were +conscious of the unlawfulness of slavery, and that they avoided pointing +it out through policy, for fear of compromising their work. No, indeed, +this happened unconsciously. According to all appearances, they held the +opinions of their times, and God revealed nothing to them on the +subject, wishing that the abolition of slavery, like all the social +results of the Gospel, should be produced by moral agency, which works +from within outward, which changes the heart before changing the +actions. + +At the time of the Apostles, there were many other abuses than slavery; +they never wrote a word in their condemnation. They make allusions to +war, yet say nothing of the nameless horrors which then attended it; +they speak of the sword placed in the king's hands to punish crime, yet +say nothing of those atrocious tortures, in the first rank of which must +be cited crucifixion; they make use of figures borrowed from the public +games, yet say nothing either of the combats of the gladiators, or of +the abominations which sullied other spectacles; they unceasingly call +to mind the reciprocal relations of husbands and wives, of parents and +children, yet say nothing of the despotic authority which the Roman law +conferred upon the father, or of the debasement to which it condemned +the wife. The evangelical method is this: it has not occupied itself +with communities, yet has wrought the profoundest of the social +revolutions; it has not demanded any reform, yet has accomplished all of +them; the atrocities of war and of torture, the gladiatorial combats and +immodest spectacles, the despotism of fathers and the debasement of +women, all have disappeared before a profound, internal action, which +attacks the very roots of the evil. + +Not only does the Gospel forbear to touch on social and religious +problems, but, even on questions of morals, it refuses to furnish +detailed solutions. Its system of morality is very short; and in this +lies its greatness, through this it becomes morality instead of +casuistry. Cases of conscience, special directions, a moral code, +promulgated article by article--you will find in it nothing of this +sort. What you will find there, and there alone, is a growing morality, +which passes my expression. Two or three sayings were written eighteen +centuries ago, and these sayings contain in the germ a series of +commandments, of transformation, of progression, which we have not +nearly exhausted. I spoke a moment since of the progress of revelations; +I must speak now of the progress which is being wrought in virtue of a +revelation constantly the same, but constantly becoming better +understood, which multiplies our duties in proportion as it enlightens +our conscience. With the one saying: "What ye would that men should do +unto you, do ye also to them," the Gospel has opened before us infinite +vistas of moral development. + +Before this one saying, the cruelties and infamous customs of ancient +society, not mentioned by the Apostles, have successively succumbed; +before this one saying, the modern family has been formed; before this +one saying, American slavery will disappear as European slavery has +disappeared already. With this saying, we are all advancing, we are +learning, and we shall continue to learn. Yes, the time will come, I am +convinced, when we shall see new duties rise up before us, when we +cannot with a clear conscience maintain customs, what, I know not, which +we maintain conscientiously to-day. + +This carries us somewhat further, it must be granted, than a list of +fixed duties _ne varietur_; it opposes slavery in a different manner +than a sentence pronounced once for all. The Gospel took the surest +means of overthrowing it when, letting alone the reform of institutions, +it contented itself with pursuing that of sentiments; when it thus +prepared the time when the slaveholder himself would be forced to ask +what is contained in the inexhaustible saying: "What ye would that men +should do unto you, do ye also unto them." Even in the heart of the +Southern States, despite the triple covering of habits, prejudices, and +interests, this saying is making its way, and is disturbing the +consciences of the people much more than is generally believed. And the +work that it has begun it will finish; it will force the planters to +_translate_ the word SLAVERY, to consider one by one the abominable +practices which constitute it. Is it to do to others as we would that +they should do to us, to sell a family at retail? To maintain laws which +give over every slave, whether wife or maiden, to her owner, whatever he +may be, and which take away from this maiden, from this wife, the +_right_ of remembering her modesty and her duties--what do Christians +call this? To produce marketable negroes, to dissolve marriages, to +ordain adulteries, to inflict ignoble punishment, to interdict +instruction--is this doing to others what we would that they should do +to us? + +The Christian sense of right is relentless, thank God; it does not +suffer itself to be deceived by appearances; where we dispute about +words, it forces us to go to facts. Now, look at the facts which are +really in question in America, when the great subject of slavery is +discussed there theoretically. Against the great evangelical system of +morality, the Judaical interpretations of such or such a text have +little chance. The epistle of Paul, sending back to Philemon his +fugitive slave Onesimus, is quoted to us. Assuredly, the Apostle +pronounces in it no anathema against slavery, nor does he exact +enfranchisement; these ideas were unknown to him; but he says: "I +beseech thee for my son whom I have begotten in my bonds, whom I have +sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is my own bowels. Without +thy mind would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be as it were +of necessity, but willingly. For perhaps he therefore departed for a +season, that thou shouldest receive him forever; not now as a servant, +but above a servant, a brother beloved. Having confidence in thy +obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt do also more than I +say." + +Does any one fancy Philemon treating Onesimus, after this epistle, as +fugitive slaves are treated in America, putting up his wife and children +directly after for sale, or delivering him, over to the first slave +merchant that was willing to take charge of him, and carry him a hundred +leagues away? It is so certain that Philemon did more than had been told +him, that the Epistle to the Colossians shows us the "faithful and +well-beloved brother Onesimus" honorably mentioned among those concerned +about the spiritual interests of the church. + +Do what one will, there is an implied abolition of slavery (implied but +positive) at the bottom of that close fraternity created by the faith in +the Saviour. Between _brethren_, the relation of master and slave, of +merchant and merchandise, cannot long subsist. To sell on an +auction-block or deliver over to a slave-driver an immortal soul, for +which Christ has died, is an enormity before which the Christian sense +of right will always recoil in the end. "In this," it is written, "there +is neither Greek nor Jew, nor circumcision nor uncircumcision, nor +barbarian nor Seythian, nor bond nor free, but Christ is all and in +all." Let slaveholders put to themselves the question what they would +say to-day if the epistle to Philemon were addressed to them; and it is +addressed to them; the Onesimuses of the South--and such there are--are +thus thrown upon the conscience of their masters, their brothers. + +I have said enough on the subject to dispense with examining very +numerous passages in which slavery is _supposed_ by the writers of the +New Testament. The duties of masters and of slaves are laid down by them +without doubt, and the existence of the institution is not contested for +a moment; only, it is brought face to face with that which will slay it: +the doctrine of salvation through Christ, of pardon, of humility, of +love, is, in itself, and without the necessity of expressing it, the +absolute negation of slavery. + +It has fully proved so, and the early ages of Christianity leave no +doubt as to the interpretation given by Christians to the teachings of +the Apostles. Despite the rapid corruptions introduced into the +churches, we see one brilliant fact shining forth in them: emancipations +becoming more frequent, slaves, as well as free men, succeeding to +ecclesiastical offices, spiritual equality producing the fruit which it +cannot help producing, namely, legal equality. Observe, too, how the +edicts of the emperors multiplied as soon as the influence of +Christianity was exerted in the Roman world. And all these edicts had +but one aim: to sweeten servitude, to increase affranchisement by law, +to facilitate voluntary emancipation. + +What the Gospel did then against European slavery, it is doing now +against American slavery. Its end is the same; its weapons are the same; +they have not rusted during eighteen centuries. Those planters of the +English islands were not mistaken, who, instinctively divining where lay +their great enemy, had recourse to every measure to expel missionaries +from among them. Neither were those Texan executioners mistaken, who +lately put to death the missionary Bewley, a touching martyr to the +cause of the slaves. I ask, in the face of the gallows of Bewley, what +we are to think of that prodigious paradox according to which the Gospel +is the patron of slavery. To those who mistake its meaning on this +point, the Gospel replies by its acts; it replies also by the unanimous +testimony of its servants. What is more striking, in fact, than to see +that, apart from the country in which the action of interests and habits +disturbs the judgment of Christians, there is but one way of +comprehending and interpreting the Scripture on this point? Consult +England, France, Germany; Christians everywhere will tell you that the +Gospel abolished slavery, although it does not say a single word which +would proclaim this abolition. Why, if the doubt were possible, would +not diversity of opinions be also possible among disinterested judges? +To speak only of France, see the synods of our free churches, which +continually stigmatize both Swedish intolerance and American slavery; +see an address signed three years ago by the pastors and the elders of +five hundred and seventy-one French churches, which has gone to carry to +the United States the undoubted testimony of a conviction which in truth +is that of all. + +It seems to me that our demonstration is complete. What would it be if I +should add that American slavery, which its friends so strangely claim +to place under the protection of the Apostles, has nothing in common +with that of which the Apostles had cognizance. The thing, however, is +certain. Slavery, in the United States, is founded on color, it is +_negro_ slavery. Now, this is a fact wholly new in the history of +mankind, a monstrous fact, which profoundly modifies the nature of +slavery. Before Las Casas, that virtuous creator of the slave trade, the +name of which comprises to him alone a whole commentary on the maxim "Do +evil that good may come," before Las Casas, no one had thought of +connecting slavery with race. Now, the slavery connected with race is +that of all others most difficult to uproot, for it bears an indelible +sign of inequality, a sign which the law did not create, and which it +cannot destroy. + +Such was not the slavery that offered itself to the eyes of the Prophets +and Apostles; a normal servitude, of right, based upon a native and +indestructible inferiority was not then in question, but an accidental +servitude among equals, to which the chances of war had given birth, and +which emancipation suppressed entire. Quite different is the slavery +which depends on race, and which, it may be said, supposes a +malediction; do what one will, this latter will subsist, it will, in a +manner, survive itself; it will find, besides, in the idea of a +providential dispensation, the natural excuse for its excesses. This +slavery the Bible condemns in the most explicit manner. If its champions +dare suppose two species, the book of Genesis shows them all mankind +springing from one man, and the Gospel recounts to them the redemption +wrought in behalf of all the descendants of Adam; if they argue from the +curse pronounced against Canaan, the Old Testament presents to them the +detailed enumeration of the Canaanites, a vast family, in which the +whites figure as well as the blacks. + +In short, there is a deadly struggle between the Gospel and slavery +under all its forms, and particularly under the odious form which the +African slave trade has given it in modern times. The Gospel has been, +is, and will be, at the head of every earnest movement directed against +slavery. It is important that it should be so; it is the only means of +avoiding the acts of violence, the revolts, the extreme calamities from +which the whites and the blacks would equally suffer. The Gospel is +admirable, inasmuch as by the side of the duties of masters, it +proclaims those of slaves; as in the time of the Apostles, it does not +hesitate to recommend to them gentleness, submission, scrupulous +fidelity, love for those who maltreat them, the practice of difficult +virtues; it makes them free within, in order to render them capable of +becoming free without. + +To judge of this method, we have only to compare the miserable +population of St. Domingo with the beautiful free villages which cover +the English islands. How true the saying: "The wrath of man never +accomplishes the justice of God." Wherever the wrath of man has had full +sway, even to chastise abominable abuses, it has remained a curse. I +tremble when I think of the revolts which may break out at any moment in +the Southern States. Bloodshed, let us not forget, would sully our +banner; to the right of the slaves, such a crisis would be forever +opposed, and who knows whether a terrible return might not burst upon +them? + +The mind becomes troubled at the mere image of the horrors that would +ensue from civil war. May the Christians of America comprehend, at +length, in a more perfect manner, the greatness of the part that God +reserves for them, and the extent of the responsibilities that are +weighing upon them. To take a stand frankly against slavery; to remove +their last pretexts from sincere men who seek to reconcile it with the +Gospel; to organize in the North the action of a vast moral power; to +address to the South words breathing forth truth and charity; to appeal +without wearying to the hearts of masters and slaves; to prepare for +trying moments that guarantee which nothing can replace, the common +faith of the blacks and the whites; to keep courage even when all seems +lost; to practise the Christian vocation, which consists in pursuing and +realizing the impossible; to show once more to the world the power that +resides in justice--this is to accomplish a noble task. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote B: These provisory and imperfect regulations appear none the +less admirable when compared, not only with the systems of legislation +of other nations of antiquity, but with those which prevail to-day even +in the Southern States. According to the law of Moses, the Jewish slave +always becomes free in seven years; the foreign slave also becomes free +when his master wounds him in chastising him; he has the right to +testify in law; he has the right to acquire and to possess.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE PRESENT CRISIS. + + +We now possess the principal elements of our solution; we can approach +the problem just propounded by the present crisis, and, confining +ourselves no longer to the appreciation of the past, can glance at the +future. Not, indeed, that I make any pretensions to prophecy; political +predictions, suspected with reason in all times, should be still more so +at our epoch, which is that of the unforeseen. But I have a right to +prove that the work which is being pursued in America is, as I have +affirmed, a work of elevation, not of destruction. The dangers which the +nation is advancing to meet are nothing, compared with those towards +which it was lately progressing; the election of Mr. Lincoln, and the +secession of the cotton States have introduced a new position which at +last affords a glimpse of real chances of salvation. + +I have named secession: what are we to think of the principle on which +it rests? For this question another may be substituted: what is a +Confederation? If we reduce it, which is inadmissible, to a simple +league of States, it still remains none the less binding on each of +them, so long as the end of the league remains intact. Never yet existed +on earth, a federal compact conceived in this wise: "The States which +form a part of this league will remain in it only till it pleases them +to leave it." Such, notwithstanding, is the formula on which the +Southern theorists make a stand. Among the anarchical doctrines that our +age has seen hatched, (and they are numerous,) this seems to me worthy +of occupying the place of honor. This right of separation is simply the +_liberum veto_ resuscitated for the benefit of federal institutions. As +in the horseback diets of Poland, a single opposing vote could put a +stop to every thing, so that it only remained to vote by sabre-strokes, +so Confederations, recognizing the right of separation, would have no +other resort than brute force, for no great nation can allow itself to +be killed without defending itself. + +Picture to yourselves, I intreat you, the progress that political +demoralization would make under such a system. As there is never a law +or a measure that is not displeasing to some one, it would be necessary +to live in the presence of the continually repeated threat: "If the law +passes, if the measure is adopted, if the election takes place, if you +do not do all I want, if you do not yield to all my caprices, I leave +you, I constitute myself an independent State, I provoke the formation +of a rival Confederacy." The worst causes are the readiest to threaten +in this style; having nothing reasonable to say in their own favor, they +willingly proceed to violence, and the saying of Themistocles would find +here a legitimate application: "You are angry, therefore, you are +wrong." + +What the result of this would be, we can imagine. No question would be +longer judged by its own merits; the despotism of bad men would be +established; expedients would take the place of principles; fear would +put justice to flight; national resolutions would be nothing more than +compromises and bargains. This, we must admit, is something like what +has been passing in the United States since the South proclaimed its +ultra policy, and placed its pretensions under the protection of its +threats. If they had once more bowed the head, all would have been lost; +the dignity, the mental liberty of America, would have suffered complete +shipwreck; of all this noble system of government, there would have +remained standing but a single maxim: Accord always and everywhere +whatever is necessary to prevent the separation of the South. +Unconstitutional in all places, the theory of separation is doubly so in +the United States, where the federal system is more concentrated than +elsewhere. It is without doubt a federal system; the separate States +preserve the right in it of regulating their special legislation, of +governing themselves as they choose, and even of holding and practising +principles which are profoundly repugnant to other parts of the +Confederation; the central power is, however, endowed with an extended +sphere. + +It has its taxes, its officers, its army, its courts; it possesses in +the Territory of the different States federal property depending upon it +alone; in fine, its general government and general legislation apply to +the effective handling of all the essential interests of the nation. I +am not surprised that the American Confederation is so strongly cemented +together, excluding the pretended right of separation better than any +other; the States that united towards the close of the last century were +already in the habit of acting in concert; they were of the same blood, +and had lived under the same rule; their history, their interests, +their customs, their tongue, their religion, all contributed to bind +them closely to each other. + +Besides, the question is unanimously resolved in the United States. +Apart from the _fire-eaters_, not a person is found who has the +slightest doubt as to the impossibility of modifying, by the violent +decision of a few, the common Constitution which contains the +enumeration of the States, and which can only be amended by a solemn +act, voted in the special form prescribed by the compact. Mr. Lincoln +merely expressed the general opinion when he said the other day: "The +Union is a regular marriage, not a sort of free relation which can be +maintained only by passion." _Secession is Revolution_ is a political +axiom which has been current at all times in the United States. It is +because they are something else than a juxtaposition of States, that +they comprise, by the side of a Senate in which all the States are +equal, a House of Representatives, in which the number of deputies is in +proportion to the population. "Our Constitution," wrote Madison, "is +neither a centralized State nor a Federal Government, but a blending of +the two." The experience which they had had from 1776 to 1789 had taught +the different States the necessity of giving a more concentrated +character to their federation. Let us not forget that they are bound by +oath to remain faithful to _perpetual union_, and that there is not a +federal officer in America who has not sworn to maintain this Union. + +I shall not dwell on the fact that the Confederation purchased with its +money two of the States that now pretend to secede from it; that it gave +seventy-five millions to France for Louisiana, and twenty-five millions +to Spain for Florida; no, I choose to appeal from this to precedents, +the authority of which is not contested, and which form, in some sort, +the interpreting commentary of the Constitution. In the last century, +the State of New York, on giving in its adhesion to the Constitution, +desired to reserve to itself this same power of seceding some day if it +pleased; but such a reservation was rejected. At the epoch of the war of +1812 and the embargo laws, a convention of the New England States +assembled at Hartford, and talked of eventual separation, whereupon the +Southern party likened all separation without consent to treason, and +this doctrine was sustained by the _Richmond Inquirer_, the organ of +Jefferson. When, afterwards, South Carolina, accustomed to the fact, +dared proclaim that act of nullification which was the prelude to a +complete renunciation of federal obligations, it was plainly signified +to her that a revolt would be suppressed by force of arms, and she +yielded on the spot. When, the other day, this same South Carolina +lowered the colors of the United States, and unfurled the Palmetto flag, +Mr. Buchanan himself proclaimed (how could he do otherwise?) the +flagrant illegality of such an act; it is true, that, after having +declared it illegal, he took care to disavow all intention of putting +the law in force. + +And this same conduct of Mr. Buchanan is the precise explanation of the +prodigious haste which the South Carolinians have used in their +proceedings. They knew that the President in power could not, if he +would, act with vigor against his own party. His inaction was assured; +there were two months of interregnum, of which it was important to make +the most; so that Mr. Lincoln, on coming into office, might find himself +checked, or at least harassed, by the power of a deed accomplished. + +It seems as though Mr. Buchanan was anxious himself to give the signal +of revolt. The message that was issued by him, after the election of Mr. +Lincoln, is really the most extraordinary document ever written by the +head of a great State; he doubtless declares in it that a regular +election cannot of itself alone furnish sufficient cause for the +violence of the South; he takes care, however, to add that the South has +reason to complain, that reparation and guarantees are due it, and that +if these are refused, (that is, if the North refuses to replace its head +under the yoke, and to decree at once the ruin and the shame of +America,) it will then he time for action. + +The Carolinians thought that they might be excused for being a little +less prudent than the first magistrate of the United States, since, +moreover, they saw their pretensions sanctioned by him. Why not attack +the Confederation while it had a chief who was determined to make as +little defence as possible? The weakness of Mr. Buchanan justified the +confidence of Carolina. He refrained to place in the Federal fortresses +troops destined to protect them against an expected assault; when a +brave man, Major Anderson, took measures to defend the post that had +been confided him, this unexpected resistance by which the programme was +deranged, appeared as ill-timed to Mr. Buchanan as insolent to the +people of Charleston; and the despatch of the 30th of December, +addressed to their commissioners, exculpates him from the crime of +having sent the reinforcements, and makes excuses in pitiful terms for +the conduct of Major Anderson, whom they ought to hear before +condemning. In fact, Anderson acted on his own responsibility, and +incurred the blame of the Minister of War, who advised in full council +the surrender of the forts. + +The American Government is as timid as the seceded States are resolute. +Our generation, which has witnessed sad spectacles, has never yet, +perhaps, contemplated any more humiliating. Ministers, one of whom, +hardly out of the Cabinet, has gone to preside over the secession +convention at Montgomery, and another of whom has taken care to pave the +way in advance for the revolt of the South, and to secure for it the +resources of money, arms, and munitions, which it was about to need; +ministers who vote openly for the insurgents, whose financial intrigues +have been proved by investigation, and whose electoral manoeuvres, +duplicated by embezzlement of public money, have ended in a sort of +political treason, disavowed only by General Cass; a Cabinet, in the +last extremity, still essaying to continue its former course by killing +with its veto the bill adopted by the Legislature of Nebraska to +prohibit slavery in its Territory; a Government falling apart by +piecemeal, for fear of compromising itself by resisting some part of the +South: do you know of any thing so shameful? Mr. Buchanan will end as he +began: for four years, he has been struggling to obtain an extension of +slavery; for a month, he has been favoring the plans of separation, by +opposing his force of inertia to the growing indignation of the North. + +Being unable to prevent every thing, he does at least what he can: +forced to send some reinforcements, he speedily withdraws them in a +manner seemingly designed to render easy the attack on Fort Sumter and +to discourage Major Anderson. In the hands of a President who understood +his duties, things would have gone on very differently. In the first +place, the South would have known on what to rely, and would have been +reminded of the message of General Jackson in 1833, exacting the +_immediate_ disbanding of its troops; next, preliminary measures of +precaution would not have been systematically neglected; lastly, at the +first symptom of revolt, a sufficient number of ships of war would have +been sent to Charleston to insure the regular collection of taxes and +respect for the Federal property. Nothing is so pacific as resolution: +face to face with a strong Government, we look twice before launching +into adventures; but, with Mr. Buchanan, it was almost impossible for +the cotton States to refrain from precipitating themselves headlong into +them. The repression that will come by and by will not repair the evil +that has been done. Explanations will also follow too late; it was for +the President to reply on the spot, and categorically, to the manifestos +issued by the South. To let the violent States know that their +unconstitutional plans would meet a prompt chastisement; to let the +neighboring States know that their sovereignty was by no means menaced, +and that they would continue to regulate their internal institutions as +they pleased; to say to all that the discussion of plans of abolition +was not in question; to say too to all that the majorities of +free-soilers would be protected in the Territories, and that the +conquests of slavery were ended: what language would have been better +fitted than this to isolate the Gulf States--perhaps to check them? + +I say _perhaps_, because I know that passions had reached such a pitch +of exasperation that a rupture seemed inevitable. In South Carolina, for +example, the Governor had recommended both Houses in advance to take +measures for seceding if Mr. Lincoln should be elected; a special +commission was nominated, and held permanent session. In Texas, Senator +Wigfall did not fear to say, in supporting Mr. Breckenridge: "If any +other candidate is elected, look for stormy weather. There may be a +Confederation, indeed, but it will not number more than thirty-three +States." Mr. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, and Mr. Benjamin, of +Louisiana, held no less explicit language, announcing that at the first +electoral defeat of the South, it would set about forming a separate +Confederation, long since demanded by its true interests. + +What the South called its "interests," what it ended by adopting as a +political platform, outside of which there was no safety, was, as we +have seen, the subjugation of majorities in the Territories, the +restriction of sovereignty in the Northern States, the reform of the +liberty bills, which refused the prisons of these States and the +co-operation of their officers, to the Federal agents charged with +arresting fugitive slaves, the power of transporting slavery over the +whole Confederation, the duty of extending indefinitely the domain of +slavery. Who paid Walker? Who continually recruited bands of adventurers +to launch on Cuba or Central America? Who prepared the well-known lists +of slave States with which the South counted on enriching itself: four +States some day to be carved out of Texas, (the South had caused this to +be authorized in advance,) three States to be created in the Island of +Cuba, an indefinite number of States to be detached one after another +from Central America and Mexico? Who clamorously demanded the +reestablishment of the African slave trade, alone capable of peopling +this vast extent, and of lowering the excessive price of the negroes +supplied by the producing States? The extreme South, which alone was +concerned in this, saw gigantic vistas opening before it on which it +fastened with ecstasy. Now, already, in spite of the more or less avowed +support of Mr. Buchanan, its success was already checked, it felt itself +provoked and thwarted. Henceforth, all its hopes were concentrated on +the election of 1860: we may judge, therefore, of its disappointment, +and of the furious ardor with which it must have seized upon its last +resource, namely, secession, which might prove in its hands either a +means of terrifying the North, and of bringing it again under the yoke, +or of entering alone into a new destiny, of having elbow-room, and of +devoting itself entirely to the propagation of slavery! + +The facts are known; I do not think of recounting them. I content +myself with remarking the enthusiasm, which prevails in the majority of +the cotton States. One could not commit suicide with a better grace. It +is easy to recognize a country hermetically sealed to contradiction, +which is enchanted with itself, and which ends by accomplishing the most +horrible deeds with a sort of conscientious rejoicing. The enthusiasm +which is displayed in proclaiming secession, or in firing on the +American flag, is displayed in freeing the captain of a slaver, a noble +martyr to the popular cause. There is something terrifying in the +enthusiasm of evil passions. When I consider the folly of the South, +which so heedlessly touches the match to the first cannon pointed +against its confederates; when I see it without hesitation give the +signal for a war in which it runs the risk of perishing; when I read its +laws, decreeing the penalty of death against any one who shall attack +the Palmetto State, and its dispatches, in which the removal of Major +Anderson is exacted, in the tone which a master employs toward a +disobedient servant, I ask myself whether the present crisis could +really have been evaded, and whether any thing less than a rude lesson +could have opened eyes so obstinately closed to the light. + +People have taken in earnest the plans of the Southern Confederacy. +Nothing could be more imposing, in fact, if they had the least chance of +success. The fifteen Southern States, already immense, joined to Mexico, +Cuba, and Central America--what a power this would be! And, doubtless, +this power would not stop at the Isthmus of Panama: it would be no more +difficult to reestablish slavery in Bolivia, on the Equator, and in +Peru, than in Mexico. Thus the "patriarchal institution" would advance +to rejoin Brazil, and the dismayed eye would not find a single free spot +upon which to rest between Delaware Bay and the banks of the Uruguay. +Furthermore, this colossal negro jail would be stocked by a no less +colossal slave trade: barracoons would be refilled in Africa, slave +expeditions would be organized on a scale hitherto unknown, and whole +squadrons of slave ships (those "floating hells") would transport their +cargoes under the Southern colors, proudly unfurled; patriotic +indignation would be aroused at the mere name of the right of search, +and the whole world would be challenged to defend the liberty of the +seas. + +Such is the project in its majestic unity. Such is the glorious ideal +which the extreme South hoped to attain by its union with the North, and +which it now seeks to attain by its separation. The hearts of men beat +high at the thought, and many are ready to give their lives heroically +in order to secure its realization. Alas! we are thus made; passion +excuses every thing, transfigures every thing. + +Each one feels instinctively, moreover, that no part of the plan can be +separated from the whole; that it must be great to be respected; that to +people this vast extent with slaves, the African slave trade is +indispensable; of course, they took care not to avow all this at the +first moment; it was necessary, in the beginning, to delude others, and +perhaps themselves; it was necessary to obtain recognition. On this +account, the prudent politicians who have just drawn up the programme of +the South, have been careful to record in it the prohibition of the +African slave trade, and the disavowal of plans of conquest. But this +does not prevent the necessities of the position from becoming known by +and by. True programmes, adapted to the position of affairs, are not +changed from day to day. I defy the slave States, provided their +Confederation succeeds in existing, to do otherwise than seek to extend +towards the South; hemmed in on all sides by liberty, incessantly +provoked by the impossibility of preventing the flight of their negroes, +they will fall on those of their neighbors who are the least capable of +resistance, and whose territory is most to their convenience. This fact +is obvious, as it is also obvious that they will have recourse to the +African slave trade to people these new possessions. It is in vain to +deny it, on account of Europe, or of the border States; the necessities +will subsist, and, sooner or later, they will be obeyed. If the border +States persist in deluding themselves on this point, and fancy that they +will always keep the monopoly of this infamous supply of negroes sold at +enormous prices, this concerns them. In any case, the illusion will +finally become dispelled. It is not in the nomination of Jefferson Davis +as President of the Confederate States, that we are to look for the +final repudiation of those projects of which this politic man is in some +sort the living representative. + +And when they are renewed, we shall see an invincible obstacle rise up +in the way of the realization of a plan so monstrous. As soon as the +African slave trade is established, the domestic slave trade will cease, +the revenues of the producing States will be suppressed, the price of +negroes will fall everywhere, and the fortunes of all the planters will +fall in like proportion. Can it be possible that they will accept the +chances of civil war, of insurrections, and of massacres, in order to +ensure to themselves the risk of ruin in case of success? Can it be +possible, above all, that Europe will lend a hand, as we seem to +imagine, to the most audacious attack ever directed against Christian +civilization? + +I know that we must always make allowance for probable perfidy, and I am +far from dreaming, as times go, that chivalric Europe will refuse to +serve her own interests because these interests would cost her +principles something. No, indeed, I imagine nothing of the sort; yet I +think that I should wrong the nineteenth century if I supposed it +capable of certain things. There are sentiments which cannot be provoked +beyond measure with impunity. + +Remember the shudder that ran through the world when Texas, a free +country, was transformed into slave territory as the result of the +victory of the United States; multiply the crime of Texas by ten, by +twenty, and you will have a faint image of the impression of disgust +that the Southern republic is about to call forth among us. + +It is important that they should know this in advance at Charleston, and +not delude themselves as to the kind of welcome for which the Palmetto +State and its accomplices have to hope. Not only will no one recognize +their pretended independence at this time, for to recognize it would be +to tread under foot the evident rights of the United States, but they +will excite one of those moral repulsions which the least scrupulous +policy is forced to take into account. It is one thing to hold slaves; +it is another to be founded expressly to serve the cause of slavery on +earth; this is a new fact in the history of mankind. If a Southern +Confederacy should ever take rank among nations, it will represent +slavery, and nothing else. I am wrong; it will also represent the +African slave trade, and the fillibustering system. In any case, the +Southern Confederacy will be so far identified with slavery, with its +progress, with the measures designed to propagate and perpetuate it here +below, that a chain and whip seem the only devices to be embroidered on +its flag. + +Will this flag cover the human merchandise which it is designed to +protect against the interference of cruisers? Will there be a country, +will there be a heart, forgetful enough of its dignity to tolerate this +insolent challenge flung at our best sympathies? I doubt it, and I +counsel the Carolinians to doubt it also. The representative of England +at Washington is said to have already declared that in presence of the +slave trade thus practised, his government will not hesitate to pursue +slavers into the very ports of the South. France will hold no less firm +a tone; whatever may be the dissent as to the right of search, the +_right of slave ships_, be sure, will be admitted by none; a sea-police +will soon be found to put an end to them; if need be, the punishment +will be inflicted on their crews that is in store for a much less crime, +that of piracy; these wretches will be hung with short shrift at the +yard-arm, without form or figure of law. + +The Carolinians deceive themselves strangely. They fancy that they will +be treated with consideration, that they will even be protected, because +they maintain the principle of free trade, and because they hold the +great cotton market. Free trade, cotton, these are the two +recommendations upon which they count to gain a welcome in Europe. Let +us see what we are to think of this. + +I shall not be suspected in what I am about to say of free trade--I, who +have always been its declared partisan; I, who sustained it twenty years +ago as candidate in the bosom of one of the electoral colleges of Paris, +and who applauded unreservedly our recent commercial treaty with +England; but man does not live by bread alone, and if ever a school of +commercial liberty should anywhere be found that should carry the +adoration of its principle so far as to sacrifice to it other and +nobler liberties, a school disposed to set the question of cheapness +above that of justice, and to extend a hand to whoever should offer it a +channel of exportation, maledictions enough would not be found for it. +Let England take care; those who have no love for her, take delight in +foretelling that her sympathies will be weighed in the balance with her +interests, and that the protection of the North risks offending her much +more than the slavery of the South. I am convinced that it will amount +to nothing, and that we shall once more see how great is the influence +of Christian sentiment among Englishmen. Should the reverse be true, we +must veil our faces, and give over this vile bargaining, adorned with +the name of free trade, to the full severity of public opinion. + +I repeat that it will amount to nothing. Moreover, do not let us +exaggerate either the protective instincts of the North or the free +trade of the South. The new tariff just adopted at Washington (a grave +error, assuredly, which I do not seek to palliate) may be amended in +such a manner as to lose the character of prohibition with which certain +States have sought to invest it. Let us not forget, that by the side of +Pennsylvania, which urges the excessive increase of taxes, the North +counts a considerable number of agricultural States, the interests of +which are very different. Now, these are the States which elected Mr. +Lincoln, and which will henceforth have the most decisive weight on the +destinies of the Union. We may be tranquil, the protective reaction +which has just triumphed in part will not long be victorious. All +liberties cling together: the liberty of commerce will have its day in +the United States. + +But if all liberties cling together, all slaveries cling together also, +and cannot be liberal at will, even in commercial matters. The Southern +States plume themselves on being thus liberal, and it is sought to give +them this reputation. However, the facts are little in harmony with +their brilliant programme. Far from, proclaiming free trade, the +"Confederate" States, by a formal act adopted on the 18th of February, +have maintained the tariff of 1857. They have gone further: their +Congress has just established a new and relatively heavy tax, which must +burden the exportation of cotton. This is not commercial liberty as I +understand it. + +Notwithstanding, the watchword has been given, the champions of slavery +have skilfully organized their system of manoeuvre in Europe, and it is +developing according to their wishes. To be indignant at the new +tariff, to speak only of the new tariff, to create by means of the new +tariff a sort of popularity for the Southern republic--such is the end +which they sought to attain. I doubt whether they have fully obtained +it, although the South, I say it to our shame, has already succeeded in +procuring friends and praisers among us. The factitious indignation will +fall without doubt; but cotton remains: at the bottom, the South counts +much more upon cotton than free trade to bring the Old World into her +interests. On rushing into a mad enterprise, all the perils of which, +enraged as it was, it could not disguise, it said to itself that its +cotton would protect it. Is it not the principal and almost the only +producer of a raw material, without which the manufactures of the whole +world would stand still? Are there not millions of workmen in England +(one-sixth of the whole population!) who live by the manufacture of +cotton? Is not the wealth of Great Britain founded on cotton, which +alone furnishes four-fifths of its exported manufactures? All this is +true, and they are not ignorant of it at Manchester. Notwithstanding, +what happened there the other day? An immense meeting was convoked for +the purpose of carefully examining the great cotton business, and the +perils created by the present crisis. I do not know that among these +manufacturers, knowing that their interests were menaced, that among +these workmen, knowing that their means of livelihood were at stake, +that from the heart of this country, knowing that want, famine, and +insurrections might come to her door, there arose a voice, a single one, +to address a word of sympathy to the Southern States, and to promise +them the slightest support. It was because there was something +transcending manufacturing supplies, and even the bread of families: the +need, I am glad to state, of protesting against certain crimes. Instead +of extending a hand to the secessionists of Charleston, the English +manufacturers resolutely laid the foundation of a vast society, destined +to develop on the spot the production of cotton by free labor in India, +the Antilles, and Africa. Such was their answer; and if you knew their +most secret thoughts, you would have no difficulty in discovering that +the ambition of the South, its turbulent policy, and its aggressions +without pretext, are far from exciting the gratitude of English +commerce, or of inspiring its confidence. + +Every one in England comprehends that, from the standpoint of interest, +the separation of the South is a mortal blow dealt to the cotton +production, which will henceforth have the aid neither of credit nor +entrepots, and which is advancing towards catastrophes which may involve +a conflict of arms. From another and higher standpoint, the public +opinion of England has not made us wait for its verdict: already its +abolition societies have regained life and begun their movements; +already, under the pressure of the universal feeling, the Court of +Queen's Bench has revised the affair of the negro Anderson, to deliver +into the strong hands of the metropolis a question before which the +judicial authority of Canada hesitated, and to pronounce at length a +verdict of acquittal. + +The South has taken account in its calculations neither of man nor God. +God especially seems to have been forgotten, though it placed itself +formally under his protection. Who does not shudder at the enunciation +of these unheard-of plans: we will do this, then we will do that; we +will hold England through cotton, we will entice France through +influence--we will have many negroes, much produce, and much money! And +what will God think of it? Everywhere else but in South Carolina, this +question would appear formidable beyond expression. + +If the South has taken its wishes for realities in Europe, it has +committed the same error in America. Its secession has some chance (and +what a chance!) only on condition of drawing in all the glare States +without exception; now it seems by no means probable that such a +unanimity, supposing it to be gained by surprise, could ever be +maintained successfully. The negro-raising States could not possibly +regard the future in the same light as the consuming States. Their +revenues are based on the value of the domestic slave trade, which bears +no resemblance to that of the African slave trade. Ask Virginia or +Maryland long to sustain a policy, the result of which would be to lower +the price of her slaves in one day from a thousand dollars to two cents! +This is so clearly felt in the extreme South, that the provisional +constitution, adopted at Montgomery, is drawn up with an express view to +reassuring the producing States on this point. They are afraid of the +African slave trade! It shall not be reopened. They are anxious to sell +their negroes! They shall be bought only of those States forming part of +the Southern Confederacy. It belongs to them to ask now whether this +Montgomery constitution, adopted for a year, really guarantees any thing +to them, and whether it is possible that an attempt will not be made to +revive the African slave trade, provided the Southern Confederacy +succeeds in enduring. However this may be, they are held apart by so +many causes, that they would only unite to-day to separate to-morrow. I +know well that the passions of slavery rule in many of the border +States, especially in Virginia, as violently as in the extreme South. I +do not disguise from myself that the habit of sustaining a deplorable +cause in common has created between the border and the cotton States a +bond of long standing and difficult to break. But I say this: the +impulses of the first hour will have their morrow; when the frontier +States witness the commencement of those territorial invasions which +must necessarily bring the African slave trade in their train; when they +know what reliance to place on the fine promises made to-day to attract +them; when they perceive that in separating from the North, they +themselves have removed the sole obstacle in the way of the flight of +all their slaves; when, in fine, they feel weighing upon them, and them +first, the perils of an armed struggle and a negro insurrection, they +will listen perhaps to those of their citizens who, even now, are urging +them to turn to the side of justice--of justice and of safety. By the +fewness of their slaves, by the nature of their climate, which resembles +that of Marseilles and Montpellier, by the kind of cultivation to which +their country is adapted, by the number of manufactures which are +beginning to be established among them, it seems as if they must be led, +or, at least, some day led back, to the policy of union. This is no +discovery: the _seceded States_ know it already; they form a separate +band. America has not forgotten the retreat of the seven, which, a few +months ago, dismembered the Democratic Convention assembled at +Charleston. These seven were South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, +Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana; in other words, all those +States which were the first to vote for secession. The same list, with +the addition of Georgia and North Carolina, appeared again on the day of +the Presidential election: these nine States alone adopted Mr. +Breckenridge as their candidate. + +Here, then, is a profound distinction, which attaches to interests and +tendencies, which has manifested itself already, which will manifest +itself more and more, and which will work, sooner or later, the +salvation of the United States. The border States cannot unite with the +cotton States definitively. They gave proofs of this in the last +election. Five among them, Tennessee, Kentucky, Delaware, Virginia, and +Maryland, at that time took an intermediate position by making an +intermediate choice: Mr. Bell. Without going so far, Missouri protested +at least against the nomination of Mr. Breckenridge by casting its vote +for Mr. Douglas. Better than this, a declared adversary of slavery, Mr. +Blair, was elected representative by this same slave State, Missouri, on +the day before the balloting for the presidency; and on the next day his +friends voted openly for Mr. Lincoln, while no one dared-annul their +votes, as had been done four years before. Mr. Lincoln thus obtained +fifteen thousand votes in Missouri, four thousand in Delaware, fifteen +hundred in Maryland, a thousand in Kentucky, and as many in Virginia. +The figures are nothing; the symptom is significant. The slave States of +this intermediate region contain in their bosom, therefore, men who do +not fear to attack the "patriarchal institution." Have we not just seen +a Republican committee acting at Baltimore, in the midst of Maryland? +Has not this same Maryland just rejected, by the popular vote, the +infamous law which its legislature had adopted, and by virtue of which +free negroes who should not quit the State would be reduced by right to +slavery? When I remember these facts, so important and so recent, I +comprehend how it is that a Kentuckian holds the South at bay behind the +menaced walls of Fort Sumter, and how the cabinet of Mr. Lincoln has +ministers in its midst, who belong to the border States. + +People take the peculiar situation, of the border States too little into +account in looking into the future which is preparing for America. They +persist in presenting to us two great confederacies, and, in some sort, +two United States, called to divide the continent. If any thing like +this could occur, it could not endure. Doubtless, there are hours of +vertigo from which we may look for every thing, even the impossible; +and, who knows? perhaps the impossible most of all; nevertheless, the +border States cannot attach themselves forever to a cause which is not +their own. By the side of the manifestations which have taken place in +Virginia and South Carolina, we have already a right to cite +demonstrations of a different kind. Has not Missouri just decided +prudently, that, in the matter of separation, the decisions of her +legislature shall not be valid until ratified by the whole people? This +little resembles the eagerness with which States elsewhere rush into +secession. It is therefore probable that the United States will keep or +soon bring back into their bosom a considerable number of the border +States. By their side, the gulf States will attempt to form a rival +nation, aspiring to grow towards the South. Such is the true extent of +the separation that is preparing. + +Suppose these projects to become, some day, realities, we may ask +whether a real weakening of the United States would be the result. +Suppose even that another secession, based on different motives, which +nothing foretells at present, should take place beyond the Rocky +Mountains; suppose that a Pacific republic should some day be founded, +would the American Confederation have reason to be greatly troubled at +witnessing the formation on her sides of the association of the gulf +States, California, and Oregon? Look at a map, and you will see that the +valley of the Mississippi, and of the lakes, and the shores of the +Atlantic, are not necessarily connected either with the Gulf of Mexico, +(save the indispensable outlet at New Orleans,) or the regions beyond +the great desert and the Rocky Mountains, the land of the Mormons and +the gold-diggers. Unity is not always the absolute good, and it may be +that progress must come through disruption. Who knows whether +instantaneous secession would not perform the mission of resolving +certain problems otherwise insoluble? Who knows whether slavery must +not disappear in this wise in the very effort that it makes to +strengthen itself through isolation? Who knows whether it is not +important to the prosperity and real power of the United States to +escape from theories of territorial monopoly, those evil counsellors but +too much heeded? Who knows, in fine, whether the day will not come, +when, the questions of slavery once settled, new federal ties will again +bind to the centre the parts that stray from it to-day? + +I put these questions; I make no pretensions to resolve them. In any +case, the imagination has had full scope for some time past. People have +not been satisfied with the Southern Confederacy; have they not invented +both the pretended Pacific Confederacy which I have just mentioned, and +the central Confederacy, in which the border States will take shelter in +common with two or three free States, as Pennsylvania and Indiana? Have +they not supposed, in the bargain, (for they seem to find it necessary +to discover the dissolution of the Union every where at all costs,) that +the agricultural population of the West, discontented with the tariff +recently adopted, and putting in practice the new maxim, according to +which they are to have recourse to separation, instead of pursuing +reforms, will seek an asylum in Canada? I need not discuss such fables. +I am convinced, for my part, that the principle of American unity is +much more solid than people affirm; I see in the United States a single +race, and almost a single family: they may divide, they will not cease +to be related. The relationship will take back its rights. For the time, +however, secession seems to have a providential part to enact. It +facilitates, in certain respects, the first steps of Mr. Lincoln; thanks +to it, the hostile majority in the Senate is blotted out, the +uncertainty of the House of Representatives is decided, the Government +becomes possible. In the face of the senators and representatives of the +gulf States, I do not see how Mr. Lincoln could have succeeded in +acting. Did not the Senate, last year, adopt the proposition of Mr. +Jefferson Davis in opposition to the liberty of the Territories? +Congress would have trammelled, one after another, all the measures of +the new administration. Now, on the contrary, the role of the victorious +party will be easy; its preponderance is assured in both Houses; the +Supreme Court will cease, ere long, to represent the doctrines of the +extreme South, and to issue Dred Scott decrees. This is a vast change. +General Cass, in truth, comprehended the interests of slavery better +than Mr. Buchanan, when he demanded that the Government should arrest +with vigor from the beginning the faintest wish of separation. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +PROBABLE CONSEQUENCES OF THE CRISIS. + + +General Cass was nearer right than he himself imagined. In arresting +from the beginning the development of the plans of the South, by a +vigorous attitude, and by the blockade, then easy, of Charleston, the +Government would not only have rendered it the trifling service of +maintaining its means of opposition in Congress, but also the +inappreciable boon of averting the dangers of war. What has happened, on +the contrary? Precisely what must have happened, the human heart being +such as it is. When on one side is found all the ardor, all the +activity, all the resolution, and, into the bargain, all the apparent +success, while on the other is found languor, hesitation, inaction, and +disgraceful delays, it happens almost infallibly that the undecided are +hurried away by the fanatics. + +Let the United States take care! the chances of the future incur the +risk, at this moment, of becoming more grave. To-day, the border States +are on the point of declaring themselves; to-day, in consequence, it is +important to offer to their natural irresolution the support of a policy +as firm as moderate. Given over without defence to the ardent +solicitations of the extreme South, they are only too likely to yield, +particularly if the Federal Government give them reason to believe that +the separation will encounter no serious obstacle. + +We must remember that ignorant communities are here in question, who are +ruled by their prejudices, and who have never tolerated the slightest +show of discussion upon questions connected with the subject of slavery. +Such communities are capable of committing the most egregious follies; +panics, sudden resolutions, mistaken unanimities, are common among them. +Formerly, kings were pitied who lived surrounded by flatterers, it was +said (we have provided against that) that the truth never reached them; +the, planters are the only men I see to-day that can be likened to these +monarchs of olden time; neither books, nor journals, nor preachers, are +permitted to point out to them their duties or their interests in the +matter of slavery. + +The slightest symptom of inertia or of feebleness in the Federal +Government at this time, will, therefore, expose the border States to +great perils, and, through them, the whole Confederation. As easy as it +would have been, with a little energy, to prevent the evil, to confine +secession within its natural limits, and to weaken the chances of civil +war, so difficult has it become, at present, to attain the same end. +Painful duties, perhaps, will be imposed on Mr. Lincoln. I wonder, in +truth, at the politicians who advise him to a "masterly inactivity," +that is, who urge him to continue Mr. Buchanan! Doubtless he does right +to leave to the insurgents all the odium of acting on the offensive, but +his moderation should detract nothing from his firmness, and it is even +of importance that the means of action which he is about to prepare, +should manifest so clearly the overwhelming superiority of the North, +that the resistance of the South will be thereby discouraged. + +Adversaries of slavery are not wanting, who are almost indignant at the +adoption of such measures by the new President. Did they fancy then that +a formidable question could be resolved without risking the repression +of the assaults of force by force? Away with childishness! In electing +Mr. Lincoln, it was known that the cotton States were ready to protest +with arms in their hands; he was not elected to receive orders from the +cotton States, or to sign the dissolution of the United States on the +first requisition. Who wills the end, wills the means. No one, +certainly, desires, more than myself, the peaceful repression of the +rebellion. May the success of the blockade render the employment of the +army useless! May the resolute attitude of the Confederation arrest the +majority of the intermediate States on the dangerous declivity upon +which they are standing! Once let them be drawn into the circle of +influence of the extreme South, and little chance will remain of +confining the civil war within the limits beyond which it is so +important that it should not spread. + +Then will appear the _irrepressible conflict_ of Mr. Seward. Whether +desired or not, if the two Confederations are placed side by side, the +one representing all the slavery, the other representing all the +liberty, the conflict will take place. It will take place perhaps now, +perhaps a little later; however this may be, no one will have the power +to hinder it. Suppose the South, thus completed, relinquish (and nothing +is less certain) the opening by itself of a war in which it must perish, +and its great plans of attack, against Washington, for instance, be +abandoned; suppose the United States, on their side, avoid a direct +attack, which might give the signal for insurrections; suppose they +limit themselves to purely maritime repression of the revolt; that, +after striking off the Southern harbors from the list of seaports, and +declaring that custom-house duties cannot be legally paid there, they +maintain this blockade, which Europe ought to applaud; would they have +averted all chances of conflict? No; alas! However temporary such a +situation might be, complaints, recriminations, and, ere long, violent +reprisals, would be seen everywhere arising. Rivalries of principles, +rivalries of interests, bitter memories of past injuries, such are the +rocks on which peaceful policy would be in continual danger of +shipwreck. + +We must not cherish illusions; the chances, of civil war have been +increasing for a few weeks past with fearful rapidity. If Mr. Lincoln +has confined himself scrupulously to conservative and defensive +measures, there has been, on the contrary, in the actions of the South, +a violent precipitation which has surpassed all expectancy. It is the +haste of skilful men, who attempt by a bold stroke to carry off the +advantages of a deed accomplished; it is at the same time, and chiefly, +perhaps, the haste of men who have nothing to lose, the ringleaders of +the present hour. At the end of resources, the insurgent South has +already increased its taxes inordinately; it has killed public and +private credit; it has created a disturbed revolutionary condition, +intolerable in the end, which no longer permits deliberation, or even +reflection. Will the South pause on such a road? It is difficult to hope +it. As to the North, its plan of action is very simple, and easily +maintained: suppose even that through impossibility it should give over +forcing the rebels back to their duty, who can ever imagine that it +would suffer itself to be deprived of the mouths of the Mississippi, or +that it would abandon to the rival Confederacy the capital itself of the +Union, inclosed within the slave States? Let us see things as they are: +the maintenance and development of slavery in the South will render the +abolitionist proceedings of its neighbor intolerable in its eyes; if it +has not been able to endure a contradiction accompanied with infinite +circumspection, and tempered by many prudent disclaimers, how will it +support this daily torture, a unanimous and well-founded censure, a +perpetual denunciation of the infamies which accompany and constitute +the "patriarchal institution"? The North, on its side, will be unable +to forget that, by the act of the South, without reason or pretext, the +glorious unity of the nation has been broken; that the star-spangled +banner has been rent in twain; that the commercial prosperity of America +has been shaken at the same time with its greatness. Let one of those +incidents then occur, that are constantly arising, a Southern slave ship +stopped on the high seas by the North, a negotiation of the South +threatening to introduce Europe into the affairs of the New World, and +directly hostilities will break out. + +What they will be in the end, I scarcely dare imagine. If the planters +are forced, at present, to mount guard day and night, to prevent the +insurrectionary movements that are constantly ready to break out on +their estates; if many families are already sending their women and +children into safer countries; what will it be when the arrival of the +forces of the North shall announce to the slaves that the hour of +deliverance has sounded? It will be in vain to deny it; their arrival +will always signify this in the sight of the South. There are certain +facts, the popular interpretation of which ends by being the true +interpretation. I have no doubt that the generals of the United States, +before attacking the Southern Confederacy, will recommend to the +negroes to remain at peace, and will disavow and condemn acts of +violence; but what is a manifesto against the reality of things and the +necessity of situations? There is a word that I see written in large +letters everywhere in the projects of the South--yes, the word +_catastrophe_ is to be read there in every line. The first successes of +the South are a catastrophe; the greatness of the South will be a +catastrophe; and, if the South ever realize in part the iniquitous hopes +towards which it is rushing, the catastrophe will acquire unheard-of +proportions; it will be a St. Domingo carried to the tenth power. + +One cannot, with impunity, give full scope to his imagination, and, in +the year of our Lord 1861, set to work to contrive the plan of a +Confederacy designed to protect and to propagate slavery. These things +will be avenged sooner or later. Ah! if the South knew how important it +is that it should not succeed, if it comprehended that the North has +been hitherto its great, its only guarantee! This is literally true; a +slave country, above all, to-day, needs to be backed up by a free +country to ensure the subsistence of an institution contrary to nature; +otherwise the first accident, the first war, gives it over to perils +that make us shudder. Thanks to their metropolises, our colonies were +able first to keep, and afterwards to enfranchise their slaves, without +succumbing to the task. But let a Southern Confederacy come, in which +the immigration of the whites will be naught, while the increase of the +blacks will be pursued in all ways, and, in case of success, the moment +will soon arrive when many States will see themselves placed, as is the +case already with South Carolina, in presence of a number of slaves +exceeding that of free men. Such a social monstrosity never existed +under the sun; even in Greece, even in Rome, even among the Mussulmans, +the total number of free men remained superior; the colonies alone, +through the effect of the slave trade, presented an inverse phenomenon, +and the colonies were consolidated with their metropolises in the same +manner that the States of the South are consolidated with those of the +North. + +In this will be found, I repeat, a most important guarantee. The South +in rejecting it, and imagining itself able alone to maintain a situation +which will become graver day by day, deludes itself most strangely. At +the hour of peril, when servile insurrection perhaps shall ravage its +territory, it will be astonished to find itself left alone in the +presence of its enemy. + +And this enemy is not one that can be conquered once for all. Even +after the victory, even in times of peace, the threat of servile +insurrection will ever remain suspended over the head of the Southern +Confederacy; it will be necessary always to watch, always to be on the +guard, always to repress, and, to tell the truth, always to tremble. The +planters, whether they know it or not, are not preparing to sleep on a +bed of roses. To labor to accomplish an iniquitous work amidst the +maledictions of the universe, to increase their estates and their slaves +under penalty of death, and to feel instinctively that they will die for +having increased them, to tremble because of European hostility, to +tremble because of American hostility, to tremble because of hostility +from without and within--what a life! That one might accept it in the +service of a noble cause, I can comprehend; but the cause of the South! +In truth, this would be taking great pains for small wages. + +The South inspires me with profound compassion. We have told it, much +too often, that its Confederacy was easy to found. To found, yes; to +make lasting, no. Here, it is not the first step that costs--it is the +second, it is the third. The Southern Confederacy is not viable. Let us +suppose that, to its misfortune, it has succeeded in all that it has +just undertaken: Charleston is free, the border States are drawn in, +there is a new federal compact and a new President, the Northern States +have of necessity abandoned the suppression of the insurrection by +force, Europe has surmounted its repugnance and received the envoys of +the great Slave republic. All questions seem resolved; but no, not a +single one has attained its solution. + +The policy of the South must have its application. Its first article, +whether it declares it or not, exacts conquests, the absorption of +Mexico, for example. The fillibusters of Walker are still ready to set +out, and the first moment past, when the question is to appear discreet, +it is scarcely probable that they will meet with much restraint, now +that the prudence of the North is no longer at hand to counterbalance +the passions of Slavery. + +Admit that this enterprise bring no difficult complications. For these +new territories, the question will be to procure negroes. The second +article of the Southern policy will find then _nolens volens,_ its +inevitable application: the African slave trade will be re-established. +The richest planter of Georgia, Mr. Goulden, has taken care to set forth +its necessity; mark the language which he held lately: "You have hardly +negroes enough for the existing States; obtain the opening of the slave +trade, then you can undertake to increase the number of slave States." + +Will the official re-opening of the slave trade be some day effected +without bringing on a storm which will destroy the new Confederacy? I +cannot say. In any case, I know one thing: that the value of the slaves, +and consequently that of Southern property, will experience a decline +greatly exceeding that by which it is now threatened, as it is said, by +the abolition tendencies of the North. Already, through the mere fact of +secession, the price of negroes has diminished one-half; and more than +one intelligent planter foresees the time when this price shall have +diminished three-fourths, perhaps nine-tenths. Southern fortunes are +falling off, therefore, with extreme rapidity, and this arises not only +from the anticipated effects of the slave trade, but also from the +certainty of being unable henceforth to put a stop to the escape of the +slaves. These escapes, taken all in all, remained insignificant, so long +as the Union was maintained; there are not more than fifty thousand free +negroes in Canada. But henceforth the Southern Confederacy will have a +Canada everywhere on its frontiers. How retain that slavery that will +escape simultaneously on the North, and the South? The Southern republic +will be as it were the common enemy, and no one assuredly will aid it to +keep its slaves. + +It must not be believed, moreover, that it will succeed long in +preserving itself from intestine divisions--divisions among the whites. +If, at the first moment, when every thing is easy, unanimity is far from +appearing as complete as had been foretold, it will, later, be much +worse. We shall then perceive how prophetic, if I may dare say so, were +the often-quoted words of Washington's farewell address: "It is +necessary that you should accustom yourselves to regard the Union as the +palladium of your happiness and your security; that you should watch +over it with a jealous eye; that you should impose silence on any who +shall ever dare counsel you to renounce it; that you should give vent to +all your indignation on the first effort that shall be attempted to +detach from the whole any part of the Confederation." + +A very different voice, that of Jefferson, spoke the same language. A +Southern man, addressing himself to the South, which talked already of +seceding he described in thrilling words the inevitable consequences of +such an act: "If, to rid ourselves of the present supremacy of +Massachusetts and Connecticut, we were to break up the Union, would the +trouble stop there?... We should soon see a Pennsylvanian party and a +Virginian party forming, in what remained of the Confederation, and the +same party spirit would agitate public opinion. By what new weapons +would these parties be armed, if they had power to threaten each other +continually with joining their Northern neighbors, in case things did +not go on in such or such a manner! If we were to reduce our Union to +North Carolina and Virginia, the conflict would break out again directly +between the representatives of these two States; we should end by being +reduced to simple unities." + +Is not this the anticipated history of what is about to happen in the +Southern Confederacy, supposing it to succeed in uniting with a part of +the border States? The opening programme will last as long as programmes +usually do. When the true plan of the South, veiled for a moment, shall +reappear, (and it must indeed reappear, unless it perishes before it has +begun to exist;) when the question shall be to increase and be peopled, +to make conquests and to reestablish the African slave trade; when the +serious purpose, in a word, shall have replaced the purpose of +circumstance, what will take place between the border States and the +cotton States? The profound distinction which exists between them will +then manifest itself, even if it does not break forth before. A new +South and a new North will be formed, as hostile perhaps as the old, and +less forgiving towards each other of their mutual faults, inasmuch as +they will be embittered by misfortune. Nothing divides people like a bad +cause that turns out badly. They think themselves united, they call +themselves united, until the moment when they discover that they have +neither the same end nor the same mind. I do not see why the victory of +Mr. Lincoln will have transformed the South, and suppressed the +divergencies which separated it into two groups: that of the Gulf States +voting for Mr. Breckenridge, that of the border States voting for Mr. +Douglas or Mr. Bell, and even casting ballots for Mr. Lincoln. + +Not only will the Gulf States, the only true secessionists, never act in +concert with the border States, but they will not be long in seeing +parties spring up in their own bosom, which will be little disposed to +come to terms. A sort of feudal question, as is well known, is near +obtaining a position in the South; the _poor whites_ there are two or +three times as numerous as the planters. The struggle of classes may, +therefore, break out as soon as the effected secession shall have +banished to the second rank the struggle against the adversaries of +slavery. + +The impoverishment of the South will not aid in calming its intestine +quarrels. European immigration, already so meagre in the slave States, +(Charleston is the only large American city whose population has +decreased, according to the last census,) European immigration, I say, +will evidently diminish still more when the South shall have taken an +independent and hostile position opposite the Northern States. Who will +go then to expose himself lightly to the fearful chances which the first +war with any country, American or European, may bring in its train? And +credit will go the same way as immigration: to lend money to planters, +whose entire property is continually menaced with destruction, is one of +those hazardous operations from which commerce is accustomed to recoil. +Deprived of the capital furnished it by New York, obtaining only with +great difficulty a few onerous and precarious advances in Europe, the +South will see itself smitten at once in all its means of production; +and, after the harvest of 1860, which secures our supplies for a year, +after that of 1861, which it will succeed, probably, in gathering, but +which it will be more difficult to sell, it is not easy to divine how it +will set to work to continue its crops. While the South produces less +cotton, and we lose the habit of buying of it, the cotton culture will +become acclimated elsewhere; the future will thus be destroyed like the +present; final ruin will approach with hasty strides. + +They tell us of a loan that the new Confederacy designs to contract! +Unless it be transformed into a forced loan, I have little faith in its +chance. They add that it will be only necessary to establish on exported +cotton a duty of a few cents per pound, and the coffers of the South +will be filled. But, in the first place, to export cotton, they must +produce it--they must have money; it is almost impossible that the State +should be rich when all its citizens are in distress; then the +exportation itself will be exposed to some difficulties if the United +States organize a blockade. And I say nothing of the bad effect that +will be produced by this tax _a la Turque_--this tax on exportation in +the very midst of plans of commercial freedom. Neither do I speak of the +effect which this extra charge, which is termed trifling, but which is, +in fact, considerable, will have on the sale of American cotton, +already so defective, when compared with the average price of other +cottons. + +Poor country, which blind passion, and, above all, indomitable pride, +precipitates into the path of crime and misery! Poor, excommunicated +nation, whose touch will be dreaded, whose flag will be suspected, whose +continually increasing humiliations will not even be compensated by a +few meagre profits! The heart is oppressed at the thought of the clear, +certain, inevitable future, which awaits so many men, less guilty than +erring. Between them and the rest of the world there will be nothing +longer in common; they will establish on their frontier a police over +books and journals, essaying to prevent the fatal introduction of an +idea of liberty: the rest of the world will have for them neither +political sympathies, nor moral sympathies, nor religious sympathies. + +Will they at least have the consolation of having killed the United +States? Will a glorious confederation have perished by their retreat? +No, a thousand times no. Even though they should succeed in drawing the +border States into the Southern Confederacy, the United States, thank +God! will keep their rank among nations. Where will the United States +be after secession? Where they were before; for a long time the +gravitation of their power has been tending towards the Northwest. The +true America is there, that of ancient traditions, and that of present +reality. If any serious fears might have been conceived as to its +duration, they disappeared on the day of the election of Mr. Lincoln. On +that day, we all learned that the United States would subsist, and that +their malady was not mortal. + +Great news was this! Did you ever ask yourself how much would be missing +here on earth if such a people should disappear? It lives and it will +live. Look at the calm and confident air of the North, and compare it +with the noisy violence of the South. The North is so sure of itself +that it does not deign either to become angered, or to hasten; it even +carries this last to extremes. It has the air of knowing that, in spite +of the apparent successes which may mark the first efforts of the South, +the final success must be elsewhere. Let the South take care! to have +against it both right and might is twice as much as is needed to be +beaten. The North supported Mr. Buchanan because it was awaiting Mr. +Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln came, the North still has patience, but will end +by falling into line, and the serious struggle will begin, in case of +need. + +The final issue of this struggle can scarcely be doubtful. On one side, +I see a confederacy divided, impoverished, bending under the weight of a +crushing social problem, seeing constantly on its horizon the menace of +insurrections and of massacres, unable either to negotiate, or to draw +the sword, or to resolve any of the difficulties from without, without +thinking of the still more formidable difficulties from within; on the +other side, I see the United States, masters of themselves, unanimous, +knowing what they want, and placing at the service of a noble cause, a +power which is continually increasing. + +The match will not be equal. I cannot help believing, therefore, that +the triumph of the North will be even much more complete than we imagine +to-day. I do not know what is to happen, but this I know: the North is +more populous, richer, more united; European immigration goes only to +the North, European capital goes only to the North. Of what elements is +the population of the South composed? The first six States that +proclaimed their separation number exactly as many slaves as freemen. +What a position! Is it probable indeed that this confederation contrary +to nature, in which each white will be charged with guarding a black, +can afford a long career? The South, divided, weakened, bearing in its +side the continually bleeding wound of slavery, reduced to choose in the +end between the direful plans which must destroy after having dishonored +it, and the Union which consolidates its interests while thwarting its +passions--is it possible that the South will not return to the Union? + +Something tells me that if the Union be dissolved, it will be formed +again. A lasting separation is more difficult than is imagined. Face to +face with Europe, face to face with the United States, the great +republic of the South would find it too difficult to live. To live at +peace is impossible; to live without peace is not to be thought of. The +great Southern republic must perish surely by its failure, and still +more surely by its success, for this monstrous success will draw down +its destruction. There is in America a necessity, as it were, of union. +Unity is at the foundation, diversity is only on the surface; unity is +bound up with the national life itself, with race, origin, belief, +common destiny, a like degree of civilization, in a word, with profound +and permanent causes; diversity proceeds from the accidents of +institutions. + +Looking only at the province of interests, is it easy to imagine an +irremediable rupture between New York and Charleston, between the valley +of the Mississippi and New Orleans? What would the valley of the +Mississippi be without New Orleans, and New Orleans, isolated from the +vast country of which it is the natural market? Can you fancy New York +renouncing half her commerce, ceasing to be the broker of cotton, the +necessary medium between the South and Europe? Can you fancy the South +deprived of the intervention and credit which New York assures her? The +dependence of the North and the South is reciprocal; if the South +produces the cotton, it is the North which furnishes the advances, then +purchases on its own account or on commission, and expedites the traffic +with Europe. In the United States, every part has need of the whole; +agricultural States, manufacturing States, commercial States, they form +together one of the most homogeneous countries of which I know. I should +be surprised if such a country were destined to become forever +dismembered, and that, too, at an epoch less favorable to the +dismemberment of great nations than to the absorption of small ones. + +Shall I say all that I think? When Anglo-Saxons are in question, we +Latins are apt to deceive ourselves terribly; one would not risk much, +perhaps, in supposing that events would take place precisely in the +reverse of our hypothesis. We have loudly predicted in Europe the end of +the United States, the birth and progress of a rival Confederacy, an +irremediable separation: is not this a reason for supposing that there +will be ultimately neither a prolonged separation, nor a rival +Confederacy worthy of consideration? Free countries, especially those of +the English race, have a habit of which we know little: their words are +exceedingly violent, and their actions exceedingly circumspect. They +make a great noise: one would say that every thing was going to +destruction; but it is prudent to look at them more closely, for these +countries of discussion are also countries of compromise, the victors +are accustomed to terminate political crises by yielding something of +their victory; in appearance, it is true, rather than in reality. Fully +decided at heart, they consent willingly to appear less positive in +form. + +Here, I know that the extreme violence of the South renders a compromise +very difficult, at least a present compromise. As it is accustomed to +rule, and will be content with no less, as it knows that the North, +decidedly emancipated, will not replace its head beneath the yoke, it +seems resolved to incur all risks rather than renounce its fixed idea. +For two months, the probabilities of compromise have been becoming +constantly weaker. But if we have scarcely a right to count on them now, +so far as the Gulf States are concerned, we must remember that the +border States are at hand, that they are hesitating between the North +and the South, and that certain concessions may be made to them, to +prevent their separation. + +Such is the true character of the discussions relating to compromise. +Confined to these limits, they nevertheless possess a vast interest, for +the party which the border States are about to choose, and that to which +they will perhaps attach themselves afterwards, will have a great +influence over the general course of the crisis. The point in question +is no longer, doubtless, to retain Virginia, whose well-known passions +impel her to the side of Charleston, but to induce the other States to +take an attitude in conformity with their interests and their duties. It +will not, therefore, be useless to give an account of the disposition +that prevails among many Americans with respect to compromise. + +What was produced by that Peace Conference, convoked with so much noise +by Virginia, the ancient political State, the country of Washington, +Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe? Nothing worth the trouble of mentioning. +A considerable number of States refused to be present at this +conference, which, had it been general, would have become transformed +into a convention, and have annulled Congress, in point of fact, then in +session in the same city? Its plan, accepted with great difficulty by a +factitious majority, never appeared to have much chance of adoption. The +point in question, above all, was to decide that, below a fixed +latitude, the majority of the inhabitants of a Territory could not +prohibit the introduction of slavery, (disguised, it is true, under the +euphuistic expression, "involuntary servitude;") this measure was to be +declared irrevocable, unless by the unanimous consent of the States. +Despite the support of Mr. Buchanan, and that of the higher branches of +trade in New York, seconded, as usual, by some fashionable circles of +Boston, the almost unanimous public opinion of the North forbade all +belief in the success of such an amendment to the Constitution, which, +in accordance with the Constitution itself, could be adopted only on +condition of uniting two-thirds of the votes of Congress to the +affirmative votes of three-fourths of the States composing the +Confederation. + +Another project was put forward: all the members of Congress were to +tender their resignation, and the new elections were to manifest the +definitive will of the country on the question of slavery. That is, from +the intense excitement of the country, were to be demanded some final +elements of reaction, some means of disavowing the election of Mr. +Lincoln. In either case, it would have been thus proved by an +exceptional act that an election which is not ratified by the South may +rightfully demand extraordinary measures. Now, there is nothing but what +is customary, simple, and right, in the conduct of the North; it knows +it, and will not, I think, permit such an advantage to be gained over +it. To allow talking, to allow propositions, and to go its own way, this +is the programme to which it is bound to remain faithful. What makes its +honor makes also its strength: this is the privilege of good causes. + +The North has not to seek bases for a compromise. They are all laid +down, and I dare affirm, whatever may happen, that to these bases, +constantly the same, it will not fail to return, provided, at least, +that the era of compromises shall not be closed, and that the South +shall not have succeeded in imposing on the North a decidedly abolition +policy. To speak truly, it has but one declaration to make: to proclaim +anew the constitutional law, by virtue of which each State sovereignly +decides its own affairs, and consequently excludes all interference of +Congress in the matter of slavery. Perhaps, alas! it will join, if need +be, to this declaration, which it has never refused, the promise to +respect to the utmost of its power, the principle of the restitution of +fugitive slaves, which, unhappily, is also based upon the Constitution. +But, on this point, promises are worth what they will fetch, for +doubtless no one will imagine that it is easier to constrain the free +States to accomplish an odious deed which is revolting to their +conscience since they have verified their strength by electing Mr. +Lincoln. Lastly, upon the ruling question, that of the Territories, the +theory of the North evinces justice and clearness; between the ultra +abolitionists, who wish Congress to interfere to close by force all the +Territories to slavery, and the South, which wishes Congress to +interfere to open by force all the Territories to slavery, it adopts +this middle position: all the inhabitants of the Territories shall open +or close them to slavery, according to their will. It is the right of +the majority, recognized there as elsewhere. + +I am not ignorant that Mr. Seward has gone much farther in the path of +concession, and it is not absolutely impossible that these counsels of +weakness may prevail. We must be prepared for any thing in this respect. +Nevertheless, the President has by no means continued the imprudent +words of his future prime minister. The language of Mr. Lincoln was +remarkably clear in his inaugural speech, to go no further back, +indicating on the spot the true, the great concession which, till new +orders, may be made to the South: "Those who elected me placed in the +platform presented for my acceptance, as a law for them and for me, the +clear and explicit resolution which I am about to read to you: 'The +maintenance intact of the right of the States, and especially of the +right which each State possesses to regulate and exclusively control its +institutions according to its own views, is essential to that balance of +power, on which depend the perfection and duration of our political +structure; and we denounce the invasion in contempt of the law by an +armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, upon whatever pretext +it may be, as the greatest of crimes.'" Mr. Lincoln adds further: +"Congress has adopted an amendment to the Constitution, which, however, +I have not seen, the purpose of which is to provide that the Federal +Government shall never interfere in the domestic institutions of the +States, including those which relate to persons held in service. In +order to avoid all misunderstanding concerning what I have said, I +depart from my intention of not speaking of any amendment in particular, +to say that, considering this clause henceforth as a constitutional law, +I have no objection that it be rendered explicit and irrevocable." + +Concerning fugitive slaves, the inaugural discourse cites the text of +the federal Constitution, which decides the question for the present; +but he does not ignore the fact that this constitutional decision is as +well executed as it can be, "the moral sense of the people lending only +an imperfect support to the law." + +As to the Territories, Mr. Lincoln declares clearly that the minority +must submit to the majority, under penalty of falling into complete +anarchy. Neither does he hesitate on the subject of the decisions of the +Supreme Court; these decrees, in his eyes, are merely special decisions +rendered in particular cases, and detracting nothing from the right +which the Confederation possesses to regulate its institutions and its +policy. + +All this is very firm, without being provoking. The limit of +concessions is marked out, and a conciliatory spirit is maintained. It +is above all in disclosing his line of conduct towards the rebellious +States, that Mr. Lincoln happily resolves the problem of abandoning none +of the rights of the Confederation, while manifesting the most pacific +disposition, and leaving to others the odium of aggression. His doctrine +on this point may be summed up in this wise: in the first place, the +separation is unconstitutional, it should be, it will be combated, +nothing on earth can bring the President to accede to the destruction of +the Union; in the second place, he will not be the aggressor, he will +endeavor to shun a war which exposes the South to fearful perils; in the +third place, he will fulfill the duty of preserving federal property and +collecting federal taxes in the South. In other terms, he will employ +the means which should have been employed on the first day, and which +would have then been more efficacious. He will attempt the establishment +of a maritime blockade, in order to reduce the rebellion of the whites +without provoking the insurrection of the negroes. Already, the vessels +of war have been recalled from distant stations. Alas! I have little +hope that the precautions dictated to Mr. Lincoln by prudence and +humanity will bear their fruits. The South raises an army and is about +to attack Fort Sumter, knowing that it will thus expose itself to a +formidable retribution. Mr. Lincoln, in fact, has not left it in +ignorance of this: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-citizens, in +yours and not mine, is found the terrible question of civil war. The +Government will not attack you; you will have no conflict, if you are +not the aggressors. You have not, on your part, an oath registered in +heaven to destroy the Government; whilst I, on my side, am about to take +the most solemn oath to maintain, to protect and defend it." + +Such is the respective position. Men will agitate, are agitating +already, about the new President, to take away from his thoughts and +designs this resolute character which makes their force. They attempt to +demonstrate to him, not only that Fort Sumter, so easy to revictual +under Mr. Buchanan, has now become inaccessible to aid, and that no +other course remains than to authorize its surrender; but that Fort +Pickens itself should be surrendered to the South, in order to reserve +every chance of reconciliation and in no degree to assume the +responsibility of civil war! I hope that Mr. Lincoln will know how to +resist these enfeebling influences. After having demonstrated to him +that it is necessary to deliver up the forts, they will demonstrate to +him that it is necessary to renounce the blockade, which is not tenable +without the forts; then, who knows? they will demonstrate to him finally +that it is necessary to sign some disgraceful compromise, and submit +almost to the law of the rebels. + +Once more, it is prudent to foresee every thing, and it is for this that +I mention such things. I count, moreover, on their not being realized. +In electing Mr. Lincoln, the United States decided thus: Slavery will +make no more conquests. What they have decided, they will ultimately +maintain, even though they should have the air of abandoning it. They +have respected and they will respect the sovereignty of the States; upon +this point they will give all the guarantees that may be desired, and +Congress, we have seen, has already voted an amendment to the +Constitution, designed to offer this basis of compromise. But they will +go no further than this; the North must feel that, of all ways of +terminating the present crisis, the most fatal would be the disavowal of +principles and the desertion of the flag. + +The compromises that promise any thing more than respect for the +sovereignty of the States in the matter of slavery, promise more than +they could perform; every one feels this, in the South as in the North. +The policy of the South forms a whole of which nothing subsists if any +thing be retrenched, and above all if the complicity of the Government +ceases to be assured to it. On the day that the South accepts any +compromise whatever, it will have renounced, not the maintenance +doubtless, but the propagation of slavery; it will have renounced its +rule. Compromises, (there will be such, perhaps, let us swear to +nothing; before or after the war, with the entire South, or with a part +of it,) compromises will be signed henceforth without any delusion. The +South knows, marvellously well, that these compromises will bear little +resemblance to those signed in former times. Those marked, by their +constantly increasing pretension, the upward march of the South; these +will mark the phases of its decline. How many changes which can never be +retraced! No more conquests to promote slavery, no more reopening of the +African slave trade, no more impunity secured to those numerous +slave-ships which daily, to the knowledge and in the sight of all, for +years past, have quitted the ports of the Confederation; no more chance +of equalling, by the creation and population of new States, the rapid +development of the North; henceforth the question is ended, the South +must be resigned to it: the majority of the free States will become such +that it can be contested neither in the House of Representatives, nor in +the Senate, nor in the presidential election; the supremacy resides at +the North, the programme of the South is rent in a thousand pieces. + +Against this, all the compromises in the world can do nothing. If Mr. +Lincoln is the first President opposed to slavery, Mr. Buchanan is the +last President favorable to slavery; the American policy is henceforth +fixed. Reflect, in fact, on what these four years of government will +produce. The result is so enormous, that, unhappily, one might be +tempted to say at Washington: "We will do all that is wished, provided +we preserve the handling of affairs." + +The power of a President is doubtless inconsiderable, but his advent is +that of a party. This party is about to renew all administrations, great +and small; the same majority which has elected him will modify before +long the tendencies of the courts; in fine, the general affairs of the +Union will be managed in a new spirit. It was advancing in one +direction, it is about to move in the opposite. Mr. Lincoln is not one +to shut his eyes on filibustering attempts to strive to take Cuba for +the slavery party, to permit States to be carved out of Mexico, and +others to be made ready by subdividing Texas. The process which is about +to be accomplished reminds me of the measures taken to combat a vast +conflagration: the first thing done is to circumscribe its locality. + +At the end of the four years of Mr. Lincoln's administration, the flames +which threatened to devour the Union will be completely hemmed in. +Considering the United States as a whole, and independently of the +incidents of separation, we are justified in believing that the +respective number of free and of slave States will leave no chance for +the ulterior extension of a great scourge. Do we delude ourselves by +thinking that the progress already begun in the border States will have +been accelerated in its course, and that many of them will have freely +passed over to the side of liberty? Is it certain, moreover, that the +hesitation of some of the churches will have ceased, and that the +influence of the Gospel, so decisive in America, will have finally +placed itself entire at the service of the good cause? + +Let there be a compromise or not, let the great secession of the South +be prevented or not, let civil war break forth or not, let it give or +not give to the South the fleeting eclat of first successes, one fact +remains settled henceforth: the United States were tottering on their +base, they have regained their equilibrium; the deadly perils which they +lately incurred from the plans of conquest of the South and the +indefinite extension of slavery, are at length conjured down; they have +no longer to ask whether, some day, the South having grown beyond +measure, secession must not be effected by the North, leaving in the +hands of the slaveholders the glorious name and the starry banner of the +Union. + +I think that I have gone over the whole series of hypotheses which offer +any probability. I have been careful to adopt none of them, for I make +no pretension, thank God, to read the future. It would be puerile to +prognosticate what will happen, and not less puerile, perhaps, to +describe it from what has happened. In the face of the accidents in +different directions which are attracting public attention and filling +the columns of newspapers, I have attempted to make a distinction +between what may happen and what must endure. The lasting consequences +of the present crisis are what I proposed to investigate faithfully. The +reader knows what are my conclusions. It may be that it will end in the +adoption of some blamable compromise; but whatever may be inscribed in +it, the election of Mr. Lincoln has just written in the margin a note +that will annul the text. The time for certain concessions is past, and +the South has no more doubts of it than the North. It may be that the +slave States will succeed in founding their deplorable Confederacy, but +it is impossible that they should succeed in making it live; they will +perceive that it is easier to adopt a compact or to elect a President, +than to create, in truth, in the face of the nineteenth century, the +nationality of slavery. + +I have, therefore, the right to affirm that, whatever may be the +appearances and incidents of the moment, one fact has been accomplished +and will subsist: the United States were perishing, and are saved. Yes, +whatever may be the hypothesis on which we pause, three new and decisive +facts appear to our eyes: we know that the North henceforth has the +mastery; we know that the perils which threaten the Union came from the +South and not from the North; we know that the days of the "patriarchal +institution" are numbered. Beneath these three facts, it is not +difficult to perceive the uprising of a great people. + +The victory of the North, the consciousness which it has of its +strength and of its fixed resolution, whatever may be the appearances to +the contrary, to circumscribe an evil which was ready to overflow on +every side, is the first fact; there is no need to return to it. + +As to the second, Carolina and Georgia have charged themselves with +bringing it to light. They have proved by their acts that abolitionism +had been calumniated in accusing it of menacing the unity of the United +States. The secessionist passions have shown themselves in the other +camp; there, upon the mere news of a regular election, have been +sacrificed unhesitatingly the greatness, and, it would seem, the very +existence of the country. The proclamations from Charleston, and the +shots fired on the Federal flag, have apprised us of what intelligent +observers suspected already: that the States for which slavery had +become a passion and almost a mission, must some day experience the need +of procuring to such a cause the security of isolation. + +And in acting in this wise, these States, strange to say, have +themselves stated the problem of abolition. No one thought of it, it may +be said; every one respected the constitutional limits of their +sovereignty. They would not have it thus; they carried the question +into the territory of Federal right and Federal relations; they +exclaimed: "Secure the extension of slavery, and perish the United +States!" If the United States had perished, there would not have been +maledictions deep enough for those who had committed such a crime. The +United States will not perish; but they will long remember with +gratitude what they owe to the secessionists of 1860. When the hour of +emancipation shall have struck, and it will strike some day, the +secessionists of 1860 will not probably speak of their rights to +indemnity; they have just given a quittance of it in cannon balls. + +The third fact remains: Is it true that, in all the hypotheses, the +cause of the negroes has just realized such progress that the ultimate +issue of the contention can no longer be doubtful? This is most obvious. +Let there be separation or not, slavery has just entered upon the road +which leads to abolition, more or less rapid, but infallible. If there +be no separation, this immense progress will he effected with more +wisdom and slowness; violent means will be averted, the benevolent +influence of the Gospel will pave the way for progressive and peaceful +transformation by preaching, to the slaves as to the masters, more of +their duties than of their rights. If there be separation, emancipation +will be accomplished much more quickly and more calamitously. Servile +war will break out; ultra abolitionism, to which hitherto the prudence +of the North has refused all real credit, will be no longer restrained +by the prudence of a people desirous of shunning bloody catastrophes; +sustained by the increasing animosity which will inflame the two +Confederacies against each other, it will find means of introducing into +the South appeals to revolt, and will multiply expeditions like that of +John Brown. + +But let us leave these generalities, and examine nearer by, from the +stand-point of emancipation, the four or five hypotheses which we have +signalled out most plainly, and between which seem to lie the chances of +the future. + +I shall examine first of all the one whose realization is evidently +pursued by the able men of the extreme South. The question is, after +having speedily gained over the North, thanks to Mr. Buchanan, to arrive +as quickly as possible at something which shall have the appearance and +authority of a fact accomplished. Audacity, and again audacity; upon +this point, the politic and the violent meet in unison to-day. It has +seceded, it has invaded the Federal property, it has trumped up a +government, it has given itself a President, it is about to have an +army, it is already attempting to represent itself officially at the +courts of the great powers. + +By the side of audacity, prudence has played its part. It has taken good +care not to unfurl its flag, it has made itself small, modest, moderate, +as much so, at least, as the passions of the mob would permit; it asked +nothing, in truth, but to live honestly in a corner of the globe. Who +speaks, then, of conquests? Who would wish to re-establish the African +slave trade on a large scale? Far from being retrogrades, the men of the +South are champions of progress; witness their programme of commercial +freedom! Are there no honest men to be found in the North, to restrain +Mr. Lincoln, and to prevent him from oppressing them? Are there no +governments in Europe that can interpose, and recommend the maintenance +of peace? Is not this peace, which prevents the insurrections of +negroes, and the destruction of cotton, for the interest of all? Why +should there not be two Confederacies, living side by side, as good +friends? + +It is evident that the able party tend to this, and that the violent +have allowed them to give, for the common interest, this subdued tone to +the insurrectionary movement. The able party know too well what a +prolonged war would be to desire it. They prepare for it in the hope, if +not to avoid it entirely, at least to prevent its duration, and to +obtain at once, in behalf of Southern secession, that species of +security which is conferred in our times by the deed accomplished. +Perhaps the United States, yielding to a sentiment which certainly has +something honourable in it, will allow the Confederacy of the Gulf +States to subsist, rather than crush it, which would be but too easy, by +bringing upon it a war which would be accompanied by slave +insurrections. Let us not be in haste to blame such a course; let us +remember that the whole world is prompting in this direction, that all +the counsels given to Mr. Lincoln, in the Old World as in the New, begin +invariably with the words: "Strive to avoid civil war;" let us remember +also that, to solve the American problem, much more time will be needed +than we imagine in Europe; let us endeavor to put ourselves in the place +of those who see things as they are, and who find themselves in a +struggle with the difficulties. + +Patience will doubtless have here its great inconveniencies; the +Confederacy of the cotton States, if combated without vigor, will seem +the living proof of the right of separation; it will be an asylum all +prepared, in which the discontented border States can take refuge at +need. Nevertheless the question is to tolerate this Confederacy, but by +no means to recognize the legitimacy of the act which gave it birth; the +question is to make use of a generous forbearance, to which new threats +of secession will necessarily put an end. Then, is it nothing to +manifest a spirit of peace fitted to touch the most prejudiced, to bind +the majority of the border States to the destinies of the Union, to give +evidence of the distinction which exists between them and the extreme +South, to force them, in fine, to declare themselves? If they surmount +the present temptation, (and they will never encounter a stronger one,) +if they consent to sacrifice their immediate interests, and to renounce +the traffic in slaves, which is in danger of ceasing from day to day in +case they do not join the "Confederate States;" is such a resolution +nothing? does it contain no guarantees for the future? We do not set +foot in the right path with impunity; honorable resolves always carry us +further, thank God! than we counted on going. Suppose even that the +border States which refuse to unite with the South design to impose on +the North certain vexatious conditions, they will be none the less +turned from their former alliances, they will have none the less begun +to move in a new direction. We should do wrong if we did not recognize +how honorable is the conduct of several among them; in watching over +their legislatures, in enacting that the vote of secession shall be +submitted to the ratification of the whole people, certain frontier +States seem to have already shown themselves resolved to foil the +intrigues at Charleston. + +The cause of emancipation takes, therefore, a very important step in +advance, in the hypothesis of a Southern Confederacy reduced, or nearly +so, to the Gulf States alone. Limited secession is perhaps of all +combinations, the one most favorable to the suppression of slavery. +Picture to yourself, in fact, what this Southern Confederacy will he. It +will be an impossible, short-lived republic, the separation of which +will one day cease, and which, meanwhile, will be incapable of realizing +any of its favorite projects. From the first hour, the extreme South +found itself brought to face a dilemma: either to draw in all the slave +States, and then to await the moment favorable to the execution of its +grandiloquent plans, to hasten towards its destiny, its ideal, to +conquer territories, to people them with negroes, and to perish through +the accomplishment of an impious work; or, to remain alone and undertake +nothing, and still perish, but this time through impotence to exist. +What is to be done when there is only the miserable Confederacy of some +thousand whites, the owners and keepers of some hundred thousand blacks? +Make conquests? They dare not. Open the slave trade? It would draw down +destruction upon them. + +Now, mark that, in the bosom of a Confederacy morally isolated from the +entire world, receiving aid neither from immigrants nor capital, +deprived, in a large part at least, of the fresh supply of negroes which +it formerly drew from the North, unable even to incur the risk of +imitating Spain, which buys _free_ negroes from the slave-hunters of the +African continent, not in a condition to stop the escapes which will +take place on all her frontiers, the question of slavery will proceed +necessarily towards its solution. The extreme South, strange to say, +will find itself placed providentially as an obstacle between the United +States and the countries of which it lately meditated the acquisition. +The United States will have the advantage of being unable even to think +of Cuba, or Central America, or Mexico; they will be delivered for a +time from these baleful temptations, and from the States in which they +met the warmest support. And, during this time, the extreme South will +be forced, in some sort, to look at the problem of slavery under an +aspect before unknown to it. + +Later will come the shock, the postponed but inevitable conflict. +Blockaded at the South, blockaded at the North, blockaded on the African +side, undermined and torn by its intestine divisions, the extreme South +will have to face, at one time or another, the irresistible power of the +United States. Does any one imagine by chance that the latter will +forever relinquish New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico? The more they +become elevated and strengthened, the more they will be led, say rather, +forced, to absorb again the portions of their former domain which have +attempted to exist without them. + +From this time, the discussion relative to slavery will assume in the +United States a simple and decided bearing. The extreme South, in +quitting them, will have given them every facility; it will have endowed +them with political homogeneousness and liberal majorities. By the mere +effect of the departure of the senators and representatives of the +extreme South, the party opposed to slavery will have acquired, at the +outset, the numerical majority which it lacked in Congress; it will be +in a position to ensure the passage of its bills, to form its +administration, to constitute by degrees courts in every respect +favorable to its principles. Next, the border States who shall not have +followed the fortunes of the extreme South will find themselves bound to +those of the North, associated with its interests, open to its ideas; +and it is a fixed fact that several will not be long in completing the +work of liberty already begun among them, and thus becoming, with their +rich and extensive Territories, of the number of those fortunate States +in which the suppression of slavery gives the signal for the fruitful +invasion of immigrants, for agricultural progress, for wealth, and for +credit. In this manner the "patriarchal institution" will disappear +peaceably from the intermediate region, while it will be threatened by +more terrible shocks in the tropical region. + +This is a chance which is common to limited and to total secession, but +which is still more unavoidable in the last. Face to face with the +miserable Confederacy of the extreme South, the United States can afford +to be patient; face to face with the Confederacy comprising all the +slave States, (or, which means the same, face to face with two distinct +Confederacies, comprising, the one the cotton States, the other the +border States, yet united against the North through an old instinct of +complicity,) the attitude of the United States, as every one foresees, +will inevitably be more hostile. Total secession itself can be born only +from a sentiment of declared hostility; it amounts to a declaration of +war. Suppose that Mr. Lincoln rejects the advice of those of his cabinet +who would incline to accept the fact of separation; suppose that, while +treating the South with gentleness, and striving to spare it the horrors +of an armed strife, he persists in protecting the rights of the +Confederation, and securing to it, by a maritime blockade, the +collection of taxes; suppose that the blockade is organized from South +Carolina to the Rio Grande, supported by Forts Pickens, Jefferson, and +Taylor, which will have been revictualled at all costs after the forced +evacuation of Fort Sumter; suppose that, in this manner, watch is kept +over the ports of Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans, may it +not happen that the insurrectional government at Montgomery will decide +to effect a march on Washington? Is it not probable that North Carolina, +Virginia, and Maryland will allow themselves to be crossed without +saying a word? More than this, are we not justified in believing that +these States, and with them a considerable number of the central ones, +rallied around their ancient banner by the very approach of peril, will +make common cause with the slave Confederacy? In such a case, how avert +the chances of a direful conflict? Will the United States carry patience +with respect to the aggressors, the fear of giving a signal of ruin, +deference to the counsels lavished on them perhaps, so far as to refuse +to return a violent attack, and to consent to the ravishment of their +capital? It is hard to believe. If the South make the attack, the war +will break out, and the border States will be exposed to the first blow. + +But admit that they succeed in preventing an immediate explosion, the +mere fact of a total secession, and of the formation of two +Confederacies, almost equal, (in appearance at least,) will permit no +one to count on the prolonged preservation of peace. What repulsion, +what grievances will be found in all relations, in all questions! And +from a grievance to war, from war to negro insurrections, what will be +the distance, I ask? The South will be then an immense powder magazine, +to which the first spark will set fire. And the South will not lose its +habits of arrogance, it will be quarrelsome as always. Has it not +already announced in its journals that, on the first encouragement +given to its fugitive slaves, it will draw the sword? Now, such +encouragement certainly will not be wanting. The South does not know at +the present time how much the North, of which it complains, contributes +to prevent the escapes which it fears. The Federal Government is at hand +to oppose them, in some measure at least. When the preventive obstacle +shall have disappeared, the South will see with what rapidity its +slavery will glide away on every point of its frontier; it will see its +_happy_ negroes ready to brave a thousand perils rather than remain +under its law. Alas! it will see many other proofs of their devotion to +servitude. I do not like to bring bloody images, at which I shudder, too +often before the eyes of the reader; it must be said, notwithstanding, +while it is yet time, that the general Confederacy of the South, +intoxicated with its projects, resolved to increase its possessions, +forced to demand from the African slave trade the means of repeopling +its States, depopulated by escape, and to install slavery into new +territories, will draw upon it, not only the wrath of the United States, +but the indignation of the entire world. And what misery, what ruin will +ensue from the first conflict! + +I like better to fix my thoughts on the third hypothesis--that of a +return to the now broken Union. Taught by experience, recognizing how +little weight it has in the world since its separation from the United +States, poor, weak, divided, comprehending the impossibility of +realizing its true plans without exposing itself to calamities, losing +its resources, one after another, even to the cultivation of cotton, +which also demands credit and security, incapable of preventing the +flight of its slaves, and not daring to brave that great power of public +opinion which will interdict it the African trade, the Southern +Confederacy, exhausted and dismayed, will perhaps one day prefer +returning to the bosom of the Union, to plunging into the extremity of +misfortune. In this case, again, the question of affranchisement will +have made vast strides. The United States will have taken a decided +position in the absence of the South, which its return cannot destroy; +convictions will be fixed, the final impulse will have been given, and +to this impulse, the South, come to repentance, will know that nothing +is left it but to submit. + +Finally comes a last hypothesis, which I mention because it is necessary +to foresee every possibility. Under the combined influence of the border +States and the States of the North, equally desirous of maintaining the +Union, the attempts of the extreme South will have failed, its secession +will have lasted only a few months, and a compromise will have served to +cover its retreat. But what compromise could compensate for a fact so +important as the election of Mr. Lincoln? It has a deep significance +which no compromise will remove; it signifies that the conquests of +slavery are ended. This proven, the future is easy to foresee: +increasing majorities in the North, increasing disproportion of the two +parts of the Confederation. At the end of the four years of a Lincoln +administration, the slave States will have lost all hope of struggling, +with their eight thousand whites charged with keeping four millions of +blacks, against the twenty millions of citizens that inhabit the free +States. Let us add that, the future once fixed and the question of +preponderance once resolved, many passions will moderate by degrees. The +number of free States will increase, not only by the settling of new +territories, but also by the affranchisement of the thinly scattered +slaves, becoming continually more thinly scattered, of Maryland, of +Delaware, or of Missouri. We can even now describe this affranchisement, +so well is the _American method_ known. It consists, as every one knows, +in emancipating the children that are to be born. This is the method +which has been uniformly applied in the Northern States, and which will +be doubtless applied some day in the border States, provided, however, +civil war does not come to accomplish a very different emancipation +--emancipation by the rising of the slaves. There will be nothing +of this, I hope; pacific progress will have its way. We shall +then see these intermediate States, one after the other, regaining life +in the same time as liberty: they will become transformed as if touched +by the wand of a fairy. + +Such are the future prospects which offer themselves to us. If we +remember, besides, the movement which is beginning to be wrought in the +religious societies and the churches--a movement which cannot fail to be +soon complete, we shall know on what to rely concerning the fate which +awaits a social iniquity against which are at once conspiring the +follies of its friends; and the indignation of its foes. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +COEXISTENCE OF THE TWO RACES AFTER EMANCIPATION. + + +Something more difficult to foresee than the suppression, henceforth +certain, of slavery, is the consequence of this suppression. The problem +of the coexistence of the two races rests at the present hour with a +crushing weight on the thoughts of all; it mingles poignant doubts with +the hopes of some, it exasperates the resistance of others. Is it true +that emancipation would be the signal of a struggle for extermination? +Is there not room upon American soil for free blacks by the side of free +whites? I do not conceal from myself that there is here an accredited +prejudice, an admitted opinion which, perhaps more than any thing else, +trammels the progress of the United States. Let us attempt to estimate +it. + +M. de Tocqueville, who has judged America with so sure an eye, has been, +notwithstanding, mistaken upon some points; his warmest admirers must +admit it. Writing at an epoch when the great results of English +emancipation had not yet been produced, he was led to frame that +formidable judgment of which so much advantage has been taken: +"Hitherto, wherever the whites have been the more powerful, they have +held the negroes in degradation and slavery; wherever the negroes have +been the more powerful, they have destroyed the whites. This is the only +account which can ever be opened between the two races." + +Another account is opened, thank God, and no one will rejoice at it more +sincerely than M. de Tocqueville--he who is so generous, and whose +abolition sentiments are certainly no mystery to any of his colleagues +of the Chamber. But his opinion remains in his book, and every one +repeats after him, that the blacks and the whites cannot live together +on the same soil, unless the latter be subject to the former. + +I repeat, that at the time at which he wrote, he had reason, or at least +known facts gave him reason, to say this; the liberty of the blacks had +then but one name--St. Domingo. To-day, the victories of Christian +emancipation have come, to contrast with the catastrophes provoked by +impenitent despotism. + +The English Colonies bear a striking analogy to the Southern States of +the Union. The blacks there are numerous, more numerous even in +proportion to the whites than in the Carolinas or Florida. The climate +is even more scorching, and the cultures demand still more imperiously +the labor of the blacks. As to the prejudices of the masters, I dare +affirm that the planters of the Continent and those of the Antilles have +not long had any thing with which to reproach each other. +Notwithstanding, what has happened in the Antilles? Not only has liberty +been proclaimed--this was the act of the metropolis--but the coexistence +of races has subsisted. It is to this point that I claim attention. +They, the whites and the blacks, alike free, invested with the same +privileges, exercising the same rights, encountering each other in the +ranks of the militia, in the magistracy, and even in the seats of the +colonial assemblies, admirably accept this life in common. And the +whites there, observe, are Anglo-Saxons; that is, they belong to that +race which is declared incapable of enduring free blacks in its +neighborhood. + +It is necessary to appeal sometimes from those axioms so boldly laid +down, which serve us to make inflexible laws for that which must be +subject in an infinite measure to the mobility of circumstances and +influences. The influence of the Gospel, especially, is a fact, the +scope of which is never sufficiently measured. It has created in the +Antilles a negro population which maintains its equality face to face +with the whites, yet which does not entirely reject their patronage; a +dependent population which is also a free population, free in the most +absolute sense of the word. The blacks of the Antilles labor on the +plantations, and secure the success of large plantations; but, at the +same time, they themselves become landholders, forming by degrees one of +the happiest and most remarkable classes of peasants that ever existed. +Their little fields, their pretty villages, manifest real prosperity; +and there is something among them that is worth more than prosperity, +there is moral progress, the development of intellect, and the elevation +of souls. + +It will be demanded of us if, in the midst of so much progress, the +production of sugar has not suffered. I answer that, on the contrary, it +has increased. It had been predicted that emancipation would be a +death-blow to the British colonies. I suspect that many people are even +yet persuaded of it; now, in spite of the faults committed by the +planters, who have neglected nothing to disgust the negroes with labor +and to drive them from their old mills, they are found to return to +them, contenting themselves with wages that scarcely rise above an +average of a shilling a day. If we compare the two last censuses of +liberty with the two last years of slavery, we shall discover that the +total production of sugar has increased in the colonies in which +emancipation was effected in 1834. And they have not only had to endure +this crisis of emancipation, but also another crisis still more +formidable, that of the sudden introduction of free trade in 1834. The +colonial sugars, exposed to competition with the sugar produced at +Havana and elsewhere by slave labor, experienced a prodigious decline. +There was cause to believe that the production was about to be +destroyed; it has risen again, notwithstanding, and the English +Antilles, with their free negroes and their unprotected sugar, forced to +face entire liberty in all its forms, import to-day into the metropolis +nearly a million more hogsheads than at the moment when the crisis of +free trade broke forth. + +Liberty works miracles. We always distrust her, and she replies to our +suspicions by benefits. The English Antilles, which, during the last +thirty years, have had to surmount, besides the two crises of +emancipation and free trade, the earthquake of 1840 and six consecutive +years of drought; the English Antilles, which have had to liquidate +their old debts, and to repair the ruin accruing from the failure of the +bank of Jamaica, are now in an attitude which proves that they have no +fears for the future and scarcely regret the past. + +Under slavery, the Antilles were hastening to their ruin; with liberty, +they have become one of the richest channels of exportation which +England possesses; under slavery, they could not have supported the +shock of free trade; with liberty, they have gained this new battle: +such are the net proceeds of experience. If we still have doubts, let us +compare Dutch Guiana, which holds slaves, to English Guiana, which has +emancipated them. The resources of these two countries are almost equal; +English Guiana is progressing, while the cultures of Surinam are +forsaken; three-fourths of its plantations are already abandoned, and +the rest will follow. + +But the question of profits and losses is not the only one here, I +think, and after having computed the proceeds of sugar, after having +shown that in this respect English emancipation is in rule, it is +allowable to mention also another kind of result. Look at these pretty +cottages, this neat and almost elegant furniture, these gardens, this +general air of comfort and civilization; question these blacks, whose +physical appearance has become modified already under the influence of +liberty, these blacks, who decreased rapidly in numbers during the epoch +of slavery, and who have begun to increase, on the contrary, since their +affranchisement; they will tell us that they are happy. Some have become +landowners, and labor on their own account, (this is not a crime, I +imagine;) others unite to strengthen large plantations, or perhaps to +carry to the works of rich planters the canes gathered by them on their +own grounds; some are merchants, many hire themselves out as farmers. +Whatever may be the faults of some individuals, the ensemble of free +negroes has merited the testimony rendered in 1857 by the Governor of +Tobago: "I deny that our blacks of the country are of indolent habits. +So industrious a class of inhabitants does not exist in the world." + +An admirable spectacle, and one which the history of mankind presents to +us too rarely, is that of a degraded population elevating itself more +and more, and placing itself on a level with those who before despised +it. Concubinage, so general in times of servitude as to give rise to +the famous axiom, "Negroes abhor marriage," is now replaced by regular +unions. In becoming free, the negroes have learned to respect +themselves: the unanimous reports of the governors mark the progress of +their habits of sobriety. Crimes have greatly diminished among them. +They are polite and well brought up, falling even into the excess of +exaggerated courtesy. They respect the aged: if an old man passes +through the streets, the children rise and cease their play. + +These children are assiduously sent to schools, the support of which +depends, in a great part, upon the voluntary gifts of the negroes. +Grateful to the Gospel which has set them free, the former slaves have +become passionately attached to their pastors; their first resources are +consecrated to churches, to schools, and sometimes, also, to distant +missions, to the evangelization of that Africa which they remember to do +it good. We should be at once surprised and humiliated, were we to +compare the much-vaunted gifts of our charity with those of these poor +people, these freed men of yesterday, whom we think that we may +rightfully treat with disdain. + +Thanks to the Gospel, and it is to this that I return, the problem of +the coexistence of races is resolved in the most pacific manner in the +Antilles. Among freemen, however little these freemen may be +Christianized, specific inequalities become speedily effaced, and the +prejudice of skin is not found to be ultimately as insurmountable as we +have been told. In these English colonies, which are true republics, +governing themselves, and which also remind us, through this feature, of +the Southern States, the blacks have come to be accepted as +fellow-citizens. They practise the liberal professions; they are +electors and often elected, for they form of themselves alone one-fifth +of the Colonial Assembly at Jamaica; they are officers of the police and +the militia, and their authority never fails to be recognized by all. I +named Jamaica just now. Some may seek to bring it as an argument against +me. The fact is, that this great island has seemed to form an exception +to the general prosperity; considerable fortunes have been sunk there, +and the transformation has been slower and more painful there than +elsewhere. But, when they arm themselves with these circumstances, they +forget two things: first, that the causes of the malady were anterior to +emancipation; next, that the cure has come from emancipation itself. +Before emancipation, Jamaica was insolvent, her plantations were +mortgaged beyond their value, and its planting was threatened in other +ways far more than now. Do you know what has since happened? +Difficulties which appeared insoluble have been resolved; to-day, the +cape is doubled, and men navigate in peace. At the present time, Jamaica +comprises two or three hundred villages, inhabited by free negroes; the +latter are willing to work; for, according to the latest information, +(February, 1861,) the price of daily labor decreases instead of rising. +Among these free negroes, there are not less than ten thousand +landholders, and three-eighths of the cultivated soil is in their hands. +They have established sugar-mills everywhere, imperfect, rude, yet +working in a passable manner; and mills of this sort are numbered by +thousands. The middle class of color thus grows richer day by day; the +families that compose it all own a horse or a mule; they have their +bank-books and their accounts with the savings banks. Lastly, which is +of more value than all else, the free negroes of Jamaica have built more +than two hundred chapels, and as many schools. At the very moment when I +write these lines, an enthusiastic religious movement is prevailing +among them; the rum-shops are abandoned, the most degraded classes +enter in their turn the path of reformation. + +I should have been glad to cite our own colonies instead of confining +myself to the English islands. I have been prevented from this, not only +by the memory of the conflagrations of 1859 at Martinique, and of the +state of siege which it became necessary to proclaim there, but, above +all, by the circumstance that the liberty of our former slaves has been +too often restrained by means of the vagabond regulations, that labor +has continued to be imposed on them to a certain point; that the +parcelling out of property has been trammelled by fiscal measures; that, +moreover, it is less the labor of our former slaves than of the Coolies +and others employed, which has secured the success of our experiment; +whence it follows that this success is far from being as conclusive as +that which has been obtained elsewhere under the system of full liberty. +Nevertheless, our success, which is no less real, signifies something +also. If we have not yet those little free villages, that class of small +negro landholders of which I just spoke, we have, like the English, free +negroes in our militia and in our marine; like them, we have had our +elections, and all classes of the population have taken part in them; +like them, and perhaps in a greater degree, we have increased our sugar +production since emancipation. It is true that the crisis of free trade +has not yet passed among us, and that we cannot know how this would be +supported by our colonial sugars. But it will not be long before we +shall be informed on this point: by an act which we cannot but applaud, +and which continues the work it has undertaken, the French government +has just suppressed the protection continued hitherto to our planters. +If, ere long, as it is justifiable to hope, they are delivered from the +charges of the colonial system, whose advantages they have lost, we +shall see them struggle, and successfully, I am convinced, against the +Spanish sugars produced by slave labor. + +It will be, perhaps, maintained, that the antipathy of race is stronger +in the United States than elsewhere, and that the Americans, in this +respect, are inferior to the English. I am as conscious as any one else +of those infamous proceedings towards free negroes which are the crime +of the North, a crime no less odious than that of the South. What +conscience is not aroused at the thought of those prejudices of skin +which do not permit blacks to sit by the side of whites, in schools, +churches, or public vehicles? Only the other day, nothing less than a +denunciation in open parliament was needed to begin the destruction, by +a public rebuke, of the classification which is being made on the +English steamers themselves between Liverpool and New York. There are +some new States which purely and simply exclude free negroes from their +Territory; those which do not exclude them from the Territory, repulse +them from the ballot-box. The injustice, in fine, is as gross, as +crying, as it is possible to imagine. + +Must we conclude from this that the coexistence of races, possible +elsewhere, is impossible in the United States? I distrust those sweeping +assertions which resolve problems at one stroke; I refuse, above all, to +admit so easily that iniquity must be maintained for the sole reason +that it exists, and that it suffices to say: "I am thus made; what would +you have? I cannot change myself," to abstract one's self from the +accomplishment of the most elementary duty. To endure negroes at one's +side, to respect their independence, to abstain from wrongs towards +them, to consent to the full exercise of their rights, is an elementary +duty; Christian duty, I need not say, demands something better. + +Does this mean that we are to set ourselves up as judges, and brand as +wretches all those who thus mistake the laws of charity and justice? I +fear much that, in their place, we would do precisely as they. Living in +the South, we would have slaves, and would defend slavery to the last; +living in the North, we would tread under foot the free colored class. +Is there then neither the true, nor the false, nor justice, nor +injustice? God forbid! The just and the true remain; iniquity should be +condemned without pity; but we are bound to be more indulgent towards +men than, towards things. We are bound to remember that the influence of +surroundings is enormous, and that, if crimes are always without excuse, +there are many excusable criminals. When we examine men by the prejudice +of skin, such as prevails in the United States, we are not long in +discovering that it rests in great part on a misunderstanding: men +mistake coexistence for amalgamation. I do not fear to affirm that the +second would be as undesirable as the first would be desirable. Why +dream of blending or of assimilating the two races? Why pursue as an +ideal frequent marriages between them, and the formation of a third +race: that of mulattoes? America does right to resist such ideas, and to +inscribe her testimony against such a future, evidently very little in +conformity with the designs of God. + +But coexistence by no means draws amalgamation in its train. On this +point, also, experience has spoken. In the English colonies, the liberty +of the blacks is entire, the legal equality of the two races is not +contested, public manners have shaped themselves to that mutual +consideration without which they could not live together; yet neither +amalgamation nor assimilation is in question, and the aristocracy of +skin remains what it should be, a lasting distinction, accepted on both +sides, between races which are not designed to mingle together. I do not +know that many marriages are contracted between the whites and the +negresses of Jamaica, and I believe that the class of mulattoes +increases much more rapidly under slavery than with liberty. Look in +this respect at what takes place even now in the United States: as +quadroons sell better than blacks, mixtures, of white or almost white +slaves abound there, and the unhappy women who refuse to lend themselves +to certain combinations are often whipped in punishment. + +With liberty, each race can at least remain by itself; with it, there +can be coexistence without amalgamation; both mingling and hostility can +be prevented. This is the more easy, inasmuch as the negroes, with the +gentleness of their race, willingly accept the second place, and by no +means demand what we insist on refusing them. Let their liberty be +complete, let legal equality and friendly relations be maintained, and +they will ask no more. + +But they will ask no less, and they are right. I do not understand, in +truth, why so harmless a co-existence should be so long repulsed by the +enlightened people of the United States. There are negroes in Spanish +America who have reached the highest grades of the army, and who show as +much intelligence, decorum, and dignity in command as white men could +do. I myself have seen at Paris, a clergyman of ebony blackness, who was +really the most distinguished, unexceptionable man that it was possible +to meet; he was a remarkable scholar, and had received the title of +doctor from several European universities. + +In fact, the negroes are our fellows and our equals much more than we +imagine; they adapt themselves better than the Indians to our +civilization. They seek to be instructed, and not only do the free +blacks of the English islands hasten, as we have seen, to provide +themselves with teachers, but even those of the United States, crushed +as they are by contemptuous treatment, neglect no means of introducing +their children into the schools, where is found one-ninth of their +total number. In Liberia, they have shown themselves hitherto very +capable of ruling. In Hayti, since their deliverance from the ridiculous +and odious yoke of Soulouque, they have advanced rapidly, it is +affirmed, in the way of true progress; legal marriages increase, popular +instruction is becoming established, religious liberty is respected. +Lastly, in the negro colony of Buxton, in Canada, the fugitive slaves +have become industrious landholders, and are respected by all. + +Let us not say that prejudice of skin is indestructible; the suppression +of slavery may modify it profoundly. What degrades the free negro +to-day, is the existence of the negro slave. To be respectable, we all +need to be respected. The poor, free negro is ashamed of himself; he +dares not aspire to any thing noble and great; he preserves, besides, as +the legacy of slavery, the idea that labor is dishonoring, that idleness +is a sign of independence. This is enough to make him remain a stranger +to honorable occupations, and confine himself to the practice of vile +trades. When slavery shall have disappeared, the situation of the free +blacks will become quite different: they will be numerous; they will +have an appreciable share in the regulation of national affairs; their +vote will count, and, thenceforth, we may be tranquil, no one will be +afraid to treat them with respect, and perhaps to pay court to them. + +The law of New York, as well as the Supreme Court of that State, has +already admitted that color exercises no influence over the rights of +citizens. The time draws near when the North will no longer contest the +intervention of free negroes at the ballot-box. This will be a great +step in advance. Let us remark, moreover, that, after general +emancipation, the black population, while exercising its share of +influence, will never be able, through the number of suffrages at its +disposal, to alarm the jealous susceptibility of the whites; the latter, +in fact, will be continually recruited by European immigration, and the +day will come when the few negroes of the United States will be scarcely +perceptible in the heart of a gigantic nation. + +The honor of the North is at stake; it belongs to it to give an example +at this time, and to show, by the reform of its own habits, that it has +the right to combat the crime of the South. It must set to work +seriously, resolutely, to resolve the problem of the coexistence of +races, while the South resolves, willing or unwilling, the problem of +emancipation. Liberty in the South, equality in the North; the one is +no less necessary than the other; it may even be said that one great +obstacle to the idea of emancipation is this other idea that blacks and +whites cannot live together, but that one must some day exterminate the +other. + +Why suffer the establishment of this lying axiom which checks all +progress? Why not cast our eyes on the neighboring colonies where the +prejudice of color reigned supremely before emancipation, and where it +has since become rapidly effaced. The United States have a lofty end to +attain; let them beware how they take too low an aim! They will not have +more than they need, with the efforts of all, the charity of all, the +sacrifices of all, the earnest endeavors by which all can elevate +themselves above vulgar prejudices, to accomplish a task at once the +most difficult and most glorious that has ever been proposed to a great +people. + +The North, I repeat, is bound to give a noble example by obtaining a +shining victory over itself. Let it say to itself that coexistence is +not amalgamation; the question is not to marry negroes, but to treat +them with justice. The fear of amalgamation once vanished, many things +will change in appearance. Why, in fact, is the prejudice of race +stronger in the free States than in the slave States? Because the latter +know that slavery is a sufficient line of demarcation, and because they +have not to dread amalgamation. Now, this is and will be nowhere to be +dreaded; the instinct of both races will prevent such mingling, and the +blacks are as anxious to remain separate from the whites as the whites +are to avoid alliance with the blacks. As I have said, nothing but +slavery, and the perverse habits that it engenders, could have succeeded +in some sort in breaking down this barrier. If the class of mullattoes +thus formed rule in some republics of South America, it proceeds from +the absence of a numerous and powerful white race, like that which is +covering the United States with its continually increasing population. + +Decidedly, fears of amalgamation are puerile in such a country; and +decidedly also, any other solution than the coexistence of races would +be wrong. Doubtless, a natural concentration of the emancipated negroes +will be some day effected; they will flock to those States where their +relative number will ensure to them the most influence. Perhaps we may +even obtain a glimpse of the time when, by the result of a providential +compensation, the countries which have been the witnesses of their +sufferings, and which they have watered with their tears, these +countries where they, better than any others, can devote themselves to +labor, will belong to them in great part. Are the Antilles and the +regions of the Gulf of Mexico destined to become the refuge and almost +the empire of Africans torn from their own continent? It is possible, +but not certain. In any case, this geographical repartition of the races +would be wrought peaceably; the effort to effect it by violent measures +would justly arouse the conscience of the human race. So long as we talk +of transporting the blacks to Africa, to St. Domingo, or elsewhere, so +long as the peaceable coexistence of the races be not accepted, the +barbarous proceedings which dishonor America will not cease, the +Northern States will maltreat their free negroes, and the South will +cling to slavery as to the only means of preventing a struggle for +extermination. + +At the North as well as the South, men need to accustom themselves in +fine to the idea of coexistence. Yes, there will be whites and free +blacks in various parts of the Union; yes, it is certain that in some +parts, the black population will be possessed of influence; it may even +happen that, in one or two points of the extreme South, it will come to +rule. If this hypothesis, improbable in my opinion, should ever be +realized, it would not be a cause of shame, but of glory, to the Union. +It is said that the great Indian tribes of the Southwest think of +forming a State, which will demand admission into the Union, and which +has a chance to obtain it. Why should there not be, at need, a negro +State by the side of an Indian State? This reparation would be fully due +to the oppressed race, and America would be honored in treading her +repugnance under foot, and in showing to the whole world that her so +much vaunted liberty is not a vain word. + +She would show, at the same time, that her Christian faith is not a vain +formality. If the desire of avoiding amalgamation has legitimate +grounds, the antipathy of race is simply abominable. Words cannot be +found severe enough to censure the conduct of those _Christians_ who, +pursuing with their indignation the slavery of the South, refuse to +fulfil the simplest duties of kindness, or even of common equity, +towards the free negroes of the North. + +But I hope that the Gospel, accustomed to work miracles, will also work +this. Let us be just; we have already seen the pious ladies of +Philadelphia lavishing their cares on black and white without +distinction at the time of the cholera invasion. They washed and +dressed with their own hands, in the hospital which they had founded, +the children rendered orphans by the scourge, without taking account of +the differences of color. This is a sign of progress, and I could cite +several others; I could name cities, Chicago, for instance, where the +schools are opened by law to the blacks as well as the whites. There is +a power in the United States which will overthrow the obstacle of the +North as well as that of the South, which will abolish both slavery and +prejudice of skin. + +This power has shown in the Antilles what it can do. There, pastors and +missionaries, schools, works of charity pursued in common, have placed +on a level the blacks and the whites, devoted to the same cause, and +ransomed by the same Saviour. In the United States; likewise, the +Christian faith will raise up the one, and will teach the others to +humble themselves; it will destroy the vices of the negro, and will +break the detestable pride of the Anglo-Saxon. The real influence of +faith on both--this is the true solution, this is the true bond of the +races. Through this, will be established relations of mutual love and +respect. What a mission is reserved for the churches of the United +States! Checked hitherto by enormous difficulties, which it would be +unjust not to take into account, they have not acted the part in the +recent struggle against slavery which reverted to them of right. They +have done a great deal, whatever may be said; they are disposed to do +still more, and their attitude has improved visibly within a year. But +this cannot suffice; there are two problems to resolve instead of one; +the question is now, to approach both face to face. True equality is +founded, under the eye of God, through the community of hopes and of +repentance, through close association in worship, in prayer, in action; +and this equality has nothing in common with the jealous spirit of +levelling which suffers old grievances to subsist, and continually +invents new; it is peaceable, forgetful of evil, confiding, truly +fraternal. I do not dream, of course, of the universal conversion of the +population of the United States, both black and white; I know only that +the Gospel, though it deeply penetrates comparatively few hearts, +extends its influence much further, and acts on those that it has not +won. Let the Christians of America set to work, let them reject, for it +is time, the scandals still presented here and there by their apologists +for slavery, let them forbear to spare that which is culpable, to call +good evil, or evil good, and they will render to their country a +service which they alone can render it, and to which nothing on earth +can be compared. + +The United States do not know how great will be the transformation of +their internal condition, and the increase of their good renown abroad, +when their churches, their schools, their public vehicles, their +ballot-boxes, shall be widely accessible to persons of color, when +equality and liberty shall have become realities on their soil; they do +not know how great will be their peace and their prosperity. Let the two +inseparable problems of slavery and the coexistence of races be resolved +among them under the ruling influence of the Gospel, and they will +witness the birth of a future far better than the past. No more fears, +no more rivalries, no more separations in perspective, their conquests +will become accomplished of themselves; and, no longer destined to swell +the domain of servitude, they will win the applause of the entire world. + +And all this will not be purchased, as men seem to believe, by the +sacrifice of the cotton culture. At the present time, this culture +incurs but one serious risk: the momentary triumph of a party that +dreams of a slavery propaganda; it will be saved alone by the progress +of liberty. On the day when emancipation shall be achieved, if wrought +by the action of moral agents and social necessities, instead of by that +of civil wars and insurrections, the cultivation of cotton in the +Southern States will receive the impetus to a magnificent development. +The emancipated negroes make large quantities of sugar in the Antilles; +why should they not make cotton on firm ground? If affranchisement +produced the destruction of planting in St. Domingo, we know now the +reason. It is a proved fact that negroes who do not owe their liberty to +insurrection, remain disposed to devote themselves to labor in the +fields. + +With slavery, observe, disappear, one after the other, the obstacles in +the way of agricultural progress. The capital which no one dares risk +to-day in the Southern States, will flow into them emulously as soon as +slavery shall be abolished; I say more: as soon as its progressive +abolition shall be no longer doubtful in the sight of all. European +immigration, the current of which turns aside with so much +circumspection, avoiding a territory accursed and given over to +calamities, will flock towards those countries more beautiful, more +fertile, and broader than those of the Far West. Machinery will come, to +more than fill up the void caused by the passing diminution of the +number of laborers. The slaves can be intrusted with none but the +simplest implements: every one knows that the plough, introduced +originally into our French colonies, disappeared to make room for the +hoe as soon as Colbert had authorized the slave trade. Ploughs have +reappeared there since emancipation. Their agricultural and industrial +progress date from the same epoch: to-day, our colonists understand the +use of manures, and make improvements in manufacture. A new era is +dawning, in fine; what will it be in the United States, among that +people which seems destined to surpass all others in the application of +mechanics to agriculture? + +Still, I have made one concession too much in admitting the diminution +of the number of laborers. Supposing that a few negroes quit the field, +many whites will come to take their place. White labor is fully possible +in the majority of the slave States, and immigrants from Europe will not +hesitate to engage in it. Wherever slavery reigns, it is that, and not +the climate, that must be arraigned if the whites fold their hands; +labor has become there a servile act--it is blighted, as it were, in its +essence. A competent writer said the other day: "If Algeria had been +subjected to the sway of slavery, cultivation there would have been +reputed impracticable for the French, and examples of mortality would +not have been wanting." The whites have labored in the Antilles; the +whites can labor, not only in all the slave States of the intermediate +region, but in Louisiana. Cotton is already produced in Texas, thanks to +its German settlers. The question is only, to go on in this way. Slavery +once abolished, the small proprietors, who at present carry all the +criminal extravagancies of the South further than any others, will be +compelled to set their hands to work. This will be an advantage both to +the country and themselves. Who will not pray for the coming of the time +when so considerable a part of the population will cease to possess +slaves which it is incapable of feeding, when it will be transformed +into the middle class, and thus escape the real servitude which +embitters it? + +Moreover, let us not forget new cultures, that of the vine among others, +which are fitted to become introduced into these new countries, or to +develop there, and which lack nothing but liberty in order to flourish. +The arts and manufactures also have their place; independently of the +tillers of the soil, properly called, the Southern States will have need +of workmen in manufactories, and of managers of agricultural machines; +large plantations will often, become divided, as has happened in the +Antilles, and we shall witness the appearance of the small estate, that +essential basis of social order. There will be employment for all, and +the rich Southern cultures will be less neglected than before. + +Whoever has descended the Ohio has involuntarily compared its two banks: +here, the State of Ohio, whose prosperity advances with rapid strides; +there, the State of Kentucky, no less favored by Nature, yet which +languishes as if abandoned. Why? Because slavery blights all that it +touches. Could not the whites of Kentucky and Virginia labor as well as +those of Ohio? The comparative poverty of these slave States reminds me +of the destitution of our colonies and those of England before +emancipation: mortgaged estates, plantations burdened with expenses, the +complete destruction of credit--such was their position. We must read +American statistics to form an idea of the truly unheard-of extent of +this fact--impoverishment by slavery. With a larger extent and much +richer lands, the slave States possess neither agricultural growth, nor +industrial growth, nor advance of population, which can be compared far +or near with that which is found in the free States. A book by Mr. +Hinton Rowan Helper, _The Impending Crisis of the South_, expresses +these differences in figures so significant that it is impossible to +contest them. + +The Southern States, therefore, are certain to increase their cultures, +and to found their lasting prosperity by entering the path that leads to +emancipation. But if they take the contrary road, they will hasten to +their destruction, and with strange rapidity. Already, their violent +acts of secession, and the monstrous plans which are necessarily +attached to them, have had the first effect, easily foreseen, of dealing +a most dangerous blow to American cotton. In a few weeks, they have done +themselves more harm than the North, supposing its hostility as great as +it is little, could have done them in twenty years. The meeting of +Manchester has replied to the manifestoes of Charleston; England has +said to herself, that, from men so determined to destroy themselves, she +should count on nothing; and, having taken her resolution, she will +proceed with it speedily; let the Southern States take care. English +India can produce as much cotton as America; before long, if the +Carolinians persist, they will have obtained the glorious result of +despoiling their country of its chief resource; they will have killed +the hen that laid the golden eggs. The matter is serious; I ask them to +reflect on it. As England, under pain of falling into want and riots, +cannot dispense with cotton for a single day, she will act +energetically. Cotton grows marvellously in many countries; in the +Antilles, where it has been produced already; in Algeria, where the +plantations are about to be increased; on the whole continent of Africa, +in fine, where it enters perhaps into the plans of God thus to make a +breach in indigenous slavery by the faults committed by slaveholders in +America. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE PRESENT CRISIS WILL REGENERATE THE INSTITUTIONS +OF THE UNITED STATES. + + +It remains for me to inquire what influence the present crisis may exert +on the institutions of the United States. It is at the expense of these +institutions that the slave States, inferior in strength, in numbers, in +progress of every kind, would reestablish their fatal and growing +preponderance. Here again, therefore, my thesis subsists: the victories +of the South had compromised every thing, the resistance of the North is +about to save every thing; the election of Mr. Lincoln is a painful but +salutary crisis, it is the first effort of a great people rising. + +The party of slavery had introduced into the heart of American +democracy, a permanent cause of debasement and corruption. In this +respect, also, it was leading the Confederation to its death by the most +direct and speedy way. I wish to show how it developed the worst sides +of the democratic system. I hope to be impartial towards this system; +although persuaded that the government of which England offers us the +model is better suited to guaranty public liberties and to second true +progress in every thing, I am not of those who place the shadow before +the substance, and who condemn democracy without appeal. Are we destined +some day to pass into its hands? Have we already begun to glide down the +descent that leads to it? It is possible. In any case, it would be +unjust to hate America on account of it, as is too often done. America +has had no choice; in virtue of its origin and its history, it could be +nothing else than a democracy. If it has the faults of democracy, the +unamiable rudeness, the violent proceedings, the levelling passions, I +am scarcely surprised at it. I ask myself rather if it has known how to +find a basis of support against the temptations of such a system, if it +has prevented the subjugation of individuals by the mass, the absorption +of consciences by the State, the substitution of the sovereignty of the +end for that of the people. These are the shoals of democracy; have they +been shunned by the United States? Have they been able to avoid +transforming it either into tyranny or socialism? We shall see that, if +it has not succumbed to the temptation, this has not been the fault of +the party of slavery. Thanks to it, the corruption of democratic +institutions was rapidly advancing; a single adversary, constantly the +same, has combated the progress of this work of destruction. We shall +encounter again, upon the ground of political institutions, the +fundamental antagonism of the Gospel and slavery. + +I say first, that it is rarely that names are altogether fortuitous, and +do not correspond to things. It has often given rise to astonishment +that the party of slavery should have taken the name of the democratic +party; notwithstanding, nothing was more natural. How could slavery have +been defended if not by exaggerating democracy? It was necessary, in +such a cause, to deny the notions of right, of truth, and of justice; it +was necessary that the greater number should become right, truth, and +justice. + +Something more even was needed. The _sovereignty of the end_ must yield, +if necessary, before the sovereignty of numbers. A cause like that of +slavery is only defended in the heart of a democratic nation, by +teaching it contempt of scruples, and the stifling of the conscience. +Every thing is allowable, every thing is good, provided that we succeed +in our ends! This is the rule which it designs shall prevail in +political contests. A single question, seeing nothing but itself, +determined to spare nothing, offering itself to parties, whoever they +may be, who seek a change, creating factitious majorities to effect the +ends of base ambition, taking account neither of honor nor country, and +attaining its end through every thing--this is enough to vitiate +profoundly institutions and morals. The sovereignty of the idea, when it +has laid hands on the sovereignty of the people, is in a position to go +to great lengths, and to sink very low. Moral maxims and written laws +are trodden under foot, a struggle without pity or remorse begins, a +struggle of life and death. Social passions easily acquire a degree of +perversity which political passions do not possess; the former are +without conscience and without compassion; they will be satisfied, cost +what it may; triumph is in their eyes an absolute, an inexorable +necessity. Rather than not conquer, they will rend the country. + +What the regular working of institutions becomes under such a pressure, +every one can divine. For some years past, in proportion as the +pretensions of the slavery party had increased, we had seen public +morals become tainted in the United States. Indifference to means had +made alarming progress, and had been felt even in the habits of +commerce, and the relations of private life. The spirit of enterprise +had come to be exalted even in its most dishonorable acts; respect for +bankrupts seemed almost to be propagated. It is a fact, that men like +Mr. Jefferson Davis, the present President of the revolted South, were +not afraid to recommend the repudiation of debts. In the school of +slavery, a disembarrassed and unscrupulous manner of acting had given +its stamp to the general manner of the nation. Affairs were going on +rapidly, the liberties of America were on the high road to ruin; it was +time that the reaction of liberal and honorable sentiments should make +itself felt. The election of 1860 marked the stopping-place. + +I wonder that they could have stopped; such a fact demands an +explanation, for ordinarily the declivities of democratic decline are +never remounted. The natural tendency there being to deny the right of +the minority, (the most precious of all,) to sink the man entire in the +ballot, to lay violent hands on the private portion of his life, and to +force even his conscience into the social contract, it follows that +governments arise in which the question of limitation becomes effaced by +the question of origin. In the face of such a power, nothing is left +standing; no more rights, no more principles, no more of those solid and +resisting blocks which serve to stem the popular current; the province +of the State becomes indefinite. + +And how much more irresistible and more perverse is this tendency, when +a profound cause of corruption, such as slavery, adds its action to the +strength of such democracies! It is no longer, in such cases, the +sovereign majority alone before which the right may be forced to bow, it +is a party determined to attain its ends, which penetrates with violence +into that domain of conscience where human laws should not enter; a +party which sets about regulating sometimes the belief, sometimes the +thought, sometimes the speech. Such has been the influence exercised in +the United States by the institution of slavery; it has forbidden +authors to write, clergymen to preach, and almost individuals to think +any thing that displeased it; it has invented the right of secession, in +order to have at its disposal a formidable means of intimidation, and to +place a threat behind each of its demands. To yield, to descend, to +descend still further, to obey a continued impulse of democratic +debasement, such is the course to which it has impelled the whole +Confederation. + +Notwithstanding, the United States have resisted. I shall tell why; I +shall show by virtue of what marvellous force Americans have escaped the +absolute levelling which seemed destined to be produced by a complicated +democracy of slavery. But I wish first to finish depicting the natural +effects of such a system. + +Suppose for a moment a nation (and such are not wanting) modelled after +the antique. The Pagan principle reigns there supremely, the State +absorbs every thing, souls are banded together and governed; a +centralized power, a visible Providence, is substituted for individual +action; creeds have essentially the hereditary and national form; each +one believes what the rest believe, each one does what the rest do, each +one holds the opinions which are found in the ancient traditions of the +country; truth is no longer a personal conviction, acquired at the price +of earnest struggles, and worth much because it has cost much; it +descends to the rank of customs to which it is fitting to conform, it +has its marked place among social obligations, and forms part of the +duties of the citizen. + +Let democracy come to establish its empire in the heart of such a +nation, and you will see with what rapidity every thing will disappear +that bears the slightest resemblance to individual independence. The +more effectual the levelling, the greater will seem the community; and +the smaller the individual, the more, too, in face of the privileges of +the whole, will the very idea of personal rights become effaced. The +majority is held infallible, and the minority appears criminal if it +takes the liberty of refusing to subject its thoughts (yes, its very +thoughts) to that of the majority. In this innumerable host of like +beings, no one is authorized to possess any thing in private; of all +aristocracies, that of the conscience appears then least endurable. Men +believe in the majority, in the mass, in the nation. We have no idea of +the intellectual despotism of a democracy which fails to encounter on +its road the obstacle of personal convictions; it disposes of the human +soul, it creates an unlimited confidence in the judgment of public +opinion, it heads a school of popular courtiers, and teaches each one +the art of setting his watch by the clock of the market-place. + +Intelligence, conscience, convictions--all bend, and what does not bend +is broken. This happens, above all, we repeat without wearying, when a +detestable cause like that of slavery perverts the working of democratic +institutions. Then, the tyranny of the majorities has no bounds; the +majorities themselves are formed by means of ignoble contracts and +monstrous alliances. In the midst of lower passions let loose, through +banded parties, imperative mandates, and factitious organizations, which +no longer leave the smallest outlet for the flight of the least +independent wish, the perversities of corrupt and misled democracy have +full scope. + +In writing these pages, have I described American democracy? Yes and no. +Yes, for such are really the temptations to which America has been +exposed, such are really the vices with which it might have often been +reproached; no, for a principle of resistance has always revealed itself +in the darkest moments, an irrepressible something has always remained. +In vain the heavy roller has passed and repassed over the ground; it has +always encountered blocks of granite that would not be broken. This is +the point which I had at heart to signal out in closing this study, +knowing that it forms its most essential part, and that whoever has not +given it his attention cannot comprehend the United States. The +extraordinary fact, much more extraordinary than is supposed, that, +under the system of democracy ruled by slavery, men have been able to +pause and retrace their steps, is only explained by the peculiar form +which religious belief has put on in the United States. We have not +before our eyes a Latin nation, a nation clad in the vestments of Greece +or Rome, a nation having, according to the ancient mode, its religion +and its usages universally but indolently admitted. This republic of the +New World is by no means one of those slave republics of ancient times, +in which the citizens took delight in conversing on public affairs, but +in which no one had the bad taste to question his conscience with +respect to the public creeds. The pagan life, with its obligatory +worship, its common education, its suppression of the family and the +individual in behalf of the State, its existence transported to the +Forum; the pagan life, in which the citizen absorbs the individual, and +in which the calm and serene uniformity of indifferent centuries ends, +by giving to each one the national physiognomy, bears no resemblance to +the moral and social life of the United States. + +Among them, not the smallest trace is found of that system which seeks +to make nations, and which forgets to make men. They were born, as we +may say, of a protestation of the human conscience. A noble origin, +which explains many things! It is, in fact, the revindication of +religious independence against religious uniformity, and the established +church which created it two hundred years ago. Of course, I have not to +examine here the intrinsic value of the Puritan doctrines. I content +myself with affirming that they landed in America in the name of +liberty, that they were destined to establish liberty there, that they +were destined to build there the true rampart against democratic +tyranny. + +From the first day, the State was deprived of the direction of the +intellectual and moral man. Despite that inevitable mixture of +inconsistencies and hesitation which marks our first efforts in all +things, the Puritan colonies, destined one day to become the United +States, set out on the road which led to liberty of belief, of thoughts, +of speech, of the press, of assemblage, of instruction. The most +considerable, most important rights were abstracted at the outset from +the domain of democratic deliberations; insuperable bounds were set to +the sovereignty of numbers; the right of minorities, that of the +individual, the right of remaining alone against all others, the right +of being of one's own opinion, was reserved. Furthermore, they did not +delay to break the bonds between the Church and the State entirely, in +such a manner as to deprive the official superintendence of belief of +its last pretext. Self-government was founded, that is, the most formal +negation of subjugation by the democracy. While the latter tends to the +maximum of government, the American Government tends to the minimum of +government, that form _par excellence_ of liberalism. And it does not +tend thither, as in the Middle Ages, by anarchy, by the absence of +national ties, and moreover by despoiling the individual of his rights +of conscience and thought, confiscated then more entirely for the +benefit of a sovereign church than they have been since for the benefit +of the State; no, American individualism proceeds differently: if it +restrains with salutary vigor the province of governments, it is to +enlarge that of the human soul. + +This is a great conquest; the whole future of the modern world is +contained in it. Destined as we are to submit, in a measure at least, to +the action of democracy, the question whether we shall he slaves or free +men is resolved in this: shall we, after the example of America, have +our reserved tribunal, our closed domain in which the public power shall +be permitted to see nothing? Shall there be things among us (the most +important of all) which shall not be put to the vote? Shall our +democracy have its boundaries, and beyond these boundaries shall a vast +country be seen to extend--that of free belief, of free worship, of free +thought, of the free home? + +It is because American democracy has boundaries that its worst excesses +have finally found chastisement. It is not installed alone in the United +States; opposite it, another power which knows no fear, is occupied with +resisting it. The entire history of America is explained by this double +fact: the falling and the rising again, the servitudes and the +liberties, the too long triumph of the slavery party, and the recent +victory of Mr. Lincoln, the deadly peril so lately incurred, and the +noble future that opens to-day. + +Individualism is not isolation, individual convictions are not sectarian +convictions; they found on the contrary the most powerful of the +unities, moral unity. The thing which most actively dissolves societies +while seeming to unite them, is the uniformity of national dogmas which, +accepted as an inheritance, remain without action over the heart. What +are, in fact, the great bonds on earth, if not duty and affection? Now, +nothing but personal convictions, earnestly acquired by the sweat of our +brow, can destroy selfishness in us. Without this strong cement of +convictions at once individual and common, you will build nothing that +will endure. The United States have in their heart strong convictions, +which are also common convictions; through external diversities, we +have seen that fundamental conformity is real, and all earnest appeal to +Christian truths agitates this country, so divided in appearance, from +one end to the other. National life is here a reality. I do not think +that Socialism, which excuses us from believing ourselves, which places +our soul under responsible administration, and preserves us, it is said, +from the baleful disruptions engendered by individualism, succeeds as +well in destroying selfishness and in diffusing ideas of devotion and +duty. When democracy becomes socialistic, (and it never has been able to +become so in the United States,) it grinds down and reduces souls to +such a degree that nothing is left but a fine dust, a sort of +intellectual and moral powder which, it is true, is an obstacle to +nothing, but which creates nothing either. To build an edifice, stones +are needed, sand will not suffice. + +Christian individualism makes the stones, and the democratic party has +just perceived it. In a country where independence of soul has +acclimated independence in all its forms, men may indeed bow the head +sometimes to democracy allied to slavery; but this debasement has a +limit, and the time is coming when they will raise their heads. Strong +beliefs are a strong rampart, the slaves of truth are free men, and +true independence begins in the heart. To have convictions in order to +have characters, to have believers in order to have citizens, to have +energetic minds in order to have powerful nations, to have resistance in +order to have support--such is the programme of individualism. Show me +a country where men are proud enough not to bow before the majority, +where they do not think themselves lost when they depart from, the +beaten track, and jostle of received opinions; and I will admit that +there it will be possible to practise democracy without falling into +servitude. + +There is but one country of individual belief, that could attempt the +alliance, hitherto deemed impossible, of democracy and liberty. The +theory in accordance with which the public liberties of England have the +aristocracy for their essential basis, is admitted as an axiom; without +contemning this element of social organization, it is advisable to mine +deeper than this to discover the true foundation of liberty. Individual +belief--this is the foundation. The more we reflect, the more we +discover that the essential thing is not the forms of government, or +even the relations of the different classes, but the moral state of the +community. Are men there? Have souls become masters of themselves? Are +characters formed? Has the force of resistance appeared? Whoever shall +have replied to these questions will have decided, knowingly or +unknowingly, whether liberty be possible. + +I do not know that any people should be excluded from liberty; only all +are bound to pursue it by the path that leads to it, by earnestness of +convictions, by internal affranchisement, which signifies by the Gospel. +We may seek in vain, we shall find no means comparable to this (I speak +in the political point of view) when the question is to make citizens. +To place one's self under the absolute authority of God and his word, is +to acquire in the face of mere parties, majorities, general opinions, an +independence that nothing can supply. The independence within is always +translated without; he who is independent of men, in the domain of +beliefs and of thoughts, will be equally so in the domain of public +affairs. Thus democracy itself will not degenerate into socialism. No +one has been able to point out the slightest symptom of socialism in the +United States. Notwithstanding, democracy is fully complete there, and +the election of Mr. Lincoln, once drover, once flatboatman, once +rail-splitter, once clerk--of Mr. Lincoln, the son of his works, who has +succeeded by his own powers in becoming a well-informed man and an +orator, this election proves certainly that American equality is not +menaced by the success of the republican party. It menaces only the evil +democracy, which, under the guidance of the slavery party, sought to +force the nation into the path of socialism. But it will not succeed in +this; the question has just been decided. Between these two systems, +which are to contend for contemporaneous communities, between socialism +and individualism, the choice of the United States is made. + +Before witnessing the affranchisement of the slaves, we shall, +therefore, witness the affranchisement of American politics. They have +endured a shameful yoke, and received sad lessons. Since Jefferson, the +born enemy of true liberalism, founded the Democratic party, the United +States had continued to descend the declivity of radicalism; a work of +relentless levelling was thenceforth pursued, and the domain of the +conscience became gradually invaded. The democratic party found its +fulcrum in the South. The slave States forced the enclosure of the +private tribunal, and confiscated in behalf of the State the inviolable +rights of the individual: neither thought, the press, nor the pulpit, +were free among them; the fundamental maxims of Puritan tradition were +sacrificed by them one after the other. They did more: thanks to them, +men were beginning to learn in the free States how to set to work to +pervert their own consciences, and to substitute for it respect for +sovereign majorities. Every day, crying iniquities were covered by the +pretext: "If we were just, we should compromise the national unity, or +we should risk losing the votes secured to our party." Violence, menace, +brutality, and corruption, were boldly introduced into political +struggles. Men became habituated to evil: the most odious crimes, the +Southern laws reducing to legal slavery every free negro who should not +quit the soil of the States, hardly raised a murmur of disapprobation; +the United States seemed on the point of losing that faculty which +nothing can survive--the faculty of indignation. + +Behold in what school the democratic party had placed the American +people--that noble people which, despite the grave faults with which it +may be reproached, represents in the main many of the lofty principles +which are allied to the future of modern communities. The reign of the +Democratic party would form the subject of an inglorious history; in it +we should see figure the glorification of servitude, piracy applied to +international right, and, in conclusion, those facts of corruption and +waste which served to crown its last Presidency. The most consistent +champions of the doctrines and practices of the democratic party, are +those men who have just declared that votes are valid only on condition +of giving the majority to slavery, and that a regular election is a +sufficient cause for separation. + + + + +CONCLUSION. + + +I have not sought to recount events, but to attempt a study, which I +believe to be useful to us, and which may, also, not be useless to the +United States. We owe them the support of our sympathy. It is more +important than people imagine to let them hear words of encouragement +from us at this decisive moment. Let us not hasten to declare that the +Union is destroyed, that, henceforth and forever, there will be two +Confederacies existing on the same footing, that the United States of +slavery will have their great _role_ to perform here below, like the +United States of liberty. This would be, in any case, immense +exaggeration. Let us not forget that the Union has often before seemed +lost, that the Confederation has often before seemed ready to perish. +Are the men who are terrified at the present perils, ignorant of those +which surrounded the cradle of the United States: mutinous troops, +contending ambitions, threats of separation, anarchy, ruin? This +America, then so weak, is the same that has since become so strong, in +spite of its own faults. At the moment when it rebelled against England, +it had neither arts and manufactures, nor commerce, nor marine; and its +two or three millions of inhabitants were far from agreeing among +themselves. Yet such is the vigor of its genius, such is its +carelessness of every kind of danger, such is the impetuosity with which +it affronts and surmounts obstacles, such is the power of its national +motto; "Go ahead!" that through internal struggles, crises, and +momentary exhaustion, it has attained the stature of a great people. +Count the steamboats on its rivers, estimate the tonnage of its vessels, +compute the amount of its internal trade, measure the length of its +canals and railroads, and you will still have but a faint idea of what +it is capable of undertaking and accomplishing. + +We must remember these things, and not imitate those enemies of America +who sometimes feign to put on mourning for her, sometimes jest at her +distress, and find in the present situation of the _disunited States_ +(for thus they style them) an agreeable subject for pleasantry, +forgetting that this disunion has a serious cause, which is certainly of +importance enough to make itself understood; forgetting, too, that +generous struggles for humanity and the country are worthy to obtain our +fullest respect. And let us beware how we say that this crisis does not +concern us--that we can do nothing in it. The selfish isolation of +nations is henceforth impossible. The question to be decided here +involves our own affairs, not only because a portion of our fortune is +pledged to the United States, but, above all, because our principles and +our liberties are concerned. The victories of justice, wherever they may +be won, are the victories of the human race. + +We can aid this one in some measure. America, which affects sometimes to +declare itself indifferent to our opinions, gathers them up, however, +with jealous care. I have seen respectable Americans blush at +encountering that instinctive blame which, among us, is addressed to the +progress of slavery; they suffered at seeing their country thus fallen +from the esteem which it formerly enjoyed. Proud nations like America +always avenge themselves by noble impulses for the reprobation which +they are conscious of having deserved. The moral intervention of Europe +is not, therefore, superfluous; it is the less so, in that the South +insults us by counting on us. The ringleaders of Charleston and New +Orleans affect to say that England is ready to open her arms to them, +and that France promises a sympathizing reception to her envoys! These +envoys themselves have been selected with care, honorable, having +friends among us,--capable, in a word, of presenting the cause of +slavery in an almost seductive light. It is important, therefore, that +we should not keep silence. + +Let governments be reserved; let them avoid every thing that would +resemble direct action in the internal affairs of the United States, let +them have recourse to the commonplaces of speech employed by diplomacy +to escape pledging their policy--this is well. But to imagine that these +commonplaces promise alliance or protection, is to be credulous indeed! +A rebellion under cover of the flag of slavery, be sure, will find it +difficult to make partisans among us French, whatever may be our +indolent indifference in other respects in this matter, an indifference +so great that at the present time the American question _does not exist_ +to the most of us. Moreover, we shall shake off this inertia; and, as to +the English, they will not suffer their brightest title to glory in +modern times to be tarnished by any latent complicity with the Gulf +States. The brutal doctrines of interest, so often professed publicly in +Parliament by Mr. Bright, may indeed find organs; and Great Britain +will be counselled to remember cotton and forget justice. The measure +already taken by her at Washington, and which appears to have been +supported by France, a measure designed to declare that the blockade of +the Southern ports must be effectual to be recognized, is perhaps a +concession wrested from her by this detestable school of selfishness. +Happily, there is another school face to face with this; the Christian +sentiment, the sentiment of abolition, will arise and enforce obedience. +Never was a more important work in store for it. To unveil every +suspicious act of the British Government, to keep public opinion +aroused, to maintain, in fine, that noble moral agitation which makes +the success of good causes and the safety of free nations, such is the +mission proffered in England to the defenders of humanity and the +Gospel. If they could forget it, the populace of Mobile or Savannah +pursuing English consuls, would remind them to what principle the name +of Great Britain is inevitably pledged, for the sake of its honor. +France and England, I am confident, will act in unison, here as +elsewhere; their alliance which comprises within itself the germs of all +true progress, will be found as useful and as fruitful in the New World +as it has proved in the Old. + +This is of such importance that I beg leave to dwell on it; evidently +our influence has not yet been exercised as it should have been, and if +Mr. Lincoln now bends somewhat before counsels devoid of energy and +dignity, it proceeds in part from our reserve, our silence, our apparent +neutrality--who knows? even from the discouraging language that has +been sometimes held in our name. The publication of the unlucky Morrill +Tariff, (signed, we may say in passing, by Mr. Buchanan, and the +revocation of which, I am convinced, will be signed some day by Mr. +Lincoln,) has given the signal for political demonstrations, all of +which are very far from being to the credit of Europe. Our _Moniteur_ +has published articles to be regretted, but it is above all among the +English that the cotton party has had full scope. + +Let England beware! it were better for her to lose Malta, Corfu, and +Gibraltar, than the glorious position which her struggle against slavery +and the slave trade has secured her in the esteem of nations. Even in +our age of armed frigates and rifled cannon, the chief of all powers, +thank God! is moral power. Woe to the nation that disregards it, and +consents to immolate its principles to its interests! From the beginning +of the present conflict, the enemies of England, and they are numerous, +have predicted that the cause of cotton will weigh heavier in her scales +than the cause of justice and liberty. They are preparing to judge her +by her conduct in the American crisis. Once more, let her beware! + +And under what pretexts do we chaffer with the government of Mr. Lincoln +for those energetic, persevering sympathies on which it has a right to +count? Let us examine. + +We hear, in the first place, of the vigor of the South and the weakness +of the North. It is not the first time that a bad cause has shown itself +more ardent, more daring, less preoccupied by consequences, than a good +one. Good causes have scruples, and every scruple is an obstacle. + +I am assuredly as sorry as any one to see Mr. Lincoln struck with a sort +of paralysis. To my mind, the dangers of inactivity are considerable; I +believe that it discourages friends and encourages adversaries; I +believe that it sanctions more or less the baleful and erroneous +principle of secession, a principle more contagious than any other; I +believe, in fine, that, by postponing civil war, it probably risks +increasing its gravity. Nevertheless, shall we not take into account the +exceptional difficulties with which Mr. Lincoln is surrounded? + +The preceding Administration took care to leave no resource in his +hands: he found the forts either surrendered or indefensible, the +arsenals invaded, the army scattered, the navy despatched to distant +parts of the seas. Is it strange that he should have yielded in some +degree to the entreaties of so many able men, all urging in the same +direction? If to-morrow he should yield entirely, if he should recognize +the Southern Confederacy, would it be great cause for astonishment? + +Let us not forget, moreover, that the border States are at hand, forming +a rampart, as it were, to protect the extreme South. Several of these +States, I am convinced, incline sincerely towards the North, and will +remain united with it; but are there not others, Virginia, for instance, +which perhaps only refrain from seceding for the better protection of +those that have done so, and whose present role consists in preventing +all repression, while its future role will be to trammel all progress by +the continued threat of joining the Southern Confederacy? + +These are serious obstacles; yet I have not pointed out the most serious +of all--the intense and sincere repugnance which many Northern people, +though declared adversaries of slavery, experience towards measures +that are calculated to provoke slave insurrections, and endanger the +safety of the planters. I must acknowledge that the patience of the +strong seems here rather more laudable than the so much vaunted audacity +of the weak, who count on this patience, and know that they can be +arrogant without much risk. + +The second pretext that is audaciously brought forward to solicit our +good will towards the South, is that it has just ameliorated the Federal +institutions. Let us ask in what consists this pretended amelioration? +The South has not feared to write in set terms, in its fundamental law, +what none before it ever dared write, _the constitutional guarantee of +slavery_. Slavery, in accordance with the Constitution of the South, can +neither be suppressed nor assailed. Slavery will be the holy ark to be +regarded with respect from afar off, the corner-stone which all are +forbidden to touch. By the side of this, the South ostentatiously +proclaims freedom of speech, of the press, of discussion in every form! +Men shall be free to speak, but on condition of not touching, nearly or +remotely, on any subject connected with slavery, (and every thing is +connected with it in the South.) They shall be free to print, but on +condition of giving no writing whatever to the public from which may be +inferred the unity of mankind, the sanctity of family ties, the great +principles, in fact, which the "patriarchal system" throws overboard. +They shall be free to discuss, but on condition of not disturbing this +institution, impatient by nature, and still more so in future, now that +it feels itself hemmed in and threatened on all sides. It will be by +itself alone the whole Constitution of the South; this one article will +devour the rest; in default of legislatures and courts, the Southern +populace know how to give force to the guarantee of slavery, and to +restrain freedom of speech, of the press, and of discussion. + +It is true that adroit patrons of the South Carolinian rebellion have a +third argument at their service which is no less specious. "All is +over," they exclaim, "there is nobody now to sustain, there are no +sympathies now to testify; in four days, peace will be made, the new +Confederation will be recognized by Lincoln in person, a commercial +treaty will even ally it to the United States: the affair is ended." + +The affair is scarcely begun, we answer; one must be blind not to see +it. What is ended, is only the first skirmish. As to the war, it will be +as long, believe me, as the life of the two principles which are +struggling in America. Let Mr. Lincoln assure himself, and let the +European adversaries of slavery remember as well, that it will be +necessary to combat and to persevere. Never was a more obstinate and +more colossal strife commenced on earth. Many of the border States will +not be long in raising pretensions to which they will join threats of +new secessions; they will again bring up the question of the +Territories, and will propose compromises. Who knows? they will aspire +perhaps to establish, in the interests of the extreme South, the +extradition of slaves escaped from the rival Confederacy. Who knows +again? they will perhaps attempt to restore their domestic slave trade +with Charleston and New Orleans. + +This is not all. The time will come when the extreme South, incapable of +enduring the life that it has just created for itself, will demand to +return to the bosom of the Union. It will then insist on dictating its +conditions; it will propose the election of a general convention charged +with reconstructing the Constitution of the United States; it will +appeal to the selfishness of some, and to the ambition or even the +patriotism of others, presenting to their sight the re-establishment of +the common greatness which separation had compromised. What a motive to +veil principles for a moment! what a temptation to return to the fatal +path so lately forsaken! + +I know very well that it will be henceforth impossible to return to it +completely; nevertheless, the vigilance of Mr. Lincoln will not cease to +be necessary, and what will be no less necessary, is the moral support +which we are bound to lend him in the hour of success and in the hour of +discouragement, in good and in bad reputation. Where do we find a more +glorious cause than this? despite the impure alloy which is mingled with +it, of course, as with all glorious causes, is it not fitted to stir up +generous hearts? Already, thanks to the defeat of the democratic party, +the United States that we once knew, those of the last ten years, those +that the South governed with its wand, those whose institutions were +corrupted and debased by slavery, those who numbered in the North as in +the South so many fortunes based openly on the slave traffic, those who +had seen among their Presidents a slave merchant, carrying on his +speculations in public view--these United States have just ended their +career, they have entered the domain of history, their disappearance has +been verified by the retreat of the extreme South. + +The American people are now striving to rise. Enterprise as difficult +as glorious! Whatever may be the issue of the first conflict, it will be +only the first conflict. There will be many others; the uprising of a +great people is not the work of a day. Sometimes at peace, sometimes +perhaps at war with the States that take in hand the cause of slavery, +the American Confederation will witness the development, one after +another, of the consequences necessarily produced by that decisive +event, the election of Mr. Lincoln. Having broken with the past, it will +be forced to enter further and further into the path of the future. We +have already seen that, whichever hypothesis is realized of those which +we are permitted to foresee, the cause of slavery is destined to +experience defeat after defeat. It has ceased to grow, it is about to +decrease, to decrease by separation, to decrease by union, to decrease +by peace, to decrease by war. As surely as there will be obstacles +without number to surmount in order to accomplish this work, so surely +will this work be accomplished. Certainly, it deserves to be loved and +sustained, without discouragement and hesitation. Europe will comprehend +it. + +On seeing her attitude, the angry champions of slavery will doubtless +perceive that they are mistaken, and that it is time to make new +calculations. As for the brave men of the North, they will he glad to +learn what is thought of them on this side of the Atlantic. This may +aid, and greatly, in the more or less distant re-establishment of the +Union. If the Gulf States knew what insurmountable disgust will be +aroused here by their Confederacy, founded to secure the duration and +prosperity of slavery; if the border States knew what sympathies they +will gain by siding with liberty, and what maledictions they will incur +by declaring themselves for slavery; if the Northern States knew what +support is secured to them by that power, the chief of all others, +public opinion, we are justified in believing that the present crisis +would come to a prompt and peaceful solution. + +It is a fixed fact that the nineteenth century will see the end of +slavery in all its forms; and woe to him who opposes the march of such a +progress! Who is not deeply impressed by the thought that, on the 4th of +March, at the very hour when Mr. Lincoln, in taking possession of the +Presidency at Washington, signified to the attentive world the will of a +great republic, determined to arrest the conquests of slavery, the +generous head of a great empire signified to his ministers his +immutable resolve to prepare for the emancipation of the serfs. In such +coincidences, who does not recognize the finger of God. I am, therefore, +tranquil: Russian opposition has failed, American opposition will fail. +There will be American opposition; there will be, there is such already, +in the very surroundings and cabinet of the President. We have just seen +how it seeks to enervate his resolutions, to pledge him irrevocably to +that wavering policy, more to be dreaded for him than the projects of +assassination about which, right or wrong, so much noise has been made. +Nevertheless, this evil has its bounds marked out in advance; he whom +God guards is well guarded. If you wish to know what the Presidency of +Mr. Lincoln will be in the end, see in what manner and under what +auspices it was inaugurated; listen to the words that fell from the lips +of the new President as he quitted his native town: "The task that +devolves upon me is greater, perhaps, than that which has devolved on +any other man since the days of Washington. I hope that you, my friends, +will all pray that I may receive that assistance from on high, without +which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain." "Yes, yes; +we will pray for you!" Such was the response of the inhabitants of +Springfield, who, weeping, and with uncovered heads, witnessed the +departure of their fellow-citizen. What a _debut_ for a government! Have +there been many inaugurations here below of such thrilling solemnity? Do +uniforms and plumes, the roar of cannon, triumphal arches, and vague +appeals to Providence, equal these simple words: "Pray for me!" "We will +pray for you"! Ah! courage, Lincoln! the friends of freedom and of +America are with you. Courage! you hold in your hands the destinies of a +great principle and a great people. Courage! You have to resist your +friends and to face your foes; it is the fate of all who seek to do good +on earth. Courage! You will have need of it to-morrow, in a year, to the +end; you will have need of it in peace and in war; you will have need of +it to avert the compromise in peace or war of that noble progress which +it is your charge to accomplish, more than in conquests of slavery. +Courage! your role, as you have said, may be inferior to no other, not +even to that of Washington: to raise up the United States will not be +less glorious than to have founded them. + +It is doubtless from a distance that we express these sympathies, but +there are things which are judged better from a distance than near at +hand. Europe is well situated to estimate the present crisis. The +opinion of France, especially, should have some weight with the United +States: independently of our old alliances, we are, of all nations, +perhaps, the most interested in the success of the Confederation. They +are friendly voices which, here and elsewhere, in our reviews and our +journals, bear to it the cordial expression of our wishes. In wishing +the final triumph of the North, we wish the salvation of the North and +South, their common greatness and their lasting prosperity. + +But the South disquiets us; we cannot disguise it. It is in bad hands. A +sort of terror reigns there; important but moderate men are forced to +bow the head, or to feel that it will be necessary to do so ere long. +The planters must see already that, in seeking to put away what they +call the yoke of the North, they are preparing for themselves other +masters. Business is suspended, money for cultivation is lacking, credit +is everywhere refused, the ensuing harvest is mortgaged, the loans which +it is sought to issue find no takers outside the extreme South. The +resources of revolution remain, and they will be used unsparingly. + +What a position! Under the Constitution voted scarcely a month ago, we +already hear the deep rumbling of the quarrels of classes, of the +planters and the poor whites, of the aristocracy and the numerical +majority, of the prudent adversaries of the slave trade and its +headstrong partisans, of the statesmen who are tolerated for appearances +and those who count on replacing them, of the present and the future. + +People will some day see clearly, even in Charleston. The separation +which was to establish the prosperity of the South by permitting it at +last to live to its liking, to obey its genius, and to serve its +interests, has hitherto resulted in little, save the singing of the +_Marseillaise, (the Marseillaise of Slavery!)_ and the striking down of +the Federal colors before the flag of the pelican and the rattlesnake. A +great many blue ribbons and Colt's revolvers are sold; and busts of +Calhoun, the first theorist of secession, axe carried about +ostentatiously. Next, to present a good mien to the eyes of Europe, a +Constitution is voted in haste, a government is formed, an army is +decreed; but the revolutionary basis is remaining, and we perceive but +too quickly how great disorder prevails in minds and things. + +At the present hour, the democracy of the South is about to degenerate +into demagogism and dictatorship. But the North presents quite a +different spectacle. Mark what is passing there; pierce beneath +appearances, beneath inevitable mistakes, beneath the no less inevitable +wavering of a _debut_ so well prepared for by the preceding +Administration, and you will find the firm resolution of a people +uprising. Who speaks of the end of the United States? This end seemed +approaching but lately, in the hour of prosperity; then, honor was +compromised, esteem for the country was lowered, institutions were +becoming corrupted apace; the moment seemed approaching when the +Confederation, tainted by slavery, could not but perish with it. Now, +every thing has changed aspect; the friends of America should take +confidence, for its greatness is inseparable, thank God! from the cause +of justice. + +_Justice cannot do wrong_; I like to recall this maxim when I consider +the present state of America. In escaping a sudden and shameful death, +it will not, assuredly, escape struggles and difficulties; in returning +to life, it will encounter battle and danger longer than it imagines; +life is composed of this. To live is a laborious vocation, and nations +who wish to keep their place here below, who wish to act and not to +sleep, must know that they will have their share of suffering. Perhaps +it enters into the plans of God that the United States should endure for +a time some diminution of their greatness; let them be sure, +notwithstanding, that their flag will be neither less respected nor less +glorious, if it shall thus lose a few of its stars. Those which it loses +will reappear on it some day, and how many others, meanwhile, will come +to increase the Federal Constellation! With what acclamations will +Europe salute the future progress of the United States, as soon as their +progress shall have ceased to be that of slavery! + +At present, the point in question is to liquidate a bad debt. The moment +of liquidation is always painful; but when it is over, credit revives. +So will it be in America. She has often boasted of the energetic +sang-froid of her merchants; when ruined, they neither lament, nor are +discouraged; there is a fortune to make again. In the same manner, +putting things at the worst, supposing the present crisis to be +comparable to ruin; there is a nation to make again, it will be re-made. +"Gentlemen," said Mr. Seward lately, in concluding his great speech in +Congress, "if this Union were shattered to-day by the spirit of faction, +it would reconstruct itself to-morrow with the former majestic +proportions." + + + + +A WORD OF PEACE + +ON THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLAND AND +THE UNITED STATES. + +BY COUNT AGENOR DE GASPARIN. + + + + +A WORD OF PEACE. + + + * * * * * + + +Between the meetings of Liverpool and the ovations of New York, is there +not room for a word of peace? A word of peace, I know well, must be a +word of impartiality. The speaker must resign himself to be treated as +an American in England, and as an Englishman in America; but what does +this matter if truth make its way, and if an obstacle the more be raised +in the way of this horrible war, this war contrary to nature, which +would begin by ensuring the triumph of the champions of negro slavery, +and would end by exposing the cause of free institutions to more than +one perilous hazard? + +There is one fundamental rule to follow in questions arising out of the +right of search: to distrust first impressions. These, are always very +vivid. An insult to the honor of the flag is always in question. +Patriotic sensibilities, which I comprehend and which I respect, are +always brought into play. It is impossible that these officers, these +stranger sailors, who have given commands and exacted obedience, who +have stopped the ship on its way, who have set foot on the sacred deck +where floats the banner of the country, who have interrogated, who have +searched, who have had recourse, perhaps, to graver measures--it is +impossible that they should not have called forth many sentiments of +anger and indignation. Even when practised with the most rigid +formalities, even when confined within the limits of the strictest +legality, the right of search cannot fail to produce a feeling of +annoyance. The recent search of the _Jules et Marie_, the yards of which +were carried away and the barricadings driven in, seems to me the +faithful type of all visits of search on the high seas--every one of +them brings damages in its train. + +Notwithstanding, the right of search is disputed by no one, and will be +exercised in time of war, until the moment when the American +proposition, reproduced again the other day by General Scott, shall be +welcomed by our Old World. + +I have just written the name of General Scott, and I did so with a +feeling of pleasure. Whoever has read his letter, must have said to +himself with me, that there exists in the United States a class of +intelligent and moderate men--patriots, who have given proof of their +capacity and are capable of examining dispassionately the demands of the +English Government. These men know how much the maintenance of friendly +relations with England is worth in the present position of America. +Whatever opinion they may form on the question of right growing out of +the action of Captain Wilkes, they comprehend that no consideration can +weigh in the balance against the danger of bringing about the +recognition of the Southern Confederacy, the breaking of the blockade, +war, in short, with a powerful and friendly nation, a sister nation, +sprung from the same blood, speaking the same language, devoted to the +same mission of civilization and liberty. No honorable sacrifice would +cost them too dear in order to avert this fearful catastrophe. + +Would that they could see with their own eyes, were it but for a moment, +what is passing to-day in Europe! Their enemies triumph, and their +friends are struck with consternation. We, who have always loved +America, and who love her better now that she is suffering for a noble +cause; we who have defended her, we who have never ceased to believe in +her final success, despite mistakes and repulses, feel all our hopes +threatened at once; the ground seems sinking beneath our feet. No, we +cannot suppose that America, in recklessness of heart, will destroy with +her own hands the fruit of so many efforts and sacrifices. This would +not be patriotism, it would not be dignity, it would be an act of +madness and suicide. + +If the _Trent_ has violated the rules of neutrality, it remains none the +less certain that other rules have been violated by the _San Jacinto_. +The duty of naval officers is limited to visiting ships and stopping +them, if need be, to carry them before a prize court. They cannot +exercise the office of judge. In substituting the arrest of individuals +for the seizure of ships, and a military act for a judicial decree, +Captain Wilkes has given ground for the well-founded protests of +England, at the same time that he has left the way open, thank God! for +measures of reparation to be adopted by the United States. + +I know very well that there would have been no less indignation at +Liverpool and London in case that the _Trent_ had been stopped on her +way and carried before American courts. Perhaps, indeed, the regular and +correct procedure would have been more deeply wounding than that of +which England complains. We may be permitted to doubt with General +Scott that "the injury would have been less, had it been greater." But +this is not the practical question, the only one that now concerns us. +The point is to get out of embarrassment; and the error committed by the +commander of the _San Jacinto_ furnishes a reasonable ground for +consenting to the liberation of the prisoners. + +Far from being a humiliation to the Government at Washington, this act +of wisdom would be one of its brightest titles to glory. It would prove +that it is not wanting in moral power, that men calumniate it in +representing it as the slave of a bad democracy, incapable of resisting +the clamor of the streets, and of accepting, for the safety of the +country, an hour of unpopularity. + +Let it believe us, its true friends, that in arresting Messrs. Mason and +Slidell, it has done more for the cause of the South than Generals +Beauregard or Price would have done by winning two great victories on +the Potomac and in Missouri. Messrs. Mason and Slidell are a hundred +times more dangerous under the bolts of Fort Warren than in the streets +of Paris or London; what their diplomacy would not certainly have +obtained for them in many months, Captain Wilkes has procured for them +in an hour. See what rejoicing is taking place in the camps of the +Southern partisans! They were beginning to despair; recognition, that +only chance of the defenders of slavery, seemed farther off than ever; +the recent successes of the Federal army announced the commencement of a +great change in affairs. The war was carried from the suburbs of +Washington to the heart of South Carolina itself; the only resources of +consequence remaining, were those that might spring up during the winter +from the discontent of our industrial centres. Yet behold, suddenly, the +state of affairs transformed; recognition becomes possible, the blockade +is threatened, the United States are in danger of being forced to turn +from the South to face a more redoubtable foe! + +Really, what has Mr. Jefferson Davis done for you, that you should +render him such a service! + +Let us now turn to England, and tell her also the truth. + +So long as England shall not treat the affair of the _Trent_ on its own +merits and with coolness, so long as she shall give ear to those +falsehoods invented by passion, which envenom questions of this sort, +and exclude conciliatory measures and pacific hopes, she will labor +actively to destroy all that she has gloriously built upon earth. It is +impossible to imagine the consequences, fatal to every form of liberty, +which such a policy would comprise within itself. + +It was at first supposed that Captain Wilkes had acted by virtue of +instructions, and that Mr. Lincoln's Government had expressly ordered +him to seize the Southern Commissioners on board the English vessel. Now +it is found that Captain Wilkes, returning from Africa, had no +instructions of any sort. He acted, to use his expression, "at his own +risk and peril" like a true Yankee. + +It was next supposed that Mr. Lincoln's Government had conceived the +ingenious project (such things are gravely printed and find men to +believe them!) of seeking of itself a rupture with England. It was in +need of new enemies! It hoped, by this means, to rally to itself its +present adversaries! It was about to give over combating them, and to +seek compensation through the conquest of Canada! I have followed the +progress of events in America as attentively as any one, I have read the +American newspapers, I have received letters, I have studied documents, +among others the famous circular of Mr. Seward; I have seen there more +than one sign of discontent with the un-sympathizing attitude of +England; I have also seen there the symptoms of the somewhat natural +fear which the intervention of Europe in Mexico excites in men attached +to the Monroe doctrine; but as to these incredible plans, I have never +discovered the slightest trace of them. I add, that a marked return +towards friendly relations with England will be manifested the moment +that the latter shows herself more amicable towards America. + +If there is any quality for which credit cannot be refused to the +Government of Mr. Lincoln, it is precisely that of moderation and good +sense. He has not taken very high ground--he has abstained, far too +much, in my opinion, from laying down those principles, from uttering +those words which create sympathies, and make the conscience of the +human race vibrate in unison. Say that he is a little prosaic, a little +of the earth, earthy; do not say that he blusters, and that the best +thing that England can do is to attack him without waiting to be first +attacked. + +In order to support, right or wrong, a fable which has found but too +ready belief, another story was invented: the Government of Mr. Lincoln +was at the end of its strength; despairing henceforth of conquering the +South, it wished at any price to procure a diversion. Those who hold +such language have doubtless never heard either of the Beaufort +expedition, or of the evacuation of Missouri by the Confederate troops, +or of the victory recently gained in Kentucky. They do not know that the +United States have accomplished the prodigy of putting half a million of +men under arms, that acts of insubordination have nearly ceased, that +volunteers for three years have everywhere replaced the three months' +volunteers. They do not know that the finances of the country are +prosperous, and that Mr. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, has just +negotiated, under favorable conditions, the last part of his loan. I +recommend them to read the last letters of Mr. Russell, the +correspondent of the _Times_; they will see there what an impartial +witness thought lately of the respective chances of the North and South. + +Yes, before the intervention of the _San Jacinto_,--that involuntary +ally of the South, to whom the inhabitants of Charleston themselves +ought to vote swords of honor--before the _San Jacinto_, the situation +of the United States presented the most favorable aspect. Since that +time, I admit, it has changed. Let us see now whether English +indignation has not given to the act of Captain Wilkes greatly +exaggerated proportions. + +English indignation has omitted one side of the affair, I mean the +conduct of the packet _Trent_. If, by chance, it should have violated +the principles of neutrality, this question would wear quite a different +aspect. This, doubtless, would not prevent the demand for reparation +from being well founded; it would prevent the negotiations relating to +it from assuming an air of harshness, which would suffice to render +their success doubtful. Let us therefore examine the conduct of the +_Trent_. + +Some have thought to justify it, by observing that the vessel was going +from America. What does this matter? Neutrals are bound to act as +neutrals when they are going from a place as well as when they are +coming towards it. They might as easily take sides with one of the +belligerents by carrying despatches, for instance, designed to secure to +it aid, as by bringing it other despatches announcing that this aid was +forthcoming. + +Others have based their arguments on the fact that the _Trent_ had +quitted a neutral port to repair to a neutral port. Again, a distinction +which proclamations of neutrality have never admitted, and which no +jurisprudence has endorsed to my knowledge. What does plain good sense +tell us, in fact? That your departure from a neutral port and your +destination to a neutral port do not hinder you in any way from serving +the belligerent whose despatches you have received, especially if these +despatches are on the way to solicit from a neutral country an alliance +or supplies of munitions of war. + +The rights of neutrals demand to be preserved, in my opinion, and France +is interested in it more than any other nation. But these rights, let us +not fear to acknowledge, have for their fundamental condition, a _real_ +neutrality. Now, you take it upon yourself, knowingly and willingly, to +carry despatches destined for a country to which it is a notorious fact +that one of the belligerents is looking for its only serious chances of +success. These despatches are drawn up, it may be, in this wise: "Let +vessels loaded with arms and ammunition leave Southampton or Liverpool +as quickly as possible and come to Charleston, where the cruisers are +now few in number; let expeditions be combined in such a manner as to +force the blockade; we are in need of their arrival in order to push our +army forward." Or else the despatches read: "Buy up the newspapers and +work on public opinion in the manufacturing districts. Let maritime +powers know that we will consent, if necessary, to cessions of territory +or protectorates; that, in any case, we will grant them exceptional +advantages if they protest against the blockade, if they disquiet our +enemy, if they seek a quarrel with him and draw off his attention to fix +it on, an eventual struggle with Europe. At the first step of this kind, +we will attempt an offensive movement. The least menace against the +blockade is worth as much to us as the despatch of an army." Is it not +to mock at people, in the face of so new a position, of a war in which +one of the parties, though he does not fail to boast of his strength and +his resources, counts in fact, before every thing, upon European +support, to propound fine theories in accordance with which the +transportation of despatches sent from a neutral port and destined for a +neutral country, would not be contrary to neutrality, _because these +despatches could not increase the military advantages of either of the +belligerents?_ + +It has been sought to assimilate mail packets to vessels of war, and +consequently to except them from the exercise of the right of search. +The pretence is so ill-founded that it falls to the ground upon +examination. Who does not feel that the presence of a lieutenant of the +royal navy or the color of a uniform is not sufficient to constitute a +vessel of war or a transport? + +It is asked whether other packets, which have carried ministers sent by +the United States to Europe, have not also infringed the rules of +neutrality? It is possible, but this does not concern us. Supposing that +the mission of these ministers in Europe, where they are regularly +accredited like their predecessors to the different governments, and +where they have no support, no new act, no violation of the blockade to +demand, may be assimilated to the mission of the Southern delegates; +supposing that their letters of credit bear some analogy to the +despatches intrusted to Messrs. Mason and Slidell, it belonged in any +case to the Southern cruisers to stop and search the packets in which +they had taken passage. The powerlessness of one of the belligerents +could not impose on the other the duty of abstaining in like manner. + +Resting next on the diplomatic quality of the Southern envoys, it has +been attempted to insinuate that their mission was purely a civil one. +Not only did the diplomatic character not exist, since it had had no +recognition, but the Southern Commissioners were expressly charged +with, procuring to the armies of slavery the most essential assistance +which they could receive in view of military success and strategy. Their +success, by ensuring the breaking of the blockade, would alone have been +worth more to them than the winning of several battles. I say nothing, +moreover, of the shipments of arms and ammunition which they would have +doubtless organized in Europe. + +Can it be that mail packets have the singular privilege of facilitating +such operations without failing in the duties of neutrality? If this be +true, it is worth while to have it understood, and so long as it is not +understood, we must make some allowance for belligerents who do not +consider it self-evident. It is clear that when the exercise of the +right of search was defined by precedents and treaties, mail packets did +not exist. Perhaps it would be well to lay down special regulations +concerning them. This agreement might be profitably negotiated at +present between the United States and the maritime powers of Europe. Why +should not the conflict which occupies our attention, instead of ending +in war, result in a useful negotiation? I have no doubt that the noble +overtures, the initiative of which has just been taken by General +Scott, would be approved by Mr. Lincoln. To enlarge the scope of the +present question, by causing an international progress, an emancipation +of the commerce of the world to grow out of it, would be somewhat +better, it seems to me, than to cut each other's throats and to ensure +the triumph in the middle of the nineteenth century of the most shameful +revolt that has ever broken out on earth--a revolt in favor of slavery. +England and America, these two great countries, are worthy of giving to +the world the spectacle of a generous and fruitful mutual understanding +in which a deplorable disagreement shall be swallowed up, as it were, +and disappear. Who does not see that, combined with the promulgation of +a more liberal regulation of the right of search, the satisfaction +demanded of the United States would assume a new character, and would +have many more chances of being accorded? + +It is the less difficult for the English to take this ground, since the +act of the _San Jacinto_, in which the design of offending England in +particular might at first have been suspected, appears to-day under a +very different aspect. In proportion as we learn all the exploits of +this terrible vessel, its impartiality becomes less dubious. French, +Danish, and other vessels were visited by it within a few days; it is +certain that if the French instead of the English mail packet had been +carrying the commissioners and their papers, the former would have been +boarded by Captain Wilkes. + +His mode of procedure was rough, and on this point apologies ought to be +made. Not indeed that England, who has just sustained in Prussia the +famous MacDonald negotiation, is in a very good position to show herself +difficult in points of courtesy; nevertheless, the errors of Great +Britain in Germany do not excuse those of the United States on the +ocean. It appears that Captain Wilkes fired shot to enforce his first +order to stop. The remainder was in keeping. Nevertheless, to give every +one his due, it is just to remember that he offered to take on board the +families of the commissioners and to give them his best cabins. It is +just also to add that, after the arrest, the intercourse between the +officers of the _San Jacinto_ and the prisoners never ceased to be full +of decorum and courtesy. + +Let us now approach more closely the question of right. It was well in +the first place to rid ourselves of secondary questions which hinder us +from seeing it, and above all from seeing it as it is. + +They seem to have been afraid in England to look this question of right +boldly in the face. There is no subterfuge that they have not tried in +order to avoid its serious investigation. + +Have they not gone so far as to object to the United States that, +considering the Southern States as rebellious and refusing them the +quality of belligerents, they could not exercise the right of search, +which is reserved to belligerents? From this point of view they add, +Messrs. Mason and Slidell would simply be rebels taking refuge under the +English flag; and what country would consent to give up political +refugees? The answer is simple: no country more than England has +recognized, in this instance, the quality of belligerents which her +partisans are seeking to contest in her name. Moreover, the Southern +blockade is admitted by her and by the other powers; now, blockade is as +impossible as right of search apart from a state of war. + +Another subterfuge: the United States have always opposed the right of +search--it ill becomes them to exercise it. England has always exercised +the right of search; it ill becomes her to oppose it. Let us be honest; +rights of this kind are always odious to those who submit to them and +always dear to those who profit by them. Alas! this is not the only +instance in which, a change in our position works a change in our mode +of viewing things. Let us take the human heart as it is, and not demand +under penalty of war, that the Americans, in the midst of one of the +most terrible social crises (and also of the most glorious) of which +history makes mention, should hesitate to seize a weapon which was +formerly used against them and which they feel the need of using in +return. In neglecting to seize it, they would fail perhaps in their duty +to themselves and to the noble cause of which they are the +representatives. + +There is finally a last and more simple manner of avoiding an +embarrassing examination: "What is the use of examining precedents?" we +hear on every side, "This is not a matter for legal advisers." It +appears to me, however, that it is something of the kind, since Great +Britain has begun by interrogating the lawyers of the Crown, and since +she has made peace or war depend on the decision which they might +render. It would be too convenient, truly, to take exception to +precedents made by one's self, and to say to those who act as he has not +ceased to do: "I permit no one to imitate me; what I practised in times +past, I authorize no one to practise to-day. I have not apprised you of +this, but you ought to have divined it, and for not having divined it, +you shall have war." + +Precedents keep then their full value. What are they? + +The enemies of America have cited one which has nothing to do here; the +letter written by King Louis Philippe to Queen Victoria to express his +regret that a pilot under the protection of the British flag had been +carried away by the expedition bound to Mexico. A very different thing +is an abduction of this kind, having nothing in common with the right of +search or the maintenance of neutrality, and the capture of the Southern +Commissioners. + +It is in the familiar history of the right of search that precedents +must he sought, and they abound there. + +In quoting some of them, I impose on myself a double law: first, I will +not confound acts of violence with precedents, and from the abuse which +the English made in times past of their maritime preponderance, I will +not conclude that every one is at liberty to do to-day as they have +done; secondly, among the grave and weighty authors who have made a +special study of these questions in the quiet of their retirement, I +will confine myself to consulting none but English authorities. +Doubtless, they will not think of challenging these in England. + +Chancellor Kent writes: "If, on making the search, it be discovered that +the vessel is employed hi contraband trade, that it transports the +enemy's property, troops, or _despatches_, it may be rightfully seized +and carried for adjudication before a prize court." + +Mr. Phillimore, an English author and an authority on these questions, +and one of the judges in the Admiralty, expresses himself thus: "The +carrying of official despatches written by official personages on the +public affairs of one of the belligerents, _impresses a hostile +character on those bearing them_." + +Sir William Scott is no less precise: "The transportation of two or +three shiploads of ammunition is necessarily a limited assistance; _but, +by despatches, the whole plan of the campaign may be transmitted in such +a manner as to destroy all the plans of the other belligerent in that +part of the world."_ And he dwells at length on this idea, insisting on +the incompatibility which exists between veritable neutrality and the +bearing of despatches, "which is an act of the most prejudicial and +hostile nature." + +Let us also cite Mr. Jenkinson, afterwards Lord Liverpool. He +establishes in clear terms the fundamental principle of the matter by +putting this question, which plain good sense must answer: "Can it be +lawful for you to extend this right (that of the free navigation of +neutral vessels) in such a way as to injure me and to serve my enemy?" + +Observe that the Queen, in her proclamation of neutrality, has been +careful not to omit the interdiction of the transport of despatches. She +therein declares that those who transport "officers, soldiers, +_despatches_, arms, ammunition, or any other article considered by law +and modern usage as contraband of war, for either of the contenders, +will do it at his own risk and peril, and will incur the high +displeasure of her Majesty." + +Nothing can be more explicit, more consistent, and at the same time more +reasonable than these declarations. Sir William Scott is right in +saying, that, in undertaking to carry despatches, persons cease to be +neutrals and become enemies; this is evident, above all, in the present +conflict. As the serious chances of success of the South are all in +Europe, as it would not have revolted had it not counted on Europe, as +it would lay down its arms to-morrow if it were proved to it that never, +for cotton or any thing else, would Europe come to its aid, it follows, +thenceforth, that the despatches forwarded from the South to Europe +greatly surpass in military importance the sending of soldiers or +supplies. + +This being so, what ought the commander of the packet _Trent_ to have +done? I do not impugn his intentions, he may have acted very innocently; +but if this excuse of ignorance of the rules of the law be valid for +him, I think that it should also be so for Captain Wilkes, and that +there would be little justice in treating with extreme rigor a first +offence which evidently has taken every one by surprise, and has found +nowhere a very complete understanding of the conditions of the right of +search. + +The commander of the _Trent_ saw men come to him, whose quality as +Southern Commissioners challenged his attention. He knew what anxiety +and trouble were pervading the North concerning their mission and +despatches, the contents of which excited grave suspicions; there had +even been talk, exaggerated, doubtless, of a proposition of a +protectorate and other offers, designed to gain at any price the support +of one or more maritime powers. The enthusiastic welcome which the +people of Havana, enemies of the United States, and ardent friends of +slavery, had just given to Messrs. Mason and Slidell, permits no doubt +of the especial gravity of the hostile mandate with which they were +charged. Then or never was the occasion to say that messengers and +messages of this nature must travel under their own flag, and that +neutrals were bound not to facilitate their mission in any manner. In +circumstances so grave, and with such a responsibility, commanders of +packets could not take refuge behind their innocence, or argue that the +consul of the United States had not taken pains to forewarn them. I +should like to know what reception a neutral would find in England, who +should take it into his head to say to her: "I thought myself at liberty +to carry hostile despatches and those bearing them, because the English +consul did not come to bind me to do nothing of the sort." + +Is it true, as has been maintained, that the fault was divided, the +message having been carried by one packet and the messengers by another? +This appears doubtful, and matters little, moreover, in the eyes of +impartial judges. The fact is, that voluminous papers were seized on the +_Trent_, at the same time with the rebel commissioners. + +Now, and to have done with the question of right, shall I say a few +words of what it is permissible to call the hackneyed rhetoric and +declamation of the subject? + +Men have talked, of course, of an insult to the flag; they have called +to mind that the deck of an English vessel is the same as the soil of +the country; they have invoked the rights of British hospitality, and +demanded whether she could consent to see her guests taken from her by +force. So many phrases for effect, which unhappily never fail to arouse +implacable passions! But what is there behind these phrases? + +The flag is not insulted when the search is exercised in conformity with +the law of nations. It is in vain that the deck of an English merchant +vessel is the soil of the country; a belligerent is authorized to seize +it, if it is carrying men employed in behalf of the enemy; officers, for +example. The rights of hospitality are bounded by the duties of +neutrality, and the vessel which would claim to protect its guests at +any price, when its guests serve the war, would simply be guilty of a +culpable action. + +In brief, there are wrongs on both sides, and if ever difference +admitted of discussion, interpretation, if necessary, arbitration even, +it is certainly this. Be sure, therefore, that Europe, attentive to all +that is passing, and desirous of averting war, will find it inexplicable +if the question be put in insulting terms, of a nature to render +hostilities almost inevitable. + +If, in fine, Captain Wilkes had seized the vessel instead of seizing the +Commissioners, and if the vessel had been duly condemned by an American +court, the proceeding would have been irreproachably regular. This being +so, by the acknowledgment of the English themselves, who will be willing +to admit that any will be found bold enough to cause an irretrievably +fatal rupture to grow out of a quarrel of this kind, concerning the mode +of procedure. England has consulted her legal advisers; America will +consult hers also. Do disputes in which the national honor is involved +admit of consultations of this sort? Are lawyers or judges ever asked +whether the country is insulted or attacked when it really is so? + +Let England assure herself that the first condition of the demand for +reparation is, that she shall make the reparation _possible_. Time is +needed. Patience is needed--patience which will not pause before the +first difficulty, and take as final the first refusal. Courtesy is +needed--courtesy, which, in the stronger, agrees so well with dignity, +and avoids rendering the form of satisfaction unnecessarily wounding and +consequently almost inadmissible. It is clear that if she contents +herself with signifying to Washington an absolute demand, if she gives a +single week, if she exacts (let us foresee the impossible) not only the +setting at liberty of the Commissioners themselves, but their +transportation on an American vessel charged to trail its repentant flag +across the seas, if she accepts no more easy mode, if she hearkens to no +mediation, it is clear that Mr. Lincoln will need superhuman courage to +grant what she thus demands. + +This superhuman courage I wish for him, I ask of him; in displaying it, +he will have deserved much of America and of humanity. But I hope little +for such marvels, nor do I believe that it is fitting to exact miracles +in serious affairs. + +The English were full of condescension and generosity towards America +while she was strong. If they should be so unfortunate as no longer to +have condescension and generosity towards America, when she is weak, +they would warrant suppositions much more fatal to their honor than is +the grave error (yet easily reparable with the good will of both +parties) just committed by Captain Wilkes. + +I have the right to hold this language to them, for I am of the number +of those who lore England and have proved it. In my first parliamentary +speech, which was on occasion of this very right of search, I exposed +myself to much animosity in defending her. Later, in the Pritchard +affair, I did not draw back. Even from the depths of my retreat, it has +rarely happened to me to take up my pen without rendering homage to a +country and government which are not popular among us. I have reason, +therefore, to hope that my words will have some weight. Nothing is more +antipathetic to me than a coarse and ignorant anglophobia. + +But it is important for England to know all the phases of the debate in +which she has entered. It has a European phase. This is not a discussion +between two powers; a third, the first of all, public opinion, must also +have its say. It wishes peace, and will not let it be sacrificed for an +error easily repaired and voluntarily exaggerated. Public opinion +strongly repudiates the cause of the South, which is that of slavery; +(the speeches of Mr. Stephens, Vice-President of the Southern +Confederacy, give proof of this.) At the announcement of the heinous +fact that England recognizes the Confederacy expressly founded to +maintain, glorify, and extend slavery, public opinion, believe me, +would give vent to an outburst of wrath which would cast the indignation +meetings of Liverpool wholly in the shade. + +England has maintained her neutrality in the New World for the year +past, and she deserves well for this, for angry instincts dictated to +her another policy. However, if she has been neutral, she has not been +sympathizing. This vast social revolution, which, began with the +election of Mr. Lincoln, which had inscribed on its banner, "No +extension of slavery," and which thus entered in the way leading one day +to emancipation; this generous revolution which deserved to be +encouraged, has met with little in England but distrust and hostility. +Upon other points, while preserving her neutrality, England knows very +well how to give her moral support to causes which she loves--the +support of journals, of parliamentary speeches, and of public meetings. +Here, there is nothing of the sort. I know not what fatal +misunderstanding has kept down the generous sentiments which should have +made themselves felt. From the beginning, the principal English +journals, especially those reputed to express the views of Lord +Palmerston, have not ceased to proclaim openly that the South was right +in seceding, that the separation was without remedy, that it was just +and in conformity with the wishes of England. Again and again has the +recognition of the South been presented as an act to be expected and for +which we must be prepared. + +From all this, if care be not taken, the inference will be drawn that, +in the excessive eagerness with which the affair of the _Trent_ has been +seized upon, in the peremptory terms of the demand for redress, in the +form adopted in order to render the reparation difficult, may be seen +the intention of reaching the end which England proposes; of effecting +the recognition, breaking the blockade, obtaining cotton, and +substituting a parcelled-out America for the too powerful Republic of +the United States. + +Liverpool has, this time, given the signal, Lancashire urges on the +rupture; behind the national honor, there may be something else. Take +care! if this must not be thought, it must not be true. + +And it will be true if you declare the question closed at the very +moment when it begins to attract public attention; if you exact a +reparation without admitting an explanation; if, in short, you reject in +advance all idea of negotiation, mediation, or arbitration. + +War, instead of negotiation, mediation, or arbitration; war, at the +first word, for a question which has been submitted to legal advisers, +and which offers facilities assuredly for several equally sincere +interpretations; _war at, any price_ does not belong to our times. + +What I say here, others will make it their business to say on the other +side of the channel; there have been, there will be, liberal and +Christian voices there, who will not fear to protest against the +incitements of passion. We have heard little yet except the bells of the +manufactories; other sounds will soon make themselves heard; the great +party which, in abolishing slavery and combating the slave trade, has +won the chief title of honor in England--this great party, I think, is +not dead. It is time for it to give signs of life. + +As to America, its friends are awaiting its final resolutions with an +anxiety which I scarcely dare depict. Never was graver question placed +before a government. The whole future is contained in it. If she be +sufficiently mistress of herself to grant what is asked and to admit a +reparation, even though it be excessive, of the fault evidently +committed in her name, she will have the approbation and esteem of all +true hearts. Her ship--the ship which brings, back the Commissioners +--will be welcomed with acclamations to our shores, and it will +be plainly seen that the United States in yielding much is neither +weakened nor humiliated. + +Ah! the affair would he so easily arranged, if both sides desired it! On +both sides are men so worthy to effect a reconciliation for the glory of +our times and the happiness of humanity! On both sides are nations so +well fitted to understand and to love each other! Must we despair then +of the progress of the spirit of peace? Must we look with our own eyes +upon English vessels employed in ensuring the success of the champions +of slavery? Must we veil our head with our mantle? + +A. DE GASPARIN. + +VALLEYRES, (SWITZERLAND,) _December_ 5, 1861. + +P.S.--I wish to add here a single observation: I have not pretended to +exhaust, in this rapid study, the decisions which might be borrowed from +English authors, and which would be of a kind to be appealed to by +America. Sir William Scott, for example, (see C. Robinson, p. 467,) says +in express terms: "_You may stop the ambassador of your enemy."_ I have +been careful not to draw the conclusion from this, on my part, that +Captain Wilkes was right in acting as he did; I simply infer from it +that the case is by no means a hanging one, and that in stopping the +Commissioners and their papers without stopping the ship and turning her +from her course, he yielded perhaps (let us be just to all) to the +desire of not exposing the packet and passengers to serious +inconveniences. Let us say that he was unfortunate, since his courtesy +on this point seems to have become the blackest of his misdeeds. In +truth, to see in the affair of the _Trent_, all that England has seen in +it, it is necessary to commence by supposing that the United States, +which have already a sufficiently heavy task on their hands, it seems to +me, have been tempted, besides, to procure a quarrel with Great Britain. +Hypotheses of this kind will be welcomed only by those who feel +themselves unconquerably impelled to praise the messages of Mr. +Jefferson Davis, and to stretch their hand decidedly to the brave South, +which has so much to complain of, and which is defending so just a +cause![C] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote C: This article, with the exception of a few changes and +additions, was inserted in the _Journal des Debats_, December 11, 12, +and 18.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Uprising of a Great People +by Count Agenor de Gasparin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE UPRISING OF A GREAT PEOPLE *** + +***** This file should be named 10637.txt or 10637.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/6/3/10637/ + +Produced by Virginia Paque and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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