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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Contest in America + +Author: John Stuart Mill + +Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5123] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on May 5, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE CONTEST IN AMERICA *** + + + + +Redacted by Curtis A. Weyant <curtis@pluckerbooks.com> + +Proofed by David A. Maddock <dave@pluckerbooks.com> + + +[Redactor's note: Italics are indicated by underscores surrounding +the _italicized text_.] + + + + + + THE CONTEST IN AMERICA + + BY JOHN STUART MILL + + REPRINTED FROM FRASER'S MAGAZINE + + + + The Contest in America + + + + +The cloud which for the space of a month hung gloomily over the +civilized world, black with far worse evils than those of simple war, +has passed from over our heads without bursting. The fear has not been +realized, that the only two first-rate Powers who are also free +nations would take to tearing each other in pieces, both the one and +the other in a bad and odious cause. For while, on the American side, +the war would have been one of reckless persistency in wrong, on ours +it would have been a war in alliance with, and, to practical purposes, +in defence and propagation of, slavery. We had, indeed, been wronged. +We had suffered an indignity, and something more than an indignity, +which, not to have resented, would have been to invite a constant +succession of insults and injuries from the same and from every other +quarter. We could have acted no otherwise than we have done: yet it is +impossible to think, without something like a shudder, from what we +have escaped. We, the emancipators of the slave--who have wearied +every Court and Government in Europe and America with our protests and +remonstrances, until we goaded them into at least ostensibly +coöperating with us to prevent the enslaving of the negro--we, who for +the last half century have spent annual sums, equal to the revenue of +a small kingdom, in blockading the African coast, for a cause in which +we not only had no interest, but which was contrary to our pecuniary +interest, and which many believed would ruin, as many among us still, +though erroneously, believe that it has ruined, our colonies,--_we_ +should have lent a hand to setting up, in one of the most commanding +positions of the world, a powerful republic, devoted not only to +slavery, but to pro-slavery propagandism--should have helped to give a +place in the community of nations to a conspiracy of slave-owners, who +have broken their connection with the American Federation on the sole +ground, ostentatiously proclaimed, that they thought an attempt would +be made to restrain, not slavery itself, but their purpose of +spreading slavery wherever migration or force could carry it. + +A nation which has made the professions that England has, does not +with impunity, under however great provocation, betake itself to +frustrating the objects for which it has been calling on the rest of +the world to make sacrifices of what they think their interest. At +present all the nations of Europe have sympathized with us; have +acknowledged that we were injured, and declared with rare unanimity, +that we had no choice but to resist, if necessary, by arms. But the +consequences of such a war would soon have buried its causes in +oblivion. When the new Confederate States, made an independent Power +by English help, had begun their crusade to carry negro slavery from +the Potomac to Cape Horn; who would then have remembered that England +raised up this scourge to humanity not for the evil's sake, but +because somebody had offered an insult to her flag? Or even if +unforgotten, who would then have felt that such a grievance was a +sufficient palliation of the crime? Every reader of a newspaper, to +the farthest ends of the earth, would have believed and remembered one +thing only--that at the critical juncture which was to decide whether +slavery should blaze up afresh with increased vigor or be trodden out +at the moment of conflict between the good and the evil spirit--at the +dawn of a hope that the demon might now at last be chained and flung +into the pit, England stepped in, and, for the sake of cotton, made +Satan victorious. + +The world has been saved from this calamity, and England from this +disgrace. The accusation would indeed have been a calumny. But to be +able to defy calumny, a nation, like an individual, must stand very +clear of just reproach in its previous conduct. Unfortunately, we +ourselves have given too much plausibility to the charge. Not by +anything said or done by us as a Government or as a nation, but by the +tone of our press, and in some degree, it must be owned, the general +opinion of English society. It is too true, that the feelings which +have been manifested since the beginning of the American contest--the +judgments which have been put forth, and the wishes which have been +expressed concerning the incidents and probable eventualities of the +struggle--the bitter and irritating criticism which has been kept up, +not even against both parties equally, but almost solely against the +party in the right, and the ungenerous refusal of all those just +allowances which no country needs more than our own, whenever its +circumstances are as near to those of America as a cut finger is to an +almost mortal wound,--these facts, with minds not favorably disposed +to us, would have gone far to make the most odious interpretation of +the war in which we have been so nearly engaged with the United +States, appear by many degrees the most probable. There is no denying +that our attitude towards the contending parties (I mean our moral +attitude, for politically there was no other course open to us than +neutrality) has not been that which becomes a people who are as +sincere enemies of slavery as the English really are, and have made as +great sacrifices to put an end to it where they could. And it has been +an additional misfortune that some of our most powerful journals have +been for many years past very unfavorable exponents of English feeling +on all subjects connected with slavery: some, probably, from the +influences, more or less direct, of West Indian opinions and +interests: others from inbred Toryism, which, even when compelled by +reason to hold opinions favorable to liberty, is always adverse to it +in feeling; which likes the spectacle of irresponsible power exercised +by one person over others; which has no moral repugnance to the +thought of human beings born to the penal servitude for life, to which +for the term of a few years we sentence our most hardened criminals, +but keeps its indignation to be expended on "rabid and fanatical +abolitionists" across the Atlantic, and on those writers in England +who attach a sufficiently serious meaning to their Christian +professions, to consider a fight against slavery as a fight for God. + +Now, when the mind of England, and it may almost be said, of the +civilized part of mankind, has been relieved from the incubus which +had weighed on it ever since the _Trent_ outrage, and when we are no +longer feeling towards the Northern Americans as men feel towards +those with whom they may be on the point of struggling for life or +death; now, if ever, is the time to review our position, and consider +whether we have been feeling what ought to have been felt, and wishing +what ought to have been wished, regarding the contest in which the +Northern States are engaged with the South. + +In considering this matter, we ought to dismiss from our minds, as far +as possible, those feelings against the North, which have been +engendered not merely by the _Trent_ aggression, but by the previous +anti-British effusions of newspaper writers and stump orators. It is +hardly worth while to ask how far these explosions of ill-humor are +anything more than might have been anticipated from ill-disciplined +minds, disappointed of the sympathy which they justly thought they had +a right to expect from the great anti-slavery people, in their really +noble enterprise. It is almost superfluous to remark that a democratic +Government always shows worst where other Governments generally show +best, on its outside; that unreasonable people are much more noisy +than the reasonable; that the froth and scum are the part of a +violently fermenting liquid that meets the eyes, but are not its body +and substance. Without insisting on these things, I contend, that all +previous cause of offence should be considered as cancelled, by the +reparation which the American Government has so amply made; not so +much the reparation itself, which might have been so made as to leave +still greater cause of permanent resentment behind it; but the manner +and spirit in which they have made it. These have been such as most of +us, I venture to say, did not by any means expect. If reparation were +made at all, of which few of us felt more than a hope, we thought that +it would have been made obviously as a concession to prudence, not to +principle. We thought that there would have been truckling to the +newspaper editors and supposed fire-eaters who were crying out for +retaining the prisoners at all hazards. We expected that the +atonement, if atonement there were, would have been made with +reservations, perhaps under protest. We expected that the +correspondence would have been spun out, and a trial made to induce +England to be satisfied with less; or that there would have been a +proposal of arbitration; or that England would have been asked to make +concessions in return for justice; or that if submission was made, it +would have been made, ostensibly, to the opinions and wishes of +Continental Europe. We expected anything, in short, which would have +been weak and timid and paltry. The only thing which no one seemed to +expect, is what has actually happened. Mr. Lincoln's Government have +done none of these things. Like honest men, they have said in direct +terms, that our demand was right; that they yielded to it because it +was just; that if they themselves had received the same treatment, +they would have demanded the same reparation; and that if what seemed +to be the American side of a question was not the just side, they +would be on the side of justice; happy as they were to find after +their resolution had been taken, that it was also the side which +America had formerly defended. Is there any one, capable of a moral +judgment or feeling, who will say that his opinion of America and +American statesmen, is not raised by such an act, done on such +grounds? The act itself may have been imposed by the necessity of the +circumstances; but the reasons given, the principles of action +professed, were their own choice. Putting the worst hypothesis +possible, which it would be the height of injustice to entertain +seriously, that the concession was really made solely to convenience, +and that the profession of regard for justice was hypocrisy, even so, +the ground taken, even if insincerely, is the most hopeful sign of the +moral state of the American mind which has appeared for many years. +That a sense of justice should be the motive which the rulers of a +country rely on, to reconcile the public to an unpopular, and what +might seem a humiliating act; that the journalists, the orators, many +lawyers, the Lower House of Congress, and Mr. Lincoln's own naval +secretary, should be told in the face of the world, by their own +Government, that they have been giving public thanks, presents of +swords, freedom of cities, all manner of heroic honors to the author +of an act which, though not so intended, was lawless and wrong, and +for which the proper remedy is confession and atonement; that this +should be the accepted policy (supposing it to be nothing higher) of a +Democratic Republic, shows even unlimited democracy to be a better +thing than many Englishmen have lately been in the habit of +considering it, and goes some way towards proving that the aberrations +even of a ruling multitude are only fatal when the better instructed +have not the virtue or the courage to front them boldly. Nor ought it +to be forgotten, to the honor of Mr. Lincoln's Government, that in +doing what was in itself right, they have done also what was best +fitted to allay the animosity which was daily becoming more bitter +between the two nations so long as the question remained open. They +have put the brand of confessed injustice upon that rankling and +vindictive resentment with which the profligate and passionate part of +the American press has been threatening us in the event of concession, +and which is to be manifested by some dire revenge, to be taken, as +they pretend, after the nation is extricated from its present +difficulties. Mr. Lincoln has done what depended on him to make this +spirit expire with the occasion which raised it up; and we shall have +ourselves chiefly to blame if we keep it alive by the further +prolongation of that stream of vituperative eloquence, the source of +which, even now, when the cause of quarrel has been amicably made up, +does not seem to have run dry. {1} + + +{1. I do not forget one regrettable passage in Mr. Seward's letter, +in which he said that "if the safety of the Union required the +detention of the captured persons, it would be the right and duty of +this Government to detain them." I sincerely grieve to find this +sentence in the dispatch, for the exceptions to the general rules of +morality are not a subject to be lightly or unnecessarily tampered +with. The doctrine in itself is no other than that professed and +acted on by all governments--that self-preservation, in a State, as +in an individual, is a warrant for many things which at all other +times ought to be rigidly abstained from. At all events, no nation +which has ever passed "laws of exception," which ever supended the +Habeas Corpus Act or passed an Alien Bill in dread of a Chartist +insurrection, has a right to throw the first stone at Mr. Lincoln's +Government.} + +Let us, then, without reference to these jars, or to the declamations +of newspaper writers on either side of the Atlantic, examine the +American question as it stood from the beginning; its origin, the +purpose of both the combatants, and its various possible or probable +issues. + +There is a theory in England, believed perhaps by some, half believed +by many more, which is only consistent with original ignorance, or +complete subsequent forgetfulness, of all the antecedents of the +contest. There are people who tell us that, on the side of the North, +the question is not one of slavery at all. The North, it seems, have +no more objection to slavery than the South have. Their leaders never +say one word implying disapprobation of it. They are ready, on the +contrary, to give it new guarantees; to renounce all that they have +been contending for; to win back, if opportunity offers, the South to +the Union by surrendering the whole point. + +If this be the true state of the case, what are the Southern chiefs +fighting about? Their apologists in England say that it is about +tariffs, and similar trumpery. _They_ say nothing of the kind. They +tell the world, and they told their own citizens when they wanted +their votes, that the object of the fight was slavery. Many years ago, +when General Jackson was President, South Carolina did nearly rebel +(she never was near separating) about a tariff; but no other State +abetted her, and a strong adverse demonstration from Virginia brought +the matter to a close. Yet the tariff of that day was rigidly +protective. Compared with that, the one in force at the time of the +secession was a free-trade tariff: This latter was the result of +several successive modifications in the direction of freedom; and its +principle was not protection for protection, but as much of it only as +might incidentally result from duties imposed for revenue. Even the +Morrill tariff (which never could have been passed but for the +Southern secession) is stated by the high authority of Mr. H. C. Carey +to be considerably more liberal than the reformed French tariff under +Mr. Cobden's treaty; insomuch that he, a Protectionist, would be glad +to exchange his own protective tariff for Louis Napoleon's free-trade +one. But why discuss, on probable evidence, notorious facts? The world +knows what the question between the North and South has been for many +years, and still is. Slavery alone was thought of, alone talked of. +Slavery was battled for and against, on the floor of Congress and in +the plains of Kansas; on the slavery question exclusively was the +party constituted which now rules the United States: on slavery +Fremont was rejected, on slavery Lincoln was elected; the South +separated on slavery, and proclaimed slavery as the one cause of +separation. + +It is true enough that the North are not carrying on war to abolish +slavery in the States where it legally exists. Could it have been +expected, or even perhaps desired, that they should? A great party +does not change suddenly, and at once, all its principles and +professions. The Republican party have taken their stand on law, and +the existing constitution of the Union. They have disclaimed all right +to attempt anything which that constitution forbids. It does forbid +interference by the Federal Congress with slavery in the Slave States; +but it does not forbid their abolishing it in the District of +Columbia; and this they are now doing, having voted, I perceive, in +their present pecuniary straits, a million of dollars to indemnify the +slave-owners of the District. Neither did the Constitution, in their +own opinion, require them to permit the introduction of slavery into +the territories which were not yet States. To prevent this, the +Republican party was formed, and to prevent it, they are now fighting, +as the slave-owners are fighting to enforce it. + +The present government of the United States is not an Abolitionist +government. Abolitionists, in America, mean those who do not keep +within the constitution; who demand the destruction (as far as slavery +is concerned) of as much of it as protects the internal legislation of +each State from the control of Congress; who aim at abolishing slavery +wherever it exists, by force if need be, but certainly by some other +power than the constituted authorities of the Slave States. The +Republican party neither aim nor profess to aim at this object. And +when we consider the flood of wrath which would have been poured out +against them if they did, by the very writers who now taunt them with +not doing it, we shall be apt to think the taunt a little misplaced. +But though not an Abolitionist party, they are a Free-soil party. If +they have not taken arms against slavery, they have against its +extension. And they know, as we may know if we please, that this +amounts to the same thing. The day when slavery can no longer extend +itself, is the day of its doom. The slave-owners know this, and it is +the cause of their fury. They know, as all know who have attended to +the subject, that confinement within existing limits is its +death-warrant. Slavery, under the conditions in which it exists in the +States, exhausts even the beneficent powers of nature. So incompatible +is it with any kind whatever of skilled labor, that it causes the +whole productive resources of the country to be concentrated on one or +two products, cotton being the chief, which require, to raise and +prepare them for the market, little besides brute animal force. The +cotton cultivation, in the opinion of all competent judges, alone +saves North American slavery; but cotton cultivation, exclusively +adhered to, exhausts in a moderate number of years all the soils which +are fit for it, and can only be kept up by travelling farther and +farther westward. Mr. Olmsted has given a vivid description of the +desolate state of parts of Georgia and the Carolinas, once among the +richest specimens of soil and cultivation in the world; and even the +more recently colonized Alabama, as he shows, is rapidly following in +the same downhill track. To slavery, therefore, it is a matter of life +and death to find fresh fields for the employment of slave labor. +Confine it to the present States, and the owners of slave property +will either be speedily ruined, or will have to find means of +reforming and renovating their agricultural system; which cannot be +done without treating the slaves like human beings, nor without so +large an employment of skilled, that is, of free labor, as will widely +displace the unskilled, and so depreciate the pecuniary value of the +slave, that the immediate mitigation and ultimate extinction of +slavery would be a nearly inevitable and probably rapid consequence. + +The Republican leaders do not talk to the public of these almost +certain results of success in the present conflict. They talk but +little, in the existing emergency, even of the original cause of +quarrel. The most ordinary policy teaches them to inscribe on their +banner that part only of their known principles in which their +supporters are unanimous. The preservation of the Union is an object +about which the North are agreed; and it has many adherents, as they +believe, in the South generally. That nearly half the population of +the Border Slave States are in favor of it is a patent fact, since +they are now fighting in its defence. It is not probable that they +would be willing to fight directly against slavery. The Republicans +well know that if they can reëstablish the Union, they gain everything +for which they originally contended; and it would be a plain breach of +faith with the Southern friends of the Government, if, after rallying +them round its standard for a purpose of which they approve, it were +suddenly to alter its terms of communion without their consent. + +But the parties in a protracted civil war almost invariably end by +taking more extreme, not to say higher grounds of principle, than they +began with. Middle parties and friends of compromise are soon left +behind; and if the writers who so severely criticize the present +moderation of the Free-soilers are desirous to see the war become an +abolition war, it is probable that if the war lasts long enough they +will be gratified. Without the smallest pretension to see further into +futurity than other people, I at least have foreseen and foretold from +the first, that if the South were not promptly put down, the contest +would become distinctly an antislavery one; nor do I believe that any +person, accustomed to reflect on the course of human affairs in +troubled times, can expect anything else. Those who have read, even +cursorily, the most valuable testimony to which the English public +have access, concerning the real state of affairs in America--the +letters of the _Times'_ correspondent, Mr. Russell--must have observed +how early and rapidly he arrived at the same conclusion, and with what +increasing emphasis he now continually reiterates it. In one of his +recent letters he names the end of next summer as the period by which, +if the war has not sooner terminated, it will have assumed a complete +anti-slavery character. So early a term exceeds, I confess, my most +sanguine hopes; but if Mr. Russell be right, Heaven forbid that the +war should cease sooner; for if it lasts till then, it is quite +possible that it will regenerate the American people. + +If, however, the purposes of the North may be doubted or +misunderstood, there is at least no question as to those of the South. +They make no concealment of _their_ principles. As long as they were +allowed to direct all the policy of the Union; to break through +compromise after compromise, encroach step after step, until they +reached the pitch of claiming a right to carry slave property into the +Free States, and, in opposition to the laws of those States, hold it +as property there; so long, they were willing to remain in the Union. +The moment a President was elected of whom it was inferred from his +opinions, not that he would take any measures against slavery where it +exists, but that he would oppose its establishment where it exists +not,--that moment they broke loose from what was, at least, a very +solemn contract, and formed themselves into a Confederation professing +as its fundamental principle not merely the perpetuation, but the +indefinite extension of slavery. And the doctrine is loudly preached +through the new Republic, that slavery, whether black or white, is a +good in itself, and the proper condition of the working classes +everywhere. + +Let me, in a few words, remind the reader what sort of a thing this +is, which the white oligarchy of the South have banded themselves +together to propagate and establish, if they could, universally. When +it is wished to describe any portion of the human race as in the +lowest state of debasement, and under the most cruel oppression, in +which it is possible for human beings to live, they are compared to +slaves. When words are sought by which to stigmatize the most odious +despotism, exercised in the most odious manner, and all other +comparisons are found inadequate, the despots are said to be like +slave-masters, or slave-drivers. What, by a rhetorical license, the +worst oppressors of the human race, by way of stamping on them the +most hateful character possible, are said to be, these men, in very +truth, are. I do not mean that all of them are hateful personally, any +more than all the Inquisitors, or all the buccaneers. But the position +which they occupy, and the abstract excellence of which they are in +arms to vindicate, is that which the united voice of mankind +habitually selects as the type of all hateful qualities. I will not +bandy chicanery about the more or less of stripes or other torments +which are daily requisite to keep the machine in working order, nor +discuss whether the Legrees or the St. Clairs are more numerous among +the slave-owners of the Southern States. The broad facts of the case +suffice. One fact is enough. There are, Heaven knows, vicious and +tyrannical institutions in ample abundance on the earth. But this +institution is the only one of them all which requires, to keep it +going, that human beings should be burnt alive. The calm and +dispassionate Mr. Olmsted affirms that there has not been a single +year, for many years past, in which this horror is not known to have +been perpetrated in some part or other of the South. And not upon +negroes only; the _Edinburgh Review_, in a recent number, gave the +hideous details of the burning alive of an unfortunate Northern +huckster by Lynch law, on mere suspicion of having aided in the escape +of a slave. What must American slavery be, if deeds like these are +necessary under it?--and if they are not necessary and are yet done, +is not the evidence against slavery still more damning? The South are +in rebellion not for simple slavery; they are in rebellion for the +right of burning human creatures alive. + +But we are told, by a strange misapplication of a true principle, that +the South had a _right_ to separate; that their separation ought to +have been consented to, the moment they showed themselves ready to +fight for it; and that the North, in resisting it, are committing the +same error and wrong which England committed in opposing the original +separation of the thirteen colonies. This is carrying the doctrine of +the sacred right of insurrection rather far. It is wonderful how easy +and liberal and complying people can be in other people's concerns. +Because they are willing to surrender their own past, and have no +objection to join in reprobation of their great-grandfathers, they +never put themselves the question what they themselves would do in +circumstances far less trying, under far less pressure of real +national calamity. Would those who profess these ardent revolutionary +principles consent to their being applied to Ireland, or India, or the +Ionian Islands. How have they treated those who did attempt so to +apply them? But the case can dispense with any mere _argumentum ad +hominem_. I am not frightened at the word rebellion. I do not scruple +to say that I have sympathized more or less ardently with most of the +rebellions, successful and unsuccessful, which have taken place in my +time. But I certainly never conceived that there was a sufficient +title to my sympathy in the mere fact of being a rebel; that the act +of taking arms against one's fellow-citizens was so meritorious in +itself, was so completely its own justification, that no question need +be asked concerning the motive. It seems to me a strange doctrine that +the most serious and responsible of all human acts imposes no +obligation on those who do it of showing that they have a real +grievance; that those who rebel for the power of oppressing others, +exercise as sacred a right as those who do the same thing to resist +oppression practised upon themselves. Neither rebellion nor any other +act which affects the interests of others, is sufficiently legitimated +by the mere will to do it. Secession may be laudable, and so may any +other kind of insurrection; but it may also be an enormous crime. It +is the one or the other, according to the object and the provocation. +And if there ever was an object which, by its bare announcement, +stamped rebels against a particular community as enemies of mankind, +it is the one professed by the South. Their right to separate is the +right which Cartouche or Turpin would have had to secede from their +respective countries, because the laws of those countries would not +suffer them to rob and murder on the highway. The only real difference +is that the present rebels are more powerful than Cartouche or Turpin, +and may possibly be able to effect their iniquitous purpose. + +Suppose, however, for the sake of argument, that the mere will to +separate were in this case, or in any case, a sufficient ground for +separation, I beg to be informed _whose_ will? The will of any knot of +men who, by fair means or foul, by usurpation, terrorism, or fraud, +have got the reins of government into their hands? If the inmates of +Parkhurst Prison were to get possession of the Isle of Wight, occupy +its military positions, enlist one part of its inhabitants in their +own ranks, set the remainder of them to work in chain gangs, and +declare themselves independent, ought their recognition by the British +Government to be an immediate consequence? Before admitting the +authority of any persons, as organs of the will of the people, to +dispose of the whole political existence of a country, I ask to see +whether their credentials are from the whole, or only from a part. And +first, it is necessary to ask, Have the slaves been consulted? Has +their will been counted as any part in the estimate of collective +volition? They are a part of the population. However natural in the +country itself, it is rather cool in English writers who talk so +glibly of the ten millions (I believe there are only eight), to pass +over the very existence of four millions who must abhor the idea of +separation. Remember, _we_ consider them to be human beings, entitled +to human rights. Nor can it be doubted that the mere fact of belonging +to a Union in some parts of which slavery is reprobated, is some +alleviation of their condition, if only as regards future +probabilities. But even of the white population, it is questionable if +there was in the beginning a majority for secession anywhere but in +South Carolina. Though the thing was pre-determined, and most of the +States committed by their public authorities before the people were +called on to vote; though in taking the votes terrorism in many places +reigned triumphant; yet even so, in several of the States, secession +was carried only by narrow majorities. In some the authorities have +not dared to publish the numbers; in some it is asserted that no vote +has ever been taken. Further (as was pointed out in an admirable +letter by Mr. Carey), the Slave States are intersected in the middle, +from their northern frontier almost to the Gulf of Mexico, by a +country of free labor--the mountain region of the Alleghanies and +their dependencies, forming parts of Virginia, North Carolina, +Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama, in which, from the nature of the +climate and of the agricultural and mining industry, slavery to any +material extent never did, and never will, exist. This mountain zone +is peopled by ardent friends of the Union. Could the Union abandon +them, without even an effort, to be dealt with at the pleasure of an +exasperated slave-owning oligarchy? Could it abandon the Germans who, +in Western Texas, have made so meritorious a commencement of growing +cotton on the borders of the Mexican Gulf by free labor? Were the +right of the slave-owners to secede ever so clear, they have no right +to carry these with them; unless allegiance is a mere question of +local proximity, and my next neighbor, if I am a stronger man, can be +compelled to follow me in any lawless vagaries I choose to indulge. + +But (it is said) the North will never succeed in conquering the South; +and since the separation must in the end be recognized, it is better +to do at first what must be done at last; moreover, if it did conquer +them, it could not govern them when conquered, consistently with free +institutions. With no one of these propositions can I agree. + +Whether or not the Northern Americans will succeed in reconquering the +South, I do not affect to foresee. That they _can_ conquer it, if +their present determination holds, I have never entertained a doubt; +for they are twice as numerous, and ten or twelve times as rich. Not +by taking military possession of their country, or marching an army +through it, but by wearing them out, exhausting their resources, +depriving them of the comforts of life, encouraging their slaves to +desert, and excluding them from communication with foreign countries. +All this, of course, depends on the supposition that the North does +not give in first. Whether they will persevere to this point, or +whether their spirit, their patience, and the sacrifices they are +willing to make, will be exhausted before reaching it, I cannot tell. +They may, in the end, be wearied into recognizing the separation. But +to those who say that because this may have to be done at last, it +ought to have been done at first, I put the very serious question--On +what terms? Have they ever considered what would have been the meaning +of separation if it had been assented to by the Northern States when +first demanded? People talk as if separation meant nothing more than +the independence of the seceding States. To have accepted it under +that limitation would have been, on the part of the South, to give up +that which they have seceded expressly to preserve. Separation, with +them, means at least half the Territories; including the Mexican +border, and the consequent power of invading and overrunning Spanish +America for the purpose of planting there the "peculiar institution" +which even Mexican civilization has found too bad to be endured. There +is no knowing to what point of degradation a country may be driven in +a desperate state of its affairs; but if the North _ever_, unless on +the brink of actual ruin, makes peace with the South, giving up the +original cause of quarrel, the freedom of the Territories; if it +resigns to them when out of the Union that power of evil which it +would not grant to retain them in the Union--it will incur the pity +and disdain of posterity. And no one can suppose that the South would +have consented, or in their present temper ever will consent, to an +accommodation on any other terms. It will require a succession of +humiliation to bring them to that. The necessity of reconciling +themselves to the confinement of slavery within its existing +boundaries, with the natural consequence, immediate mitigation of +slavery, and ultimate emancipation, is a lesson which they are in no +mood to learn from anything but disaster. Two or three defeats in the +field, breaking their military strength, though not followed by an +invasion of their territory, may possibly teach it to them. If so, +there is no breach of charity in hoping that this severe schooling may +promptly come. When men set themselves up, in defiance of the rest of +the world, to do the devil's work, no good can come of them until the +world has made them feel that this work cannot be suffered to be done +any longer. If this knowledge does not come to them for several years, +the abolition question will by that time have settled itself. For +assuredly Congress will very soon make up its mind to declare all +slaves free who belong to persons in arms against the Union. When that +is done, slavery, confined to a minority, will soon cure itself; and +the pecuniary value of the negroes belonging to loyal masters will +probably not exceed the amount of compensation which the United States +will be willing and able to give. + +The assumed difficulty of governing the Southern States as free and +equal commonwealths, in case of their return to the Union, is purely +imaginary. If brought back by force, and not by voluntary compact, +they will return without the Territories, and without a Fugitive Slave +Law. It may be assumed that in that event the victorious party would +make the alterations in the Federal Constitution which are necessary +to adapt it to the new circumstances, and which would not infringe, +but strengthen, its democratic principles. An article would have to be +inserted prohibiting the extension of slavery to the Territories, or +the admission into the Union of any new Slave State. Without any other +guarantee, the rapid formation of new Free States would ensure to +freedom a decisive and constantly increasing majority in Congress. It +would also be right to abrogate that bad provision of the Constitution +(a necessary compromise at the time of its first establishment) +whereby the slaves, though reckoned as citizens in no other respect, +are counted, to the extent of three fifths of their number, in the +estimate of the population for fixing the number of representatives of +each State in the Lower House of Congress. Why should the masters have +members in right of their human chattels, any more than of their oxen +and pigs? The President, in his Message, has already proposed that +this salutary reform should be effected in the case of Maryland, +additional territory, detached from Virginia, being given to that +State as an equivalent: thus clearly indicating the policy which he +approves, and which he is probably willing to make universal. + +As it is necessary to be prepared for all possibilities, let us now +contemplate another. Let us suppose the worst possible issue of this +war--the one apparently desired by those English writers whose moral +feeling is so philosophically indifferent between the apostles of +slavery and its enemies. Suppose that the North should stoop to +recognize the new Confederation on its own terms, leaving it half the +Territories, and that it is acknowledged by Europe, and takes its +place as an admitted member of the community of nations. It will be +desirable to take thought beforehand what are to be our own future +relations with a new Power, professing the principles of Attila and +Genghis Khan as the foundation of its Constitution. Are we to see with +indifference its victorious army let loose to propagate their national +faith at the rifle's mouth through Mexico and Central America? Shall +we submit to see fire and sword carried over Cuba and Porto Rico, and +Hayti and Liberia conquered and brought back to slavery? We shall soon +have causes enough of quarrel on our own account. When we are in the +act of sending an expedition against Mexico to redress the wrongs of +private British subjects, we should do well to reflect in time that +the President of the new Republic, Mr. Jefferson Davis, was the +original inventor of repudiation. Mississippi was the first State +which repudiated, Mr. Jefferson Davis was Governor of Mississippi, and +the Legislature of Mississippi had passed a Bill recognizing and +providing for the debt, which Bill Mr. Jefferson Davis vetoed. Unless +we abandon the principles we have for two generations consistently +professed and acted on, we should be at war with the new Confederacy +within five vears about the African slave-trade. An English Government +will hardly be base enough to recognize them, unless they accept all +the treaties by which America is at present bound; nor, it may be +hoped, even if _de facto_ independent, would they be admitted to the +courtesies of diplomatic intercourse, unless they granted in the most +explicit manner the right of search. To allow the slave-ships of a +Confederation formed for the extension of slavery to come and go free, +and unexamined, between America and the African coast, would be to +renounce even the pretence of attempting to protect Africa against the +man-stealer, and abandon that Continent to the horrors, on a far +larger scale, which were practised before Granville Sharp and Clarkson +were in existence. But even if the right of intercepting their slavers +were acknowledged by treaty, which it never would be, the arrogance of +the Southern slave-holders would not long submit to its exercise. +Their pride and self-conceit, swelled to an inordinate height by their +successful struggle, would defy the power of England as they had +already successfully defied that of their Northern countrymen. After +our people by their cold disapprobation, and our press by its +invective, had combined with their own difficulties to damp the spirit +of the Free States, and drive them to submit and make peace, we should +have to fight the Slave States ourselves at far greater disadvantages, +when we should no longer have the wearied and exhausted North for an +ally. The time might come when the barbarous and barbarizing Power, +which we by our moral support had helped into existence, would require +a general crusade of civilized Europe, to extinguish the mischief +which it had allowed, and we had aided, to rise up in the midst of our +civilization. + +For these reasons I cannot join with those who cry Peace, peace. I +cannot wish that this war should not have been engaged in by the +North, or that being engaged in, it should be terminated on any +conditions but such as would retain the whole of the Territories as +free soil. I am not blind to the possibility that it may require a +long war to lower the arrogance and tame the aggressive ambition of +the slave-owners, to the point of either returning to the Union, or +consenting to remain out of it with their present limits. But war, in +a good cause, is not the greatest evil which a nation can suffer. War +is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and +degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing +worth a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere human +instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service +and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. +A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a +war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is +their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free +choice--is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has +nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more +about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature, +who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the +exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice +have not terminated _their_ ever renewing fight for ascendancy in the +affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do +battle for the one against the other. I am far from saying that the +present struggle, on the part of the Northern Americans, is wholly of +this exalted character; that it has arrived at the stage of being +altogether a war for justice, a war of principle. But there was from +the beginning, and now is, a large infusion of that element in it; and +this is increasing, will increase, and if the war lasts, will in the +end predominate. Should that time come, not only will the greatest +enormity which still exists among mankind as an institution, receive +far earlier its _coups de grâce_ than there has ever, until now, +appeared any probability of; but in effecting this the Free States +will have raised themselves to that elevated position in the scale of +morality and dignity, which is derived from great sacrifices +consciously made in a virtuous cause, and the sense of an inestimable +benefit to all future ages, brought about by their own voluntary +efforts. + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE CONTEST IN AMERICA *** + +This file should be named conam10.txt or conam10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, conam11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, conam10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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