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diff --git a/old/2004-02-conam10h.htm b/old/2004-02-conam10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b05319b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2004-02-conam10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1146 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>The Contest in America, by John Stuart Mill</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +body {margin:10%; text-align:justify} +blockquote {font-size:14pt} +P {font-size:14pt} +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<h1>The Project Gutenberg EBook of +<br>The Contest in America, by John Stuart Mill</h1> +<pre> +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. 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 *** +</pre> + +<p>Redacted by Curtis A. Weyant <<a href="mailto:curtis@pluckerbooks.com">curtis@pluckerbooks.com</a>></p> +<p>Proofed by David A. Maddock <<a href="mailto:dave@pluckerbooks.com">dave@pluckerbooks.com</a>></p> + +<p><br></p> +<p><br></p> + +<center> +<h1>THE CONTEST IN AMERICA</h1> +<h2>B<span style="font-variant: small-caps">Y</span> JOHN STUART MILL</h2> +<h4>REPRINTED FROM FRASER'S MAGAZINE</h4> +</center> + + +<p><br></p> +<p><br></p> + +<center><h1>The Contest in America</h1></center> + +<p><br></p> +<p><br></p> + +<p>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,--<em>we</em> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <em>Trent</em> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <em>Trent</em> 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}</p> + +<blockquote><p>{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.}</p></blockquote> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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. <em>They</em> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <em>Times</em>' 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.</p> + +<p>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 <em>their</em> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <em>Edinburgh Review</em>, 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.</p> + +<p>But we are told, by a strange misapplication of +a true principle, that the South had a <em>right</em> 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 <em>argumentum ad hominem</em>. 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.</p> + +<p>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 <em>whose</em> 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, <em>we</em> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Whether or not the Northern Americans will +succeed in reconquering the South, I do not affect +to foresee. That they <em>can</em> 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 +<em>ever</em>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <em>de facto</em> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <em>their</em> +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 <em>coups de grâce</em> 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.</p> + + +<pre> +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE CONTEST IN AMERICA *** + +This file should be named conam10h.htm or conam10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, conam11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, conam10ha.htm + +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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