although secondary, was nevertheless the immediate cause of the war, and he traces out very briefly, but, as we believe, with general accuracy, our political history for the last fifty years, dwelling on the means which have been used by the South to retain their ascendency in the government, and showing that, although partially successful, they in the long run had been overborne by the increasing numerical preponderance of the North, and with it, of course, of Northern sentiments also. "In that way," he continues, "the South has lived and struggled on against the growing will of the population; but at last that will became too strong, and when Mr. Lincoln was elected, the South knew that its day was over." "Such, according to my ideas, have been the causes of the war. But I cannot defend the South. As long as they could be successful in their schemes for holding the political power of the nation, they were prepared to hold by the nation. Immediately those schemes failed, they were prepared to throw the nation overboard. In this there has undoubtedly been treachery as well as rebellion. Had these politicians been honest, though the political growth of Washington has hardly admitted of political honesty, but had these politicians been even ordinarily respectable in their dishonesty, they would have claimed secession openly before Congress, while yet their own President was at the White House. Congress would not have acceded. Congress itself could not have acceded under the Constitution; but a way would have been found, had the Southern States been persistent in their demand. A way, indeed, has been found; but it has lain through fire and water, through blood and ruin, through treason and theft, and the downfall of national greatness. Secession will, I think, be accomplished, and the Southern Confederation of States will stand something higher in the world than Mexico and the republics of Central America. Her cotton monopoly will have vanished, and her wealth will have been wasted. "I think that history will agree with me in saying that the Northern States had no alternative but war. What concession could they make? Could they promise to hold their peace about slavery? And had they so promised, would the South have believed them? They might have conceded secession; that is, they might have given all that would have been demanded. But what individual chooses to yield to such demands; and if not an individual, — then what people will do so? But in truth they could not have yielded all that was demanded. Had secession been granted to South Carolina and Georgia, Virginia would have been coerced to join those States by the nature of her property, and with Virginia Maryland would have gone, and Washington, the capital. What may be the future line of division between the North and the South I will not pretend to say; but that line will probably be dictated by the North. It may still be hoped that Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland will go with the North, and be rescued from slavery. But had secession been yielded, had the prestige of success fallen to the lot of the South, those States must have become south ern." pp. 352, 353. We have made these copious extracts in order to show how very fairly Mr. Trollope has treated the subject which now, of all others, most concerns us. Had the English press generally been one half as just, we could have borne the neutrality and want of sympathy of her governing classes. While, however, we thank Mr. Trollope for his evident sympathy with the Northern cause, (and such sympathy from an Englishman, in opposition to all surrounding prejudices, is an occasion for gratitude,) we are sorry to find that he fails to see, certainly fails to state, the true moral significance of the present struggle. Slavery is not merely a bad political system, tyrannical and oppressive to the enslaved, and one which, therefore, Northern freemen cannot abide. It has a moral aspect which is vastly worse. It has degraded the masters even more than the slaves, and has produced in Southern society moral corruption which can be compared only with the worst days of Greece and Rome. Decency forbids us to dwell on the subject; but unfortunately the facts are too well known in this community to require recital, even if this were the proper place. Mrs. Stowe's novel, as eloquent and graphic as it is, does not tell half the truth. It exposes the cruelty and moral wrongs to which the system subjects the blacks; but, as bad as these are, they are not its worst evils. Cruelty in this world may be compensated in the next, and that is one of the great lessons which the gifted author has so touchingly drawn in the character of Uncle Tom; but the moral degradation of the master, what hope can we have of that? Would that the corrupting influences of slavery could have remained with him. But, unfortunately, they had insinuated themselves everywhere. They had poisoned all the springs of political action, and through these the government itself had become corrupt to its core,-North as well as South; for we have no desire to shield the North. The original sin was with the South; but the Northern political leaders who have been consenting to it and abetting it are as guilty as they, and we are now learning, to our bitter cost, that slavery is so vile that no one can touch it without being defiled. Like a cancer, it had been slowly doing its deadly work for years before the nation was aroused to its danger. But even then the North never thought of acting in an unconstitutional way. Before the election of Mr. Buchanan, it made an effort at resistance; but it failed, and for the next four years the disease increased with fearful rapidity. Then came the election of Mr. Lincoln. The North asserted its rights, and the South revolted. This is the simple story. We are now fighting to put down rebellion. The integrity of the government requires it, and it would lose all respect both at home and abroad if it allowed such treason to go unpunished. Our duty and our safety alike require us to sustain the government in the present crisis; but who does not see that what gives the bitterness and persistency to the war is not the question whether one or the other State may secede, but whether slavery, with all its attending vices, is to rule on this continent, or not? Let us of the North not forget the true issues of this contest, or fail to keep them before the world. Our danger is that political intriguers will endeavor to blind our eyes by side issues, and divide us among ourselves. They have succeeded in the past, and will succeed in the future unless we are on our guard. We cannot hope to prevail, unless we keep our great end in view. Let us then remember that we are fighting the decisive battle of civilization in the West, and that the one question is, whether freedom or slavery shall rule this continent; for one or the other must rule the whole; and as surely as the Mississippi flows into the Gulf, slavery will rule us if we do not rule it. We must not expect the sympathy of England in this contest, or waste our energy in idle words because we do not get it. England hates negro slavery; but she hates our republican institutions more; and we cannot expect that she will do more for us than she did for Poland, Hungary, or Italy. We must wage the conflict alone; but then we shall have the more glory if we conquer. In conclusion, we must again express the gratification which Mr. Trollope's book has afforded us, and we only hope that it will be as extensively read in England as it undoubtedly will be here, for if it is, it will certainly do good by correcting in some quarters prejudices which only an Englishman could reach. In his introduction he says, “It has been the ambition of my literary life to write a book about the United States," and he seems evidently anxious to do away with the impression produced in America by his mother's scurrility, although, with a son's delicacy, he does his best to guard her reputation. He writes: "Thirty years ago my mother wrote a book about the Americans, to which I believe I may allude as a well-known and successful work without being guilty of any undue family conceit. That was essentially a woman's book. She saw with a woman's keen eye, and described with a woman's light but graphic pen the social defects and absurdities which our near relatives had adopted into their domestic life. All that she told was worth the telling, and the telling, if done successfully, was sure to produce a good result. I am satisfied that it did so. But she did not regard it as a part of her work to dilate on the nature and operation of those political arrangements which had produced the social absurdities which she saw, or to explain that, though such absurdities were the natural result of those arrangements in their newness, the defects would certainly pass away, while the political arrangements, if good, would remain. Such a work is fitter for a man than for a woman." - pp. 1, 2. We can only add, that, if we are to have a series of Trollope commentators, we hope that the next may be as great an improvement on our friend as he is on his mother. ART. VII.-1. Christianisme et Paganisme. Par le COMTE AGENOR DE GASPARIN. 1848. 2 vols. 2. Le Christianisme aux trois premiers Siècles, Séances his toriques. Par le même. 1857. 3. Le Christianisme au Quatrième Siècle, Séances historiques: Constantin. Par le même. 1858. 4. Le Christianisme au Moyen Age, Séances historiques: Innocent III. Par le même. 1859. 5. Intérêts Généraux du Protestantisme Français. Par le même. 1843. 6. Après la Paix, Liberalisme et la Guerre d'Orient. Par le même. 1856. 7. La Question de Neuchâtel. Par le même. 1857. 8. Réponse à la Brochure de M. le Pasteur Adolphe Monod. 1849. 9. Les Perspectives du Temps Présent. Par le même. 1860. 10. Un Grand Peuple qui se relève. Par le même. 1861. 11. L'Amérique devant l'Europe, Principes et Intérêts. Par le même. 1862. 12. Le Bonheur. Par le même. Paris. 1862. 13. Rapports et Débats des Chambres Législatives concernant les Lois des 18 et 19 Juillet 1845, relatives au Régime des Esclaves dans les Colonies Françaises. Paris, Imprimerie Royale. THE name of DE GASPARIN will be associated with the literary history of the present war as closely as the name of LAFAYETTE is associated with the military history of the war of the Revolution. It is not a little singular that, while English writers have so generally failed to apprehend the structure of the United States government and the genius of the American people, historians and publicists of another race, trained in an atmosphere less genial to liberty than that of England, a Botta, a De Tocqueville, a De Gasparin, — have understood us in some respects even better than we have understood ourselves. In respect to the causes and motives of the American Revolution, and its leading events, Botta is more trustworthy and sagacious than some of our own "textVOL. XCV. NO. 197. 38 - |