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BOOK I.

THE CASE STATED.

GENERAL QUESTIONS.

THE ENGLISH STANDPOINT.

AMERICAN NATIONALITY AND DEMOCRACY.

"MARES' NESTS;"

OR, JOHN BULL AND THE CHIVALRY.

"The time cannot be foreseen at which a permanent inequality of conditions will be established in the new world."-De Tocqueville. "You are deceiving me or yourselves. The people is not corrupted by the political opinions of Europe, and therefore its fate does not depend upon a Battle."-Napoleon the 1st to Joseph.

“If republican principles are to perish in America, they can only yield after a laborious social process, often interrupted, and as often resumed; they will have many apparent revivals, and will not become totally extinct till an entirely new people shall have succeeded to that which now exists."-De Tocqueville, 429, Vol. 1.

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They will not endure aristocracy. All men and all powers, seeking to cope with this irresistible passion (for equality) will be overthrown and destroyed by it."-De Tocqueville.

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CHAPTER I.

THE CASE STATED.

THE QUESTION.-THE FORCES.-THE SITUATION.

CONTENTS.

THE Case stated.-The making and un-making of Nations.The comparative or the absolute.-Strength or Nationality, recognised tests.--Facts and Principles.-Believers in the old systems.-Results-The military situation and actual achievements.--Causes; and ultimate forces.-Territory.-Population.

Institutions. The alternative.-Can Democratic Equality and Nationality be maintained in America ?-What each party has to prove and to do.

The Forces Engaged.-Northern parties and Principles. Nationality.-Democracy.-Independence.-State Sovereignty. —Material Interests.--Geographical Unity.-Principle.

The Situation.-Essential Antagonism.--Quarrel must be fought out now.-Relations of Principles and parties.-The logic of war.-Tactical wars, and wars of Principle.-The march of opinion.-Statesmanship South, and necessity and principle North.-Solidarité of good, and of evil.-Suicide of the South.

THE Making, and the Un-making of Nations, is in the Man, the Institution, and the Government, and in the dealings of these with the material Bases of Power.

All considerations on the American struggle depend ultimately, upon the answer to these three questions;-First, "What is a Nation ?" Second, "What is the American Nation?" Third, "What

"is the force that assails it, and which of the two, "commands more completely, those motives of "action, and influences, which affect Individuals, "Associations, or States, and ultimately, the Na“tion ?"

It is this last question that we propose to state in the present chapter, and it involves also the question of "the Forces" or Interests and Principles, that uphold the North, and of "The Situation," or absolute nature of the Crisis.

But the enquirer must first clearly define to himself, whether he seeks the Comparative, or the Absolute,-whether he merely wants to know which of two powers is the stronger, or which of two rivals is the real Nation.

For there are two kinds of tests, whereby a pretending nation or power may be judged. One or other of them will be relied on, according as the enquirer is an expert or an ignoramus, in political science, or as he proposes to decide between rival nationalities, or only between two powers, neither of which may be a nation.

It is necessary, therefore, at once to come to an understanding as to what these tests are, what they are worth, and why they are to be rejected, or how employed.

If we only enquire which is the stronger, we may estimate the actual results of the war, and the present military situation.

But if we want to know which is the real nation, we must consider the characteristics of nationality; and apply its all comprehensive and exhaustive tests. The prizes of victory are included in the

"material bases,"-Territory, Wealth, Population. The "Military Situation," results, of course, from the Nation's Bases, Functions, and Life, and these again correspond with the ultimate "Forces" Material, Intellectual, and Spiritual.

Of Facts concerning the American rebellion, and of vague speculations upon their results, the world has had enough and a nausea.

What is wanted now is to know what can be determined, and what cannot, to bring the undoubted facts of the case, in juxtaposition with unquestionable Principles of Statesmanship, and see what they have to say to one another,-whether the future of America, is altogether an open question, or which, out of several alternatives in the broad issue of her Destiny, has got to be chosen.

The alternatives are few, the essential facts clear, and the Principles eternal. The general issues ought not to remain obscure to those who know that the history of a Nation is an organic whole, who see how Principles do laugh.

"Their fierce and infinite laugh at things that cease,” at the phantom victories of their adversaries, or who believe in progress, in the Peoples, and in God.

It is curious to see how believers in the old system of Government by the one, or the few, look upon what they term the great "experiment" of Government by the all.

They were always surprised that Democracy could walk. They always expected to catch it tripping. They always supposed, that once down, it could never get up again.

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