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which the present national Administration have wielded during the whole continuance of the war are now again to be committed to the hands of the people, to be recommitted by the latter to such persons as they shall deem most worthy of the high trust that is to say, to the men whose principles, as illustrated by their past conduct, and whose pledges of future action shall be those which, in the opinion of the people, will most conduce to the national safety and prosperity. It is therefore no longer possible, even were it desirable, to avoid the discussion of the future policy of the nation, and consequently of the measures which have already been adopted. The wisdom of those measures, the propriety of longer adhering to them, the adoption of a permanent basis of the settlement of the controversy these are the very issues which, divested of extraneous considerations, are to be presented in November next for direct adjudication at the bar of public opinion. And all men, even those who have heretofore believed that such discussion should be discountenanced, must now form their own opinions respecting the future policy of the nation, and act in accordance with their conclusions.

It will be my endeavor to avoid, as far as possible, all doubtful questions which are not of imme diate and practical importance. And in general, shall also prefer to discuss such theories of constitutional law or of political science, as my subject will

from time to time force upon me, with reference rather to their practical operation, and to the results to which they will lead in the present state of the country, than to their abstract correctness or falsity as general propositions. The principal exceptions which I shall make to this rule, will occur when the proposition under consideration involves a question of right or wrong: that is to say, when it is or has been used to justify a particular measure or a general policy, and its decision is therefore necessary to determine whether the course which we have pursued, or which is recommended for our adoption, is a mere assertion of our unquestionable rights, or a lawless and unjustifiable usurpation. In such a case the question, however abstract apparently, will become practical in the course of the discussion: for although there are many among us who scorn to inquire what the Constitution requires at our hands in dealing with rebels, I shall endeavor to show in the progress of this work, that we cannot expect to secure the pacification of this distracted country, or to preserve our own liberties, if we allow our national Government to make the rebellion a pretext for disregarding its own constitutional duties, or assuming powers which the fundamental law has withheld from it.

There is one great question, the solution of which would be eminently practical in considering how we can restore peace and harmony to the country,

which I am compelled to ignore, except to a limited extent, for another reason-it is, what was the real cause of the war? By which I mean, not the ostensible subject of the quarrel, for that was the institution of slavery; nor the direct and immediate causes which made that institution the subject of a quarrel, for these may in general terms be stated to have been dislike and suspicion of the people of each section among the people of the other; but the means by which those feelings were aroused and the causes which led to them. If we could accurately ascertain the cause of the war, in that sense, we should have made considerable progress in discovering a remedy for our difficulties, and a basis of lasting pacification. I shall make the attempt to show how, when disunion was once determined. upon by the leading politicians of the South, the masses of that section were induced to favor.it. But beyond that point the ground is too dangerous to tread upon, with the hope of producing any satisfactory results in a work of this character, till the excitement of the present shall have passed away. Among those who sincerely deplore the commencement of the war, and long for its termination, in such a manner as to secure future harmony and mutual good-will among all sections of the country there is the widest difference of opinion as to the degree of responsibility for its existence which attaches to particular men and particular factions.

The events are too recent, the actors in them are too closely connected with us in our every-day avocations, and the feelings which they have aroused are yet too keen, to permit of their being considered with the calmness with which I hope to be able to treat the subjects which I propose to discuss. All moderate men will concede that in both of the leading parties, at least in the North, there has been a sincere and unqualified attachment to the Union on the part of a vast majority; and that what has been done to destroy it, has been the result chiefly of passion, prejudice, ignorance, error, and timidity, and partly, but to a much less extent, of venality and unscrupulous ambition on the part of the leaders of public opinion, and the incumbents of public office. In what proportion these faults and errors are to be ascribed to particular factions or particular men, I shall not undertake to determine.

To that extent "forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before,” and asking my reader's forbearance and indulgence, if, as is probable in the present diversity of opinion respecting every measure of public policy, I shall fail to command his approbation in every particular, I invite moderate and thinking men to consider with me the all-absorbing FUTURE, and the mighty events which lie hidden beneath its veil.

CHAPTER I

State Sovereignty-Mr. Sumner's Attack upon it in "Our Domestic Relations "The Articles of Confederation-State Sovereignty under the Confederation-Origin and Theory of the Constitution -The Powers which it grants to Congress and denies to the States, compared with those granted and denied by the Articles of Confederation-The Federalist on the changes made by the Constitution and on State Sovereignty-The question of Supremacy considered-Recognition of State Sovereignty in the Constitution-Constitutional and Legislative Provisions of New York and Massachusetts on that Subject-Its recognition in the proceedings of the two States and of Congress, relative to the Cession of Boston Corner to New York-Mr. Sumner's Opinion in 1855.

THE doctrine of State sovereignty enters so largely into the discussion of all questions connected with the commencement or the termination of the war, that it is essential in a work of this kind, to have a clear understanding at the outset respecting its soundness and the results to which it leads. Had these pages been written a few months earlier, I should have assumed that the sovereignty of the States was so generally admitted by the public men of the North, as well as of the South, that I could proceed at. once, without occupying the reader's time with a demonstration of its existence, to con

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