cesses which it threatens during the state of Civil Commotion 280 THE FUTURE. INTRODUCTION. The Object of the Work-The Propositions which it aims to establish-The Spirit in which the Author will endeavor to discuss them-The propriety and importance of such a Discussion at the present time-Practical Questions alone to be considered. IN one of the earliest of the diplomatic dispatches of the Secretary of State, the instructions to Mr. Dayton, dated April twenty-second, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, will be found this passage: "The American people, notwithstanding any temporary disturbance of their equanimity, are yet a sagacious and practical people, and less experience of evils than any other nation would require, will bring them back to their customary and habitual exercise of reason and reflection, and through that process, to the settlement of the controversy without further devastation and demoralization, by needless continuance in civil war." It is supposed, less from the context of the dispatch, than from the Secretary's well-known skepticism at that time, respecting the possibility of the northern people feeling to any considerable extent the pressure of the then impending civil war, that the men of the South constituted that portion of the American people to whom he particularly referred, when he penned the sentence quoted. But his remark is general, and the characteristics which he ascribes to the nation are those to which the men of the North lay peculiar, if not exclusive claim. I propose to appeal to the "reason and reflection" of my "sagacious and practical" fellow-citizens, in a few earnest, but I hope calm and moderate observations. Assuming that we propose to prosecute the war until the authority of the Union is completely reëstablished in all the territory over which it extended when the rebellion broke out, and that the fortune of arms, and the course of political events, have been such as to place such a consummation within our reach, I will assign the reasons for two conclusions to which I have arrived, and to which it is the object of this work to lead also the reader's mind. These are, first, that no calamity could befall the nation, not even disunion, which would compare in its disastrous consequences, to a successful termination of the war, under such circumstances as to leave behind it a permanent feeling of hostility and hatred to the Government of the Union, on the part of the people over whom our victorious arms will have extended our sway; and secondly, that such a feeling will naturally and inevitably result from further persistence in many of the measures of civil and military policy which we have already adopted, and from adopting other measures, having the same general tendency which are now urged upon us by several leading states men. Although I wish to expose my work to the charge of partisanship as little as the nature of the discussion will allow, I am fully sensible of the impossibility of gratifying that wish except to a very limited extent. I am not vain enough to suppose that I can succeed by any effort, however honestly and strenuously made, in divesting my own mind entirely of party bias, while treating of subjects which have provoked at such recent periods so much acrimony of debate in political conflicts, "quorum pars fui." And I know very well that at a time like this, when the passions of my countrymen are heated, as it were, to the boiling point, even if it was possible for me to bring to the discussion of my subject the calmness and impartiality with which posterity, aided by experience, will judge of the men and measures of to-day, I should appear to many honest, intelligent, and patriotic men, to have written purely as a partisan. But I will approach as nearly to the accomplishment of my purpose as the adverse circumstances under which I write will permit. To that end, I will treat copiously of principles and sparingly of men, and when the nature of the discussion compels me to advert to the acts of individuals, I will avoid, as far as possible, captious and unfair criticism of their conduct and uncharitable construction of their motives. And I will advance no argument which I do not myself believe to be sound, and make no assertion, of the truth of which I am not myself fully persuaded. If, nevertheless, I shall justly expose myself to censure for the spirit in which I shall write, I can only plead the infirmity of human nature in extenuation of my fault. The time has been when many men who would have agreed with me in some, perhaps all, of my general conclusions, would have deprecated this discussion, however moderate and candid might have been the spirit in which it might be conducted. They held that while the very existence of the Government was trembling in the balance, it did not become good citizens to criticise unfavorably wellintended, though possibly unwise measures, of those to whose hands was irrevocably confided the duty of preserving the nation from annihilation. But the time has passed when such an argument had any weight. A presidential election is approaching, the result of which will determine the policy of the nation for four long years to come— years during which its destiny, as affected by the termination of the war, will be in all probability irrevocably fixed for weal or for woe. The powers |
