made him a trusty ally a year ago; the time is not too late now to secure the loyal service without which we must miserably fail. Such is the testimony that comes, professing to tell us of the feelings and aspirations of the bondmen. How much is literal and sober fact, how much the coloring put upon facts in the wild dreams of liberty born of a time of violence and change, it is impossible for us to know. It may be folly to trust it altogether. Yet it seems the greater folly to despise it altogether. The warning is one among those things which have sharply forced upon us now the question, What shall we do with the slaves? It is distinctly understood - Count Gasparin gives place to it in his argument, and it is brought forward in the recent correspondence of the President with the members of Congress from the Border Slave States, that the Confederate government (so called) has offered emancipation as the price of recognition by foreign powers. This offer, it is true, was coupled with conditions which looked like evasion and false pretence. What right had the Confederacy to pledge the action of sovereign States? What escapes and excuses might not be found hereafter to shun the fulfilment of the pledge? What would it be worth, the emancipation of unborn children, at some future time, contingent on conditions which no man can guarantee? The offer seems the very effrontery of diplomacy. Yet, if it served its end as a lure,* and emancipation is distinctly accepted in advance, as the alternative to submission or "subjugation," who knows how soon it may not become a fact, how soon the party of insurrection, driven to the wall, may not grasp this formidable weapon, which our scruples have too long forbidden us to employ, and arm with it a fresh half-million of fighting men? † Such thoughts, we are told, already occupy the minds, and stimulate the hopes and passions, of the slaves. And surely

* In Paris, we are told, "the Secessionists have arrived at that condition of effrontery as to be able to repeat day after day, without contradiction, in the Secession papers, 'that it is absurd to say that slavery has anything to do with the present conflict in the United States,' and that the South proposed some time ago to abolish slavery, and that the North objected'!"

"A cheap price to pay for a victory over the North, which would give them the power to recover their emancipated half-million by re-opening the slave-trade, and would not impair slavery at all." - The Golden Hour, p. 50.

they deserve some weight with those who have assumed the responsibility of directing our public policy, amidst these formidable possibilities.

There is one other consideration, which time will perhaps show to be the most important of all. It is, the radical and fundamental nature of the principles at issue in the present contest. Essentially, it is an "irrepressible conflict" of two hostile civilizations or forms of human society and government, which have got footing on our continent. And as the conflict goes on, the irreconcilable nature of it will develop itself more and more. Already the passions are kindled of a strife infinitely more bitter and desperate than most persons deemed possible a year ago. And every step that is taken in it, every change in policy which circumstances compel, makes it more difficult either to retreat from it, or to compose any terms of peace. The opposition of polity is full as radical as the moral antagonism. Feudality is dispersive, aristocratic, imperious, full of local pride; democracy is centralizing, levelling, proud of the greatness and power that come of wide territory, and readily submissive to that law which is the voice of the universal will. The difference is one of instinct and habit, full as much as in the ethical principles involved. We have no doubt that just as genuine a horror is felt in the South at those arbitrary acts which our government has done when circumstances compelled, like the suspension of the Habeas Corpus, which was eagerly assented to by all good citizens, and the military conscription, which was not announced until the popular voice imperatively demanded it, as we feel here at those acts which for the past year and a half have made the Southern rule an unmitigated tyranny, but are regarded there as the necessary policy of defence. One rests on the universal habit of deference to law and constituted authorities, which everybody is free to criticise, and nobody to disobey. The other rests on the despotic temper of a class of men to whom defeat at the polls is the signal of armed resistance; who seized the reins of power by sheer usurpation, and swept their States into rebellion, one after another, by an undisguised coup d'état. It is as distinctly a war of hostile polities as the civil war of England, or that

No

between Richelieu and the provincial nobility of France. other equal antagonist is found to feudal pride, excepting democratic liberty. The great passions which make the strength of each are more and more developed in the conflict. The great principles which underlie them are brought into clearer relief. Any compromise between them becomes more difficult with every blow that is struck in the obstinate fight. Underneath the "war of politicians," which this struggle in its phases hitherto has been called, smoulder the fires which burn outward from the hot core, and must soon flame up in a war of principles. Feudal despotism on one side, democratic freedom on the other; one assuming for its basis the slavery of the working class, the other adopting as its watchword the equal liberty of all.

It is not for us to doubt the issue of the conflict. The triumph of either principle can be had only by the conquest and extermination of the other, as a sovereign power on this continent. Such, we believe, is the conviction that is coming fast to be entertained by all who have the intellectual courage to look the whole matter in the face. Terms of compromise and intervals of truce may come before the final decision. A quick and overwhelming victory won by the forces already in the field may adjourn the final phases of the struggle, and grant some years of treacherous alliance between the prevailing and the declining power. But even that seems hardly likely now. The passion and pride of our adversaries have chosen to set everything at stake in this tremendous game, played for the dominion of a continent. Everything so ventured can be covered by a larger stake, taken from the incomparably vaster resources at command of our government. And the longer the game goes on, the less likely either party seems to quit the field. Whatever the South can command of money and men, of calculating sympathy abroad and fanatical partisanship at home, of military strength or naval skill, of wealth in production or art in manufacture, is pledged, fiercely and unhesitatingly, for the chances of victory. It scorns the half-triumph there might be in consenting to any terms but such as concede all its haughtiest claims. The purpose with which it began this war was that it should be the VOL. LXXIII. 5TH S. VOL. XI. NO. II. 23

imperial power of this continent, without peer or rival.* And it will condescend to accept nothing less than that, as the measure of the victory it claims.

Slowly, through the lingering fortunes and late kindling passions of a year and a half of war, it has roused an adversary of equal obstinacy and pride, of material resources incomparably greater, and of intelligence and skill, if not superior, at least far more largely diffused. The great landmarks which Nature has traced upon this continent are such that there can be no partition of territory between the hostile forces. Our mountain ranges and our river valleys lie from north to south. The pride and the invincible determination of the Northern population have resolved that they shall not be crossed by national boundaries, or controlled by a hostile power. As the price of union, it has offered equal participation in the glories and liberties of the nation, equal protection in whatever local rights and social institutions the South may choose to keep. The offer, urgently pressed through twenty years of compromise, still carried in the left hand to win, while the right hand held the sword to compel, has been disdainfully rejected. Submission will be yielded only on absolute exhaustion or extinction. The terrific vitality of the insurrection, after a succession of blows that seemed inevitably mortal, — the ruinous blockade, the loss of every national fort but three, the opening of the Western rivers and absolute control of the Gulf commerce by the North, to say nothing of the losses and desolations of the war, – gives emphasis to the boast so often made, that the last man should perish, and the last hand able to wield a sword should be stricken down, before surrender could be thought of. And our government, which in reluctant sincerity undertook the task of restoring order, peace, and law, that had been assailed by a few conspirators, may yet find itself confronted with the appalling necessity of waging a war of extermination over

* "The process of disintegration in the old Union may be expected to go on with almost absolute certainty. We are now the nucleus of a growing power, which, if we are true to ourselves, our destiny, and our high mission, will become the controlling power on this continent.” — Speech of A. H. Stephens at Savannah, March 21, 1861. In the same speech he says of slavery: "This stone, which was rejected by the first builders, is become the chief stone of the corner in our new edifice."

half a continent, or else of retreating, baffled and humbled, not by the superior power of its enemies, but by the mere horror of the task.

*

How large a "Union element" may still be left in the seceded States, it is of course impossible for us to say. Recent testimony, from the most respectable source," assures us that multitudes of loyal citizens are still waiting there for assurance that the government will have the power and the will to protect them. Meanwhile, the "Confederacy" seems to have both the power and the will to sacrifice them utterly to its implacable ambition. It seems impossible that the entire structure of society in the South so far as it rests on class dominion and the ownership of slaves should not be crushed in the collision of two such powers as those now engaged. Such, at least, is the terror freely expressed in Virginia, where the effects of the war are plainest to see and most keenly felt.† While in Kentucky, where the issue has been most frankly and bravely accepted, emancipation is admitted, even urged, as an alternative to the monstrous calamity that would follow the triumph of Disunion.

It is as a relief to the fearful looking forward to despotism, anarchy, and perpetual war, that our government is now called to accept distinctly the policy of universal emancipation. By what particular measures it is to be carried out, we do not affect to prescribe. The necessary thing to see is, that the power of the United States is to be enlisted, openly and without disguise, on the side of liberty, is to consent hereafter to no terms which look to a continuance of that system which has attempted, and had so nearly effected, its destruc

* See the Washington National Intelligencer of August 1.

+ The following paragraph is taken from the Fredericksburg (Va.) Christian Banner:-"In our humble opinion, if this rebellion continues twelve months longer, the horrible scenes which will be acted out will be without a parallel in the his

tory of the world. The whole colored population of Virginia is becoming alarmingly demoralized, the spirit of insubordination and rebellion against the authority of their masters is constantly demonstrated. The future is a picture terrible to contem

plate, to avert which every sensible man and woman in the whole country should exert his or her undivided and untiring influence. The half has neither been seen, felt, nor heard, if this rebellion continues twelve months longer. Remember, fellow-citizens, what we say, and may the Lord grant us wisdom and understanding before it is finally too late."