POPULAR GOVERNMENT ENDANGERED.

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successful, they will feel as do we, that what the nations of the earth have ever regarded as but "the American experiment," will be settled in favor of popular government for all time to come. One universal shout of rejoicing will then go up from the down-trodden millions of the world, and at its reverberations among the habitations of men, tyrants will everywhere tremble as they have never done before.

Among the characteristics, therefore, which stamp this rebellion with peculiar odium, is the fact not only that it is made against popular government, but in its success the last hope of liberty would have perished from among men. No people could have dared reasonably to hope for success in an experiment of free institutions after ours should have failed, commenced as it was under such favorable auspices, and having had such prosperity in all that can make a people great and glorious for nearly three generations.

It is too well known for doubt that a part of the original scheme of the rebel leaders was to establish an aristocracy, and perhaps a monarchy, and if we may judge from very recent utterances the plan is not abandoned. To this end, as well as to secure their independence, they have sought an alliance with several monarchical powers, and have been willing to place themselves under their protection without much scruple about conditions provided their independence could be gained.

Should the rebellion therefore succeed, and the plan of the Southern oligarchy be consummated, popular government throughout the world would thereby receive a double blow, in the dismemberment of that system of government, where it has now its fairest illustration, and in the establishment of aristocratic institutions in its stead over a large portion of the territory of the

United States, and over several millions of the people now embraced within its legitimate rule.*

TO PERPETUATE NEGRO SLAVERY.

10. And finally, this is a rebellion whose chief prompting impulse, at its inception and through its whole progress, has been the security, the expansion of the area, and the perpetuation, of human bondage.

That the slavery of the negro race, as the stimulating power, is the foundation on which the whole superstructure of this rebellion rests, is a fact patent to the eyes of all men. But as we reserve this point for a separate chapter, to be canvassed when we come to speak of the causes of the rebellion, we shall not dwell upon it here. We barely mention it now as completing the summation and forming the climax in the catalogue of those elements, -all of which we have not attempted to enumerate,—which give a special character to the rebellion, and stamp it as monstrous and diabolical without a parallel in the history of mankind.

When we speak of negro slavery as being at the bottom of the rebellion, we are aware that this is denied. The proof of our position, however, to be given hereafter, will be found in Southern testimony which cannot be confuted. We are also aware that other causes are assigned, the chief of which are: that the rebellion is the scheme of dis

*No man better understands the character and aims of the rebellion and its leaders than Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, a candidate for the Vice-Presidency. In a speech at Nashville, June 10, 1864, he said: "One of the chief elements of this rebellion, is the opposition of the slave aristocracy to being ruled by men who have risen from the ranks of the people. This aristocracy hated Mr. Lincoln because he was of humble origin, a rail-splitter in early life. One of them, the private secretary of Howell Cobb, said to me one day, after a long conversation, We people of the South will not submit to be governed by a man who has come up from the ranks of the common people, as Abe Lincoln has.' He uttered the essential feeling and spirit of this Southern rebellion."

TO PERPETUATE NEGRO SLAVERY.

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appointed and ambitious politicians; a desire for an inde pendent nationality; a wish to found an aristocracy, or a monarchy, or both; a strike for free trade, and to be rid of Northern competition; a vindication of the doctrine of State rights; a jealousy and chagrin at Northern growth and prosperity, in comparison with Southern; or, these and other similar causes all combined; and that slavery, and the Presidential election of 1860, were 66 a mere pretext." We grant the substantial truth of what are here given as auxiliary causes of the rebellion; and yet, it is further true, as we shall see, that it is NEGRO SLAVERY, in its emoluments in the Rebel States, in its fears of encroachment and apprehended dangers, and especially in its modern garb as "divine," and a political and social "good in itself" to all concerned, that underlies all other causes, and gives the vital and essential force to carry these desires and aspirations into execution in the form of open rebellion.

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CHAPTER II.

CAUSE OF THE REBELLION.

It is among the marvels which our civil war has exhibited, that there should be a difference of opinion concerning the reasons which have prompted the rebellion now in progress against the Government of the United States. But if we may judge from the speeches of public men in Congress, in State Legislatures, upon the stump, from the messages of Governors of States, from the resolutions of political bodies, and from the current literature of public journals, all confined, however, to the loyal States, but found in every stage of the contest from the beginning till now,--we see that there is as wide a variance upon this simple point as can be found upon any other question of fact or policy touching the rebellion, or any other matter concerning human interests upon which men are commonly divided. Upon discovering this, one might be led to the conclusion that there are inherent difficulties in the solution of the case. But it is one of the plainest of all things connected with the whole movement, and it is quite remarkable that there should be disagreement upon it, at least among truly loyal men.

SLAVERY THE CAUSE.

As perfectly decisive of the difficulty, if there be any whatever, it is well known that in the Rebel States and among those engaged in the rebellion, there has been but one prime reason assigned for it from first to last, as put forth by their public men and echoed by all their organs

SLAVERY THE CAUSE.

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of public opinion. This is so plainly true, and the reason itself is so plain and so plainly stated, that it would seem a little wonderful, did we not know too well the political corruption which abounds, that all men in the loyal States, including those who sympathize with the rebellion, should not be content to permit the rebel leaders to make their own statement of the case on this point, and to allow that statement to be true. With all the frenzied fury and disregard of truth which they have shown, and the want of sagacity and ordinary good sense which have characterized ten thousand things which they have said and done in the progress of their horrid work, we must certainly allow a sufficient method to their madness to suppose that they at least knew and could tell for what they rebelled. They probably did know; they certainly have told; and they all agree.

In a word, they declare that it was FOR NEGRO SLAVERY that they rebelled: for its security against apprehended peril; for its expansion into free territory, wherever their inclinations and interests might prompt them to carry it; and for its perpetuation. This is what they universally present as the reason for their course, warranting, with certain discriminations, the concise remark we often hear, that "slavery is the cause of the rebellion," and that "slavery is the cause of the war."

But as

Here then we might rest and dismiss the case. this is a controverted point, we shall present the opposite view as held by rebel sympathizers and certain Union men, and then give the conclusive evidence which sustains the position we take, that it was in the interest of slavery alone that the rebellion was undertaken; that "the duty" which devolved upon the South was "plain, of conserving and transmitting the system of slavery, with the freest scope for its natural development and extension."