of the Exami

nation.

$7. Summary to the exonerating of one department from its Constitutional liabilities for wrongs and usurpations, by another coördinate department of this mere Federal Agency.

Wrongs by both North and South.

They are palpable.

ment honor

able.

must correct

Federalism

As usual, the investigation proves both parties to have been in fault. Each side will enjoy looking into the errors of the other, but let them examine their own also, and be considering their correction. Fortunately, they stand out with distinctness. Only when error is doubtful, ill-defined, obscure, is remedy difficult. Fortunately, too, the mutual

Mutual atone wrongs stand in such relations, that each party can with honor and highest dignity make its atonement. The North must and will see and acThe North knowledge its wrong, and declare the truth, that we have misunderstood its errors as to the nature and principles of our Union, and the powers of the Federal Agency, and that we will have none other than a pure Federal Republic. It is due to truth and justice, in order that the world may know the excellence of our institutions, and the reasons of our prosperity, that we speedily and forcibly explain the character of our Government. That to stop its war. done, the occasion for the initiation of the war by the South is removed; and how long will she wish to prosecute it, when with honor she can propose a truce? How long before she will desire a convention to reconstruct the Union on the basis of our fathers, that of a pure Federal Republic, the desertion of the principles of which, caused her to fight?

-which al

lows the South

Long established lavis.

The reader in the North and in the South will please bear in mind, that we are dealing with legal principles long established; with facts as they exist, not as we might wish, or as they might have been. One may consider a Federal Republic, with its inseparable State Sovereignty, a very loose, disjointed system; but its expediency or inexpediency, is not The question is whether our the first point. Is our Government Federal or consolidated? is the disputed question. If wrong as to the form actually existing, let us have the manliness to acknowledge it; what is desirable, is quite another question; though the more it is investigated, the more satisfied shall we be with the wisdom of the fathers in framing this Federal Republic.

system is Fed. eral, not whether it is desirable.

South to learn about pact and faith, and the

necessities of war.

This war: its extent

Southern documents wanted.

And the South, too, will observe, that the principles of pact and faith are no new fangled teachings in order to entrap them; nor have we in the North declared the rights and necessities of war to meet the present juncture. Of old were the rules laid down and well defined; and apply. ing them to the facts, as we shall endeavor to do in Part IV, is the South herself to judge whether she was right in breaking her sacred compact; whether or not she is in a just and solemn war.'

We are indeed in war. Other modern warfare was but a bagatelle to this of which we are victims. Even war is waged by us on the true American scale of grandeur. Befitting is it that this land of large lakes, large mountains, large rivers, large prairies, with their powerful influence

1 All the documents that come to hand are preserved for use, and I have been so fortunate as to obtain a copy of Mr. Pollard's Southern History of the War. It shall be my endeavor to examine with candor and fairness every point connected with the present Secession and War, and it will be a favor if friends and others in the South will aid me with documents. I want particularly the legislative act of South Carolina, convening the delegates in December, 1860.

of the Exami

benefits

to expand the mind and the heart of man; very natural is it that these $7. Summary American Peoples, fighting on both sides, as we have seen, for the main- nation. tenance of our precious rights, our heaven-ordained institutions, should wage war, even civil war, on a scale commensurate with the sway of nature in which we live. We have demonstrated to the world, that, not without though a nation most inclined to peace, we can and will fight if we deem it necessary; that we are a nation of soldiers. No doubt this war, with all its horrors, is to bring us important benefits; but ere long we shall begin to think we have taken enough of these benefits, and be casting about for means of restoring peace. When that period arrives, which I fear is not yet, and may be two years distant, we need to be prepared for prompt and resolute action. No doubt many plans will be proposed, and I beg to offer my fellow-citizens of the North my humble opinion upon the query-how to end this war.

§ 8.-CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE NORTH-HOW TO END THIs War.

-nor to last always.

cannot pro

The North can never with honor make to the South propositions The North of peace. Instead of resorting to the Federal Court, the arbiter pro- pose peace-vided with wonderful skill and wisdom to adjudicate difficulties that might arise between these Sovereignties, those affecting State rights as well as every other, the South have chosen the sword and the cannon. These must the North use till the South tender other means.

Were disparity in number and power greater between the two sec. —not strong enough. tions, we might propose means of adjudication; but the North being only about three to one of the Southern whites, and only two to one including the blacks (which are worth more to the South in this struggle than any four millions of laboring population in the North), we should simply expose ourselves to ridicule for assuming magnanimity to avoid a contest with a lesser but more plucky antagonist. We must fight on and on, and never speak of peace till the South say the word.

vention im

Neither can it be ended by foreign intervention. The Confederate Foreign interStates may be acknowledged a power in the earth, and probably soon possible." will be, but that in no way changes the nature of the war, or affects its prosecution. That the South began this war, is a well-attested fact, incidentally admitted by Lord Russell, which admission has not received the See page 51. attention it merits. Because the South "had made war on the Government of Abraham Lincoln," is the sole reason why [in the language of Lord Russell], "down to the present time, her Majesty's Government have pursued a friendly, open, and consistent course. They have been neu tral between the two parties to a civil war." It has been seen by that Britain not to power, that the South had not the "necessity" required by the Law of interfere Nations to justify her in beginning war, and consequently, being engaged in an “unjust, offensive war," no Christian nation dares so violate, outrage the International Code, as to take part openly against the North. standing the The Queen is friendly, and probably the mass of the British people, but aristocracy.

-notwith

hostility of the

$8. To the

North: how to

the aristocracy, who have never ceased their efforts to disunite us since end this war. Colonial days, are having their plans again thwarted; the South, with its natural impulse and unnecessary haste, having begun an unjust war.

Had the North taken the of

rope might

have inter

fered.

In our ignorance of governmental principles, the Federal Administra. fensive, Eu- tion would probably soon have commenced hostilities, reversing the character of the war, and giving the South the side of justice and defence. A happy day might that have been regarded by England's aris tocracy, in which the sun of liberty would have been partially obscured by the dark and portentous clouds of disunion in America. But Providence seems to have directed, that we are now only to suffer the horrors of civil war, and by them are to be saved from the far greater evils both of disunion and of consolidation. Did England dare to interfere, the result of this contest might be doubtful; but judging from the course of events, it would appear we have only to fight, until, on one or both sides, we are satisfied with the use of force, and return to reason; believing the GOD of nations will prevent this grand experiment in free Government from being jeopardized either by permanent disunion or consolidation. The Law of Nations makes the right and duty of neutrals very clear, Why England and even England, with all her aristocratic malevolence and pretentious animosity to slavery, dares not transgress and take active part against France not to the North. Neither is it probable that Louis Napoleon will interfere. That sagacious monarch knows full well the obligations we are under to the house of Bourbon, for the timely support in money, as well as in war, which Louis XVI rendered us in our Revolutionary struggle. He would not see it for his interest to have the power of the North to join with the Bourbon prince for his overthrow; and let him take a hand in the game of Revolution here, and he will find two can play it at the same time.

cannot.

interfere.

Foreign intervention by

The North neither seeks nor wants aid in its just defence. Foreign force improb- intervention by force, is therefore probably not to occur.

able.

Peaceful inter

vention una

upon the

South

Neither is foreign intervention by reason and argument of much more vailable, either avail. What use for the nation most friendly to the South, to urge them to stop the war and take steps to reunite with a Government, which they have come firmly to believe is established upon a false and dangerous basis, that of a consolidated instead of Federal Union? One might as well whistle down a hurricane, as attempt to stop the South in its frenzied course, until they are taught by the North itself that they are wholly mistaken as to Northern wishes and purposes.

--or upon the North.

Is the South to

be destroyed?

And of what avail were it for any friendly nation to advise the North to make propositions of peace, coupled with disunion? Will the West ever listen to such mawkish sentiment? Never, never. With the great Northwest, the power on this continent, peace and reunion are inseparable. The waters of the Mississippi, from their source to the Gulf, must ever be free to the States along their banks.

Is peace to come by the destruction of the aggressor ? There may still be a few in the North who believe this; but those who once thought that

North: how to

help us?

half or two thirds of the whites would be required at home to keep down §8. To the the negroes, are beginning to open their eyes to the truth, that the slaves end this war. are a main support in this war. Neither can we reach that support to Can slavery tear much of it away. We have overrun most of the South that we can approach very conveniently, and out of four millions have taken a few hundred thousand, that are costing an immense sum to support; and of what use are they? What is to become of them? If in two years, and in the most favorable section of the South to effect emancipation, this is all we can accomplish, how idle to rely upon it as a means of subjugation! The Administration has done all it could in this way, even to the issuing proclamations of freedom, and by ample time and effort has the President's prediction been proved correct, that such proclamations would be as inoperative as the Pope's bull against the comet.

be made sol

As for making soldiers of the negro, it cannot be done with any ad- Are negroes to vantage. Few, in the first place, can be gotten; and the thousands, hun- diers? dreds of thousands, of patriots that have volunteered to save their Government, instituted for white men, will nearly all throw down their arms, if they must fight alongside negroes to sustain the star-spangled banner. Argument upon the point is fruitless; it is a sentiment inbred in the Caucasian race, developing equally among Eastern troops as in the Western.

desired?

Few, very few, are the inhuman miscreants who would involve the Is a servile war South in a servile war. Such an event is hardly to be reckoned among possibilities, not at all among probabilities; yet it is well to remember we are engaged in a righteous, defensive war, and are about two to one against our aggressors, counting in their negroes, as we should. If we Americans, and the whole civilized world, could cry shame to Britain for inciting the merciless savage of the forest to wage war against us, far more would the North be disgraced, by the diabolical act of stimulating the slaves to insurrection and bloodshed.

little avail.

If we may not incite the negro to revolt and carnage; and we can- The negro of not if we would, and would not if we could; if we cannot use him as a soldier without losing more in white men; how in the name of reason is he to be made serviceable in our defence? A few could be used advantageously as laborers in camps while the war lasts, but what is to become of them afterward? They will prove an immensely expensive aid.

practicable.

As to subjugating and destroying the South, either with or without Subjugating negro aid, few, I apprehend, really expect this. The latter, it will be the South im admitted, will be necessary to the former; and being only three to one without their blacks, and two to one with, the task would be very diffi- . cult. The South altogether misconceive the character of the war they have begun, and believe they are fighting for their own liberty, for the safety of their own homes and families. Every man, woman, and child over ten years old, is engaged heart and soul in this struggle. Suppose we are numerically two or three to their one-though our two or three can never be brought to engage in this fight as do the South; is that

8. To the North: how to end this war.

Re

sufficient to insure their conquest and subjugation? They are Americans with whom we are fighting, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. verse the case. Suppose one third, or even one fourth; yes, even one tenth of any part of the North were at war with the other nine tenths; could the little fraction be subjugated? Never; they might be annihilated, but subjugated, never; and never could two thirds or three fourths destroy or subjugate the other portion. So it is with the South. They have grown stronger month by month since the war commenced, and are better able to-day to prosecute it, than when they attacked Sumter; the wearing out of their railroads probably excepted. We are making slow progress for a war of conquest, and for the subjection of "rebels." But fortunately for the credit of the North, we are not engaged in a gation, but of war of subjugation. We are only defending our Government. The

We are not in a war of subju

defence.

Can the South end the war?

The South led

to war by our

eralism

South, totally regardless of the wisdom of the fathers in creating a Federal tribunal of higher dignity than any before known, worthy to adjudicate differences even between sovereign States, and its special object being to protect their rights; the South, more clamorous than all the Union for State rights, the importance of which they by no means overestimate; the South, I say, regard.ess of all its duties, obligations, and interests, violating unnecessarily, but not causelessly, the sacred compact of the Constitution, instead of resorting to the Court in which, with right unquestionably on their side, they would by reason and argument have worsted the North, have chosen the battle field to decide the question. Instead of bringing a suit in the Supreme Court of the United States for the possession of Fort Sumter, to which South Carolina was still entitled, notwithstanding her Secession, and which even the Southern Confederacy could have instituted after its organization, and which would have developed all our errors, and given a grand triumph to the South; both South Carolina and the Confederate States have deliberately chosen to seize that fort, and hold it by force of arms. We must oppose force to force, so long as the South choose that means of arbitrament; and should have never a word to say of aught else than force, till the South itself proposes another means.

Can the South, then, end this war? If the North can take no step toward peace; if foreign intervention be not available; if the South cannot be subjugated; it becomes a momentous question how the South can bring this war to an end. Though they are the aggressors, few of them expect to conquer us; and how can the South be brought to stop the war they have begun ?

Though the South was wrong in its secession, still more wrong in deserting Fed- beginning an unjust, offensive war, they had much excuse in the desertion of the Federal principle upon which our Government was established. The North have affirmed that we are consolidated; the South that we are a Federal Republic. Since the advent of the Republican party to power, the Government has been administered more than ever, both by the President and Congress, on the consolidated basis. Neither does the war