The Continental Monthly, Vol I, Issue I, January 1862 | Page 2

Paris. H.T. Tuckerman, 127 Travel-Pictures. Henry
T. Lee, 676 True Basis. C. G. Leland, 136 True Interest of Nations, the.
C.C. Hazewell, 428 True Story. Miss McFarlane, 507
Ursa Major, 579
War between Freedom and Slavery in Missouri, the. 369 Was he
Successful? Richard B. Kimball, 702 What shall we do with it? Hon.
John W. Edmonds, 493 What to do with the Darkies. C. G. Leland, 84

THE
CONTINENTAL MONTHLY.
DEVOTED TO LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY.
VOL. I.--JANUARY, 1862.--NO. I.

CONTENTS. PAGE
The Situation, 1
Is Progress a Truth? 6
The Edwards Family, 11

Sonnet, 16
The Green Corn Dance, 17
Rosin the Bow, 29
The Graveyard at Princeton, 32
Among the Pines, 35
The Lesson of War, 46
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 49
Sphinx and OEdipus, 63
The Actress-Wife, 64
Song of Freedom, 76
Across the Continent, 78
What to do with the Darkies, 84
The Slave Trade in New York, 86
Literary Notices, 91 The Rejected Stone; The Works of Francis Bacon;
The Old Log Schoolhouse; Songs in Many Keys.
Books Received, 94
Editor's Table, 95
THE FEBRUARY NUMBER OF THE CONTINENTAL
Will be issued about the 15th of January, and will contain contributions
from the following among other eminent writers: HON. HORACE
GREELEY, HENRY T. TUCKERMAN, REV. F. W. SHELTON,
RICHARD B. KIMBALL, BAYARD TAYLOR, J. WARREN

NEWCOMB, JR., HENRY P. LELAND, THE AUTHOR OF "THE
COTTON STATES," CHARLES G. LELAND, and CHARLES F.
BROWNE.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1801, by JAMES R.
GILMORE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.
Press of Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 3 Cornhill, Boston.
* * * * *

THE SITUATION.
In the month of November, 1860, culminated the plot against our
National existence. The conspiracy originated in South Carolina, and
had a growth, more or less checked by circumstances, of over thirty
years.
For John C. Calhoun had conceived the idea of an independent position
for that State some time previous to the passage of the 'nullification
ordinance' in November, 1832. This man, although he bore no
resemblance in personal qualities to the Roman conspirator, is
chargeable with the same crime which Cicero urged against
Cataline--that of 'corrupting the youth.' His mind was too logical to
adopt the ordinary propositions about slavery, such as, 'a great but
necessary evil;' 'we did not plant it, and now we have it, we can't get rid
of it,' and the like; but, placing his back to the wall where it was
impossible to outflank him, he defended it, by all the force of his subtle
intellect, as a permanent institution. His followers refined on their
master's lessons, and asserted that it was one of the pillars on which a
republic must rest! Here was the origin of the most wicked and most
audacious plot ever attempted against any government. This plot did
not involve any contest for political power in the administration of
public affairs. That, the Southern leaders already possessed, but with
that they were not content. They were determined to destroy the

Republic itself,--to literally blot it out of existence. And why? What
could betray intelligent and educated men, persons esteemed wise in
their generation, into an attempt which amazes the civilized world, and
at which posterity will be appalled? We answer, it was the old leaven
which has worked always industriously in the breast of man since the
creation--AMBITION. Corrupted by the idea that a model republic
must have slavery for its basis, knowing that the free States could not
much longer tolerate the theory, certain leading individuals decided to
dismember the country. They cast their eyes across Texas to the fertile
plains of Mexico, and so southward. They indulged in the wildest
dreams of conquest and of empire. The whole southern continent would
in time be occupied and under their control. An aristocracy was to be
built up, on which possibly a monarchy would be engrafted. In this way
a new feudal system was to be developed, negro for serf, and a race of
noble creatures spring forth, the admirable of the earth, whose men
should be famed as the world's chivalry, and whose women should be
the most beautiful and most accomplished of all the daughters of Eve.
The peaceful drudge and artisan of the North, ox-like in their character,
should serve them as they might require, and the craven man of
commerce should buy and sell for their accommodation. For the rest,
the negro would suffice. This was the extraordinary scheme of the
South Carolina 'aristocrat,' and with which he undertook to infect
certain unscrupulous leaders throughout the cotton and sugar States. It
was no part of the plan of the conspirators to precipitate the border
States into rebellion. O no! On the contrary, it