The Continental Monthly, Vol. I. February, 1862, No. II. | Page 2

free labor. 'Keep your slaves and hold your tongues,' was, and would
be now, our utterance. But they would not hold their tongues. It was
'rule or ruin' with them. And if, as it seems, a man can not hold slaves
without being arrogant and unjust to others, we must take his slaves
away.
And why is not this the proper time to urge emancipation? Divested of
all deceitful and evasive turns, the question reduces itself to this,--are
we to definitely conquer the enemy once and for all, the great enemy
Oligarchy, by taking out its very heart? or are we to keep up this strife
with slaveholders forever? It is a great and hard thing to do, this
crushing the difficulty, but we must either do it or be done for. In a few
months 'the tax-gatherer will be around.' If anybody has read the report
of the Secretary of the Treasury without a grave sensation, he is very
fortunate. How would such reports please us annually for many years?
So long as there exists in the Union a body of men disowning
allegiance to it, puffed up in pride, loathing and scorning the name of
free labor, especially as the ally of capital, just so long will the

tax-gatherer be around,--and with a larger bill than ever.
To such an extent is this arrogance carried of urging utter silence at
present on the subject of slavery, that one might almost question
whether the right of free speech or thought is to be left at all, save to
those who have determined on a certain course of conduct. When it is
remembered that those who wish to definitely conclude this great
national trouble are in the great majority, we stand amazed at the
presumption which forbids them to utter a word. One may almost
distrust his senses to hear it so brazenly urged that because he happens
to think that our fighting and victories may go hand in hand with a
measure which is to prevent future war, he is 'opposed to the
Administration,' is 'a selfish traitor thinking of nothing but the Nigger,'
and altogether a stumbling-block and an untimely meddler. If he protest
that he cares no more for the welfare of the Negro than for that of the
man in the moon, he is still reviled as an 'abolitionist.' If he insist that
emancipation will end the war, his 'conservative' foe becomes pathetic
over his indifference as to what is to become of the four millions of
'poor blacks.' And, in short, when he urges the great question whether
this country is to tolerate slavery or no, he is met with trivial fribbling
side-issues, every one of which should vanish like foam before the
determined will and onward march of a great, free people.
Now let every friend of the Union boldly assume that so far as the
settlement of this question is concerned he does not care one straw for
the Negro. Leave the Negro out altogether. Let him sink or swim, so far
as this difficulty goes. Men have tried for thirty years to appeal to
humanity, without success, for the Negro, and now let us try some
other expedient. Let us regard him not as a man and a brother, but as 'a
miserable nigger,' if you please, and a nuisance. But whatever he be, if
the effect of owning such creatures is to make the owner an intolerable
fellow, seditious and insolent, it becomes pretty clear that such
ownership should be put an end to. If Mr. Smith can not have a horse
without riding over his neighbor, it is quite time that Smith were
unhorsed, no matter how honestly he may have acquired the animal.
And if the Smiths, father and sons, threaten to keep their horse in spite
of law,--nay, and breed up a race of horses from him, whereon to
roughride everybody who goes afoot,--then it becomes still more
imperative that the Smith family cease cavaliering it altogether.

There is yet another point which the stanch Union-lover must keep in
view. In pushing on the war with heart and soul, we inevitably render
slaveholding at any rate a most precarious institution, and one likely to
be broken up altogether. Seeing this, many unreflectingly ask, 'Why
then meddle with it?' But it must be considered in some way, and
provided for as the war advances, or we shall find ourselves in such an
imbroglio as history never saw the like of. He who cuts down a tree
must take forethought how it may fall, or he will perchance find
himself crushed. He who in a tremendous conflagration would blow up
a block of houses with powder, must, even amid the riot and roar, so
manage the explosion that lives be not wantonly