The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5, November 1862 | Page 8

which one
half the population is not more than semi-civilized, the slaveholders
could not easily obtain any other view. Long accustomed to wield
irresponsible power as masters, enjoying wealth and independence
from the unrewarded labor of the slave, but liberal and humane,
condescending and indulgent, so long as the untutored black was quiet
and obedient, the planter very naturally imagined his system to be the
perfection of social order. In the atmosphere of luxurious ease which
surrounded him, were the elements of a mental mirage which distorted
everything in his deceptive vision. He weighed the two systems, and
found his own immeasurably more powerful than its antagonist. Fatal
mistake! fatal but inevitable, in his condition, in the midst of the
blinding refractions of the medium which enveloped him.
Prosperity had made him giddy. Cotton was not merely King--it was
God. Moral considerations were nothing. The sentiment of right, he
argued, would have no influence over starving operatives; and England
and France, as well as the Eastern States of the Union, would stand
aghast and yield to the masterstroke which should deprive them of the

material of their labor. Millions were dependent on it in all the great
centres of civilization, and the ramifications of its power extended into
all ranks of society and all departments of industry and commerce. It
was only necessary to wave this imperial sceptre over the nations, and
all of them would fall prostrate and acknowledge the supremacy of the
power which wielded it. Nothing could be more plausible than this
delusion. Satan himself, when about to wage war in heaven, could not
have invented one better calculated to marshal his hosts and give
promise of success in rebellion against the authority of the Most High.
But alas! the supreme error of this anticipation lay in omitting from the
calculation all power of principle. The right still has authority over the
minds of men and in the counsels of nations. Factories may cease their
din; men and women may be thrown out of employment; the marts of
commerce may be silent and deserted; but truth and justice still
command some respect among men, and God yet remains the object of
their adoration.
Drunk with power and dazzled with prosperity, monopolizing cotton,
and raising it to the influence of a veritable fetich, the authors of the
rebellion did not admit a doubt of the success of their attack on the
Federal Government. They dreamed of perpetuating slavery, though all
history shows the decline of the system as industry, commerce, and
knowledge advance. The slaveholders proposed nothing less than to
reverse the currents of humanity, and to make barbarism flourish in the
bosom of civilization. They even thought of extending the system, by
opening the slave trade and enlarging the boundaries of their projected
empire, Mexico and Central America, Cuba and St. Domingo, with the
whole West Indian group of islands, awaited the consolidation of their
power, and stood ready to swell the glory of their triumph.
But these enticing visions quickly faded away from their sight. At an
early day after the inauguration of their government, they were
compelled to disavow the design of reopening the slave trade, and in no
event is it probable their recognition will be yielded by foreign
governments, except on the basis of ultimate emancipation. How such a
proposition will be received by their deluded followers, remains yet to
be ascertained by an experiment which the authors of the rebellion will

be slow to try among their people. One of the most effective appeals
made to the non-slaveholders of the South, in order to start the
revolution, was to their fears and prejudices against the threatened
equality and competition of the emancipated negro. The immense
influence of this appeal can scarcely be estimated by those not
intimately acquainted with the social condition of the great mass of the
Southern people. Among them, the distinction of color is maintained
with the utmost rigor, and the barrier between the two races, social and
political, is held to be impassable and eternal. The smallest taint of
African blood in the veins of any man is esteemed a degradation from
which he can never recover. Toward the negro, as an inferior, the white
man is often affable and kind, cruelty being the exception, universally
condemned and often punished; but toward the black man as an equal,
an implacable hostility is instantly arrayed. This intense and
unconquerable prejudice, it is well known, is not confined wholly to the
South; but it prevails there without dissent, and is, in fact, one of the
fundamental principles of social organization.
When, therefore, the leaders of the rebellion succeeded in persuading
the Southern masses that the success of the Republican party would
eventually liberate the slave and place him on an equality with