The Continental Monthly | Page 2

G. Leland, 682 The Obstacles to Peace. A Letter to an Englishman. Hon. Horace Greeley, 714 The Freed Men of the South. Hon. F.P. Stanton, 730 The Peloponnesus in March, 74 The Last Ditch. Charles G. Leland, 159 The Bone of our Country, 198 The Soldier and the Civilian. C.G. Leland, 281 The Negro in the Revolution, 324 The Children in the Wood. Henry Morford, 354 The Constitution as It Is. C.S. Henry, LL.D., 377 Tom Winter's Story. G.W. Chapman, 416 The White Hills in October. C.M. Sedgwick, 423 The Union. Hon. E.J. Walker, 457, 572, 641 The Causes of the Rebellion. Hon. F.P. Stanton, 513, 695 The Wolf Hunt. Charles G. Leland, 580 The Poetry of Nature, 581 The Proclamation, 603 The Press in the United States. Hon. F.L. Stanton, 604 The Homestead Bill. Hon. R.J. Walker, 627
Up and Act. Charles G. Leland, 314 Unheeded Growth. John Neil, 534
What shall be the End? Hon. J.W. Edmonds, 1 Was He Successful? 48, 218, 360, 470, 610, 734 Watching the Stag. Fitz-James O'Brien, 105 Witches, Elves and Goblins, 184 Wounded. Henry P. Leland, 206 Word-Murder, 524

Vol. II.--July, 1862.--No. 1.

WHAT SHALL BE THE END?
If we look to the development of slavery the past thirty years, we shall see that the ideas of Calhoun respecting State Sovereignty have had a mighty influence in gradually preparing the slave States for the course which they have taken. Slavery, in its political power, has steadily become more aggressive in its demands. A morbid jealousy of Northern enterprise and thrift, with the contrast more vivid from year to year, of the immeasurable superiority of free labor, has brought about a growing aversion, in the South, to the free States, until with every opportunity presented for pro-slavery extension, there has resulted the present organized combination of slave States that have seceded from the Union. When the mind goes back to the early formation of our Government and the adoption of the Constitution, it will be found that an entire revolution of opinion and feeling has taken place upon the subject of slavery. From being regarded, as formerly, an evil by the South, it is now proclaimed a blessing; from being viewed as opposed to the whole spirit and teachings of the Bible, it is now thought to be of divine sanction; from being regarded as opposed to political liberty, and the elevation of the masses, the popular doctrine now is, that slavery is the corner-stone of republican institutions, and essential for a manly development of character upon the part of the white population. Formerly slavery was looked upon as peculiarly pernicious to the diffusion of wealth and the progress of national greatness; now the South is intoxicated with ideas of the profitableness of slave labor, and the power of King Cotton in controlling the exchanges of the world. And the same change has taken place in relation to the African slave-trade. While the laws of the land brand as piracy the capture of negroes upon their native soil, and the transportation of them over the ocean, it is nevertheless true that a mighty change in Southern opinion has taken place in respect to the character of this business. It is not looked upon with the same horror as formerly. It is apologized for, and in some places openly defended as a measure indispensable to the prosperity of the cotton States. As a natural inference from the theory of those who hold to the views of Calhoun upon State sovereignty, the doctrine of coercion in any form by the Federal Union is denounced, and to attempt to put it in practice even so far as the protection of national property is concerned, is construed into a war upon the South. Thus, while it is perfectly proper for the slave States to steal, and plunder the nation of its property, to leave the Union at their pleasure, and to do every thing in their power to destroy the unity of the National Government, it is made out that to attempt to recover the property of the Federal Union is unjustifiable aggression upon the slave States. Thus we see eleven States in a confederate capacity openly making war upon the Federal Government, and compelling it either into a disgraceful surrender of its rights as guaranteed by the Constitution, or war for self-defense. Fort Sumter was not allowed to be provisioned, nor was there any disposition manifested to permit its possession in any manner honorable to the Government, although its exclusive property. It must be surrendered unconditionally, or be attacked.
The worst feature connected with the secession movement is the hot haste with which the most important questions connected with the interests of the people are hurried through. The ordinance of secession is not fairly submitted to the people, but a mere oligarchy