The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-09-06
A FAIR ENGLISH VIEW OF THE
WAR. y
WHAT THACKERAYS MAGAZINE SAYS OF THE
AMERICAN TROUBLES.

GVQg0z2ne mas Vcry Ialr 8rClcl6 upon
American affairs, telling Englishmen that
they misjudge our government, simply be-
cause they are ignorant of the nature and
gist of American politics, and setting them
right on sundry points. The writer gives
q brief sketch of the colonial and govern.
mental history Of the United States, follow
ed by an analysis of the issues involved in
the present conflict, all of which puts the
case quite as clearly as we have reason to
expect, and blows away the cobwebs of the
Times sophistry.
We copy few OF the salient passages ::
WHEREIN THE ENGLISH JOURNALS HAVE
ERRED.
Our principal journals have, no doubt
uniformly treated the disruption of the
Union and the prospect of civil war as great
evils; but they have frequently taken a
ground which is not in itself reasonable,
and which to all Americans, and especially
to all NOrtherners, must be excessively Of
tensive, respecting the whole dispute. They
almost invariably discuss the subject as if
the case were simply one of dependency
wishing to free itself from the yoke of su-
ptrior, and they constantly dwell upon that
most inconclusive and irritating of all top.
les, the charge of inconsistency. With
what pretence of fairness, it is said, can you
Americans object to the secession of the
Southern States, when your own nation
was founded in secession from the British
! empire? 1t would be as reasonable to ask
how man who has successfully defended
one action can ever have the face to be
plaintiff in another. The fact that resist
ance to constituted government may some.
times be right, no more proves that it can
never be wrong than the fact that it is right
to shoot an invader proves that there is no
such crime as murder. The analogy be-
tween George III. and Washington, and
President Lincoln and President Davis, is
just near enoagh to be at once delusive and
annoying. If the object is to vex the
Americans, and chuckle with more or less
ingenuity over their troubles, the course
which our most influential papers have tax.
en- is wise one. If we wish to understand
the merits of the question, and the way in
which it presents itself to those whom it
principally concerns, we must take very
different view Off
TO Englishmen in general American pol
itics present sort of maze without plan.
The strange names of Indian places and
rulers were described by Sidney Smith as
non-conductors of sympathy, and in Amer-
can politics a somewhat similar effect is
produced by the opposite cause. There is
nothing impressive in the names of the pol
iticians, and nothing distinctive in their
measures. Men are elected to high office
who beyond their own state were utterly
unknown; and the announcement of their
respective "platforms" and "tickets" leaves
most English readers of American news as
hopelessly in the dark as if it were made in
some unknown tongue.
Much of this confusion is undoubtedly
due to the general ignorance which prevails
in this country as to the nature and gist of
American politics. Hardly any one knows
what is the real nature of the Union-how
it is related to the individual states-what
are the sort of questions which arise out of
that relation, and what would be implied in
its disruption.
THE NORTH ENTITLED TO SYMPATHY.
The nOrtherners are entitled to more sym.
pathy than they have received from the most
influential part of the English press. They
are fighting for an object of real Importance.
If they were to fight at all now is their
time, and they have received for many years
past series of provocations of the most
exasperating kind. 1t does not, however,
follow from this that they are wise in fight
ing, nor does it follow that they have any
just ground to complain of the conduct
which our government has pursued towards
them. The wisdom Of fighting depends
principally on the prospect of success; and
on that point there can be no doubt of the
great weight OF the arguments pressed on
the northern states by several English pa
pers, and especially with admirable vi or
and great knowledge by the Economist.
These difficulties may be summed up in one.
rhe Constitution of the United States pro-
ceeds on the assumption that each member
of the Union wishes to maintain it. To
enforce it IN inU,t0s is very like contradict
tion in terms.
Suppose that the South is utterly defeat
ed and crushed in the field, and that Mr..
Davis and some Others are hanged tor trea-
son; and, further, suppose that in the year
1864 the South succeeds, as it has so often
succeeded, in electing southern President
and out,maneuvreipg the North: the result
would be grotesque if it were not so melan.
choly. 1t would be precisely as if a man
sued successfully for the restitution of con-
jugal rights against woman who, after ma.
king his life burden to him, had left him
without cause. No doubt he would get
the advantage of her company at bed and
board, but who would wish for it? 10
enforce copjugal rights against a woman
bent on making her husband wretched, is in
most emphatic way cutting off ones nose
to. be revenged on ones face, and, to cool
observer, the process now going on in the
States is OF much the same character. This
assumes success, but another familiar pro.
verb shows how doubtful even such success
as this must be. One man may take
horse to the water, but twenty cannot make
him drink.
If they are so minded, the North have a
fair prospect of being able to crush the
southern armies, to take their forts and to
reduce any cities which may hold out; but