The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1862-09-12
state Of Maine.
The Great Questionable be, or not to
be .''--to Conquer, or to be Conquered

have differed in relation to the objects and the
prosecution of the war, there can be no doubt
now, among really loyal men, that the whole
problem of the war is reduced to this single
proposition: whether the loyal States shall
conquer, or whether they shall be conquered
whether rebellion shall be crushed, or whether
1t shall crush the government whether the
proud, domineering, insolent hutspurs of the
slave States shall be reduced to obedience, or
whether they shall triumph, and exercise their
unbridled control over the government of the
country, and domineer with internal insolence
over the industrious, loyal, and intelligent free
people ofthe North. This is the problem, and
it has got to be solved, not by the pen but by
the sword, and the record of its solution writ
ten out, not with ink but in blood.
We are satisfied of the truth of remark we
have often made that the struggle OF the hour
is between two civilizations; or,rather, between
the civilization of free schools, popular educa-
ton, a free ballot, free conscience and free
church, andIthe semi-barbrism ola feudalsystem
more over-bearing, more despotic, and less in
accordance with the spirit and genius of the
10th century, than was the European fcudal-
ism of the middle Ages" While the people
of the free States have been drinking in the
bracing air of their free hills and lofty noun
tains, and trying to promote the humanities of
the age by system of institutions in accord
ance with equal rights and the largest liberty,
the people of the South, born of the same COM
mon origin, schooled in the same original con-
tasf for froadou, and hantizad in tho hast Hood
of common Revolution, have been nursing
their undemocratic Institutions fighting down
popular education, combating the idea of hui
man equality, and working, and living upon
the toll of, their slaves-liying without person
al toll or habits of industry upon the sweat of
menials-until the genius Of their accused in
stitution has taken possession Of their entire
being, developing in them spirit of despot-
ism, and nourishing their proud self-esteem
and egotism, SO that they have come TO regard
themselves as creatures of superior mould, in
whose vein courses no common blood, but
who, with their slaves, make up all there is of
humanity worth preserving or regarding, while
the people of the North are looked upon as an
inferior race, wanting it all the elements of
strength, courage and manliness, whose fitting
position is somewhere between that of the lord
ly master and his cringing slave-a sort of mid
dle-man between the black producer and his
master consumer-convenient but not indis-
pensable, and TO be tolerated while he consents
TO be governed, but ignored when he presumes
to think and act for and to govern himself
The people of the South talk of their Nor
man origin, and scoif ut the Saxon origin of
the Northern people, and as the old Normans
conquered the Saxons, so they think TO con-
quer and govern the Saxons of the North
The following extract from the Kentucky
Courier, or rebel paper on wheels, that rolled
off from Louisville to Bowling Green, to avoid
the storm of loyal wrath, and finally gave up
its worthless ghost exhibits the spirit TO which
we refer:
The Norman cavalier cannot brook the vul-
gar familiarity of the Saxon Yankee, while the
latter is continually devising some plan to
bring his aristocratic neighbor TO his own de-
tested level. This was the contest long waged
in the old United States. So long as Dickin-
son dough-faces were to be bought, and Coch-
rane towards to be frightened, so long was the
Union tolerable to Southern men; but when,
owing to a division i'm our ranks, the Yankee
hirelings placed one of their own spawn over
us, political connection became uncomfortable,
and separation necessary to preserve Jour self
respect rs .....,se ... &
As our Norman kinsmen in England, always
minority, have ruled their Saxon countrymen
In political vassalage up to the present day, so
have We "slave olgarchs," governed the Yam
KEGS till within twelve month. We framed
the constitution, for seventy years moulded
the policy of government, and placed our own
men, or northern men with southern princi-
ples,7 in power.
On the 9th Of November, 1860, the Puritans
emancipated themselves, and are now in vio-
lent Instruction against their former owners
This insane holiday freak will not last long
however, for, dastards in fight and incapable
or self-government, they will inevitably again
fall under the control of the superior race A
few more Bull Run thrashings will bring them
once more under the yoke, as docile as the
most loyal Of our Ethiopian "chattels."
A Richmond paper of recent date, exhib-
its the same spirit. An extract will suffice:
The whole experience of the war is an at
testation Of the truth long since discovered by
impartial observers, that the master-race of
this continent is found in the Southern States
OF better stock originally, and habituated TO
manller pursuits and exercises, they have
ruled in affairs of State by force of the strong
er will, and larger wisdom that pertain to- and
distinguish superior races of men: while on
the field of battle they have, in every battle,
held priority of place, conceded to them by
their present adversaries. 4At
This natural dominancy Of the Southern
people has had much to do in bringing on the
war. The inferior race, grown strong in num-
bers, and ambitious from prosperity, have re-
volted against, and now seek to overthrow and
destroy those whose superiority was con
slant source of envy, and selfreproach There
is no fercer maleyolence than that of CASTE
and it is this which has so long stirred the Yam
kee bile. Always in the presence OF "A South
ern gentleman, he has felt a strong and pain
fully repressed impulse TO take off his hat
This conscious inieriority has CALLED the jeal-
GUS and malignant creature until he has brok-
en- out in seryile insurrection. He has vainy
concluded that his numbers can oyerwhem
and externinate the subjects of his envy and
that he, succeeding 10 the broad acres. and lib
eral habtudes of the Southern gentry, will
come to be looked upon as gentleman, too.
With us the contest is one for hereditary
rights, for the sacred things OF home, for the
old repute of the better blood With the Yam
kee il Is rebellious and infatuated struggle
for apace he Is unworthy OF, for privileges he
would degrade, for property he would barter,
and for Institutions he could neither compre-
bend, nor enjoy. 1t is the old and neyer-end-
ing strife between pratrician and proetarian.
between gentle and vile. Ii is the offer of bat
tie on a new field of muscle against spirit
numbers against courage. IL is not upon
Southern soil, and among the descendants of
Cavaliers and HugenOts, that the battle will 30
in favor of brufp fprf.p