, 1865-05-30

proved not to be the case. No autocrat
that the world has ever seen has received
q more firm and unbounded support and
command more unlimited resources than
those which the American people have
freely placed at The disposal OF Mr.. LIN
coin. His reelection in 1864 was an evil
dence Of the wise and prudent %irnness
of the people who exercised the suffrage;
and the result ought to have left no doubt
on the minds of thoughtful men as to the
necessary issu, Of the great contest.
am no disciple of democracy. |
greatly prefer, both by sentiment and by
conviction, the mixed institutions of the
country TO which it is my happiness to
belong. am abundantly satisfied with
and loyal to that Constitution which has
made us a free, a prosperous, and a unit
ed people. I am an Englishman, and ]
prefer that which has made England
what she is. But why should | condemn
an American for his devotion to that
which has made America what She lately
was, and what | doubt not she is again
destined to be They arc both unWise
and unjust who in this or any other SINH
lar conjunction seek to make "poIi)lcal
capital out of the success or the fiIore
of foreign political systems. | hope that
the friends and the enemies OF democracy
alike will abstain from the employment
of a two edged sword which will ln!aIIl-
bly, wound the hands that endeavour to
WELD it. Shallow sophistry of this kind
is nothing better than an cxasperated
blunder.
Sir, the North has succeeded, but not
hnon,co II - 4, ,l0N,nor,oy, e tbn GlIih
has failed, but not because it is M a%ristoc-
racy. There is, indeed, q great political
truth underlying this result. But it is the
moral not of forms Of freedom, bat of
freedom itself. The North have won be-
cause they were a free people the South
have lost because they were not a free
people. The North were brave, deter
mined, and free. The South were equal
ly brave, equally determined, but they
were not equally free and therefore it is
that they have ~succumbed. The North
could draw on all the resources of their
people. There was no class whose mill
tary services they could not claim. There
was no section Of the community to
whom they could not look with coufi-
dence, and from whom they could not de-
rive assistance aud support. 1t was not
SO with the South. Their upper and
their middle class were men Of undaunted
courage and unshriuking devotion. But
where and what was their peasantry-
the class from which in a great and pro-
tracted military struggle tile resources of
al army must he ultimately drawn? 1t is
said that the South was overpoWered by
numbers but history is full of examples
where numbers have been rolled In vain
against a small but determined people.
But a resistance of this kind has, so far
as know, never been successfully ac-
complished by a people Of whom one
half were slaves. Many persons 4 count
myself among the number) have been
surprised that the civil war in America
failed to create a %servile instruction.
The fact is, indeed remarkable, and
proves, perhaps, more than anything else
the degrading effects Of slavery; for the
slaves, if they had been capable of the
sentiments of freemen, must and ought to
have rebelled. The slaves, it is true,
were passive; but in such a deadly strug-
gle no people can afford to have the
OFonf h,,lEI e ~ o~-l-4S o1...z VI.