The Portland daily press., 1877-05-01
The Slave Powers y

| JuuIHdi.
The Slave Powers
AT time when the indications are many
| that the Southern Question is about to dig
appear from our politics forever, when the
issues growing out of the system of human
slavery are finally settled beyond all possibil.
ity of appeal, the concluding part of Henry
Wilson's "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power
in America is put before the public. 1t is
very fitting the work should come to its t1i.
umphant close as the long conflict which it
describes finally passes out of the range, ;.
current events and into history.
For many years to come this work will be
authority for the long period of nationa, life
which is covered by the slavery conflict; for
| despite its errors of taste, the weak construc-
tive faculty possessed by its author, and its
| discursiye treatment, it presents a picture OF
the great contest which no artist in words
can hope to more truthf1lly depict until long
lapse of years has given that historical per-
spective wanting which no just and philo-
hsophical history can be written, Henry Will
bn was in the very heat of the conflict
which he describes, one of the foremost men
to whom, under God, this country is in
debted for her delivery from the foulest
wrong which has burdened and disgraced any
nation of modern times. 1t is not to be ex-
pected, as it certainly is not to be wished,
that he should essay the vein of the indiffer-
ent chronicler, giving but the statements of
each party TO the contest, and leaving the
reader to draw his own conclusions. His is
the duty of interpreter and commentator as
well as the duty of annalist, and he has nobly
discharged all. Not only are events in their
orderly course brought back to memory, but
the causes which brought them about, the
circumstances which hastened or retarded
their accomplishment, and the consequences
Immediately or remotely proceeding from
them, are set forth and Illuminated by the
knowledge, zeal and patriotism of the author.
He had peculiar facilities, as founder of the
great political party which destroyed slavery
and saved the Union, as one of its most hon.
ored leaders and as its accredited representa-
tive, for ascertaining the motives which die.
tated lines Of policy and the measures to
carry them into effect; and the reader in this
history Of the slave power, gets all the advan-
tage which comes of this special knowledge.
Acts Misunderstood and doctrines misappre-
hended are here made clear.
In the three volumes Of the work slavery
is traced from its small beginnings to its over
shadowing greatness, from the few seeds
planted at jamestown in 1920 to the woful
harvest covering the land in 1860, from being
a system OF labor in bad repute and existing
by sufferance, to becoming an 'sinstitution"
dominating the government, and exerting a
commanding influence in society and in the
commercial world-and thence to its dra-
matte downiar. The rhrrT anu corfciudfrss fs-
volume of the work covers the short and ex-
citing period, the time of harvest gathering,
from the election of Abraham Lincoln to the
adoption of the fifteenth amendment, and
makes clear the momentous events of that
great and troublous time. The last chap
ters, left uncompleted by the sudden death of
Vice-President Wilson, have been put into
form by the Rev. Samuel Hunt, who was as
sociated with Mr.. Wilson from the inception
of the work, and who carried the previous
volumes through the press. To Mr.. Hunt
we owe the melancholy vatieinations with
which the work comes to close-prophecies
which he no less than his readers will rejoice
to have proved false. 1t is not to be believed
that the American people are wearied of the
4An1r ttnAr z11~k -
will consent to see in any section of this
country that old regime restored which
recognized race distinction and class legisla-
ton.
*Hstory of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power
in America Vol III. By Henry Wilson. Boston,
J. r. Osgood & 60. Portland: Loring, Short q