The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-12-06
Saving the Nation.


fns) history of the war for the preservation
CT the Union, addressed to the boys and girls
of the United States. In this opening paper
Mr.. Coffin deals with the causes of the war,
and, it will be seen, to account for the ex-
opinions which led to the estrangement of
the South from the North, he goes back to
the days of the Roundhead and Cavalier
to the very origin of the great struggle for
popular liberty, which, begun in England by
the common people, has reached its most
successful issue in this Republic.
1t is true, as Mr.. Coffin says that slavery
was the immediate cause of the war
The adoption of slavery By the Southern
colonies, in the early days of their settlement
not only determined the growth and charac-
ter Of the material interests Of the South,
but the moral and intellectual education of
it's people. The differences in habits of
thought-in the estimation of the dignity
of human labor, the value of distinguished
lineage, and the perpetuation of personal
chiyalry- originally existing between the
Pilgrims who founded the rugged New
England colonies, and the Cavaliers who,
impelled by the love of adventure and the
thirst for gold, settled the Virginia
colony, were broadened and deepened
through the influence Of slavery. But 50
radical were these differences at the very start
that even had not the prevalence of the
peculiar institution !" in the South strength
ened the natural contempt which the cava-
Ier felt for labor as labor, there must ineg-
itably, at some period of the history of the
country, have been renewal on this side of
the Atlantic of the struggle for popular
rights, which led The New England colonists
first to seek refuge in Holland, and after
wards TO found new nation in the wilds of
America.
Mr.. Coffin goes to the root of the con-
fict of opinion between the North and
/ South, when he traces to its source the dif
ference of opinion which has always OBJ
tanned between the two sections, as to the
| dignity of human labor. The history of the
South since the war has clearly demon
strated that this difference of opinion was as
serious an obstacle to its material prosper
ity as the institution Of slayery-in which it
found It's broadcast xemplifcation-wa
repugnant to the notions of individual lib
erty which have always prevailed in the
! North. Prior to the war, as everybody
| knows, such was The dependence of the peo-
| pie of the South upon slavery that enter
prise, in the broad sense of the term was en-
tirely lacking there, and as Mr.. Coffin Justly
says, its natural resources-its magnificent
water power, its mineral wealth, and its in
| dustrial interests in generaI-were utterly
! ignored and neglected. Behold the change
that has come about since the war and the
abolition of slavery! The natural energy of
the people has revealed itself Stern neces-
sity has compelled our late antagonists to
recognize the dignity of labor, and the South,
no longer given over absolutely to agricul-
ture in its rudimentary form, manufactures
much Of the cotton which it produces. 1t
smells and works the ores which its mines
yield in such abundance, and is steadily
taking on the thrifty character which distin-
guishes the industrial centres of the North.
The rivers of Virginia, North Carolina, and
Georgia, which once flowed smoothly to the
sea, are now lined with mills, and the power
that once ran to waste is now employed in
driving thousands of busy spindles.
It is, as Mr.. Coffin says, that the war Of
secession had its origin in causes far more
potent than slavery, of which they were only
the outward indication, and the men who
offered up their lives to save the Nation
therefore, have really saved something
more than its political form and char
acter. They have rescued from the slough
of dependence and Incidence the people o
the South, and they have made the Natior
what it never was before-a really homoge
neous people.
1t is well that the boys and girls of THU
country should know the real causes which
brought on the war, as well as the beueH
cent results which it accomplished, and W,
are glad that MIR. Coffin in his first paper ha.
T described these causes with such fuIlneS
aud clearness of detail. It is in orr judg
ment of the highest Importance that th,
generation which has grown up since tia
war should be as thoroughly and accurately
informed as to the origin and character o
! that mighty struggle, as those who actually
, participated In it, and it 10 because tn,
) school textbooks, aud, for the most part
/ all the children's histories that have bee,
published since the war, are so barren o
} ideas and so grossly faulty in their state
) ment of facts, that THE TRIBUNE hes under
{ taken to publish for the instruction and en-
, tertainment Of the youth of the land tru'