The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1910-08-11

vidual seems to be self-directed and con-
trolled, but in reality he is playing the
part of the greater power behind him,
and the result be arrested will and in
action of the-individual. 1t is when they
severally operate through separate wills
they come to the outward conflict of
tragic action.
In the tragic action of life we may
observe. there are always three elements
necessity, blindness and retribution.
When these forces meet the collision is
necessity of their opposite nature.
There is always blindness to it, in that
the actors fancy themselves as free and
choosing the action and fail to see any
other motive than their own. Then there
always falls the retribution. By the very
nature of things, the blindness is held to
account for its doings. 1t is not as a
punishment, but an effect. 1t is the in
evitable result Of violation Of the right
direction and adjustment of forces in any
sphere of life. 1t falls upon both the in
vading power and the realm invaded.
We observe also that these conflicting
forces are usually those generated in the
lower and higher stages of human prog
ress and developing ideas as to right and
duty. In the mind of Hamlet it was the
age of personal revenge arrayed against
the higher order of civilization which
commits these matters to the admins
tration of law by the State. So on
through all tragic conflicts, we might
observe that: whether they take place in
single individuals, between individuals,
between nations or parts of a nation, it
is IN reality between one actor or set OF
actors representing lower order of hui
man development and another represent
ing the higher order
Precisely this happened not many years
since, when our own nation found its di-
vided parts opposed in the tragic collision
of civil war. In that terrific conflict of
opposing forces, you-comrades of the
Grand Army of the Republic act
ors. You represented one of the great
underlying forces of civilization that
were there at open issue.
Up to that time liberty and slavery-a
higher and lower stage of development
were both present in our national life.
Both elements had firm hold upon it.
Each was strongly entrenched in sectional
self-interest. But they were inconsistent
and utterly opposed. They could not be
united and permanently stand in single
airy palhatives. Moving by their very
nature in opposite directions, they must
inevitably meet in mortal combat.
The opposite nature of the elements
involved appear when we note the sew
eral marked stages of world advance
ment. In warfare among primitive men
there was no quarter granted. They took
no prisoners. Merciless slaughter was
the rule and practice. 1t was struggle
to finish. The strong and skilful sur
vived
Self-interest is the powerful motive
force in the progress of civilization. 1t
was this wrought change of policy.
Instead of Staying the enemy, it was
found to be profitable to capture him and
hold him as a slave. Thus the system of
slavery began, and it was a decided adj
vance over the earlier practice of slaugh-
ter. At this stage of development slav-
cry was a higher good, and was right
according to the moral standards of that
day. 1t marked an advance toward the
higher life.
Then came the method of holding pris-
oners in order to demand tribute for their
redemption. Then, with the higher de-
velopment Of civilization, came the idea
of personal liberty 1t recognized the
rights of all. War came then to be
waged, not for the purpose of killing the
tlSllISy Dut " IlIIII- anu WilSli tiloI
was accomplished ne was to be treated
as a man, his equal. Thus came about
the modern practice Of exchanging pris-
oners or holding them until the war is
closed, and then giving them liberty. 1t
is based upon the modern idea that to
have superior power, either physical,
moral or intellectual, does not give any
one the right to own the life and limb of
another. Therefore, to modern thought
the highest result of human evolution
slavery is inherently wrong. 1t was
good at one stage of development, in
that it was more humane-a distinct adj
vance over the earlier practice-but, in
this day and age, it is an evil. 1t be-
longs, then, to an early stage in the
progress of civilization
Our country made the fatal error of
attempting to live at the same time in
the Nineteenth Century of freedom, and
in the Dark Ages of slavery and tyranny.
| 1t adopted at the same time the primitive
system of slavery and the modern prin-
ciple of equal rights. The seeds of the
ancient system were. planted at James
! town when a Dutch trader sailed up the
James River in 1920 and landed cargo
/ of slaves. In the same year the seeds
of the modern idea were planted on the
rugged New England coast when the Pill
grims -fugitives from tyranny-landed
at Plymouth.
The place of first planting had much to
do with the localizing of these two wide
ly differing systems. But it does not be-
come US Of the North to boast of any
. superiority over the South, because we
represented the higher stage of civiliza-
ton. For, in fact, it was self-interest
that saved US from the lower. Had slave
labor been profitable in the North there
is little probability that there would ever
have been a Mason's and DiXon's line.
1t was sectional self-interest that actual
ly drew the line between the North and
the South.
1t would ill become US as fair minded
people to shift all the blame upon the
South for the crime of slavery. We
escaped it's more immediate touch by the
mere accident of soil and climate. If we
were disposed to shift the burden of the
curse upon the South alone, the history
of the terrible war which brought it to
an end, and study of the movements of
the natural forces of life underlying that
tragic action, would rebuke US for our
short-sightedness.
1t was not the sin of the South alone.
1t was the crime of the nation. 1t was
recognized by the constitution and law.
Only sectional interest confined 1t to the