THOU, TOO, SAIL ON, O SHIP OF STATE! WITH ALL THE HOPES OF FUTURE YEARS- SAIL ON, NOR FEAR TO BREAST THE SEA! OUR HEARTS, OUR HOPES, ARE ALL WITH THEE; OUR HEARTS, OUR HOPES, OUR PRAYERS, OUR TEARS, OUR FAITH TRIUMPHANT O'ER OUR FEARS, ARE ALL WITH THEE,-ARE ALL WITH THEE. Longfellow. THE WAR FOR THE UNION. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. "HOWEVER disagreeable it may be," | ple is immediately dependent. In many is the language of the American his- lights, truly, a most sad and humiliating torian, Minot, in commencing his nar- struggle; in others, radiant with the rative of the Insurrections in Massa- purest glory of national devotion and chusetts in 1786, and the Rebellion self-sacrifice. Consequent Thereon, "to review the troubles of our country, every patriot will look upon it as his duty, not to let them pass without notice. The period of misfortune is the most fruitful source of instruction. By investigating the causes of national commotions, by tracing their progress and by carefully marking the means through which they are brought to a conclusion, well established principles may be deduced, for preserving the future tranquility of the commonwealth." It is in the calm, impartial spirit of this remark that we would proceed to narrate, simply and clearly as we may, the development of the present most extraordinary conflict, a rebellion or attempted revolution, gigantic in its extent, terrible in the ferocity with which it has been carried on, and memorable to all time for its trial of principles and modes of government, in which the whole modern world is interested, and upon the maintenance of which the welfare of millions of peo The time has, of course, not yet come for a complete record of these occurrences to be written. The movement began in secrecy; many of its hidden contrivances and resources will probably never be fully known; others may be disclosed only by the revelations of private manuscripts and correspondence in another age. Even a knowledge of what was publicly transacted, so wide has been the area and so numerous and complicated have been the incidents, must await the slow and patient labors of long-continued research. Who can now enter into the secrets of the opposing cabinets, or unravel the intricate web of statesmanship? The very operations of war, which would appear to be of a tangible character, have always their disputes and contradictions. With the best of evidence before us it is most difficult to determine the facts of a battlewhat was actually performed and suffered, let alone determining the motives and plans of the combatants. Military critics (5) Enough, however, lies open to the view to supply the reader with the more prominent features of these extraordinary passing events; to gratify his euriosity in many most interesting particulars; to afford fruitful opportunity for meditation in even a cursory review of the chronicle. We shall meet with many deeds of exalted heroism, worthy a better field than the painful theatre of civil war; with many exhibitions of manners and character which we might survey with more satisfaction, perhaps, were our fellow citizens not the actors, and our beloved country the scene. yet dispute over conflicts which hundreds instances only by patient toil and long of annalists and commentators have la- continued self-denial. When the men of bored to elucidate. How then must it these opposite regions first met in the be when the smoke and dust of the en- conventions and congresses preliminary counter have scarce rolled away from to the formation of the national confedthe plain? eracy, the effects of these diversities were exhibited in taste and temper. John Adams, then making his way rapidly upward in the world, a curious and politic student of men's manners, and keenly sensitive to social discriminations, has left us in his diaries and correspondence various anecdotes and observations of these differences. As he travels southward from New England, he notices in Virginia the increased style and expense of living, and more than once records the perils to which the infant Union was subjected in the opposite temperaments and interests of the representatives of the North and the South. There is in particular a curious illustration of the relative social aspects of the two regions, in a letter which he wrote in 1775, to Joseph Hawley, in reference to the pay given by Congress to the privates of the army. His correspondent, at the East, urged that this remuneration be increased, a recommendation to which Adams replies that the gentlemen of the army from the southward thought it already too high, and that of the officers too low. He says that "many an anxious day and night" has been spent upon this subject; and adds the general reflection, "we cannot suddenly alter the temper, principles, opinions and prejudices of men. The characters of gentlemen in the four New England colonies differ as much from those in the others, as that of the common people differs; that is, as much as several distinct nations almost. Gentlemen, men of sense, or any kind of education, in the other colonies, are much To understand properly the origin and causes of this attempt on the part of the Southern States to assert and maintain their independence of the government of the United States, we must ascend to the beginning of our national history. We shall there find at the outset certain differences and conditions, marking the two portions of the country, the North and the South, which at no subsequent period, perhaps, have been wholly inoperative. They are to be referred, generally, to climate and the social relations springing from the peculiar institution of slavery. The South, as an agricultural producing region, with its fields tilled and its products gathered by slave labor, a privileged class of its inhabitants enjoying the benefits of wealth thus obtained, presented many contrasts to the less favored regions of the North, where competence, and even a bare subsistence could be gained in most THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. 7 fewer in proportion than in New England. the rampart and the deadly encounter Gentlemen in the colonies have large with the foe was not lost upon them. It plantations of slaves, and the common was a great lesson of brotherhood when people among them are very ignorant Morgan and his riflemen hastened on foot and very poor. These gentlemen are on their extraordinary march to the field accustomed, habituated to higher notions of Saratoga, or when Lincoln and Green of themselves, and the distinction be- with their companions found themselves tween them and the common people than by the side of Sumter and Marion, in dewe are. And an instantaneous alteration fence of the plantations of the South. It of the character of a colony, and that was a still greater when WASHINGTON, temper and those sentiments which its aptly chosen from the middle region of inhabitants imbibed with their mothers' the country, a representative of the purmilk, and which have grown with their est and best traditions of the South, growth, and strengthened with their patiently and magnanimously spent his strength, cannot be made without a mir- life in reconciling all contradictions, to acle. I dread the consequences of this mould and establish a great nation. The dissimilitude of character, and without fates seemed to hold an impartial balance the utmost caution on both sides, and the as the struggle for independence begun most considerate forbearance with one on Northern soil ended in the sunny reanother, and prudent condescension on gion of the South. both sides, they will certainly be fatal. An alteration of the Southern Constitutions, which must certainly take place if this war continues, will gradually bring all the continent nearer and nearer to each other in all repects.' Notwithstanding, however, this cement of blood in the common struggle of the Revolution, the North and the South were not as yet sufficiently one people to enter without an effort upon the more perfect union of the Constitution. The historian of that great charter of our liberties, while enumerating the embar This, certainly, is a very noticeable passage which has lost none of its political significance after the lapse of three-quar-rassments which beset its adoption, inters of a century. That alteration of the Southern Constitutions is yet needed to complete that essential condition of a perfect union, which has never been better defined than in those very words, "gradually bringing all the continent nearer and nearer to each other in all respects." The war of the Revolution did much to accomplish this. The men of the South shed their blood in the battle-fields of the North, and the men of the North in the prescience of coming events, "to trace battle-fields of the South, in a common cause; and the fraternity of the trench, cludes also, as "a very serious cause for discouragement, the sectional jealousy and State pride which had been constantly growing from the Declaration of Independence to the time when the States were called upon to meet each other upon broader grounds, and to make even larger sacrifices than at any former period. It is difficult," he adds, 'in a philosophic spirit, and with a *Letter to Joseph Hawley, Philadelphia, 25th November, 1775. Adams' Works, ix. 366–7. to all its causes the feeling which has at times arrayed the different extremities of this Union against each other. It was very early developed, after the dif on such a stage, with such weapons. No questions of domestic rights and policy can arise among us which may not be peaceably and satisfactorily adjusted by fair minded men for the welfare of all under the liberal provisions and beneficent working of the Constitution. ferent provinces were obliged to act to-be too wise again to renew the conflict gether for their great mutual objects of political independence; but, even in its highest paroxysms, it has always at last found an antidote in the deeper feelings and more sober calculations of a consistent patriotism. Perhaps its prevalence and activity may with more truth be ascribed, in every generation, to the ambition of men who find in it a convenient instrument of local influence, rather than to any other cause. It is certain that when it has raged most violently, this has been its chief aggravating element. The differences of neither manners, institutions, climate, nor pursuits, would at any time have been sufficient to create the perils to which the Union of the States has occasionally been exposed, without the mischievous agency of men whose personal objects are, for the time, subserved by the existence of such peculiarities. The proof of this is to be found in the fact, that the seasonable sagacity of the people has always detected the motives of those who have sought to employ their passions, and has compelled them at last to give way to that better order of men who have appealed to their reason."* Alas! since this was written the argument has been put to a ruder issue, and a sterner arbiter has been brought in than the voice of sober judgment. But at the beginning and throughout the unhappy contest we may look to find the same parties. The antagonism commenced in faction, and the insane will of the few must depend for reconciliation in the end on the well grounded sober second thought of the many. Posterity, we may hope, profiting by our misfortunes, will History of the Constitution of the United States, by George Ticknor Curtis, i. 372. New York, 1854. To expect that any large bodies of men will live together under a general government, actuated by the spirit of freedom, without the existence of party differences and opinions, is to look for what has never yet existed under any political system, and what it would, perhaps, be unphilosophical to desire. Uniformity of sentiment on all subjects in which a considerable number of men are called to act together, can exist only with a degree of indifference which would be more alarming than opposition. We may have stagnation and apparent uniformity; but a living, vital system will be the result of contending energies. Party we must expect to have under the best possible conditions of government. No society, worthy to take rank with the nations of the world, may hope to be without it. The various interests of such a community cannot be made so homogeneous that some cause of contention will not arise. If we could bring our wills and inclinations to uniformity, the very constitution of nature would still produce diversity. If our Northern and Southern States were to be definitely separated from one another, in each portion there would yet be differences. The manufacturing and commercial interests, city and country, free trade and protection, capital and labor, would be asserting their distinctive There would be a foreign policy and a claims with more or less of hostility. |