SLAVERY AND THE WAR.
Everyone in anywise interested, practically or theoretically, in the
Great War, is just now prophesying of the future, simply because it
looks vaguer and dimmer than ever. So I will hazard my guess at truth
before all is done.
I am no more capable of giving a valid opinion as to the chances or
resources of the South than if I had never left these English shores.
Proximity that is not positive presence, rather embarrasses one's
judgment, for the nearer you approach the frontier-line, the more you
become bewildered in the maze of exaggerated reports, direct
contradictions, and conflicting statistics. Judging from individual
cases, and from the spirit animating the "sympathizers" on the hither
side of the border, I feel sure that the bitter determination of the
South to hold out to the last man and the last ounce of corn-bread, has
not been in the least overstated; but as to the aspect of chances, or as
to the actual loss or gain achieved by either side up to this moment, I
am no more qualified to speak, than any careful student of the
war-chronicles. It is from consideration of the present and probable
strength or weakness of Federaldom, that I should draw the grounds of
any opinion that I might hazard.
I think _both_ are generally under-estimated. In spite of the resistance
offered in many places to the Conscription Act, it is likely that for
some time to come the North will always be able to bring into the field
armies numerically far superior to those of her adversary; nor do I
believe that she will have exclusively to depend on raw or enforced
levies. Many of the three-year men and others, whose term of volunteer
service has just expired, after a brief rest and experience of home
monotony, will begin to long for excitement again, though accompanied by
peril and hardship. To such the extravagant bounty will be a great
temptation, and the Government may not be far wrong in calculating on
the re-enlistment of a large percentage of the "veterans." Besides, it
should always be remembered that if it comes to wearing one another out
in the drain of life, the preponderance of twenty millions against four
must tell fearfully, even though the willingness to serve on the one
side should equal the reluctance on the other. Neither do I think that
national bankruptcy is so imminent over the Northern States, as some
would have it. Mr. Chase is, of course, a perilously reckless financier;
but, on more than one occasion, audacity has served him well, when
prudent sagacity could have been of little aid: the "Five-and-Twenty"
Loan was certainly eminently successful, and the tough, broad back of
Yankee-land will bear more burdens yet before it breaks or bends. I am
speaking now solely of the resources which can be made available for
_carrying on_ the war: these, I think, will be found sufficient for its
probable duration. With the commercial future or national credit of the
Northern States this question has nothing to do; it is not difficult to
foresee how both must inevitably be compromised by the load of debt
which swells portentously with every hour of warfaring. But if we have
been wont to undervalue the strength of Federaldom, latent and
displayed, we have perhaps scarcely realized how very unsubstantial and
slippery are its presumed points of vantage.
First, take the North great battle or, rather,
stalking-horse--Abolition.
Let no reader be here unnecessarily alarmed. On that terrible slave
question, over which wiser brains have puzzled, till they became lost in
a labyrinth of self-contradiction, I purpose to speak only a few cursory
words. It is beyond dispute that a vast extent of the richest land in
the South can only be kept in cultivation by the Africans, who can
thrive and fatten where the white man withers helplessly. No one that
has realized the present state of our own West Indian colonies, will
believe that the enfranchised negro can be depended upon as a daily
laborer for hire. The listless indolence inherent in all tropical races
_will_ assert itself, as soon as free agency begins or is restored. With
a bright sun overhead, and a sufficiency of sustenance for the day
before him, money will not tempt Sambo to toil among cotton or canes,
should the spirit move him to lie under his own vine or fig-tree; and he
is unfortunately peculiarly liable to these lazy fits just when his
services are most vitally important to the interests of his employer.
From so much ground having been thrown out of cultivation in the West
Indies, the supply of free negro labor is perhaps now nearly equal to
the ordinary demand; but we all know how, in the early times of
emancipation, the fortunes of our planters fared. There has been, in all
ages, certain cases of apparent political necessity, hardly to be
justified--sometimes hardly to be defended--on purely moral grounds.
Whether the existence and maintenance of a slave population in the South
be one of these huge dilemmas or paradoxes is a question that any
English or Northern abolitionist is about as capable of determining, as
he would be of legislating for Mangolian Tartary.
The two blackest points in all the dark system--for dark it is, looking
at it how you will--are first, the complication of sin and shame arising
from the mixture of the races; and, secondly, the separation of husband
and wife from each other, and from their infant families, by sale. I do
firmly believe that the recurrence of the former evil becomes rarer
every day, for advance of civilization only seems to strengthen the
natural repugnance--with which moral sentiment has nothing to
do--existing between the Anglo-Saxon and African blood.
The subject is not a pleasant one to dilate upon, but that such a
repugnance does exist, few that have been brought into actual contact
with the "colored" element _en masse_, will be inclined to deny. I think
some of those scientific philosophers who write volumes to prove that
there is no physical difference between the races, would feel their
theories strangely modified after such a practical trial. If this be an
immutable fact, it may work in the South for the prevention of evil as
well as of good; in the North it can only work for bitter harm. In
Delaware, where the free negroes are found in unusually large
proportions to the whites, they are notoriously more hardly treated than
in any other State of the original Union; and fanaticism must be blind
and deaf indeed if recent events in New York have not taught it to doubt
whether the tender mercies of the Abolitionists are so gentle, after
all. While things are so (and there is scant hope of their changing
within many generations) the position of the black freedman in the North
will never be much higher than that of the Chinese in California, where
a scintilla of civil rights is the utmost that the unhappy aliens can
claim. In the South, I do greatly fear, there is no alternative between
suppression and subjugation.
There is no reason why the second great evil--the separation of families
(under a certain age) should not be entirely removed by proper
legislation; and I believe measures to this effect have already been
mooted in more than one of the slaveholding States. Putting these two
points aside, I believe that the condition of the slave--especially
where the "patriarchal" system prevails--is infinitely better than that
of the coolies: the unutterable horrors and waste of life in the Chincha
Islands have never been matched in Kentucky or Louisiana. I believe that
the whole roll of authenticated cruelties exercised on the negroes in
any one year would be outnumbered and outdone by the brutalities
practiced within the same time upon the apprentices in our own coast
trade, and upon seamen--white and colored--in the American
merchant-service. With all this it should be remembered that the
ordinary slave-rations far exceed, both in quantity and quality, the
Sunday meal of an English west-country laborer; and that the comforts of
all the aged and infirm, whom the master is, of course, obliged to
maintain, are infinitely superior to those enjoyed by the like inmates
of our most lenient work-houses.
I think it is a mistake to suppose that the negroes, as a race, _pine_
for freedom; though, when it is suggested to them, they may grasp at it
with eagerness, much as they would at any other novelty. Many, no doubt,
can appreciate liberty, and use it as wisely and well as any freeborn
white: gradual emancipation would be one of the grandest schemes that
could be propounded to human benevolence: it is rife with difficulty,
but surely not impracticable. The indiscriminate and abrupt manumission
of the negro would, I am convinced, turn a quaint, simple, childish
creature--prone to mirth, and not easily discontented if his indolence
be not taxed too hardly, susceptible, too, of strong affection and
fidelity to his master, as many recent events have shown--into a sullen,
slothful, insolent savage, never remembering the past, except as a sort
of vague excuse for the present indulgence of his brutal instincts,
conscious that every man's hand is against him, without the meek
patience of a pariah; but only venturing to retaliate by occasional
outbursts of ruffianism or rapine. Where a body of these men is
subjected at once to military discipline, and overawed by the presence
of white soldiers in overwhelming numbers, the same danger cannot exist;
yet I doubt gravely as to the ultimate success, in any point of view, of
those negro levies. It seems hard to say, but I do think it is better
for us--even for the sake of Christian charity--to leave that Great
Anomaly to be dealt with by God in His own time.
Were the cause stronger than it is, it would be damaged, with many
moderate thinkers, by the absurdities and violence of its moat zealous
advocates. Ward Beecher, the great Abolition apostle, fairly outdoes the
earlier eccentricities of Spurgeon; every trick of stage effect--such as
the sudden display of a white slave-child--is freely employed in the
pulpit of Plymouth Church, and each successful "point" is rewarded by
audible murmurs of applause. One fact stamps the man very sufficiently.
In the latter part of last May, he was starting for a four-months'
absence in Europe; it was purely a pleasure trip, the expenses to be
paid by "his affectionate congregation;" and the whole arrangements were
thoroughly comfortable, not to say luxurious. The text of his last
sermon was taken from Acts, chapter xx. 18-27--words that even an
Apostle never spoke till, standing in the shadow of bonds and death, he
said farewell to saints who should never look upon his face any more.
Theodore Tilton, another shining light, much distinguished himself by
announcing that there was no doubt that "the negroes were destined to be
_The_ Church of Christ:" he founded his discovery not so much upon the
strong religious feeling prevalent among "colored" persons, as on that
verse in the Songs of Solomon, where the Bride professes herself "black
but comely."
It would be well if such absurdities were all one had to record: some
ebullitions of abolitionist zeal will hardly bear writing down. Take one
instance. At a large Union meeting at Philadelphia, the _Reverend_ A. H.
Gilbert, speaking of the Proclamation, and its probable effects in the
South, did not deny that it might entail a repetition of the San Domingo
horrors on a vaster scale. "But," said he--"speaking calmly and as a
Christian minister--I affirm that it would be better that every woman
and child in the South should perish, than that the principles of
Confederate Statesmen should prevail."
In all that huge assembly, there was not one man found who--for the love
of wife, or sister, or daughter, or mother--would rise to smite the
brutal blasphemer on the mouth; nay, the Quaker brood cheered him to the
echo.
That same Proclamation has done less harm than was expected, after all.
Maryland has suffered, perhaps, most: the whole Constitution is rendered
null and void there now, without her gaining any European credit as a
voluntary free State. The negroes stay or run away according to their
fancy, and work as it suits their convenience; the chances against
recapture being about 1000 to 1, so it says something for the system,
that so many have chosen to remain: hardly any household or domestic
servants are found among the fugitives.
Putting abolition aside, let us examine the condition of the North's
"second charger"--battle-horse--Restoration of the Union at any cost.
The question of the right of the Southern States to secede has been
discussed till every European ear must be weary of the theme; so we will
let the justice of the case alone, and only look at the wild
improbability of any such result being achieved. In the North, of
course, there is a strong peace-party; in the South I do not think that
any man would venture to suggest to his nearest friend any compromise
short of the acknowledgment of the Confederacy as an independent nation.
It is an utter mistake to suppose that, if the Emancipatory Proclamation
were revoked, the road towards peace would be smoothed materially: it
might have a good effect in displaying a spirit of conciliation on the
part of the Federal Government--nothing more. The wedges that will keep
the South apart from the North, forever, were moulded and sharpened long
before they were driven home. For years far-seeing men, especially on
the Border States, had provided, in their financial and domestic
arrangements, for a certain disunion: not for the first time in history
has an aristocracy grown up in the centre of a democracy, and, while the
world shall last, such a state of things can never long endure without a
collision, involving temporary subjugation or permanent disruption.
The New Englander sees this just as plainly as the Virginian, and both
have an equal pride in thinking that Cavalier and Roundhead are fighting
the old battle once more. Disputes about tariffs and falsified
compromises have only been specious pretexts for indulging in a spirit
of antagonism, which was then scarcely dissembled, and can never be
glossed over again. But the Federal Government are not only pursuing a
_mirage_, in trying to enforce a Union which could scarcely be
maintained if all the South country lay depopulated and desolate: they
are risking, every day, more perilously, the cohesion of the States that
still cling to the old Commonwealth. The Black Republican tendency to
put down all political opposition with the armed hand, or with the
_lettre de cachet_, is perpetually conflicting with the State rights,
which many true-hearted Americans value no less highly than their
allegiance to the Union. The Democrats are almost strong enough to defy
their opponents, even while the latter are in power; and resistance to
the Conscription may be only the beginning of a struggle that will
terminate in a second solution of political continuity, not less earnest
than the first. Listen to _The World_, of the 19th May, speaking of
Vallandigham's arrest:
"The blood that already makes crimson Virginian and Kentucky hill-sides,
is but a drop to that which will flow on northern soil, when the
American people discover that the battle has begun to save the
Constitution from tyrants."
Brave words, these! Yet, making allowance for editorial blatancy, they
may contain a germ of bitter truth. When New York, the Empress City, has
been threatened with martial law, it is fair to conclude that Federaldom
may soon have other enemies to deal with than those who are vexing her
borders.
No Government can hope successfully to carry out the principle of
arbitrary and irresponsible power, unless its standing ground be as
unassailable, and its resolves as unanimous as those of any individual
autocrat.
Yet, no administration--civil, political, or military--can be otherwise
than unsound to the core where no mutual confidence or reliance subsists
among its constituent members. Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet do not even keep up
the appearances of a Happy Family; in all the subordinate departments,
scarcely a week elapses without the promulgation of some disgraceful
scandal. For instance, last spring, before men had had time to discuss
the gigantic Custom-house frauds, there appeared a quiet paragraph to
the effect that one hundred and forty thousand dollars had disappeared
mysteriously from the Navy Office on the eve of pay-day; a huge reward
was offered for the discovery of the criminal, or recovery of the money;
but even Unionists laughed openly at such an advertisement, which
probably did not cause the real robber, whoever he was, to turn once
uneasily in his gorgeous bed. Even in the Commissariat, which, in all
ages and in all armies, has been the presumed headquarters of the
Autolyci, no one has yet emulated the evil renown of the Butlers at New
Orleans (it was openly stated in Congress, and scarcely contradicted,
that the profits and plunder carried off by that noble pair of brothers,
exceeded seven millions of dollars); but many of the contractors appear
to have used their opportunities much as if they were scrambling for
eagles, or robbing "against time." The corruption that has long
prevailed in Congress, whenever a "private bill" is in question, has
long been notorious; but this, at least, was shrouded with a thin vail
of decorum which the peculators in military and civil high places
disdained to encumber themselves with in these latter days.
Instances of all this might be multiplied to weariness, but you have
only to look at a week's files of any northern journal to be convinced
of the existing state of things, which even the Black Republicans not
unfrequently bewail.
There is another sort of extra-horse that the Government, or its organs,
are fond of riding for a short "spell," when the others have been hacked
rather too hardly. They have christened it--"Perfidious Albion." To
speak the truth, however, the Anglophobia is not confined to the
Abolitionists or Republicans when anything occurs to make any particular
journal cross or querulous, you are almost sure to meet, that same week,
a sanguinary leader, with the threadbare motto--"_delenda est
Britannia_." Lately, it has been suggested that the most certain fact to
secure the adhesion of the South, would be an invitation to join in an
internecine war with England and France, with Canada and Mexico for
prizes.
Truly Secessia has little cause to love us; for our practical sympathy
with her in her dire strait has been confined to the furnishing of
war-munitions at a moderate profit of three hundred per cent.; yet, I
think, even in such a cause, Georgia, Carolina, and Virginia would stand
aloof, rather than dress up in line with the Yankee battalions. The
mobocracy are "all for a muss," of course, as they always are till they
see the glitter of bayonets; but I cannot believe that the bellicose
ideas they are so fond of mooting have ever been seriously entertained
by the Government. The Federal navy is too utterly inefficient now, save
for attack and defense along its own shores, to give cause for
apprehension even to a second-class Power: it cannot even protect
Northern commerce. For a year or more, the Florida and Alabama have
laughed at the beards of all the cruisers, and carry on depredation
still with a high hand. The only grave aggression must be made on the
frontier of Canada; and there the invaders would be met by a militia
quite as well drilled as themselves, who have held their own, once
before, gallantly; to say nothing of the reinforcement of our own
regular army; if the crack regiments of New York or Massachusetts should
chance, in such a case, to find the Guards or Highlanders in their
front, it is just possible that the "veterans" might have some fresh
ideas as to the realities of a "charge in line."
Reading these bellicose articles, you are perpetually reminded of the
favorite national game of "Poker." In this, a player holding a very bad
hand against a good one, may possibly "bluff" his adversary down, and
win the stakes, if he only has confidence enough to go on piling up the
money, so as to make his own weakness appear strength. That audacity
answers often happily enough, especially with the timid and
inexperienced, but the professional gamblers tell you mournfully that
they sometimes meet an opponent with equal nerve and a longer purse;
then comes the fatal moment when the cards must be shown, and then--_le
quart d'heure de Rabelais_. I think, if ever Britannia is forced to
"see" Federalia's "hand," the world that looks on will find that the
latter has been "bluffing" to hide weakness.
Nevertheless, I am far from undervaluing the actual strength of the
northern land armies. They are composed of the most uncouth and
heterogeneous materials; but they work well enough, after their own
rough fashion, and certainly recover surprisingly fast from temporary
discomfiture; it is difficult to believe that the troops who met Lee so
gallantly at Gettysburg were the same who recrossed the Rappahannock in
sullen despondency, after Chancellorsville. But the foreign element in
the Federal forces must soon grow dangerously strong; it should never be
forgotten that the foreigners, attracted by enormous bounty, even if
they be of Anglo-Saxon blood, can be but mercenaries, after all; and, in
history, the Swiss almost monopolize the glory of mercenary fidelity.
Such subsidies can only be relied on when pay is prompt and work plenty:
irregularity or inaction will soon breed discontent, followed by some
such revolt as menaced the existence of Carthage.
These are some of the causes which, as it seems to me, even now
neutralize, to a great extent, the really vast resources of the North,
and will some day imperil her very existence as a nation--united in her
present form. Now, as to the event of the struggle.
I believe amalgamation, or any other terms than absolute subjugation of
the South--to be maintained hereafter by armies of occupancy--simply
impracticable. This--not only on the grounds of political and social
antagonism before alluded to; but because this contest has been waged
after a fashion almost unknown in the later days of civilization. I do
not speak of open warfare on stricken fields, or even of pitiless
slaughter wrought by those who, when their blood is hot, "do not their
work negligently;" but of bitter by-blows, dealt on either side, such as
humanity cannot lightly forget or forgive--of passions roused, that will
rankle savagely long after this generation shall be dust. There remains
the chance of utterly quelling and annihilating the insurrection (I
speak as a Federal) with the strong hand.
On the one side is ranged an innumerable multitude--who can hardly be
looked upon as a distinct nation, for in it mingles all the blood of
Western Europe--doggedly determined, perhaps, to persevere in its
purpose, yet strangely apathetic when a crisis seems really
imminent--easily discouraged by reverses, and fatally prone to
discontent and distrust of all ruling powers--divided by political
jealousies, often more bitter than the hatred of the Commonwealth's
foe--mingling always with their patriotism a certain commercial
calculation, that if all tales are true, makes them, from the highest to
the lowest, peculiarly open to the temptations of the Almighty Dollar;
these men are fighting for a positive gain, for the reacquisition of a
vast territory, that if they win, they must watch, as Russia has watched
Poland.
On the other side I see a real nation, numerically small, in whose veins
the Anglo-Saxon blood flows almost untainted; I see rich men casting
down their gold, and strong men casting down their lives, as if both
were dross, in the cause they have sworn to win; I see Sybarites
enduring hardships that _un vieux de la vieille_ would have grumbled at,
without a whispered murmur; I hear gentle and tender women echo in
simple earnestness the words that once were spoken to me by a fair
Southern wife--"I pray that Philip may die in the front, and that they
may burn me in the plantation, before the Confederacy makes peace on any
terms but our own." I see that reverses, instead of making this people
cashier their generals, or cavil at their rulers, only intensifies their
fierce energy of resistance. Here men are fighting--not to gain a foot
of ground, but simply to hold their own, with the liberty which they
believe to be their birthright.
It may well be that darker days are in store for the South than she has
ever yet known; it may be that she will only attain her object at the
cost of utter commercial ruin; it may be that the charity of the
European Powers is exhausted on Poland, and that neither pity nor shame
will induce them to break a thankless neutrality, here; but in the face
of all barely probable contingencies, I doubt no more of the ultimate
result, than I doubt of the ultimate performance of the justice of God.
End of Project Gutenberg's Border and Bastille, by George A. Lawrence