The pretence for strife was resistance to oppression, and the extension
and perfection of liberty to the masses; yet they impelled the people to
passion, without mingling a single truth with the illusions with which
they decorated their standards. Whilst they talked of the independent
spirit of the new government, and the glory of resisting the oppressive
policy of the invaders, every act and edict gathered closer and stronger
the bonds which degraded and burdened the poor white.
The owner of seven slaves was exempt from the hazard of battle, but
poverty and starvation of family were no causes of exemption for the
non-slaveholder.
The real design, concealed by the strife, was the foundation of an empire
of gigantic and seductive form, radiant and glittering with the splendid
architecture of aristocratic sovereignty, but without reason or
conscience.
The resolve was to control the production of the principal staples of
industry and trade, and subject the commercial world to their caprices.
Thus they preferred the intoxications of conquest, the gratifications of
lust, to the triumphs of true civilization, to the congratulations of a
redeemed race. They cared not for reputation among the nations of the
earth, nor immortality, nor renown; and they neglected or despised those
happy stars which, now and then, conduct men and races to glory. "Glory
belongs to the God in heaven; upon the earth it is the lot of virtue, and
not of genius--of that virtue which is useful, grand, beneficent,
brilliant, heroic."