The great struggle which has for ever decided the cause of slavery of
man to man, is, beyond all question, the most critical which the world
has seen since the great revolutionary outburst. If ever there was a
question which was to test political capacity and honesty it was this.
A true statesman, here if ever, was bound to forecast truly the issue,
and to judge faithfully that cause at stake. We know now, it is beyond
dispute, that the cause which won was certain to win in the end, that
its reserve force was absolutely without limit, that its triumph was
one of the turning-points in modern civilization. It was morally
certain to succeed, and it did succeed with an overwhelming and mighty
success. From first to last both might and right went all one way. The
people of England went wholly that way. The official classes went
wholly some other way.
One of the great key-notes of England's future is simply this--what
will be her relations with that great republic? If the two branches of
the Anglo-Saxon race are to form two phases of one political movement,
their welfare and that of the world will be signally promoted. If
their courses are marred by jealousies or contests, both will be
fatally retarded. Real confidence and sympathy extended to that people
in the hour of their trial would have forged an eternal bond between
us. To discredit and distrust them, then, was to sow deep the seeds of
antipathy. Yet, although a union in feeling was of importance so
great, although so little would have secured it, the governing classes
of England wantonly did all they could to foment a breach.
A great political judgment fell upon a race of men, our own brothers;
the inveterate social malady they inherited came to a crisis. We
watched it gather with exultation and insult. There fell on them the
most terrible necessity which can befall men, the necessity of
sacrificing the flower of their citizens in civil war, of tearing up
their civil and social system by the roots, of transforming the most
peaceful type of society into the most military. We magnified and
shouted over every disaster; we covered them with insult; we filled
the world with ominous forebodings and unjust accusations. There came
on them one awful hour when the powers of evil seemed almost too
strong; when any but a most heroic race would have sunk under the
blows of their traitorous kindred. We chose that moment to give actual
succour to their enemy, and stabbed them in the back with a wound
which stung their pride even more than it crippled their strength.
They displayed the most splendid examples of energy and fortitude
which the modern world has seen, with which the defence of Greece
against Asia, and of France against Europe, alone can be compared in
the whole annals of mankind. They developed almost ideal civic virtues
and gifts; generosity, faith, firmness; sympathy the most affecting,
resources the most exhaustless, ingenuity the most magical. They
brought forth the most beautiful and heroic character who in recent
times has ever led a nation, the only blameless type of the statesman
since the days of Washington. Under him they created the purest model
of government which has yet been seen on the earth--a whole nation
throbbing into one great heart and brain, one great heart and brain
giving unity and life to a whole nation. The hour of their success
came; unchequered in the completeness of its triumph, unsullied by any
act of vengeance, hallowed by a great martyrdom.