СНАРТЕER XXX. CHAPTER I. FREE INSTITUTIONS PLACED ON TRIAL BEFORE THE WORLD. The results already attained in the progress of our war, and the sure promise of the future, justify us in believing, that one purpose of God in permitting this rebellion, was to draw the attention of the nations to the free institutions of the North, and then, by putting them to the severest possible proof, show their excellence unto the people of every land, and thus advance the general cause of human freedom. It has been proved that a popular Government is not necessarily a weak one, and that a free, unwarlike people, unused to the restraints of thorough organization and discipline, can yet assume almost at once the highest forms of national life, can reshape, without confusion, their whole industrial energy to meet the demands of sudden war, can bring forth and organize, and hold in hand all their resources, and with all the skill and science of the age, can wield a thoroughly compacted national strength, greater in proportion to population than has been exhibited by any other power of earth. The people of the whole civilized world are studying with intense interest the events which are passing here, and the prominent friends of freedom in Europe declare that we are fighting here the great battle of universal humanity. Doubtless our complete success in overthrowing slavery here, the emancipation of all our laborers, will give a new impulse to popular liberty all over the world, and therefore, as it would seem, God has made the nations spectators of this desperate fight. This American war closes a political era for Christendom. New powers are being prepared as rulers in the coming age, and the race will feel the power of a higher life. But in order to show fully the quality and the power of the life of the free North, it was necessary not only to unveil the weakness, the cruelty, the loathsome corruption, the ignorance, and barbarism of slavery, but to give to the slave-power great advantages in the contest, and cause the free States to be taken by surprise, and compel them to begin a great war under all possible disadvantage, not only without arms, and without friends, but with thousands of foes within giving aid and comfort to the enemy without. If a Government of the people could pass such a peril safely, and win at length a triumph, if it could come forth from the trial not only a mighty compacted nation, but with all its proper liberties secure, it would be a lesson to which kings and people must alike give heed. The North at first had nothing to oppose to this great conspiracy, all armed and equipped, but its own free, irrepressible life. And this was well; for thus only could the might of freedom be known. Never were a people more completely surprised, and even bewildered, than those of the free States were for a time, when the conspirators showed that they had fully resolved to destroy the Government, and were ready to begin a war. The preparations of treason went forward on all sides, and men refused to believe that the traitors were in earnest. They would not credit the evidences of their own senses. They could not be persuaded then, that Americans could be guilty of such a shocking crime. The incredible nature of the meditated villiany, secured it it for a season, and gave time to perfect its plans, and when at length the war was actually begun, the North found itself not only unarmed but disarmed. Small arms and cannon, forts, navy yards, arsenals, the Southern coast and cities, the Gulf, the Mississippi from the Ocean to the mouth of the Ohio, all these, with few exceptions, were in the hands of the traitors; the small "regular army" was surrendered on the frontier, the little "navy" was in distant waters, a single sloop-of-war only on all the Atlantic coast. In addition to all this, the Potomac was blockaded by batteries, a hostile army was within two days march of Washington, and the Capital was cut off from communication with the North. Naturally, in this hour of extreme peril, the people of the North and their Government, turned to the European States, expecting, that at the very least, they would sympathize with a regularly established Government, in its effort to suppress an uncalled-for rebellion. They thought that those who had ever dealt so sternly with treason at home, would be found on the side of the regular authorities here. They expected that France, who had generously aided us to establish here a Republic, would manifest her former friendship in this our new danger, and they thought that England, who had done and sacrificed so much in the cause of human freedom, would come promptly to our aid with living sympathies, when the object of the conspirators was declared to be, to build a slave empire on the ruins of a free Republic. If the free States were amazed at the conspiracy itself, they were confounded at the treatment they received from the two great allied powers of Western Europe. They placed themselves at once virtually on the side of the rebels. They declared that the "Great Republican Bubble" had burst. They gave the traitors officially, and at once, the position and privileges of proper belligerents, they took from them the odium, and so far as they could, the guilt of rebellion, and relieved their corsair cruisers from the name and fate of pirates. We were informed that not one dollar of money should be loaned us wherewith to carry on our war, and we met both at London and Paris only coldness and repression, while the rebels were cheered and encouraged by every act short of recognition, alliance, and war against the North. Helpless almost, as the free States were, in the first days of this conflict, nearly overwhelmed at the first |