They Chose The Latter Way,
As Being The Readier And The Surer, As Most Seceding Nations Have
Done.
O'Connell, when struggling for the secession of Ireland,
chose the other, and nothing came of it.
The South chose violence,
and prepared for it secretly and with great adroitness. If that be
not rebellion, there never has been rebellion since history began;
and if civil war was ever justified in one portion of a nation by
turbulence in another, it has now been justified in the Northern
States of America.
What was the North to do; this foolish North, which has been so
liberally told by us that she has taken up arms for nothing, that
she is fighting for nothing, and will ruin herself for nothing?
When was she to take the first step toward peace? Surely every
Englishman will remember that when the earliest tidings of the
coming quarrel reached us on the election of Mr. Lincoln, we all
declared that any division was impossible; it was a mere madness to
speak of it. The States, which were so great in their unity, would
never consent to break up all their prestige and all their power by
a separation! Would it have been well for the North then to say,
"If the South wish it we will certainly separate?" After that,
when Mr. Lincoln assumed the power to which he had been elected,
and declared with sufficient manliness, and sufficient dignity
also, that he would make no war upon the South, but would collect
the customs and carry on the government, did we turn round and
advise him that he was wrong?
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