For
Many Years Mr. Everett Has Been Not Even Inimical To Southern
Politics And Southern Courses, Nor Was He Among Those Who, During
The Last Eight Years Previous To Mr. Lincoln's Election, Fought
The Battle For Northern Principles.
I do not say that on this
account he is now false to advocate the war.
But he cannot carry
men with him when, at his age, he advocates it by arguments opposed
to the tenor of his long political life. His abuse of the South
and of Southern ideas was as virulent as might be that of a young
lad now beginning his political career, or of one who had through
life advocated abolition principles. He heaped reproaches on poor
Virginia, whose position as the chief of the border States has
given to her hardly the possibility of avoiding a Scylla of ruin on
the one side, or a Charybdis of rebellion on the other. When he
spoke as he did of Virginia, ridiculing the idea of her sacred
soil, even I, Englishman as I am, could not but think of
Washington, of Jefferson, of Randolph, and of Madison. He should
not have spoken of Virginia as he did speak; for no man could have
known better Virginia's difficulties. But Virginia was at a
discount in Boston, and Mr. Everett was speaking to a Boston
audience. And then he referred to England and to Europe. Mr.
Everett has been minister to England, and knows the people. He is
a student of history, and must, I think, know that England's career
has not been unhappy or unprosperous.
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