A Youth's History of the Great Civil War
Van Evrie, Horton & Co., ©1866
Revised edition, ©2006 www.ronie-mooney-encs.us
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CHAPTER V. THE CAUSES OF THE WAR, CONTINUED
The abolition movement, however, was destined to undergo a change. The Garrisonian abolitionists, in educating a generation to believe that the subordinate position of the negro was a sin and a crime, had created a great moral power; but after all it was more or less ineffective. The Constitution and Government of our forefathers were so interwoven in the heart of every honest and patriotic American, that the denunciations that it was "a covenant with hell," only provoked disgust or excited derision, and outside of the few delirious fanatics whom they addressed, it exerted no influence. They might have preached a hundred years probably, and would never have destroyed the relation of the races, or broken up the Union in that way. But, as the Whig party dissolved after the bank and tariff questions had, it was hoped, forever been disposed of, the old Federal Hamiltonian element in that party looked around for some new issue upon which to delude the people.
About this time, that is, from 1850 to 1854, there came prominently into public view a cunning, crafty, and entirely unscrupulous politician in the State of New York, by the name of William H, Seward. He had been Governor of the State, and was at this time Senator in Congress. He was a Hamiltonian Federalist. But more than any other man he seemed to comprehend "the situation." He saw that the abolitionists had, by their thirty years' education of the popular mind, created a great hatred in the North against the South, and he determined to use this to obtain power. He had raised an excitement in the State of New York against the Free Masons to get power there, and why might he not do the same thing again on a larger scale. He went to work at this with great cunning and subtlety. He saw at a glance that Garrison's programme of the open denunciation of the Constitution and the Union would not answer. Mr. Garrison said, and said truly. "the Constitution protects slavery."
Mr. Seward inaugurated his plan of battle by declaring(see his Works, vol. iii. P.301) "Correct your error that slavery has only constitutional guarantees which may not be released and ought not to be relinquished." Again says Mr. Seward (vol. i. p.71), "you answer that the Constitution recognized property in slaves. It would be sufficient, then, to reply that the constitutional recognition must be void, because it is repugnant to the law of nature and of nations." Here Mr. Seward sets up his idea of the laws of nature and of nations against the solemn compact of our forefathers. But he went further; he declared that there was an "irrepressible conflict" between Northern and Southern society, that "slavery must be abolished," that there was "a higher law" than the Constitution, that "it was for the South to decide Whether they would have slavery removed gradually, or whether they would have disunion and civil war."
Such was the wicked programme that this wily politician laid out for the ruin of this country. Garrison would have been willing to have separated from the South and let her alone in the enjoyment of her rights, but Mr. Seward aimed at nothing less than seizing upon the Government through a sectional party and consolidating in it all power as the old Federalists had desired, and thus have one despotic government over the whole country.
He accordingly organized his scattered forces in a new party. On the 26th of September, 1854, a convention was called to meet at Auburn, the home of William H. Seward, the object of which was announced to be "to organize a Republican party which should represent the friends of freedom," which means, of course, the friends of negro freedom, for no white men were deprived of their freedom then. This meeting recommended that a convention of delegates from the Northern States only, be held on the 4th of July, 1856, to nominate candidates for President and Vice- President of all the United States. This convention afterwards met, and nominated Fremont and Dayton.
When the Seward Republican party was first organized, some of the abolitionists thought it did not go far enough, but Wendell Phillips, with his sagacity, saw that its programme was a cunning one. He declared "that it was the first crack in the iceberg. It is the first sectional party ever organized in this country. It is pledged against the South."
This new party soon swept into it all those who had been deluded by the abolition teachings. It made loud protestations of devotion to "free speech, free press, and free men." It pretended to more and better republicanism than the democracy, for it desired to apply republicanism to negroes. Hence it very properly got the name of Black Republican, for it bore no more resemblance to genuine republicanism than an old Federalist did to a Jeffersonian Democrat.
And strange to say, this Tory, British party in disguise actually seized hold of the name of Jefferson to delude the people. They even perverted the glorious Declaration of Independence form its plain meaning, and tortured it into an excuse for negro equality. When Mr. Jefferson said "all men were created equal." He referred to his own race and to no others, for if he meant negroes then he was himself insincere, for he should have "freed" his own on the spot, which he did not do.
In a word, there was no deception that this party did not resort to. No effort to influence the public mind was spared. The South was universally denounced, and when warned by democrats that the Southern men would not live under a government which was to be administered to destroy them, they laughed the warning to scorn. The North was strong enough, if all the States could be secured, to elect a President in spite of the South, and this they determined to do. If they could accomplish this, they could revolutionize the Government by engrafting on it the monarchical doctrines of Hamilton and the negro equality theories of Garrison, and so both would be satisfied. This, then, was the object of the Black Republican party leaders. They desired to overthrow the Government as it was formed. How they succeeded this history will tell.
About this time occurred the great Kansas excitement. This was a new territory west of the State of Missouri. When it seemed probable that it would be mainly settled by Southern men, the people of New England organized "Emigrant Societies," and filled it up with abolitionists, so as to prevent it form becoming what they called a slave State. They also raised large sums of money and purchased arms and ammunition, and sent out men there, prominent among whom was old John Brown, to get up a war if they could.
The churches of New England were very active in this business, and the abolition clergy all over were zealous workers in inciting to bloodshed. One minister, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, declared that "Sharp's rifles were better than Bibles," and "that it was a crime to shoot at a slaveholder and not hit him." All over the North, but mainly in New England, this insanity was prevalent. Ministers of the Gospel distributed guns and rifles for the work of bloodshed. The North was being slowly educated for the great war that followed.
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