Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/584

 574 J- ^- ^Voodburn was one of the apologies for party opposition to the war. The anti- slavery men were accused of wishing to make the war entirely sub- servient to abolition, and of being unwilling to see the Union re- stored with slavery as it was. They would not be quiet but were obtruding their opinions everywhere, with the result that while in July, 1861, the nation was united, the Union forces were now divided, since those who wished to prosecute the war solely for the purpose of restoring the Union were alienated and estranged.^ A large body of conservative men in the North, chiefly among those who had opposed the Republican party and Mr. Lincoln's election, looked upon the antislavery programme both as a perversion of the Consti- tution and as an entire departure from the original and legitimate objects of the war. Under the leadership of adroit and able men, these conservative Democrats and Constitutional Unionists became a compact party of opposition whose opinions and purposes may be summarized as follows : ( I ) In the first place they accepted the Crittenden resolution as their war platform, and they would have it clearly recognized that the primary and sole object of the war was to save the Union. It was not to interfere in any way with slavery. Any act or policy tending to turn the military forces of the government from mere union-saving to abolitionism, or toward emancipation as a means of union-saving, was unconstitutional, a perversion of the object of the war, and it ought to be resisted. (2) In the second place the war must be so conducted and ended as to preserve the equality of the states. The Union was based on this equality and it must be preserved. There must be no conquest or subjugation or interference with statehood or with the rights of the states, their governments, or their domestic laws. 'hoever should attempt by Federal aiithority to destroy any of the states, or to establish territorial governments within them, was guilty of a high crime against the Constitution and the Union. The Union as it was must be restored and maintained under the Constitution as it is ; and any person proposing peace on any other basis than the integrity of the states was as guilty a criminal as he who would propose peace on the basis of a dismembered Union. The Southern states must not be reduced to provinces or territories, nor the Southern people regarded as alien enemies; but the constitutional relation of the states to the Union was to be recognized as being undisturbed and the constitutional rights of the Southern people should be fully main- tained. To prosecute hostilities beyond these limits or in a spirit of ' Diven of New York, Congressional Globe, January 22, 1862.