Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/279

 THE CIVIL WAR THROUGH SOUTHERN GLASSES 265

spring of choice." While Rev. Dr. Dwight went so far as to say: "The Declaration of Independence is a wicked thing. I thought so when it was proclaimed, and I think so still!"

Jefferson saw the full extent of the disaffection prevailing in the eastern states and in a letter to Governor Langdon he thus expressed himself :

For five and thirty years we have walked together through a land of trib- ulations, yet those have passed away, and so, I trust, will these of the present day. The Toryism with which we struggled in 1777 differed but in name from the Federalism of 1799, with which we struggled also ; and the Angli- cism of 1808, against which we are now struggling, is but the same thing in in another form.

These extracts clearly show the fundamental and radical dif- ferences in the political creed of the two great governing parties of the country, and the antagonism which has always existed between them. It is not necessary for our purpose to trace this antagonism in all of its subsequent developments. Suffice it to say that, as years rolled on, while the real original cause of con- tention between the two parties remained unchanged, viz., the respective claims of Federalism or Republicanism centralism or states' rights as represented generally by the North and the South, the question was intentionally befogged, and rendered far more complex by dragging into it the side issue of slavery.

Beyond doubt thousands throughout the North regarded the Civil War as a "war of humanity," a glorious crusade in behalf of an oppressed and down-trodden race. Therein lay the astute- ness of the northern politicians. Knowing full well that the questions really at issue would not on their own merits enlist popular sympathy or arouse popular enthusiasm, they adroitly introduced slavery into the controversy. And, if success can justify a measure, never was policy more admirable !

Now (parenthetically) had slavery really been the cruel bond- age and galling tyranny pictured by the northern imagination, its extermination would have been demanded by humanity at what- ever cost. And the South did not blame the North for condemning the institution as viewed from the northern standpoint. But the South did blame the North in that, before undertaking this