The
pages following, and until the reader is advised to the contrary, are
literally extracted from the original article, and should be read
therefore as relating to the past period in question. Quotation marks
are added to aid this understanding of the subject. They indicate, in
this exceptional way, not literally the words of another writer, but
those of the same writer, upon a different occasion.
'We have reserved to the last the consideration of that possible
outcoming of the war which is looked upon with most dread, both at the
South and the North; from which both sections almost equally shrink as
the possible issue; but which, nevertheless, may be forced on them by
the logic of events, and that, too, at an earlier day than has been
indicated by the expectations of either. While we write, the startling
announcement is made from St. Louis that Major-General Fremont has been
forced, by the threatening progress of the Southern armies, to declare
martial law for the whole State of Missouri, coupled with the offer of
freedom to the slaves. A military critic, writing from the Potomac and
the lower counties of Maryland, is urging the application of the same
policy to that region, as a means of defeating the contemplated passage
of the river by the forces of the South. Whether the rumor so announced
prove to be literally correct or not, it is hardly possible that the war
can continue long, and grow desperate and earnest on any territory where
slavery exists, without leading to this result.
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