It will burst out again, and all that has
been done hitherto will have to be done over again, or fail to be
accomplished, and the consequences of failure endured.
Let no ordinary and superficial method of reasoning obfuscate the public
mind on this subject. It is becoming popular to say and to think that
slavery at the South is already a dead or a dying institution, by the
operation of the war. This opinion has in it, undoubtedly, the value of
a prophecy, provided the war be continued to its legitimate termination;
provided all the measures against slavery hitherto adopted are firmly
maintained; provided the incipient anti-slavery sentiment now being
developed in the South, be wisely fostered and protected by the strong
arm long enough, or until new institutions and new methods of thinking
and acting have time to consolidate. But, whoever supposes that slavery
is as yet even essentially weakened, provided, for any reason, our
forces and the influence of Northern sentiment were suddenly withdrawn
from the South, and the ocean waves of the old despotism were for a
moment even permitted to surge back over those portions of the territory
which have been partially redeemed, has no adequate idea of the
tremendous vitality of that institution.
A mistake on this subject, of the safe early return of the revolted
States, will be one of those political blunders worse than a crime; and
yet it is precisely this mistake which the American people are at this
hour most likely to commit.
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