ave pursued the same course, had the President's opinions
on slavery been as radical and pronounced as those of Mr. Garrison.
Maryland was kept from wheeling into the Secession line only by the
presence on her soil, and in her vicinity, of strong Federal armies. In
Tennessee, at a later period of the war, as in North Carolina, Federal
power extended as far as Federal guns could throw Federal shot, though
Tennessee had not been renowned for her extreme attachment to slavery.
But the heavy weight on the Presidential mind came from the Free States,
in which the Pro-Slavery party was so powerful, and the nature of the
war was so little understood, that it was impossible for Government to
strike an effective blow at the source of the enemy's strength. Before
that could be done, it would be necessary that the Northern mind should
be trained to justice in the school of adversity. The position of the
President in 1861 was not unlike to that which the Prince of Orange held
in 1687. Had William made his attempt on England in 1687, the end would
have been failure as complete as that of Monmouth in 1685. It was
necessary that the English mind should be educated up to the point of
throwing aside some cherished doctrines, the maintenance of which stood
in the way of England's safety, prosperity, and greatness. William
allowed the fruit he sought to ripen, and in 1688 he was able to do with
ease that which no human power could have done in 1687. So was it with
Mr. Lincoln, and here. Had the Proclamation lately put forth been issued
in 1861, either it would have fallen dead, or it would have met with
such opposition in the North as would have rendered it impossible to
prosecute the war with any hope of success. There would probably have
been _pronunciamientos_ from some of our armies, and the Union might
have been shivered to pieces without the enemy's lifting their hands
further against it. We do not say that such would have been the course
of events, had the Proclamation then appeared, but it might have taken
that turn; and the President had to allow for possibilities that perhaps
it never occurred to private individuals to think of,--men who had no
sense of responsibility either to the country, to the national cause, or
to the tribunal of history. He would not move as he was advised to move
by good men who had not taken into consideration all the circumstances
of the case, and who could not feel as he was forced to feel because he
was