rest only on justice; they decided, cost what it
might, to wrest themselves from the detestable, and ere long fatal
allurements of the slavery policy.

Let us beware how we calumniate, without intending it, the few generous
impulses which break out here and there among mankind. I know that there
is a would-be prudent skepticism which attacks all moral greatness that
it may depreciate it, all enthusiasm that it may translate it into
calculation. To admire nothing is most deplorable, and, I hasten to add,
most absurd. Without wandering from the subject of slavery, I can cite
the great Emancipation Act, wrested from Parliament by Christian public
opinion in England. Have not means been found to prove, or at least to
insinuate, that this act, the most glorious of our century, was at the
bottom nothing but a Machiavellian combination of interests? Doubtless,
those who have taken the trouble to look over the debates of the times
know what we are to think of this fine explanation; they know what
resistance was opposed by _interests_ to the emancipation, both in the
colonies and in the heart of the metropolis; they know with how much
obstinacy the Tories, representing the traditions of English politics,
combated the proposed plans; they know in what terms the certain ruin of
the planters, the manufactures, and the seaports, was described; they
know by how many petitions the churches, the religious societies, the
women, and even the children, succeeded in wresting from Parliament a
measure refused by so many statesmen. But the mass of the people do not
go back to the beginning; they take for granted the summary judgment
that English emancipation was a master-piece of perfidy.

We hear very nearly the same thing said of that glorious movement which
has just taken place in America. We would gladly detect all motives in
it except one that is generous and Christian. As if a vulgar calculation
of interest would not have dictated a contrary course! And it is
precisely this that makes the greatness of the resolution adopted by the
North. It knew all the consequences; they had been announced by the
South, recapitulated by prudent men, stated in detail by the newspapers
of great commercial cities; it chose to be just. Despite the inevitable
mingling of base and selfish impulses, which always become complicated
in such manifestations, the ruling motive in this was a protest of
conscience, and of the spirit of liberty.

The accounts tha