m--slavery
alone had the power to produce the civil war, and to shake the continent
to its foundations. In the present crisis of the struggle, it would be a
waste of time and of thought to attempt to trace back to its origin the
long current of excitement on the slavery question, beginning in 1834,
and swelling in magnitude until the present day; or to seek to fix the
responsibility for the various events which marked its progress, from
the earliest agitation down to the great rebellion, which is evidently
the consummation and the end of it all. The only lesson important to be
learned, and that which is the sum of all these great events, plainly
taught by the history of this generation, and destined to characterize
it in all future time, is, that slavery had in itself the germs of this
profound agitation, and that, for thirty years, it stirred the moral and
political elements of this nation as no other cause had power to do. It
is of little consequence, for the purpose in view, to inquire what
antagonisms struggled with slavery in this immense contest, covering so
great an area in space, and so long a period of time. All ideas and all
interests were involved. Moral, social, political, and economical
considerations clashed and antagonized in the gigantic conflict.

Is slavery right or wrong? Has it the sanction of enlightened
conscience, or of the divine law as revealed in the Old and New
Testaments? The last words of this moral contest have scarcely yet
ceased to reverberate in our ears, even while the sound of cannon tells
of other arguments and another arbitrament, which must soon cut short
all the jargon of the logicians. But one of the most remarkable features
of the whole case, has been the indignation with which the slave
interest, from beginning to end, has resisted the discussion of these
moral questions. As if such inquiries could, by any possibility, be
prevented! As if a system, good and right in itself, defensible in the
light of sound reason, could suffer by the fullest examination which
could be made in private or in public, or by the profoundest agitation
which could arise from the use of mere moral means! The discussions, the
agitations, and all the fierce passions which attended them, were
unavoidable. Human nature must be changed and wholly revolutionized
before such agitations can be suppressed. They are the means appointed
by the Creator for the progress of humanity. The seeds of them are
planted in