y, monopolizing cotton, and
raising it to the influence of a veritable fetich, the authors of the
rebellion did not admit a doubt of the success of their attack on the
Federal Government. They dreamed of perpetuating slavery, though all
history shows the decline of the system as industry, commerce, and
knowledge advance. The slaveholders proposed nothing less than to
reverse the currents of humanity, and to make barbarism flourish in the
bosom of civilization. They even thought of extending the system, by
opening the slave trade and enlarging the boundaries of their projected
empire, Mexico and Central America, Cuba and St. Domingo, with the whole
West Indian group of islands, awaited the consolidation of their power,
and stood ready to swell the glory of their triumph.

But these enticing visions quickly faded away from their sight. At an
early day after the inauguration of their government, they were
compelled to disavow the design of reopening the slave trade, and in no
event is it probable their recognition will be yielded by foreign
governments, except on the basis of ultimate emancipation. How such a
proposition will be received by their deluded followers, remains yet to
be ascertained by an experiment which the authors of the rebellion will
be slow to try among their people. One of the most effective appeals
made to the non-slaveholders of the South, in order to start the
revolution, was to their fears and prejudices against the threatened
equality and competition of the emancipated negro. The immense influence
of this appeal can scarcely be estimated by those not intimately
acquainted with the social condition of the great mass of the Southern
people. Among them, the distinction of color is maintained with the
utmost rigor, and the barrier between the two races, social and
political, is held to be impassable and eternal. The smallest taint of
African blood in the veins of any man is esteemed a degradation from
which he can never recover. Toward the negro, as an inferior, the white
man is often affable and kind, cruelty being the exception, universally
condemned and often punished; but toward the black man as an equal, an
implacable hostility is instantly arrayed. This intense and
unconquerable prejudice, it is well known, is not confined wholly to the
South; but it prevails there without dissent, and is, in fact, one of
the fundamental principles of social organization.

When, therefore, the leaders of the rebe