The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5,
November 1864, by Various

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Title: The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5, November 1864
Devoted To Literature And National Policy

Author: Various

Release Date: December 3, 2007 [EBook #23689]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE

CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:

DEVOTED TO

LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY.

VOL. VI.--NOVEMBER, 1864--No. V.

THE PROGRESS OF LIBERTY IN THE UNITED STATES.

There are three classes of persons in the loyal States of this Union who
proclaim the present civil war unnecessary, and clamor for peace at any
price: first, a multitude of people, so ignorant of the history of the
country that they do not know what the conflict is about; secondly, a
smaller class of better-informed citizens, who have no moral
comprehension of the inevitable opposition of democracy and aristocracy,
free society and slave society, and who believe sincerely that a
permanent compromise or trade can be negotiated between these opposing
forces in human affairs; thirdly, a clique of demagogues, who are trying
to use these two classes of people to paralyze the Government, and force
it into a surrender to the rebels on such terms as they choose to
dictate: their separation from the United States or recall to their old
power in a restored and reconstructed Union.

It will be my purpose, in this article, to show the complete fallacy of
this notion, by presenting the facts concerning the progress of the
different portions of our country in the American idea of liberty during
the years preceding this war. The census of 1860, if honestly studied,
must convince any unprejudiced man, at home or abroad, that the Slave
Power deliberately brought this war upon the United States, to save
itself from destruction by the irresistible and powerful growth of free