The Project Gutenberg EBook of Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV.,
April, 1862, by Various

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Title: Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., April, 1862
Devoted To Literature And National Policy

Author: Various

Release Date: February 15, 2005 [EBook #15065]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Transcriber's note: All footnotes moved to end of document.]

THE

CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:

DEVOTED TO

LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY.

* * * * *

VOL. I.--APRIL, 1862.--No. IV.

* * * * *

THE WAR BETWEEN FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IN MISSOURI.

It is admitted that no man can write the history of his own times with
such fullness and impartiality as shall entitle his record to the
unquestioning credence and acceptance of posterity. Men are necessarily
actors in the scenes amid which they live. If not personally taking an
active part in the conduct of public affairs, they have friends who are,
and in whose success or failure their own welfare is in some way bound
up. The bias which interest always gives will necessarily attach to
their judgment of current events, and the leading actors by whom these
events are controlled. Cotemporaneous history, for this reason, will
always be found partisan history--not entitled to, and, if intelligently
and honestly written, not exacting, the implicit faith of those who
shall come after; but simply establishing that certain classes of
people, of whom the writer was one, acted under the conviction that they
owed certain duties to themselves and their country. It will be for the
future compiler of the world's history, who shall see the end of present
struggles, to determine the justice of the causes of controversy, and
the wisdom and honesty of the parties that acted adversely. To such
after judgment, with a full knowledge of present reproach as a partisan,
the writer of this article commends the brief sketch he will present of
the beginning and