Did vengeance, which stops at the grave,
subside? Did real peace and the restoration of the States to their
former rights and positions follow, as was promised on the restoration
of the Union? Let the recital of the invasion of the reserved powers of
the States, or the people, and the perversion of the republican form of
government guaranteed to each State by the Constitution, answer the
question. For the deplorable fact of the war, for the cruel manner in
which it was waged, for the sad physical and yet sadder moral results it
produced, the reader of these pages, I hope, will admit that the South,
in the forum of conscience, stands fully acquitted.
Much of the past is irremediable; the best hope for a restoration in the
future to the pristine purity and fraternity of the Union, rests on the
opinions and character of the men who are to succeed this generation:
that they maybe suited to that blessed work, one, whose public course is
ended, invokes them to draw their creed from the fountains of our
political history, rather than from the lower stream, polluted as it has
been by self-seeking place-hunters and by sectional strife.
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
Introduction
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
African Servitude.--A Retrospect.--Early Legislation with Regard to the
Slave-Trade.--The Southern States foremost in prohibiting it.--A Common
Error corrected.--The Ethical Question never at Issue in Sectional
Controversies.
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