The uprising of a great people : the United States in 1861 : to which is added A word of peace on the difference between England and the United States.

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Extract from Preface.

Preface

TC THE SECOND EDITION.

I HAVE nothing to change in these pages. When I ' wrote them before the breaking out of the American crisis, I foreboded, which was not difficult, that the crisis would be long and grievous, that there would be mistakes and reverses ; but I foreboded, also, that through these mistakes and reverses, an immense progress was about to come to light. Some have undertaken to doubt it : at the sight of civil war, and the evils which it necessarily entails, at the recital of one or two defeats, they have hastened to raise their hands to Heaven, and to proclaim in every key the ruin of the United States.

This is not the place to discuss judgments, sometimes superficial, sometimes malevolent, which too often pass current among us; to examine what has been, what should be the attitude of our Europe, what is our responsibility, what are our interests and our duties. We ' alone, I am ashamed to admit it, we alone run the Kisk of rendering doubtful the final triumph of the good cause ;

Viii PEEFACE TO THE SECOND EDmON.

we have not ceased to be, in spite of ourselves, the onlychance and the only hope of the champions of slavery.

Perhaps I shall enter ere long, in a new study, upon the important subject which I confine myself to indicating here, and which pre-occupies the government at "Washington to such a degree that it seems inclined to order defensive preparations in view of an unnatural conflict between liberal America and ourselves. Every thing may happen — alas ! the seemingly impossible like all else. It is not enough, therefore, to declare this impossible and monstrous, it is not enough to prove that the present state of feeling in Europe is far from giving " reason to foresee an intervention in favor of the South ; it is necessary to sap at the base these deplorable sophisms, more fiilly credited than is imagined, which may, in due time, under the pressure of certain industrial needs or of certain political combinations, urge France and England into a course which is not their own.

For the present, I have only wished to repeat, with a strengthened conviction, what I said a few months ago. I believed then in the uprising of a great people ; now I am sure of it.

Vaujetbes, November 2, 1861.

TRAmATOR'S PREFACE.

At this moment, when we are anxiously scrutinizing every indication of European feeling with respect to the American question, the advent of a book, bearing the stamp of a close philosophical, political, and practical study of the subject, and written, withal, in so hopeful a spirit as to make us feel with the writer that whatever may result from the present crisis must be for good, cannot fail to be of public interest and utility. So truly prophetic is this work in its essence, that we can hardly bciieve that it was written in great part amid the mists that preceded the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. All probabilities appear to have been foreseen, and the unerring exactness with which events have taken place hitherto precisely in the direction indicated by the author, encoux*- ages us to believe that this will continue until his predictions will have been fulfilled to the end. Clear-sighted, philosophiv^ai, appreciative of American genius and accomplishment, critical, yet charitable to tenderness, stigmatiz- 1

X teaijslatok's preface.

ing the fault, yet forgiving the offender, cheering our nation onward by words of encouragement, bravely spoken at the needed moment, menacing Europe with the scorn of posterity, if, forgetting her oft-repeated professions, she dare forsake the side of liberty to traffic in principles ; such is the scope of what a late reviewer calls " the wisest book which has been written upon America since De Tocqueville."

Few men are better qualified to judge American affairs than Count de Gasparin. A many-sided man, combining the scholar, the statesman, the politician, the man of letters, and the fmished gentleman, possessed of every advantage of culture, wealth, and position, he has devoted a long life to the advocacy of liberty in all its forms, whether religious or political, and has ended by making a profound study of American history and politics, the accuracy of which is truly remarkable. A few facts with respect to his career, kindly furnished by his personal friend. Rev. Dr. Eobert Baird, of New York, will be here in place.

Count Agenor [fitienne de Gasparin was born at Orange, July 4, 1810. His family is Protestant, and of Corsican origin ; his father was a man of talent and position, who served for many years as Prefect of the District of the Rhone, and afterwards as Minister of the Interior under Louis Philippe, by whom he was highly esteemed. He received a liberal education, and devoted himself especially to literature, till 1843, when he was elected by teanblatok's peeface.

xi the people of the island of Corsica to represent them in the Chamber of Deputies. Here began his political career. At that time, religious liberty was in danger of perishing in France, assailed by the powerful opposition of the tribunals and the administration. De Gasparin declared himself its champion, and, in an eloquent speech in the Chamber of Deputies, which moved the audience to tears, he boldly accused the courts of perverting the civil code in favor of religious intolerance, and claimed unlimited freedom for evangelical preaching and colportage. He also made strenuous efforts to effect the iramediate emancipation of slaves in the French colonies, and published several essays on the subject. He devoted himself especially to the protection of Protestantism, and founded in France the Society for the Protection of Protestant interests, and the Free Protestant Church, yet, detesting religious intolerance everywhere, he did not hesitate to denounce the Protestant persecutions of Sweden as bitterly as he had done the Catholic bigotry of France. He was head of the Cabinet in the Ministry of the .Intcrior while his father was Minister, and was in the Ministry of Public Instruction under M. Guizot. In 1848, while travelling in the East with his wife, a talented Swiss lady, the author of several works, he received intelligence of the downfall of the government of Louis Philippe. This event closed his public career. He addressed a letter of condolence to the dethroned monarch, to M'hom he was warmly attached, then xii translator's tkeface.

retired to Switzerland to devote himself to literature and philanthropy, being too warm an adherent of the Orleans dynasty to take part in the new administration. Politically, ho is, like Guizot, an advocate of constitutional monarchy. Since the Revolution, ho has continued to reside in Switzerland. lie has published numerous works on philosophical and social questions, among which may be instanced: Esclavagc ct Traitc ; Dc FAffranchissemcnt dcs Esclaves; Intcrcts gcncraKX du Protesiantismc FranqaiSy Paganism ct Christianismc, Des tables tournantes, du sun naturel en general, et des esprits, etc.

His present work, so hopeful and sympathizing, recommends itself to the attention of the American public ; and even those who may dissent from some of his positions or conclusions, cannot but admire his vigorous comprehension of the outlines of the subject, and be cheered by his predictions of the future. As the expression of the opinion of an intelligent, clear-sighted European, in a position to compnehend men and things, concerning the storm which is now agitating the whole country, it can scarcely fail of a hearty welcome. I commend the following interpretation, which I have souglit to make as conscientiously literal as duo regard to idioms of language would permit, to all true lovers of liberty and of the Union, of whatever State, section, or nation.

Mary L. Booth.

New York, June 16, 1861.

PREFACE

In publishing this study at the present time, I expose myself to the blame of prudent men. I shall be told that I ought to have waited.

To have waited for what 1 Until there shall be no / more great questions in Europe to dispute our attention with the American question? Or until the American question has shaped itself, and we are able to know clearly what interests it will serve, in what consequences it will end ?

I am not sorry, I confess, to applaud duty before it is recommended by success. When success shall have come, men eager to celebrate it will not be wanting, and I shall leave to them the care of demonstrating then that the North has been in the right, that it has saved the United States.

To construct the philosophy of events after they have passed is very interesting, without doubt, but the work to be accomplished to-day is far more serious. The point in question is to sustain our friends when they are in need of us ; when their battle, far from being won, is scarcely begun ; the point in question is to give our supxiv rUEFAOK.

port-— tho very considerable support of European opinion — at tho time wlien it can bo of service ; tho point in question is to assume our small share of responsibility in one of tho gravest conflicts of this age.

Let us enlist ; for the Slave States, on their part, aro losing no lime. They have profited well, I must admit, by tho advantages assured to them by tho complicity of tho niinisters of Mr. Buchanan. In tho ffico of tlio inevitable indecision of a new government, around Avhich care had been taken to accumulato in advance every impossibility of acting, tho decided bearing of tho extreme South, its airs of audacity and defiance have had a certain eclA,t and a certain success. Already its partisans raise their heads ; they dare speak in its favor among us ; they insult free trade, by transforming it into an argument destined to serve tho interests of slavery. And shall ■\vo remain mute ? Shall wo listen to tho counsels of that false wisdom that always comes too late, so much does it fear to decl.are itself too early ? Shall we not feel impelled to show in all its truo light the sacred cause of liberty ? Ah ! I declare that the blood boils in my veins ; I have hastened and would gladly have hastened still more. Circumstances independent of my will alono have retarded a publication prepared more than a month ago.

Orange, March 19, 18CL

Contents

Chap. Paob iNTUODnCTION, 0

I. — Amekican Slavery, 13

II. — WiiEUE THE Nation was duiftino befoue the Election OF Mr. Lincoln, 20

Introduction

The title of this work will produce the effect of a paradox. The general opinion is that the United States continued to pursue an upward course until the election of Mr. Lincoln, and that since then they have been declining. It is not difficult, and it is very necessary, to show that this opinion is absolutely false. Before the recent victory of the adversaries of slavery, the American Confederation, in spite of its external progress and its apparent prosperity, was suffering from a fearful malady which had well-nigh proved mortal ; now, an operation, has taken place, the sufferings have increased, the gravity of the situation is revealed for the first time, perhaps, to inattentive eyes. Does this mean that the situation was not grave when it did not appear so ? Does this mean that we must deplore a violent crisis

which alone can bring the cure ? 1*

INTEODUCTION.

I do not deplore it — admire it. I recognize in tliis energetic reaction against tlic disease, the moral vigor of a ijeople habituated to the laborious struggles of liberty. The rising of a people is one of tlie rarest and most marvellous prodigies presented by the annals of humanity. Ordinarily, nations that begin to decline, decline constantly more and more ; a rare power of life is needed to retrieve their position, and stop in its course a decay once begun.

We have a strange way of seconding the generous enterprise into which the United States have entered with so much courage ! TVe prophesy to them nothing but misfortunes ; we almost tell them that they have ceased to exist ; we give them to understand, that in electing Mr. Lincoln they have renounced their greatness ; that they have precipitated themselves head foremost into an abyss ; tliat they have ruined their prosperity, sacrificed their future, rendered henceforth impossible the magnificent character which was reserved to them, Mr. JBucIianan, we seem to say, is the last President of the Union.

This, thank God, is the reverse of the truth. But lately, indeed, the United States were advan- . cing to their ruin ; but lately there was reason to

INTKODUCTION.

mourn in tliinking of tliem ; tlic steps miglit have been counted wliicli it remained for tliem to take to complete the union of their destiny with that of an accursed and perishable institution — an institution which corrupts and destroys every thing with which it comes in contact. To-day, new prospects are opening to them ; they will have to combat, to labor, to suffer ; the crime of a century is not repaired in a day ; the right path when long forsaken is not found again without effort ; guilty traditions and old complicities are not broken through without sacrifices. It is none the less true, notwitlistanding, that the hour of effort and of sacrifice, grievous as it may be, is the very hour of deliverance. The election of Mr. Lincoln will be one of the gi'eat dates^ of American history ; it closes the past, but it opens the future. With it is about to commence, if the same spirit be maintained, and if excessive concessions do not succeed in undoing all that has been done, a new era, at once purer and greater than that which has just ended.

Let others accuse me of optimism ; I willingly agree to it. I believe that optimism is often right here below. We need hope ; we need sometimes to receive good news ; we need to see sometimes the bright side of things. The bright side is often

INTKODUCTION.

the true side ; if Love is blindfolded, I see a triple bandage on tlie eyes of Hate. Kindliness has its privileges ; and I do not think myself in a worse position than another to judge the United States because they inspire me with an earnest sympathy ; because, after having mourned their faults and trembled at their perils, I have joyfully saluted the noble and manly policy of which the election of Mr. Lincoln is the symptom. Is it not true, that at the first news we all seemed to breathe a whiff of pure and free air from the other side of the ocean ?

It is a pleasure, in times like ours, to feel that certain principles still live ; that they will be obeyed, cost what it may ; that questions of conscience can yet sometimes weigh down questions of profit. The abolition of slavery will be, I have always thought, the principal conquest of the nineteenth century. This will be its recommendation in the eyes of posterity, and the chief compensation for many of its weaknesses. As for us old soldiers of emancipation, who have not ceased to combat for it for twenty years and more, at the tribunal and elsewhere, we shall be excused without doubt for seeing in the triumph of our American friends something else than a subject of lamentation.