Memoirs of John Adams Dix; comp. by his son, Morgan Dix.

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MEMOIRS OF JOHN ADAMS DIX.

and they kept their word. But their fatal error was that of
resorting to violence. There is reason to believe that they
could have obtained by peaceable measures what they desired.
Never did men make a greater blunder. Their attack on the
government instantly obliterated party distinctions; its effect
was to divide by a new line the country for or against the
Union. The subject of slavery was dropped for the time; men
forgot all else in enthusiasm for the country and the flag. The
war, when it began, was not an abolitionists' war; it had no
reference to the black man; its sole object was to maintain the
National Government and the union of the States. On that
question the Northern Democrats were strong and.-united:
they became War Democrats; they led the movement by
word, by pen, with money, and sword in hand. The madness
of the Southern extremists forced them into that position.
Their action was not inconsistent. Their effort had been to
preserve the Union; for that they had made great sacrifices;
they had conceded to the South all that they could, and even
more than they ought to have yielded. They had compromised themselves in the hope of conciliation; they had gone
to the verge and last extreme-but in vain. When, in spite
of these efforts, they found themselves set at naught, disregarded, and treated as imbeciles and fools, they had a right
to feel the indignation which they openly expressed. And
when at last the National Government was defied, its officers
attacked, and its flag torn down, they had but one course-to
fly to arms. The acts of the Southern leaders drove them to
that position.
Underneath this the Power was working which rules in the
affairs of men and mysteriously orders all things in heaven
and earth. It is difficult to see how the country could ever
have been at rest while slavery remained among us, or how
slavery could have been abolished without a civil war. It
had been from the very beginning the crux of our existence.
It was the subject of debate and agitation in 1784, in 1787,
in 1819-'20, in 1848, in 1850, in 1854 —always and every