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

1860-1861.] SLAVERY NECESSARILY DOOMED.

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where. It was a shadow overhanging the march of the
nation, ever threatening storm, and
"Darkening the dark lives of men."
Slavery must be destroyed before there could be peace.
But slavery could not be destroyed except by the power of
the National Government. That power could not have been
exerted for that purpose in time of peace: a state of war
was necessary before it could so act: and that must be a home
war, not a war with a foreign nation. Such a state of warthe indispensable preliminary to the destruction of the institution of Slavery by the United States Government-was
brought about by those who madly attempted a violent secession. If they had not attacked the United States Governnent there could have been no war. If there had been no
war the United States Government could not have abolished
slavery. If slavery had not been abolished, and the impossibility of getting rid of it had become a quiet, settled conviction, there would have been a peaceable separation; the South
would have asked it, and the Democratic party would have
led the North in assenting, though with sorrow, to the request. That solution of the question was rendered impossible
by the course taken by the Secessionists. Even then years
passed before the under current became an upper one. The
war, at first, was not an abolition movement. Strict orders
were given to our generals not to meddle with slavery in
any way; and so things went on. But it is said that bayonets can think. It took some time for the Army to perceive that unless slavery were destroyed their work must
fail. When that became perfectly clear slavery was doomed.
When the question was fairly put which should live, Slavery
or the United States Government, the answer was prompt,
and slavery vanished like wax in a burning, fiery furnace.
These considerations explain the position of my father and
many others of like mind in those trying and terrible days.
He was, as he had been from his youth, a Democrat by con