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

340

3MEMOIRS OPF JOHIN ADAMS DIX.

doubt no longer when the winds arise and blow away the
clouds: they see once more the beacon-light, and nothing else.
One dominant principle, love of the American Democratic
Republican system, as practically realized under the Federal
Constitution in the union of the States, had ruled him all his
life; it ruled him then. He went into the war because, by
the action of the South, the chance of a peaceful separation
had been destroyed. The contest, though commenced by
slave-holders, was not for the destruction of slavery, but for
the defence and perpetuation of a system, under which the
institution of slavery was amply protected, and might have
continued to exist a thousand years more. Slavery was a
dead issue for the moment; they who drew the sword did so
for the assertion of principles deemed by them vastly more
momentous than any question concerning the relations of
negroes and white men. It is true that Emancipation followed, but only after years of blood and sorrow, and as an afterthought, of which the "War Democrats" never dreamed
when they rose in defence of the country and for the honor
of the nation.
To me, carefully studying the subject, this appears to be
the simple story of his course. He lived, from the age of fifteen to that of eighty-one, in active service of his beloved
country. To whom is it given, in this perplexing world, to be
perfectly consistent throughout the immense and varied activities of sixty-six years? Yet he was, I think, consistent, if
tested by the question, what he regarded, next to religion, as
the highest duty and the proper aim of the citizen. Every
act of his political life may be explained by one of these
convictions:
(a) That the Constitution of the United States of America
was an all but perfect work;
(b) That it was for the interests of the American people,
and those of all advocates of popular government throughout
the world, that our political experiment should prove successful;