The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2 No 4,
October, 1862, by Various

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Title: The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2 No 4, October, 1862
Devoted To Literature And National Policy

Author: Various

Release Date: February 6, 2008 [EBook #24531]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE

CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:

DEVOTED TO

LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY.

Vol. II--OCTOBER, 1862.--No. IV.

'THE CONSTITUTION AS IT IS--THE UNION AS IT WAS.'

This has been a pet phrase, in certain quarters, ever since the
rebellion broke out. The men who use it are doubtless well aware of the
prodigious power of such cries adroitly raised. The history of their
influence over the unreflecting masses in all ages would be one of the
most curious chapters in the history of human nature.

The phrase has a grand air. Its words are brave words to conjure with.
It is susceptible of a good and loyal sense. It may mean, restore the
supremacy of the Constitution and the integrity of the Union by crushing
this atrocious rebellion to utter extinction by force of arms. It may
mean that all the revolted States are to be brought back into the Union
and under the authority of the Constitution by military subjugation. It
_may_ mean this, though it is certainly not a short or strong way of
expressing the only thing which patriotic men have now to think of, to
wish done, and to help do; and I do not believe any man of strong, clear
head or right loyal heart would take this way of expressing it. Still,
it may mean this; but if it does not mean this, it means nothing
pertinent to exigency, nothing patriotic, nothing loyal.

But is this what they mean who trade with it now? No--nothing of the
sort. They use it to distract and perplex the public mind; to draw it
off from the one paramount obligation which the times impose upon the
nation--t