ther parts of the address. These senators and
representatives--not ignorant men themselves--presumed so far upon the
ignorance of their constituents as to assure them that "our enemies
with a boastful insolence unparalleled in the history of modern
civilization have threatened not only our subjugation, but some of them
have announced their determination if successful in this struggle to
deport our entire white population, and supplant it with a new
population drawn from their own territory and from European countries.
. . . Think of it! That we the descendants of a brave ancestry who
wrested from a powerful nation by force of arms the country which we
inhabit--bequeathed to us by them, and upon which we have been born and
reared; that we should be uprooted from it and an alien population
planted in our stead is a thought that should inspire us with undying
hostility to an enemy base enough to have conceived it."

The white population of the eleven Confederate States was at that time
between five and six millions. Of course no man who signed the address
believed its statements. No one believed that the Government of the
United States or the loyal people of the North were so inhuman and so
unpatriotic as to advocate the deportation of this vast population, or
so foolish as to think that such a task would be practicable even if it
were desirable. The address was read in the North immediately after it
was issued, and created a mingled feeling of astonishment, amusement,
and sorrow. The severest comment made upon it was the remark of a
Republican representative in Congress who had a most kindly feeling for
the men of the South--that "the deportation for life of the men who
signed and issued the libel would not only be a just punishment for the
offense, but would be an undoubted advantage to both North and South."
The close of the address was in harmony with its opening, and contained
an argument which to some minds relieved the whole document from
wickedness by making it ludicrous. Its last words insisted that
"failure makes us vassals of an arrogant people--secretly if not openly
hated by the most enlightened and elevated portions of mankind.
Success records us forever in letters of light upon one of the most
glorious pages of history. _Failure will compel us to drink the cup of
humiliation even to the bitter dregs of having the history of our
struggle written by New-England historians_."

The same lack of moral co