y the obstacles which were placed in our path by the weakness and
folly of our deluded forefathers. Let us prostrate the clumsy fabric
which they constructed, since the Yankees have taken possession of it,
and are working it for the benefit of Irish and German immigrants and
their descendants, and not for that of African traders and negro
masters. By some terrible fatality, it was the misfortune of the
Southern leaders to believe these delusions. They have gone so far as to
act upon them, and have seduced their people into fatal cooeperation; and
these are now reaping the bloody fruits of an error so profound and
awful.

The rebellious States not only thought it practicable to overthrow the
National Government; they, doubtless, also held that result necessary to
their safety and success. This followed as a logical conclusion from
their established dogma that the slavery of the laboring class is the
only firm foundation of social order. They convinced themselves that
white men could not perform the labor necessary on cotton and sugar
plantations. The negro alone was capable of standing the fierce rays of
the Southern sun, and of successfully resisting the deadly malaria which
prevails in that region. The Southern people firmly believed this
doctrine, although their very eyes, in all parts of their territory,
except perhaps in the rice fields of South Carolina and Georgia,
thousands of white men were and are daily occupied in this very work. So
remarkable a delusion, contradicted by their own daily experience, is by
no means uncommon under similar circumstances. When the passions of men
are aroused and their interests, real or imaginary, involved, they
seldom comprehend the true significance, nor do they stop to estimate
deliberately the actual conditions, of what is going on around them.
Much less do they understand the character and tendency of great social
movements, in which they themselves are actively engaged. The strongest
intellects, in such circumstances, do not often escape the prevailing
prejudices and delusions. A sort of common moral atmosphere pervades the
whole society; opinions become homogeneous; and even the worst abuses,
sanctioned by time and by universal custom, lose all their enormity, and
command the support and approval even of good men. Palpable errors of
fact, and, indeed, every available sophistry in argument, have been
adopted by the Southern men to sustain the system of slavery.

The deluded