llion succeeded in persuading
the Southern masses that the success of the Republican party would
eventually liberate the slave and place him on an equality with the
whites, an irresistible impulse was given to their cause. To the extent
that this charge was credited was the rebellion consolidated and
embittered. Had it been universally believed, there would have been few
dissenting voices throughout the seceding States. All would have rushed
headlong into the rebellion. And even now, every measure adopted on our
part, in the field or in Congress, which can be distorted as looking to
a similar end, must prove to be a strong stimulus in sustaining and
invigorating the enemy. Happily, while the system of slavery naturally
discourages education, and leaves the mass of whites comparatively
uninformed, and peculiarly subject to be deceived and misled, there are
yet many highly intelligent men among the non-slaveholders, and some
liberal and unprejudiced ones among the slaveholders themselves. These
serve to break the force of the appeals made to the ignorant, and they
have had a powerful influence in maintaining the love of the Union and
the true spirit of our institutions, among considerable numbers, in all
parts of the South.

From the foregoing views, it is plain, that only in a certain sense can
slavery be pronounced the cause of the rebellion. It was not the first
and original motive; neither is it the sole end of the conspirators. But
in another sense, it may justly be considered the cause of the war; for
without it, the war could never have taken place.

There was no actual necessity to destroy the Union for the protection of
slavery and for its continued existence. Construed in any rational sense
likely to be adopted, the Constitution afforded ample security--far
more, indeed, than could be found under a separate confederacy. This was
evident to the leaders of the rebellion, though it was their policy to
conceal the truth from the people, by the fierce passions artfully
aroused in the beginning. Slavery could not have been perpetuated,
because its permanence is against the decrees of nature. But it could
have lived out a peaceful and perhaps a prosperous existence, gradually
disappearing without convulsion or bloodshed. Discussion and agitation
could not have been prevented, nor could the inevitable end have been
averted. Yet the whole movement could well have been controlled and
directed, by the adoption of wise and