Western civilization,
those who most felt and have best wrought for their country were
cautious in their speech. They knew that the principle underlying the
struggle must submit itself to the checks and counter-checks of
constitutional law. While the fire of liberty burned at the heart of
citizens of abiding loyalty, it seemed best, that, like the Psalmist,
they should hold their peace even from good words. Many thought it an
act of necessary self-restraint to dwell only upon the Union as a symbol
of that universal freedom which they felt the Union must finally
represent. The dread of overleaping the restraints of law, which,
perchance, has prolonged the conflict, has been most creditable to the
genuine democracy we have represented. We are proud to remember many
intelligent soldiers who used no language of passionate denunciation
towards the guilty institution which called them to the field, yet who
knew the end when they gave their lives to a cause utterly antagonistic
to its despotic claims.

By the representations of Secessionists encountered in the Free States,
as well as from disloyal newspapers which the "Lincoln despotism" never
sought to suppress, Mr. Dicey was convinced that the sole purpose of the
Rebellion was to get possession of the vast regions which lie west of
the Mississippi, wherein to establish Slave States and Territories. "The
North," he declares, "is fighting against, the South is fighting for,
the power of extending slavery across the American continent; and if
this was all that could be said, it is clear on which side must be the
sympathies of any one who really and honestly believes that slavery is
an evil and a sin." But it is not here that Mr. Dicey rests the case of
the North as appealing to the Christian sentiment of the world. He shows
that the inexorable logic of facts must work the overthrow of slavery
where it now exists. The suppression of the slave-trade, the recognition
of Hayti, abolition in the District of Columbia, and finally the
Proclamation of January have one tendency and can have but one result.
We state these views as one more confirmation of the fact, that, whether
agreeable to us or not, the sympathies of liberal men in Europe are to
be had on the sole ground that ours is an anti-slavery war.

Mr. Dicey's predilections lead him to make a generous, although
discriminating, estimate of those men who, in time past, have endeavored
to serve their country by leaving the level