" SUCCEEDS, AT LAST, IN "ELECTING" ITS CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT
--IS THIS STILL A REPUBLIC, OR IS IT AN OLIGARCHY?

CHAPTER XXXIII.
WHAT NEXT?

THE PRESENT OUTLOOK--COMMERCIAL PROSPECTS, BRIGHT--WHAT THE PEOPLE OF
THE NORTHERN AND WESTERN STATES SEE--WHAT IS A "REPUBLICAN FORM OF
GOVERNMENT?"--WHAT DID THE FATHERS MEAN BY IT--THE REASON FOR THE
GUARANTEE IN THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION--PURPOSES OF "THE PEOPLE" IN
CREATING THIS REPUBLIC--THE "SOLID-SOUTHERN" OLIGARCHS DEFEAT THOSE
PURPOSES--THE REPUBLICAN PARTY NOT BLAMELESS FOR THE PRESENT CONDITION
OF THINGS--THE OLD REBEL-CHIEFTAINS AND COPPERHEADS, IN CONTROL--THEY
GRASP ALMOST EVERYTHING THAT WAS LOST BY THE REBELLION--THEIR GROWING
AGGRESSIVENESS--THE FUTURE--"WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?"

PORTRAITS.

MAPS.

SEAT OF WAR IN VIRGINIA.

FIRST BULL RUN BATTLE-FIELD.

FIRST BULL RUN BATTLE-FIELD, SHOWING POSITION OF ARMIES.

EDWARD D. BAKER,
BENJ. F. BUTLER,
J. C. BRECKINRIDGE,
JOHN C. CALHOUN,
HENRY CLAY,
J. J. CRITTENDEN,
HENRY WINTER DAVIS,
JEFFERSON DAVIS,
SIMON CAMERON,
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS,
JOHN C. FREMONT,
H. W. HALLECK,
ISAAC W. HAYNE,
PATRICK HENRY,
DAVID HUNTER,
THOMAS JEFFERSON,
ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
GEO. B. MCCLELLAN,
THAD. STEVENS,
WM. H. SEWARD,
LYMAN TRUMBULL,
BENJ. F. WADE,
DANIEL WEBSTER,
LOUIS T. WIGFALL.

CHAPTER I.

A PRELIMINARY RETROSPECT.

To properly understand the condition of things preceding the great war
of the Rebellion, and the causes underlying that condition and the war
itself, we must glance backward through the history of the Country to,
and even beyond, that memorable 30th of November, 1782, when the
Independence of the United States of America was at last conceded by
Great Britain. At that time the population of the United States was
about 2,500,000 free whites and some 500,000 black slaves. We had
gained our Independence of the Mother Country, but she had left fastened
upon us the curse of Slavery. Indeed African Slavery had already in
1620 been implanted on the soil of Virginia before Plymouth Rock was
pressed by the feet of the Pilgrim Fathers, and had spread, prior to the
Revolution, with greater or less rapidity, according to the surrounding
adaptations of soil, production and climate, to every one of the
thirteen Colonies.

But while it had thus spread more or less throughout a