The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Continental Monthly, Vol III, Issue VI,
June, 1863, by Various

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Title: The Continental Monthly, Vol III, Issue VI, June, 1863
Devoted to Literature and National Policy

Author: Various

Release Date: September 1, 2006 [EBook #19156]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY: DEVOTED TO LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY.

* * * * *

VOL. III.--JUNE, 1863.--No. VI.

* * * * *

THE VALUE OF THE UNION.

II.

Having taken a hasty survey, in our first number, of the value and
progress of the Union, let us now, turning our gaze to the opposite
quarter, consider the pro-slavery rebellion and its tendencies, and mark
the contrast.

* * * * *

We have seen, in glancing along the past, that while a benevolent
Providence has evidently been in the constant endeavor to lead mankind
onward and upward to a higher, more united, and happier life, even on
this earth--this divine effort has always encountered great opposition
from human selfishness and ignorance.

We have also observed, that nevertheless, through the ages-long
_external_ discipline of incessant political revolutions and changes,
and also by the _internal_ influences of such religious ideas as men
could, from time to time, receive, appreciate, and profit by, that
through all this they have at length been brought to that religious,
political, intellectual, social, and industrial condition which
constituted the civilization of Europe some two and a half centuries
since; and which was, taken all in all, far in advance of any previous
condition.

Under these circumstances, the period was ripe for the germs of a
religious and political liberty to start into being or to be quickened
into fresh life, with a far better prospect of fi