Slavery felt the necessity of efforts to save herself from impending
ruin; she became taunting and aggressive in her manners and acts, and
resorted at length to violence, reminding one of the oft-repeated
proverb, 'Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.' History has
no readings for the comfort of slavery. There is a progress in human
affairs, and the tide of that progress is against her. Threatening
attitudes and impetuous dashes do not appear to come with salvation; and
the promise--of glory for freedom, and doom for her--now is that, as a
turbulent and rebellious power, she will be completely overthrown; a
sudden and deserved judgment, the legitimate consequence of her own
violence and desperation.
This struggle between a progressive and triumphant civilization, on the
one hand, and a crude, unprogressive, and waning one on the other--if
civilization it can be called--is another of the issues of this war. It
is but the ultimate, the closing catastrophe of the 'irrepressible
conflict.'
Involved in this feature of the war, there is much beside the naked
issue of freedom and slavery.
Slavery has no respect for the affections, as is evinced by the
mercilessness with which she sunders every family tie. The refining
culture of growth in civilization demands respect for the domestic
loves, even of an inferior race.
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