"
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Here we read no books. The war is our sole and doleful
instructor. All our bright young men go into it, to be misused
and sacrificed hitherto by incapable leaders. One lesson they
all learn,--to hate slavery, _teterrima causa._ But the issue
does not yet appear. We must get ourselves morally right.
Nobody can help us. 'T is of no account what England or France
may do. Unless backed by our profligate parties, their action
would be nugatory, and, if so backed, the worst. But even the
war is better than the degrading and descending politics that
preceded it for decades of years, and our legislation has made
great strides, and if we can stave off that fury of trade which
rushes to peace at the cost of replacing the South in the _status
ante bellum,_ we can, with something more of courage, leave the
problem to another score of years,--free labor to fight with the
Beast, and see if bales and barrels and baskets cannot find out
that they pass more commodiously and surely to their ports
through free hands, than through barbarians.
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