Title:  Continental Monthly, Vol.  I, No.  V, May, 1862 Devoted To Literature And National Policy

Author:  Various

Release Date:  January 13, 2005 [EBook #14680]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

*** Start of this project gutenberg EBOOK Continental monthly, Vol.  I, ***

Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

[Transcriber’s note:  Footnotes at end of document]

THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY: 

DEVOTED TO

LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY

Vol.  I.—­May, 1862.—­No.  V.

* * * * *

What shall we do with it?

The first blood that was shed in our Revolutionary struggle, was in
Boston, in March, 1770.  The next at Lexington, in June, 1775.

The interval was filled with acts of coercion and oppression on the one side and with complaints and remonstrances on the other.  But the thought of Independence was entertained by very few of our people, even for some time after the affair at Lexington.  Loyalty to the mother country was professed even by those most clamorous in their complaints, and sincerely so, too.  The great majority thought that redress of grievances could be obtained without severance from Great Britain.

But events hurried the people on, and that which was scarcely spoken of at the beginning of the struggle, soon became its chief object.

Is it not the same with our present contest with the South?  We took up arms to defend the Constitution, to sustain our Government, to maintain the Union; and in the course of performing that work, it would seem as if Emancipation was forced upon us, and as if it was yet to be the prime object in view.

Lo! how much has already been done toward that end, even though not originally intended!  As our armies advance into the enemies’ country, thousands of slaves are practically emancipated by the flight and desertion of their rebel masters.  The rules and articles of war have been so altered by Congress as to forbid our military forces from returning to bondage any who flee from it.  The President has proposed, and Congress has entertained, the proposition of aiding the States in emancipation.  Fremont, who has been regarded as the representative of the emancipation feeling, has been restored to active command.  And multitudes of our people, who have hitherto considered themselves as bound by the Constitution not to interfere with the subject, have become open in the avowal that as slavery has been the cause of the evil, so it must now be wiped out forever.