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

Author:  Various

Release Date:  February 15, 2005 [EBook #15065]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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[Transcriber’s note:  All footnotes moved to end of document.]

THE

Continental monthly: 

DEVOTED TO

Literature and national policy.

* * * * *

Vol.  I.—­April, 1862.—­No.  IV.

* * * * *

The war between freedom and slavery in Missouri.

It is admitted that no man can write the history of his own times with such fullness and impartiality as shall entitle his record to the unquestioning credence and acceptance of posterity.  Men are necessarily actors in the scenes amid which they live.  If not personally taking an active part in the conduct of public affairs, they have friends who are, and in whose success or failure their own welfare is in some way bound up.  The bias which interest always gives will necessarily attach to their judgment of current events, and the leading actors by whom these events are controlled.  Cotemporaneous history, for this reason, will always be found partisan history—­not entitled to, and, if intelligently and honestly written, not exacting, the implicit faith of those who shall come after; but simply establishing that certain classes of people, of whom the writer was one, acted under the conviction that they owed certain duties to themselves and their country.  It will be for the future compiler of the world’s history, who shall see the end of present struggles, to determine the justice of the causes of controversy, and the wisdom and honesty of the parties that acted adversely.  To such after judgment, with a full knowledge of present reproach as a partisan, the writer of this article commends the brief sketch he will present of the beginning and military treatment of the great Rebellion in the State of Missouri.  He will not attempt to make an episode of any part of this history, because of the supposed vigor or brilliancy of the martial deeds occurring in the time.  Least of all would he take the ’Hundred Days,’ which another pen has chosen for special distinction, as representing the period of heroism in that war-trampled State.  Any ‘hundred days’ of the rebellion in Missouri have had their corresponding nights;