CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. BY JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, LL.D. CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, AUTHOR OF OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS." Reprinted, by Permission, from “The Times.” LONDON: GEORGE MANWARING, 8, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND. MDCCCLXI. The Right of Translation is reserved. CAUSES OF THE E458 му 1861 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. THE de facto question, in America, has been referred at last to the dread arbitrament of civil war. Time and events must determine whether the "great Republic" is to disappear from the roll of nations, or whether it is destined to survive the storm which has gathered over its head. There is, perhaps, a readiness in England to prejudge the case; a disposition not to exult in our downfall, but to accept the fact; for nations, as well as individuals, may often be addressed in the pathetic language of the poet,— "Donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos, Tempora cum fuerint nubila, nullus erit." Yet the trial by the ordeal of battle has hardly commenced, and it would be presumptuous to affect to penetrate the veil of even the immediate future. But the question de jure is a different one. The right and the wrong belong to the past, are hidden by no veil, and may easily be read by all who are not wilfully blind. Yet it is often asked, Why have the Americans taken up arms? Why has the United States' Government plunged into what is sometimes called "this wicked war?" Especially is it thought amazing in England that the President should have recently called for a great army of volunteers and regulars, and that the people of the Free States, as if suddenly relieved from a spell, should have sprung forward as one man, at his M367545 |