A close study of abolitionist literature,
however, had made it very clear to me that the advocates of
emancipation, although actuated by the highest motives, never at any
time approached the question in a conciliatory spirit; and that long
before 1850 their fierce cries for vengeance had roused the very
bitterest feelings in the South. In fact they had already made war
inevitable. Draper, the Northern historian, admits that so early as
1844 "the contest between the abolitionists on one side and the
slave-holders on the other hand had become a mortal duel." It may be
argued, perhaps, that the abolitionists saw that the slave-power
would never yield except to armed force, and that they therefore
showed good judgment in provoking the South into secession and civil
war. But forcing the hand of the Almighty is something more than a
questionable doctrine.)
The latter had the better excuse. He knew, were emancipation granted,
that years must elapse before the negro could be trained to the
responsibilities of freedom, and that those years would impoverish
the South. It appears to have been forgotten by the abolitionists
that all races upon earth have required a protracted probation to fit
them for the rights of citizenship and the duties of free men.
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