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 v-'^ 
 
 
 T 
 
THE 
 
 UNITED STATES UNMASKED. 
 
 A SEARCH INTO THt CAUSES 
 
 or 
 
 THE RISE AND PROGRESS 
 
 or 
 
 These States, 
 
 A.VU AN 
 
 EXPOSURE OV THKIR PRESENT MATERIAL 
 AND MORAL CONDITION. 
 
 BV 
 
 G. MANIGAULT. 
 
 
 London, Ontario: 
 .». H. Vivian, :U)8 fLAREsct Stkket. 
 
 1878. 
 
Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada in the year 
 one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, by G. Manigault, 
 in the oflice of the Minister of Agriculture. 
 
 VIVIAN, 
 
 STIiKHOTVPER, 
 
 LONDON, ONT. 
 
the year 
 
 lOAULT, 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The author of this little book lately made several 
 efforts to get it publisher! in the Unite<l States. But 
 even those publisher, whose political and social convic- 
 tions carry them a long way with him in the views 
 herein expressed, shrank from becoming god-fathers to 
 his bantling. To do so would jeoj)ar*lize their business 
 interests, which are dependent on popular favour. 
 For a people may fall into such a condition, that 
 the j.Tossest offence you can give them, is to tell 
 them the truth of themselves. 
 
 This obstacle has induced the author to brinir out his 
 book in Canada, in a fonn somewhat abridged — thus 
 retaining some control over the copyright elsewhere. 
 
 Si 
 
 (H 
 
 Ti 
 Ui 
 
 th. 
 an 
 th< 
 rej 
 cal 
 wli 
 
THE UNITED STATES UNMASKED. 
 
 SKARrH INTO THK CArSKSOFTHK RiSK AND PlKKiKKSS 
 
 OFTHK U.S. AND AN EXPOSUHKOF THKIH IMtKSKNT MaTK- 
 
 UIAL AND MOKAI. CONDITION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Reasons f(n' entering on this Inquiry/. 
 
 Thk overweening tone in which tlie people of tlie 
 United States liave long V)een boasting of Uieir country, 
 their govenniient, and themselves, coupled with the va.st 
 and jK'Culiar, hut accidental advantages, long enjoyed by 
 the inhabitants of these states, has gained for them a 
 reputation fur ^visdom in the organization of their politi- 
 cal institutions, an<l in the conduct of their aHaii>», to 
 which they have little claim. 
 
 There is indeed much in the history and progress of 
 tliis nu»nster republic to excite? the wonder of the worM. 
 Not even ImixM-ial, and later. Papal Romo ever exercised, 
 by the mere ft>rce of opinion disseminated from it as 
 a centre, a wider an<l vaster influence over the nations of 
 the oaith, than the United Stati's have dont' for many 
 
 A 
 
'iHi: rNirr.n nt.vtks 
 
 years past. Not only have tlie old ami liij^lily civilizcil 
 monarchies of V^unpc been convulsed, and some of them 
 revolutionized, throu«,dj the spreading of political 
 doctrines and social theories, which, if thev did not iirii^in- 
 ate, genninat«-*d and now Hourish in this paradise of 
 democmcy, where their fruits are fast niaturin;^^ if not 
 yet i|uit<! ri|K' ; hut thest; convictions and doj^nias in 
 social seionce, emanatini^ from the United States, now 
 bear sway over the half barbarous n-publics of Mexico 
 and South Americ'a, over the j^rowinj,' democracies of 
 Au.stralia and South Africa, and their influence seems to 
 be felt in the remote, and, until lately, secluded empires 
 of (Jliina and Japan. 
 
 'I'lje popular voier throui^hout tlu' world has attributed 
 the proi^re.ss, prosperity, and power of the Unite<l States 
 to the wisdom and justice of the political institutions 
 4«'nerated there. These thev ]»elieve ha\e secured the 
 happy condition of the people ; tliese have fostercil that 
 wonderful skill and encr^iy whicb is speedily developinL;; 
 the latent n-.sources of half a contini nt. This conviction 
 has led the jjopulace, wherever they have been awaken- 
 ed to the con.sideration of their political and social condi- 
 tion, to hail the United States as the pattern held up before 
 the eyes of all mankin<l, to guide them in remodelling the 
 institutions of their country, and in establishing the prin- 
 ciples whicli here on earth are to regenerat(i humanity. 
 
 But a vigilant ami impartial observer, looking at the 
 United States from difterent stand points within and 
 without, and studying their history tlirough the different 
 periods of their career, can detect the grossly exaggerated 
 misconceptions prevailing in Europe and elsewhere, as to 
 
 
 ^ 
 
INMASKKP. 
 
 die |»nis|M'nty of tin- ('nit<(l StuU's, and as to tlic sources 
 of it ; and also as to tlu; nsults of the di'iiiocratic ft)rin of 
 ^'ovfrninrnt ado]»t«'d tlun-. Ami when lie has (U'toctcd 
 not oidy tli»'S«' ^'ri)ss rnisc'onct'])ti<)ns, but the vast and 
 wide spn'ad nusehief ahvady <lone hy reeeivin;; tlirni as 
 tnitliK. 1h' is hound in jonnnon lionesty to point tliein 
 out. 
 
 Without attt iii|»ting an exaet ananj,a'nient of our 
 matter under tlic foll()win<j; liea<ls, we will endeavour 
 suhstantially to prove: 
 
 1. That wliatever wis(h)Ui and principirs of justice 
 may luive proniote<l tlie prosperity of tlie stati's now 
 known as the Tnited States, tliey did not originate there, 
 but were brought in from abroad, and have there deterior- 
 ated rather than improved. 
 
 2. That un<ler the gui(hinee of tlii.s imported wis«lom 
 and justier. a va.st and rare eombinati<>n of natuial 
 advant^ig«'s built up the })rosj)enty of these states. 
 
 ',\. Tliat tlu^ natural an<l material advanttiges they en- 
 joyed were n«jt more freely and eagerly used, tlian waste- 
 fully abused and exluiuste(l. 
 
 4 That, far from having made moral j)rogress witli their 
 growth, the forty millions of ])eopIe in the United States 
 are m<>st strongly characterized by their unblushing polit- 
 ical, social and financial corruj)tion. 
 
I 
 
 C'llAPTKIi II. 
 
 Tin' CiiVKVH of t}n' roft'nf Pi'Of/i'CHs tnnl Pt'oHftrrif// nf fhr 
 thirteen Knyttsh ColmtirH ii'lnch Ihthuh' Sfatrs. 
 
 Aint'i'ica was lon«jf and is still, at tiiiu's, calk'tl i\w NfW 
 World, a name convct only in this sense: it was newlv 
 known to tln' people of Europe, and tliut l»i«;lier eivilizii- 
 tion, lonj;- existin<jf in Kuroix', was new to this westein 
 continent. Hut the races now dominant in America are 
 not new either to lustory or civilization. Tliey are the 
 otispring of detachments froi.i the peoples of En«^land, 
 Spain, Portu<,^al and France, sent, or ratlier coming out 
 as colonists, and long governed and protected by the 
 countries fiom which they came. 
 
 (Confining our remarks to the colonists fiom En<dand 
 we will point out tlie pecidiar advantages which, beyond 
 those of the colonists of any other nation, they brought 
 out with them from home, and met with in America. Let 
 the reader consider how rare and happy, yet ui\foreseen, 
 was that concurrence of circumstances which combined 
 to secure the success of these English settlenu-Jits on the 
 North American coast. 
 
 ]. The mother country was a poAverful nati<m, and 
 especially strong at sea. This enabled it to protect its 
 remotest colony against every other maritime power- 
 That country moreover was blessed with a wiser code of 
 laws and freer institutions than any other nation. In 
 civilization a!ts, science, and litoraturc it liad no superior, 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
TMK I'NITKI) STATKS rNMASKKD. 
 
 
 ir 
 
 he Nt'W 
 ^ lU'wly 
 civil iza- 
 Wf.strni 
 srica arc 
 
 are the 
 in«^lan(l, 
 ling out 
 
 hy the 
 
 Lu^rlaiul 
 
 beyond 
 
 •lou^'ht 
 
 Let 
 
 neseeii, 
 
 11 billed 
 
 on tlie 
 
 n, and 
 
 :ect its 
 [u)\ver- 
 L^ode of 
 |)n. In 
 
 pei'ior, 
 
 •a 
 
 if any e(|ual. And, above all, Christianity liad th« re 
 shaken oH* the tranniiellin;; eorniptions of the Chureli of 
 Home. 
 
 "1. Tlie eolonists not only broij^dit out with them tin; 
 laws ami institutions vvhieh they had inherited with tlit- 
 lest of their eountrymen, but they wen- a seleetion of tin- 
 more eiiterprisinij^ individuals from aiiion<^ tlu' most eti- 
 t('rj)risin«ij of nations and races ; a peoph; dlstin^uisht d 
 by tht'ir industry, enerj^^y, inventive powers, an<l in<li- 
 vidual .self-reliance. This peculiarly fitted them to mnkr 
 tlit'ir way in the N«;\v World. 
 
 .S. Most fortunate was it for these Enii^li.sli colonist> 
 that the S|)aniards, runnini,' after the 'ujiiis fafutis of an 
 pjl dorado in tropical America, had got the start of them 
 l»y their coiKpiests in tlu^ West Indies, and in Mexi(.'o and 
 Peru. But for that, the prospect of speedy ^^ain, in its 
 most tempting form, would have <li verted the Engli.sh, 
 in the pursuit of gold, from an enterprise which led to 
 their peopleing with their offspring the better half of tlu' 
 continent, 
 
 4. The region most accessible to English enterprise on 
 the coast of North America lay between the latitudes 31 
 and 43, North. In the greater part of this region tliey 
 found a temperate climate and much fertile soil ; and it 
 abounded with natural productions continually remind- 
 ing the colonists of tlieir old home. If, on close inspec- 
 tion of these specimens from the animal or vegetable 
 kingdom, the Englishman found the .species ditlerent, yet 
 the genus was apt to be the same with that so well 
 known to him from bo3diood. Nature in many, and the 
 most obvious of her productions, here and in England, 
 

 
 I'liK iNiii;!) sr.\ri;s 
 
 often ran in wonderfully parallel lines, rarely coineidin;^, 
 .seldom far apart. If tlio colonist wandered tln'ouL;li the 
 woods, lie found oaks, beeches, elms, pines, hollies, and 
 other sylvan (h'nizens 8tron<,dy recalling;' to him England's 
 forest trees. He .started from tlie covert the Inick and 
 the doe, the smaller representatives of the genus of tlie 
 stag and the hind, and Avortli}' compeers of the fallow 
 deer he had so often seen in l^iglish parks. On liis 
 approach the hare starte*! from her form, the covey of 
 the parti'idge or the fpiail flurried him l)y their sudden 
 wliiiling flight from almost beneath his feet; and he de- 
 tected tlie stealthy fox springing (juickly out of sight. 
 Standing on the hank of the rivulet he watched the 
 })('ieh and speckled trout gliding down the stream, the 
 heron wading in its waters, the eagle soai'ing ovei- head, 
 and he heard the voice of the dove cooing in the woods. 
 Throughout the more cons})icuous objects of organized 
 nature he was seldom at a loss for an Knglish name for 
 the new object so like that Avhich he had left behind him in 
 the old country ; and he instinctively felt that he had 
 foundanew^ home, in wliich liis race couhl live and thrive 
 and spread itself over regions seemingly without bounds. 
 
 5. These English colonists enjoye(l another peculiar 
 advantage on which, in order that it may be duly esti- 
 mated, we shall comment more at length. 
 
 No numerous people, as in Mexico, Peru, and many 
 other lands coveted by ambitious and entei'prising nations 
 in Europe, here already pre-occupied the soil. Yet the 
 country was not uniidiabited. Many scattered savage 
 triVjes, engaged in endless wai" with each other, which 
 kept down their nun)V>ers, roamed over rather than oecu- 
 
r.NMASKKl). 
 
 pied the country. Tliis rare. Immv at least, hail not ad- 
 vanc«'<l Iteyond tlu' lnnitiiii,^ sta,u<* of man's pursuits. 
 They had taken no st»'i> towaids hceoiiiin^ a })astoral 
 ]K'()])1<'. havin*;' doni('sticate<l no animal, not even the doi; ; 
 an<l if ti)t\v had taken a stcj) towards tiliin;; the soil, it 
 Whs only hy tlie casual lahourof tlieir women, to supply 
 tobacco for their pijies, and mai/e for the ,ij;;reen corn fes- 
 tival. So stiaiti'ued and unc«'rtain were their means of 
 livin;^ that tlu' population ]>etween the Atlantic and the 
 far west did not fuiiiish one soul to the s(piare mile. 
 
 It is true that this savaije race fiercely resisted the 
 intrusion of the foreigners ui)on their huntinir <n*ounds. 
 J>ut hv this the colonies gained far more than thev lost. 
 This slender cord(;n of hostile sava<j^es tended to compact 
 each colony into a well-ori^^anized ]>ody p(jlitic. It must 
 not he forgotten that, however necessary government 
 may l>e in eveiy phase of society, it is always a hurden 
 and restraint, toleiated only as a safe<ruai(l against more 
 intolera])le evils. If, on the first settlinij: of the countiv, 
 the colonists had been free to range over the continent, 
 with no human enemy to hold them in check, what chance 
 would there have been of preserving the civilization and 
 law-abidiuii' habits thev had biou^ht with them from 
 home(' When all the more enterprising spirits had 
 l>ecome hunters an<l trappers, vin/((yeurs and rand»lers 
 through the wilds of the backwoods, aiid the broad prai- 
 ries bevond them, what means would have been left for 
 maintaining a defensible settlement on the coast, to ket.'p 
 up the intei-est (^f, and tlu^ intercourse with, the U" ther- 
 country:' and to resist the attacks of Euro})ean maraud- 
 ers who, a^ it was, utteily de-;tn>ye(l ^ome of the earlier 
 eol( mil's .' 
 
THE INITKD STATIvS 
 
 This cordon of .sava<^e enemies maintained the martial 
 energies of the earliei- settU'i-s by eallini^ tliem at times 
 into activity; while it preserved their civil orjjfanization. 
 their social relations, and their industry, hy drivintr them 
 to avail themselves of the agricultural, pastoral, and syl- 
 van resources already in their possession, or easily within 
 their reach; thus establishing the colony on a soli«l, prof- 
 itable and permanent footing, tending rapidly to enable 
 it to sustain itself against all enemies. The truth is 
 that, in spite of the bloody and disastrous Indian wars, 
 of which we hear so much in colonial history, a.s so<m as 
 the growth and prosp(jritv of any of the colonies really 
 called for an expansion of its borders, an energetic effort 
 of the colonial government. <'ven without aid from Eng- 
 lan<l, seldom failed to procure for it all the i-oom needed 
 for the growth of the colon}' fur years to come. 
 
 The case is quite different when the attempt to est^ib- 
 lish a colony is made in a country where another people 
 are already in occu])ation of the soil. If inferior in war- 
 like qualities, in arts and civilization, the natives may be 
 easily con<piered, but not easily exterminated. However 
 merciless the slaught«'r in war, the convenience and th^' 
 necessities of the conquerors almost always lead them to 
 s})are no small part of the subjectefl people. 
 
 The Spaniards conquered Mexico and Peru three hun- 
 dred and fffty years ago; and they proved themselves 
 merciless con(|uerors, slaughtering a large portion of two 
 ninnerous nations, and strif)ping the sui'vivors of every- 
 thing that could swell the spoils of the victors. From 
 that day they became, and are still, the dominant cla.ss ; 
 but they utterly failed ia supplant the native raee ; and, 
 
rXMASKKh. 
 
 9 
 
 uliilf till' «k\sci*iulaiits of tlu' Spanianls in Mexico litth* 
 exccfd (Hie million, tliosc of the conqnoivd projilc innul»rr 
 seven times tliat annmnt. Tlie case is very similar in 
 l\'ru. The cultivation of tlii' soil, and tlu' arts most 
 t'ssrntial tt) the support and comforts of life arc still de- 
 p«'nd«'nt in l»otli countries on the lahour au<l skill of the 
 jnimitive rae(>. The Spanisli colonies in America st'om 
 to ha VI' made little pro«,Mi'ss in civilization ; and of late, 
 after half a century of freedom from tho domination of 
 old Spain, their course seems to l»c rather retro^nade 
 than progressive. 
 
 More than two centuries liave passed since tlu' Eu'^lisli 
 l»e«^an to make those territorial acquisitions in India, 
 which now enduuce the whole antl more than the whole 
 of tliat givat and fertile peninsula. Yet the Dritons in 
 India are, to tliis day, hut an army of occuj)ation, <,'arri- 
 .soninj; tJie stn>ni;-hol<ls which comntand the strate<^'tic 
 and connnercial points, and the lines of communication. 
 There is not in India even the send»lance of a British 
 colony, A vast, industrious, and skilful native p<»pula- 
 tion fill all the lower an<l numv of the hi;jher callings l»v 
 wliich the mass of Eun)peans, in their own country, earn 
 a living; and the clinuite in India is a yet more insuper- 
 ahle har to emigrants from Europe than the.pnvsence of 
 an indu.strious and skilful native population. 
 
 But even where tlie climate is as suitaMe to the con- 
 (piering iuNaders as to the conquered natives, it is ditti- 
 cult for tlie new-comers to supplant the others. 
 
 Few countiies are more blessed with j)hysical advan- 
 tages — more favoured in soil, climate and geographic po- 
 sition and f'-atui-es, than Ireland. If the Noinians of 
 
10 
 
 THK rXITKI) STAIKS 
 
 i; 
 
 \>,i 
 
 Knj^land, and their Anglo-Saxon followers, in tlu'ir •xpo- 
 (litions to Ireland in the twelfth eentury, had found it 
 an uninhabited country, in no lonjr time thev would 
 have added to the dominions of th<' English soveieigns 
 territories ecjuivalent to thirty English counties, differ- 
 ing little in the character of their population, and in the 
 cidture and development of their resources, from th«- 
 fifty-two counties of England and W.ales. (ireat as the 
 wealth and power of England were even then, these 
 thirty new counties, homogeneous with those east of the 
 narrow Irish Sea, becoming jiractically a ])art of the 
 kinudom of England, would have added more than one- 
 half to its power: and Iieland would have been as much 
 and more akin to England than Northumberland to Kent. 
 Jjut as it was, Ireland has proved to England as much 
 a source of weakness as of strength. The invaders from 
 I'ji'dand found Ireland, in the twelfth centurv, already 
 (»ccuj)ied by a numerous people in the occupation of the 
 soil ; and they i)ersistently, although unsuccessfidly, re- 
 siste<l the invaih'rs. The superiority of tlu' latter in 
 civilization, discipline, arms and armour, and also in race, 
 rendered numbeis unavailing against them ; for the con- 
 (juerors of Iielan*l were of the Teutonic race, which has 
 proved itself superior to all others. The con((uered peo- 
 ple were Celts, a race endowed also with high (pialitics, 
 and inferior only to the Teutonic. Moreover, the de- 
 scendants of the old Danish and other Scan<linavian 
 invaders and settlers in Ireland were now, by this new 
 invasion, mingled with the Celtic ])eople, and were 
 ecpially zealous in opposing the iiew-comers. The result 
 was that Ireland, although concpiered and held by the 
 
 
rXMASKKF» 
 
 1 I 
 
 Kiiirlisli for seven eeiitmies, is Irlsli still. TIk' <Vltic 
 jxipulation, not l)ein<; (>xt«'niiinate«l. but only siil»jeete«i. 
 multiplied in spite of the sul»j«"et position they held in 
 their own country ; find th»*v eiii^rossed all the lalM)rious 
 and lower occupations fonuin;^ an impassable barrier to 
 the influx of colonists who mit^ht have broULjht EngliNh 
 industry, arts, habits, and idras into Ireland. In the 
 earlier half of this century the j)opulatiim rosr to much 
 more than ei;;ht millions, of which nunilM-r seven nnllions 
 were of Celtic blood, and not on«- and a half millions wei*- 
 the descendauus of the armed or of the pacitic invaders 
 of the country centuries aj'o — Ireland was Irish still. 
 
 It is only since about the midilh- of this century that 
 famine and other powerful inHueiices, amon«{ which the 
 chief v.as the increased facilities and inducemmts to 
 emigration, have cut down the population of Irtdand by 
 nearly three millions. One would hav*- stipposed that 
 Irehmd would be now less Iri.sh than it wa**. Hut the 
 dominant people have utterly faileil to assimilate the 
 Iri.sh to themselves. The anim«>sitv of th«' ( 'eltic Irish 
 against the English and their connection with England, 
 and yet more against the class in their own coJintry who, 
 although with them there for centuries, have not Income 
 one with them, (and whom they .still call Saxons never 
 was, perhaps, more intense tlian at this day. 
 
 When we consider the uttiT failure ofthe Euirlish to 
 colonize India,and their slow and .sma'l success in coloniz- 
 ing Ireland, where complete and sjieedy success seemed 
 certain; and when we contrast thes<* faihm's with tluir 
 unrivalled and wonderful succe.s.s in North America, wr 
 must see tliat great natural and social causi*s placed in- 
 
12 
 
 TMK rMTKI) STATKS. 
 
 
 
 ><u|M'ral»lc nItstacKs in tlu'ir wny in tlic fornuT casrs, aii«l 
 thixt a rare c<»iiil»inati()n of ciirnnistances attonUMl tlu-iii 
 the <^n('at<'st, facilities in tlic last. It is true tliat the 
 people of (Jreat liiitain, tlie Knj^^lisli and lowlainl Sf()tch, 
 are j)eculiarly fitted for tli«'se great enterprises of colon- 
 ization, and that tin* French an<l Spaniards attempting 
 similar undertakin«rs, often with <M<'ater means, never 
 achieved half as much. But, in the planting of the thir- 
 teen colonies on the North America!! coast, eve! ythi!ig 
 comhi!ied U) secu!'e success so speedy a!id per!na!H'nt, 
 that the ]iisto!'y of colonizatio!i ca!! tell us of !iotliii!g 
 that rivals it. 
 
 Let the !-eadei' take in the full impo!'t of this fact: In 
 ma!!y parts of this newly settled cou!it!y the wide ex- 
 l)a!ise of vir<du soil continued to vield so !-eadv aiid 
 ahunda!it a i-eturi! to the lahours of the hus1)a!id!nan, as 
 he!'e ii!st i!i the histoiv of man to afford a i«'liahle series 
 of facts, fiom which could be infeiTed the !'ate of possible 
 inc!ease of the human species, whei'e populatio!i does not 
 piess upo!i the mea!is of subsistence ; the increase not 
 beinir checked 1)V the dif!ic!!ltv of obtai!ii!ig food. Before 
 the s(,'ttlement of these Ei!glish colo!iies, who ever l!ea!-d 
 of any legion of count!'y doubli!ig its population in 
 eightee!! o!' twenty years by i!atu!'al inciease :* 
 
 In commenti!!g on thesple!!did success of this cohmiz- 
 atio!i which, i!i little !nore than two centu!-ies, expa!ided 
 itself, in a belt a thousa!id miles wi<le, tVom the Atlantic 
 to tlie Facitic, over a region neaily as laige ;is Europe, 
 we !nust not foim't that the causes of this success, botli 
 moi-al and !naterial, operated far more vigoi'ously in the 
 eai-1iei- tlian in the latter pait of that tiiue. This becomes 
 
 ni 
 th 
 
 N; 
 
 Cll 
 
 o 
 
 f 
 
r.N.MA'Ki:)). 
 
 l:i 
 
 I'S, JlU'l 
 
 I tlu'm 
 iat the 
 Scotch, 
 ■ col on - 
 mpting 
 , iK'Vcr 
 tie tliir- 
 rythinj^ 
 naivnt, 
 nothing 
 
 ict: In 
 villi' I'X- 
 uly an«l 
 [man, as 
 (» series 
 dossil lie 
 loi's not 
 ase not 
 Before 
 'V heard 
 ition in 
 
 coloniz- 
 \pan<le<l 
 Atlantic 
 Europe, 
 'ss, lioth 
 y in the 
 heconios 
 
 j)lain to ns when wr consi<ler the moral and material in- 
 riuenc»'s j)roniotin«( this prosperity and proj^M'ess. 
 
 As we have said, tin; colonists, hein;^' Knj^dislniien, 
 hroufjht with them En<dish institutions and civilization. 
 Tlu'V were an enerjjfetic and enterprisinir detachm»'nt of 
 the Anglo-Saxon people, traineil up in the practical Eng- 
 lish school of laws, liberties, and ac<piired and \ested 
 rights; not in modmi theories as to hunuin eipiulity and 
 the so-called inalirnahle rights of man. A^ colonists they 
 were long protected, inriut'nc«'(l, nnd in a measure con- 
 troileil hv the mother countrv. which had freiiurnt c<Mn- 
 munication with tlie remoti'st settlements. Many of the 
 more suceessful cohmists, «'S|weially in the South, sent 
 their sons, and not seldom, their daughtei-s to Englan<l 
 for t>dueation, continiiinyf this for LC»'n«'iations, and still 
 sp.aking of England as 'home.' And such it still w;us in 
 the hest sense ; for from thence was drrivrd almost all 
 that was worth pres«'rving in politieal. social, and in- 
 tellectual attaiinuents. For in religion, law, letti'i-s, 
 morals, manners, America, with all its claims to invent- 
 ing an«l cajiacity for ap}>ropriating. has done little to im- 
 prove, much to corrupt that which it has derived from 
 England. 
 
 The earlier emigrants, notstiictly English, who soutrht 
 li<Mi»es in these English colonies, were of d»*Ncri|>tions 
 hio-hlv ilesirahle in this new countrv. hut were not 
 mnnerous enouifh to chanjje materiallv tin- eharaeter of 
 tlu' population. On the levocation of the edict of 
 Nantes, in 1()<S.'), many French Protestants, a class in 
 character, eilucation, au<l industry Far ahove the averae*' 
 of the French people, sought houies in America to «<cape 
 
 H 
 
14 
 
 TIN. t.MTKI* nT.\TK> 
 
 jK'i'Nrcution for tln-ir faitli. Many lowlaiKl StMjtcli. ami 
 Soott'li-Irisli from tin* North-t-ast of Ireland, zvalons 
 Protestants an<l noted for tlM*ir indnstrv and thrift, 
 migrated to these colonies. Under tlie patronage of the 
 crown and of some of the colonial govenniients several 
 numeHMis ]M»dies of ai'ricnitiiral einiiri-ants from Nortliein 
 an«l IVot^stant (lermanv wen- hronirlit into the countrv. 
 The original colonists of New York were Hollanders, 
 so that the jK'ople of twelve out of thiil<*en colonies 
 Were «»f Teutonic origin, and their ( 'hri>tianity was re- 
 itresented l»v Pnjtestant elmrehes: Marvland or ijither 
 iiciltiiiiore and its neiuhl>ourho<»l iK-inir the only settle- 
 nient where th«' Celtic race and tlie church of Rome 
 wen* strongly represented. 
 
 The government with whieh the colonists wen- in 
 actual and daily contict. on all the most vital points of 
 political and social life, was the colonial government of 
 each colonv. Thesr* had lM.'en nirxlelled aft4*r that of 
 (ireat Britiiin : an<l, at a lat«'r flay, they were not so 
 much changed as modified into the State governments, 
 to adapt them to tlieir new conditif>n of independence of 
 the British crown. Internally the cliange was not great ; 
 the political and legal institution-- of the individual 
 statf's continuing to hear the marks of their Anglo-Saxon 
 origin, not only stamped upon them, hut interwoven in 
 their fihre. The Anglo-Saxon race. long and overwhelm- 
 ingly pre«lominated in the ]>opulation, controlling i)ublic 
 afi'airs, populai- opinion, and the nhole tone of society. 
 The ' En<dish connnon law ' is still of force in almost 
 every stat*^ of the Union, ♦•xcept on those points on 
 wliieli its provisions have l»een expressly alt^'red hy 
 
rNMAsKKD. 
 
 i:. 
 
 stiitute. In fact tlir law luis Ix-'cn so luwe-li altcrrd in tlie 
 lavt forty vcars in Kni^land, tluit nion> of tlu' old KiiltHsIi 
 connnon law is, or was lately in forcv in soint' of the 
 states than in Kn«;lan<l itself. 
 
 These lo(;al ^governments were sustained chiftly hy 
 direct taxes, which were seldom hunhnsome in amount. 
 Now there is nothin;^' n>en are more vi;^alant ajjjain.st and 
 more intolerant of than hi^^h and unnecessary taxation, 
 when they know that the money comes out of their own 
 |iockets. And this each man must know uutler the t)pen 
 and honest system of «lirect taxation. Tiiis secuHMl hoth 
 Jionesty and ec«)nomy in the expenditure of the revenues 
 of the colonies, and afterwards of the States. There 
 was in conseijuence just *;overnment enouj^di to protect 
 .society, hut no further interference with men's private 
 pursuits, under pretence of takin^^ care of, and henetiting 
 in«lividuals. There was no fund to maintain a wide 
 patronage, to he used as the means of hrihin*,' and huy- 
 in^ up supporters of those in power; and men andjitious 
 of puhlic life uu)i\'. often impoverished than enriched 
 themselves hv holdin<^ otHce. 
 
 The vast expanse of territory west of the colonies, an<l^ 
 for a long- time, of the states, served as a vent and safety- 
 valve to lelieve these not too ri<fid and exactinir L'oveni- 
 ments of the task of controlling ihe more restless and en- 
 terprising, ami also the more turbulent and criminal por- 
 tion of I he population. The dangerous classes, as the 
 French call them, those who in most countries task the 
 vigilance of the police, and the energies of the govern- 
 ment to watch and control them, here, from the tirst 
 settlement of the country, stea<lily tendi'd towuids the 
 
 u 
 
n; 
 
 THK INITKh STATKS 
 
 ^a(k-\voi»tl.s. 'llu'ir waicliudul Wcas ' \N i-slNvaid ho!' 
 Tlu'V s«»ii«rlit tlif unn*strain«'(l and advciitmoiits lift' of 
 the fnniticr, Tlie lM«tU'r rlass l>ecariu' liunters and trap- 
 pers in tlie fur trade, tin- worse dividc<l their energies 
 U'tween traftieinir witli and ehratin'' tlie indians. and 
 slang]»t»'rin«,' th«-ni out of t\\i- way «»f a<lvancing eivil- 
 iziition, 
 
 Hi'rr we nnist sav that tlir liistorv of tlie eolonirs and 
 
 • « 
 
 of the Tnited SUites and ninnlK'iless d«K*uuients connect- 
 ed Avith that historv, tells us of ])eaee and war >vith the 
 Indian triU's. of ne<rotiation, treaties and tmttic with 
 them. Hut thev do not and eannot tell us all that 
 oeeunvd hetwe^-n tlie two i-aees, hut only what passed on 
 the public stage. B»*hind tin- scenes, from the early 
 times of the eoloni«*s until now, an mieeasinjr skirmish 
 has hern waif«'«l alonj; the reeedin*' frontier 4>n which the 
 indian y»'t lingns. Here he stan<ls face to face with 
 persevering rnemi«'s who have Ix'en for centuries intru<l- 
 ing on his haunts. Many of these enemies are there, 
 because civiliz^^l s<K*ietv. niuibi<' lon«;er to tolerate their 
 presence, had thrust them out beyond its pale. We will 
 not stop to censure or defend this conflict of two 
 hinidreil years. Perhaps the natuiij and j)*xsition of the 
 tM'o races renderetl it unavoidabh*. But we will illus- 
 tmte l>y an anecdote the feelings and the deed.s en<'-en- 
 d(*red amonfj the whites on the frontier. 
 
 " We who first came out to this neighbonrhoml lived a 
 rough life " said an old settler to a traveller in the 
 West." We were clo.se on the indian frontier, and the 
 red devils never far from us. Do you know, young man, 
 how I sometimes got my venison ^" 
 
I'N.MASKKI*. 
 
 17 
 
 " I .su})pose yi)ii liuutcil ;iinl sliut tlio (U-er," said 
 the travel Kt. 
 
 " Not always, younijfster " aiiMWcrt'd tlie old man with a 
 irlanco at once cunnin<rM!i(l rieice. '* More than once, wljile 
 huntint,Mn the w )o(ls, I have heard the eraek of a lille: and 
 creeping steatliily that way have come upon a ledskin 
 rippinj^ up a fini; buck or doe, whieli he liad killed when 
 I heard the shot." 
 
 " He liad the advantage of you " said the traveller 
 " heing before hand with you in the sport. " 
 
 "Not so!" said tlie old frontiersman 'I had the ad- 
 vantage of }jim." 
 
 " How so ' What did you do ;"" 
 
 1 looked carefully around, and listened for a while ; 
 and if the signs showed that he was a single hunter, 
 witl» no companions near — 
 
 " What then i*" exclaimed the traveller. 
 
 " I shot the Indian, and took the deer." 
 
 " You did ! That was verv like murder. But of 
 course it was in time of wai " 
 
 " Murder!" said the old man scornfully. " We ilid not 
 give it that name on the frontier. Some people may call 
 it so now. 1 can not remember whether there was war 
 or peace between the g«^vernment and the tribes just 
 then. But tliere was seldom such peace Itetween us bor- 
 derers and the red-skins, that we lost an opportunity of 
 paying oft* old scores, when there was no witness it hand 
 to bring us into trouble." 
 
 The colonies and afterwards the States usually enjoyed 
 almost complete exemption from the heaviest burden 
 upon the resources of nations. The greatest outlay a 
 
I'll 
 
 * 1*. 
 
 IN 
 
 TIIK CNITI.n STATKS 
 
 I" 
 
 ^ovi'ininont usually lias to luake is ox[m'HiI«'<1 on tliosr 
 t'lalxinit*' jufparations lu'ccssary to secure the country 
 a;,miiist the aniltitiou ami hostility of near an<l powerful 
 nei;L(li hours. Armies and fleets, fortresses an«l arsenals, 
 stored with costly materials of wai", are usually the ^n-eedy 
 devourers of a nati<jn's revenues. Hut the Kn;^dish colo- 
 nies felt little of this hurdi'U. The task and cost of 
 defeiidin*^ them fell chi«ffly on the mother-country. 
 And when at length they hecame states, and had woiked 
 tlieir way throuj^di the stru^'^de for independence, they 
 found them.selves without any stron<^^ nei^hluMU" on the 
 same continent with them, nor in the least danger of 
 invasion; and thus unth-r no necessity to expend much 
 in keeping- u)) a large military force. For <'ighty years 
 after l7tSl the permanent military and naval force of 
 the United States, when compared with that of other 
 countries, was, or seemed, ridiculously snudl for their 
 resources. The country enjoyed a unicjue exemption 
 from that heavy buideii with which most nations were 
 coujpelled to saddle themselves. 
 
 l>ut the chief and most obvious source of prosperity 
 to the colonists and to their descendants for several gen- 
 erations, securing to them immense success in their agri- 
 cultural enterprises, sprang from the fact that they were 
 cultivating virgin soil. 
 
 If we could trace the history «)f a«nicidture from the 
 first invention of the plough, we would he apt to tind 
 that the unfailing process, in every land, has been to 
 wear out the field to barrenness by successive croppijigs, 
 then to clear a new field and go through the same rout- 
 ine foi' extractinu" fi'om it all that could be turned into 
 
I'N.MASKIin. 
 
 10 
 
 profit. Not until tin* wliolr of lii- land iiad Itecn toIjImmI 
 of its fi'itiiity •lid any faiiiicr tliink (»f usinn" nuans and 
 Ittliourto n't'upnate the soil. IJnl the colonist in Amer- 
 ica, and hi.s (h'seendants for ^generations, seldom felt 
 themsc'lvi?s to l>e refhieed to this lahorious and irksome 
 neeessitv. Viriiin soil and fertile land seemed to be here 
 without lindt. And if, in a j^eneration or two, the once 
 fertile rields in his nt'iyhliourh<K)d prove^l to he exhausted, 
 (he farmer had only to move westward. 
 
 ' To-iiiorrow to fi-ewli wnods and pftsturea new,' 
 This eravino- of thr farmei' for fnsli and fertile soil nfavo 
 (juite as powerful an inn)ulse, as the enterpiisini^" and 
 enei^etic character of the ])eople, to the rapid ext«'nsion 
 of st'ttlements across the whole breadth of the contiuiJit. 
 The American farmer, moving' steadily westward for 
 <.(<'nerations, has been sowiuLf his seed in the \ irgin soil 
 enrichecl by centuries of vegetation perishiiiu- on and 
 manuiin*;' the spot in wdiich it o-rew. He has been like 
 a <lairy-nian who couhl churn ;i vast (juantity of butler, 
 liavin<r Jvn uidinated amount of cream to skim. 
 
 W 
 
 m 
 
 iiv here lemark that it is curious to trace, 
 
 through certain returns as to nativities found in the IJ. 
 S. census for ]<So(), liow the natives of ditl'erent states on 
 the Atlantic coast, in ndgratinn- westward, generally 
 followed the parallels of latitude of their old li.iuies. 
 and that where, in the South, they in sonie cases \aiie<I 
 from it, their cour.se oftener tended to the North than Lo 
 the South. Doubtless thev were Landed bv a natural 
 craving for a cooler climate, more congenial to people of 
 the (,'aucasian race than that in which thev had been 
 located. 
 
u n^ 
 
 
 20 
 
 TlfK CXITEI) STATES (IXMASKKI). 
 
 It 
 
 Could we count, weigli, and measure all the va.st and 
 unique advantages accumulated upon the people of thest^ 
 States beyond those of other countries, we would not 
 wonder at the rapid lioo<l of prosperity that poured in 
 upon them, and on which, for a time, they swam so 
 buoyantly ; nor that multitudes of the needy and the 
 malcontent in the populous countiies of western Europe 
 turned their faces towards it, as the Israelites to the 
 promised land. 
 
 h* 
 
 ^ 
 
 f 
 
 
CHAPTER \U. 
 
 J low Long Wdi* this Siii<ju/ar ProKiHrltii fo LdM ? 
 
 Was its permanence seeui-eil by the operation of per- 
 manent causes ^ Were there no evil ai^eneies of any 
 kind at work sapping its foun<]ations '. We will search 
 them out and try to arrange them in their natural order. 
 
 We have seen that the people of these English settle- 
 ments on the Atlantic coast, while they continued colo- 
 nies, and after they became States, enjoyed the inestim- 
 able blessing of living undei- governments which were 
 efficient and yet not burdensome. Tliey aimed at 
 nothinij more than to a<lminister justice amonir the Deo- 
 pie, and to protect them against ioreign enemies. And 
 this is all that any people need demand of any govern- 
 ment under which they live. Everything else the peo- 
 ple, either as individuals, or through voluntary associa- 
 tions, can do better for themselves. Under political 
 institutions, which trammelled neither their occupations 
 nor their movements, the people throve and spread so 
 rapidly, that there soon sprang up, far west (jf the 
 States on the coast, a need for the organization of new 
 local governments, like those of the States from whicli 
 this swelling tide of emigrants liad issued. 
 
 For that debatable land on which the long and bloody 
 skirmish was ever being fo\ight between the native red 
 man and the intruding white adventurei-s — this moving 
 
 J 
 
u ':' 
 
 T 
 
 •)•) 
 
 rm; imiki) sr.\ri> 
 
 frontier was withdrawing into the far west, while behind 
 it tlie wilderness was becoming, step by step, a settled 
 and cultivated country; bearing the marks and yielding 
 the proihicts of eivilized industry, the fruits of which 
 are eagerly sought aftei* in the markets of tlu' comniei- 
 cial world. 
 
 But in the mean while an unforeseen change was 
 taking place in owe nature and aims of government 
 throughout the country. And this change, at first slow 
 in movement, i)roceeded with ever accelerating steps, 
 which we must trace out briefly. 
 
 The better to carry on the war begun in 177<J for the 
 establishment of their independence of the mother coun- 
 tiy, the thirteen colonies had united themselves into a 
 confederacy by a treaty called ' The Articles of Confed- 
 eration,' which by express agreement were to be perpet- 
 ual. They continued united under this treaty thro\igh 
 the greater part of the war, and seven years after. Be- 
 coming then dissatisfied with this treaty, the States, 
 actint>- as States, set aside ' The Articles of ( 'onfedera- 
 tion,' which were to have been perpetual, and made with 
 each othei' another treaty called 'The Constitution of 
 the United States,' more precise in ttn-ms and more 
 stringent in conditions, which created, under the form 
 of a federal goveiiiment, a connnon agent for each and 
 all the States for certain specified purposes. The States 
 endowed this common agent with certain specified 
 powers and with no others ; for the powers not granted 
 were expressly reserved to the individual States. A 
 year or two elapsed after this treaty went into operation 
 between most of the states, before all acceded to it. 
 
rSMAsKKh. 
 
 2.S 
 
 The purj)Oses to In* Sfrvod l»y tliis au'ont of all tlir 
 statos, aii'l ^vhiell tliry nanuvl ' The Govcninu'nt of the 
 United Stat«'.s.' wviv (issentially these: To secure tlie 
 friendly union and intercourse hrtween the states, and 
 the people of the states; and to present them as one 
 united hody, in ])eace and in war. to all foreii^m powers. 
 
 The States however did not cea^e to hr each a sove- 
 rt-ii^n body politic within its own limits, in all matters 
 not expressly dfUi^ated to tlie common agent. Tln' 
 forminiT <>f the l^nion did not i;«'nerate an allegiance to 
 a sfO'ernment or to a countrv. Each eitizi-n <»f rach 
 State owed alle<dance to his own State. On the forma- 
 tion of the Uni(m, at first rnch-r the 'Articles of ('onft'd- 
 eration,* afterwards under the 'Constitution of tlie 
 United States,' lie, as W(dl as Ids State, assumed a new 
 ol)liiration : that of observin<jf in ij^ood faitli the terms of 
 the treaty oi Union. Not ev^en the othcials of the new 
 ifovernment ever took anv oath of alh.'ijfiance to it. as a 
 tfovernment, or to the countrv within its jurisdiction. 
 The only oath taken was, to observe faithfullv tlie teruis 
 of the treaty of union between the States. As to tlie 
 perpftuity of the Union, nothing- is exj>ressly sai<l of it 
 in the ' CVmstitution of the Unit«'d States.' Doubtless 
 it was meant to be as perpetual as the good faith in 
 observiuiT the conditions on which the States had entered 
 into the T^nion, and no longer. To assume tliat the 
 parties that made the compact of unic^n on certain speci- 
 fied conditions, nieant these conditions to l>e temporary, 
 but tlie union leased upon them perpetual — that gross and 
 pei-sistent violation of the terms of the agreement, by 
 some parties to it, would not release the otiiers from 
 
*' 
 
 't.i' 
 
 
 :>4 
 
 THK CNITKI) STATIN 
 
 r 
 
 their olili^^ation — would Ik* p»ttin«( tlio most alisunl ainl 
 illo^ncal construction on tlie contract. 
 
 T\\(' ])eoj»li' of each State looked to tlieir own State 
 government for the protection of their personal, social, 
 and pi-oprietary riiihts. The laws of the State regulated 
 all social relations, those of husband and wife, parent 
 and child, master and seivant, maniage. inheritance, 
 guardianship ; and all proprietary rights, as title to land, 
 and to other property, contracts, and in general all those 
 questions as to rights and wrong's, for the decision of 
 which men appeal to courts of law and equity. The 
 law of the State fixed the statilft of individuals in the 
 stat(', such as the (pialificiitions necessary before a man 
 can exercise the franchi.se, as a voter, or hold office, or 
 serve &.s a juror in the courts of the State. 
 
 Under the terms of the tr<;aty of (Tnion the States 
 had delegated to tliei; comnnm agent, the Federal gov- 
 ernment, exclusive jurisdiction over certain matters ; 
 amcmg which Were: 'To defines and punish piracies and 
 felonies on the hi<rh seas,' — and ' Offences a<;ainst the 
 law of nations,' — Counterfeiting the secui'ities and coin 
 of the United State's '---'And offences against the po.st 
 office, etc. But, with these exceptions and a few others, 
 it was to the government of their respective States 
 that the people looked for the puni.shment of all those 
 offences, whether against persons, property, or society, 
 which governments find it necessary to punish. Omit- 
 ting the offtncos specially excepted above, all crimes 
 conunitted in a State were tried by the sovereign 
 authority of the State, under its own laws, in its own 
 courts, and before a iurv of its citizens. If a man is 
 
UNMASK KI) 
 
 25 
 
 lian<,'C(l for a capital crime, it is the State tliat hanpfs 
 liiin. Sliould tlic case call for the exercise of the par- 
 flonini:^ power, the governor of the State panlons him. 
 But ishouM the (»overnor refuse, and the President of 
 the Uniteil States assume to grant liim a pardon, the 
 convict would bo hanged even with such a pardon in his 
 liand. It would be mere waste paper. The civil juris- 
 dittion of the state courts was as broad as the criminal. 
 It was not to relieve themselves of tlieir jurisdiction as 
 soverei<ni States that thev contracted with each other 
 for the creation, for certain speciHed purposes, of a 
 connnon agent, now known as the ' Government of the 
 United States.' 
 
 Such was the theory of that c<^)mplex political 
 organization consisting of the goveniments of the indi- 
 vidual States, and of the States united with each 
 other. 
 
 As we have already said, the indivi<lual States levie<l 
 the ver}'- moderate revenues, need«'d for the support of 
 their governments, chiefly by direct taxes. For instance 
 the little state of South Carolina, with a population iii 
 1<S.")0 of ()(nS,.")00 of whieli oN'),000 were negro slaves, for 
 several years before and after tiiat time expended an- 
 nually less than $400,000 for the support ('f all the de- 
 partments of its government; au'i this proved enough 
 to secure the efficient administration of the law, and 
 preserve good order in the state. We V»elieve that this 
 is but a fair sample of the econi*-;!}- observed in the ex- 
 penditures of most of the states. 
 
 But' their common agent, the government of the 
 United States, had som»' costly duties to p<*rfoi-m, for 
 
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 .1. 
 
 2<> 
 
 TIIK rXITKI) STAI'liS. 
 
 instiinco; tliosc of providinL;' tlie means of defence against 
 for('i;4'n enemies, and tlie temporary care and <,'overn- 
 ment of tlie larL,^e pul)lic territories out ide of the borders 
 of the States, until hy the immiL;ration and permanent 
 settlements made, sutHcient and suitahle portions of this 
 territory' had become jjopulous enough to support each 
 a state <,'overnment. In connection with the case of 
 these wild territories, the Federal o-oveinment was 
 charLi^ed with dealiiin' with the indian triiies; a nice and 
 troublesome tluty, and one which the agents of the gov- 
 erinnent soon learned how t(; make very costlv to the 
 government, and veiy profitable to themsrlves. 
 
 To enable the Federal uovernment to fultil these and 
 some other duties, power had been granted to it ' To lay 
 and collect tax( s, duties, imposts, and excises,' and that 
 withoiit any limitation I'xcept that 'All duties, imposts, 
 and excises shall be uniform thi-ouirhout the United 
 states.' Being thus furnished with the nx.'ans of fccd- 
 inu; itself, this child of the States i>iew and li-rew, and its 
 appetite for jiower and appropriation grew with what it 
 fed on, until it was able to eat up its paients; and it 
 has already eaten up a good many of them — by convert- 
 ing them into con(picre<l provinces. 
 
 The truth is that the 'Government of the United 
 States' Avas the offspring of a stupid and shortsighted 
 treaty betAveen the several States. Beini'- entrusted 
 with the power of unlimited taxation it gradually, yet 
 ra[)idly and naturally, tended towards the usurpation of 
 powers not granted to it, to th(i overthrow of the essen- 
 tial riohts of each State, and to a total chaniic in the 
 character and operative etf'ects of government on the 
 
rXMASKKI). 
 
 •27 
 
 . 
 
 tonfe«lerati<)!i. This unt'.\peet4^Hl nsiilt truds lo provo 
 tliat <,'ov«rninonts aiv not pieces of nieeljanisni, that ean 
 he ordered aii«l ohtaine<l acconliiiL,^ to contract with speci- 
 fications; hut germinate, grow, and perish, like other 
 productions of nature; and tlmt some kinds of tliis natu- 
 ral pro<Uiction, called goveninient, are more sliort-lived 
 than others. 
 
 Tlje power of le\ying taxes, and of ajipropiiating the 
 proceeds, is the power of governing. No other political 
 right or comhination of rights, can long resist it. The 
 Federal government, in order to fulfil the duties for 
 which it ^^a.s create<l: namedy, to raise and support 
 armies; to pivjvide and maintain a navy; to estaMish 
 and maintain courts for the trial of cases arising out of 
 matters placed within its jurisdiction, and for some other 
 duties with wliich it was chartred — this Federal f'overn- 
 ment neeih^l a ixivenue larcjer than the united revenues 
 needed hy all the individual States. From the first 
 existence of this government it proceeded to raise its 
 I'e venue chiefly by cUities and imjx)sts on imported 
 foreign goods, an in<lirect mode of taxing people, at 
 which they are the less apt to grumble, as no man sees 
 how much he pays of this in<liiect tax. Having now 
 occasion to employ a large number of jwrsons in various 
 otticial capacities, the new government is at once in pos- 
 .session of a large and wide-spread patronage, whicli the 
 politicians in office know how to u.se, and to increase for 
 their own pur[)Oses. This soon gave the Federal govern- 
 ment an influence over self-seeking individuals, of every 
 class, vastly greater than that of all the State govern- 
 ments: for their exjx'nditures were small and economical, 
 
 'il 
 
 ■4; 
 
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 'ii 
 
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Il« • 
 
 
 I'l; 
 
 'i: 
 
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 TUK UXFTKI) STATES 
 
 aii'I tlu'ir pfitrona^'e liiiiit«*«l in pn)fHjrtioii. Tin; States 
 weiv each practically uiuler U^mi to use economy in 
 i-aisinir and (lislnirsiiiLC their revenues ; for liij'h taxes in 
 any one State would liave dnven lx>tli f>opulati<jn and 
 capital across its horders into the neighlMjurin<^ states. 
 
 A large region of country is seldom or perhaps never 
 homogeneous, (.'limate, geographic features, and other 
 causes had marked out certain difft-rences hetween the 
 Northern and the Southern States; and the distinction 
 in character hetween them grew ujore manifest as yeai*s 
 rolled on. 
 
 From the first planting of the cohmies, the many con- 
 venient ports, the comparative hanenness of the soil, and 
 abundance of timber in New England and the adjacent 
 regions, directed the attention of the colonists there to 
 shipbuilding, maritime affair's and the fisheries. They 
 also carried on a large trade in j>eltiy and lundjcr. 
 While the people of the Nortliern colonies did not neg- 
 lect to avail themselves of what fc-rtile soil was at hand, 
 they early actjuircd the hal'it^ and characteristics of a 
 trading, seafaring, and. to some extent, of a manufactur- 
 ing people. 
 
 But the climate an«l soil of the more S<»utln-rn colonies 
 Ijeing found to be peculiarly a«lapted to the production 
 of agricultural staples in great demand in commerce, 
 these colonies became almost alt<Ji;ethei" ajjriculturai 
 communities ; and the nature of tlieir exports led to 
 their having far more intercoui-se with the mother coun- 
 trv than with their NortheiTt nei<rhboui-s. The revolu- 
 tion, which changed them from colonies into States, did 
 not change their interests and pursuits. But it revolu- 
 
UNMASKKI). 
 
 211 
 
 • i- 
 
 tioniz«'<l their political connections. Tlicir Xortljeni 
 confederates, seeinif tlieni ir. the eniovnient of <'reat 
 profits fi'om the foreign demand for their pectdiar pro- 
 ducts, set tlieir wits to work to devise the means of 
 diverting as much as possible of the proceeds of Southern 
 crops to themselves in the >«oith. Their ingenuity, per- 
 severance, artful cond (illations, aii<l utter want of scru- 
 ple, made them successful in time, and for a long time. 
 Yet the Federal government conducted its aH'aiis with 
 
 derahh 
 
 f. 
 
 til 
 
 rl 
 
 aps 
 
 .'conomy lor some 
 duriii'' one .sln^rt war. J)urinif the Presidencv of John 
 Quincy Adams, for instance (from liS2.") to J.S2!J) the 
 yearly expenditure of the government little exceeded 
 $^1 :i,000,000 ; vastly more indeed than that of all tlie 
 state-governments, but a mere trifle compared with its 
 own expen<liture of late years. 
 
 Yet long l)efore that date, the tendency to ])ervert 
 taxation from its leiiitimate ol>iect, the raisin<>- of 
 revenue for the support of the government, to the fraud- 
 ulent aim of making })rofitahle private pursuits in par- 
 ticular parts of the confederacy, was plainly manifest. 
 Under the influence of the people of the Northern and 
 less agricultural states, the Federal government early 
 laid the foundation of what was afterwanls called ' the 
 turif system for the protection of American industry ' 
 that is of their ow ii occupations and enterprises in the 
 North. 
 
 Some almses in taxation and finance originate*! almost 
 at the birth of the government. The people of New 
 Entfland have lonu' shown i»Teat talents and no scruples 
 in taking care of their own interests at other people's 
 
 ♦ IV 
 
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 30 
 
 TIIK lNlTi:r) STATKS 
 
 >'' 
 
 cost; an<l tlir inlial»itaiits of the New Eiii^liind coast, 
 liein;;' niueli occupied in tlie fisheries of tlie North 
 Athuitic, tliey lia<l tlie art to persuade the Fi'deral jli^ov- 
 ernnient tliat tliese fisheries were very important to tlio 
 whole country, not merely in supplyin*,' it with salted 
 fish, hut as a nursery for seamen; without whom the 
 confederati<jn could never hecome a j^reat naval power. 
 The government was induced to s^nve a hounty of so 
 much per ton on all the vessels fitted out for the fish- 
 eries. Fur fiftv years or so. every man in the United 
 States was taxed to pay part of the price of his salted 
 fish l)efore it was caught, and whether he wanted it or 
 not, in order to pay this hounty to the New England 
 fishini' craft, manv of which were fitted out to catch, 
 not so much the fish, as the hountv. 
 
 But this was not the usual mode in which the Federal 
 government undertook to make profitahle the occupa- 
 tions and enterprises of particular classes of the people, 
 and of particular parts of the country, at the cost of 
 others. 
 
 The industry of the Southern States was directed, 
 perhaps IjeyomI even tlie growing of the food needed at 
 home, to the cultivation of certain crops wdiich found 
 their chief and hest markets in foreign countries. The 
 most profiLahle use to which the Soutliern agriculturist 
 could apply his land, labour, and skill, was growing 
 these crops in such demand abroad. In payment for 
 these crops exported, a great amount of foreign goods 
 came into the country; for the commodities sent out of 
 the country must be j>aid for b}" those that are brought 
 into it. They cannot be paid for in any other w^ay. 
 
 f ' 
 
INMASKi;!). 
 
 :h 
 
 •I 
 
 
 ('onmuTce is liascd npoii Ur- ixclian^c of coiimKulltics; 
 iiioncy is only tlie lucaiis of facilitatiiiLf, and measuring 
 tlie rate of tliat exchanL,'*', From tliese remarks may be 
 estimated the interest the people of tlie Soutli liad in 
 forei«Mi trade. So far as f(Hei<''n comm<j<litios came into 
 tlie country to pay for southern crops, these C(jmmodities, 
 or tlie pi-oceeds of them when soM, hehmged to southern 
 nien. Tlie Soutl>ern farmer and tlie foreign manufac- 
 turer drove, through intermediate agents, a profitable 
 trade with each other, in exchanging the proceeds of 
 their imbistry and capital. What a man has honestly 
 obtained he has a right to exchange with any other man 
 for his honest acquisitions. 
 
 The productions of the Northern States wxtc very far 
 from being in e(pial demand abroad. But many people 
 in the North bethought them that if they could shut out 
 the rivalry of the foreign manufacturer they might l)uild 
 up a profitable Inisiness for themselves ; that although 
 nature might have given to particular countries greater 
 facilitic's for the production oi certain commodities, 
 than it has given to their own, that advantage enjoyed 
 by foreigners might be more than counter-1 alanced by 
 obstructing the importation of their products. The 
 government was raisin!>- nine-tenths of the revenue 
 necessary for its support by duties on imported goods. 
 Some enterprising Northern men had the art to induce 
 it to go further, and to impose so liigh a duty on some 
 particular articles, that it became cheaper to manufacture 
 them at home, than to impt)rt them from abroad. The 
 first articles so taxed were w'ell chosen as the be^iinning 
 of this system of government protection ; for the 
 
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 M2 
 
 Tfll-; IINITKI) STATES 
 
 t..i 
 
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 4*1 
 
 ■■-! 
 
 
 iiuitciials wore piodiUHMl in the eoiuitrv in al>nrnlaiice. 
 A duty of .'JO per cent, (nl luilorcm whs imposed on all 
 iiiii)orted liats and shoes, and soon none hut Yani\eo 
 made liats could lie houglit ; hut a <;i)od hat cost nine or 
 ten dolhirs, and shoes and hoots rose in jjroportion. 'J'h*' 
 l)e(^ple of the Northern states soon found out that there 
 were a nuniher of other aitiides wldeh tlu-y couhl make 
 to great profit, if tlie government would only shut out 
 the cheaper and hetter ft)reign articles, hy laying a 
 heavy duty on them. Thus the mamifactiu'e of silken 
 goods has heen forced into a sort of hot house (existence 
 in the United States, wlwie no silk is produced, l)y 
 laying a duty of (iO per cent on foreign silks. For the 
 Northern States having a majority of votes in the 
 Congress of the United Stales, and their pe()})h; heing 
 nearly all of them eager to i.'ud)ark in some manufactur- 
 ing speculation, well jjrotected hy high duties against 
 foreign competition, it givulually came to pass that 
 there w^ere few articles that could he maile in the coun- 
 try at any cost hut that a high impost was laid on the 
 similar foreign articles, which Avould have undersohl 
 them in the same market. 
 
 The ohject of this system of imposts was to compel the 
 agriculturists, and more especially those in the South, to 
 huv from Northern manufacturers, hy discourau"in<x, and 
 even preventing the importati(;n of foreign goods. And 
 it was in a great measure successful, hut is no longer 
 profitahle. Jt huilt up a vast manufacturing interest in 
 the Nortli, not one-fourth of which would have tome 
 into existence in the face of foieign competition, and 
 wliich now even protection fails to make prosperous. It 
 
 I-- 
 
UNMASK KI). 
 
 :m\ 
 
 (Iruint'il tlie South of its wealth in two ways: It coin- 
 jK'lIod tlie Southt'iJi iiian to pay far juore for every inan- 
 iifactured article than the natural price in the cheaper 
 and hutter market; and it lowered the price of Southern 
 produce by inipairini^ the forei^nier's means of ]tayin;^ 
 for it. It can he shown tliat when the duties on foroi'm 
 jL^oofls were raised, the price of Soutliern produce fell, 
 and that when these duties were lowered the price of 
 Soutliern produce rose. Tlie Southern man was placed 
 in tins dilemma: If he su}>plied his ^^ants hy huyin;^' 
 
 i 
 
 oreiLin <foo( 
 
 Is. tl 
 
 le 
 
 price 
 
 was rais( 
 
 d 1 
 
 )V an ex or 
 
 hiti 
 
 lilt 
 
 (hity paid to the ^'overnment. If he Ijoui^lit Northern 
 
 )ds li 
 
 d 
 
 th 
 
 I exorbitant price 
 The <j;;overnment by its fiscal legislation aimed at coiu- 
 pellinir tlie South to purchase the products of the North 
 at a hi^di price, and to sell to the North the products ol' 
 its industry at a low price. It made the South tributary 
 to the North. 
 
 Nothing could exceed Yankee greediness to appropri- 
 ate the proceeds of the industry of other people, liut 
 for that clause in the constitution declaring that " No 
 tax or duty shall be laid on acticles exported from any 
 State" the manufacturers would have procured a duty 
 to be laid on all raw cotton exported, in order that tlie 
 crop of the Soutli should not be sold to foieigners until 
 it had gone through the processes of manufacture in the 
 Northern cotton factories. 
 
 lias the reader (iver considered what is tlie origin and 
 true nature of that offence which is called smuggling? 
 Stealing, and robbery, and the destruction of your neigh- 
 bour's proj^erty, and a multitude of other acts, are 
 
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 TllK UNITED STATKS 
 
 criiiR'is in tlicir very nature, and Avere criminal before 
 any liuuian law ni^lertook to pnnisli them. 
 
 jjut there is in nature no sucli otfence as snuiLftilinrj. 
 An important ingredient in your natui'al liberty is the 
 right to cany tlu; proceeds of your industry, or any part 
 of your portable property, to the best market you can 
 find for it; and, when you liave exchanged it for other 
 commodities, you have naturally an e(|ual right to carry 
 your new ac([uisitions home Avith you. They arc as 
 much yours as tluit was, which you gave for them- 
 These are the natural and justifiable acts out of which 
 governments have manufactured the oftence of 
 smuggling. They create the crime by legislation; they 
 provide for its punishment ])y further legislation. 
 
 The United States aft'ords a striking example of these 
 abuses. The people of the NorUiern States, having a 
 majority of the votes in (Jongress, they had, when united 
 among themselves, the control of the government, and 
 sought to use it to their exclusive profit. In raising a 
 leveinie for the government, they, by the ingenious 
 arrangements of their tariti' acts, threw the burden of 
 taxation on the South, In expending that levenue they 
 bestowed a benefit on the North. They lowered the 
 value of Southern produce by impairing tlie foreigner s 
 means of paying for it; and they raised the price of 
 Northern manufactures by shutting out the competition 
 of foreign goods. They used the whole machinery of 
 government as if it had been designed for impoverishing 
 the South and enriching the North. 
 
 This method of i>lundering the South met with eai'ii- 
 est protest and strenuous opposition from that (piarter; 
 
UNMASK K I). 
 
 
 and tlie tarifis for revenue and protection underwent 
 many iiuctuations. Tlie fact is, that there is an essen- 
 tial incouipati))ility between tlie two ol)jects of revenue 
 and protection. Just so far as a duty protects lioine 
 manufactures, it fails to yield any revenue; for it keeps 
 out foreitni i>'oods: and just so far as a dutv vields a 
 revenue from foreign goods imported, it fails to arioid 
 protection to the homo manufacturer. There were many 
 people at the North, to whom the raising of a large 
 revenue by the <rovernment was of vital interest, for 
 they protited by its expenditures. They were opposed 
 to duties so hi<di as to cut otf revenue from the ijfovern- 
 ment, while affording protecticm to the manufacturer, by 
 shutting out the goods of his foreign competitor. The re- 
 presentatives of the Southern States, by combining with 
 this class of plunderers, were more than once enable<l to 
 foil the measures of j;hat worse class of plundi'rers, who 
 advocated j)rotective duties .so high as to shut out 
 forei<{n ifoods. 
 
 On one occasion, about 1840, the government raised so 
 nuich more revenue by its tariff' than it could find imme- 
 diate use for, that it distributed several millions amonir 
 the States, in order to get rid of it — thus bribing them 
 with their own money. They never repeated this error, 
 but invented new ways of expending any sui'plus. The 
 natural remedy, in this anomalous case, would have been 
 to reduce the taxes; for it proved that more money had 
 been taken from the people, or fi'om some of them, than 
 was necessary for support of the government. But this 
 did not suit the Northern majoi'itv who iroveined the 
 country and plundered the South. To them taxation 
 
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 3(1 
 
 THE UNITKI) STA'I'KS 
 
 
 l i' 
 'I 
 
 was a Itlcssing. Tlie gi'catcr the revenue raised, the 
 rrioie Avas spent among themselves; for tliey took good 
 care tliat as little as possible of government money 
 should be expended in the South. The North measured 
 the value of the Union b""" the amount of tribute it 
 could draw from the South, in revenue paid to the 
 governnient, and in the profits of the Northern manufac- 
 turers while protected from foreign competition. The 
 South was learning to doubt the value of a Union, that 
 subjected it to such a continual drain on the proceeds of 
 their property and industry, mei'ely in order to fill tlie 
 pockets of their confederates. In 1859 the revenue 
 of the United States exceeded $80,000,000, nineteen 
 twentieths of which was raised by duties on foreign 
 goods ; and far the greater part of this, through the pe- 
 culiar arrangements of the tariif, was paid by the South ; 
 which also paid much more than $(S(),000,000 in excess 
 of tlie natural price, on the goods bought from Northern 
 manufacturers, who were protected from foreign rivalry, 
 Northern industry and enterprise were made profitable 
 by draining off the profits of the industry and enteriDrise 
 of the South. 
 
 The North throve. Of S80,000,000 of yearly govern- 
 ment revenue raised chiefly on the South, four fifths was 
 expended in the North. Of more than $80,000,000 per- 
 haps double that amount, of artificially contrived yearly 
 profits to protecte<l Northern manufacturers, the whole 
 was expended in the North. From the cheapened price 
 of Southern produce, artificially lowered by the protec- 
 tive taritt* which obstructed foreign tiade, a saving of 
 S()0,000,000, perhaps $80,000,000, accrued to the North. 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 37 
 
 I 
 
 X\i unknown amount, certainly i?2,000,000,000, borrowed 
 in Europe, to be invested in American rail-roads, canals, 
 manufacturing and mining corporations, city improve- 
 ments, an<l a tliousand other enterprises, Howed in a few 
 yeai*s into the country, and almost exclusively into the 
 Xorthem States. What country will not thiive, or seem 
 to thrive, as long as several hundred millions of dollars 
 more than its people earn, are annually ] oured into its 
 lap? More especially if it can, after a time, stop paying 
 even the interest of a great part of its borrowings ? 
 
 The object of the 'American System for the protection 
 uf industry' was simply to make the people of the 
 Southern States, as far as possible, the tax payei-s, those 
 •.>f the Northern States the receivers and enjoy ers of the 
 proceeds of taxation. This system of taxation was intro- 
 duce«l early and gradually, under many cunning pleas 
 and devices, at a time when the true principles of politi- 
 cal economy were little understood even by the best 
 informed men of the country. But it wo.-, firmly estab- 
 lished and openly avowed as soon as the pet)ple of the 
 Northern States, by their numerical superiority, had 
 acquired the control of the government created by the 
 'States for the maintenance of the rights of all the States 
 on a footing of jwrfect equality. For foitv years pre- 
 vious to the war of Scces,si(m the aim and the effect of 
 the policy of this common federal government, under 
 the control of the North majorit}', was to convert the 
 Southern States into tributary provinces. 
 
 Of coui"se this policy was bitterly denounced and 
 stienuously opposed by the representatives in Congress 
 from the South, and V)y the governments of most of the 
 
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 38 
 
 THE UiVlTKl) STATKS 
 
 Southern States. Persistence in it seemed at times to 
 threaten the continuance of the Union. But wlien 
 the indignation in the South rose to a <langerous point, 
 the politicians of the North combining with some from 
 the South, had the art to make some temporaiy C(jmpro- 
 mise, such as a reduction an<l modification of the tariff*, 
 which allayed the excitement. 
 
 The ti'uth is that indirect taxation and its effects are 
 sucli hidden an<l insidious things, that the}' are not 
 readily traced at a glance. It is impossible to make the 
 great body of the j)eople of any country see and under- 
 stand the ultimate effects of any chain of causes made 
 up of many links. You can swindle and plunder them 
 to any extent, so that you do it indirectly, adroitly, and 
 under plausible excuses'. Only the most intelligent 
 classes of the people in the South could be made to un- 
 derstand fully, how thoroughly and to what extent the*y 
 were robbed by their sworn confederates. 
 
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 (.CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Negro Question. 
 
 Tliere was however anotlur matter than taxation, 
 tariffs, and tlie protection of industry, in nied<Uin*if with 
 wliich tliese Nortliern uienihers of tlie Federal Union 
 could not conceal their hostility to the South, and their 
 utt(M- want of faith in dealini,' with the treaty which 
 hound tlie States to each other, An«l tliis leads us to a 
 topic whicli mii^ht fill many pa<,^es. 
 
 A shallow philosophy prevailed in the last century, 
 and is not (piite exploded in this, winch taught that civil- 
 ization and barbarism, culture and ignorance, made all 
 the difference between peoples; that the characteristics 
 distinguishing different families, tribes, nations, and races 
 of men originated solely in the conditions under which 
 they had lived. They may have so originated ; but in 
 times so remote, and under the influence of causes so 
 powerful, and operating so long, that the effects have 
 moulded the physical and mental constitutions of differ- 
 ent races ; and to us these differences are, practically, 
 permanent. 
 
 He who travels over the earth will find very different 
 races of men distributed over its surface ; and he who 
 travels over the records of the past will find that very 
 different characteristics and careers have distinguished 
 these races from each other. Some have carried their 
 
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 40 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 social and political organization, and their intfllectual 
 attainments to very liigh points, yet always with some 
 marked shades of difference from those who rivalled 
 them. Others have attained only to a lower grade of 
 cultivation. Many races have never originate*! a civil- 
 * M. ', ' of their own, and with difficulty received and re- 
 tained that communicated to, or forced upon them by 
 others. Some have rapidly perished before the civiliza- 
 tion thrust upon them. The natives of some of the 
 ish 'r'^ '. tbe Pacific ocean, and particularly the Maoris 
 of ^e' , 7 'h.iid seem to be of this class. The North 
 American lii-'i-in. unless you include the Mexican, is not 
 likely c .vurvi\ an unmixed race. And there are in- 
 
 dications Isi hj.-t '-^ f r,;' mixed races do not piosper, and 
 in some cases are apt to die out. 
 
 In short the ascertained facts in the history of man- 
 kind indicate, not that Institutions originate races, but 
 that Races originate institutions. 
 
 We know nothing of the origin or causes of these 
 differences of race ; although many persons have lal)Our- 
 ed to trace them out. Some naturalists have gone so 
 far in their speculations as to trace the origin of one 
 class of beings of the hitdiost organization to their de- 
 velopment from othei-s of inferior types. We do not ob- 
 ject to their amusing themselves and other people with 
 these inquiries. But we must deal with facts better es- 
 tablished, and generally admitted to be true. 
 
 We believe that authentic history affords no proofs 
 that any human race or tribe, while continuing to occupy 
 the same country, ever changed those physical and 
 mental characteristics which distinguished them from 
 
proofs 
 )ccupy 
 1 and 
 from 
 
 UNMASKED. 
 
 41 
 
 other races, except so far as they changed their races by 
 mingling their blood with that of strangers to it. Nor is 
 there distinct evidence of such changes occurring even 
 when such a race or tribe changed its country. From 
 change of condition they may deteriorate, improve, or 
 die out; but we have no proof that the characteristic 
 marks, indicating the race from which they sprung, will 
 not cling to them to the last. We have the instance of 
 one race, at least, the Jews, and probably another, the 
 gipsies, to substantiate this supposition ; for both liave 
 kept themselves pretty much apart from mixture with 
 other races ; and we have no instance of an unmixed 
 race to prove to the contrary. 
 
 If we could brinof back to life a dozen Antjlo-Saxon 
 boys seven years of age, drowned or otherwise cut off in 
 health in the days of King Alfred; could we further send 
 them to a school in the most Anglo-Saxon county in 
 England ; if at the en«l of seven years or any longer 
 period Me.ssrs. Darwin, Huxley, and Tyndall were sent 
 to examine them in mind and body, we have no rn'ounds 
 for supposing that this choice committee could distin- 
 guish them among their companions, through any marks 
 of change in the race during the thousand years which 
 separate the births of King Alfred's boys from the others. 
 
 Geological research aftbrds proof of the existence of 
 different human races many thousand years ago. li af- 
 fords proof that some human races have, in particular 
 regions, been supplanted by others. But it affords no 
 indication that one race has been chanijed into another. 
 The supplanted race was partly extirpated, partly 
 driven out of that region, but it was neither a chanued 
 
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 Jut 
 
 
 
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 V--1 
 
 ■if 
 
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 m 
 
 
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 r 
 
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 •ji 
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 42 
 
 THK rXFTKI) STATF>5 
 
 nor a lost typ<5 of hmnanity, for we fin«l its rcpresciit- 
 ativen living elsewhere at this day; and, on i'nrther 
 research, tliat higher type of man, into whieh the sup- 
 planted race Was supposed to havi* fieen improved, is 
 now proved to have been in existence thousands of 
 years l>efore tlie supplanting of the other race. The 
 geologist of the far future, when tlie North American 
 tribes shall have utterlv died out. on findini; the skelettin 
 of the red man in one stratum, and that of the white 
 ni;in in another stratinii overl\'ing the former, will not 
 make the blunder of inferiing that tlie red race had 
 been developed into the Teuton or tlie Celt. 
 
 x\ multitude of facts well known to us show that the 
 marks which di<tinL;uish human races are very «lurable; 
 and no facts known to us indicate that tliey may not l>e, 
 in liistorical experience, permanent. It is particularly 
 • lithcult to exclude, in such inquiiies, the effects ol" mix- 
 ture of Idood : but some facts indicate? that the offspring 
 from two verv different races of men tend stvonglv to <lie 
 out, from nn^ral as well as physical cau.ses. 
 
 It would seem Uy us, were we to hazard an opinion on 
 the matter, that it wouhl \w better that each country 
 shouM be occupied by people of one race, to the exclu- 
 sion of others, and that this race should V»e the one best 
 suited to the climate. Wherever a countiy is peopled 
 by one of the higher races, we would suppose it highly 
 injurious, and ultimately deteriorating to them, to intro- 
 duce an inferior race among them. But the existence of 
 different races in the same country occurs so oft^n, that 
 this would almost seem to be the order of nature. After 
 

 rNMASKKl). 
 
 4n 
 
 these prt'liininary remarks wv will cuter more eloselv on 
 the subject on lumd. 
 
 ' Tlie para<lise of veg;etation. a ricli soil with a liot cli- 
 mate, is tlie grave of human life.' It is certainly so to 
 the (.'aucasian race. Whenever detachments of this race 
 have penetrated into tropical, or even sul)-tro})ical re- 
 gions, as they often do, they have found themselves in 
 climates unfavourable to their health, and to the full 
 exercise of their native energies. Nowhere in the old or 
 new world, nearer to tl e Equator than latitude 'i."), can 
 any considerable population of the Caucasian race be 
 found, which can undergo field work and other oiit of 
 door labours, equal to those of the peasantry in Enghmd. 
 France, and Germany. Under such habitual exertions 
 and exposure they wouhl die out in a generation or two. 
 Jf there are any exceptions to this, which we doubt, they 
 will be found in mountain reuions, where hiiili elevation 
 counteracts low latitude, and on a poor soil, yieMing 
 little produce, and no malaiia from sununer heats. But 
 the (Caucasian, venturing into oi- near the tropics, has 
 generally found himself surrounded by a })oi)ulation of a 
 <litt*erent race from himself, with a physical constitution 
 far better adapted to the climate in which the two races 
 now meet. Yet under this disadvantage, he has seldom 
 failed so to use his superiority in intellect, knowledge, 
 and warlike (pialities, as not to avail himself of the har- 
 dihood and industry of the inferior races around him, 
 establishing in his new country a polity, of which he 
 made himself the head. If the subordinate population 
 was of a race given to provident industry, they became 
 •subjects merely ; but if constitutionally given to listless 
 
 
 "f 
 
 
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 ^ti 
 
\. 
 
 ■h-r 
 
 
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 44 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 
 
 I. 
 
 ht 
 
 
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 ■ I::: 
 
 Pi. • 
 
 and improvident indolence, he made them liis slavo.s, 
 and supplied their want of provident and energetic will 
 from his own stock of both of these qualities. 
 
 The Spaniards, a branch of this Caucasian stock, were 
 the earliest European colonists in America. They, too, 
 were the most rapi«l conquerors there. The gold they 
 found in the hands of the natives of San Domingo and 
 Mexico excited their cupidity to the highest pitch. 
 Their greed after the precious metals soon exhausted 
 the su])ply which could be wrested from the con([uered 
 people. Then mining for that yet in the bowels of the 
 earth became the most engrossing pursuit of the colo- 
 nists. Tliia demanded irksome and exhausting labour, 
 fatal to the w^hites in this climate ; and that labour was 
 exacted from the natives, many of whom the conquerors 
 made their slaves. 
 
 The effects of this change in their condition was soon 
 seen in the island of San Domingo. The natives there 
 were a delicate people, and Las Casas, the noted Spanish 
 priest, was shocked on witnessing thedr sufferings. He 
 saw that they were dying out under the toils and priva- 
 tions imposed upon them by their conquerors who, turn- 
 inor miners and gold hunters, became the hardest of task- 
 masters. In fact no representative of this conquered 
 people has been living wuthin two centuries. Las Casas, 
 a man of rank and influence, returning to Spain, made 
 strenuous eflbrts at court for the relief of the Indians 
 from the slavery and toils which were exterminating 
 the race. The better to effect this^ he urged that negroes 
 should be sent out to relieve the Indians from the labours 
 HO fatal to them. Other priests in New Spain urged the 
 
 ir 
 
UNMASK KD. 
 
 45 
 
 same ineasuiT. Hut J^as Casas is sai<l to liavi' rc'«,Mt'tte(J, 
 lator in life, tlie j)art he took in tliis matter. 
 
 Modern philanthropists ridieule as well as den :)UiieL' 
 the blundering zeal of Las (.Visas in the eause of human- 
 ity. It could devise no better mode of relievini^ one op- 
 pressed race than the transfer of their burden to the 
 shoulders of another. But the views and conduct of this 
 ►Spanish priest were not quite so absurd as they imaj^dne 
 them to be. He looke I U})on it not so much as an en- 
 slaving of the neirro, as a chanfjinj; (;f his master. He 
 may well have learned from the Portuguese settlements 
 on the coast of Africa, that the greater part of the ne- 
 groes were, perhaps always had been, slaves to men of 
 their own colour. He certainly knew that many of them 
 wei'e slaves among the Moors on the coast just opposite 
 to Spain. He even had opportuniti(!s of making himself 
 familiar with negroes and negro slaverv in the South of 
 Spain and Portugal. Both the race and their condition 
 were open to oljsei'vation. He saw the negro usually 
 cheerful, often noisily so, seemingly content in servitude 
 if not unusually harsh and exacting; readily admitting 
 the white man's superiority, and by no means broken 
 down by the condition in which he and most of his race 
 were born, lived, and died; and Las Casas may naturally 
 have contrasted the different effects of servitude on the 
 negro and on the Indian of San Domingo. But he lived 
 long enough to see that the labour of the negro would 
 fad to preserve the indian race. 
 
 The Spaniards introduced negro slaves into all their 
 American co onies, in w^hich they could make them use- 
 ful. The Portuguese followed, if indeed they had not 
 £ 
 
 .•<L ' 
 
 \"/» 
 
 ^.«^..l: 
 
 
 w 
 
w 
 
 
 46 
 
 THE UNITED STATKS 
 
 'ft 
 
 1 .'I; 
 
 sot this oxamplo in Brazil and elsewhere. A century or 
 so later the Englisli had founded colonies in Anieriea, 
 and entere<l zealously into the African slave trade under 
 the special license and patronage of the government. 
 Negro slaves were brought into and held in all tlie 
 lish colonies on the Atlantic coast, and this continued 
 long after these colonies became states. 
 
 The African slave ti'ade became a source of so much 
 protit to the English merchants and shi[)-o\vners, that 
 when so;r.e of the colonies Avished to limit it, on account 
 of the su[)po.sed danger in introducing such a crowd of 
 savages into new settlements, with another and hostile 
 i-ace of savages close on tlieir l)orders, the government in 
 Enuland overruled the objections of the colonial author- 
 ities, and kept the ports freely open to the importa " »n. 
 This trade was a source of great protit to some Ei h 
 cities, as Bristol and others. The commercial growth of 
 Liverpo(jl, we have heard, originated with it; and Glascow 
 shared in its gains. 
 
 But it was nowhere more zealously, profitably and 
 longer followed up than by the merchanis and ship- 
 owners of the New England ports. Even puritan di- 
 vines in New England, among them the famous Jon- 
 athan Edwards, are said to have embarked their money 
 in this trade. And Avhen at length in accordance with 
 an article, agreed upon by the States, and inserted in 
 the Constitution of the United States, the ports were 
 abouu to be closed to the African slave trade in 1808, 
 a great temporary impulse was given to the importa- 
 tion of negroes. Virginia had already closed her ports 
 to this trade. We ca:i only quote the following pub- 
 
 '■i>. 
 
V 
 >■)' 
 
 tlNMASKi:!). 
 
 47 
 
 lisliod stat ment from incniorv. Clarli stoii, Sontli 
 Carolina, bein^' the most c invenient jiort tlir()Ui;li wliich 
 could ])c supplied the L;re it dom md for negroes in 
 the newly settled ti nitories in tlu^ South-west; out of 
 more than two hundn-d slave-shii's that entered that port 
 in lS0G-7,far the great r numher, prohihly three-fourths, 
 hailed from Newport, Boston, Salem, and other New 
 England towns. 
 
 Negro slaves imported from Atiica, an 1 their ofi'spring 
 horn i;i America, c <ntinued to be soM, bought and htdd 
 in almost ever}- State that had l)eenone of those colonies. 
 But climate and th » phy ical (onstitution oF the negi-o 
 were yet to settle h's destination and hah'ih'f, when thus 
 t a sferred from Africa to anoth r i ontinent. 
 
 The Spaniards in their greedy search after gold tried 
 and failed to make useful slaves of the nativ'es of San 
 Dondngo. The Puritms of N'w England, besides import- 
 ing negroes from Afi'ica, added to their chattels by kid- 
 napping young Indians, and making slaves of them. 
 But ! hey found them not easily trained to 1 ibour, and 
 hard to keep, being much given to running away. We 
 have seen somewhere this doggerel dating, it is likely> 
 from tho:;e times:— 
 
 John IJrowii liaJ two little iudian boys. 
 One rfin away, and the other would not stay, 
 So John Brown lost his little Indian hoys. 
 
 But these speculations in young Indians usually en<led 
 more successfully in their being shipped to the West 
 Indies, to be made useful slaves of there, if that could 
 be done. 
 
 There are marked differences of character, and points 
 
 %■ 
 
 ■>rr'' 
 
 ■ \ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 .,'1»l 
 
 ^1 
 
-Mill' 
 
 m 
 Jill 
 
 m 
 
 V 
 
 Hi 
 
 
 
 '4. 
 
 fill lit! 
 
 „, r' '•"I i' 
 
 pi 
 
 I I" 
 
 <'H 
 
 48 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 m 
 
 of contrast bc!twe(3n the North American Indian and the 
 negro race. The indian, grave, somewhat silent, undemon- 
 strative in manner, and reserved in temper, shuns pro- 
 miscuous intercourse, is prone to a wild and free life; he 
 does not readily acknowledge another's superiority, and 
 pi;:ed and died out when reluced to servitude. 
 
 The noisy, chattering negro loves the excitement of 
 a crowd, is readily domesticated, if not easily civilized, 
 and thri es cand multiplies in subonlination to other and 
 higher races. 
 
 Tiie history of the negro in and oat of Africa leads to 
 these CO iclusions: — There never has originated among 
 an unmixed negro iH)pulation any condition of society 
 that approximated to civilization. 
 
 When civilization has been inti'oduced among them, it 
 is purely imitative, and they have not been able to retain 
 it when left to them el ve^. 
 
 Although the negro r.ice have shown a strong ten- 
 dency to gather around centres of population, there 
 never has existed a negro polity that rose above the 
 orjan'zation of a barbarous tribe. 
 
 No example can be f')und of a community of free 
 negro s exercising the ordinary providence and industry 
 common to most other races. 
 
 In the communities in Central Africa, which have 
 progressed so far as to maintain themselves by tilling 
 the soil, socii'ty is organized on the basis of master and 
 slave. 
 
 The negroes owe their possession of a large part of 
 middle and western Africa solely to the climate, which 
 
^*ri 
 
 UNMASKED. 
 
 49 
 
 is generally and sp3eli!y fatal to people of most other 
 lac "S. 
 
 However much the negro may he changed and im- 
 proved in the Cv)iirse ( f some generations hy b.-ing trans- 
 ferred to another climate iind a, civilized (omnmnity, he 
 remains as obviously a negro in mind and body as his 
 ancestors were. 
 
 Free negroes living remote from the tropics die out 
 in a few gen rations. Negro slaves similarly situated 
 did not die out so fast. 
 
 To these reaiarks we will add that wherever the 
 climate is su h that the white man can perform all 
 necessary out-of-door labours without sacrificing his 
 health, thenegio rapilly and completely lo-es his value 
 as a labourer, as the country fills up with a new and 
 industrious population of a superior race. The va!ue of 
 thi' negro's labour, which it needs close superintendence 
 to get, falls from day to day, until it wiil not pay for 
 his maintenance. This was the result that put an rud to 
 negro slavery in the Northern States. Yankee traders 
 and ship owners were as busy as ever buying slaves on 
 the coast of Africa, and selling them in Southern and 
 West Indian ports. But there was another branch of 
 tlie same trade. Negro slaves being found to be a source 
 of little profit in the Nortli, the younger and more .sale- 
 able of those born and bred there were gradually sent 
 oft' to the South. It was not until they had gotten rid 
 of most of the marivetable part of this peculiar merchan- 
 dise, that the ];eople of the Northern States, one after 
 another, abolished slavery. Then they washed their 
 hands and purged their consi'iences of all participation 
 
 
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 »*J 
 
 m ' 
 
 i^i 
 
■• I 
 
 *v,\im 
 
 
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 ■spill nil 
 
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 It •« 
 
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 ll 
 
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 :i:i,iii. 
 
 
 
 
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 it 
 
 Mi! 
 
 m 
 
 50 
 
 THE tTNlTED STATES 
 
 in what tlioy now called an outrai^o aijainst the inalien' 
 able rin'lits of man. 
 
 But in the States lying further South the descendants 
 of the British colonists who had settled there found 
 themselves in a very different position from their Nortli- 
 ern confederates. 
 
 Theii" countrj^ was suh-tropical, an 1, except in and 
 near the mountains, wherever the soil was fertile, the 
 summer heat cnixendered malaria, noxious to the health, 
 often fatal to the lives of the whites, especially when 
 fatigued with labour, exhausted by fasting, or exposed to 
 tbe dews of night. The more fertile the soil, the more 
 fatal the climate to the whit" man ; while the negro 
 setsme 1 to defy its evil influences, labouring, thriving, 
 and multiplying in localities, where the whites, without 
 care in avoiding exposure, and in the c luice of the jilace 
 where they slept, ran great risk of dying out. Even in 
 the more 1)ari'en and therei'oi'e healthier parts of the 
 country, white labourers in the field, under the oppres" 
 sion of the long and hot summers, cannot work with 
 half the enr-rgy and persistence of the labourer in West-- 
 ern Europe, 
 
 Thus the States that form the Federal IJnioi were 
 divided by geographical position, cliuiate, and pursuits, 
 into two distinct groups, differing in character from 
 each other. Moreover there had been from the first 
 settling of the Ci)untry some marked differences in the 
 character of the colonies. Ts'ew England had been 
 settled chiefly by malcontents againsu th'^ Eugii h gov- 
 erinnent and the Church of England. The same might 
 be said of some other colonies ; but both the English 
 
 !i!i 
 
 ilMt! 
 

 UNMASKED. 
 
 51 
 
 jL,'Overninent and chiircli had many zealous adherents 
 among the colonists in Virginia and tliose south of it. 
 But latterly the iDOst obvious distinction hetwcen the 
 South and the North was the presence in the former of 
 a large, orderly, and fast multiplying population of negro 
 slaves, contrasted with a sparce and rapidly decreasing 
 remnant of emancipated negroes in the latter. Few as 
 these free negroes were, they proved to be a great 
 nuisance, furnishing a monstrous proportion of tlie in- 
 mates of the gaols, poorhouses, hospitals, and hniatic 
 asylums, in the Northern States. The census, with the 
 reports on crime, pauperism, disease, and insanity, ex- 
 hibit these facts in the clearest light. 
 
 Another element was rapidly flowing into the country 
 to widen the ditierence between the Northern and 
 Southern States. Tlie climate of the former, although 
 one of extremes, is onj in which the Avhite man can 
 labour to some advantage, although not as well as in 
 that of the British Islands. Western Europe was over- 
 tiowinir with discontented labourers, and malcontents 
 who were not lab jurers; and multitudes came to America. 
 A large proportion of these new-comers to the land of 
 liberty, where many of them thought them.selves at 
 liberty to do whatever seemed good in their own eyes, 
 were of very undesirable characters. They came with 
 their heads stuffed full of false notions on political, econ- 
 omical, social, and moral questions of every kind, among 
 which was prominent a great contempt for vested rights. 
 
 The (jovernment received this crowd of emigrants with 
 open arms. The}' all, without distinction, at the end of 
 a few years, might become citizens and voters, without 
 
 >';i: 
 
 '•*-:> 
 
 ms 
 
■"H » 
 
 52 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 l^illf- 
 
 *%i*.! 
 
 paying one penny of tax, an 1 take a part in the ruling 
 of a country, of the history, government, laws, and in- 
 stitutions of which most of them knew nothing, and 
 never could know, from utter ignorancj and incapacity 
 to learn. 
 
 But the people of the Northern Stages had powerful 
 motives for encouraging this iiiiniigration. Every man 
 who held land, or had any capital vested in some money- 
 seeking speculation, fe't that this influx of labour and 
 mechanical skill was adding to Ids own wealth, and his 
 hopes of vastly increasing it. Moreover, every addition 
 to the popula ion of the Northern States, by swelling 
 the number of their representatives in t!ie Congress of the 
 United States, added to their control over the Federal 
 government. This was the great object on which the 
 people of the Northern States ha<l set theh* hearts. They 
 gained not only powei- but money by it. 
 
 At the first formation of the Federal Union, not only 
 were the Northern States more in number than the 
 S >uthern, but the people were more numerous. And, 
 rapid as was the increase of populatio i in tlie South, 
 it was more rapid in the North, being continually 
 swollen by the influx of em ig ants from Europe, rivalling 
 in numbers the migrating hordes that overran provinces 
 of the Roman empire. We have few means of reference 
 at hand, but in sjme years, as in lSo4f, this immigiation 
 amounted to nearly half a mi lion. 
 
 At the sauie time the prosperity of the No th was 
 stimulated by the influx of a vast amount of capital 
 borrowed in En^fland and elsewhere. Is it destined to 
 be repaid ? Caveat creditor. Both labour and capital 
 

 UNMASKED. 
 
 53 
 
 sought in the New World the latitudes, climate, and 
 investments, most similar t ) those of the country from 
 which it had come. Of the foreiimers livincr in the 
 United States in 1^550, two millions were in the North, 
 and not one quarter of a million in the South. The tide 
 of emigration had not yet reached its height, and this 
 (lisj)roportion afterwards increased. The North thus ac- 
 ([uired an almost unlimited command of capital and 
 labour, including in the latter skilled mechanics and men 
 of hiijh scientitic attainments. All its Lrreat w<jrks of 
 internal improvements are chiefly the result of borrowed 
 foreign capital, Irish and German labour, and mechanical 
 skill from England, Scotland, and the North of Europe. 
 
 This was the prosperous condition of the Northern 
 States in 18G0. What was then the condition of the 
 Southern States ? 
 
 Before we enter into that inquiry we will observe 
 that there never was any great cordiality between 
 the two parts of the Union. But the road to prosperity 
 which lay open before them, kept them too profitably 
 busy to afford time for deadly quarrels between them ; 
 and they occasionally experienced pressure enough, 
 from foreign enemies, to keep them together. 
 
 \ - 
 
 
 ^1 
 
 
 J- 
 
 '•V 
 
 
 3a> 
 
 P 
 
 
 

 ::M^ 
 
 mn 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Southern States. 
 
 It is impossible to explain the present condition of tht* 
 United States, without giving a sketch of the progresM 
 of the Southern States down to 1860. 
 
 If we were to represent them as pictured at and for 
 some time previous to that date, by very many of the 
 Northern people, and by the leading journals published in 
 the Northern cities, from which journals the world at large 
 chiefly derived its notions of the slave-holding states of the 
 Union, the Whole South would seem to have been one 
 pandemonium. Never were any people so elaborately 
 vituperated and denounced as they were by an annually 
 swelling crowd of their Northern confederates. It is 
 true that there were at the North numbers who set their 
 faces against this hostility in words and in acts against 
 the people of the Southern States. But being gradually 
 over-ridden by popular clamour and violence; they lost 
 influence day by day, and finally shrunk into a small 
 minority who were, and still are, compelled to keep 
 their convictions to themselves. During the war that 
 followed, free speech, censuring the course of the govern- 
 ment, was answered by mob-law, or by locking up the 
 speaker in Fort LaFayette, or some other Bastile. 
 
 For years the mildest expression of Northern opinion 
 had taught that the people of the Southern States were 
 indolent, unenterprising, and averse to steady labour of 
 
 H! 
 
THE UNITE l> STATES UNMASKED. 
 
 OO 
 
 any kind; the only energy they showe.l was in driving 
 their slaves. The self-sufficient New Englander had 
 long harped upon this theme, while offering himself as 
 an example for imitation in the opposite qualities. 
 According to him the North under New England's 
 guidance and inspiration, had done everything, and the 
 South nothing, to develop the resources of the country. 
 He laid it down as an infallible dogma, that negro 
 slavery in the South had deteriorated the character and 
 habits of the people, was an obstacle to the progress of 
 population and civilization, and the improvement of the 
 country; that all slive labour was unskillful, slovenly, 
 and superficial, obstructing the use of machinery and 
 improved methods of culture, and making labour dis- 
 creditable in the white man. It stamped inc(jmpleteness 
 and inefficiency on all that was done or attempted. The 
 New Englander had preached this doctrine so confident- 
 ly and zealously as not only to convince himself, but 
 some people even in the South almost began to believe 
 it. Yet the true history of the Southern States flatly 
 contradicted these assertions. 
 
 A little more than two centuries before 18G0, the 
 whole teriitory of the Southern States, except the neigh- 
 borhood of Jamestown in Virginia, of the Spanish forts 
 of St Augustine and Pensacola, and two French posts on 
 the Mississippi, was a wilderness, the hunting ground of 
 the red man. Another century wrought but very par- 
 tial changes in this Viist region, although several 
 European colonies were then flourishing on the coast. 
 
 What progress had the South made in the next 
 
 '>,^ 
 
 "r^ 
 ^K 
 
 :\^. 
 
 
 M 
 
 7 .•^•■ 
 
 
 
w 
 
 56 
 
 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 
 
 ■■'r^ 
 
 
 
 
 'it* 
 
 HI'*'' 
 
 mi 
 
 hundred years ? And liow far can the people of the 
 South claim that progress as their own work? 
 
 More than a century ago the tide of European immigm- 
 tion into North America had been much diverted from 
 the Southern State >. The climate deterred lal>ourinii; 
 men from going thither; and the few Europeans and 
 Northern men who settled there seldom brought families 
 with them, A great majority of the p**ople of the South 
 sprang from ancestoi-s who had S'ittltfd in some of the 
 Southern colonies several ifcnerations back. 
 
 As to the oft asserted deterioration of the white pop- 
 ulation of the Southern States, and that this dfteriora- 
 tion was partially counter-acted by the influx of new- 
 comers from Europe and the North, a multitude of 
 statistical and historical facts utterly disprove these as- 
 sertions. We will briefly refer to the statistics: — 
 
 It appears from the U. S. census of 1850, that nearly 
 nine- tenths of the foreign born population in the coun- 
 try were found in the Northern States, and little more 
 than one-tenth in the Southem States. 
 
 It appears from the same census, that while only one 
 hundred and ninety five thousand (195,000) persons, 
 born in the Northern States, were livin;.' in the South — 
 four hundred and eighty five thousand !'485,000) nat ves 
 of the Southern States were then living in the North. 
 Eighty five thousand Virginians were found in Ohio 
 alone. Fifty-one thousand in Indiana. Sixty-eight 
 thousand Kentuckians in Indiana. Fifty-nine thousand 
 ii. Illinois. Fifty-eight thousand North Carolinians in 
 Ohio. Thirty thousand in Indiana. Thirt3''-two thou- 
 sand Tennes£2ans in Illinois — ikc. We need not lengthen 
 

 UNMASKED. 
 
 57 
 
 out tVls statement. The Soutlierners who liad settled 
 in tlie North were twice and a half more numerous than 
 the Northern men who had settled in the South. 
 
 Isilto be supposed that these Southern men w^ould have 
 gone and settled themselves in the Northern states, if, 
 from inferiority in ability and industry, they found 
 themselves less capable of making a living and pushing 
 their fortunes than the people they went amcmg? Far 
 the greater part of these etnigrants from the South were 
 labouring farmers, and their object was to find a climate 
 in w'hich field work and out of door labour is not so in- 
 jurious to the w^hite man as in that which thev had left 
 behind them. It is prove<l, by successive returns of the 
 census — that the w^hite population of the Southern States 
 was multiplying rapidl}^ although the emigration much 
 exceeded the immigration both from Europe and the 
 Northern States. 
 
 As to the asserted deterioration of the people of the 
 Southern States, notorious historical facts prove its 
 falsehood. Although the whites in the South were much 
 fewer that those in the North, in fact not half as numer- 
 ous, yet the people of the United States selected most of 
 their Presidents from the South — down to 1800. The 
 Chief Justices of the Suprome Court of the United 
 States, with, we believe, only one exception, were born 
 and died in slave-holding states. The two men pre-em- 
 inently distinguished in the annals of Congress by their 
 parliamentary abilities, w^ere Henry Clay, a leader who 
 seemed to take possession of men's hearts and heads — 
 and John C. Calhoun, the logical statesman, who best ex- 
 pounded the principle and duties of the government — 
 
 \¥ 
 
 
 
 
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 >s*';-' 
 
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58 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 
 
 
 m^ 
 
 .• y 
 
 ♦ . . - ■ 
 
 
 both were bom in, and represented slave holding states. 
 So with the soldiers who have a name in history — Wash- 
 ington and Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Joseph E. John- 
 ston, whose campaigns were master pieces of Fabian 
 strategy. To these we may add the names of that coarse, 
 strong willed man, Andrew Jackson, who ruled all that 
 came in contact with him, and General Scott, and Z. 
 Taylor, so successful in the war against Mexico, All 
 these were born and bred in the South. No equivalent 
 to this array of worthies sprang from the Northern 
 States. 
 
 But some Yankee panegyrist may say that General 
 Grant's services alone far surpass the achievements of all 
 the soldiers we have named. And this tempts us to say 
 a few words in explanation of General Grant's military 
 career. 
 
 We know little of the earlier part of that career. He 
 was educated at West Point, and held a commission in 
 the army for several years, but had to leave it for causes, 
 of which intemperance was the chief. He was after- 
 wards engaged in some manufacturing or commercial en- 
 terprises, but failed in them. 18C0 found him a broken 
 man, of dissipated habits and desperate fortunes. ■ But 
 he was known to be a man of great resolution. It has 
 been said that he oft'ered his services to the Confederates ; 
 but this may be false. The same thing has been assert- 
 ed as to another noted Northern General of better char- 
 acter than Grant. He was, we believe, first employed 
 by the U. S. government in crushing a movement of the 
 secessionists near St. Louis in Missouri, where they were 
 greatly in the minority — and afterwards attracted atten- 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 59 
 
 
 He 
 
 tion by his success in subordinate positions. But his 
 good fortune sprang from a peculiar conjunction of 
 events. The Northern government and j'eople began 
 their efforts to put down the 'rebellion' as they called it, 
 with inadequate forces. Every time they made a failure, 
 they changed their general, and greatly increased their 
 levies. Luckily for Grant it was not until a number of 
 commanders in chief had been shelved — and the insufti- 
 ent strength of successive armies had been acknowledged, 
 that the government put forth all its remaining strength 
 and credit, raised an army of a million of men, more 
 than half of whom were foreigners — and put Grant in 
 command. He certainly succeeded at last in performing 
 the task entrusted to him. Butwedonot justnowremem- 
 ber, in all history, any successful general who had so many 
 of his men slaughtered by an enemy greatly inferior in 
 numbers. But he had been furnished with plenty of 
 men and plenty of ammunition, and seems to have valued 
 the one about as much as the other. We are not well 
 informed as to the details of his campaigns. But we 
 know of no one instance in which he displayed stategetic 
 ability of a high order — and would be surprised if SLuy 
 military critic could point it out. Wielding an over- 
 whelming force against enemies very inferior in num- 
 bers, he showed the most dogged resolution, and dis- 
 regard for the lives of his men; and failure at one point 
 only stimulated him to try his luck at another. This 
 explains his more than semi-circular campaign around 
 Richmond in 18C4 — 5. One feature in General Grant's 
 success has been little commented on, for the steps that 
 led to it are wrapped in obscurity. It is known that he 
 
 
 ■*: ., -^ 
 
 ,.«P 
 
 

 (10 
 
 THK ITNITKI) STATKS 
 
 1 §*«'M 
 
 U;} 
 
 Mil! 
 
 went into tho war (Icsperatc.ly poor, but seem.s to have 
 come out very rich. But the process lias never been ex- 
 plained by which he accjuired his wealth. 
 
 We do not ni< .m to attribute any unusual purity of 
 morals, or elevation of sentiment, to the average South- 
 ern man. He had little claim to it. But there was 
 something in the polit cal and social orf^^anization of the 
 Southern States, especially the older States, that enal)l(;d 
 men who were not mere cunning and unscrupulous poli- 
 ticians, but men of high character and social position, to 
 take p linent places in public life. It was evident that 
 the leading men of the South long exercised a wholesome, 
 elevating, and conservative influence, both politically 
 and socially, over the whole Union. The acknowledge- 
 ment of this was not unusual in the North, and some- 
 times came from very curious ([uartei'S. 
 
 No man matle himself more conspicuous by incessant 
 and unmeasured abuse of the South than Horace Gree- 
 ley, the editor of the New York Tribune. It was meat^ 
 and drink to him, literally and metaphorically. It 
 supported his paper, and that supported him. One of 
 his bitterest complaints against the South, and many 
 others echoed it, was that Southern men dominated both 
 socially and politically over their Northern associates. 
 The same a<imission was freely and fully made by Elihu 
 Burrett, 'the learned blacksmith,' a widely known ^' 
 England author, a man of greater attainv «<« 
 Greeley, but like him, of no large mental ore. 
 
 The truth was that in the South, constat icncies of 
 white men, with a negro population politically ber ath 
 them, were less influenced by the motives and impulses. 
 
 $' 
 
UNMASK KI). 
 
 Gl 
 
 which, in elections, control the luoh of voters in the 
 Northern States. And, whatever may have heen the 
 ol)jects which led a Southern man into jmhlic lif<', 
 politics was seldom adopted as a profession, or trade, by 
 which he hoped to make his fortune. Pecuniary em- 
 i»arrassnient was there the usual result of political am- 
 i)ition. Wliat perhaps most intiuenced the selection and 
 fornuMl the characters of the public men of the South 
 was the position they long occupied as the defenders of 
 law, vested rights, and constitutional limitations, and 
 as the opposers of extiavagance and corruption in gov- 
 ernment, and of the attacks of a radical and usurping 
 democracy. 
 
 Having >uid so much of the whites, the real people of 
 the South, we will now speak of the negroes there. Far 
 the greater part of tlie negroes were the descendants 
 of Africans brought into the country before the revolu- 
 tion of 1770. It was not late in the history of the 
 Southern colonies when the slave population increased 
 more by births than by importation. 
 
 In this respect the English continental colonies differed 
 from the colonies in the West Indies, whether English, 
 French, or Spanish. In these latter, for reasons un- 
 known to us, possibly from the cost of maintaining the 
 families of the negroes, only adult male slaves were 
 much in demand. Cargoes of Africans consisted chiefly 
 of men, as those of Coolies at the present day. But, 
 among the negroes brought into the English continental 
 colonies, there were almost as many women as men. 
 Indeed, we have been told that it was not uncommon 
 foi he slaver, after selling off most of the adult males 
 G 
 
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 in the West Indies, to bring the remainder left on his 
 hands, chiefly women and children, to some port on the 
 continent. Thus the negroes, on a plantation or estate 
 in the West Indies, resembled a regiment in this respect, 
 that the ranks were kept full by the introduction of 
 recruits. But the importation of negroes into the con- 
 tinental colonies was like bringing in a body of peasant- 
 ly for the permanent settlement of the country. The 
 result Avas that, although far fewer Africans were brought 
 to the English part of the continent ihan to any 
 one of the larger West Indian islands, yet their descend- 
 ants are twice as numerous as all the negroes in the 
 West Indies. 
 
 We have access to very few sources of early statistics, 
 and the census of the United States dates only from 
 1790. But it appears from the census that the rate of 
 increase of the negroes was little higher during the last 
 eighteen years of the slave trade, than after the ports 
 were closed against it. From this we infer that no great 
 number of Africans were brought into the country be- 
 tween 1790 and 1808, when the trade ceased. It is 
 probable that the whole number of Africans brought 
 to the English part of the continent from the opening of 
 the slave trade to the close of it, fell short of three hun- 
 dred thousauvl ; yet their ofi'spring in 18G0, were more 
 than four million four hundred thousand. 
 
 We would not infer from the mere increase of popu- 
 lation, the absolute well being of a people. A well 
 known modern instance would contradict that assump- 
 tion. But this nipid increase of the negroes in the 
 Southern States is a remarkable fact, and indicates very 
 
 ii«i' 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 63 
 
 strongly that their condition was not unadapted to their 
 nature. It clearly proves that the oft-pictured cruelties 
 of the masters and sufferings of the slaves, even when 
 founded on truth, must have represented exceptional cases. 
 
 After 1808 no Africans were introduced into the 
 country. According to the census of 1810 the number 
 of slaves in the United States was one million, one hun- 
 dred and ninety-one thousand (1,191,000). Fifty years 
 later, in 18G0, they had increased to tliree million nine 
 hundred and fifty-three thousand (3,953,000). If we 
 deduct the immigrants that annually swelled the white 
 population, it will he found the negro slaves multiplied 
 about as fast as the whites, fully 27 or 28 per cent, every 
 ten years ; while, as is well known, the free negroes de- 
 clined in numbers, especially at the North, although k^pt 
 up by additions from the slave population, either as 
 fugitives or set fi'ee by their masters. 
 
 It is a very significant fact that according to the 
 census of 1870, the whole number of coloured people in 
 the United States fell short, by half a million, of the 
 number they should have reached, had the negroes con- 
 tinued to increase from 18G0 to 1870 at the lowest rate 
 recorded in any previous period of ten years. — Did the 
 negroes continue to multiply, as usual, from 18G0 until 
 their emancipation in 18G5, and then their increase 
 abruptly cease ? That supposition would exactly ex- 
 plain the returns to the census of 1870. Perhaps it is 
 too soon to draw certain inferences as to the increase or 
 decrease of the negro population. But from some facts 
 known to us, among which are 
 
 the greet infant 
 
 mor- 
 
 * ■ * . 
 
 tality, and the disregard of family ties, we are convinced 
 
\i' 
 
 64 
 
 THE UNITED STATKS 
 
 I 
 
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 that the neLjroos are now rapidly decreasing in numbers 
 in the South. 
 
 In 1810 tlie Southern States, besides supplying all the 
 wants of their people in the shape of fo.)d, produced foi- 
 exportation crops to the value of thirty-two millions of 
 dollars. Fifty years later, in 1800, still supplying all 
 the food their people needed, they produced for (exporta- 
 tion crops to the v^ilue of three hundred and thirty 
 millions of dollars; and that under a tariif and fiscal 
 policy which designedly and successfully beat down 
 the price of their produce. If we omit the bordei' 
 Southern States, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, 
 which furnished very little of this produce for exporta- 
 tion, this was the surplus crop of the Southern States, 
 with a population of three million two hundred thousand 
 (J], 200,000) whites, and three million six hundred thou- 
 sand (0,000,000) negioes, after agricultural labour had 
 supplied the necessaries of life to their people. The cot- 
 ton crop made up nearly three-fourths of this amount 
 in value. 
 
 We believe agricultur ;1 histoij affords no instance of 
 so rapid an increase in the amount of any crop, as that 
 of the cotton crop in the Southe n States. They seemed 
 destined to clothe the world, and to do it clieaply. 'J'he 
 ])roduction was increasing at the rate of sixty oi- seven- 
 ty per cent, eveiy ten years ; far faster than either the 
 white or the negro population. If nothing had inter- 
 rupted the progress of this culture, by this tiiue (1878) 
 the cotton crop of tiie Southern States would have 
 risen to eleven or twelve millions of bales, ecpial, at the 
 moderate price of twelve cents per ]>()und to five liun 
 dred and iifty or six hundred millions of d(d!nis. 
 
 p ! 
 

 UN MASK KD. 
 
 G5 
 
 
 Much fault lias Vj -en found with the slovenly faimin«^^ 
 of the South, owing to the euiploynient of slave labour. 
 The truth is that abundance of land and scarcity of 
 labour causes rouf,di but broad cultivation ; while abun- 
 dance of labour and scarcity of land leads to neat and 
 thoroui:rli tillaije. In the South much of that limited 
 breadth of land, peculiar in soil and situation, adapting 
 it to the production of the su<^ar-cane, or rice, or the 
 long-stapled sea-island cotton, exhibited neat, skilful 
 and thorough culture, by slave labour. 
 
 The civilixation, systematic industry, and controlling 
 intelligence of the white race, directing and aided by 
 the ability to labour and the constitutional peculiarities 
 of the negjo, in a country Ltnd climate so capable of 
 valuable productions, had made the Southern States 
 rich, civilize<l, and prosperous communities ; whose an- 
 nually increasing produce took the lead in the commerce 
 of the world, and sustained in peace and plenty two 
 distinct populations, each of which already numbered 
 several millions, and were multiplying with great 
 rapidity. We suppose that it is intended that the im- 
 provable portions of the earth's surface should be brought 
 under cultivation by man ; and we do not know any 
 other combination of human capabilities an<l relations, 
 which could have raised thef-e regions, so peculiar in 
 character and climate, to the condition they had 
 attained to in IHGO. 
 
 We know nothing in the history of the negro race 
 fiom which we can infer that there ever was, or in- 
 dt.'ed, ever will be anywhere, ;i numerous negro popula- 
 tion in as good physical and moral condition, and as fit 
 
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 66 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
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 to form a part, although a subordinate part, of a civilized 
 community, as the four millions of negro slaves in the 
 Southern States in 1860. They had, as a body, attained 
 to a higher degree of culture in morals, habits, and reli- 
 gion, than the race had ever known, and this V)y the 
 imitation of their masters ; for the negi-o is eminently an 
 imitative being. But as soon as the relation of servitude 
 and its habitual intercourse ceased, that tendency to 
 imitate the better lessons to be learned from the whites 
 faded rapidly. For the impressions made upon the 
 negro are of singularly brief duration. From this con- 
 stitutional defect, the negro, perhaps more than any 
 other race, needs a government close to him, and super- 
 intending him. With no more forethought and pro- 
 vidence than children, they need to be controlled and 
 directed like children, and tlie effect of the ^^overnment 
 close to them was seen in the Southern States. Al- 
 though much given to petty delinquencies, no where 
 was there less of serit)us crime than among the four 
 millions of slaves in the South. But now, we believe, 
 few who have seen much of the negroes there within 
 the last ten years, will dei.\y that the bulk of them are 
 receding from civilization. In the declining influence of 
 religion, and often in its utter perversion, in the loss of 
 industry and oi-derly habits, and in their disregard of 
 family ties, the major | art of them are drawing near to 
 Jamaica and Hayti, on t' ur w ay to Guinea and Congo. 
 We do not assume that any considerable portion of 
 the white people in the South had attained to high moral 
 and intellectual culture. We know that with the bulk 
 of the people in any country, and of any race, religion, 
 
V-* 
 
 UNMASK Kl). 
 
 67 
 
 moral culture, and civilization are but skin-deep. Both 
 reason and revelation tell us that. Moreover in a new 
 and almost exclusively agricultural country high intel- 
 lectual and moral culture is not readily disseminated. 
 But there was in the South a cultivated class, perhaps 
 not inferior in essential qualities to the best class in any 
 country, and their number and influence was extending 
 rapidly westward tlirough the South. Indeed we know 
 of no country wnatever, in which real progress and im- 
 provement were making as rapid strides as in these 
 Southern States. 
 
 This assertion must sound strangely in the ears of 
 those who have been taught that 'slave-holding is the 
 sum of all villainies,' and utterly incompatible with 
 the profession of Christianity. 
 
 We ourselves may believe that Christianity tends to 
 abolish slavery. But how does this tendency work? 
 Merely as it tends to raise and perfect humanity. It tends 
 to render needless the servitude of any class of men. 
 Christianity tends also to abolish the poor-house, the 
 gaol, and the gallows — by rendering each of them less 
 needed. But we are sure that all that Christianity will 
 ever effect, on earth, will be to diminish the need for 
 them. 
 
 The very numerous l)ody of professed Christians in 
 the Southern States were quite unaware that there was 
 less of earnestness and sincerity in their faith and prac- 
 tice, than there was among tUeir professing Northern 
 neighbours. Christians in the South, although divided as 
 elsewhere, between several churches and sects, were 
 characterized by a general sobriety in their convictions, 
 
 
 
 
 
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 THK UNITED STATES 
 
 and were less apt to bo led oft* into the many extrava- 
 gant r.sm.s' pervading the North. The profanities and 
 l>estialities of Morinonisni, and other religious monstros- 
 ities, did not originate, and never spread into the South, 
 Although the clergy in the South were intensely zealous 
 for the defense of the rights of the>e States against 
 Northern aggression, yet luar sermons, substituting 
 politics for religion, were not preached by them. 
 They left that to the Northern pulpits. Patriotic 
 songs did not take the place of devotional hymns 
 in Southern churches, as the 'Star spangled banner' 
 and other political rhajDsodies, did in the North. 
 Nor was the altar, with the consecrated bread 
 and wine of the Christian Eucharist, draped in South- 
 ern churches with the Confederate banner, as it was with 
 the United States ftas:, in New York and elsewhere at 
 the North. 
 
 The Christian clergy of the South had the Bible, the 
 word of God ; and, with tlie exce[)tion of the Roniau 
 Catholics, professed to make it the exclusive ground of 
 all their teaching. But they failed to find in it any 
 texts enjoining the emancipation of the negroes. On 
 what ground rests the assertion that Christianity pro- 
 hibits the holding of slaves? Christ, during his stay on 
 earth, his apostles, during their whole lives, lived in 
 slave-holding countries; they were in habitual contact 
 with masters and slaves. Yet they never once came in 
 conflict with slavery. 
 
 Let it not be forgotten that tlie slaves of the Roman, 
 of the Greek, of the Syrian, and the Jew, were people of 
 far higher races than the negro. Christian doctrine has 
 
,v»- 
 
 UNMASKED 
 
 69 
 
 ^•^ 
 
 any 
 
 On 
 
 its mysteries, the meaning of which may be disputed and 
 misunderstood; but its moral teaching is very plain 
 spoken. Yet not only did 'tJiat sin of sins' 'that sum of 
 (ill iniquities' escape censure, but the Christian scrip- 
 tures distinctly inculcate the relative duties of mastei"S 
 and of slaves. Saint Paul in his inculcation of practical 
 Christian morals is full and precise in his teaching-. In 
 his long catalogues of sin-i, and of sinneis, he evidently 
 means to comprehend all the shapes taken ly man's in- 
 iquity. How came he to forget to put .slave-holding 
 and the slave-holder amonfj the sins and the sinners!* 
 So obvious is this omission, this defect in Christian 
 Scriptures, that many of the most uncompro: rising 
 apostles of human, and especially negro free<]om, turned 
 in ilisgust and contempt from the Bible, and appealed to 
 a higher law. 
 
 Many, I should say most Christian men and ministers 
 in the South believed that the negro's religious faith and 
 practice weie far more aided than hindered by his sub- 
 ordinate and even servil-.' condition. And it is very far 
 from being yet proveci that they were in error. 
 
 It is often said that the possession of power over others 
 cultivates selfishness and tyranny in the possessor of that 
 power. It do'ubtless has that tendency. A common 
 application and illu.-^tration of this remark is the con- 
 duct of the masters of slaves. Doubtless they afforded 
 many a case in point. The possession of power over 
 others, in any shape, is apt to generate tyranny. But 
 far from being the only, it is not the usual and natural 
 effect of it. The natural and usual effect of the posses- 
 sion of power over others is to awaken the sense of res- 
 H 
 
 
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 70 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
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 ponsibility on their account. Withoiit this, the rela" 
 tions of the family, of society, and of government could 
 not exist; for they all rest upon it. 
 
 In the case of the employers of labour, especially 
 when that employment is somewhat permanent, as in 
 the case of land-holders, thrown into frequent, often 
 habitual intercourse with those who live on their lands^ 
 every observant man must have seen that the usual 
 effect of this relation is to fjenerate the habit of consid- 
 ering the necessities and interests of those thus connect- 
 ed with, and, to some extent, dependent upon them; and 
 this leads to the habit of acting for their benefit. This 
 relation tends to take a man out of himself, counteract- 
 ing the selfish instincts of our nature, which we oftenest 
 see aggravated into the most unscrupulous selfishness 
 among those who are occupied exclusively in buying and 
 selling, and other pursuits, which bnng men into only 
 casual contact with persons little or not at all known to 
 them. 
 
 As the land holder naturally takes an interest in his 
 tenants and work people, so the Southern planter had a 
 more permanent interest, and frequent intercourse with 
 his negroes; and his relations to them necessarily 
 assumed a somewhat patriarchal character, which coun- 
 teracted that natural and almost universal antipathy 
 springing from difference of race. His thoughts and his 
 care were directed, not merely to the profits derived 
 from their services, but beyond that, to providing for 
 their wants and well being. The interest he felt in them 
 assumed the form of duty, and went beyond that of the 
 employer towards his hired workmen. 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 71 
 
 J rela- 
 t could 
 
 )ecially 
 ,, as in 
 , often 
 r lands, 
 e usual 
 consid- 
 onnect- 
 )m ; and 
 i. This 
 nteract- 
 oftenest 
 fi shness 
 ring and 
 ito only 
 lown to 
 
 t in his 
 had a 
 rse with 
 
 essarily 
 3h coiin- 
 itipathy 
 
 and his 
 
 derived 
 ding for 
 
 in them 
 it of the 
 
 Among the many thousands of masters of slaves in 
 the South, doubtless there must have been not a few 
 shocking instances of tyranny and brutality. We can 
 find plenty of such instances elsewhere. But the phy- 
 sical condition of the negroes, the rapid increase of their 
 numbers, the rareness of the occasions on which they 
 were prosecuted for serious crimes, and their quiet 
 acquiescence in their condition during a four years' war 
 of such a peculiar character — all indicate that law, 
 custom, and the feelings of their masters generally se- 
 cured to them treatment by no means adverse to their 
 welfare. 
 
 The people of the Southern States did not hold them- 
 selves more responsible than the rest of their race for 
 the presence of the African among then:. If their 
 fathers had bought the negroes as slaves, it was the 
 people of England and of the North who had brought 
 them there, and sold them as slaves; and doubtless the 
 proceeds of the price then paid is still to be found in 
 England and the Northern States. 
 
 There were in the South some people, perhaps a good 
 many, who would have preferred that the negroes should 
 never have been brouorht there. The result would have 
 been that, with only white labour to rely on, the larger 
 and especially the more fertile portions of the South 
 would have been a pastoral rather than a farming 
 country; and it would not have made one-fourth the 
 progress in wealth and civilization that it had already 
 made. But the country would have enjoyed the advan- 
 vantage of being free from the j)resence of this inferior 
 race. 
 
 But the negroes were there, and that being the case, 
 
 
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 72 
 
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 nobody in tlie South doubted as to what was theii' 
 proper position. The country, climate, and their con- 
 dition as slaves, had proved so suitable to their nature, 
 that two or three hundred thousand Africans, in a period 
 of much less than a century and a half (takint,' the 
 average time of their arrival) were represented by four 
 million and a half of descendants. To the out of door 
 labours of the negroes was due not merely the crude 
 agricultural productions of the soil, but they furnished 
 the occasion and the means for the less exposed but 
 more skilful labours and occupaMon.'^, in the same 
 country, of a more numerous population of whites. 
 
 The people of the South knew that the welfare, wealth, 
 and civilization of their country, and the preservation 
 of social order in it, rested on tlie servile condition of 
 the negroes. The history of their race proved that to 
 emancipate them w^as to abolish reliable industry 
 among the only race which, in that climate, could effect- 
 ually cultivate the soil ; to enfranchise them as citizens 
 would throw office and power into the hands of the 
 lowest and most unprinc pled demagogues, who would 
 soon get the control of the votes of the mass of ignor- 
 ance and incapacity in the guise of negro citizens ; and 
 then use their official positions thus acquired, for every 
 corrupt and fraudulent purpose. Nobody now can doubt, 
 after the revelations made and being madsj- tliat the 
 numerous body of Northern adventurers and Southern 
 turn-coats, who, encouraued and backed by the Northern 
 government, controlled the votes of the negroes by 
 intrigue and bribery, were simply thieves, endowed 
 with more skill and cunning than the common thief. 
 
 I'! 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 78 
 
 .r 
 
 Tliey aimed at pocketing millions of })lnn{ler, and bein^ 
 backed by the authority and military force of tlie gov- 
 ernment, were remarkabl}' successful, until the country 
 becar.e exhausted of sioiN. 
 
 The people of the Southern States knew that they 
 had a civilization worth preserving, and that it was 
 based upon the existing relations of the white and black 
 races. They knew that no foreigner outside of the 
 jurisdiction of their own State i;overnnients had a rijjht 
 to intei'fere in their internal political and social organi- 
 zation, and least of all the people of the Northern States. 
 For they had induced the Southern States to join in the 
 treaty that formed the Union by allowing to each slave- 
 holding State additional representation in Congress for 
 three-fifths of its slaves ; and also by each State pledg- 
 ing itself to deliver up any fugitive from another State 
 legally held to service there. 
 
 Where two very different races meet in the same 
 country, they are from nature and necessity antagonistic. 
 They do not commingle, or at least very partially, and 
 with no satisfactory results, for the offs])ring is apt to 
 be wanting in the better qualities of both races. The 
 inferior race either dies out, or becomes subject to the 
 other. When the latter result occurs, the further sub- 
 jection of individuals of the one race to individuals of 
 the other tends to mitigate the effects of the antaixonism 
 of races. It provides each one of the subject race with 
 an individual guardian who has the interest, desire, and 
 power to protect him. He is no longer a masterless 
 slave amid a crowd of masters, carini:: nothing for him 
 while tyrannizing over him. We need not go far for 
 
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 74 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
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 examples to prove that when a barbarous race is not 
 enslaved, it is, sooner or later, exterminated. The Yan- 
 kees, lon<( af,'o, gave up the attempt to make slaves of 
 the North American Indians. Since then they have 
 been busy exterminatin*^ them. The English, not so 
 long ago, gave up enslaving the natives ol' middle 
 Africa. Since then they have been dispossessing the 
 pastoral tribes of South Africa of their meagre pastures. 
 For the well tended herds of the Caftres stood in the 
 way of the cattle of the English colonists, and must be 
 driven off. When the Caffres and others resist this 
 confiscation and expatriation they extirpate them. But 
 to compensate them for the loss of their thirsty and 
 sterile lands, the English missionaries strive to lead them 
 to the green pastures and waters of comfort in Paradise. 
 
 We do not believe that any one, who has not lived in 
 a country where a large portion of the population are 
 negroes, has the means of forming a sound opinion 
 on negro slavery. He would be still better able to 
 judge, on knowing them in both servitude and freedom. 
 Until he has this experience it is pure presumption in 
 him to undertake to decide this question. We are con- 
 vinced that the emancipation of the negroes in the 
 Southern States tends rapidly to diminish their numbers 
 and revive their barbarism. And from the nature of the 
 climate, the room left vacant by their shrinking numbers 
 can be but sparsely filled by another race, unless a flood 
 of Chinese migrate thither. 
 
 Yet some thirty years ago the world hailed as gospel 
 truth on negro slavery that world-read book, " Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin." It now turns out that the authoress, 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 75 
 
 whon she wrote it, had never ))een in a slave-lioMin^' 
 State, and had never seen a slave except as a fn<,ntive 
 from servitude. She seemed to suppose that tlie four 
 millions of slaves in the South, unlike all other popula- 
 tions, did not embrace a criminal class. We do not 
 mean to say that all, or half, or a third, of the fugitive 
 slaves, who weitj never numerous, belonged to that class. 
 After the war and the emancipation, the authoress of 
 this book went to Florida and lived there some time ; 
 and, then admitted, that she found the real negroes very 
 different from those she had painted. But we attribute 
 little value to the opinion and testimony of a witness 
 who, after Lady Byron's death, announces to the world 
 that the most reticent woman in all England had told 
 to her, a stranger and a foreigner, a most scandalous 
 secret, which she had most guardedly suppressed during 
 a long life, the truth of which was disbelieved and denied 
 by her legal advisers in matters akin to it, and which 
 was unsuspected by the scandal-seeking world, until the 
 inventive novelist coined it into money by publishing it. 
 The former prosperity and now fallen state of the 
 South concerns us here only so far as it serves to explain 
 the present condition of the whole Union. 
 
 
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 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The QiAise of the Secession of The Soutliern States. 
 
 Governiiieiit- is a C(ms('rvcativ(3 iiistitv.tioii. Tlic pur- 
 pose for which it exists is to preserve, not to revolution- 
 ize, or destroy. We dwell upon this truism — hecause 
 many people seem to have lost sight of the truth in it, 
 
 The Southern States in sec(!ding ficm the Union were 
 resistin<^, not makinLj a revolution. The Northern 
 State;, and the Federal <^^overnment umler tiieir control, 
 under the pretences of preserving- the Union, were 
 making a revolution, destroying one government legally 
 established, and putting in its place a disguised repre- 
 sentation of it, hut which was r.ally a usurping tyranny. 
 
 When the thirteen colonies declared tlu'mselves fre; 
 and indepen<lent States, breaking off* their connection 
 with (Ireat Britain, they did so on the claim that, on the 
 principles of English constitutional liberty, each co ony 
 had the exclusive right to tax itself, and t!ie Ihitish 
 parliame:it, in which they were not represented, had no 
 right to tax them. They ma<le great use of this argu- 
 ment; yet it was, as t]iey used it, of little value as a 
 principle in government, for it expnissed but half the 
 truth in it, suppressing the more valuabli! half, and 
 making it substantially a falsehood. Unless the tax- 
 payers., who furnish the means necessary to the sup})ort 
 <^f government, can say how much is necessary for its 
 support; unless they liave the power to limit taxation, 
 
' 
 
 THK UNITED STATES UNMASKED. 
 
 77 
 
 thoy have no security for tlieir ri^dits. An<l tlu; best 
 s(!Ciirity th iy can have is to liold the power of taxation 
 exclusively in their liands. If tlie pov/er to tax is to lie 
 j)ut into othci' hands than theirs, it is be^.ter that tliis ini- 
 poser of taxes slioiild be one autocr.it than the multitude. 
 The demands ol" the one may be satisfied, those of the 
 Imni^ry, j^reedy multitude can not. Tiie one man im- 
 posing taxes can be controlled, the millions, imposing 
 taxes, cannot be controlled. 
 
 The colonies, on renouncin*^ their allefjiance to the 
 King, })ecaun! republics, but they did n >t create republics. 
 Take fiom the colonial governments, under whicli tliey 
 liad been long living, the; royal prerogatives, and ipso 
 fdcto ^hey weie republics. But they were not democra- 
 cies, xii the iuodern sense of the word. We believe (l»at 
 there was not one of the thirteen states, in which tht; 
 franchise, the right to a voice in legislation, or in the 
 choice Ol d'degates to the legislative assendjly, was not 
 base<l on the possession of freeliold property, or some 
 equivalent stake in the country. And alth<..igh the 
 money valu .• of this necessary (jualification may have 
 been small, still the State government r. -presented and 
 was controlled by those who furnished the means for its 
 support — that is the tax-payers. The administration of 
 a government founded on this basis, may prove inefficient 
 or corrupt; but as long as the ultimate autliority of 
 government rests on this foundation, the control of it is 
 in the hands of the class who are mo ^t able to reform 
 abuses. This accounts for the economy and ht^nesty 
 which for a long time marked the expenditures and the 
 administration of those state governments. 
 
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 THE UNITED STATES 
 
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 But high wages and the low price of land in a new 
 country, especially in the new settlements, wh<'re almost 
 every one became a landholder, and to some small 
 amoimt a tax pay*'r, obscured the permanent importance 
 of this provision as to the f lanchise. The extreme doc- 
 trines as to the equality of men, and the inferences 
 from it, set afloat and disseminated every where by 
 the Frencli Revolution, and especially among the crowd 
 of emigrants from Europe, to whom the Fedei'al govern- 
 ment accor.Jed a spc^edy naturalization; and the eager- 
 ness and perseverance with which demagogues seized 
 and dwelt upon a topic so acceptable to the multitude, 
 exercised so powerful an influence, that in forty or fifty 
 years every restriction on the franchise was swept away 
 in every State, Virginia and Rhode Island being the 
 latest; and the right to vote was conceded to every 
 white man, born or naturalized in the countrv, and 
 twenty-one yeai's of age, who was not a pauper depen- 
 dent upon public charity. The States were now confed- 
 erated democracies. The Government of the United 
 States was fast becoming what it had not been, and 
 what was never intei7ded, one huge democracy. 
 
 Theoretical statesmen had indeed hedged in this wild, 
 ignorant, greedy democracy with certain paper barriers, 
 called Bills of Rights and Constitutions. But the Magna 
 Charta of democracy is expressed in few and simple 
 words: The Sovereign Majority have all rights, and the 
 minority no rights in opposition to its will. 
 
 In a new country, with land abundant and cheap, and 
 labour highly paid, the people prosperous and progres- 
 sive, that portion of the population oppressed by and 
 
ml 
 
 UNMASKED. 
 
 79 
 
 lebcllini' airaiiist the narrowness of their condition, and 
 the natural obstructions to their pr(jgr ss in providing 
 for th. ir own wi;ll-being, will be unusually small. — And 
 in coiisequence ihat class which seeks to live by preying 
 on society will not be numerous. A government of the 
 most j.opular form may sit lightiy on the country, and 
 yet secure a reasonabl.' amount of justice and order. But 
 this cannot last long. 
 
 In the Unite<l States the whole co uitry was becoming 
 year by year more democratic, politically but not socially, 
 especially in the Northerii States. In the South the 
 presence of a negro population in servitude iuodihed the 
 democratic intiuences of the government. But now the 
 
 Ider portio.is of th ; confederacy were fast losing the 
 leculiar advantages of a new country. The papulation, 
 multiplying rapidly, was still further swollen by the 
 great tide of emigrants from Europe ; and in general 
 they were tho;e whom the country could best spare. 
 The growth of 'arge cities and the density of population 
 around the connnercial and manufactuiin<; centres in 
 the Northern States, brought with them all those 
 struggles for employment and subsistence, all those con- 
 trasts of condition between the very rich and very poor, 
 between the luxurious and the destitute, all the discon- 
 tent and heart-burnings, all the corruption and vice of 
 the oldest capitals in Europe; and this in the heart of the 
 most democratic of governments. 
 
 The policy of protection for American industry had 
 artificially built up an inunensc manufacturing system 
 
 with its crowds of operatives dependent on its success. 
 
 The rival policy of raising a great revenue for the gov- 
 
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 TJfE UNITKD STATES 
 
 crninont, to bo oxptrnded among the people of the North- 
 ern States, had reared up another greedy, intriguing, 
 inHatial)le class, who sou<rht a livinir <Hit of irovernnient 
 expenditures. The politieal aims (if ev<'ry one of botli 
 th(;se classes were exclusively direct(;d to advancing his 
 indivi(hial pecunipj-y interest at the cost of others, 
 When tlie e tvv^o classes unit^Ml in pursuit of any o])ject. 
 if they did not make u[) tlie majority of the voters, 
 tlieir influence controlled that sovc.Teign majority in the 
 Northei-n States, and through it ruled tln^ country. 
 
 A strang(;r in tin; country, who had any faith in the 
 theories as to the simplicity, pui'ity, and economy of re- 
 publican government, might well wonder' what occasion 
 the [J. S. gov(3rnment had for a lirg(3 revenue. Its 
 army of 14,000 or 15,000 men (in l.SfiO) would have 
 formed but one strong division in tlu field. AH its ships 
 in commission would form, not a fleet, but a scpiauron. 
 IMie civil list called for ])ut a small number of neces- 
 saiy officials with very moderate salaries, *n the ex(;cu- 
 tive, ju'licial, and diphjmatic service; and it was not 
 ])urdened with the expenses of a regal or evt^n vice-regal 
 court. The interest on the public debt, ^mount(id to 
 little or nothing. Tin? military and naval expim iitures, 
 the heaviest burden on other nations — here, if we might 
 judge from the strength or rather weakness of the army 
 and navy, was but {i featli(ir on its back. What did the 
 United States wiut with einhty millions of dollars? 
 
 How the money was spent we have not tim«' to show. 
 We cannot go into details. Let the believer in ivpubli- 
 can purity, simplicity, and economy, search into vhe 
 open vents and secret leaks by which the treasury vras 
 
 
rNMAsKKD. 
 
 81 
 
 drained. An army of custom hons«.' officers, with a col- 
 lector and liis staff of suliordi nates, even for the pettiest 
 poits, wh<!re the (hitics C(jllecte<l did not suHice to ])ay 
 the sahiries of the collectors ; a post office, with 40,()()0 
 post masters, ami a yearly <l<!fieit of 7 or 8 millions, to 
 he supplied from the United States revenue ; numherless 
 puhlic w^orks, civil and inilita-y, affordini,' fatjohs, the 
 profits be in l;- divided in secret l>etwe('n the contract )rs 
 and till! governnitint officials ; rri-eat enterprises not 
 pnhlic, hut sultsidiztMl hy the generous p)ihlie, such as 
 the Pacific railroad, to which the government, besides 
 money and hind given, lent sixty millions in its ))onds, 
 {.11 which loan we btilieve no interest has Ix^en paid, and 
 the piincipal nev(!r will be paid — ^How this loan was 
 procured and appropriated the " Credit Mohiluir " in- 
 vestigation has unveile<l) — and numerous other enter- 
 prises subsidizcMl openly and secretly — some of which 
 have, whil(! most of tlwm have not, been as clearly ex- 
 plained as that of tlu; P;icific railroad ; Indian agencies, 
 where the agents grew marvellously rich while cheating 
 the Indians with one hand and the government with the 
 other ; military post sutler-ships, p ocured in Wasidng- 
 ton foi- a 'consideration,' being licenses to cheat soldiers 
 and others at every out of the way post — the least of 
 these classes of consumers of governnnnit revenue; had 
 Garagantua's mouth, with its capacity t<^ swallow 
 millions. 
 
 It was not easy to supply nil these demands. But hy 
 protective tarifis and governnu^nt revenue tariffs the 
 South was drained of its earnings and wealth, and tlie 
 North fattened and enriched — until the people there 
 
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 were utterly corrupted, and completely 1 -st .si^^'lit of the 
 true nature of the political institutions under which they 
 liad lived. The Federal «ajvernnient was to them the ir^'cat 
 hestower of Injunties, and tliey looked only to that, mag- 
 nilying its jurisdiction, and ready to sustain it in each 
 usurpation of power. It was their government, and a 
 source of yreat profit to them; for the jyreat value of 
 American citizenship was the privilege of taxing other 
 people's earnings and property for your own benetit; and 
 no one enjoyed it more thoroughly than those who had 
 neither earnings nor j)ropeity of their own. They 
 opposed and resented most bitterly every etibrt of tlie 
 Southern States and Southern statesmen to restrict the 
 measures of the Federal government to the limitjd and 
 speciiied powers delegated to it by the States. This 
 would not only curtail their bread and butter; it would 
 deprive them of their pate de foie gras and champagne. 
 The I^'ederal government in the hands of the people of 
 tlie Northern States pi-oved to be the greatest possible 
 corru})ter of the people. The principle on which the 
 country wa-s ruled was, 'To the victors belong tl.e spoil,' 
 the victor' being the i:!ajoi'ity who cai'ried the elections, 
 and the .s[ oil wdiat ever couhl be wrung out of the hands 
 of the minority by the agency of government measures 
 and legislaticjii. Another subordinate principle on which 
 they laid great stress was rotation in otiice.' According 
 to this, by the time a man had served his apprenticeship 
 in office, whether administrative, judicial or fiscal, he 
 should be turned out to make room for a new apprentice, 
 especially if another party had come into power. Tlie 
 labouring people learned to believe that the government 
 
 
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 owed them a livinLT, or at least was lionnd to hrinu' 
 pr()fital)le eniployment lujme to every man's door in the 
 Nortli; and those who had capital or credit held tliat it 
 was hound so to manage the afl'airs of the puhlic as to 
 afford them profitahle investments and spccnlations. 
 And liheral government expenditure was the most 
 ohvious means of attaining these ends. 
 
 There was nothing- that the people of the North feared 
 so much as lest the Southei-n States should become stronrj 
 enough in nund)er, and in their population, to be able to 
 protect tliemselves by their representation and votes in 
 Con'jress from unfair legislation and taxation on the part 
 of the Federal ifovernment. Conscious that thev were 
 plunderinfT their "^ outhern confederates tliev had learned 
 thoroughly to hate them. 
 
 An earlv indication of the faithlessness and animositv 
 of the North aijainst the South was thus exhibited: — 
 Under the colonial charters Virginia held very extensive 
 territories on the west of the Alleiihanv rauire, extendinti: 
 west and north-west to the Mississippi river and the 
 lakes; and North Carolina and Georgia held the terri- 
 tories west of them to the same river. These teri'itories 
 had very few whites settled in them, but were chiefly 
 occupied by Indian tribes. When a good many whites 
 had settled in the Kentucky territor\% Virginia author- 
 ized them to form a <^overnment of their own. North 
 Carolina authorized the white settlers i'l her Tennessee 
 territory to form a government for themselves; and these 
 two new States were arlmitted into the Union. Virginia 
 'nan ted the remainder of its western territorv. and 
 Georjjfia granted the whole of its western territories to 
 
 
 
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 84 
 
 im: INITKI) STATUS 
 
 the Fcdoral <^>vennnent, for tlic use and iM-mfit of all 
 
 tlie Stati's, At a later period the Federal governnniit 
 jjurehascd from I' ranee its title to that vast region, the 
 Louisiana tejritory, the nionev paid for it hein«r furnish- 
 ed hy all the peojjlc of all th** States. At a later peiiod 
 Flori<la and m.ieh Alexican territory were ac(piired and 
 ad<led to the teiritoiies or puhlic lands of the United 
 States. All these lands, exeept sueli particular tracts as 
 individuals had ac<[uiied titles to under former govern- 
 ments, as those of Spain and France, the Federal govern- 
 ment held in trust for the benefit of all the citizens of all 
 the States. They might be called (except that they 
 were not in actual individual possession.; joint-t(,'nants, 
 or co-parceners in common of this property. C'ertainly 
 the people of no one State had a greater right in it, than 
 those of any other State. 
 
 Under the constitution, the laws, an«l the practice of 
 the country, as long as this tenitory, or any part of it, 
 remained under the control of the Federal government, 
 any citizen of any State, had the right to migmte to any 
 part of it (except the in<lian reserves), carrying with him 
 his moveable property of any kind. The policy of the 
 country encouiaged the settlement of these territories ; 
 and after making surveys, the goveiTiment habitually 
 oliered the lap •-: for sale at a low price. Not only 
 might any citizen from any State j urchase land there, 
 but by settling on a tract of land not exceeding a certain 
 number of acres, (100 we believej, he actjuired a right 
 of pre-emption at the government price ; and he was 
 entitled to legal protection for all his personal and 
 proprietary rights, just as if he had Ixien still in his own 
 State from which he had migiated. 
 
 
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 Such parts of llicse toiritorics, as, from climate, soil, 
 or other natural features, attraete«l the attention of 
 Southern men hy liein^ favorahlc; to their occupations, 
 drew many »'mi;,n-ants from the Southern Statt;s, and 
 many of tluise emi;L,'rants carried ne^ro slaves with them. 
 To other portions of this common territory, dillerin^' 
 from the former in climate, soil, or other traits, emi;^rants 
 from the Northern States chiefly were attracted. Fewer 
 Southern mt n went there, and few or none cairied 
 slaves with them. When any part of this comnidn ter- 
 ritory, large enou^^^li to form a State, became sutliciently 
 settled to need, and he able to supj)ort a State govern- 
 ment, the peo})le there were permitted to organize; one, 
 and were admitted into the Union by an Act of Con- 
 gress. Then it stood on the same footing as any one of 
 the original thirteen States. 
 
 Thus it was that new States were added to the con- 
 federation, in accordance with the <lesign of the original 
 thirteen States when they founded the Union. Some of 
 these new States were peopled chiefly by (emigrants 
 from the Northern States, and had few or no ne^'ro 
 slaves in them. Others were peopled chiefly from the 
 Southern States, had many negro slaves in them, and 
 looked to have many more. These two different results 
 hail been brought about by geographical and physical 
 caus(!S. To lei-ions in which the white man could labour 
 to advantage few or no negroes were brought. Where 
 climate, soil, or other influences were adverse to the 
 field labour of the whites, the negroes were brought in. 
 
 When any part of this territory common to all the 
 States and to all the citizens of all the States, had thus 
 
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 become itself a State — ^tlicTi, and not until tlicn, did 
 there arise a sovenjii^n jurisdiction, in the new State;, 
 with autljority to d(!cid(! such a ([uestion as tlie n^taininir 
 or f^ettini,'' rid of ne^M'o slavery. Ft was now a State, as 
 much as Viri^inia, or any otlier ; anil liad sovereif^m 
 autliority, witliin it- ))orders, on every matt(M' of irovern- 
 ment and h'*,Mslation, except tliose wli'cli liad ])een ex- 
 {)ressly d(de_i(ated to the Federal ;^overnment. So far 
 from that ifovernment liavincr anv voice or iuris<liction 
 in this matter, it was ])Ound to aceoid to the new State 
 re|»r(!sentation for three-fifths of the slaves in it ; and 
 (!veiy Nortljern State had hound itself to ,i:,nv(3 up every 
 fu<(itive slave found within its borders, on application 
 of the State from which the slave had fled. 
 
 It must ])e remembered that the rinht, that is the 
 possession and control, which men (!xercise<l ovc^r their 
 slaves seldom, in any aL,n' or country, originated in legal 
 enactment. It was a practical right which legal enact- 
 ments found men in possession of, in many countrit^s and 
 und(!r various circumstances. The ori<dn and ()])iect of 
 laws in human society is, not to grant rights, but to 
 protect riglits wliicli men have ac<piired and possess — 
 but find to be insufficiently secured to them. The law 
 was called in to recognize, legulate, and secui'e to the 
 possessors that whicli they obviously held. 'I'he law no 
 more gave them possession of their slaves, than of their 
 horses, and cattle, and household goods. The law which 
 punishes the horse-thief adds nothing to the proprietary 
 right of the owner, but it adds much to his sccuiity in 
 the enjoyment of his right. Even admitting that the 
 State governments were wrong not to abolish negro 
 
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 slavery — a matter within their jurisdiction — for their 
 conunon a^aint, for tlu; Federal government, creat(;d for, 
 and limited to other special matters of h'gislation, to 
 
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 legislate as to negro slavery, was an actor |)ure 
 outrageous usuf})ation. liut it was ordy the culminating 
 act of a long series of usurpations. 
 
 The people of the Northern states having long drawn 
 immense trihute from the South throui^h the Fecleral 
 government by its plundering taiifl'system for jiiotection 
 and reviinue, feared lest the Southern States might grow 
 too numerous, populous, and strong, to continue tosuhiidt 
 to this system of plunder, particularly at'tc^r tiie acquisi- 
 tion of extensive territories in the South, resulting fiom 
 the ann(!xation of Texas and the war with Mexico. 
 They at once exhihited increased hostility to the ScMith, 
 and laboured to put a brand of infiiriority up(,n it. They 
 claimed that (Jongrciss had, andshoidd exercise the right 
 to prevent any part of the connnon territory becoming a 
 slave-holding State, even though it had been peopled by 
 enngrants from the South, taking their slaves thither 
 with them. Many of the Northern States nuide it 
 criminal to arrest or assist in arresting the very fugitive 
 slaves which the State had pledged itself, under the 
 treaty of the Union, to deliver to the owners. And on 
 some occasions when fugitive slaves were arrested under 
 process issuing from the U. S. courts, the people resisted 
 the oiiicers, in sonn; cases killing them, ami rescued the 
 fugitives. Organized societies in the North employed 
 agents to tamper with the negroes in the South, in order 
 to render them dissatisfi(;d, and induce them to run away; 
 and they provided the means to facilitate their escape. 
 
 
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 This thcv called their under ground railroad. The} 
 boasted publicly of the success of these intriguini^ opera- 
 tions against their Southern confederates. But in truth, 
 their success was small, more aggravating than injunous. 
 the fugitive ne;j:roes never beini; numerous. It served 
 chiefly to show their animosity against their confeder- 
 ates, and their shameless violatioji of the pledges they 
 ha<l given when confederating with them. 
 
 When ever people arrive at the conviction that slave- 
 holding is sinful, the}' are in conscience bound to give it 
 up at once. This is true of individuals and of nations. 
 But we cannot tolerate a one-sided conscience. The peo- 
 ple of the North by this time held no slaves. They had 
 not foimd them profitable, anrl had sold most of those 
 that were saleable to their Southern confederat'-s. But, 
 in order to secure a confederated union with the South, 
 they had covenn-nted to allow them additional representa- 
 tion in Congress for three-fifths of their slaves, and each 
 State pledged itself to deliver up fugitives from labour 
 and service, that is, slaves, on the demand of the confed- 
 erate from whom they had fled. They did these things 
 willingly, in order to secure a political and commercial 
 union with the slave-holding States, because they de- 
 rived great profit from that union — and those conditions 
 were the price they were willing to pay for it. 
 
 When their newly enlightened consciences taught them 
 that this union with the slave-holder " was a covenant 
 with Hell" as they now learned to call it, they Avere in 
 an awkward dilemma. Yet they might have found an 
 honest way out of it. No doubt mi'n have a right to 
 rescind a contract that binds them to a crime. To take 
 
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 ».• 
 
 iTNMASKEn. 
 
 89 
 
 the highost possible ease, notlnii;^ VmiI the want of en- 
 Hijhtennien't of conseience leads to the fulfilment of a 
 pledge like Jephtha's vow. But he who refuses to ful- 
 fil a criminal compact, must not claim the reward that 
 temptetl him to make it. The newly conscientious 
 Northern States might have rescin<led their "covtMiant 
 with Hell" as they called their compact of union with the 
 unrepentant slave-holding South. They might have 
 seceded from union with it. But on what plea could 
 tl:ey annul such articles of the treaty <if T^nion as had 
 become distasteful to them, vet claim the fulfilment of 
 such other provisions of the treaty as were ]>rofital)le to 
 them? 
 
 Yet this difficulty seems never to have startled the 
 conscience of this most conscientious people, or ever to 
 have occurred to the mind of any of them, except one 
 crazy Yankee orator, who once urged secession from the 
 slave-holding South, but was cpiickly silenced, and did 
 not himself adluTe to this honest policy. 
 
 The simple truth is that every Northern man felt that 
 the North was deriving innnense profits from its political 
 union with the slave-holding States; and if he were a 
 clear headed man who understood the fiscal polic}' of the 
 jrovernment, he knew that these immense Northern 
 profits were the proceeds of a system of taxation, that was 
 no better than the robber^' of one part of the confeder- 
 ation for the benefit of the other. But the anti-slaverv 
 party proclaimed and believed that the South would 
 yield (piite as much and more plunder, when cultivated 
 by free negroes, as by slaves. They ha<l no fears of 
 losing money by emancipating the slaves of their Cott- 
 
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 federates, or their consciences would have failed to carry 
 them through the task they imposed upon tliemselves. 
 Their aim was to yoke conscience and i)r()fit together. 
 
 Tliere is a fascination in the conviction tliat we are 
 more righteous than our ncughhours, which leads us to 
 dwell up(m that belief, and on the feelings generated by 
 it. There is too something grand and heroic in that 
 j)hilanthropy which busies itself in I'ighting great wrongs 
 committed by other peojile, especially when remote from 
 us ; for they best admit of embellishment from the glow- 
 ir.g colours of the imagination. And to too many hearts 
 it is intensely gratifying to find an object for unlimited 
 denunciation and vituperation. It would be curious and 
 peihaps instructive to collect choice samples of the 
 phraseology of the orators who denounced negro slavery 
 and the Southern slaveholders. They exhausted eveiy 
 known anathema, invente>l new ones, and exhausted 
 them; yet the mouths of these same orators might be 
 full the next moment of jjraises of tlic Pilgrim Fathers 
 of Massachusetts, wlio held tliirir slaves, indian and 
 negro, by, we must suppose, especial license from 
 heaven. It would not, however, be so safe to conclude 
 that these, intlignant philanthrophists could never have 
 Ijeen themselves seduced into the sins they denounced, 
 as to remember that tht-v were far remote from the 
 opportunity and temptation to commit them. It was 
 commonly remarke<l in the South that such Northern 
 men as came thithtu*, and became slave-holders, usually 
 proved the most exacting of masters ; while their 
 brethren in the North certainly made no scruples, and 
 used every device, for exacting all they could out of the 
 
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IINMASKKI). 
 
 91 
 
 V 
 
 and 
 of the 
 
 proci'tMls of So^^lli•rn iiidiistrv liy a uuy^i frau«lnk*nt 
 system of taxation. 
 
 AIt]iou;,di tlie fL'olin;jjs of hostility an«l <K'prcciation 
 towards the Southern Statics, as slave-holdinir cfMiiniu- 
 nities. pervach'd tlu; nhoh? North, exeeptinj,' a class of 
 individuals rather respeetaV)le than nuniorous, yi*t for a 
 long time the anti-slavery party pure and siinple, 
 seemed to l)e an increasin<; minority, hiit not a fast- 
 ii^rowing party rapidly ahsorhini^ all othfiN. The Imlk 
 of the lahourinir class at the North indicated, hv their 
 treatment of tlie fiee-coloured peo[)le auHUig then), that 
 they were not so nnich hent on the al)oliti«m of slavery, 
 as on the abolition of the negro, as sometliing that stood 
 in their way. But tin; mass of the people, and yet more 
 of the merchants, capitalists and politicians, felt that, 
 for the peace of the country and the profit of the North, 
 this 'Question of neuro slaverv must !•»• handl»'d with 
 great delicacy, and as far as possible let alone. They 
 disclaimed for the Federal LTovernnu'nt anv iuiisdiction 
 in the matter, except jx'rhaps in the territories. Among 
 the multitude of evidences of this, it is onlv necessarv 
 to refer to one : the inaugural address of him who 
 proved to he the abolition President, disclaims all right 
 to meddle with slavery in the States. The connuercial 
 prosperity and financial credit of the whole North was 
 based chiefly on the produce of tli«; Southern States; and 
 most people in the North professed to be angered at the 
 violence of the genuine anti-slavery party, and alarmed 
 at its rapid growth, fearing an interruption of the profit- 
 able condition of tra(h* and finance. While this lasted 
 the fiscal policy of the government secured to them too 
 
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 lar^a; a sliaro of tlie proceeds of slave labour, for them 
 to desire the abolition iA' negro slavery. 
 
 Tlu; people of th<; Southern States, as a body, had been 
 exceedinijfly blind to the nature anil effects of the artful 
 fiscal policy by which the North had been long robbing 
 them. It inv<jlved too many explanations to be made 
 clear to the masses. But they were not deaf to the un- 
 measured denunciations and falsehoods their Northern 
 confe<lerates had been long preaching and publishing 
 against them. Nor were they blind t(j the demonstra- 
 tions and overt acts of hostility ventured upon by the 
 more virulent of the anti-slavery party. But here was, 
 or seemed to be, a numerous party in the North, who 
 professed to adhere to the terms of the compact on 
 which the union of the States had been formed ; and 
 who loudly protested against the aggressions of the 
 Northern States and people against their Southern 
 confederates. Putting faith in this party, and acting 
 with it, the Southern States still hoped to be able to 
 lemain in the Union with self-respect and safety. 
 
 An election of President of the United States was to 
 come on late in 1800, and the whole Union was greatly 
 agitated by the canvass. The anti-slavery party chose 
 for their candidate an until lately obscure man — of little 
 capacity or attainments, except as wliat is called a 
 stump (^I'ator. He had a genius for diverting a rude 
 Western crowd with fuimy stories and coarse witticisms. 
 Some able speeches were delivered by him, but they 
 were prepared by another man. His own serious efforts 
 only proved his ignorance aud shallowness. But he 
 was popular in the great North-west, and was a man 
 
 
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 UNMASKED. 
 
 03 
 
 whom tlie party knew how to use for their purposes. 
 Another party which expressly disclaimed for tlie Fed- 
 eral government an}' right to interfere with slavery in 
 the States, but claimed for it the right to prohibit it in 
 the common territoi-ies, nominated for their- candidate 
 an eminent Noith western politician, the zealous ex- 
 pounder of 'Stjuatt^ir Sovereignty.' A third party of no 
 definite views, except peace at any price, brought out 
 their candidate. And a fourth, consisting of tlie people 
 of the Southern States and such people in the North as 
 maintained the permanence and sanctity of the terms, 
 on which tlie Union had been formed, and the limita- 
 tions on the powers of the Federal government, nominat- 
 ed their candidate. The result was that the anti-slav- 
 ery party carried every Northern State, and the elec- 
 tion — the fourth party cari-ied every Southern State, 
 and the other parties were nowhere. 
 
 The people of the Southern States now found that 
 they were living under a government completely in the 
 hands of their enemies, utterly hostile to their rit'hts and 
 interests, and claiming a right not only to surround and 
 hedge them out from all right in the common territories, 
 and reduce them to complete and hopeless subjection, 
 but to revolutionize their internal political and social 
 ortranization. This was not the confederation into which 
 they had entered; this was not th(3 government which 
 they had joined in creating. ITnless they could submit 
 to be revoluticmized by external enemies, and become 
 mere tributary provinces to them, it was high time to 
 break oft* all connection with utterly faithless confeder- 
 ates, wliom the most solemn treaty could not bind. The 
 
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 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 
 Southern States l)egan to secede from the Union in 
 iaj>i«l succession, and war was made upon the South to 
 force thein back into it. 
 
 We shall make little comment on the war. But tlie 
 pcoi)le of the Soutli were surprised to see those Northern 
 politicians, mercliants, capitalists, and others who made 
 up the ])emocratic party there, and who had joined in 
 loudly protesting' against the usurpations of the govern- 
 ment and th(^ aj'i'ressions on the South — to see these 
 men tln-ow tliemselves into the arms of the n<'w admin- 
 istration, seek from it office and military commands and 
 profitable contracts, and become the zealous sustainers 
 of every measure to crush the South. A few months 
 after proclaiming its wrongs, they were eagerly making 
 war upon it This seemed strange; yet their conduct is 
 easily explained. Wldle tliey could keep the South in 
 the Union, they enjoyed the profits of negro slave labour. 
 If the South seceded they lost all the profits of slave- 
 labour. The names of these men are legion, as the 
 political journals of 1800-1 clearly show. 
 
 But there were examples of very ditterent conduct 
 among the most eminent men in the North. The Ex- 
 President Franklin Pierce continued to pronounce the 
 grievances complained of by the South to be real, and the 
 conduct of the North and of the government a series of 
 outrages. Ex-President Filmore, when urged by a great 
 popular assembly in New York to become a mediator 
 between the North and the South, for the preservation 
 of the Union, replied: — 'Let the people and the legisla- 
 tive assemblies of the North make redress for their out- 
 rages, and repeal their unconstitutional acts, and I will 
 
■»!»■■ 
 
 UNMASKED. 
 
 95 
 
 Lflndly fjo to inoiliate for tin' Tiiion. But until they do 
 that, I wi!l not lnulj^'e one step." The secession of several 
 States oreurrin;( (hiriiiij tlie last niontlis of Presiihrnt 
 Huehanan's adniinistr.ition. he both hv words and 
 actions showed tliat lie lield the ;^rievances of the SoJith- 
 ein States to be real, and felt ;;reat scruples at using 
 force to keep them in the Union. But tlie Northern 
 pressure broui^lit to bear upon liini wa> overwht'luiin*,'. 
 Mr. Charles O'Connor of New York, a man of hi^h and 
 unspott(»d character, and the most eminent lawyer in the 
 United States, ])tililislied an elaborate address to the 
 public, maintaininif the rijjjht of any state to secede fr an 
 the Union on tlie violation, by other States or by 
 the Federal ;;overnment, of its ri'dits under the Consti- 
 tution; and he scouted at the idea that either the 
 {government or the other States had a shadow of ri<(ht 
 to use forc(; to retain the seceding State in the Union. 
 And five years after, when the war was over, the South 
 conquered, and the (,'onfederate President, Jc^ti'erson 
 Davis a prisoner in Fortress Monroe, Mr. 0'(.\>nnor at 
 once offered himself as his counsel; maintainiu'^ the im- 
 possibility of convlctini^ him of any crime. The govern- 
 ment reluctantly perct'ive 1 this impossibility of ctmvic- 
 tion on any charge that couM bear legal scrutiny. Some 
 months after Abraham Lincoln had bev'ome Presi<lent, 
 Chief Justice Taney, for nearly thirty years the head of 
 the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest 
 judicial authority in the Union, had occasion to 
 pronounce, judicially, that the measures of the govern- 
 ment and the conduct of the President and his subor- 
 dinates amounted to tlie overthrow of the Constitution 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 arnl a tramplirifj on all law. But military officers, with 
 the sanction of the President, thrust aside the writs of 
 habeas corpus issued from the U. S. courts, with the 
 utmost contempt. 
 
 On the breaking out of the P^nglish revolution in 1088, 
 Sergeant Maynard, a luminary of the English bar, 
 liastened to join the standard of William, Prince of 
 Orange; who, on seeing liim, bluntly said: — 'From your 
 extreme age you must have outlive<l all tl»e lawyers of 
 your day." "If your Higlmess had not come quickly" 
 he answered "I should have outlived, not only the 
 lawyers but the law." Less happy than the Nestor of 
 the English bar, the Chief Justice now found that, in his 
 extreme old age, he had outlived the law. 
 
 There was no right more expressly acknowledged and 
 fully secured to the people than the right to keep and 
 bear arms. It was a right that lay at the very foun- 
 dation of government, both State and Federal — and the 
 most essential element in the security of the liberties 
 and the rights of the citizen. Nor was any right more 
 fully in the hands of the States, according to the Con- 
 stitution, the laws, and the custom of the country, than 
 that of officering, arming, and training the milLtia. This 
 was the military force of the State, and the Federal 
 government could only obtain the services of any part 
 of it by applying to a State government for it. Further, 
 if there was anything well established in the Union by 
 the Constitution, the laws, and the customs of the 
 country, it was the freedom of internal commerce. Any 
 man had a right to buy anything offered for sale, and 
 carry it to any part of the Union without hindrance. 
 
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with 
 
 UNMASKED. 
 
 07 
 
 Yet when, U-foio the Soutliern States liad s«ce«lo<l 
 from the Union, many individuals in the South and 
 some of the State ^.overnments, liecominjL^ alarmed at the 
 threatening a^pect of affairs and the unarnuMl condition 
 of the South, attempted to purchase arms and ammuni- 
 tion, the Nortiiern people and State «^o\eniments were 
 at once awake and active. The police of the States 
 and the cities w«!re set to watch eveiy shipment hy 
 coa-st, river and railroa*! ; and all arms consigned to any 
 one suspt cted of connection with the South were at 
 once seized upon. All legal right was trampled upon. 
 It was assumed that the Southern States were already 
 subject provinces preparing for re))ellion. 
 
 These <loings were loudly protested against even at 
 the North. The New York Herahl, among others, de- 
 nounced it as " a clearly illegal proceeding, in violation 
 of the Constitution, and without the sanction of any 
 law of the State. It is an unwarrantable outrage on 
 the rights of private property, 6lc." 
 
 Fernando Wood, Mayor of New York, in reply to the 
 inquiries of Mr. Toombs, Senator from Georgia, says: 
 " I regret to say that arms intended for and consigned 
 to the State of Georgia have been seized by the police; 
 but the city of New York should in no w^ay be made 
 responsible for the outrage. As mayor I have no 
 authority over the police. If I had the power, I .should 
 summarily punish the authors of this unjustifiable 
 seizure of private property." 
 
 How came the Southern members of this Federal 
 republic to be so destitute of arms and armament? 
 The States had for many years neglected to keep up 
 
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 any cfticit'nt arsonal.s of their own, relying on those of 
 the common government in all contingencies. The Fed- 
 eral iTovernment had in sttre large amounts of arms 
 and ordnance, procured hy contract, or made at itf* own 
 establishments, all of which, exeei)t one on the NortluMn 
 border of Virginia, were in the Northern States. These 
 arms, when received, were distrihuted among many 
 depots, some of which were in the Southern States. 
 
 President Buchanan's Secretary of War was John B. 
 Flo}*!, wlio had been (Jovernor of Virginia, as liis father 
 had l)een before him. Both had b(M.'n strenuous main- 
 tainers of the rights of the South(;rn States in opposition 
 to tlu^ aggr(!ssions of the N(»rth. Sud«lenly there arose 
 at the North a loud outcry that this Southerner had 
 availed liimself of his position, as head of the War De- 
 partment, to transfer large amounts of arms from the 
 North to the South, in anticipation of Secession ; thus 
 arming the 'rebels' while he disarme<l the true men and 
 their government. For tlie people there almost univer- 
 sally looked upon the Federal government, with its 
 powers and means, as something belonging to them- 
 selves. It was not for one moment remembered that 
 any property in the hands of the government belonged 
 quite as much to the people of the South as of the 
 North. 
 
 When Congress promptly investigated this charge, the 
 facts at once explained and refuted it. There had been 
 great neglect for years in replenishing the depots 
 (called arsenals) at the South. But the United States, 
 now following the example of European governments, 
 had of late been laying aside the smooth-bored musket, 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 99 
 
 and old-fasliionod riflo, .sul)stitutin<' the Minio riflo 
 in their place. In Deceniher, 18.')l), Seerctaiy Fh)yd 
 had ordered 11.5,000 anus of thfse anti(|iiati!d patt«;rns 
 to be sent to Southern arsenals, to make room for the 
 new arms in the Northern armories. The arsenals in the 
 South received not one of these improved weapons. In 
 the issue, one of the «jdds again>t the Southern troops was 
 having to contend against an enemy provided with the 
 new and superior weapon. A large portion of the better 
 arms they afterwafils obtained were taken on the battle- 
 field from defeated enemies. Notwithstanding the evi- 
 dence to the contrary, Secretary Floyd was persistently 
 charged with treason, for sending ll.l.OOO old muskets 
 to dejiots in the South, although President Buchanan 
 pointed out the fact that 500,000 of these old weapons 
 still encumbered the arsenals in the North. Had Floyd 
 foreseen the secession of the Southern States, perhaps 
 he would have taken care that there should be a more 
 equal distribution of government arms and munitions of 
 war among States, each of which had an ecjual right to 
 them. Yet Pi'esident Lincoln, in his message to Con- 
 gress on the 5th of July, 1801, did not scruple to assert 
 that * a disproportioned amount of arms and nmnitions 
 of Avar had some how found themselves in the Southern 
 States.' 
 
 Thus the Northern States and their people had control 
 of the government, with its treasury and credit, of the 
 army and forts, of the navy, with the power of blockading 
 the Southern coast; and they lost no time in using that 
 power. The South, which had chiefly paid for all these 
 things, and had an equal right to them, had no part of 
 
 
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 thoin. Tru(3 to its policy of dniinin^ all it could from 
 the South, and rcturnin«,' as little as possilile, tho <ifovern- 
 niont niado nearly all its military, naval cand other ex- 
 penditures at tlic North, and kept the results there, 
 except the arnianients of a few forts, as Fortress Monroe, 
 Fort Sumter, Pulaski, Pickens, and others, which served 
 as bridles in the mouths of Southern harbours. The 
 people of the North seemed to aim at keepin«]r the Soutli 
 in the condition of the Israelites under the iron rule of 
 the Philistines, 'There was no smith in all the land of 
 Israel; for the Philistines said — lest the Hebrews make 
 them swords and spears.' 
 
 The people of the Northern States made several jj^ross 
 blunders in estimating the condition of the South. 
 (Talle} rand tells us that, in politics, a blunder is worse 
 than a crime.) Thev had tau'dit themselves to believe 
 that the South would be yet more productive and profit- 
 able to them under free negro labour than under slave 
 labour. They looked upon the condition and feelings of 
 the negroes as identical with that of prisoners unj.ustly 
 shut up in gaol. They believ^nl that the people of the 
 South felt that they were sitting on a volcano — 
 knowing that the negroes were only waiting on their 
 northern friends for the signal for insurrection to rise in 
 arms against their cruel oppressors; and that under 
 this fear the people of the South dared not resist the 
 aggressions of the North and of the government under 
 their control. 
 
 The people of the South and their leaders committed 
 manv and great blunders. But we will onlv name one 
 which we think the first and greatest of all. The poli- 
 
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 ; poll- 
 
 UNMASKED. 
 
 101 
 
 ticians, ur«^in;jf on tlie people tlie n«;cossity of seceding 
 from the Union, luiiversally pronounced secession to be 
 a j)eaeeful ri»(lit. And si) it was. The terms of tlie treaty 
 which had united the States into a confe<kMation Ijuvinjr 
 heen grossly, repeatedly, and notoriously violated by 
 the Northern States, to tlie injury of the Southern, any 
 one or all of tliem ]»ad a right to declare the treaty 
 null and voi<l, and withdraw from the Union. This was 
 a peaceful right and no act of hostility. But the poli- 
 ticians went beyond this and assure<l the people that 
 secession would ])rove a peaceful remedy for their 
 wi'ongs. This was as gross an absurdity as any man, 
 calling himself a statesman could utter. The people of 
 the Northern States hail control of the Federal i^overn- 
 ment and of all its powers and resources; they had been 
 for years in the enjoyment of large contributions or 
 rather tribute from tlie inihistry antl fertility of the 
 South; their prosperity had been largely, we think 
 chieHy built upon these contributions, an* I must decline 
 on their withdrawal. Now it is Hying in the face of all 
 history and all experience in human nature to suppose 
 that any people or government, with large means of 
 waging war, will abandon possession of rich tributary 
 territories without first striving to retain them by force 
 <if arms. It matters not whether the tribute is the 
 result of robbery or of right. They will tiglit rather 
 than give it up. 
 
 Some individuals in the South uttered earnest warn- 
 ings that secession meant war, for it must lead to it; and 
 urged prompt preparation for it. But they had not the 
 ear of the people. If the South had any statesmen, 
 
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 102 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 their counsels were not heard amid the harangues of 
 politicians; and the States which seceded went out of 
 the Union, with the most flimsy preparations for main- 
 taining in arms the step they had taken. The most im- 
 portant provisions made for defence were due to the 
 foresight and activity of a few individuals. 
 
 In the war that ensued the five millions of whites in 
 the seceding Confederate States had to fight their own 
 battles, half armed, and cut off from the outside world: 
 but the twenty-two millions in the Northern States, 
 supplied the deficiencies of the U. S, armaments by draw- 
 ing supplies from all Europe. But what they seemed 
 most to need were fighting men; for they continued to 
 otter higher and higher bounties, until they had enlisted 
 a quarter of a million of Irish and another of Germans, 
 many, perhaps most of them fresh from home, tempted 
 not only by high l)Ouuties, but by the hope of free farms 
 from the lands of the 'rebels' which were freely, 
 although privately promised them. We can hardly have 
 over-stated the number of foreigners in the U. 8. army. 
 At, the end of the war the number of mtii in the service 
 was one million. The report of the Surgeon-General of 
 the United States certifies that the majority of those 
 who came into the hospitals were Irish and Germans. 
 And the Confederates found that a great part of the 
 prisoners they took had not left Ireland o»- Germany 
 long. The Yankees themselves much preferred army 
 contracts to military service. 
 
 After a four years' bloody struggle the Confederate 
 States were overrun and conquered ; the negroes, who 
 had remained quiet all the time, were emancipated, the 
 
les of 
 
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 UNMASKED. 
 
 103 
 
 State governments were overthrown, an<l the people 
 thorou^dily plundered. In truth, many of the later 
 military expeditions were little else than cotton stealing 
 raids, which well account for the sudden wealth of nimy 
 officers, from the commander in chief downw^ards. But 
 mere plunder did not satisfy them. Two facts indicate 
 the spirit which actuated the Northern government and 
 armies. When their columns, marching through the 
 country, came to a house of the better class, which was 
 deserted by the family for fear of being robbed and in- 
 sulted, they usujilly burned it as the home of a traitor, and 
 sometimes burned a whole town to unhouse a nest of 
 traitors. Yet more galling to tho.se who valued religious 
 liberty above worldly possessions was the fact that, by 
 order of the government, all the Anglo- Episcopal 
 churches were closed, in which the President of the 
 United States was not prayed Un\ 
 
 The Conquered provinces were then placed under 
 military governors, until the farce could be uone through 
 of reconstructing the state government according to the 
 orders and plan sent from Washington. They are now 
 indeed called States, but they are still conquered and 
 subjected provinces. 
 
 We say this from the conviction that but for the dom- 
 inating power of the Northern States, and the military 
 force of their government at Washington, the re-con- 
 structed state governments in the South would not have 
 stood one day. 
 
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 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Effects of this Revolution on the Whole Ifnioiu 
 
 We mav seem at times to have wandered from our 
 subject, but we believe that all we have hitherto said 
 w^i'l assist the reader to understand the piesent condition 
 of the United States. 
 
 In 1800 the United States were, or seemed to be, the 
 most prosperous of countries. The financial credit of 
 the government, of the individual States, and of num- 
 berless great corporations, stood exceedingly high in 
 Europe, and enabled the countiy to borrow on easy 
 terms all the capital it wanted. All the world that had 
 money to lend thought the United States the best place 
 to lend money in. This almost unlimited credit was 
 based, not merely on the then present prosperity of the 
 country, but yet more on its rapid progress towards 
 greater prosperity. 
 
 But wlien we examine into the sources of this credit, 
 we find that the importance of the United States to the 
 rest of the world was chiefly commercial and financial; 
 and that its growing importance in these respects was 
 based chiefly on the annually increasing production by 
 the Southern States, of staples to the value of three 
 hundred and thirty millions of dollars already, and in- 
 creasing in amount and value every year. The exports 
 of the rest of the Union were trifles compared to this. 
 
■ n' 
 
 THE UNITED STATES UNMASKED. 
 
 105 
 
 The greater part of the productions of the South found 
 a ready market in Europe, and the whole of them would 
 have done so, if a large part had not been diverted, by 
 most unjust legislation, to serve as tribute to swell the 
 prosperity of the people of the Northern States, serving 
 to raise still higher that financial credit, of which they 
 were making such free use. 
 
 This credit, much shaken during the war of Secession, 
 was fully restored by the success of the North and of 
 its government, as long as the real eff(>cts of this war 
 could l)e concealed and misrepresented. Indeed few of 
 those who now feel these effects most sorely seem yet to 
 understand the causes of them. We will endeavour to 
 point them out plainly. 
 
 When the Southern States were crushed, conquered, 
 and revolutionized, besides the vast number of Northern 
 men who flocked thither, or, leaving the army, remained 
 there, in search of office, and plunder by means of oflice, 
 a crowd of Northerners, of a somewhat different stamp, 
 came down into the South. Their government had ex- 
 pended more than 3,000,000,000 of dollars in preserving 
 these states, now conquered provinces, to the Union: 
 and these men came to render the fertile South more 
 profitable than ever to the North, by means of free 
 negro labour; and to make their own fortunes while 
 so doing. These Northern speculators brought an im- 
 mense amount of Northern capital and Northern credit 
 with them. Many of them sought to do a thriving 
 business by lending largely to embarrassed Southern 
 planters on mortgage of their lands, at 15, 18 and 20 per 
 cent interest. But the greater number of thase men 
 
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 were convinced that the Southern planters had always 
 been too indolent and ignorant to manaf^e their affairs 
 with skill, an<l that they themselves could now show 
 them how to make crops. 
 
 They bought numberless plantations, an«l where they 
 could not buy they leased them. They bought tools, 
 imphaiients and machinery ; repaired barns, cotton gins, 
 sugar-mills, &c., and hired negroes freely. They we»e 
 certain that free negro labour would prove better and 
 cheaper than slave labour. They found the negro 
 generally ready to hire himself. The tlitiiculty was to 
 make him fulfil his engagement. 
 
 Of the Southern planters some few, even under their 
 altered circumstances, by skill, economy, and good luck, 
 have been able to make a decent living. But the most 
 successful of them are far poorer than they were — nine- 
 tenths of them are greatly impoveiished, and three-fifths 
 of them are already utterly ruined. This is the condition 
 of those, born in the country, familiar with the nature 
 of the negro, and bred up to agricultural pursuits there. 
 But what of the new-comers from the North, with un- 
 told millions at their command, most of it bon-owed in 
 Europe or originally drained fi'om the formerly fertile 
 fields of the South ? We do not pretend to know hew 
 much of Northern capital has gone Southward fiom first 
 to last, either as the means of entering on these specula- 
 tions, or in the effort to sustain them, or to lend at high 
 interest to Southern land-holders, or in buying up the 
 stocks of dilapi<lated and embarrassed Southern rail- 
 roads, and in building there numberless new rail-roads, 
 anticipating a most prosperous future for the country. 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 107 
 
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 But in place of prosperity came ruin; and the old and 
 the new roads are bankrupt. But we are sure that the 
 outlay amounts to many hundreds of millions. We know 
 that most of the money lenders have been compelled to 
 take the mortgaged plantations, and turn plantei-s them- 
 selves, or sell the plantation for far less than the debt 
 under the moi'tgages. 
 
 We have yet to hear of one decidedly successful 
 Northern man who went to the South and turned 
 planter. Nine out of ten, perhaps nineteen out of twen- 
 ty, have been utterly ruined. These Northern specula- 
 tors have become more thoroughly bankrupt than even 
 the Southern planters. We are certain that 1)0 per 
 cent, of the capital carried to the South has been sunk 
 there, never to rise again, and only serves to swell im- 
 mensely the vast amount the North spent to preserve 
 the Union. The truth is that since 18GG the crops 
 grown in the cotton States, at least, perhaps in all the 
 eleven States that seceded, have not paid the cost of 
 growing them ; and year by year the South has grown 
 poorer and poorer. 
 
 Many facts prove this : and, first, the returns of the 
 census of 1870, compared with those of 1860. The cen- 
 sus furnishes evidences of an astonishing decline in the 
 productions of the Southern States ; so great as to war- 
 rant the conclusion that these States actually produce 
 less than they consume. 
 
 To prove this we will go into some details. Cotton, 
 sugar, and rice, are produced only in the South, and we 
 select the facts as to these articles, because the whole 
 deficiency falls upon the South. 
 
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 108 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Tlie cotton crop of 18(10 amounted to 5,387,000 Imles. 
 The crop of 1870 was 3,011,000 bales, being a decline of 
 2,37:),000 bales. in the ten years from 18:)0 to 1800 
 the cotton crop had advanced from 2,400,000 bales to 
 more than double. But in stating the produce of single 
 years, as the census does, and not a series of years, we 
 know that an unfavourable, compared with a favourable 
 season, somewhat exaggerated the progress of increase. 
 But had the usual average increase of the cotton crop 
 continued down to 1870, it would have amounted to 
 eight or nine millions, nearly three times as much as 
 the crop of 1870. 
 
 The production of sugar in 1800 was 231,000 hogs- 
 heads. In 1870 it had fallen to 87,000 hogsheads, not 
 much over one-third. 
 
 The rice crop in 1800 amounted to 215,313,000 pounds. 
 In 1870 it had fallen to 73,035,000, little more than one- 
 third. 
 
 In Virginia the tobacco crop in 1800 was 123,308,000 
 pounds. In 1870 it fell to 37,080,000, less than a third. 
 
 The only Southern State in which wheat was an 
 important crop was Virginia. In 1800 the crop 
 amounted to 13,131,000 bushels. In 1870, to 7,398,000 
 — somewhat more than half. 
 
 Maize, ur indian corn, is a most important crop in the 
 Soutliern States, being the chief breadstuff of the 
 people, and the chief food of live stock on a farm. In 
 some States, down to 18()0, there was a considerable 
 surplus for exportation. 
 
 The States of Virginia, North and South Carolina, 
 Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and 
 
UNMASKED 
 
 10!) 
 
 Arkansas, in 1«()0, pro.luced 2(;3,'2!)1,000 iMishels of in- 
 <lian corn. In 1870 they produced I^O.IO.S.OOO busliels, 
 about tliree-tit'tlis of the former crop. There was noth- 
 in<( left for exportation. Was it enough for food ? 
 
 We will not cram our reader witli .stati.stica, the 
 driest and most chaffv of all mental fo(jd — hut refer him 
 to the heavy volumes of the census. Takin*,' the chief 
 production of the Southern States it is apparent that 
 the avera<j[(; amount of thtiii- ])roductions in 1870 was 
 little, perlia[)s no more than half of what it was in 
 1800, yet there was some increase of population in those 
 ten vears. 
 
 Now a decline of one-half in the productions of a 
 country may well imply that it has fallen from tbe 
 height of prosperity into utter ruin. It may iniply tha - 
 the country consumes all, and more than all, it produces, 
 and that there is no surplus beyond the cost of produc- 
 tion, and ev(Mi that may not be re[)laced. What country 
 is there that produces yearly twice as much as it con- 
 sumes ^ We know of none. The truth is that the 
 South, esjiecially the cotton States, have grown poorer 
 year by year, from 18G."> to this day. So far from pro- 
 ducing any surplus, it has been living irom hand to 
 mouth on tlui Northern capital carried there by san- 
 guine speculators within the last twelve years. The 
 South since 1805, has been sutfcning un<ler a chronic 
 state of scarcity of the necessaries of life, at high pricjs 
 in a poor country. Far more cases of death from actual 
 want occur in it, and chiefly among the negroes and 
 especially their children, than rn any country in which 
 productive land is abundant in proportion to the popu- 
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 110 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 We know that a totally different picture from this is 
 assiduously presented to the worM, as exhibiting the 
 present condition of the South. Every ne\vspaj)er 
 there, and every man of ])usiness who has his capital 
 at stake there, does the utmost to give a favorable im- 
 pression as to the revival of industry and prosperity. 
 They vainly hope by concealing ruiti to ward it off. 
 They are galvanizing a corpse. But t!iis concealment 
 and misrepresentation become more impossible every 
 day. 
 
 It must not be imagined that the Southern States, 
 taken as a whole, form a very fertile region. It is nat- 
 urally less fertile by far than England, Ireland, France, 
 Italy, and other countries we could name. Its late 
 prosperity was based, first on the abundance of improv- 
 able la?i(l, and then not less on agricultural skill and 
 industry, protected by well ordered and economical State 
 ixovernments, which no longer exist. 
 
 There is no better measure of the prosperity and 
 decline of a country than the rise and fall iu the price 
 of land. There is a great deal of land in the Southern 
 States that never was sold but at very low prices — and 
 much may be said never to have had an}?^ value but for 
 the timber fjrowini,^ on it. Of these lands we need not 
 speak ; but of the fertile an<l improvable soils much had 
 been rendei-ed highly productive, and nmch that changed 
 hands from time to time brouj^ht hii'h and increasir.ff 
 prices. A vast deal of land has been sold since the 
 end of the war, and prices have eontinue<l to fall from 
 year to year. And in the cotton States at least, it would 
 be an extravagant estimate to suppose that land would 
 
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 UNMASKED. 
 
 Ill 
 
 on an average bi-in':' one-fourtli tin; ])rico it wouM 
 readily have connnaiiiled before 1800, Iiuleed in many 
 parts of tlie country, formerly liighly prosperous, many 
 plantations have been soM for less than a tenth of their 
 former value, an«l the puichasers have been since ruined 
 by cultivating them. It may be .said now as to the 
 plantation States, that with rare exceptions, land can 
 find no sale, has no price, and is often not worth the 
 tax imposed on it. Extensive and valuable estates with 
 costly improvements on them, and in the cultivation 
 of which in cotton, sugar, and rice, many thousands of 
 dollars were expen«led every ye.ir, are now thrown out 
 untilled, and the dwellings, mills and other buildings are 
 rotting to the ground. There is very far less land under 
 cultivation than in 1800, the cultivation is far worse, 
 and dilapidation and abandonment increa.se from year 
 to year. Most of the negroes who have bought or 
 rented land to farm for themselves, fail even to feed 
 themselves, and after a vcar or two return to the condi- 
 tion of hired labourers — and can be little relied on as 
 such. In the greatei* part of the country all other 
 culture is slighted to make the cotton crop, the only one 
 that brings any money into the country, and of that but 
 a half crop is made. It is very difficult to ascertain 
 what the cotton crop now amounts to. Before 18G0 it 
 was estimated from the receipts at the Southern ship- 
 ping ports, no account beiu;, taken of the small percent- 
 age used in the regions that produced it. But now 
 much of the crop goes northward, inland, by the Missis- 
 sippi and the railroads. We believe that the same 
 cotton is sometimes counted twice, perhaps thrice, in 
 
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 THE IJNITKI) STATES 
 
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 iiiakin*^ up the estimates of th(^ cro;i — for instance at 
 M<>mpliis, then at St. Loiuh, tlion at s )ine Atlantic port, 
 Tlie cotton buyers, early in tli<; season use every device 
 to make tlie crop out lnij,^3r than it really is; as that 
 cluuipens the staple to tlieui. An«l tliey find no more 
 efKcient a;4ents for this purpose than tlie officials of the 
 United States aL,nicultural bureau, which reports from 
 time to time the prospects of tlie crop. 
 
 Yet the hulk of the exports from the Union are still 
 furnished hy these impoverished Southern Stat<'s, in the 
 shape of cotton, tobacco, and some other products, nmch 
 as they are reduced in ([uatitity and value. And the 
 "^a'cater part of the revenue of the United States is still 
 derived from a tariff system, which is simply a robbery 
 of the South. 
 
 There is one interest in the South wliich, in many 
 parts of the country, has suffere<l even moie than agricul- 
 ture, and that is pastoral industry. Great as have been 
 the depredations of the negroes on the fanners' crops; 
 (and cotton affords peculiar facilities to the thief, as it 
 can 1)6 gathered and sold in the same night to the 
 receivers of stolen produce now infesting the country) 
 tlieir depredations on his live stock exceed thtin. 
 Although the climate in the greater part of the South is 
 too hot for a line glazing country, these States formerly 
 ))red numbers of lioises, kine, swine, and sheep. The 
 lartre amount of unenclosed land furnishes a free and 
 wide range for them. But the census shows a monstrous 
 diminution of live stock of all kinds, and we know that 
 in particular parts of the country planters who had 
 large stocks of cattle, sheep and swine running at large, 
 
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 UNMASKED. 
 
 118 
 
 now liavc nono. Tlic idle and liun«^'ry ne'groos killed 
 them oH" sceretly i!» the woods and swamps, and hy 
 ni^ht. Luekily they liavi; not acciuinMl the French 
 taste for horse-Hesh. We know that not a few plant rs 
 still cultivatinL,' much land, and who once had herds of a 
 hn!idretl head, have not one cow. All the milk their 
 fannlies now use is that which is imported, drie«l and 
 prepared for sale in ])afkaj,'es. A c )W would luive to be 
 kept tmder lock and k«'y to prevent thf nt:L,n'oes milkin<^ 
 it. We knew other jdanters who had herds of swine in 
 their woo<le<l swamps, and fattened and killed oni; or 
 two hundred every winter, who do not now <i;et one from 
 that source. 
 
 With th(^ i'xc 'ption of the jjjreat ffnizmfr State of 
 Texas, the South has lo!ijj^ failed to siipply itself with 
 animal food. Th(( scanty ^-.upply of bacon eaten there is 
 imported from the North Western States. 
 
 Previous to 18(10 the Southern States were the most 
 prosperous agricultural couununities in the worM. But 
 even then their prosperity accrued, not so much to their 
 own benefit as to that of the Northern States; for the 
 sovereign majority in the North had cont: ivt^l to reduce 
 the South, financially, to the condition of tributary 
 provinces, and drew an immense tribute from them. 
 Now not only is that tribute lost to the North, but it is 
 now burdened with the maintenance of a costly pauper 
 who has proved a great consumer of its shrunken le- 
 sources. The South has become a paralyzed limb, to a 
 by no means healthy body. And the chief indication of 
 vitality in this paralyzed limb is an occasional, violent 
 convulsion. 
 
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 114 
 
 THK UNITED STATES 
 
 But, it may be said, the United States have become a 
 great manufacturing country. Is not that a resource 
 that may yet maintain its prospojity? 
 
 The Federal government, by a most unnatural and un- 
 just fiscal policy which it has pursued for fifty years, 
 succeeded in building up an immense but forced system 
 of manufactures throughout the Eastern and Northern 
 States. The enterprising Yankee undertook to manu- 
 facture everything, even to the natural productions of 
 other countries. The moment he found that some people 
 abroad had such natural facilities that they could make 
 any particular article cheaper and better than he could, 
 he hastened to his paternal government, and got it to 
 handicap the foreigner so heavily that the Yankee alone 
 could reach the winning post, the home market of the 
 United States. Thirty, and forty, and fifty per cent 
 duties on foreign goods were long odds in his favour — but 
 not always enough. We believe the duty on foreign 
 silks is sixty per cent. For a time this system of tax- 
 ation served its purpose well. For although the Yankee 
 manufacturers could sell little or nothing in the world 
 abroad in competition with cheaper and better goods, 
 they had the monopoly of the home market, in most 
 articles, sustained by the immense amount, and the 
 artificially cheapened price of Southern produce, and by 
 the great demand in the South for manufactured goods; 
 and this made a profitable little commercial world of 
 itself. 
 
 Tiie great tribute paid by the South to the Northern 
 manufacturers on protected articles, the great revenue 
 it paid to the government in duties on foreign goods, 
 
 tt: 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 115 
 
 (for after all the manufacturers failed to supply all the 
 country \vante<l) added to the immense amounts borrow- 
 ed abroad and expended in developing the resources of 
 the country, *,'ave to the North the appearance of vast 
 prosperity. This prosperity brought on a great rise in 
 wages, in the cost of materials, of the necessaries of life, 
 in the style of living. For everyone thought that he 
 was makiuif his fortune. Livincr in New York was 
 more costly than in London, twice as costly as in Paris. 
 Ostentatious people, becoming pinched in their incomes, 
 went to European capitals to economize. 
 
 But the country has lately waked up from its dream 
 of manufacturing and commercial prosperity to find it 
 only a dre im. 
 
 Its vast system of factories and work-shops, and com- 
 mercial agencies, and its net-work of rail-roads that 
 covered the country, have lost their best and greatest 
 customer, and the bounty they made him pay on their 
 industry. Their customer, the South, is worse than a 
 Vmnkrupt — he is a pauper, and it costs them money to 
 keep him. Under the changed condition of the country 
 they now fiml that all the outlay they have made, chiefly 
 of borrowed money, in manufacturing, conmiercial, and 
 transportation agencies, has been quite over-done; and 
 rival establishment are cutting each others throats in 
 their efforts to secure to theniselves the diminished and 
 embarrassed trade of an impoveiished and mutilated 
 confederation. The country is now actually losing 
 money on its investments in manufacturing establish- 
 ments and entei-prises that have run it deeply into debt. 
 
 It is curious to see how the signs of the times are 
 
 
 
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 116 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
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 miscontrued by those prophets who pretend to know and 
 foiesee all things. The London Times and Pall Mall 
 Gazette are frightened at seeing certain cotton stuffs 
 from the U. 8. underselling even in Manchester, the 
 manufactures of that locality, In their eyes the Yankee 
 is bearding the British lion in his den. Here in (^anada 
 we recognise these cheap Yankee goods, sold below the 
 cost of making them, as bankr'int stock, 'slaughtered 
 goods' sent abroad to be sold for what ever they will 
 bring, because the sale of them in the U. S. w^ould beat 
 down the ju-ice of all similar goods, which already hang- 
 so heavy on the manufacturers' hands. These marvellous 
 cheap goods are the evidence of some bankruptcies, but 
 they foreshadow many more. 
 
 It is curious to trace the effects which the protective 
 system, the vast borrowings, the vast expenditures, and 
 the high cost of materials, and of living, have had on the 
 TJ. S. merchant marine. For a lonnf time the United 
 States w^ere a great ship-building country. Thirty years 
 ago, perhaps later, the merchant marine of the U. 8. was 
 the second in the world, and in tonnage fell not far short 
 of that of Great Britain. Now, even with its river 
 steamers included, it is a poor shrunken thing, and the 
 exports of the country go in foreign and safer bottoms 
 to the markets of the world. The United States have 
 lost their ship building, and their carrying trade, and all 
 the profits derived from them. Yet the governme'.it has 
 spent millions to bolster up lines of steamers; and some 
 of the ugliest of the numb.'rless frau<ls perpetrated on 
 the public treasury have been connected with these 
 efforts to revive the marine interest of the country. 
 
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UNMASKED. 
 
 117 
 
 But the United States, it may be said, are still a 
 country of vast resources; they can rely on their de- 
 veloped and their undeveloped agi'icultural wealth. If 
 the South be permanently ruined, it is but a corner of 
 the countrv that is ruined. The aresit West, wide and 
 fertile, can ijcive employment to all the factories and 
 work -shops — to the great net-work of rail-roads that 
 connect every part of the country, to all the commercial 
 depots, and agencies scattered over it. It can repay all 
 that has been borrowed, and replace all that has been 
 lost. 
 
 Let us look into this »freat West. Throufjh the bless- 
 ing of a most favourable season last year, it harvested a 
 monstrous crop of grain. In the midst of the distress and 
 embarrassment of the whole country, men's spirits rallied 
 and revived at this prospect of plenty. But man is 
 never satisfied. One blessing only makes him long for 
 another, and all the wheat growers and wheat dealers, 
 who believe in a Ood, were praying for a general war in 
 Europe to raise the price of grain. 
 
 All trades have their technical phrases; and among the 
 giain dealers in the United States you will often hear of 
 the 'wheat centre' around which central point cluster 
 the largest productions of wheat. It will be worth one's 
 while to trace the migrations of this wheat-centre; for 
 it is not a stationary point. There was a time within this 
 century when the people of the six New England States 
 grew the wheat for their own bread. Now they could 
 not feed themselves with home grown wheat for a fort- 
 night. Since then New York was a great wheat grow- 
 ing State, and the wheat centre stood in it. Now its 
 
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 THE UNITED STATES 
 
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 wheat crop cannot feed its people for five months. After 
 that Pennsylvania was a great wheat grower, and the 
 w'leat centre was found there. Now its people can eat 
 up the wheat crop in ten months. Stepping for a 
 moment out of the line of the wdieat centre's migrations, 
 w^e will remark that as late as 1800 Virginia produced 
 twelve Lushels of wheat for every person in it. In 1870 
 it produced only six, and now probahly less. The wheat 
 centre for a time took its station in Ohio. Then it 
 moved into Indiana and Illinois, but is now somewhere 
 bel-wecn Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. But from its 
 past histoiy we infer that it will not stop there long; 
 and as in its migrations it has always moved westward, 
 it must then take a long leap over to Oregon and Cali- 
 fornia. Let Geneval Hazen tell us the reason why. 
 
 General Ha/.en is an officer in the U, S. army, and 
 seems to have been nrach employed in the far West,per- 
 haps in topographical exploration of the country. A 
 year or two ago he published an interesting article, it 
 may have been an official report, of what he had seen 
 there. In it he tells us that there lies East of the Rocky 
 Mountains a country twelve hundred miles square, 
 (1,440,000 square miles, seven-sixteenths of the territory- 
 of the United States) which is a desert w^ith not five per 
 cent of improvable land. And General Hazen's account 
 is confirmed by others who know the country well- 
 The cold winter there may be no fatal objection to an}' 
 part of this country, but the heat and drought in sum- 
 mer would keep the soil for ever stei-ile, if nature had 
 not already made it so. It may afford some good pastur- 
 age during a short season — but even for that purpose it 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 119 
 
 
 %^. 
 
 is wortli little. For tlie measur.- oF the capabilities of a 
 pastoral country, is its power of feeding stock, not 
 (luring the most plentiful, but during the scarcest season 
 of the year. It is said to be a country of great mineral 
 wealth. But all the treasures buried beneath its strata, 
 wouM not tempt the wheat centre to linger one moment 
 on the soil-less surface that coveis them. 
 
 If New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia have been 
 worn out as wheat <j:r()win<j: regions; if theie be truth in 
 the assertion attributed to Abraham Lincoln, who lived 
 in Illinois and knew it well, that the wheat fields of 
 that once fertile State had sunk to an avera<;e of ei<jht 
 bushels per acre; if the wearing (nit of virgin soil by 
 successive eroppings, without rest or rotation, be the true 
 characteiistic of American farming, we may safely infer 
 that the great wheat crops of the West will not prove a 
 permanent resource to the country. 
 
 The i-estless wheat centre, setting out from the coast, 
 has already travelled twelve hundred miles from the 
 Atlantic, and would travel further if it could. If this 
 wdieat is grown for European consumption, it costs a 
 fjreat deal to get it to market. Of three bushels on 
 their way to market, two eat up the third and lose some- 
 thing of their own weight and bulk b.'fore they get 
 there; for wheat is a heavy and cumbrous article in com- 
 parison with its value, and soon eats up the price in 
 travelling expenses. 
 
 This was one of the great advantages enjoyed by the 
 cotton States, while there were cotton States, and while 
 the\' made a cotton crop worth talking about. Their 
 great staple, even when sold cheap, wa.s still of great 
 
 
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 THE UNITED STATES 
 
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 value in proportion to its weight. If the farmer in the 
 far west got ninety cents per bushel for his wh^ it, it was 
 worth to him at most but one cent and a half per pound- 
 The cotton planter quite as often, if not oftener, got 
 twelve cents a pound for his cotton. If the wheat and 
 cotton set out together on their travels in search of 
 a market, when the wheat had expended its whole first 
 cost in travelling expences, the cotton would have spent 
 only twelve and a half per cent. A great and remote 
 traffic must be sustained by more costly commodities 
 than food, and especially grain, one of the cheapest forms 
 of food. 
 
 If in 1860 the people of the United States, from a 
 praiseworthy wish to pay some small part of the money 
 they owed in Europe, had denied themselves the use of 
 wheaten bread, and, while living on potatoes, maize and 
 oatmeal, had sent all their wheat to market abroad, it 
 would not have netted, at the average price of wheat, as 
 much as the cotton crop of the Southern States in that 
 year, but would have fallen short of the cotton at least 
 ninety millions of dollars. 
 
 We do not know what the wheat crop may yield in 
 this the most favourable season in the United States 
 within twenty or thirty years. But after all the boast- 
 ing as to the wheat crops of the States — most people 
 will be sui*prised to learn that the little region of Eng- 
 ]**nd, with but fifty thousand square miles (equal to one 
 ?'.r'y -fourth part of the U. S.) produces not much less 
 'v>)>arv 1 -tif as much wheat as all the States did in 1870 
 a-nu more than half of their crop in 1860. If all the 
 jj ' i/ in the United States used no bread stuff but 
 
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 UNMASKF.I). 
 
 121 
 
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 wheat, so far from ('xportinf:f large (|iiantitios, they 
 would often have to import it, for only a good crop could 
 supply their wants. 
 
 One who is familiar with farm labour and farm pro- 
 duce in England, Ireland, Germany and France, would 
 not think the United States a very advantageous country 
 for farming. The chief advantage is the abundance of 
 land, and the consequent low price and rent paid for it. 
 But good land is not abundant. There are many draw- 
 backs to farminnf. The extremes of the seasons are one 
 of the chief. North of latitude 40, except in some limit- 
 ed regions, the ground is frozen har I and the plough 
 cannot enter it from J)ecember until April, and often 
 until May — so that all tillage is interrupted for five 
 months, during which much could be done to the land 
 on a farm in Western Europe. On the other hand the 
 summers are very hot, throughout the country, compared 
 with those of Europe, North of the Alps — and in conse- 
 quence, Noj'th America is by no means as good a grain 
 growing region as Western Europe. 
 
 The summer is everywhere too hot, and in the North 
 the winter too cold and long; wheat, oats, and barley, 
 after lying dormant for months, are hurried on by 
 sudden heat to premature maturity, with too few months 
 of growth to produce the full and heavy yield common 
 in more temperate climates. Every farmer knows that 
 the more months a crop continues progressing naturally 
 to maturity, the fuller the return it will make to his 
 labour. In America the small grains are hurried on by 
 the heat and dryness of the summer, to hardening before 
 they have attained all their plumpness and weight. A 
 
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 THE UNITED STATES 
 
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 bushel of grain, whoat, barley, and os2)ecially oats, 
 weij^hs far less in the U. 8, thaii in Great Britain, and 
 much fewer busliels are made to the acre. 
 
 The climate of three-fourths of th • U. S. is far better 
 suited to maize, the farinaceous gruin which nature 
 sowed there. It is now the common bread stuff of half 
 the country; and should the Northern States ever 
 become really populous it will rival the potato in feed- 
 inof the other half. America is not destined to be the 
 granary of Western Europe. It is probably as much so 
 now as it ever will be. There is much barren land, in 
 every part of the continent. The better soils have been 
 or are being rapidly exhausted by continuous cropping; 
 and little is done to restoie their fertility. Few lay 
 stress on feeding their land, that their land may feed 
 them. The ocean is both directly and indirectly the 
 great source of the more fertilizing manures; and on a 
 large and compact continent the bulk of the land lies 
 far beyond the reach of that source of supply. 
 
 Slave labour is supposed to have been always accom- 
 }>anied by a slovenly, vicious, and wasteful system of 
 agriculture. Yet the only instance in the United States, 
 known to us, in which an extensive remon has been 
 restored from exhaustion to renewed fertility, occurred in 
 a slave State. In 1820 the soil of the Eastern and 
 larger part of Virginia was so much exhausted by un- 
 skilful cropping, and especially by the cultivation of 
 tobacco, that there was a great and continued migration 
 Westward in search of new lands. But after some en- 
 terprising and skilful planters had adopted and zealous- 
 ly disseminated a judicious system of culture, manuring, 
 
 r. 
 
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UNMASK KI). 
 
 128 
 
 %• 
 
 and rotation, it revived raj)idly, became a lar;L;e wheat 
 producing rc^jion, and in 18(10 was one of the most 
 thrivin*^ ui tlie furniint'' States. 
 
 It may be woith wliile to mention anotlier instance, 
 on a smaller scale, of an eftectual restoration or rather 
 creation of a fertile soil, also in a slave State. There are 
 a row of Hat sandy islands along the coast of South 
 Carolin I and Oeor<fia, many of them of considerable size. 
 The climate and soil are peculiarly fitted for the gr >wtli 
 of what is, or rather was known as sea-island cott >n, 
 that variety of the plant producing the finest and longest 
 fibre, and commanding a treble, ([uadi'uplc, and even 
 quintuple 'rice. But the light soil was quickly worn 
 out. These islands are separattM] from the miinland and 
 each other, not only by water courses — but a'so by salt 
 mud flats, covered with a thick growth of coai'se marsh 
 grass, (the Spurtina Qlnhra. we believe) and they are 
 covered at hi^rh tides with salt water. The cotton 
 planters gradually adopted the laborious and complicated 
 process of cutting, atv low tide, great quantities of this 
 marsh grass, and of the salt mud on which it grew, 
 spading it like peat or turf, then hauling it to their 
 fields, where it was pulverized and harrowed into the 
 soil, which was effectually renovated by this manure 
 laboriously rescued from the arms of the sea. But these 
 artificially fertilized islands are now barren of all but 
 weeds. 
 
 We are satisfied that it is only under peculiarly 
 favourable circumstances that effort is made to recuperate 
 the soil in the United States, Many things are there 
 adverse to farming, and even with cheap farms and 
 
 
 
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 THE UNITED STATES 
 
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 lai'irc farms few men •'row ricli on them. Even in the 
 healthier parts of the I ^nit(Ml States the extremes of 
 climatr «li,seoura<^e, perliaps f()r])i»l that assiihious and 
 continuous field labour throu;^hout the year which marks 
 the fairn-lal>o\n(!r in Western Europe, In the United 
 States but a small ju'oportion of farm-labourers will en- 
 gage or can get engagements by the year. The natives 
 grow up averse to steady farm work, and can be scarcely 
 tempteil to it by high wages; and the farmer has to look 
 chiefly aujong the newly come Irish and (lermans to find 
 his hired man. 
 
 The farmer struggles against many obstacles to profit- 
 able farmin<r besides the seasons and the soil. The hisrh 
 wajres of labour and the unreliable character of the 
 labourer, the high price to which the protective system 
 has raised most of the supplies, materials and imple- 
 ments needed on the farm ; the burdensome taxes on land 
 and on improvements on it, by State, and county, and 
 township assessments sadly cut down his profits. We 
 have been told by farmers that these burdens often 
 amount to three or four per cent on the assessed value 
 of the land, and that the amount of that assessment is 
 much influenced by the consideration, whether the 
 assessors and assessed belong to the same or different 
 political parties. 
 
 In one branch of industry and skill the people of the 
 United States have made remarkable progress. No 
 where have the inventive faculties of the mechanician 
 been more earnestly and successfully tasked, and besides 
 their own inventions they have laid claim to many that 
 they never made. The circumstances of the country 
 
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TTNMASKKD. 
 
 12; 
 
 stininlatod this (levclopinont. Deinand for laltonr and 
 scarcity i»f labour are fatlitM* and mother to lahour-savinix 
 contrivances; and among these have ])ecn many agricul- 
 tural implements greatly exi)e(liting labour on the farm. 
 But as they almost always aim only at getting a crop 
 out of the land speedily and cheaply, and few or none at 
 the recuperation of the soil, they have hastened, not re- 
 tarded the impoverishment of that soil. In some of the 
 North Western States thousands (.f acres of rich prairie 
 land in one body, without tree or stump, root or stone, 
 lie rea<ly for the plough. Agricultural speculators 
 eagerly secured possessions of these tracts. In many 
 cases many thousand acriis formed but one farm — for 
 the absence of all materials foi- fencini;, made enclosures 
 too costly a process for small holdings. The capitalist 
 called to his aid all the most efficient implements and 
 machiner\' for deep ploughing, thorough hanowing, 
 drilling, sowing and covering. Wlien the crop ripened, 
 portal>le steam thrashers, travelling from one point to 
 another of this wide domain, thrashed (Jut the wheat, 
 leaving the straw to dry in the almost lainless summer, 
 and all its valuable elements to be sublimated and dis- 
 persed by the scorching sun and the sweeping winds of 
 the unsheltered prairie. We sec admiring paragraphs 
 published, connnenting on these gigantic agricultural 
 feats, which have extracted shii)-loads of wheat from a 
 single farm. But in a very few years the proprietors, 
 — we will not call them farmers — find that they have 
 exported not only their crops, but their farms. The land 
 is well nigh dead from exhaustion, and the bare site is 
 far remote from the means of manuring and recupera- 
 
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 tion. Fertile and productive refj^ions have become bar- 
 ren and desolate before now. And some of these farm- 
 ing merchants have become bankrupt even before their 
 farms were worn out. 
 
 In almost every civilized country most of the wealth 
 is represented by the land-holders, the rural proprietors. 
 Even where such property is widely distributed among 
 many, not a few examples of great wealth are found 
 among them. This class have the most fixed and per- 
 manent interest in the country. Much of the refinement, 
 cultivation and integrity in the country is found among 
 them — and they exercise great social and political in- 
 fluence. It is not so in the United States. It was so in 
 the older and long settled Southern States; but it is so 
 no longer. 
 
 The farmers furnish the productions on which many 
 classes of traders and speculators make, and often lose 
 immense fortunes, but the farmers seldom grow rich ex- 
 cept in a very small way. In the United States the 
 large land-holder finds no class of tenants, with skill, 
 capital, and trustworthy character, to take leases of 
 farms at rents remunerative to the owner. And if, 
 rather than let his land lie idle, he undertakes to farm 
 on a large scale, every one he employs makes all he can 
 out of him without scruple, for a large land-holder is 
 looked upon as a monopolist, and lawful prey; and he 
 generally ends by being ruined. The only available use 
 for a large landed property, is to speculate upon it, by 
 cutting it up into small allotments, and selling them out 
 at retail price, as the shop-keeper does with his stock in 
 trade. 
 
 11 -ii 
 
3 '. 
 
 UNMASKED. 
 
 127 
 
 
 Ono of the chief natural resources of the United States 
 is undergoing rapid extinction. When North America 
 was first colonized few countries were better clad with 
 valuahle forest gi-owth than the Eastern half of the con- 
 tinent. Throughout the earlier history of the country 
 much of its wealth was derived from this source. The 
 amount of timber of all kinds seemed inexhaustible. 
 Ship-building, the preparation and exportation of timber, 
 and of what are known in commerce as naval stores, were 
 for a time the chief industries of the country. 
 
 But the forest is cut down, and where are the ships? 
 How few compared with what they once we»e! What 
 timber is left is of inferior quality, remote from water 
 courses, and will not repay the cost of bringing it to 
 market. The forest, the growth of centuries, can never 
 be replaced, and the want of it deteriorates the climate. 
 Already a considerable part of the United States is de- 
 pendent on Canada for timber; and we have good 
 assurance that this supply will not last long. 
 
 The rich men in the United States are not the pro- 
 prietors of the fields, meadows, and pastures, the broad 
 acres, the visible and tangible property of the country. 
 They do not much care for this kind of property. Its 
 annual j'^-ld is too moderate and comes in too slowly for 
 them. The rich men of the country, or the reputed rich, 
 are bankers, merchants, manufacturers, and above all, 
 successful gamesters in stock jobbing of all kinds, in gov- 
 ernment, and State, and municipal bonds, and railroad 
 corporation stocks, in government contracts got by 
 official favouritism for a high fee; and all these things 
 are of most fluctuating and uncertain value. Most of 
 
V 
 
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 128 
 
 THE UNITED STATES UNMASKED 
 
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 these millionaires have been lately raised into notice by 
 some lucky sj-eculation or peculation, and on a change of 
 luck may be never heard of again — like many a Croesus 
 who has lately disappeared in bankruptcy. But they 
 are the leading spirits of the day — the objects of envy 
 and admiration to that monstrous class, who are seeking 
 to make their fortunes by bold strokes in the feverous 
 and gambling markets of the United States. 
 
 The United States have been fo)' some years growing 
 less prosperous in their agriculture, their manufactures, 
 their commerce, their marine resources, and their forest 
 productions, than they ever have been for any prolonged 
 period; and we believe that their present condition can 
 be distinctly traced to growing and permanent causes. 
 
 
 
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 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Political and Social Condition of the United States. 
 
 The United States cover a vast region of country not 
 unblest in climate and soil, not wanting but rather 
 abounding in mineral wealth; and inhabited by a highly 
 capable population. Why should they not prosper? 
 Because evil ngencies, political and moral, aie, and long 
 have been making war upon their prosperity. 
 
 The people of those States which first formed the 
 Union were fortunate in inheritiuLr, with their Anglo- 
 Saxon blood, valuable political and social institutions 
 which) while kept pure and unperverted, protected their 
 rights and promoted their welfare. But they gradually 
 lost sight of the principles, on which political and social 
 life can be safely organizL'd, and gave themselves up to 
 the guidance of false maxims in government and soci- 
 ology, which have led them a long way towards moral 
 and material ruin. 
 
 We will specify some of those principles which they 
 have thrown away. 
 
 The colonies quarrelled with the mother country 
 because they were taxed by its parliament in which 
 they were not represented, 'No taxation without repre- 
 sentation!' This sounds like a safeguard to one's rights; 
 yet it is but a half truth, valueless and deceptive until 
 you add the suppressed half to it. 'No representation 
 without taxation!* 
 
 ^4 
 
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130 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
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 Government is a necessary agency. Society cannot 
 do without it. But it is a costly and burdensome agent; 
 and moreover one whose powers have often been grossly 
 abused and perverted from their true objects. Yet its 
 powers must be entrusted to some person, or persons, or 
 class of persons. The only class of persons to whom the 
 ultimate control over the government can be entrusted 
 with reasonable hope of good results, is that which 
 furnishes the means of supporting the government, and 
 feels the burden of its costly maintenance. This class 
 are the tax-payers, the holders of visible, tangible prop- 
 erty, which cannot hide itself from taxation. This class 
 has a direct and obvious interest in watching the gov- 
 ernment and the officials who administer its powers — in 
 checking extravagance and enforcing economy and 
 honesty in government expenditure; for they furnish 
 the means. They have every motive for watching that 
 the operations of government are directed to the pro- 
 tection of the rights and the redress of the wrongs of in- 
 dividuals, and the safety of the community — and not 
 perverted to purposes for which it was not created. For 
 this class have not only personal and social rights, like 
 other people, but they possess vast acquired and vested 
 rights peculiarly apt to suffer from the neglect or abuses, 
 or perversion of government ; rights, on the protection and 
 security of which the welfare and civilization of the 
 country depend. This class may be very numerous, or 
 may consist of comparatively few, according to the cir- 
 cumstances of the particular country. But in every 
 civilized country it forms but a minority, and usually a 
 small minority of the people in it. Yet their right to be 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 131 
 
 intrusted with the ultimate control over the jDfovernment 
 and its officials will not be hard to see when we have 
 considered two other suppositions. 1st, That of one man 
 being the imposer, collector, and expender of taxes. 2nd 
 That while the property-holders pay the taxes, those 
 who hold no property and pay no taxes, should impose 
 them. Do not say that tliis is an impossible case. But 
 it is certain to prove a ruinous arrangement. Tliese im- 
 posers of the taxes have no motive for enforcing on the 
 government economy and honesty in its expenditures. 
 They may become interested in its extravagance, its dis- 
 honesty, and in the perversion of its powers. Is not this 
 what has happened in the United States? 
 
 The individual States originally had in their political 
 organization this safe-guard against the extravagance, 
 dishonesty, and perversion of their governments. We 
 believe that in every one, certainly in nearly all of them 
 the franchise was limited to the freeholder, a basis of 
 political power wide enough to secure attention to the 
 protection of the personal and social rights of every 
 citizen, choice enough to secure that all who ultimately 
 controlled the government and its officials, should have 
 a direct interest in preserving that government from 
 corruption, and the perversion of its powers. Accord- 
 ingly these State governments were, for many years, 
 efficient without becoming burdensome or corrupt. 
 
 But the ultimate control of government and of its 
 officials is not now in the hands of those who have a 
 direct and obvious interest in the economical, honest, and 
 unperverted exercise of its powei's. That class has but 
 a very small voice in the matter, and no power to protect 
 
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 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 themselves or other people, except by bribing the multi- 
 tude of needy and mercenary voters, and paying exorbi- 
 tantly for their votes. 
 
 . By the theory of the government, in the States and in 
 the United States, all power is in the hands of the 
 majority of voters on the basis of universal manhood 
 suffrage ; and nothing but some forms of an effete politi- 
 cal organization, termed the ' Constitution of the United 
 States' stand between the sovereign majority and their 
 absolute despotism. The minority are nothing. This 
 sovereign majority consists chiefly of men who have no 
 direct and obvious interest in the honest and economical 
 administration of the powers of government. So far 
 from its burdens apparently falling on them, they feel a 
 direct and obvious interest in its expenditures being not 
 only liberal but extravagant. It is their aim that it 
 should multiply offices, undertake great public works, 
 give out great contracts, embark in every kind of under- 
 taking, assume every duty that can be forced into the 
 sphere of government operations, to swell its patronage 
 and multiply the paid dependants on its bounty. It is 
 their government, and ought to be their servant, bound 
 to do their work in securing to them prosperity in the 
 shape of good employment at high wages at least, if not 
 a fat office, or a profitable contract. 
 
 The vast majority of this sovereign people derive all 
 their political notions from the harangues of the dema- 
 gogues of the platform and tLi' press, men seeking their 
 favour and vote for office, or their support to some 
 measure in v/hich the orator has a direct but unseen 
 interest. The vast majority of the sovereign people have 
 
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 UNMASKED. 
 
 1.S3 
 
 most confused and false notions as to Aviiat the best and 
 most powerfiil government can do, and cannot do for 
 those who Hve under it. In commenting on the conduct 
 of pultlic affairs there are many unwelcome facts to be 
 dealt with, many unpleasant truths to be told. But the 
 telling of unpleasant truths is not the way to win the 
 mass of voters. Those public men whose good sense, 
 foresight and honesty lead them to raise a warning voice 
 and utter unwelcome truth, to point out obstacles that 
 obstruct the people's wishes, or evil consequences that 
 will follow their wilful course — these men, one after 
 another are dropped out of public life. The more adroit 
 courtiers of the people, those 'flattering prophets who 
 prophesy smooth things, prophesy deceits;' who pander 
 to every passion, prejudice, and aniiuosity, and every ex- 
 travagant and groundless hope — nay the very jesters 
 and buffoons that divert the crowd, l)ecome the chosen 
 counsellors of the mob; and the mob is kinsf. 
 
 The lower the stratum of population on which you lay 
 the foundation of political power, the more mixed the in- 
 gredients of that stratum in race and charactei*, the more 
 completely you throw the government into the hands of 
 demagogues, and the more unscrupulous these dem- 
 at-oiiues become. 
 
 It is by no means yet ascertained that an unmixed 
 Anglo-Saxon population, whose hereditar}^ institutions 
 and customs have best tended to train them for it, can 
 mnintaiii a decent, orderly government on the principles 
 of democracv and universal sutJiai^e. It is certain that 
 all other races have signally faileil (unless the Swiss, 
 under their very peculiar circumstances, form an excep. 
 
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 134 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
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 tion, and we do not know this.) It is certain that when 
 you introduce citizens of inferior races you increase and 
 complicate the difficulties^. But to the original Anglo- 
 Saxon population of the United States have been added 
 millions ox foreigners, most of them of races that have 
 shown pect' 'ia la'^^titude for popular government, 
 several millions of negi'oes incurably ignorant and in- 
 capable by race, and probably far more future millions 
 of Chinese; for it would be treason against what has 
 become the fun ' . . ^r;! principle of the government to 
 attempt to excludi; i i. This system of sovereign 
 democracy verges close ii;^>'^.\ a reference of all measures 
 
 of legislation and f 
 
 Atliament chosen by the 
 
 loafers and tramps that ^"^v:^! -. • every part of the 
 country. 
 
 It has already come to this, that the sovereign popular 
 majority can never again be represented by any consider- 
 able number of decent and honest men. Men who 
 respect truth, fair dealing, and themselves, cannot go 
 through the training necessary to secure the favour and 
 support of the local constituency of a section of this 
 sovereign mob. And he, who has successfully gone 
 through that training, is not fit to be trusted by any 
 honest man, or in any honest transaction. The direct 
 effect of this basis of government is to fill all offices with 
 the most artful and unscrupulous demagogues. It is 
 only by a rare combination of chances, or by the influence 
 of very great abilities that an honest man can get into a 
 post of importance ; and then he is quite out of counte- 
 nance, on looking into the faces of his brother officials 
 around him. 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 135 
 
 Previous to 1800 the Southern States undoubtciUy 
 exercised a conservative influence Wiiich checked the 
 growinL,^ corruption of men in office. Most of the South- 
 ern representatives were sent to Washington express!}^ 
 to watch and expose and oppose the frauds and pecula- 
 tions of politicians and i)lace-nien. They formed an 
 opposition which, although it failed to prevent the 
 systematic robbery of the South by the government, yet 
 could check the operations of individual thieves in office 
 and of rinirs or combinations of them; and although 
 there was peculation and knavery in almost every branch 
 of the public service, it was on a comparatively small 
 scale, and not seldom exposed and punished. 
 
 But the overthrow and conquest of the South, swept 
 every Southern statesman and patriot from the halls of 
 Congress, and filled their places with Northern adven- 
 turers and Southern turn-coats, who could be bought up 
 with a round sum, or negro representatives who could 
 be bribed at less cost. Since then, frauds and plunder- 
 ing in high places have multiplied and grown to gigantic 
 stature. Millions, untold millions have been the prize — 
 for no one knows to what extent the ifovernment and the 
 country have been robbed. What a startling narrative 
 of rascality in high places, involving Senators and Re- 
 presentatives in Congress — and the Vice-President, is 
 furnished by the history of the 'Credit Mobilier' and 
 the sixty millions of government bonds lent to aid the 
 Pacific railroad; and by the purchase of the utterly 
 worthless territory of Alaska, and the difterence between 
 the millions the United States paid and what the 
 Russian government received. Need we refer to the 
 
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 Its 
 
 manifest corruption in procurinj^ subsidies to the Pacific 
 Steam Navi<ration Co. — to appointments to indian 
 agencies and to post sutlcrsliips — to tlie immunity from 
 prosecution of tli.' Whiskey ring? and to a multitude of 
 transactions of the same stamp? We will dwell for a 
 moment on one of them. 
 
 Perhaps the most skillful and profitable series of st(^ck 
 jobbing transactions the world ever witnessed emanated 
 from Washington, and from tln' treasury department 
 there. 
 
 Everybody knows that while the currency of the 
 United States for years has been National bank notes, 
 and the legal tender notes of the government, yet 
 nothing but gold is received at the custom-house in pay- 
 ment of duties. The paper money (lying promises to 
 pay) being plentiful, and gold being scarce, paper money 
 fell many per cent below gold ; or, in Yankee parlance, 
 gold rose many per cent above paper money. Their 
 phraseology avoided stating the simple and obvious truth 
 that it was the paper money that fell and fluctuated in 
 value, not the goM that ros(i in price. As to him, who 
 is gliding down the river on a swift boat, every object 
 on the shore seems to be hurrying up the stream, so 
 those, who had embarked themselves and their fortunes 
 on a fluctuating paper currency, said that gold was rising 
 in value, whenever they found themselves swept down- 
 ward by the ebb of the financial tide. 
 
 As every one that imported foreign goods needed gold 
 to pay the duties, there sprung up a market for gold 
 coin — and the m-eat but fluctuating demand for ixold to 
 pay duties, caused a corresponding fluctuation in the 
 
 m 
 

 UNMASK F, I) 
 
 1^7 
 
 Value of pjiper money. Some times it took more papfv 
 money, and sometimes less, to buy a fixed sum in gold. 
 Tlie notorious gold room in Now York was the scene of 
 the excited and noisy transfer of golden millions daily; 
 and became the financial gamester's hell. For soon stock- 
 jobbing operations by individuals, and by conspiring 
 rings of advi'nturers, became far more the soni-ce of these 
 transactions than the commercial demand for gold. 
 
 The fifovernment was the <rreat receiver of L-old, 
 through the custom-house, and the great holder of gold; 
 fo)', keej)ing it, it paid all its current expenses in paper 
 money. When in want of paper money, the Sccivtary 
 of the Treasury would put some millions of gold in the 
 market, and sell it for the paper with which he paid tl:!' 
 current expenses of the government. 
 
 A judicious and patriotic treasurer would not miss th(,' 
 chance of doing a little financiering for the relief of a 
 needy government and depletiMl treasury, by with-liold- 
 ing the sales of gohl until, in Yankee parlance, tlie pi-ice 
 rose very high, that is until a great deal of depreciating- 
 paper money could be got for it. Then, by sud'ienlv 
 putting it into the market, the government might make 
 many a good bargain out of the buyers of goM. In order 
 however to do this eft'ectunlly it would l)e necessary to 
 have a private agent authorized to contract to deliver 
 gold at a price fixed by contract at an appointtnl day to 
 come. For the moment the govei-nment millions came 
 into the market, the price of gold was sure to tumble 
 down several per cent. 
 
 Thus the value of paper money, (In Yankee parlance, 
 the price of gold) was made, we will not say to oscillate, 
 
 
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 THK UNITED STATES 
 
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 for oscillations are measured* by equable times, but to 
 fluctuate greatly, going up and tlown at most uncertain 
 p^'riods, which no body could foresee, except those who 
 were in the secret of the golden ebb and flow <jf the 
 treasury millions. The gold room at New York fur- 
 nished a most gigantic and exciting game of hazard, im- 
 mensely profitable to those who, by fee or favour, could 
 get a timely hint from Washington, the head-quarters 
 from which the game was played. 
 
 It is not to be suj)posed that the Secretary of the 
 Treasury ventured to take upon himself the whole re- 
 sponsibility of this game, which so seriously affected the 
 value of the whole curiency and indebtedness of the 
 country. He nmst have consulted the President and 
 his cabinet, and secured their assent, or they, not under- 
 standing it, would soon have put a stop to this game 
 which was played most briskly in 1870 and 1871, until in 
 the latter year ^old suddenly ran up to 1.40, and higher, 
 and brought on the ' Black Friday' which not only ruined 
 a crowd of the gamesters, but threatened to prove that 
 this government paper money might be worth nothing 
 after all. 
 
 After this catastrophe the treasury department felt 
 compelled to use the government gold as the means of 
 steadying the value of the paper currency; and as it has 
 been able to do this ever since, it is evident that it might 
 have done so before. But there seem to have been 
 other ends aimed at, to the attainment of which these 
 sudden fluctuations in the value of the currencv, and the 
 power of producing them, appear to have been essential. 
 
 The 'Black Friday' with other days of this series of 
 
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 tlNMASKKn. 
 
 mo 
 
 Miiddon financial Hnctuations, ruino<l rrowils of jT^ainostors^ 
 who became bankrupt for vast amounts. But as we 
 never heard that any liigh officials at Wasliington were 
 losers on these occasions, we infer that, either they took 
 no part in the game, or had the luck to be always on 
 the winning side. Much money was doubtless made by 
 well timed sales of o:overnment gold. But how much 
 accrued to the l»enefit of the treasury, and how nuich to 
 that of individuals, we know not, nor will ever know. 
 
 We will have occasion later to allude ta the official 
 robbery of almost every Southern State to the amount 
 of tens and twenties of millions each, bv the intrusive 
 governments forced upon them by the North. But it is 
 impossible to exhaust the list of official robberies, and 
 difficult to over-state the amount \ 
 
 The pe.'ple of the United States have become so much 
 accustomed to fraud and robbery to the amount of 
 millions by high officials and prominent politicians, by 
 great bankers, merchants, manufacturers and others 
 controlling great capital and high influence, that nothing 
 of this kind now startles them. They have ceased to 
 look or ask foi* honesty in men high in place. They 
 have lost their perception of infamy; and, in politics at 
 least, quite as readily trust and sustain a rogue as an 
 honest man. Indeed they rather prefer the rogue, as 
 they hope to get something out of him, and his ill gotten 
 
 gams. 
 
 We will give an instance proving this. When Mr. 
 Charles O'Connor, sacrificing for a time his professional 
 inteiests to his patriotism, devoted himself to ferreting 
 out the official rascalities of the notorious 'Boss' Tweed 
 
 
 
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 140 
 
 rHK ex IT HI) STATKS 
 
 and liis colleagues, by whicli they hail rolthed the city 
 (jf New York of twenty-tive inillion.s of dollars, six of 
 which millions at least went into the pocket of Twined 
 alone — after Mr. O'Connor had made these monstrous 
 rascalities, and especially Tweed's, manifest to all men, 
 hut hefore he coiild obtain his criminal conviction, 
 Tweed's constituents, the inub of New York, sent him 
 back as a senator in the State senate, to Albany, the 
 very scene of nuiny of his most remarkable .acts of cor- 
 rupticm. Could he even now wriggle himself out of the 
 clutches of the law, while yet retaining some of his 
 pUnider, the}' are (piite capable of sending him back 
 again to fill the senatorial chair as the representative 
 most worthy of his constituents,* 
 
 j-joss Twe 'd, we believe, was originally a chair- maker, 
 or chair painter, or of somo such trade, but got his title 
 of 'Boss' by becoming a master workman in a very 
 different line. IJut let no man imaijine that Boss Tweed 
 is an anomalous character, or has run an anomalous 
 career. He is simply a well marked type of a numerous, 
 and many of them still prosperous class of officials, to be 
 found in every considerable municipal corporation, in 
 every State government, in every department of the 
 U. S. government, in the house of Representatives and 
 the Senate, in the cabinet and tlie diphmiatic corps. 
 Many of them, like Boss Tweed, have come to grief. 
 But not a few, whose tortuous and dishonest careers are 
 well known, still letain popular favour and high place. 
 
 Nothing can be more false than the supposition that 
 under democratic institutions the people, or a majority 
 *Thi8 was written before Tweed's death in the penitentiary. 
 
UNMASK KD. 
 
 141 
 
 K* 
 
 .. SH' 
 
 of tlu; people, or any considerable number of them rule 
 and govern. Under any form of government whatever, 
 the exercise and administration of the offices and powers 
 of government, must fall into the hands, not of the 
 many, but of the few. The most that any consideiable 
 part of a nation can do, is to choose the official agents 
 by whom the country is governed. To do this 
 wisely and honestly is a very nice and difficult duty; 
 and the election of all officials by universal suffrage is 
 the certain way to turn all the duties and powers of 
 government into the hands of the most designiuLT, in- 
 tiiguing, and ui 'scrupulous demagogues — and of rings or 
 combinations of conspiring demagogues, to be used for 
 their own purposes, to the damage and possible ruin of 
 the country. Their statesmanship consists in hoodwink- 
 ing one part of the people, bribing another, and [)lunder- 
 ing the rest. 
 
 The United States are far too sparcely peophd a 
 country for them naturally to feel that pressure of pop- 
 ulation on the means of subsistence, which seems to be 
 almost unavoidable in old and populous countries. Yet 
 they have come in for more than their share of all these 
 evils. They have their crowds of work-people, periodi- 
 cally, and also at uncertain, unexpected occasions, thrown 
 out of employment, and on the verge of starvation ; 
 strikes and lock-outs on a giant scale; leading to con- 
 flicts between labour and capital, to conspiracies for 
 secret but wholesale murder, of which the Molly Mc- 
 Guires are but one example; and to the open conflicts of 
 armed thousands, amounting to civil war. In the law- 
 less outrages in the Pennylvania coal regions, and in the 
 
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 142 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 bloodshed and conflagrations growing out of the groat 
 strikes of railroad employes on scores of roads running 
 through many states, we have seen only the beginning, 
 not the end. In no country is there more open discon- 
 tent and secrt^t plotting, at war with private and social 
 rights and interests, than among both the labouring and 
 the idling classes in the United States. 
 
 It is true that this government by the people has for 
 years past been very successful in making the fortunes 
 of those who could obtain office under it, or exercise in- 
 fluence over those who are in office. It has made many 
 men rich — but it has increased, not diminished the 
 number of the poor, and deepened their poverty. No 
 country is more over-run with loafers and tramps, and 
 the surplus of the latter flow over the borders to the 
 great annoyance and damage of their Canadian neigh- 
 bours. The countrv is over-run with abandoned and 
 criminal characters of all kinds, many of whom have en- 
 joyed and availed themselves of good o[)portunities of 
 obtaining an education. For under this popular govern- 
 ment much has been expended in educating the people; 
 but little can be said of the moral effects of this educa- 
 tion. The literary training of the people serves chiefly 
 to enable them to enjoy the Newgate calendar narratives 
 of fresh rascalities and atrocities committed in various 
 parts of the country, and industriously disseminated by 
 the most licentious and libellous press that ever infested 
 any country. It serves to familiarize them with crime 
 and how to commit crimes. And of that portion of the 
 people who make a profession of religion the greater part 
 are chiefly interested in the fulminations, satires, and 
 slanders issuing from most licentious pulpits. 
 
 
 
'. 'I 
 
 and 
 
 UNMASKED. 
 
 143 
 
 ft' 
 
 Government by the people, from the broad platform 
 of universal sufFracje as the soverek'n source of all law. 
 has utterly failed to fulfil its promise to elevate the 
 material and moral welfare of the country. It has 
 utterly degraded both. 
 
 Having said so much of the source of government and 
 law, we will now speak of the administration of the law 
 in the United States. 
 
 The people of these States inherited, with English law, 
 a wise usafje in the administration of the law. The 
 judicial office was made the object of ambition to the 
 best members of the legal profession. It was entrusted 
 to a lawyer of learning, ability, and unspotted reputa- 
 tion. His position was permanent. Durti bene gesseret 
 Nothing short of impeachment could remove him. He 
 stood on a pedestal, the representative embodiment of 
 impartial, passionless law — apart from professional in- 
 fluence, from partisan strife, from political alliances, from 
 the low and corrupting intrigues of election politics, 
 from busy, money-seeking pursuits; his time and 
 attention engrossed by the study of a high and broad 
 s^'stem of ethics, and in the application of its principles 
 to the disentangling and the just decision of those per- 
 petually occurring contests and litigations between man 
 and man, and of society with individuals. If he camo 
 but half honest to his official position, lie was surrounded 
 rluring his official career by all those influences which 
 most strongly tend to make a man wholly honest; and 
 more, a learned, wise, and independent judge, a safe-guard 
 and ?. treasure to the state. 
 
 That dignified and trustworthy magistrate, the judge 
 
 
 
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 ll 
 ll 
 
 
 
 144 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 dum bene gesseret, whose official life lasts until he resigns 
 his office, unless it can be proved on impeachment that 
 he has been guilty of acts that render him unworthy of 
 his post, has almost vanished from the horizon of the 
 United States. It is true that the remnant of that docu- 
 ment called 'The Constitution of the United States' yet 
 retains that clause which provides that 'judges of the 
 Federal courts shall hold office during good behaviour; 
 But the judges of these courts have long been selected 
 and put into office, not from consideration of their legal 
 attainments and integrity of character, but for their 
 usefulness and subserviency to the party in power. 
 Numberless facts prove this, but one of rather late 
 occurrence will suffice for an example. 
 
 The States, on entering into the Union, bound them- 
 selves and each other on this point: 'That no State 
 should make anything but gold and silver coin a tender 
 in payment of debts.' They had just had late and sad 
 experience of the ruinous and dishonest effects of paper 
 money. A very few years ago, however, the United 
 States government, being in urgent need of the means 
 of meeting its vast and corrupt expenditures. Congress 
 authorized the issue of a great amount of treasury-notes, 
 and made them a legal tender in payment of debts. 
 Most unexpectedly however to the goveinment, the 
 point coming up in a case in court, a majority consisting 
 of the older judges of tlie Supreme Court of th(3 U. S. 
 suddenly remembered the law, the Constitution, and 
 their own independent position, and decreed, five against 
 four, that Congress had no power to make paper money 
 a legal tender; that this was not among the powers 
 
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UNMASKED. 
 
 Ul 
 
 5;! 
 
 granted by the States. The government seems however 
 to have had influence enough with the court to induce 
 it to suppress the publication of this decree for some 
 months; and, death meanwhile removing one of this 
 stubborn majority of the judges, a more subservient man 
 was put in his place. The question was then reconsider- 
 ed, and it was decided, five to four, that as the States 
 had denied to themselves the prerogative of cheating the 
 people with false money, therefore, they must have 
 granted that power to their common agent, the Federal 
 government. This is but one sample of the many per- 
 versions of constitutional provisions — and ot' the usurpa- 
 tion of powers by the U. S. government. 
 
 In nearly all, if not all the States, the judges are, now, 
 elected by the popular vote, or in some ca^es by the 
 legislative assembly. They hold office for short terms, 
 two or four years — receive very moderate salaries, and 
 are seldom lawyers of the better class, in learning, 
 ability, or character. They are in fact far more poli- 
 ticians than lawyers. Th(^y owe their places far more to 
 party afliliations than professional qualifications, and 
 must keep in with and serve their party without 
 scruple, or some other dominant party, if they seek to 
 retain their places when another election comes round. 
 We have at times seen one of the most inferior lawyers 
 in court, sitting on the bench as judge — and this is a 
 natural result of the mode of appointment. We believe 
 that in ordinary cases the decisions are in conformity 
 with the law and the evidence. But there are solid 
 grounds for the belief that, where large amounts and 
 great interests are at stake, which can aftbrd heavy 
 
 
11: :JksB 
 
 146 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 
 IM' 
 
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 i-'i 
 
 bribes, neither judges nor juries are often found incor- 
 ruptaWe; and that both decrees, and verdicts frequently 
 have been, and continue to be bought, perhaps in every 
 State in the Union. Justice is orrowinnr more and more 
 corrupt at the fountain head — and the longest purse 
 furnishes the best plea. 
 
 Marriage and a due regard to the obligations of 
 marriage are the foundation of society, of morals, and of 
 civilization. The people of these States inherited from 
 their English ancestors the true principles as to the 
 objects and obligations of the marriage bond. Eschew- 
 ing the loose morality of the Civil law which facilitated 
 divorce, and permitted him who had grown old in a 
 lewd career, to legitimate hii> neglected and grown up 
 bastards by and on marrying their loose-lived mother — 
 the English law taught that among the objects of 
 marriage the nurture of children took a leading place> 
 and that legitimacy consisted in being born in lawful 
 wed-lock. It moreover laid down the Christian rule as 
 to the bindinof nature of the marriaofe contract, allowinof 
 no divorce except for one offence against the marriage 
 vow. The true wisdom and sound morality of this law 
 as to the indissoluble obligation of marriage, and this 
 rigid limitation of divorce, is proved by the observed fact 
 that wherever it is most difficult to obtain a divorce 
 there will be fewest cases in which it is desirable, or 
 desired by married people. Where divorces are easily 
 obtained there are an ever increasinnf number of cases 
 in which there are good grounds for seeking it; and 
 moreover that it is often eagerly sought for insufficient 
 causes, and obtained by fraudulent and criminal means. 
 
m 
 
 UNMASKED. 
 
 147 
 
 
 There is no one test from which we can better infer the 
 yocial and moral condition of a peDple than that of the 
 difficulty or the ease with which divorce may be 
 obtained. 
 
 The laws of England and of its off-shoots in America 
 long discountenanced divorce from the bonds of matri- 
 mony to such a point, that a decree for divorce could 
 only be obtained in England by act of parliament, in 
 the colonies by act of Assembly. The great cost of 
 obtaining a decree by act of parliament (which was 
 always founded on a previous legal decision) led not 
 many years ago to the establishing of a special court for 
 • the decision of such cases. Divorces have become more 
 frequent in England, but are still rare, and only decreed 
 for very weighty causes. In one or two of the States 
 this necessity of a decree by legislative enactment was 
 retained even later than in England; and in one State 
 at least, but a few years ago, there had never been a 
 decree for divorce. And while the law stood thus, cases 
 calling for relief by divorce never were rarer in any 
 country. 
 
 But a sad change has taken place in the States, in the 
 frequency of divorces, and in the frequency of the cases 
 which would justify divorce even under more stringent 
 laws than those which now regulate them. The Federal 
 courts have not as yet we believe, usurped any jurisdic- 
 tion in matters so foreign to the purposes of their 
 creation, as marriage and divorce. But in almost every 
 State the old rules as to the indissoluble character of 
 the marriage bond have been fearfully relaxed. In many 
 of them divorces can be decreed for utterly insufficient 
 
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 148 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 causes. In some of them marriaije seems to be little 
 more binding than a partnership which may be termin- 
 ated by a three months notice by one of the partners. 
 Indeed, practically, notice of intention to sue for divorce 
 does not always seem to be necessary. Married parties 
 living in one State, have found themselves divorced 
 from a husband or wife by the decree of a court in 
 another State, in a suit which they never heard of until 
 the decree was pronounced — the \ isband or wife liaving 
 gone thither and resided in that State for a month or 
 two in order to give the court a colourable jurisdiction. 
 It is not unusual to see in some of the chief journals in 
 the United States, advertisements by legal firms, 
 announcing that they -pay especial attention to divorce 
 cases, and guarantee to procure decrees for divorce 
 speedily, cheaply, and secretly. Such an advertisement 
 itself should be made a felony. 
 
 We are far from having yet seen the full effect of this 
 relaxation of the marriage bond. The morals of a peo- 
 ple never rise above, often sink far below the morality 
 of their legislation. It is in vain that the more import- 
 ant Christian bodies, the church of Rome, the Anglican 
 church, and some others, set their faces against the re- 
 cognition ot these divorces. The tide of profligacy is too 
 strong for them. 
 
 We know of no case in which have been considered 
 the legal effects of loosening in one State the bond of a 
 marriage made fast in another. It seems to us that in 
 the latter State such a decree should be treated as a 
 nullity. But we fear that in many States their courts 
 would decide otherwise. 
 
^mm 
 
 UNMASKED. 
 
 149 
 
 Thus the people of these States inherited from their 
 English ancestors many valuable institutions. Among 
 tliese one, the guarded franchise, was the Lest safe-guard 
 against the corruption and abuse of political power, and* 
 preserved the possibility of reforming the government- 
 Another, the independent judge, secured the wise an I 
 inijmrtial administration of justice. A third maintained 
 the sanctity of marriage, the foundation stone of society 
 and civilization. But the people of these States have 
 ruthlessly thrown away these principles, as valueless- 
 and it is scarce worth while to inquire what more 
 they have thrown away with them. 
 
 
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CHAPTER IX. 
 
 << .•m:j 
 
 II. 
 
 v;. «. 
 
 The Vast Indebtedness of the Country — and its Effects. 
 
 Few people are aware of the immense amount owing 
 in the United States, by the Federal government, by the 
 State governments, by municipal corporations, by rail- 
 road, manufacturing, mining and other great companies, 
 which have long been offering tempting inducements for 
 the vesting of capital and lending of money. We can- 
 not ourselves approximate the amount; but we know 
 that it is so great, that the government debt, large as it 
 is, makes no large part of it. But we must not speak 
 too precisely of the debt of the government; for nobody 
 seems to know its exact amount, not even the Secretary 
 of the Treasury. For the statements respecting it, pub- 
 lished otticially, have been several times inconsistent 
 with each other. There has been for some years a 
 growing suspicion that the treasury department cannot 
 publish a true balance sheet if it would, and would not 
 if it could. 
 
 Few people know how much of all these borrowings, 
 investments, and expenditures in the United States have 
 little or no profitable or useful results to show for them. 
 Out of numberless examples we will refer to two, one of 
 a public, the other of a more private character. 
 
 Three or four years ago the yearly expenditure of the 
 United States on the army and navy, and other military 
 objects was more than $80,000,000, more than two thirds 
 
 R 
 
unmaski:d. 
 
 151 
 
 
 
 that of Great Britain. But Great Britain has a navy 
 more powerful than that of any two, perhaps three 
 otlier powers, and one of the most powerful armii s in the 
 world. The United States ca]\ hardly be said to have 
 an army, some 22,000 oi- 23,000 troops ; and as to the 
 navy, it has not one single powerful iron-clad; and some 
 four ytars ago it was prevented from picking a ({uarrel 
 with Spain and stealing Cuba, simply by utter inability 
 to face the Spanish navy. When, after appropriating 
 380,000,000 a year to maintain the army and navy, the 
 United States government has so very little to show for 
 it, we can only conclude that official sharpers have inter- 
 cepted two thirds of the money, and applied it to their 
 own uses. 
 
 That net work of rail-roads, which covers the United 
 States, was built, not so much with the money of the 
 stock-holdei-s, as wath the two or three thousand millions 
 which they borrowed on the bonds of the companies and 
 the mortgages of the roads. Very few of these roads 
 have proved good investments. More than three-fourths 
 of them are but monumental mounds raised over the 
 money buried thero by the stock-holders. By the last 
 accounts we have seen there are already nine hundred 
 millions of these rail-road bonds on which the companies 
 cannot pay one cent of interest; and the amount is on 
 the increase. Is the principal of these debts too to b • 
 buried under the monumental mounds that stretch 
 across the country? This class of dqbts is only one, 
 although the greatest, of many classes of bankrupt enter- 
 prises, and of indebtedness ruinous alike to the debtor 
 and the creditor. 
 
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 152 
 
 THIO UNITED STATES 
 
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 \Vc miglit give nuinberloss proofs of the fall in the 
 value of property. A few will suffice: Much real estate 
 in New York has been lately sold for less than it was 
 niortgage<l for. Very lately a factory in 8aleni, Massa- 
 chusetts, costing $3,000,000, sold for $1(50,000— one 
 nineteenth of tin; original outlay. And still worse — we 
 see announced the sale, in New York on the 20th June, 
 187H, of 300,000 acres of land in McDowell County, 
 Western Virginia, at an average of one cent per acre. 
 This is probably mountain land, but is said to be well 
 wooded. I'eing on the borders of the Northern and 
 (Southern States, the price indicates a monstrous fall in 
 the value of property all over the country. 
 
 Passing over the greit banking, minini;-, and manufac- 
 turing enterprises, and the land speculations, involving 
 vast amounts, most of which have ended so disastrously 
 for the undertakers and their creditors, we will dwell 
 for a moment on a minor class of enterprises, which are 
 very characteristic of the Yankee. 
 
 The people of the United States, who have among 
 them, and know, very little of what people of the higher 
 class in other countries call 'society,' have yet a craving 
 for it, and, as a substitute, are fond of the publicity of 
 'hotel life.' This is the most vulgar taste imaginable; 
 but it serves their purpose. The amounts expended in 
 building monstrous hotels in the most costly styles, in 
 commereial cities, and at places of summer resort, is as- 
 tounding. And tiie rival amounts expended in furnish- 
 insf them in the most jxorueous manner, no less astound- 
 ing. They put to the blush most English noble- 
 men's mansions and many a princely palace. Most of 
 
 
Mi 
 
 UNMASKED. 
 
 I5;i 
 
 these ainbitious temples of ineiccnfii y liospitality — have 
 of late proved uttiu- failures. Hotels costin;^ each one, 
 and even two ndllions, and the furniture costing; several 
 hundreds of thousands, after a year or two ha' e been 
 .sold for tun or twelve per cent on tlieir cost. Just at 
 this time the Yankee cannot atlord luxurious livinir, and 
 the ostentatious mimicry of refined society, atforded by 
 a fasliionable public house. 
 
 Having said some things jis to the debts of the people 
 of the United States, let us inijuire how tliey are to pay 
 their debts. 
 
 It is difficult to fix a limit to the amount a ijfovern- 
 ment may owe, and also to how much the people in the 
 country may owe, without causing serious finan -ial em- 
 barrassment — provided the creditors live in the countiy, 
 and make their expenditures an<l investments there. 
 But when the creditors live in another country, and have 
 got heartly sickened of making their investments in the 
 debtor country — that (dters the ensf. For instance: At 
 the end of the wars with France in 1815, Great Britain 
 owed eight hundreJ and forty millions, sterling. This 
 money was well spent. Better owe that amount th m be 
 over-run and torn to pieces as Prussia was in 1«S0G. But 
 this debt was monstrous; and the population of Great 
 Britain was not half, nor its resources one third of what 
 they are now. Yet from that day to this the govern- 
 ment has punctually paid 27 or 28 millions, sterling, of 
 yearly interest on the debt; and did .so without ditti- 
 culty, because the creditors lived in Great Britain, spent 
 their incomes and made their investments there. H 
 these millions had to be sent annually to creditors in 
 
 '>. 
 
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 I ! 1] 
 
 
 
 
 ••ft; 
 
 i.;. ». 
 
 l: 
 
 154 
 
 THE LWrTKD STATKS 
 
 Germany or Franco, the payment Wijiild liave l»een a 
 heavy bunlen on tlie eountry. We douht vvliether it 
 would lont( liave continued to he paid at all. 
 
 The predicament not only of the United States govern- 
 ment, hut of the States, of the municipalities, and other 
 great corporations all ovei- the (Tuion is this: They 
 have borrowed freely, for tlieir credit was immense; they 
 have spent freely, and often extravagantly through 
 corrupt and unscrupulous officials, and they have very 
 little to set off against their debts. There are cities in 
 the Union that proclaim themselves bankrupt; There 
 are other bankru) .ities that do not proclaim the fact. 
 There are cities that reject their own ^^oupons in pay- 
 ment of city taxes; just as the U. S. government rejects 
 its own legal tender notes in payment of duties at the 
 custom-house. Now althoujjh the U. S. and the State 
 governments cannot be sued — cities are merely corpo- 
 rate bodies, and can be sued in theory of law; but it 
 seems that there is not law enough in the country to en- 
 force payment of debts by such debtors. 
 
 There is another class of debts of a peculiar character. 
 There is not one of the Southern States which does not 
 apparently owe many millions. Louisiana for instance 
 owes fifty millions. The State was not much in debt in 
 18G5 — at the end of the war owing but ten millions. 
 The other forty millions accrued under the intrusive 
 government, thrust on the State by the U. S. govern- 
 ment, after first disfranchising most of the chief men 
 and property holders in the State. This intrusive 
 government was maintained partly by the support of 
 the negro voters, but more by the intrigues of the so- 
 
 
 I":!! 
 
 W. 
 
n a 
 r it 
 
 
 UNMASK KD. 
 
 155 
 
 called State officials with those in ])ower at Washington, 
 and V)y the presence of tlu; U. S. nulitary force; hut for 
 the presence of wliich this revolutionized government 
 would not have lasted one day. The policy of this in- 
 trusive government was confiscation by taxation. This 
 was enjoined them by their allies at the North. The 
 legislature consisted largely of negroes whose votes were 
 easily and cheaply bought, and it represented no prop- 
 erty — for most of the holders of property had been dis- 
 franchised. The taxation was raised to eijxht or ten fold 
 that of former times. But this did not satisfy these 
 hari)ies in office, chiefly Northern men. With the 
 sanction of thcii bribed legislature they issued state 
 bonds bv millions and tens of millions, and sold them in 
 the New York money market at 20, 40, and 50 per cent 
 discount. Forty millions of the Louisiana state bonds 
 represent, not the extravagance, but the bribery and 
 direct stealings of the intrusive officials whom the U. S. 
 government put upon the State and long helped to 
 maintain there, in order to avail itself of the negro vote- 
 This picture of the condition of Louisiana is applica- 
 ble to that of most of the Southern States. But in spite 
 of all the efforts to exasperate the negroes, and band 
 them together, in opposition to the white people, the 
 ' .tter have begun to regain their influence and control 
 )ver the State governments — and most of the late 
 )fficials have found it convenient to avoid the investiga- 
 tion of their doings by leaving the South. 
 
 The people of Louisiana and of the other Southern 
 States ould only be doing themselves justice by spung- 
 ing ou very dollar of debt accruing since 18G5 — that 
 
150 
 
 THE UNIT EI) STATES 
 
 I'll 
 
 P>i 
 
 is, on an avoage, seven-eights of what they nominally 
 owe. They will find it difficult to pay what they 
 justly owe. 
 
 The condition of the Southern States i-enders this re- 
 pudiation certain, and the sooner it comes the better. 
 
 We have said that t]ie airricultural industry^ of the 
 South is paralyzed, and its productions diminishing, 
 althought not as fast as they formerly increased. We 
 have said that the neofroes, no lonijer in habitual inter- 
 course with, and under the control of a superior race, are 
 dwindlin<>f in number, and fallinnf back from civilization 
 and Christianity, into savagedom. Remembering that 
 civilization and industry walk hand in hand, what can 
 we anticipate for the indolent and improvident negro? 
 How unreliable is free negro labour, is proved by the 
 fact that the sugar planters of Jamaica, Demerara, and 
 elsewhere, although surrounded by swarms of idle and 
 needy negroes, go to the expense of contracting for, and 
 importing Coolies from the other side of tlie world, to 
 labour on their plantations. Why is this? Because 
 agriculture, depending on the seasons, requires labour 
 that can be relied on. The neofro is more able bodied 
 than the Coolie, and more at home under the tropical 
 sun. But by physical constitution he is a drone, and 
 mentally, little capable of keeping to a contract. A 
 careless worker at best, he is most apt to absent himself 
 when most wanted, as in seed time and harvest — when 
 every day lost, hazards the returns of the toil and out- 
 lay of the whole year. The Coolies, as a race are steady 
 and skilful labourers; while with some exceptions, the 
 negroes both in Africa and elsewhere, have seldom prac- 
 tised any but an enforced industry. 
 
 Ill a 
 
I'd 
 
 UNMASKED. 
 
 157 
 
 But we have said little, and will here take occasion 
 to say some things as to the condition and feelings of 
 the white people, the true people of the Southern 
 States. 
 
 They are fearfully impoverished. The rich have he- 
 come poor, and the poor, with few exceptions have be- 
 come poorer. One effect of this poverty is that the 
 young are growing up, or have gi-own up w4th few of 
 those advantages of education which their parents en- 
 joyed. Higher education requires money and leisure, 
 and the present generation have neither. Most of the 
 better class of schools have died out from starvation. 
 The colleges, such as survive, dwindle for want of patron- 
 age, and of funds to maintain competent instructois, 
 always difficult to find. Many of the more able and 
 learned clergy have been driven by want to seek livings 
 in other parts of the Union, not readily found there. 
 Numbers of chuiches, especially in country neighbour- 
 hoods, are closed from utter inability to supi)ort a 
 pastor. The military schools, of which there were form- 
 erly one or more in each State, were imperiously closed 
 by the Federal government. The consequence is that, 
 in all the attributes of higher education and civilization, 
 a very inferior generation is taking the place of that 
 which preceded it. It took several generations to raise 
 society in the South to the position it had reached, and 
 which was highly progressive. It will require but one 
 to brins: it down to a very low level. Nothincr has con- 
 tributed more to the rapid fall of tone and feeling, tlian 
 the fact that when the South sprang to arms, to defend 
 itself against its assailants and invaders, the educated 
 
 
 
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 I' 
 
 ;r 'i 
 

 I. M- 
 
 ft 
 
 K 
 
 •^r 
 
 1", ..* 
 
 
 ■f 
 
 1G2 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 mere forgeries by the chief officers of the State. We do 
 not remember the amount of the whole of these issues; 
 but we believe, although these sums sound fabulous, that 
 the Georgia bonds amounted to fifty millions; those of 
 Louisiana to forty millions; South Carolina, thirty-four 
 million": Alabama, thirty-three millions; North Caro- 
 lina, twenty-five millions; the very poor State of 
 Florida, fifteen millions. 
 
 In order to give a sort of sanction and security to 
 their spoils, these official robbers, in some of the States* 
 called in all the bonds or certificates of indebtedness, 
 held by creditors of the State for money justly and long 
 due — and compelled them, under the threat of receiving 
 nothing, to exchange their old bonds for equal amounts 
 in the new bonds lately issued; the object being to ren- 
 der the honest and the fraudulent debts undistinofuish- 
 able from each other. 
 
 Now that the true people of the Southern States are 
 regaining the control of their own State governments in 
 spite of the machinations of their Northern enemies — 
 they have two financial duties to fulfil. One is to look 
 back for proofs as to who the real creditors of the State 
 were, and to what amount; and the second is, to repudi- 
 ate every State bond that has been issued since 18G5. 
 These are merely the evidences of the frauds perpetrat- 
 ed on them by their enemies. When they have dune 
 themselves that justice we will hear no more of nearly 
 three hundred millions of fraudulent State bonds. 
 
 Some foolish people will object that this will destroy 
 the credit of these States. But that will prove a bless- 
 ing. Their credit has been a curse to them, being the 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 1G3 
 
 I 
 
 
 chief moans by which their enemies phindeied them. 
 
 But nothing is more contagious than repudiation. It 
 will become epidemic, as catching as small-pox among 
 an unvaccinated crowd. What the Southern States can 
 do honestly, and will be great fools not to do, will be 
 ^ agerly imitated as the means of getting rid of honest 
 debts. And who can say how many thousand millions 
 are owed abroad, exactly where it is most difficult to pay 
 them? It is very inconvenient to the U. S. m)vernment, 
 the greatest debtor in the country, to pay one hundred 
 and twenty millions of interest yearly; and most of this 
 goes out of the country. Many of the Northern Sfates 
 owe large amounts. Many cities are deeply in debt. 
 Nevv^ York owes at least one h- ndred and thirty 
 millions, Philadelphia ninety millions, and so on. A 
 multitude of corporations, besides the municipal, owe 
 many millions each. Who knows how much of all this 
 is due to foreign creditors? We do not. But much as 
 the people of the United States boast of the immensity 
 and value of their wheat crops, we doubt whether, on an 
 average year, the whole of it would pay the interest on 
 their foreign debt. 
 
 In their day of prosperity both the government and 
 people made the most of their credit by running bound- 
 lessly into debt on the faith of resources, which have 
 failed or are fast failing them. They have lost the pro- 
 ductions of their tributary Southern provinces, where 
 the crops at the best barely rei)ay the cost of growing 
 them. They have lost the profits of their manufactui*- 
 ing investments, based on their command of the trade 
 and tribute of these provinces. They have sunk a vast 
 
WW 
 
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 [■ it*-' .' 
 
 it*. . 
 I.. ^' 
 
 ^ ^1 
 
 •^■-:. 
 
 
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 IGO 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 robbers, who have plundered the Southern States for the 
 last twelve years, they cannot fail to recognise the emis- 
 saries of that whole people who have been plundering 
 and insulting, and striving to degrade them for fifty 
 years. As to any part they can take in the struggles 
 for power in the Union, it is merely choosing which 
 party they shall be robbed by, for this systematic 
 robbery of the agricultural South continues in full force. 
 With his experience of their character and conduct, the 
 only natural and just sentiment a right thinking South- 
 ern man can cultivate towards the mass of people, with 
 vrhich his State was formerly unhappily confederated, 
 and to which it is now more unhappily subjected, is a 
 sound, wholesome feeling of detestation. He can only 
 lose this feeling by the perversion of his moral sense, by 
 losing his perception of the distinction between truth 
 and falsehood, between right and wrong. If he be vin- 
 dicative as well as conscientious, he may find some con- 
 solation on seeinj; that in brino^in^ down an avalanche 
 on the South, his enemies have covered themselves with 
 the same mass of ruin. 
 
 The people of the Southern Statvs have at times lately 
 shown an animosity at least partially misdirected, the 
 result of the natural antipathy between different races. 
 Many of them have exhibited more bitterness against 
 the negroes, who have been, for all political purposes^ 
 mere tools in the hands of others, th i auainst the true 
 enemies of the South. It is true that the insolence and 
 outrages of the negroes, when stirred up and spurred on 
 by agents who cautiously kept themselves in the back- 
 ground — have been most exasperating. But nothing can 
 
 1^ 
 
rNMASKED. 
 
 161 
 
 justify that animositj^ against the negroes, if it be not 
 backed by a deeper animosity against the people of the 
 Northern States. 
 
 It would be strange and unnatural if the people of the 
 South silently and quietly acquiesed in the domination 
 of the Government, for any other reason than that they 
 see no prospect of getting rid of that domination. They 
 are still systematically robbed, but their poverty yields 
 little plunder. 
 
 Havini? said thus much of what the feelincrs of the 
 people of the Southern States are, and ought to be — we 
 will return to their financial condition. 
 
 Most of the States owed some debt before the war. 
 But the heaviest was small compared with the resources 
 of the State at that time. These debts are still justly 
 due, but it will task these now impoverished States to 
 pay them. Some of these States incurred further debts 
 durins: the war and for its maintenance. But the 
 United States government compelled them to repudiate 
 these obligations. It taught tliem a lesson in repudia- 
 tion. Yet these were honest debts binding on the con- 
 science of the States. 
 
 When the State governments were overthrown and re- 
 modelled according to orders from Washington, the 
 Northern men and Southern turn-coats into whose 
 hands place and power fell, availing themselves of the 
 aid of the negro majorities in the State legislatures, 
 issued from time to time larjxe amounts of State bonds, 
 as the means of bribing the legislature, but yet more of 
 making their ow^n fortunes. Many of these bonds had 
 not even the sanction of a bribed legislature, but were 
 
IM' 
 
 li^i 
 
 158 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 m: 
 
 ;<• "»'■ 
 
 
 clasios were naturally most awake to the danger, and 
 most alive to the duty of promptly defending their 
 country. The ranks of the volunteer army were largely, 
 perhaps chiefly filled by the young men of the best, and 
 best educated classes, those that more often furnish the 
 oflicers than the privates of an army. The greater part 
 of this class of volunteers fell in the four years war, 
 many of them as ofiicjrs, but many still in the ranks. 
 There are few large and well known family connections 
 in the South which cannot count up several of its most 
 valued scions thus lost to them; and many a family 
 circle is left without a male heir. The better part of the 
 high spirit, of the mental culture, of the noble aspirations 
 in the South was prematurely cut off — thus happier than 
 the part that survived it. 
 
 But changed and fallen as the South is, it cannot yet 
 have forgotten the position it once occupied, or what 
 and who they were that reduced it to its present con- 
 dition. It is true that there are souie men, once the fore- 
 most and loudest among the patriots of the Southern 
 States, and some of whom had even distinguished them- 
 selves in the Confederate service, who now render them- 
 selves conspicuous by their eager efforts to conciliate 
 their old enemies. These men beloncr to that class 
 whose souls revolt at having been caught on the losing 
 side of a conflict. They feel an irresistible craving for 
 office and prominent position, and these things are now 
 in the gift of the enemies of their country. To satisfy 
 this craving they are eager to fraternize with the 
 enemy. They not long since thoroughly detested the 
 United States flag as the symbol of a usurping tyranny* 
 
 ->> 
 
UNMASKED 
 
 159 
 
 now 
 
 xtisfy 
 the 
 the 
 
 Now they feel a reviving affection for the oM stars and 
 stripes. They seek occasions to display it ostentatiously 
 and to parade under its folds. The ranks of the old 
 volunteer corps, reduced to skeletons in the war, they re- 
 fill with new recruits, and exchange military visits with 
 similar bodies in Northern cities, feast with them, and 
 pledge themselves to patriotic union and personal friend- 
 ships, disgraceful if false, more disgraceful if true. They 
 escort Yankee orators on their tours throufjh the con- 
 quered South, and listen to and applaud their advice to, 
 and comments upon, the people of the conquered country. 
 They lackey the heels of a prominent enemy of their 
 State and country, assiduously seeking his favour and 
 patronage, because he is the successful usurper of what is 
 itself a usurpation, having stolen the chief magistracy of 
 a government, the existence of which is robbery and 
 tyranny, and ruin to the Southern States. After the 
 disastrous issue of the war in their defence, these ai'e 
 the men. whose restless vanity and self-seeking for office 
 and favour thrust them forward as the healers and 
 patchers up of the breach between the two parts of the 
 'Union.' 
 
 But surely we misjudge the South if we interpret the 
 silent many by the talking few. It is not thirteen years 
 since the people of the Southern States were engaged in 
 a war in defence of all that was dear to them. Those 
 who can think and feel, cannot doubt, to day, that the 
 cause in which they took arms was quite as just as they 
 imagined it be in 1801. All the consequences that have 
 followed the failure of the 'Lost cause' make the justice 
 of that cause more manifest. In the official thieves and 
 
 ,lv 
 
IU4 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 ■■;.:< ♦. 
 
 I* 
 
 
 amount in a net-work of rail-roads nil over tlie couiitrv, 
 wliich barely yield the cost of miming theui. They 
 have lost their once profitable ship-building, and their 
 carrying tradt;. They have laid waste their forests, and 
 lost their timber trade. They have exterminated the 
 wild animals of the country, from the buffalo to the 
 beaver, and have lost their fur and peltry tiade. They 
 have exhausted the virgin soil of the country, and are 
 making half crops from worn out lands. They have 
 turned the fertility of the country into money, and have 
 now neither the money nor the fertility. They h»ve 
 borrowed, traded, built, invested and spent, as if they 
 were very rich; and are just beginning to find out that 
 they are very poor. 
 
 The inventive Yankee has lately added a new term to 
 commercial and financial phraseology; but not before he 
 had urgent need of it. It is that ominous word 'Shrink- 
 age.' They now find frequent occasion to use it. With 
 them now everything is shrinking. Until lately every 
 one of them has been revelling in the hope of making 
 his fortune by some stroke of genius or luck. What- 
 ever he got hold of he exaggerated its value, even to 
 himself, and yet more to other people. He spent money 
 and incurred debt on it, and looked for great profit from 
 it. He was continually buying, selling, borrowing- 
 money, and lending credit, until gradually he finds that 
 his promising investments are making very poor returns, 
 and his profits are turned into losses. Everything in his 
 hands, stocks of all kinds, banking, rail-road, manufac- 
 turing, mining, and lands both for building and farming 
 — all his speculations shrink, and shrivel, and wither up. 
 
UNMASK KO. 
 
 165 
 
 iP' 
 
 unveiling' the vast amount of folly and rascality which 
 has been at work ))ehin(l them. Everything of theirs 
 has shrunken but their indebtedness. 
 
 But they do not see how permanent this shrinkage is. 
 Sanguine people in the United States look upon the 
 present financial embarrassment and industrial distress 
 as a crisis caused by over-trading and the abuse of credit 
 in its various forms, especially that of credit money, 
 paper promises to pay coin. This they think has caused 
 a disturbance in the distribution, for a time interrupting 
 the production, of all that makes wealtli. Like olher 
 such ciises, they think, it will soon pass away. 
 
 But in those crises the causes were temporary, and the 
 effect temporary. Now the causes are permanent, and 
 the effect will be permanent. The means of production 
 are permanently diminished, and further diminution 
 goes on. The fertility of the South is as unavailaV)le for 
 profitable production as if its soil had l)een sti-icken 
 with barrenness. All the vast outlay of the North in 
 order to avail itself of the production and the market of 
 the South and the tribute it drew from thence, is 
 utterly thrown away. The Southerner was their best 
 customer once, but he is bankrupt now and in gaol. 
 His assets do not pay the whole cost of keeping him 
 there. When the rest of the Union come to look into 
 their owm resources at home, those from field and 
 forest, from manufactures, commerce and tlie merchant 
 marine, they are found to be wasting away from year to 
 year. As the population of the United States grows, 
 the more exhausted and bare and stubborn will thev^ 
 find the regions out of which they must draw the means 
 
 I 
 

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 .,■ }* 
 
 : 5 ir. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 
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 .•■■ 'l 
 
 
 16C 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 of living. A Chinese industry and economy must revj- 
 lutionize their habits of life. 
 
 Of the immense indebtedness of the government and 
 people of the United States, more than half is due to 
 foreigners. It is peculiarly difficult to pay foreign debts. 
 Perhaps that is not the worst point of view for the cred- 
 itor. There is very little desire to pay them. There is 
 a strong prejudice everywhere against absentee pro- 
 prietors. And that is exactly the position the foreign 
 creditors hold. To pay them their rent the United 
 States must every year export at least two hundred 
 millions worth more than they import. Yet there is a 
 school of economists who absurdly say that the balance 
 of trade is in favour of a country — when it exports 
 more than it imports. 
 
 But the United States government has educated the 
 people not to pay debts when they become burdensome; 
 and they have learned their lesson thoroughly. We will 
 give one proof of this. 
 
 The States, when they formed the Union, were well 
 aware of the mischief produced by liaving ditierent laws 
 on the subject of bankruptcy in each of the thirteen 
 States so closely allied in commerce as well as politics. 
 So one of the powers tbey delegated to the Congress of 
 the U. S. was 'To establish uniform laws on the subject 
 of bankruptcy throughout the United States' Now the 
 conceptions as to what bankrupt laws were, in the minds 
 of the State delegations which drew up and executed 
 that treaty called 'the Constitution of the U. S.' were 
 derived from British legislation. Every lawyer knows 
 that the chief object of the British bankrupt laws, and 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 107 
 
 of those of other European nations, was to protect 
 honest creditors against fraudulent debtors; and that 
 the bankrupt laws applied only to persons in trade. The 
 debtor dof.^ not seek the protection of the bankrupt 
 law; but the creditor does. 
 
 But by the legerdemain of the U. S. Congress it became 
 the debtor of every kind, not traders only, who took 
 advantage of the law, while the creditors sought to keep 
 him out of bankruptcy. The intention of that clause in 
 the Constitution was that Congress should provide one 
 permanent statute of bankruptcy, to be enforced in all 
 the States and in the State courts. Congress did some- 
 thing very different. For not a few years it provi<Jed 
 no bankrupt law at all. But on the first great financial 
 crisis, such as once or twice in a generation seems to h(*- 
 fall every commercial country, Congress was beseig<'d 
 by all the rash and wild speculators and reckless 
 runners into debt, who clamoured for a bankrupt law 
 for their relief. The prayer was granted. It may well 
 be supposed that a bankrupt law passed in this spirit 
 made very impei'fect provision for guarding the credit- 
 ors from the grossest frauds. When all the entei-prising 
 but luckless speculators of that day had been relieved 
 of their burdens, in order that they might start, lighten- 
 ed of all incumbrance, in a new pursuit ot vast and 
 speedy gains, the bankrupt law was repealed; and not 
 until a new financial crisis, and fresh clamours from 
 ruined gamesters called for it, was another bankrupt 
 law provided for their relief. The United States have 
 had several of these temporaiy bankrupt acts — and have 
 at times been for years without any, until a new finan- 
 
^ 
 
 ♦* ♦ 
 
 
 ..,., 4J 
 
 i. ■ ¥.'■,- ^ 
 
 1()S 
 
 THK UNITKD STATES 
 
 cial crisis called for one. In trutli, they were not bona 
 fide bankrupt la\vs — but an occasional provision made 
 for the wiping out of debt. Tlie peojle have been 
 thoroughly ecUieated on this point. 
 
 But as to the matter of how to avoid fulfilliuff tlieir 
 engagements, and liow to circumvent tho.se who deal 
 with tliem, tlie di[)loinatie dealings of their own govern- 
 ment afford them many valuaVjli! lessons. 
 
 We have not time to refer to more than one or two of 
 these many achievements in negotiation. While the 
 United States has given no indemnification or even 
 apology for, or security against such national outrages as 
 the Fenian expeditions, planned, organized, and openly 
 set on foot in the U. S., and which the government 
 made no eainest effort to prevent, and by which the 
 British Dominion of Canada was invaded by armed and 
 organized forces marching out of the U. S. and which 
 had to be diiven back by Canadian volunteers and 
 British soldiers — while the sympathisers in the U. 8. 
 with the Cubans, in arms against the Spanish govern- 
 ment, were fitting out in the ports of the U. »S. armed 
 expeditions in aid of the Cuban rebels — at this very 
 time the U. S. government had the assurance to demand 
 of the British government indemnification for the dam- 
 age done to the commerce of the U. S. by certain con- 
 federate cruisers, the Alabama and others, on the ground 
 that these steamers had been bought in England — and 
 their annaments bad also been procured there. The 
 Confederate agents had indeed made these two descrip- 
 tions of purchases separately, and then skilfully brought 
 them together at sea, oi* in foreign ports. Now British 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 Hi!) 
 
 s]iip-]»uiI<lci-8 have been constantly sellin*,' ships to 
 foi-ei^n «^oV(Mnnit'nt.s and indiviihials.and nianufacturors 
 of arms of all sorts carryini' onasiniihir trath'. As lin;' 
 as armed vessels prepared for war, and ()r<^ani/ed 
 military expeditions, do not sail from British ports, the 
 government is not responsible for the ultimate use of 
 these warlike ai)pliances. 
 
 The strange part of this affair is that the Yankees 
 were successful in making good their claim for <lamages. 
 They induced the British government, in a (piaker-like 
 spirit, to refer the question to arbitration, and they 
 mani{)ulated the arbitrators so skilfully that they 
 adjudged to them sixteen millions of dollars damages; 
 and when they carried the money home they found out 
 that the real damage thi-ir merchants and ship-owners 
 had suffered amounted to only half tliat sum. What 
 sort of inducement had they used to lead the arbitrators 
 to adjudge double the amount? 
 
 Wliat we cannot understand is how any British min- 
 istry, without liaving demanded indemnification for 
 such notorious and insulting outrages as the Fenian in- 
 vasions of Canada, openly gotten up in the United 
 States, and without exacting security against their re- 
 currence, should have listened for one moment to so 
 flimsy a claim as that for the damage done by the Con- 
 federate cruisers. 
 
 It can only be accounted for by the peculiarity of Mr. 
 Oladstonc's statesnianship, which consists in yielding up 
 a little of the rights of his friends, in order to pacify and 
 conciliate his enemies — be they Fenian Irish, interlojj- 
 ing Yankees, or bullying Germans. 
 
WW' 
 
 170 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 lif 
 
 .' »»/ 
 
 ii 
 
 It is just in this spirit that Mr. Ohidstone's colleague 
 for foreign affairs, Lord Granville, dealt with 
 Bisrnark's insolent and bullying complaint, that the 
 British manufacturers were selling arms and munitions 
 of war to the French government, with which German v 
 was at war; doing exactly the same thing that the 
 German government permits the great Krupp cannon 
 foundry to do: to supply hundreds of heavy rifle cannon 
 to Russia, which is at war with Turkey, Germany 
 being at peace with both countries. 
 
 The diplomatic Lord Granville did not reply, that, 
 Groat Britain being at peace with France, British man- 
 ufacturers had a ri';ht to sell to France whatev'.-r France 
 wanted. That if chis supplying France with British 
 made arms embarrassed the German government, it had 
 only to blockade the French ports in accordance with 
 the law of nations. Until that was done the British 
 government would see that British trade was not inter- 
 fered with by any foreign power. 
 
 The diplomatic secretary returned no such manly 
 answer. It was not in him. But ho bowed, and polish- 
 ed one palm against the other, and apologized and ex- 
 plained, and protested that Great Britain beamed with 
 good will towards Germany, and begged leave to assure 
 the German chancellor that he felt for him the most dis- 
 tin<;uished consideration. 
 
 Wj must go at least as far back in English history as 
 the reign of Charles the 2nd., to find so cringing a min- 
 istry, so rei dy to sacrifice the honour, interest, and 
 safety of their country, to keep themselves in power. 
 What chance had such statesmen with the 
 
 cunnmg 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 171 
 
 ly 
 
 ng 
 
 Yankee, who had impressed them with the conviction 
 that he was a great power, and who knew^ their dread of 
 war, and their readiness to pay Dane-gelt to buy their 
 peace? Had the United States been some petty state 
 tliey would have treated the claim for damage from the 
 Confederate cruisers with contempt. Little did they 
 know the true condition of the United States, and their 
 inability to wage war with anybody. They had just 
 sneaked out of a war with Spain, from whom they wish- 
 ed to steal Cuba. The United States have no real navy, 
 although they pay for one; not even one powerful ship. 
 A few British iron clads could seal up their ports, and 
 let them fume aAv^ay their rage under blockade. The 
 United States cannot now wage war even with so feeble 
 a powei as Mexico. They cannot raise the money 
 necessary to carry it on. To every million expended in 
 efficient preparation and operations, a margin of two 
 millions and more nmst be allowed for peculation, waste, 
 and stealage. 
 
 Another instance at home, will show the peddling 
 littleness, as well as the fraudulent nature of Yankee 
 diplomacy. Within five years or so, the government 
 made a treaty with a tribe of Indians, by which the 
 tribe had allotted to them as their reserve, that is their 
 permanent territory, a region embracing the Black Hills 
 in Dakota, and some of the surrounding country. This 
 region was wretchedly poor, and nobody wanted it. 
 But the indians, beinir in the power of the government, 
 accepted the treaty, taking what they could get. But, 
 a year or two after, it w^as rumoured that rich veins of 
 gold had been found in the Black Hills. At once 
 

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 172 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
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 adventurers of the mc^st reckless character becfan to 
 flock thither. The goveriniient found that the lands 
 were too valuable to be left in the hands of the Indians, 
 and at once set about upsetting its o A^n treaty; and the 
 indian chiefs were summoned to Washington to make a 
 new one. We need not tell our readers that the Indians 
 lost the Black Hills. There is a good deal of obscurity 
 in these negotiations, of which we get only the Yankee ac- 
 count. But the terms in which they report the events 
 in their indian wars betray their mode of dealing with 
 the indian. When some hero like General (lister rides 
 with his dragoons into an encampment of a hundred 
 indian lodges, and, the warriors being all away hunting, 
 he massacres four or five hundred squaws and children — 
 that is a glorious victory ! When the same hero rides 
 into another indian village, but there happen to be at 
 hand a thousand or twelve hundred lodo-es which he 
 did not see, and all the warriors being at home, fall 
 upon him, and cut oft' his command to the last man, 
 the whole Yankee country raise a howl at this ' horrid 
 massacre !' They have so perverted the use of language 
 that thev have lost the sense of truth. 
 
 We have not time to quote further examples of their 
 diplomacy. We have heard ot Punic faith, we know 
 something of Russian diplomacy, we are familiar with 
 Napoleonic negotiations, both ' par nioi ef vion onclcj 
 we have seen something of Bismarck policy ; but for 
 solid, downright political swindling, both at home and 
 abroad, wt.- back the Yankee against the field. He is 
 fully educated up to his long-established point of 
 honour : to circumvent ev^erybody, and not tolerate the 
 
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 their 
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 UNMASKED. 
 
 173 
 
 disgrace of being himself taken in. As a sample of their 
 dealings, it is not too soon to refer to the five and a half 
 millions adjudged to Canada by the joint commission on 
 the fisheries question — money which the Canadians are 
 enjoying in anticipation ; while the Yankees are rack- 
 ing their brains for excuses for not paying it. But the 
 Gladstone ministry being no longer in power, it may be 
 hazardous to refuse to pay the money due. 
 
 One of the latest and greatest political frauds ever 
 perpetrated in the United States is the late Presidential 
 election. It is peculiar in this, that it was high treason 
 against their lord and master, the sovereign majority, 
 to whom they had hitherto been faithful. Even if it 
 CO . I of the veriest mob, it was, until now, sure of 
 
 th«.h nJ'egiance. 
 
 Two parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, have 
 for years divided the people of the United States. The 
 foreigner should be warned that these party names 
 afibrd no indication oi' their principles, if they have anv. 
 Nor do we mean to imply that one party is more honest 
 than the other. But the Democrats, havinnr been for 
 years out of ofiice, have been long practising, as to 
 official duties and public money, and enforced honesty. 
 But they were heai-tily tired of being robbed, while 
 they got no .share of the plunder. 
 
 Some years ago a number of prominent people, in the 
 city of New York, whose pockets were drained )jy city 
 taxation, combined to force an investigation, by process 
 of law, into the monstious frauds and lascalities prac- 
 tised on the city treasury; and they induced Mr. Charles 
 O'Connor to become their chief counsel and asrent in the 
 
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 174 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 matter. Wc liave before alluded to Mr. O'Connor's 
 perseverance and partial success, and the exposure of 
 Boss Tweed, as the New York mob loved to call him, 
 and that of his colleagues. Now Tweed was a Demo- 
 crat, who played into the hands of the Republicans. 
 
 This partial success at reform strengthening the hands 
 of the Democratic party in the State, they with much 
 difficulty procured the election of Mr. Tilden as governor 
 of New York, We know nothing of Mr. Tilden except 
 that he is a great lawyer, is believed to be an honest 
 man, and not much given to politics. He was made 
 governor for a special purpose. 
 
 While Boss Tweed and his colleagues were plundering 
 
 the city treasury to the amount of twenty-five millions 
 
 or so, another ring were plundering the State treasury 
 
 to an unknown amount. The State had spent apon the 
 
 crreat Erie canal a great many more millions than the 
 
 canal will ever pay back to it. Besides its first cost, it 
 
 has proved a source of great yearly expenditure. For, 
 
 being managed by a Boai'd of Cp.nal Commissioners, and 
 
 needing constant repair, the commissioners and the 
 
 contractors for repairs laid their heads together, and, by 
 
 false estimates and extravagant payments, cheated the 
 
 State out of many millions, which, we suppose, they 
 
 fairly divided with each other. This game had been 
 
 played for many years, perhaps from the first laying out 
 
 of the canal. At length Mr. Tilden was set to work to 
 
 ferret out these rascalities, and achieved much success. 
 
 It was hoped that by making him governor he would 
 
 be in a position to do his work more thoroughly still. 
 
 His zeal and ability were great ; but we understand 
 
UNMASKED. 
 
 175 
 
 tliat corruption was so firmly planted and s.) strongly 
 propped by party s»i})port, that he was not able to pei-- 
 fect his reforms. Both he and Mr. O'Connor, in pursuit 
 oi justice, found some of the mo -it stubborn obstacles 
 blocking up the road, in the persons of some judges on 
 the bench, put in ollice on party and corrupt considera- 
 tions. 
 
 Now the Democratic party, having been long out of 
 office, had become great reformers and verv honest men. 
 Probably thiy did embody most of that class. The 
 areatest rogues had long since gone over to the partv^ in 
 power. A Presidential election was couung on. Mr. 
 Tilden's success in his late undertakings had made him 
 widely and favourably known throughout the Union ; 
 and he seemed to be the most available candi late they 
 could take up. In this they were mistaken. His repu- 
 tation was based altogether on his zeal and abilitv in 
 ferreting out rascalitv in office. But after sixteen years 
 of office and power enjoyed by one party — the Repub- 
 licans — the government had become more than an Augean 
 stable ; to clean it out would have engendered a pestilence. 
 So vast an amount of evidence of peculation, fraud, 
 and direct stealing had accumulated in the bun- ais of 
 every department of government, and in every clerks 
 desk, that it would ruin thousands of the most influen- 
 tial men in the country to luring thes' things to light. 
 
 The Republican politicians had been so long in office, 
 that almost every man had ij^rown rich in it • and besides 
 their own money and patronage, they had command of 
 all the resources of the government, including the army 
 and treasury ; and banding together like a band oi 
 
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 176 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
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 brothers, or rather robbers, they resolved to use all 
 possible means of defence. When the chairman of an 
 election returning board in a Southern State was in- 
 structed as to what was expected of him in his mani- 
 pulation of the returns as to the Presidential election, 
 well might he say, ' There is money in it ; yes, a million 
 of money in the job !' 
 
 The alarm and indignation of the Republicans was in- 
 tense, but they strove to conceal it : " What 1 Tilden in 
 the Presidential chair, searching into every official and 
 party transaction that cannot bear the light ! No I we 
 will move heaven, earth, and hell to defeat him." And 
 they did, and with success. 
 
 It were long to tell the intrigues and corruption by 
 which this result was brought about. And they have 
 already been well explained and exposed, especially by 
 Judge Black of Pennsylvania, in his article published in 
 the North American Review. 
 
 When the election had taken place, but before the 
 result was officially declared, General Grant, the Presi- 
 dent in office, emltoldened the conspiring Republicans to 
 persevere in and P' rfect their ][lans, by drawing togeth- 
 er troops and armed vessels at Washington, by repairing 
 and mounting guns on the old earthworks commanding 
 the roads leading thither ; and by forbidding an assem- 
 bly and great procession at Washington, planned by the 
 Democrats as a manifestation of their joy at Tilden's 
 supposed election. Grant thus manifested his resolution 
 to see Mr. Hayes, and no one else, placed as his successor 
 in the Presidential chair. It would have suited Grant 
 as little as any of his party, to have unfriendly and 
 
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 togeth- 
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 aanding 
 assem- 
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 accessor 
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 lly and 
 
 UNMASKED 
 
 177 
 
 prying successors investigating the transactions of their 
 predecessors in office. 
 
 The Republican conspirators had made the utmost 
 eiforts, in every State where the vote was much divided, 
 to suppress the true result, where it told against them. 
 And by inducing the returning boards, which investi- 
 gated and registered the result of the election, in Loui- 
 siana and Florida, to suppress the true returns and 
 substitute false returns, they deprived Mr. Til den of a 
 majority of thirteen votes in the electoral college, and 
 gave Mr. Hayes a majority of one ; and when Congress 
 appointed a commission of fifteen to decide on the 
 result of the election, of the five judges of the Supreme 
 Court placed on this commission, three made themselves 
 ready and zealous tools for perfecting the fraud ; to give 
 one instance — they promptly decided a point of law one. 
 way when it told in Mr. Hayes' favour, but another 
 way when it would have told against him. 
 
 Mr. Hayes, a mere usurper, coolly walked into an 
 office to which he was not elected ; and Mr. Tilden, the 
 real President, was left at leisure to resume his practice 
 at the bar ; to return to spreading the net of the law to 
 catch shoals of small rogues ; but the great rogues who 
 steal State and Federal governments, and their treasuries, 
 easily broke through the meshes of his net. 
 
 We hope, for the honour of manhood, that there are 
 few countries, in which such a transaction would not 
 have raised a row. But the Yankees, unless they have 
 very long odds of numbers in their favour do not fight. 
 
 The voters, who elected Mr. Tilden President, being 
 only a considerable and not a great majority, took their 
 
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 178 
 
 THE TTNITED STATES UNMASKED. 
 
 strategetic (let'eat like lainbs. They tamely pocketed 
 their sovereign right, to be pulled out at some more 
 convenient season ; and left laws, rights, lil)erties, and 
 the tattered remnant of the Constitution to take care of 
 themselves. They prudently argued that any political 
 agitation and conflict, just at this time, would aggravate 
 tlie financial crisis ; and there was already more of 
 that in the country than they knew how to deal with. 
 Let the world slide and each man take care of himself. 
 
 Although want of access to documentary evidence, 
 and an occasional hasty inference may have led us into 
 some errors, we are confident that this is by no means 
 an erroneous exposition of the present condition of the 
 United States. 
 
 It may be veiy difficult, but far from impossible to 
 recuperate the soil of the great democratic republic, 
 but what can regenerate the people ? 
 
 THE END. 
 
 VIVIAN, PRINTKH, CLARENCE STIIEET, LONDON, ONT, 
 
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