Cairnes, J: American Revolution

Excerpt from The American Revolution: A Lecture, Delivered Before the Dublin Young Mens' Christian Association in Connection With the United Church of England and Ireland, October 30th, 1862

Let me now endeavor to explain the political movement which has brought the Free States and the South into collision. And here you will, of course, understand that I cannot pretend to do more than give the' barest outline of the case. At every step I' must leave difficulties unsolved and objections unanswered. I only ask you to believe that, if I do so, it is not because I feel them to be either insoluble or un answerable, but simply because the limits of time during which I can occupy your attention require that I should confine myself to those points which are indispensa hslc towards comprehending the drift and meaning of the whole. To understand the in¿uences which now agitate the North, and assist you to appreciate the couse quenco of the part the North has acted in this great drama and the results towards which it is tending, the first fact to be considered is, that the movement of which we now contemplate the results, - the movement which carried Lincoln to power, was a reaction against the in¿uences which had been previously predominant in the Union, which had controlled almost the whole of its past policy. From 1820 to 3360 the Government of the United States has, with the exception of a few short intervals, been in the hands of the party composed of Southern politicians, and of that section of the North which for political purposes may be regarded as Southern the Northern Democrats. Of this political combination I do not overstate the ease when I say'that the leading idea, the comparative aim, almost the single pur pose, was to extend slavery, and to achieve political power by extending it. Under the influence of this party public morality in America has deteriorated as public morality never before deteriorated in any country in the same space of time (hear). The race of political men has declined, political honesty is scarcely to be found. Eoiitics has become a by-word. In spite of a material prosperity which astonished the world, America, in all moral qualities, in all the qualities which adorn a nation. Has rapidly retrograded. Down to 1855 this tendency to retrograde met with no serious obstruction, but in that year the evil began to work its own cure. The ex eaesses of the dominant party awoke some of the best minds in the United States to a. Sense of the fearful career along which it was hurrying, and the certain ruin which was ahead. A reaction took place, and a new party was formed. It was this party which carried Lincoln to power. It is the same which is now rapidly transforming the whole policy of the Republic. The principles of the Republican party are such an: the opponents of the policy of the South necessarily ought to have.

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