Men who could not say enough to satisfy
themselves on the point of the right of the chivalrous Southrons to
create, breed, work, and sell slaves, were equally loud-mouthed in their
expressed purpose to "put down" the said Southrons because they had
rebelled, and rebelled only because they were slaveholders, and for the
purpose of placing slavery beyond the reach of wordy assault in the
country of which it should be the governing power. There has been much
complaint that foreigners have not understood the nature of our quarrel,
and that the general European hostility to the American national cause
is owing to their ignorance of American affairs. How that may be we
shall not stop to inquire; but it is beyond dispute that no European
community has ever displayed a more glaring ignorance of the character
of the contest here waged than was exhibited by most Americans in the
early months of that contest, and down to a recent period. The war
was treated by nearly the whole people as if slavery had no possible
connection with it, and as if all mention of slavery in matters
pertaining to the war were necessarily an impertinence, a foreign
subject lugged into a domestic discussion.
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