Some
few sympathize with the Northerns, and some few with the Southerns,
but far the greater portion sympathize with neither completely, but
lament that each party should be making so much greater an expenditure
of life and property than can be compensated for by any advantage they
can dream of obtaining.
Those who are the least favorable to the Northerns are not so from any
approbation of slavery, but from not understanding that the war is
waged in the cause of abolition. "It was waged," they say, "ostensibly
for the restoration of the Union," and in attestation of this, they
refer to the proclamation which announced the confiscation of slaves
that were the property of secessionists, while those who adhered to
the Federal cause should be exempt from such confiscation, which, they
say, did not savor much of zeal for abolition. And. if the other
object--the restoration of the Union--could be accomplished, which
they all regard as hopeless, they do not understand how it will tend
to the abolition of slavery. On the contrary, "if," say they, "the
separation had been allowed to take place peaceably, the Northerns
might, as _we_ do, have proclaimed freedom to every slave who set
foot on their territory; which would have been a great check to
slavery, and especially to any cruel treatment of slaves." Many who
have a great dislike to slavery yet hold that the Southerns had at
least as much right to secede as the Americans had originally to
revolt from Great Britain.
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