PREFACE.
The decade which elapsed between the years 1854
and 1864 will stand in the history of this country as
its second revolutionary period. It commenced with
the passage of the Kansas Nebraska Bill, the re-opening
of the slavery question by a pro-slavery measure;
and it closed with the second election of Mr. Lincoln
to the Presidency, the solemn and emphatic declaration
by a large majority of the loyal people, that the
slavery question must be finally disposed of by the
total abolition of slavery itself. The interval is filled
with the fiercest struggles this country ever witnessed,
in the domain of political discussion, as well as on the
field of battle. The military campaigns of the great
civil war will certainly live in history; but those who
are in the habit of inquiring into the causes and
results of historical events, will study with no less
interest the rapid movement of ideas which marks
this memorable period.
The moral merits of the slavery question have been discussed in this country almost since slavery was introduced here, and the conviction that slavery was a great wrong, was at several times almost universal among the people; the antagonism necessarily existing between the institution of slavery, and a democratic organization of society, has likewise been pointed out and urged upon the attention of the
