NEW YORK, _June_ 15, 1861.



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PREFACE.


In publishing this study at the present time, I expose myself to the
blame of prudent men. I shall be told that I ought to have waited.

To have waited for what? Until there shall be no more great questions in
Europe to dispute our attention with the American question? Or until the
American question has shaped itself, and we are able to know clearly
what interests it will serve, in what consequences it will end?

I am not sorry, I confess, to applaud duty before it is recommended by
success. When success shall have come, men eager to celebrate it will
not be wanting, and I shall leave to them the care of demonstrating then
that the North has been in the right, that it has saved the United
States.

To construct the philosophy of events after they have passed is very
interesting, without doubt, but the work to be accomplished to-day is
far more serious. The point in question is to sustain our friends when
they are in need of us; when their battle, far from being won, is