the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it
perish, and the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed
generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it.
These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew
that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen,
perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the
insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government
claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial
enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or
the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that
the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict
itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result
less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to
the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem
strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in
wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us
judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be
answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His
own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must
needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense
cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those
offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which,
having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove,
and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe
due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any
departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living
God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray,
that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God