feeling of hostility unquestionably would have been less intense, had not
so many of those to be drafted been bitterly opposed to the war. Believing
it to have been brought about by the reckless demagogism and fanaticism of
their political opponents, and levied as it was against those who had been
their warm political friends, indeed, chief dependence for political
success, it was asking a good deal, to require them to step to the front,
and fight in such a war. Whether this feeling was right or wrong, had
nothing to do with the influence it actually exerted.

On this feeling was based, in fact, the real hostility to the draft, in
which a portion of the press shared. But, as we said before, we having
nothing to do with the justice or injustice of this belief or feeling; we
only state the fact, with our denial that it furnished any excuse for the
denunciations uttered against the draft as a wrong use of power, or the
refusal to submit to it on that account. The Government, whether wrong or
right, must be supported, or abandoned and given over to revolution. In
ordinary times, denunciation of its measures, and the most strenuous
opposition to them, is the right and often the duty of every conscientious
man. This right, exercised by the press, is one of the most effectual
checks against abuses, and the most powerful lever to work reform and
changes. But in a great crisis, to set one's self against a measure on
which the fate of the nation hangs, is a flagrant abuse of that right; for
the effort, if successful, will not work change and an improved condition
of things, but immediate, irretrievable ruin, and put the nation beyond
the reach of reform.



CHAPTER XI.