the last century, or the twenty years anterior to the Civil War, was a
species of golden age in our American annals. On the contrary, it was,
as I remember it, a phase of development very open to criticism; and
that in many respects. It was crude, self-conscious and self-assertive;
provincial and formative, rather than formed. Socially and materially
we were, compared with the present era of motors and parlor-cars, in the
"one-hoss shay" and stove-heated railroad-coach stage. Nevertheless,
what is now referred to as "predatory wealth" had not yet begun to
accumulate in few hands; much greater equality of condition prevailed;
nor was the "wage-earner" referred to as constituting a class distinct
from the holders of property. Thus the individual was then
encouraged,--whether in literature, in commerce, or in politics. In
other words, there being a free field, one man was held to be in all
respects the equal of the rest. Especially was what I have said true of
the Northern, or so-called Free States, as contrasted with the States of
the South, where the presence of African slavery distinctly affected
individual theories, no matter where or to what extent entertained.

Such, briefly and comprehensively stated, having been the situation in
1853, it remains to consider the practical outcome thereof during the
sixty years it has been my fortune to take part, either as an actor or
as an observer, in the great process of evolution. It is curious to note
the extent to which the unexpected has come about. In the first place,
consider the all-absorbing mid-century political issue, that involving
the race question, to which I first referred,--the issue which divided
the South from the North, and which, eight years only after I had
entered college, carried me from the walks of civil life into the
calling of arms.

And here I enter on a field of discussion both difficult and dangerous;