THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 203 



home in producing a consensus of opinion on 

 the merits of the case. Political and legal 

 theory was bankrupt in the presence of the 

 fierce passions that dominated the American 

 democracy, and recourse was had to other 

 grounds when foreign judgment and sympathy 

 were determined. 



In Great Britain the South had from the 

 outset the favor of the leading classes the 

 great newspapers and the most eminent men in 

 politics [and society. This was in some meas 

 ure due to the almost universal acceptance of 

 the ancient doctrine that a state of great area 

 and population, under democratic political in 

 stitutions, could not long endure. All think 

 ers of repute, for centuries in the past, had 

 sustained this view, and it was ingrained in 

 the intellectual apparatus of the age. France 

 since 1789 was held to have confirmed the 

 dogma. For three-quarters of a century the 

 United States had thrived in defiance of this 

 profound truth; but the secession of the South 

 had at last justified the philosophers. As the 

 South was but fulfilling the requirements of 

 ineluctable fate, she was entitled to the respect 

 and sympathy of mankind. There was cur 

 rent at the same time in the upper circles of 



