CHAPTER V 



THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD 1857-1864 



A REIVING at the University of Michigan in October, 

 XJL 1857, I threw myself into my new work most hear- 

 tily. Though I felt deeply the importance of the ques- 

 tions then before the country, it seemed to me that the only 

 way in which I could contribute anything to their solution 

 was in aiding to train up a new race of young men who 

 should understand our own time and its problems in the 

 light of history. 



It was not difficult to point out many things in the past 

 that had an important bearing upon the present, and my 

 main work in this line was done in my lecture-room. I 

 made no attempts to proselyte any of my hearers to either 

 political party, my main aim being then, as it has been 

 through my life, when dealing with students and the pub- 

 lic at large, to set my audience or my readers at thinking, 

 and to give them fruitful historical subjects to think 

 upon. Among these subjects especially brought out in 

 dealing with the middle ages, was the origin, growth, and 

 decline of feudalism, and especially of the serf system, 

 and of municipal liberties as connected with it. This, of 

 course, had a general bearing upon the important problem 

 we had to solve in the United States during the second half 

 of that century. 



In my lectures on modern history, and especially on the 

 Reformation period, and the events which led to the 

 French Revolution, there were various things throwing 

 light upon our own problems, which served my purpose 

 of arousing thought. My audiences were large and at- 

 tentive, and I have never, in the whole course of my life, 



