384 THE LOST CAUSE. 



system of passports would have been established in the 

 the South. Border raids would have been made by 

 fanatics on the one side, and by desperadoes on the 

 other. Sooner or later there must have been a war. 

 Fillibustering expeditions on Mexico and Cuba would 

 have brought about a war with Spain, and perhaps 

 with France. It was the avowed intention of the 

 planters, when once their empire was established, to 

 import labour from Africa ; to reopen the trade as 

 in the good old times. But this, Great Britain would 

 certainly have not allowed ; and thus, again, there would 

 have been war. Even if the planters would have 

 displayed a little common-sense, which is exceedingly 

 improbable, and so escaped extirpation from without, 

 their system of culture would have eaten up their 

 lands. But happily such hypotheses need no longer be 

 discussed ; a future of another kind is in reserve for the 

 Southern States. America can now pursue with un- 

 tarnished reputation her glorious career, and time will 

 soften the memories of a conflict, the original guilt of 

 which must be ascribed to the Founders of the nation, 

 or rather to the conditions by which those great men 

 were mastered and controlled. 



I have now accomplished the task which I set my- 

 self to do. I have shown to the best of my ability, 

 what kind of place in universal history Africa deserves 

 to hold. I have shown, that not only Egypt has as- 

 sisted the development of man by educating Greece, 

 Carthage by leading forth Borne to conquest, but that 

 even the obscure Soudan, or land of the negroes, has 

 also played its part in the drama of European life. 



The slave-trade must be estimated as a war ; though 

 cruel and atrocious in itself, it lias, like most wars, 

 been of service to mankind. I shall leave it to others 



