532 The Fall of the Confederacy. 
separate, there was no premonitory sign of immediate 
divorce in 1860. Revolutions are usually the result of long- 
continued oppression. The more we study the French re- 
volution, or the English revolutions, or the Italian revolu- 
tions, or the revolts of the Poles, the more we marvel at the 
cruel and persistent folly of tyrants, and at the long suffering 
of peoples. The Southerners were socially and politically 
as free as they had ever been or ever could hope to be. 
They were subject to equal laws impartially administered. 
They had their full share of national honours. Besides, in 
‘1860, they had taken part in a great act of union. They 
_ had participated in the election of a President. Was it 
likely that a people who to-day accepted an appeal to the 
ballot-box would to-morrow, if defeated, appeal to revolu- 
tion? 
The secession was a surprise not only to Europe but to 
the South. If it had been contemplated the people would 
have scorned to assist in the Presidential election. They 
would have acted honourably and more wisely. They 
would have said to the North, “We shall not vote in 
this Presidential election because it may be that we shall 
be unable to abide by the result. We regard Abraham 
Lincoln as the representative of a sectionalism antagonistic 
to the South. If you elect him we shall secede.” To affirm 
that the revolution was not a surprise to the South is to 
brand a whole people with an infamous violation of a 
most solemn contract. To suppose that the South took 
part in the election of 1860 with a preconceived idea of 
repudiating the result in the event of the Southern candi- 
date being defeated, is to charge the people with being guilty 
, of shameful and criminal treachery. We indignantly reject 
. the suggestion. We declare that the countrymen of Lee, 
and Jackson, and Stuart were incapable of such conduct. 
Yes, the revolution was a surprise to the South. On the day 
that Abraham Lincoln was elected there were not five hun- 
dred men who dreamt of secession, and probably not fifty 
men who designed it. 
A conspiracy was the germ of the revolution. This is 
not in itself a reproach, for all revolutions begin with con- 
spiracy. But there was a peculiarity about the Southern 
conspiracy. It did not consist of the leading men, but of 
the politicians who are called wire pullers in America. 
These men were without public repute, but as electioneering 
agents their power was considerable, so that they were able 
to coerce the leaders and to lead the people. For example, 
