A Yankee Review of What the Abolitionists have accomplished.
Last week the Abolitionists held jubilees in New York and
Philadelphia.
The
Tribune claims for them that they elected
Lincoln in 1860, and that "posterity will do them justice." That paper, however, is entirely too modest.
The Abolitionists have done a good deal more than elect the Corilla' and in the matter of doing them justice we will anticipate posterity a little, and copy the following from the New York
Herald of Saturday last:
‘
In 1860 the
American Abolitionists, pure and simple, numbered about one hundred thousand persons.
In 1840, when they ran
Mr. Birney for
President, the Abolitionists polled seven thousand votes.
In 1844, with the same candidate, they polled sixty-two thousand votes.
In 1848 they intermingled with the Freesoilers and gave
Van Buren three hundred thousand votes.
From that time forth the pure Abolition votes is so mixed up with the Freesoil vote and the
Republican vote that we cannot get at it with much accuracy.
Still, we believe that one hundred thousand is a fair estimate of the number of true, radical Abolitionists who have followed the flag of
Garrison and
Phillips, and who are entitled to share in the credit of the abolition work and in the glory which now crowns the labor.
In this number we include all such old women as
Greeley and such young women as
Tilton.
’
What these one hundred thousand Abolitionists have accomplished may be stated in a very few words.
They have accomplished the present war. They have worked for it thirty years, and here it is. They have wrecked a powerful, peaceful, and happy country.
They have arrayed brother against brother, father against son, children against parents.
They have filled the land with widows and orphans.
They have transformed the country into a vast graveyard.
They have shed an ocean of blood and squandered mountains of money.
They have made the air heavy with the shrieks of the wounded, the groans of the dying and the lamentations of the mourners.
They have devastated the fields and plantations of the
South and destroyed the commerce of the
North.
They have given a check to the progress of civilization and democratic institutions from which it will take years to recover.
All this they have accomplished in thirty years. One hundred thousand fiends let loose from the lowest hell and inspired by the most infernal malice could not have accomplished more mischief the same space of time.
If this be anything to rejoice over let the Abolitionists rejoice.
If they desire to raise a monument to perpetuate the remembrance of their triumphs, our battle-fields will furnish them with enough human skulls for a pyramid, and
Wendell Phillips or
Beecher would be only too happy to deliver the address at the laying of the corner skull.
During this abolition war at least one hundred thousand men have been killed, four hundred thousand have been disabled for life; thus half a million have been subjected to death, wounds, and to sickness worse than wounds, in the armies of both sides.
What amount of human misery has occurred beyond and behind the armies we shall not now inquire.
The amount of property destroyed during the war may be roughly estimated at five hundred millions of dollars.
The injury inflicted upon our commerce and carrying trade may be stated at one hundred millions of dollars.
This is rather under than above the mark; for the rebel
Maffit asserts that he alone has destroyed eleven millions of dollars worth of ships and cargoes, and
Semmes has certainly destroyed much more.
The war debt of the North and South amounts to about five thousand millions of dollars.
If the war ends by the abolition of slavery we shall have to keep a standing army of a hundred thousand men, and support two or three millions of indigent negroes for several years.
But we will leave that probability out of the account, and will also refrain from estimating the millions and billions of dollars which the now impeded industry of this country would have produced had not the Abolitionists caused this war. We wish to confine ourselves to facts and figures of indisputable authenticity.
And what do these facts and figures show?
Estimating the white population of the
United States in 1860 at twenty-six millions--and this is within a few hundreds of the official figures — we find that the Abolitionists have been instrumental in causing the death of one man out of every two hundred and sixty people, and the crippling or otherwise disabling of one man out of every fifty-two people.
Also, that the Abolitionists have caused the destruction of property valued at six hundred millions of dollars, and a war expenditure of about five thousand millions.
If these are things to be proud of, let the Abolitionists hold a perpetual jubilee.
Taking the above statistics as a basis, a very simple process of arithmetic will demonstrate that each one of our one hundred thousand Abolitionists has caused the death of one man and the life-long disability of four men, and has already cost the country forty-six thousand dollars. What are the cruelties and the expenses of slavery when compared to this?
It is very evident, however, that the loss of life and limb and money during this war should not be so equally divided among our one hundred thousand fanatics.
Individual Abolitionists have been more or less guilty according to their opportunities and their influence.
Garrison, for example, should have more than one dead man, four wounded and crippled men, and fifty-six thousand dollars worth of destroyed property set down to his account.
Wendell Phillips is in the same case.
Greeley has probably caused the death of at least a thousand men, and the remainder of the injury which he has inflicted upon the nation and upon humanity must be increased in proportion.--The same remark will apply to
Beecher,
Cheever,
Tilton, and such prominent Abolitionists.
Sumner, Wilson,
Chandler and other abolition politicians have even a larger share for which to answer.
This sad account will certainly have to be settled some day — not in this world, perhaps, but certainly in the next.
Then, if the Abolitionists can find any food for gladness in these facts, it will be when they enter
Hades and discover that the worst fiends receive them with respect, and that Satan, Mephistopheles, Belzebub, Moloch and the other devils vacate their thrones to offer the new comers all the insignia of pre-eminence in evil.--The jubilee in
Philadelphia will be nothing in comparison to this grand satanic reception.
