War. The People must hear it and thereby become aware of that for which they are spending their treasures of life and money; in other words they must get to know the decree of the WorldSpirit, and be brought to support it with all their energy. Already we have emphasized the fact that Lincoln is supremely the voice of the World-Spirit to the People as well as the executor of its behests. He is the incarnation of the Idea of the Union (which is to be made over as producing Free-States only), while the military and naval forces show that Idea armed and realizing itself, the People furnishing the means in men, money, and also votes. In this way the inner process of the vast and intricate maze of events begins to manifest itself. Lincoln must be regarded as the vehicle of the World-Spirit, and he thus becomes the central figure of the War, keeping the People in touch with the supreme purpose of History, with what may also be called its Idea. At the same time this Idea has to go through its various stages of development, it has to evolve both in Lincoln and in the People. Not of a sudden is the great work done, or even seen; it starts simply with preserving the Union, then moves forward to emancipation, then to reconstruction. Such was the inner process lurking in the events of the War, as well as in the soul of the People, but obtaining its most complete utterance in the words of the Leader, whose supreme function was to harness the Nation to Civilization, and to keep it thus harnessed till its task be done. Overwhelming is the mass of occurrences during these four years of military and political activity, if viewed externally. The interior lines of their movement must be brought to the surface and described if we are ever to escape from the chaos of historic details bubbling up synchronously and in succession over areas extending thousands of miles. Now as this whole War shows the Union re-united or re-won, we shall observe three chief periods in the process or three Winnings which may be designated in advance as follows: I. The Winning of the unseceded SlaveStates old and new — which gives the first Period of the War (1861-2). The expressed end is the simple preservation of the Union as it was. II. The Winning of the seceded SlaveStates new which gives the Second Period of the War (1862-3). The expressed end is now the emancipation of the Union from its dual condition, half-slave and half-free. III. The Winning of the seceded SlaveStates-old which gives the Third and final Period of the War (1864-5). The expressed end is the reconstruction of the Union, which is a return to its birth as State-producing, and makes it reproduce each Slave-State, new and old, as free. Thereby appears or begins to appear the new Union formed of Free-States only. These three Periods are not each of the same length of Time, nor are their limits fixed to a a day. That upon which our thought should be centered is the process revealing itself in these stretches of Time, which is but its outermost garment, and which may be now a little longer and now a little shorter. It is evident that the cycle of the Ten Years' War completes itself by making the Union Free-State producing completely, by making it embrace not only the Future in the matter of Territories, but also the Past in the matter of States. In fact the Union itself is re-born; there is a return to its first birth, and a re-creating of it as creative. Thus the round is finished and all the seceded States are re-won an external restoration at first, which, however, is to be niade internal with time. But we must also notice that in each of the mentioned Periods is found a similar process, which runs in this way: first the Idea of it will be stated generally by the President in address or message, at the seat of Government, and then formulated in law by Congress; second is the Idea armed in the military and naval powers, and thereby realizing itself; third is the Idea backed by the People who stick to their great task and follow the words of Lincoln, answering his repeated calls for fresh troops and more money, as well as supporting him by their votes. Such is the process of the Idea of the Union directing each of the three designated Periods, of which it is the soul or formative energy. In such fashion we seek mentally to seize the whirl of Time's events, though moving with an enormously accelerated velocity, and throwing off in a year such a multitude of important actions, that they would ordinarily require a century for their happening. The Winning of the Unseceded The first great problem in 1861 was to hold in the Union the upper Tier of Slave-States after the two other Tiers had seceded. Maryland with little Delaware belonging to the old group, Kentucky and Missouri belonging to the new group of Slave-States, had in their borders considerable bodies of active secessionists who sought to join these Commonwealths to the Southern Confederacy. But a decided majority of the population in each of them was favorable to the Union. Still this majority had to be handled with great circumspection. Neutrality became for a short time the favorite policy in these states, especially in Kentucky. Thus a barrier would be interposed between the two combatants, Northern and Southern, and war might be averted. It soon became manifest, however, that such a policy meant the success of rebellion, since the seceded States would be protected by a wall of neutrals, and could not be co-erced. In Baltimore troops hurrying from the North to the defence of Washington were assailed and stopped for a while. In both Kentucky and Missouri, the Governors denounced Lincoln's |
