Such, briefly and comprehensively stated, having been the situation in
1853, it remains to consider the practical outcome thereof during the
sixty years it has been my fortune to take part, either as an actor or
as an observer, in the great process of evolution. It is curious to note
the extent to which the unexpected has come about. In the first place,
consider the all-absorbing mid-century political issue, that involving
the race question, to which I first referred,--the issue which divided
the South from the North, and which, eight years only after I had
entered college, carried me from the walks of civil life into the
calling of arms.
And here I enter on a field of discussion both difficult and dangerous;
and, for reasons too obvious to require statement, what I am about to
say will be listened to with no inconsiderable apprehension as to what
next may be forthcoming. Nevertheless, this is a necessary part of my
theme; and I propose to say what I have in mind to say, setting forth
with all possible frankness the more mature conclusions reached with the
passage of years. Let it be received in the spirit in which it
is offered.
So far, then, as the institution of slavery is concerned, in its
relations to ownership and property in those of the human species,--I
have seen no reason whatever to revise or in any way to alter the
theories and principles I entertained in 1853, and in the maintenance of
which I subsequently bore arms between 1861 and 1865.
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