The Lost Cause Regained

The author of the present work wrote a history of the recent war under the title of "The Lost Cause." The fitness of the title was singularly complimented, and the words have since been permanently incorporated in the common language of the people. The author now proposes a title yet more fit and happy for the continuation of his historical work: "The Lost Cause Regained." He does not hesitate to confess that a prolonged and mature reflection has given him larger and perhaps better views of the true nature of the recent war, and especially of its consequences; and he has risen from that reflection profoundly convinced that the true cause fought for in the late war has not been "lost" immeasurably or irrevocably, but is yet in a condition to be "regained" by the South on ultimate issues of the political contest.

It is scarcely possible in any introduction to recite the whole design of a literary work. But the meaning of a title, which perhaps piques curiosity, may be fixed at once in the mind of the reader by the following brief summary of propositions :

That the late war was much misunderstood in the South, and its true inspiration thereby lost or diminished, through the fallacy that Slavery was defended as a property tenure, or as a peculiar institution of labour; when the true ground of defence was as of a barrier against a contention and war of races.

That the greatest value of Slavery was as such a barrier. That the war has done nothing more than destroy this barrier, and liberate and throw upon the country the ultimate question of the Negro.

That the question of the Negro practically couples or associates a revolutionary design upon the Constitution; and that the true question which the war involved, and which it merely liberated for greater breadth of controversy was the supremacy of the white race, and along with it the preservation of the political traditions of the country.

That in contesting this cause the South is far stronger than in any former contest, and is supplied with new aids and inspirations.

That if she succeeds to the extent of securing the supremacy of the white man, and the traditional liberties of the country -in short, to the extent of defeating the Radical party-she really triumphs in the true cause of the war, with respect to all its fundamental and vital issues.

That this triumph is at the loss only of so many dollars and cents in the property tenure of Slavery-the South still retaining the Negro as a labourer, and keeping him in a condition where his political influence is as indifferent as when he was a slave; and that the pecuniary loss is utterly insignificant, as the price of "the lost cause regained."

These propositions, we believe, sum a novel, and even sublime philosophy on the political questions of the day. They contain the true hope of the South; they suggest a new animation of a contest which lingers too much on mere partial and contracted issues. The great difficulty of the Southern mind is, and always has been, its extreme narrowness on the Negro question. This intellectual defect, in a concern so important and peculiar, is especially remarkable, when we consider what renown the South has obtained for her schools of statesmanship, that she has contributed the largest and best part of the political literature of the country; nevertheless it is a fact. We shall see further on in these pages that the best of Southern statesmen had no clear ideas, either of the nature or the object of the defence of Negro Slavery; that they were incapable of conveying distinct inspirations to the people

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