July 1862

I suppose the war does not recommend Slav- ery to anybody. If it cost ten years of war, and ten to recover the general prosperity, the de- struction of Slavery is worth so much. But it does not cost so much time to get well again. How many times France has been a warfield ! Every one of her towns has been sacked ; the harvest has been a hundred times trampled down by armies. And yet, when you suppose, as after the first Napoleon's time, that the country must be desolate, a year's labour, a new harvest, al- most the hours of one perfect summer day cre- ate prodigious wealth, and repair the damage of ten years of war.