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Author : Woolfolk L. B.
Title : The world's crisis
Year : 1868

Link download : Woolfolk_L_B_-_The_world_s_crisis.zip

This volume has been written during the last two years, amidst the pressure of constant and imperative engagements, and with several long interruptions caused by absence from home and by protracted attacks of disease. The fact is not mentioned to excuse the faults which the critical reader may observe; but because it cannot escape notice that diflferent portions were written at periods separated by wide intervals of time. The second " Book," giving a view of the political state of Europe, was completed early in the fall of 1866: the entire Manuscript was ready for the press in the spring of 1867. Consequently, the view of European events is nearly eighteen mouths old; and the political condition of our own country is depicted from the standpoint of nine months ago. In one point of view, this is a defect. But the rapid movement of events forbids the delay necessary for such a revisal, as would bringtheworkupto the standpoint of the present. The author, however, is the chief sufferer from the lapse of time since different portions of the work were written ; for much that he predicted has become history; and many tendencies outlined in this work long before they had been suggested elsewhere, have now been perceived by the general public, and are no longer novel suggestions. Events have moved faster than the pen, and the author, in many instances, finds himself behind the status of the time, where he hoped to lead the van of thought. This, however, will not be esteemed an unmitigated misfortune, if the prognostications already fulfilled shall cause a candid examination of the suggestions respecting events yet lying in the future. In justice to himself and others, the author must disclaim any wish to be considered the exponent of the views of any political party. Responsibility for the opinions and the policy suggested in this work rests with him alone. Political expediency and the rally words of the moment have not been considered in it. The range of thought is too broad for a merely political work; and many of the views presented, clashing with prejudices and views of present expediency, may perhaps prove unpalatable to persons of all parties, and all sections. The author is not, nor does he propose to become, a politician. He has not written from a party, nor from a sectional, but fi'om an American standpoint. If he advocates Conservatism, he does so because the principles of Conservatism constitute, as he conceives, the only hope of America and of mankind: If he assails Radicalism, it is not from party spirit, but because Radicalism is destructive of our prosperity, of Republicanism, and of the best hopes of man. He does not aim to discuss the questions involved in such a manner as to fall in with the views, passions, and prejudices of the time: his sole aim is truth ; his object discussion from the elevated philosophic point of view the future historian will occupy when the parties of the past and present, with their principles and their policy, shall be regarded with calmness, and the dispassionate verdict of posterity pronounced upon them. His aim is not the advocacy of partisan' or sectional issues ; but the development of the true principles of Republican government; the presentation of the momentous world-important issues involved in the existing crisis ; and the suggestion of the policy necessary to save from impending ruin the prosperity of Our Country and the cause of Human Progress. ...