THE RANDALL FAMILY 125
Boston, Feb. 4, 1862. Dear Frank,
. . . You speak of the war, and first of the liberation of the slaves. I also think that the government will at last be compelled to declare their freedom as a war measure, though, to be sure, it overturns our Constitution and leaves us to mob law, and though its efficiency is uncertain be- cause we can only free the slaves as fast as we reach them. I think the rebels can have very little dread of such slaves as do not become intermingled with our armies ; these, of course, are ever subject and accustomed to obey their mas- ters and even their masters' children. Field hands, I think, would be more difficult of control than house ser- vants ; yet rebellion is no easy thing against a watchful and domineering race. Even our own rebellion could only have succeeded amidst the freedom of a quasi- republic, foreign aid, and the distance of the rulers. Whether we succeed or not in the conquest of the rebel States (a con- quest it must be, while the success of it is uncertain), one thing is certain : namely, unless we subdue them soon, bankruptcy stares us in the face. For, at the rate we go on, three or four years will create us a debt equal to that of England, for we fight at ten times the cost per annum of the wars of European nations. Yet, long before it reaches that point, it will be impossible to raise money because there is no means of compelling the people to pay the requisite taxes, unless the army are sent to collect them at the point of the bayonet, when the question might arise whether we were still a republic. No law making paper a legal tender can prevent it from depreciating.
As regards the Western States, I even doubt their ability to pay ; they have not yet paid to the East their last year's shoe debts. In this case we may yet have
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