The Jeffersonian Democrat

The "Logic of Events."

So much has been said, of late, about the "logic of events," that it is important to ascertain what is meant by the phrase. Without attempting to define it, we must enter our protest against the idea that it favors the indefinite postponement of all great moral questions that may arise. A more irrational or dangerous one never prevailed, even among modern politicians. We frequently hear men who aspire to be the leaders of public opinion, assert that the people are not prepared for this or that question which is agitating the country and demanding immediate settlement, and it should, therefore, be left to the "logic of events." These gentlemen are not such apt logicians as they seem to imagine: They ought to know that it is themselves, and not the people, who are unprepared. The "logic of events" will enlighten their understandings in the course of time; but it is hard, very hard, for those whose moral perceptions are more acute to await the slow process. The time to settle great questions is when they legitimately arise, and not to leave them to be settled in the indefinite future, by the "logic of events." To postpone them is to shirk our moral responsibility, and aggravate the difficulties and dangers that attend their settlement. As experience is a sure teacher, and even death a wise and beneficent provision in nature, so is the "logic of events" an infallible worker of human destiny, but always at the expense of those who place their highest trust in it. It was the "logic of events" that taught this reluctant Nation the policy of Emancipation, but at the cost of hundreds of thousands of precious lives and millions of treasure, if we need the lesson, it will yet teach us the policy of making all loyal men equal before the law. We have great faith in the "logic of events," but greater faith in truth and justice. Knowing our duty, what folly, what wrong, what cowardice, to stand waiting for the "logic of events" to compel us to do it!