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MANY men of discernment, who had watched the politics of the country for years past, and the gradual but steady moulding of public opinion in the North and South, had long foreseen the approaching storm, that was to test the great question of the stability of the Government and institutions established by our fathers, and many pure patriots of both sections, guided by the light of history in their judgments, foreseeing the fearful consequences that would inevitably follow, sought to avoid or at least postpone the calamity by concessions and compromises, while others, equally patriotic and sincere, deemed it best to bear the bosom to the storm and suffer the consequences at once, rather than by delay, permit the nation to be bound hand and foot to the car of Southern institutions.

Under the Government of the United States, which Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice-President of the "Southern Confederacy," in November, 1860, pronounced "the most beneficent Government of which history gives us any account," and which Jefferson Davis, the President in the session of 1860-61 said was, "the best Gov. ernment ever instituted by man, unexceptionably administered, and under which the people have been pros

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perous beyond comparison with any other people whose career has been recorded in history," the citizens of all sections of the country and of every class felt only its power and influence to protect and prosper. Possessing a continent under one Government and one flag, free from the evils of standing armies and expensive fleets, free from imposts and export duties among themselves, free from export duties to foreign countries and internal revenue taxes, being one people in fact with a substantial community of origin, language, belief and law, (the great ties that hold society together,) having struggled, suffered and triumphed together, with their glories and defeats in common, with a Constitution springing from the free consent of all with ample provisions for its peaceful alteration or modification, with one section a commercial and manufacturing, another grain and stock growing, and a third whose great staple was cotton and tobacco, they of all people on God's earth should have lived in peace and contentment. But the South saw that in wealth and prosperity the North was far outstripping her, and alas, instead of seeking for the cause and trying to remedy the fault, they affected to despise the superior industry and energy of the North, preferring a system of labor that gave wealth and luxuriant ease to the few, at the expense of the prosperity and elevation of the masses, and the degradation of labor.

Fearing that slavery would become isolated they sought to maintain the balance of power in the Senate by the extension of slave territory, and the creation of slave States which their population and resources did not warrant. Nor did they confine themselves to the territorial limits of the United States. Already had the Government purchased for them the territories now forming the slave States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Florida, and already had it engaged in a war with a sister Republic to annex and open to them the vast State of Texas. And more than this, the Government underhandedly favored the fillibustering expedi

tions of the marauders, Lopez and Walker, for the conquest of Cuba, Lower California and Central America, that they might be annexed to the Union and opened to slavery. With these, Mexico, and the Southern States, the Southern dream of a mighty empire, enabled to secure the good offices and favors of mercenary and monarchical Europe, and to bid defiance to Republican America, arose in golden visions before their eyes, and ambitious men were willing to destroy the Government and constitution of their country, and wade through seas of blood to power and position. Yet they were anxious to remain in the Union and enjoy all the advantages of it, as long as they could continue to control its councils, which they had done from the foundation of the Govern

ment.

As early as 1820, the Missouri Compromise was passed, which was the first and most respected of all. In admitting Missouri as a slave State, it stipulated that slavery should not be introduced north of the line of thirty-six, thirty degrees of latitude, its southern boundary, but that limit so long accepted, the South complained of, and Mr. Douglas introduced a bill annulling the same, and substituting "squatter sovereignty," which drew from Congress the right to interfere in the question of slavery in the territories. The South soon discovered that the superior population and resources of the North enabled them to settle the territories of Kansas and Nebraska with their hardy workmen, who decreed liberty to the land. This unexpected turn of events, which should have been foreseen, caused them to change their theory, and they invoked the power of Congress to interfere in the slave question in the territories against "squatter sovereignty," and demanded that its decision. should be trampled under foot. The miserable and imbecile conduct of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan in permitting a civil war to exist in Kansas for so long a period without making any effort to stay it, is alas too well known to need comment.

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