auses are the readiest to threaten
in this style; having nothing reasonable to say in their own favor, they
willingly proceed to violence, and the saying of Themistocles would find
here a legitimate application: "You are angry, therefore, you are
wrong."

What the result of this would be, we can imagine. No question would be
longer judged by its own merits; the despotism of bad men would be
established; expedients would take the place of principles; fear would
put justice to flight; national resolutions would be nothing more than
compromises and bargains. This, we must admit, is something like what
has been passing in the United States since the South proclaimed its
ultra policy, and placed its pretensions under the protection of its
threats. If they had once more bowed the head, all would have been lost;
the dignity, the mental liberty of America, would have suffered complete
shipwreck; of all this noble system of government, there would have
remained standing but a single maxim: Accord always and everywhere
whatever is necessary to prevent the separation of the South.
Unconstitutional in all places, the theory of separation is doubly so in
the United States, where the federal system is more concentrated than
elsewhere. It is without doubt a federal system; the separate States
preserve the right in it of regulating their special legislation, of
governing themselves as they choose, and even of holding and practising
principles which are profoundly repugnant to other parts of the
Confederation; the central power is, however, endowed with an extended
sphere.

It has its taxes, its officers, its army, its courts; it possesses in
the Territory of the different States federal property depending upon it
alone; in fine, its general government and general legislation apply to
the effective handling of all the essential interests of the nation. I
am not surprised that the American Confederation is so strongly cemented
together, excluding the pretended right of separation better than any
other; the States that united towards the close of the last century were
already in the habit of acting in concert; they were of the same blood,
and had lived under the same rule; their history, their interests,
their customs, their tongue, their religion, all contributed to bind
them closely to each other.

Besides, the question is unanimously resolved in the United States.
Apart from the _fire-eaters_, not a person is found who has the
slig