tude, piracy applied to
international right, and, in conclusion, those facts of corruption and
waste which served to crown its last Presidency. The most consistent
champions of the doctrines and practices of the democratic party, are
those men who have just declared that votes are valid only on condition
of giving the majority to slavery, and that a regular election is a
sufficient cause for separation.

CONCLUSION.

I have not sought to recount events, but to attempt a study, which I
believe to be useful to us, and which may, also, not be useless to the
United States. We owe them the support of our sympathy. It is more
important than people imagine to let them hear words of encouragement
from us at this decisive moment. Let us not hasten to declare that the
Union is destroyed, that, henceforth and forever, there will be two
Confederacies existing on the same footing, that the United States of
slavery will have their great _role_ to perform here below, like the
United States of liberty. This would be, in any case, immense
exaggeration. Let us not forget that the Union has often before seemed
lost, that the Confederation has often before seemed ready to perish.
Are the men who are terrified at the present perils, ignorant of those
which surrounded the cradle of the United States: mutinous troops,
contending ambitions, threats of separation, anarchy, ruin? This
America, then so weak, is the same that has since become so strong, in
spite of its own faults. At the moment when it rebelled against England,
it had neither arts and manufactures, nor commerce, nor marine; and its
two or three millions of inhabitants were far from agreeing among
themselves. Yet such is the vigor of its genius, such is its
carelessness of every kind of danger, such is the impetuosity with which
it affronts and surmounts obstacles, such is the power of its national
motto; "Go ahead!" that through internal struggles, crises, and
momentary exhaustion, it has attained the stature of a great people.
Count the steamboats on its rivers, estimate the tonnage of its vessels,
compute the amount of its internal trade, measure the length of its
canals and railroads, and you will still have but a faint idea of what
it is capable of undertaking and accomplishing.

We must remember these things, and not imitate those enemies of America
who sometimes feign to put on mourning for her, sometimes jest at her
distress, and find in the present situation of