an rebellion have a
third argument at their service which is no less specious. "All is
over," they exclaim, "there is nobody now to sustain, there are no
sympathies now to testify; in four days, peace will be made, the new
Confederation will be recognized by Lincoln in person, a commercial
treaty will even ally it to the United States: the affair is ended."

The affair is scarcely begun, we answer; one must be blind not to see
it. What is ended, is only the first skirmish. As to the war, it will be
as long, believe me, as the life of the two principles which are
struggling in America. Let Mr. Lincoln assure himself, and let the
European adversaries of slavery remember as well, that it will be
necessary to combat and to persevere. Never was a more obstinate and
more colossal strife commenced on earth. Many of the border States will
not be long in raising pretensions to which they will join threats of
new secessions; they will again bring up the question of the
Territories, and will propose compromises. Who knows? they will aspire
perhaps to establish, in the interests of the extreme South, the
extradition of slaves escaped from the rival Confederacy. Who knows
again? they will perhaps attempt to restore their domestic slave trade
with Charleston and New Orleans.

This is not all. The time will come when the extreme South, incapable of
enduring the life that it has just created for itself, will demand to
return to the bosom of the Union. It will then insist on dictating its
conditions; it will propose the election of a general convention charged
with reconstructing the Constitution of the United States; it will
appeal to the selfishness of some, and to the ambition or even the
patriotism of others, presenting to their sight the re-establishment of
the common greatness which separation had compromised. What a motive to
veil principles for a moment! what a temptation to return to the fatal
path so lately forsaken!

I know very well that it will be henceforth impossible to return to it
completely; nevertheless, the vigilance of Mr. Lincoln will not cease to
be necessary, and what will be no less necessary, is the moral support
which we are bound to lend him in the hour of success and in the hour of
discouragement, in good and in bad reputation. Where do we find a more
glorious cause than this? despite the impure alloy which is mingled with
it, of course, as with all glorious causes, is it not fitted to stir up
generous he