atal element
of discord would scarcely have survived to work and plot in secret for
more than a quarter of a century. It is true, slavery would have
remained; but in the absence of other causes, slavery would not
necessarily have brought the country to the present crisis. Providence
may have so ordered the events of that day as to leave the revolutionary
element in existence, in order that it might eventually fasten upon
slavery as the instrument of its treason, and thus bring this system,
condemned alike by the lessons of experience and by the moral sense of
mankind, to that complete eventual destruction, which seems to be
inevitably approaching.

The idea of an independent Southern confederacy, to be constituted of a
fragment of the Union, survived the contest of 1832, and has been
cherished with zeal and enthusiasm, by a small party of malcontents,
from that day to this. Either from honest conviction or from the syren
seductions of ambition, or perhaps from that combination of both which
so often misleads the judgment of the wisest and best of men, this party
has pursued its end with unrivalled zeal and consummate tact, never for
a single moment abating its efforts to convince the South of the
advantages of separation. But all its ability and all its untiring
labors failed to make any serious impression, until the great and
powerful interest of slavery was enlisted in the cause, and used as the
means of reaching the feelings, and arousing the prejudices of the
Southern people. The theories of nullification and secession, while
accepted by many leading minds in that section, never made any serious
impression upon the mass of the people. Indeed, it may be said with
truth, that the honest instincts of the people invariably rejected these
pernicious and dangerous theories, whenever they were distinctly
involved in the elections. Nevertheless, there was an undercurrent of
opinion in favor of them: the minds of the people were familiarized with
the doctrines, and thus made ready to embrace them, whenever they should
be satisfied it was indispensable to their safety and liberty to avail
themselves of their benefit.

These abstract principles, however industriously and successfully
taught, would not of themselves have availed to urge the people on to
the desperate contest into which they have been madly precipitated. The
dogma of the right of secession was not left a mere barren idea: it was
accompanied with constant teach