ctrine was
that slavery must be protected in the United States territories.

Now the question was, would that party acquiesce in the decision of the
majority? At every previous election in the nation's history the
minority had acquiesced promptly and loyally. When Jefferson was
elected, New England looked on the new President as a Jacobin in
politics and an infidel in religion. But New England acquiesced without
an hour's hesitation. When Jackson was chosen, his opponents saw in him
a rude and ignorant demagog. But the anti-Jackson people accepted the
new President as they had accepted Monroe and Adams. In the choice of
Buchanan, the Republicans saw an assertion of the nationalism of
slavery, and a menace of the subjugation of Kansas. But the supporters
of Fremont recognized Buchanan as unhesitatingly as if he had been their
own choice. What was the meaning of popular government, except that the
minority should submit to the legitimate victory of the majority? On
what did the nation's existence rest, but the loyalty of its citizens to
the nation's self-determination in its elections? And now, would the
minority resist the decision of the majority? Would the Southern States
attempt to break up the Union? The North could not and would not
believe it. But there was a strong party at the South which was fully
convinced that the election of Lincoln was the crown of a series of
grievances which justified the South in withdrawing from the Union; that
such withdrawal was a clear constitutional right; and that the honor and
interest of the South demanded that it be made.

CHAPTER XXI

FACE TO FACE

To understand the meaning of secession and the Civil War which followed
it, we must fathom the thoughts and feelings of the opposing parties.
Let us suppose two representative spokesmen to state their case in turn.

Let the Secessionist speak first. The Secessionists were not at first a
majority of the people of the Southern States, but it was their view
which prevailed. What that view was we know certainly and from abundant
evidence,--the formal acts of secession, the speeches of the leaders in
Congress and at home, the histories since written by the President and
Vice-President of the Confederacy, and countless similar sources. This,
substantially, was the Secessionist's position:--

"This Union is a partnership of States, of which the formal bond is the
Constitution; the vital principle is the enjoyment by each sectio