t
Washington.

They intended that the territories should be kept for the free
immigrant, who should not be degraded by slaves at work in the next
field. Only a minority of the party,--though a minority likely in the
long run to lead it--looked with hope and purpose to ultimate
emancipation. And when the question of Secession was at issue by the
people's votes and voice, and had not yet come to the clash of arms, the
rights and interests of the slave fell into the background. The supreme
question of the time was felt to be the unity or the division of the
nation.

The Secessionists' plea was in two clauses; that their States were
aggrieved by Northern action, and that they had a legal right to leave
the Union without let or hindrance. A double answer met them, from their
fellow-Southerners that it was impolitic to secede, and from the North
that secession was illegal, unpermissible, and to be resisted at all
costs.

The Secessionists were fluent in argument that the framers of the
Constitution intended only a partnership of States, dissoluble by any at
will. However difficult to prove that the original builders purposed
only such a temporary edifice, there was at least ground for maintaining
that they gave no authority for coercing a State into obedience or
submission, and indeed rejected a proposal to give such authority. If
there were no legal or rightful authority to keep a State in the Union
by force, then for all practical purposes its right to go out of the
Union was established. But against that right, as ever contemplated by
the fathers, or allowable under the Constitution, there was strong
contention on legal and historic grounds.

But deeper than all forensic or academic controversy was the substantial
and tremendous fact, that the American people had grown into a nation,
organic and vital. That unity was felt in millions of breasts, cherished
by countless firesides, recognized among the peoples of the earth.

There had developed that mysterious and mighty sentiment, the love of
country. It rested in part on the recognition of material benefits. From
the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to the Gulf, the tides of
commerce flowed free, unvexed by a single custom-house. The Mississippi
with its traffic united the Northern prairies and the Louisiana delta
like a great artery. Safety to person and property under the laws,
protection by an authority strong enough to curb riot or faction at
home, and wit