h a shielding arm that reached wherever an American
traveler might wander,--these benefits rooted patriotism deep in the
soil of homely usefulness. And the tree branched and blossomed in the
upper air of generous feeling. Man's sympathy expands in widening
spheres, and his being enlarges as he comes into vital union, first
with wife and children, then successively with neighborhood, community,
country, and at last with humanity. The Russian peasant, in his
ignorance and poverty, or facing the foe in war, is sublimated by his
devotion to the White Czar and Holy Russia. Still more inspiring and
profound is the patriotism of a citizen whose nation is founded on equal
brotherhood. Deeper than analysis can probe is this passion of
patriotism. Gladstone characterized it well, when, writing in August,
1861, he recognized among the motives sustaining the Union cause, "last
and best of all, the strong instinct of national life, and the
abhorrence of Nature itself toward all severance of an organized body."

This sentiment, though strained and weakened in the South, was still
powerful even in that section. This was especially true of the border
States, where slavery was of less account than in the Gulf and Cotton
States. The spirit of Clay was still strong in Kentucky, and was
represented by the venerable John J. Crittenden in the Senate. Of a like
temper was John Bell of Tennessee, Presidential candidate of the Union
and Constitutional party in 1860. From the same State Andrew Johnson, in
the Senate, stood for the sturdy and fierce Unionism of the white
laboring class. Virginia was strongly bound to the Union by her great
historical traditions. North Carolina, Missouri, and Arkansas were,
until the war broke out, attached to the Union rather than the Southern
cause. It was in the belt of States from South Carolina to Texas, in
which the planter class was altogether dominant, that the interest of
slavery, and the pride of class and of State, had gradually loosened the
bonds of affection and allegiance to the national idea. Calhoun himself
had been an ardent lover of the Union. The clash between the national
and sectional interests had been to him a tragedy. Nullification was his
device for perpetuating the Union while allowing its members relief
from possible oppression,--but nullification had failed, in fact as in
logic.

Now the Secessionists went further than Calhoun had ever found occasion
to go. They proposed to break up th