methods, more or less available, of
abolishing the system, as unconstitutional, incendiary, and quixotic. I
concede that your indignation has always been in the abstract, and your
zeal eminently conservative. Yet, as a moral man, with a New-England
training, and a general disposition to indorse those principles which
have made New England what she is, you will not deny, that, in a
harmless and inoffensive way, you have been anti-slavery in your
opinions.

But, once more, my friend, have you any reason to be attached to Slavery
on political grounds? You have always been an earnest and uncompromising
Democrat. You have always professed to believe in the omnipotence of
political conventions and the sacred obligation of political platforms.
You have never failed to repudiate any effort to influence party action
by moral considerations. Indeed, I have sometimes thought that you must
have selected as your model that sturdy old Democratic deacon in New
Hampshire, who said that "politics was one thing, and religion was
another." You have never hesitated to support any candidate, or to
uphold any measure, dictated by the wisdom or the wickedness of your
party. Although you must have observed, that, with occasional and
infrequent eddies of opinion, the current of its political progress has
been steadily carrying the Northern Democracy farther and farther away
from the example and the doctrines of Jefferson, you have surrendered
yourself to the evil influence without a twinge of remorse or a sigh of
regret. You have submitted to the insolent demands of Southern
politicians with such prompt and easy acquiescence, that many of your
oldest friends have mourned over your lost manhood, and sadly abandoned
you to the worship of your ugly and obscene idol. A Northern man,
descended from the best Puritan stock, surrounded from childhood by
institutions really free, breathing the atmosphere of free thought,
enjoying the luxury of free speech, you have deliberately allied
yourself to a party which has owed its long-continued political
supremacy to the practical denial of these inestimable privileges. Yet,
on the whole, Andrew, what have you gained by it? Undoubtedly, the seed
thus sown in dishonor soon ripened into an abundant harvest of fat
offices and rapid promotions. But winter--the winter of your
discontent--has followed this harvest. Circumstances quite beyond your
control have utterly demolished the political combination which was o