1764. The progress of affairs has developed
the antagonism that was only latent before, but which, nevertheless,
some of the wisest of our fathers foresaw; and it is now very clear that
there is a terrible antagonism (no longer latent) between slavery and
the principles that underlie the Constitution. The time has come to
vindicate the wisdom of the Constitution by utterly removing what seeks
to disgrace and destroy it--as it were a viper in the bosom of the
nation.

We must show that our Government is strong enough not only to control,
but also destroy, the interest which arrays itself in arms and war
against it. It is useless, surely, to deny that the Southern Confederacy
means slavery. Over and over again the Southern journals have asserted,
and Southern politicians have said, that free labor was a mistake, and
that slavery was the true condition of labor. That these are the
deliberate convictions of the Southern leaders, and these the doctrines
on which the Montgomery constitution is based, no reflecting person can
hesitate to believe; and the boastful declaration of the rebel
vice-president, that slavery was the corner stone of the rebel
confederacy, serves to confirm our conclusion beyond possibility of
doubt. What these things prove is nothing more nor less than that the
Union with such an element in it to feed the ambition of politicians
with, as this slavery has shown itself to be, is henceforth impossible.
For we see now that for the sake of slavery the slaveholding leaders are
willing to destroy the Government. Who can complain if the basis of
their rebellious scheme is annihilated? The answer to those who say,
Touch tenderly the institutions of the South, is, Nay, but let them
first cease their rebellion. Therefore, so long as the rebellion lifts
its unblushing front against the Government, so long it is the duty of
every lover of the Government, in the language of the third resolution
of this platform, to 'uphold and maintain the acts and proclamations by
which the Government, in its own defence, has aimed a death blow at this
gigantic evil.'

But that makes us, Abolitionists, says the reader. Be it so. Are we not
willing to be Abolitionists for the sake of saving the Constitution and
the Union? And if, despising our proffers of 'the Constitution as it
is,' which we have now held out to them for three years and a half, the
rebels continue to defy the authority of the Government, who can
complain if we pro