mmenced? To
all these questions but one answer can be given: No, no, no. The very
reverse is true. Instead of being weaker, all the elements in favor
of agitation are stronger now than they were in 1835, when it first
commenced, while all the elements of influence on the part of the South
are weaker. Unless something decisive is done, I again ask, what is
to stop this agitation, before the great and final object at which it
aims--the abolition of slavery in the States--is consummated? Is it,
then, not certain, that if something is not done to arrest it, the South
will be forced to choose between abolition and secession? Indeed, as
events are now moving, it will not require the South to secede, in order
to dissolve the Union. Agitation will of itself effect it, of which its
past history furnishes abundant proof--as I shall next proceed to show.

It is a great mistake to suppose that disunion can be effected by a
single blow. The cords which bound these States together in one common
Union, are far too numerous and powerful for that. Disunion must be the
work of time. It is only through a long process, and successively, that
the cords can be snapped, until the whole fabric falls asunder. Already
the agitation of the slavery question has snapped some of the most
important, and has greatly weakened all the others, as I shall proceed
to show.

The cords that bind the States together are not only many, but various
in character. Some are spiritual or ecclesiastical; some political;
others social. Some appertain to the benefit conferred by the Union, and
others to the feeling of duty and obligation.

The strongest of those of a spiritual and ecclesiastical nature,
consisted in the unity of the great religious denominations, all of
which originally embraced the whole Union. All these denominations, with
the exception, perhaps, of the Catholics, were organized very much upon
the principle of our political institutions. Beginning with smaller
meetings, corresponding with the political divisions of the country,
their organization terminated in one great central assemblage,
corresponding very much with the character of Congress. At these
meetings the principal clergymen and lay members of the respective
denominations from all parts of the Union, met to transact business
relating to their common concerns. It was not confined to what
appertained to the doctrines and discipline of the respective
denominations, but extended to plans f