n as it existed, and reconstruct it upon terms which should place
the slaveholding aristocracy in that front rank of authority without
question, to which, as a settled conviction, ever present and dominant
in their minds, they alone, of all men, are preeminently entitled.

Accordingly they imposed their weight more and more heavily upon the
successive administrations from Van Buren down to Buchanan, and were
encouraged to find that, in proportion as they pressed harder in their
demands, proportionate concessions seldom failed to be made. The
reaction at the North was nevertheless steadily progressing. Wisely
perceiving that the first part of their _programme_ of action had nearly
served its day; that preparation must be made for entering on the second
and more desperate part of their conspiracy against free government;
they forced on the crisis at the Democratic Convention in Charleston, by
demanding terms which, with the fire in the rear now regularly organized
and steadily operative at the North, that party could not accede to,
without consenting to its own death. A disruption ensued of the
unnatural alliance between the Southern oligarchy and the Northern
Democracy, and the Southern leaders from that hour availed themselves of
their sole remaining lease of power under the administration of Mr.
Buchanan to strengthen their position by all means, honorable and
dishonorable, for the coming conflict, which by them had been long
planned or at least looked forward to, as the probable contingency.
Having virtually the entire control of the General Government, they used
their power for sending South the arms of the common country, for
disposing the army and navy in such ways as to leave them in the least
degree effective for opposing their designs; and with all the quietness
and deliberation of a dying millionaire making his will, they prepared
to begin the conflict which the lazy and confiding North had not even
begun to suspect as among the possibilities of the future; and to begin
it absolutely upon their own terms.

Enough has now been said, perhaps, in relation to the causes of the
present war. The present stage of its development is such as might have
been fairly anticipated from such a commencement. The South has had the
advantage of earnestness and concentration of purpose; of a warlike and
aggressive spirit; of prior preparation, and of a full knowledge from
the first of the desperate nature of the enterprise upon w