--a beautiful Talus to walk our coasts
and cry 'All's well!' We thought so--by the gods, we think so yet! That
_is_ our Union--the golden thread, the faithful servant; not the monster
that Frankenstein made, not this Minotaur swallowing States! _The
Sovereignty of the State!_ Virginia fought seven years for the
sovereignty of Virginia, wrung it, eighty years ago, from Great Britain,
and has not since resigned it! Being different in most things, possibly
the North is different also in this. It may be that those States have
renounced the liberty they fought for. Possibly Massachusetts--the years
1803, 1811, and 1844 to the contrary--does regard herself as a county.
Possibly Connecticut--for all that there was a Hartford
Convention!--sees herself in the same light. Possibly. 'Brutus saith 't
is so, and Brutus is an honourable man!' But Virginia has not renounced!
Eighty years ago she wrote a certain motto on her shield. To-day the
letters burn bright! Unterrified then she entered this league from which
we hoped so much. Unterrified to-morrow, should a slurring hand be laid
upon that shield, will she leave it!"

Allan Gold, from the schoolhouse on Thunder Run, listened with a
swelling heart, then, amid the applause which followed the last speaker,
edged his way along the crowded old brick pavement to where, not far
from the portico, he made out the broad shoulders, the waving dark hair,
and the slouch hat of a young man with whom he was used to discuss these
questions. Hairston Breckinridge glanced down at the pressure upon his
arm, recognized the hand, and pursued, half aloud, the current of his
thought. "I don't believe I'll go back to the university. I don't
believe any of us will go back to the university.--Hello, Allan!"

"I'm for the preservation of the Union," said Allan. "I can't help it.
We made it, and we've loved it."

"I'm for it, too," answered the other, "in reason. I'm not for it out of
reason. In these affairs out of reason is out of honour. There's nothing
sacred in the word _Union_ that men should bow down and worship it! It's
the thing behind the word that counts--and whoever says that
Massachusetts and Virginia, and Illinois and Texas are united just now
is a fool or a liar!--Who's this Colonel Anderson is bringing forward?
Ah, we'll have the Union now!"

"Who is it?"

"Albemarle man, staying at Lauderdale.--Major in the army, home on
furlough.--Old-line Whig. I've been at his brother's place, near