The conservative and patriotic friends of the Union, which is but a creature of the Constitution, and which must perish with it, may well ask themselves if they can hope to preserve it in its purity, with such leaders and such associates. If there are those amongst the intelligent promoters of this crusade against the South, who believe that in the hour of victory they can arrest the tide of popular fury in the public mind, let them pause, reflect, and dispel such a delusion.

When they instil into the minds of the people the belief that the only barrier in the way of 'universal equality and fraternity throughout the length and breadth of our continent,' is the slave-holder of the South, can they believe that they can satisfy them of the justice or propriety of allowing the South any longer to keep back the millennium day of that liberty, for whose coming utopian dreamers have been watching and waiting for so many weary years? In short, can they trust that any written compact or constitution can restrain the mad passions of the majority, when that majority is itself the sovereign, and those over whom they are called to exercise sovereignty are strangers to them in blood, are supposed to be opposed to them in interest; whose tastes and whose habits are different from their own, and who, living under a different government, do not even owe obedience or allegiance to the same laws?

Beautifully rounded periods in laudation of the Union will never save it from destruction, if that spirit in the Northern mind which menaces its destruction is not rebuked by both the North and the South. All the constitutions which could be enacted would be powerless to hold together a confederacy of sovereign States, where the animosities of the greater number are a constant menace against the tranquillity, the peace, and independence of the others. Parties may prove what they choose by written parchment articles of agreement, but all such compacts will be powerless to perpetuate a partnership that would be worth preserving, if the members thereof are repelled by a common sentiment of hatred. In this contest, it should be remembered that the North has no domestic interest at stake. It is not pretended that the South desires to interfere, in the smallest degree, in the affairs of the Northern States. No Southern man would accept of any privileges in the common territory which were not enjoyed alike by every citizen of the Republic. The Southern States only ask to be left in the free enjoyment of those rights which the Constitution guarantees to them in common with the States of the North. The South protests against that combination in the North which threatens in its practical results to tax her against her will for the enrichment of Northern manufacturers, without any corresponding advantage to the people of the

Southern States. The South denies that the North has any right, through the instrumentality of a mere majority, to exclude them by prohibitory duties from all commercial intercourse with the nations of the world; thus reducing them to the condition of vassal provinces, without an available representation in the Government to protect their rights. They protest against a political combination of the Northern States having for its object a monopoly of all the powers of the Government, because it would leave the South powerless to protect its rights in the Union, against the aggressions of an irresponsible majority of the Northern people, which would thereafter usurp all the legitimate powers of a majority of the people of all the States. But above all, they demand the right to direct their own domestic institutions in such manner as to them may seem best. They deny that any good could result to either master or slave by the interference of an external Power; but even though this fact should not be admitted, they cast themselves upon their reserved rights of sovereignty, and will resist with every means at their command, all attempts, from whatever quarter they may come, to subvert their laws or to change the relations subsisting between the black and the white races. The defeat of the Republican party would not deprive the North of a single right or privilege of sovereignty, but the success of Abolitionism would place in jeo

pardy the liberty, the independence, the property, the very lives of the Southern people. While the triumph of that party would seal the bond of hatred between the sections upon the very hearts of the people, too late, perhaps, its misguided followers would find that the fruits of their victory would be death.

LETTER XII.

Influence of Anti-Slavery Fanaticism upon Religion - Bible Authority on Slavery -Increase of Infidelity - Influence of the Clergy for Good and Evil.

IN considering the evils which have resulted from the unceasing agitation of the Anti-slavery question, its active influence in producing disbelief or scepticism, in regard to the truths of the religion revealed in the Holy Bible, cannot be overlooked, and should not be disregarded. The fanaticism of anti-slavery has been for many years past, of all other causes, the most fruitful source of infidelity, wherever its baneful influence has become a predominating passion. The philosophical mind may readily trace out the links of the chain which connects abolitionism with infidelity as cause and effect.

Slavery, as a political institution, or as a question involving certain political rights, has been a subject about which there has existed a variety of opinions. An investigation in regard to its influence for good or evil, leads us to consider the circumstances and causes which have produced such a relation between men. There are those, however, who condemn the con