principles together, to preserve the constitutional majority, and to add to it great numerical gains. It will be alleged, that the sort of spirit manifested by the leaders of public opinion in the South prevented such a consummation. Doubtless a great diversity of views existed in the South. There were, here and there, zealous disunionists in that quarter, as there were at the North, who had long cherished the idea of separation. But it cannot be doubted, that the vast body of the people in every slave State, during the progress of these events, including the most able, influential, and by far the most in number of their leading men, were heartily attached to the Union, sincerely anxious to preserve it, and desired only to maintain those principles of the Constitution—whether right or wrong, in some of their interpretations of them— upon which the Union was founded, and which were essential to its preservation, unimpaired in its original purity and integrity. For example, after general religious communion between the North and the South had ceased,' and general stagnation prevailed, as to their social intercourse, Mr. Jefferson Davis spent the summer months of the year 1858 in New England, with his family; visited its principal cities and addressed public assemblies, on several occasions with great acceptance. A visitor of his character and standing could not fail to enjoy ample opportunity of conversation with all classes of citizens; and it was well known that he left for his Southern home with strong impressions, derived from the prevalent tone of sentiment, that the disputes which had so long tended to alienate the two sections from each other would pass by, without leading to any more serious consequences

1 There were very few pulpits at the North, at this period, to which a pastor would venture to invite a brother clergyman from a slave State, should such a one happen to be in the neighborhood, to preach a Gospel addressed to all nations, in any one of which, at the time of its promulgation, slavery was the common practice, and in regard to which practice it contains no reproof. The American Tract Society had already been formally divided; the main office remaining at New York, while the New England seceding branch had its headquarters at Boston, and became an active organ of abolition.

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than those which had been already experienced. It was supposed that Mr. Davis repaired to New England for the purpose of satisfying himself and his Southern friends on this very subject-in a word, to learn, by personal investigation, whether the idea was seriously entertained by considerable masses of the Northern population, as was more or less indicated by the tone of not a few members of Congress from that quarter, of pressing the question of slavery or antisla very to the point of submission, or resistance by the South. Many others of the chief citizens of that part of the country also visited the North, at or about the same period, probably with the same general view of inquiry and observation; and two years earlier, Mr. Toombs, by invitation of the Boston "Mercantile Library Association," delivered before a numerous assembly of that literary body, a lecture which was devoted to the discussion of domestic slavery, as it existed in the United States, in its constitutional and social relations.'

Indeed, President Lincoln himself, while the war was still raging, without apparent prospect of speedy termination, did not hesitate to say, in one of his characteristic addresses to the public, that, except in South Carolina, he believed that a majority of the people in every Southern State were still for the Union at heart." Nor does there seem to be any room for rational doubt, that the fact, more or less correspondent with his opinion, continuing unchanged to the end of the war, rendered the success of the Confederacy impracticable, and hastened the final result.

1 On the evening of January 24th, 1856.

2 In a debate in the Senate on the state of the Union, on the 10th of December, 1860, when affairs had so nearly ripened for open secession, Mr. Dixon, of Connecticut, declared that the true way to restore harmony was, by cheerfully and honestly assuring to every section its constitutional rights. No section professes to ask more; no section ought to offer less." He added that three-quarters of his constituents would uphold him in this position. Whereupon, Mr. Davis's colleague, Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, said: “If the same spirit could prevail which actuates the Senator who has just now taken his seat, a different state of things might be produced in twenty days."—Cor gressional Globe, December 11th, 1860.

CHAPTER XII.

Hostility to a fundamental Provision of Law led to the War.-Other Causes which concurred.-Mr. Webster's Expression, "A Bargain broken on one Side, is broken on all Sides," in 1851, showing his Opinion of the State of Things at that Period.-The Book, called "The Impending Crisis of the South," recommended by Republican Members of Congress and others.-The "Harper's Ferry Invasion."

THE future impartial historian of the republic will not be likely to fail in the conclusion, that those gradually accumulating causes which at length, according to the ordinary motives which govern the actions of mankind, rendered the war inevitable-though unwise and certainly needless, could the calmer sentiment of the country, on both sides, have found means to exercise its due influence-resulted, by immediate occasion, from hostility to a fact in the domestic life of one section of the country, which was recognized as a matter of fundamental national law, by the spirit and the terms of the original compact between all the States.

Other causes of discord had coöperated with this one, from time to time; but they were either temporary in their nature, or of minor importance, or of a character less capable of attracting and engrossing popular interest. They were able, neither singly nor in combination, to produce such a general sense of incompatibility of temper and interest between the sections, or such deep-seated alienation of feeling, as to impel a civilized and Christian nation to contemplate the dread arbitrament of civil war. But, during the progress of the ten years immediately preceding that event, the sole topic of slavery, in one aspect or another, had mainly engaged the popular mind, in connection with every political

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In the North, it took, of

movement and demonstration.' course, the shape, and bore the character of assault upon that part of the country of which slavery was a domestic feature. In the South, whatever form the question may have taken, either in regard to the protection or the extension of slavery, it was, of course, in the attitude of defence. How far the right and even the necessity of defence may have been appealed to, either beyond or within the bounds of expediency, in particular instances, considering the relative situation of the parties, is a totally different question. In general, though not always-as in the case of the refusal to extend the compromise line of 1820 to its natural limit of the Pacific Ocean-or, as many of its people thought, in the provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska Act-the South had been able, after severe struggles, to secure what it deemed necessary for its permanent safety, under the shelter of the Constitution. But, exposed to incessant assaults, directly or indirectly, and which at length grew vehement and aggravated, upon its social, moral, and religious condition, it had long felt a burning sense of wrong, and in this state of mind men are not

The tariff question afforded the only other serious cause of discussion; but naturally had less influence with the popular masses. In the North, the Whigs in general had favored a tariff for protection to domestic manufactures; the Democrats preferred one for revenue solely, and the incidental protection it would afford; the difference between them being one of terms and degree, therefore, rather than of principle, while the South was, generally, on the free trade side. Yet, during the session of Congress, in the winter of 1860-1861, while the country was on the very verge of war, a new system of high duties, usually known as "the Morrill tariff," from the name of the member from Vermont, by whom it was introduced, was carried through Congress by the Republicans; and that, too, against the earnest remonstrances of some of the more leading Republican journals in New York and elsewhere, on account of the existing condition of public affairs. No doubt this measure had its effect at the South; and there can be as little doubt that an extraordinary resolution of the Convention which nominated Mr. Lincoln, in the preceding summer, hereafter referred to in these pages, which promised protection of this description to the agricultural and commercial, as well as to manufacturing interests of the country, and even to the laboring classes, had a powerful influence in swelling the Republican vote at the election.

often controlled by considerations of policy. The North could only complain of the South for resistance to its political objects, with which it had seen fit to mix up certain moral and religious views. But if the position of the former was one of unadulterated and indisputable virtue, that of the other necessarily implied an opposite relation to the requirements of good conscience; and to be forced into such an attitude, with a deep sense of the injustice of the procedure, could not but tend to weaken any ordinary feelings of attachment to the Union. Although unsuccessful efforts had been made to bring about this unhappy state of things, for several years preceding the period now under consideration, as has been already shown in previous pages of this volume-it was upon the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 that the first issue was directly taken. This movement was also unsuccessful, in its immediate influence, as appeared by the popular vote of the North, at the two succeeding elections of President. The real objection to the law, on the part of its more violent assailants, consisted in their opposition to any law for the delivery of fugitive slaves. But by incessantly working upon the popular mind, through every channel by which it could possibly be reached, a state of feeling was finally produced which led to the enactment of Personal Liberty bills, by one after another of the Northern legislative assemblies. At length, fourteen of the sixteen free States had provided statutes which rendered any attempt to execute the Fugitive Slave Act so difficult as to be practically impossible, and placed each of those States in an attitude of virtual resistance to the laws of the United States.1 It is certain that a state of feeling thus indicated could not be considered especially friendly to the cause of the Union, or calculated to encourage those sentiments of veneration to it, so earnestly enjoined by the admonitions of Washington. Nor could legislative proceedings, thus framed, in order to

1 At a somewhat later period, the executive officers of Ohio and Iowa refused to surrender to justice persons charged with participation in the “John Brown raid."