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OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 ITS PERIL AND ITS DELIVERANCE. 
 
 ADVANCE SHEETS 
 
 DANVILLE QUARTERLY REVIEW, FOR MARCH, 1861. 
 
 REV. ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 PBOFEBSOR IN DANVILLE THEOLOGICAL BEUINABT. 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE OF THE DANVILLE REVIEW, 
 
 jNo. 25 WEST FOURTH STREET, 
 
 1861. 
 
£^J 
 
 
 
 
Abt. hi. — Our Country — Its Peril — Its Deliverance. 
 
 I. The Spirit op Anarchy: Its Rise — Progress — Present State 
 
 — Nature — Tendency. 
 
 II. Grounds of Hope xVnd Effort : Statement of the Facts, 
 Principles, and Considerations, on which the Preservation of the 
 Union depends. 
 
 III. Negro Slavery : As the Cause or Occasion of Sedition, Anar- 
 chy, and Revolution — Considered in the light of our Civil and 
 Political Institutions, — of the Law of Nature, — and of the 
 
 Word of God. 
 
 IV. Amicable Settlement : Statement of the Case — Relation of 
 the North and the South to the Rendition of Fugitive Slaves, and 
 to Slavery in the Territories, — Rights and Duties of both Parties, 
 
 — Amicable Settlement as Simple and Equitable, as it is Wise 
 and Patriotic. 
 
 V. The Doctrine op Coercion : Its Abuse — Nature — Relation 
 to the actual State of Affairs — The Power, Duty, and Responsi- 
 bility of the General Government. 
 
 1. 1. What we propose is, first, to make such a statement of 
 the condition of affairs as may be of use to upright men, in en- 
 abling them to determine what ought to be attempted, and what can 
 be accomplished, in the way of preventing tlie ruin of their coun- 
 try ; and, secondly, to make clear to all men, the position of a vast 
 party in this country, who desire and who deserve, in all possible 
 events, to be understood by posterity — and who, even if their 
 principles are now overborne and their counsels are now rejected, 
 may, if they are faithful to themselves, retrieve from the wreck of 
 their country, whatever survives when the period of exhaustion 
 shall come upon its destructive madness, 
 
 2. There is no lesson which the universal course of human 
 affairs teaches so thoroughly, as their own instability. And yet 
 there is no lesson so hard for men to learn ; no lesson so preg- 
 nant of results, and so little heeded. , How faithful ought men to 
 be when overtaken by defeat and adversity — if they would con- 
 sider that defeat and adversity, with courage and wisdom, are a 
 preparation for triumph ? How just and forbearing ought men 
 to be in the midst of power and prosperity, if they would consider 
 
2 OUR COUNTRY. [IMarch, 
 
 that power and prosperity, in the degree that they are corrupt, 
 make the road to destruction broad and sure ? And how immense, 
 how unexpected, how effectual are the resources of God, in the 
 accomplishment of what he ordains to be results of human 
 conduct ? 
 
 3. Look at the actual position of public affairs throughout this 
 great nation — consider whither they are tending — consider 
 whence that tendency has arisen — consider by what means it is 
 propagating itself : and then reflect upon the unexpected and ex- 
 traordinary means by which ruin is overtaking every interest and 
 hope of the country — and upon the absolute completeness of the 
 ruin, when these means shall have Avoided their full effect. In a 
 state of security apparently perfect, and of prosperity apparently 
 complete — a small and fierce party, scattered through some of 
 the Northern States, commenced a systematic and persistent agi- 
 tation connected with the Black Race on this continent ; and in 
 the heart of their system lay this idea, that laws and institutions 
 and rights and duties and interests of every description, ought to 
 give way, if there was need of it, to the accomplishment of their 
 designs. In the progress of time and events, and the ruin of 
 political parties, this fundamental idea — which is the essence of 
 lawlessness and anarchy — attaches itself in the public mind of 
 some of the Northern States, to that particular aspect of the ques- 
 tion of the Black Race which relates to the obligation, under the 
 Federal Constitution, of delivering fugitive slaves ; and laws of 
 various kinds are passed, throwing the weight of State authority 
 against the obligation of the very highest national law. And so the 
 idea and process of disintegration, as the tendency to lawlessness 
 and anarchy strengthens, has thus risen from the condition of a 
 fanaticism, to the dignity of a principle recognized by States 
 and asserted in laws. As if to warn men of the breadth of the 
 ruin involved in this tendency, and to mark the extremity of the 
 peril arising from its connection with the question of the Black 
 Race, one of the slave States had already, under a similar, but 
 directly opposite tendency, formally asserted its right, not only 
 to obstruct the execution of the laws of the United States, but 
 to nullify them absolutely, and upon its own sole and sovereign 
 discretion ; so that the spirit of lawlessness and anarcliy, in its 
 
 Jhjf 
 
 «J^ ^T S,i ' ' ' 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. S 
 
 absolute and universal tendency to disintegrate all things — moved, 
 though not first, yet more rapidly and by more decisive acts, at 
 the South than at the North. 
 
 4. Once more in the progress of time and events, and the ruin 
 of political parties — the whole nation finds itself arrayed, in the 
 last Presidential election, into two opposite parties, (of which the 
 defeated one is mad enough to sub-divide itself into three ) ; and 
 this same question of the Black Race, both in the aspect of the 
 rendition of fugitive slaves, and in the aspect of slavery in the 
 Territories — and these same questions of supreme law and of law- 
 lessness as connected therewith — mounting to the highest national 
 importance, and apparently swallowing up all other questions, are 
 resolved, so far as that election could resolve them. But the solu- 
 tion is every way remarkable. For while Mr. Lincoln is elected 
 President — the majority of the nation is so decidedly against him, 
 that he would have been beaten if the power of Congress to create 
 uniform electoral districts had ever been exercised ; nay, would 
 have been beaten under the existing system, if all opposed to him 
 had been allowed by the corruption or folly of parties to unite on 
 one opponent. Moreover the solution is further remarkable, in 
 this, that both Houses of Congress, and, as is alleged, the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, held his most dangerous opinions to 
 be unconstitutional : and it is still further remarkable in this, that 
 Mr. Lincoln himself, while representing the Northern section of 
 the anarchical tendency of the times, is known to repudiate the 
 original principle of that faction concerning the rendition of 
 fugitive slaves, — and is by universal consent, even of his candid 
 opponents, an able, honest, and patriotic man. At the end of 
 thirty years of working of the spirit we have been tracing, a 
 decisive event had thus put the country in a posture where it 
 would clearly appear whether the hereditary law-abiding spirit of 
 our race remained, the great prop and safeguard of all our insti- 
 tutions ; or whether the spirit of anarchy, already so signally 
 manifested at both extremities of the nation, had so far poisoned 
 the national life of our race at its fountain, that the time had 
 come for one of those great explosions of human passion which 
 fill so many melancholy pages in the history of our race. 
 
 5. It is not easy to conjecture, and it is impossible to say with 
 
4 OUR COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 certainty, what would have occurred if the late presidential elec- 
 tion had terminated differently from what it did, — in any one of 
 the various ways in which a different termination was possible. 
 This far we may now speak with certainty, that in some form or 
 other, the spirit of turbulent fanaticism which had pervaded the 
 States of the extreme North so long and so deeply, would not 
 without a miracle, such as history does not record, have been al- 
 layed or composed under any defeat that was possible, in the 
 state of national parties as they are now known to have existed 
 at that time. For there was this fatal element, long concealed — 
 not generally believed — but openly avowed since the secession 
 of South Carolina — that secession, as the final and deliberate 
 choice of the extreme South, was the point to which political 
 opinion had been long and carefully trained, and political parties 
 long and singly directed. This fatal training, added to the widely 
 diffused spirit of anarchy, smarting under a defeat equally signal 
 and unnecessary,- and stimulated by considerations of the very 
 highest importance connected with the question of the Black Race 
 in every aspect of that question — produced the apparently sud- 
 den revolution which has already, when these pages are written, 
 led the six cotton States (South Carolina, Mississippi. Florida, 
 Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana) to pass separate acts of seces- 
 sion from the United States of America. Here then is the con- 
 summation of this spirit of lawlessness and anarchy, working as 
 we have already said it universally works, unto the disintegration 
 — the morcelment of all things ; — the consummation of it, so far 
 as to embrace all the States producing cotton, sugar, and rice, as 
 their great staples. What is next to be determined is, the fate 
 of the mixed slave States — those divided between farming and 
 planting, ( North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas ) : and 
 then the fate of the border slave States, (Delaware, Maryland, 
 Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri ) : and then, we may confidently 
 add, the fate of the nation. Whatever, in the meantime, it is of 
 the last importance to bear in mind, shall be the conduct of the 
 whole of the free States, and especially of the border free States 
 (NcAV Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa), 
 may be decisive alike of their own fate, and of that of all the 
 rest, and of the nation itself for many generations. 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. 5 
 
 6. Is it possible for any thoughtful person to suppose, that this 
 spirit of reckless disregard of all existing institutions, has already 
 accomplished all the results of which it is capable ? What shall 
 prevent it from swallowing up all the remaining slave States ? 
 What shall, after that is accomplished, prevent a counter-revolu- 
 tion in every one of those slave States ? What shall prevent its 
 taking some new direction with still more vehement force, through- 
 out the whole North ? What shall prevent a counter-revolution 
 in every Northern State ? And Avho can venture to hope, that a 
 spirit which everywhere tramples under foot those institutions 
 which everywhere have been esteemed most sacred, and every- 
 where despises the most venerable and the most cherished tradi- 
 tions of our country and our race ; will finally slack its thirst in 
 any thing but human blood, or fail to assuage its insatiable rapa- 
 city by universal plunder ? Cannot even the blind see, that 
 when laws are violated in the name of morality and order, and 
 constitutions are set at nought in the name of liberty and securi- 
 ty, and revolutions are accomplished by terror and conducted 
 under the guidance of irresistible fanaticism ; that there can be 
 no result to such a career, as long as it has way, but the destruc- 
 tion of everything that human governments are instituted to 
 protect ; and that at every step of the career, the overthrow of 
 every salutary power and the disintegration of every healthful 
 force of society, more and more confirms the existence and the 
 reign of universal anarchy ? It is as if God should destroy every 
 principle of cohesion in the physical universe, and leave every 
 separate force in it working to the destruction of all things. It 
 is as if he should destroy every idea of subjection in the moral 
 universe, and leave the passions of men to work out all the horrors 
 of an infinite disorder. It is as the steady working of omnipo- 
 tent force, unto the production of universal helplessness. It is, 
 when it shall pervade the earth, the realization of the conjectures 
 of those who expound the divine predictions concerning the con- 
 dition in which The Son of Man will find all nations at his second 
 coming — the universal reign of lawlessness after the universal dis- 
 integration of every element capable of restraining it. What we 
 say is — not that these results are inevitable : God forbid ! But we 
 do say they are natural — they are imminent — they are far more 
 
& OUR COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 to be apprehended, than what has already occurred, both in the 
 North and in the South, was to be apprehended thirty years ago. 
 And we may say these things with a greater confidence of an in- 
 sight of the terrible future, and a more eager beseeching of our 
 generation to beware ; since during more than thirty years we 
 have not ceased to lift up an unheeded testimony, both against 
 the principles and the proceedings, both at the North and at the 
 South — whose frightful results the country is now beginning to 
 realize. 
 
 II. 1. Let us now seek, amidst this chaos, for some ground of 
 hope and effort. Throughout the eighteen free States, society is 
 supposed to be under the control of the Republican party. As 
 indicated by the presidential election in November last, it may be 
 conceded that the majority in all those States, did at that time, 
 believe the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, to be the 
 best of the alternatives then offered to their choice ; and it may- 
 be further conceded, though it is not strictly accurate, that, at 
 present, the local political and military power, in all those States, 
 is in the hands of the Republican party. But it is also true that 
 a minority in those States, numerically almost as large as the 
 entire voting population of the fifteen slave States, voted against 
 Mr. Lincoln — and are thoroughly opposed to the distinctive 
 principles of the Republican part3\ It is also undeniable that a 
 very large number of those who voted for Mr. Lincoln, are far 
 more Whigs or Americans than they are Republicans : — and it 
 is equally certain that a very large number of the Republican 
 party itself, strictly speaking, are patriotic men, who, while they 
 preferred the success of their party to the success of any other 
 party, prefer the peace, the prosperity, and the security of their 
 country above anything that could be obtained by the triumph of 
 their party. If any political result in the future, therefore, can 
 be considered certain, it is certain, that a revolution in opinion, 
 more or less decided, will manifest itself throughout the free 
 States, whenever the issue is clearly put to them between their 
 country and any political party. And it is equally certain, that 
 whatever party shall hurry those States, by whatever means, into 
 the horrors of civil war, and the anguish of that impending anar- 
 chy of which we have spoken ; will perish by a counter-re volu- 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. 7 
 
 tion, just as apt to be bloody there as in any other portion of the 
 nation. 
 
 2. In the position of all the slave States there are peculiar cir- 
 cumstances much overlooked, both amongst themselves and others ; 
 but nevertheless decisive in the long run. No force, however 
 small, but will accomplish its end, if sufficient time be allowed : 
 even that which is infinitely minute, if it operates through an 
 infinite period. The six cotton States appear to us to have taken 
 their course in such a temper, with such purposes, upon such 
 principles, and under such foregone conclusions, that they neither 
 desire to return to their former position, nor would at present 
 agree to anything that they believe would accomplish that result. 
 It is, of course, possible that we are mistaken in this painful con- 
 clusion, and we should heartily rejoice to know that we are : but, 
 seeing no ground on which we can doubt that the case stands thus, 
 neither do we see any on which we can avoid stating our belief. 
 It would be gross injustice to many thousands of patriotic men in 
 all the cotton States, to suppose that either of those States would 
 have been allowed to take the course it has pursued, without a 
 desperate political struggle in its own bosom ; if the circumstances 
 of these men, in each of those States, had appeared to them to 
 allow of resistance to the organized force which swept society 
 away. There are also thousands of persons in all those States, 
 who even now consider it a slander and a reproach, that ulterior 
 designs are ascribed to those who direct this secession movement, 
 which it seems apparent to all mankind, except themselves, are 
 not only certain to be realized if the movement is permanently 
 sustained, but which were amongst the earliest and most powerful 
 causes of the long cherished desire to be relieved from the real 
 restraints of the Federal Government, and the imaginary perils 
 and injuries of the Federal Union. In the actual condition of the 
 States which have already seceded, as we understand that condi- 
 tion and the manner in which it has been brought about, we 
 deem it perfectly obvious that a counter-revolution must manifest 
 itself in every one of them — equally as decided, and perhaps 
 more violent, than the revolution which has already occurred. 
 That counter-revolution may be in a direction more and more 
 fatal — bringing into uncontrolled power, parties Avholly unfit and 
 
8 OUR COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 unworthy to possess it. It may be in a direction eminently favor- 
 able to the security and prosperity of those cotton States, and 
 terminatino; in their restoration to the Union, under the lead of a 
 party whose elements now lie scattered, or even as yet totally un- 
 developed. But the present revolution, in its very nature, its 
 causes, and its designs — must go deeper, in one direction or the 
 other. In ivliich direction, depends in our opinion, in the first 
 instance, in a great degree, upon these contingencies : 1. The 
 conduct of the present ruling faction in those States ; its forbear- 
 ance on the one hand, or its violence on the other : 2. The con- 
 duct of the Federal Government towards those States ; as it may 
 be firm and yet temperate, or as it may be vacillating and timid: 
 3. The conduct of the slave States continuing in the Union ; as 
 they may share the madness of the six seceding States, or as they 
 may arrest the pestilence at the cotton line, and by their wisdom 
 and courage restore the Union : 4. The conduct of the free States, 
 and especially those along the slave border ; as they shall obsti- 
 nately persist in fomenting opinions and performing acts touch- 
 ing the whole question of the Black Race, which they can now 
 clearly see must involve the country in one common ruin, or as 
 they, by a common consent, or by a counter-revolution in their own 
 bosom, restore public opinion to a condition under which slave 
 States may safely live in peace with them. Under such circum- 
 stances it is easy to see, how great and difiicult is the task laid 
 on true statesmen, everywhere, and how immense and how dubious 
 are the issues submitted to them. 
 
 3. The remaining nine slave States, of which five are border 
 States, and four are mixed slave State-s, have in each of these 
 classes peculiarities as marked as those which distinguish the 
 cotton vStates ; j'et as the whole nine occupy a similar position at 
 the present moment, Avith regard to the revolution which has swept 
 over the cotton States ; they may, for the sake of brevity, be 
 thrown together in developing the great ideas Ave are endeavoring 
 to disclose. What the exact issue Avill be in these nine States — 
 or whether it will be similar in them all — or in a\ hich direction 
 the prevailing opinion Avill settle, if different courses are taken — 
 are questions Avhich it is impossible to determine at this time. 
 But it is very obvious, that if the whole nine — or even the greater 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. 9^ 
 
 part of them, embracing the leading and powerful States, refuse 
 to unite in the movement taken by the six cotton States, that 
 movement must necessarily prove a failure, both as to its avowed, 
 and as to any concealed object ; a counter-revolution in the cotton 
 States becomes presently inevitable; and those cotton States 
 must ultimately accommodate themselves to the policy, whatever 
 it may be, adopted by the other and leading States, instead of 
 being able to force those far more powerful than themselves, to 
 follow blindly and servilely a course disapproved by them, and 
 which rests for its ultimate reason, upon nothing better than the 
 sudden caprice of South Carolina, or her chronic hatred of the 
 National Union, There are immense considerations, altogether 
 independent of the real merits of the great cause which is under 
 trial — why the course dictated by South Carolina, and adopted by 
 the other cotton States, should be steadfastly rejected. Amongst 
 these are such as follow : 1. This method by secession annihi- 
 lates the very idea of all force in permanent constitutional union, 
 or common government over sovereign States, and establishes as 
 inherent in all possible future unions, the idea of anarchy, and 
 deprives liberty forever of the possibility of being either stable 
 or strong : 2. The method of secession, by separate State action, 
 is founded on illusions utterly fatal and absurd, that the American 
 people are not a nation — the Federal Constitution not a govern- 
 ment — the American people not bound to be loyal except to local 
 authorities, which being assumed, condemns this continent to be 
 the everlasting habitation of every thing feeble, factious, and ex- 
 travagant : 3. The adoption of ordinances of secession, by con- 
 ventions called by ordinary Legislatures — without allowing the 
 people to determine by a previous sovereign act whether or not 
 the convention shall exist, and by a subsequent sovereign act 
 whether or not its proceedings shall have force — destroys the 
 very idea of the sovereignty of the people, makes constitutional 
 liberty and security impossible, and invites factions, in proportion 
 as they are corrupt or incompetent, to usurp and to abuse sove- 
 reign power : 4. The utter refusal to consult with States, all of 
 which were united by the highest human obligations — and many 
 of which were involved in perils the very same in kind and higher 
 in degree — is a line of conduct reckless in itself, insulting to all 
 
10 OUR COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 others, apparently adopted with the purpose of rendering all 
 peaceful, considerate, or even decorous arrangements impossible, 
 and necessarily jeopards, in the result reached, the profitable 
 continuance of slavery, if not its very existence, in the greater 
 part of the slave States, and amongst them the most powerful, 
 the most loyal, and the most enlightened of them all. At the 
 present moment two most important truths are perfectly distinct. 
 The first is, that the action hitherto taken in the States whose 
 position we are now considering, — no matter what that action 
 may lead to — involves a fundamental dissent from the conduct 
 pursued by the six seceding States — and contemplates redress 
 in a different way, and upon opposite principles. The second is, 
 that a very great portion of each of these nine States, probably 
 the majority of the people in most of them — possibly in all of 
 them, — are warmly attached to the Union, — are resolutely de- 
 termined to maintain their loyalty to the nation as their nation, 
 at the same time that they maintain their loyalty to the particular 
 States of which they are citizens, and are far more inclined to 
 compose existing difiiculties, than to drive matters to extremity 
 in any direction. 
 
 4. These facts and considerations, taken in detail and taken 
 all together, are worthy of the very highest consideration ; — and 
 whatever the issue of events may be, they reveal to the people 
 and to those they trust, the grounds on which, and the manner in 
 which, the country may be saved : and they disclose to posterity 
 the pregnant and enduring truth, that at the utmost peril of the 
 country the people would have saved it, if they had been bravely 
 and wisely led. For under fair and true statesmanship, the 
 chances are more than equal, in the first place, to rally the im- 
 mense masses of the nine slave States whose people are now pon- 
 dering their course, to such an action as will make their position 
 secure in the Union, and satisfy them : in the second place, to 
 secure such a treatment of the subject of secession by the Federal 
 Administration, as will at once give efficacy to the laws, and avoid 
 armed collision, except in repelling force by force : in the third 
 place, to seek and to rely upon, such a reaction among the massca 
 of the people in the free States, as will, by a common consent, or 
 if it becomes necessary, by hurling from power those who stand 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. tt 
 
 in the way, make manifest the determination of those masses to 
 put an end to the reign of that atheistical and relentless fanati- 
 cism, which is the original cause of the ruin that stares us all in 
 the face : and in the fourth place, to expect and await with con- 
 fidence, the inevitable counter-revolution in the States which have 
 already seceded, which will disabuse the minds of men of the de- 
 lusion that the revolution there has been, as to the popular masses, 
 either spontaneous or cordial, and restore those States to their 
 true position in the confederacy. It is in this manner that re- 
 sults, equally indispensable and glorious, are attainable, — results 
 capable also, no doubt, of being defeated ; and that in ways far 
 too various to be traced here. But when defeated, let us never 
 forget that they who defeat them will share in full measure with 
 us, all present evils, and will bear alone the execrations of poster- 
 ity. And when defeated, what will remain for this generation, 
 will be to realize the calamities of that frightful condition we have 
 traced in the commencement of this paper ; — or, as we have at- 
 tempted to show on a former occasion, to construct even upon the 
 line between the free and the slave States, a new and central 
 power — competent at once to preserve all our institutions, to 
 develope our national progress, and to direct the destinies of this 
 continent. 
 
 5. Besides the special considerations which we have developed, 
 as particularly relevant to the condition of our country, and the 
 manner in which her destiny may be retrieved : there are many 
 other considerations of a more general kind, and of the highest 
 force, all pointing in the same direction, which it behooves 
 every man to ponder deeply, before he despairs of his country, 
 and before he lays his hands rudely on our existing institutions, 
 in the vain hope of something better. Of these, there are two 
 so preeminent, that we ought to direct special attention to them. 
 The first relates to that view of the subject which discloses the 
 indestructible power of life in such a nation as this, and the 
 length and depth and breadth of the agony which it can endure, 
 and yet live. They who know the past of human affairs, and 
 they who reflect on that eternal logic which is of the essence of 
 things and events, know that a nation like this cannot die. It is 
 hardly possible to conceive how it can even be murdered; but die 
 
If OUR COUNTRY. [IMarcli, 
 
 it cannot. It would be as easy to conceive that France could be 
 blotted from the map of Europe as one of its greatest nations, 
 and restored to the condition it occupied before its conquest by 
 Caesar ; as to conceive of the American nation being annihilated, 
 its sublime career cut short, its boundless possessions parcelled 
 out, and an ignominious retinue of numberless aristocracies, dem- 
 ocracies, dukedoms, and principalities, permanently filling its seat 
 of empire and of glory. After eighteen centuries of anguish, 
 Italy, hailed by the acclamations of mankind, is purging herself 
 in a baptism of blood from the very condition which men are pre- 
 paring for us ; and the consuming instinct of her restored life is 
 for that very national unity which we are expected to sacrifice, 
 and in default of which she has suffered every form of evil, in 
 every stage of civilization, under every kind of government. 
 What have they to offer us, in exchange for our national unity, 
 but sorrow without an object — and degradation without a limit 
 — accompanied with struggles and suffering for its recovery, 
 renewed, and suppressed in blood, and renewed for evermore — 
 until in some distant age, perhaps, it shall be restored amidst the 
 rejoicings of all peoples ! This blind and fierce spirit of anarchy 
 which has fastened upon the extremities of the nation, and is 
 threatening to eat into its heart, has no aspect more startling, 
 than its frightful antagonism to the absolute tendency and the 
 total civilization of the age, in which it has made itself manifest. 
 The second of the two great considerations alluded to, relates to 
 the dominion and purpose of God over and concerning our coun- 
 try. The revolting disregard which this whole movement towards 
 destruction exhibits towards God's dealings with our country, the 
 shocking conceptions it proclaims of our mission as a people, 
 compared with the conception of that mission as indicated by God 
 himself, present almost the saddest aspect of the case. Nor is it 
 the least remarkable feature of the lawless spirit which underlies 
 the entire revolution, that while in both extremities of the nation 
 it fastens upon the same idea — the slavery of the African race 
 — as the controlling idea of God in all his purposes concerning 
 us ; it should give that idea its utmost destructiveness to us, and 
 its utmost offensiveness to God, by making it work in directions 
 precisely opposite. Is it conceivable that God should teach his 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. I'S 
 
 children at the North, that his highest purpose concerning the 
 American people is, that they should extinguish African slavery ; 
 and at the same moment teach his children at the South, that his 
 highest purpose concerning the American people is, that they 
 should perpetuate African slavery ? Rather is it not utterly in- 
 conceivable, that he should have taught any of them that his pur- 
 poses concerning African slavery, or the African race, in any way 
 whatever contain his chief purposes concerning the white race on 
 this continent ? A more melancholy instance can scarcely be 
 produced in all history, of the destructive extent to which re- 
 ligious opinion can be made to take the prevailing hue of a fierce 
 enthusiasm, or an intolerant fanaticism, which reigns around it. 
 It is not in this manner, on the one side or the other, that the 
 tens of thousands of God's children, scattered over this great 
 empire like salt which has not lost its savour, interpret the teach- 
 ings of his word, the indications of his providence, or the tokens 
 of his infinite mercy towards us. It is not in any such sense of 
 the mission of our country, or our race, that the people every- 
 whei'e, have so lately come before God, in a great service of 
 national humiliation, confessing their sins, and praying for his 
 gracious interposition in this time of sore need. "Wlio is authorized 
 to say, that God has not heard the cry of his people ? Who will 
 dare to say, that God is not able to save ? In the utmost extrem- 
 ity of Israel, God said to them by Moses, Fear ye not, stand still, 
 and see the salvation of God, which he will shew to you to-day. 
 
 Ill, 1. At present, and during a long course of preceding 
 years, it has been the very general impression that Negro slavery 
 was the direct, if not the single difficulty, in all the commotions 
 of which we have been speaking. As far as these commotions 
 have had a moral and religious element, and have manifested 
 themselves in the bosom of the different Christian denominations, 
 this wide-spread impression has probably been true. But in other 
 respects the connection of Negro slavery with these commotions, 
 throughout, has been indirect ; and its moral and religious aspect 
 has had little significance, except as the abolition movement has 
 heen free-thi7iJcing in religion, and as political and sectional parties 
 have coerced religious opinion in particular directions, for party 
 and sectional purposes. The nullification movement many years 
 
fjH: OUR COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 ago, in South Carolina, related to slavery only in the most indi- 
 rect way — and in no connection with any moral or religious 
 question. It was a question of revenue, taxation, commerce, 
 tariffs, wealth : a false theory of political economy enraged by the 
 peculiar condition of labor. More recently, the commotion about 
 slavery in the Territories, has been a struggle for political power, 
 aggravated on the side of the North by the urgency of its nu- 
 merous emigrant population for cheap homes in fertile regions. 
 And at the present moment, the States which have seceded, are 
 of all the slave States the very ones which would not have 
 seceded, and the slave States which are most anxious to preserve 
 the Union are the very ones which would have promptly seceded, 
 if the current impression of the case was true and complete. If 
 at any time within the last thirty years, a revolution in produc- 
 tion, in trade, in commerce, in any thing, had wrought a thorough 
 change in the general opinion of the South, touching — not the 
 essential nature — but the incidental advantages of slavery in a 
 political and a financial point of view ; of course, no one would 
 ever have heard of secession in the South — or even seen the 
 remotest approach to the existing state of opinion at the North. 
 It is the idea of power — power to be diminished by remaining 
 in the Union and to be incalculably augmented by leaving it; 
 the idea of wealth, of conquest, of advancement — all of them, 
 we are thoroughly convinced, in the highest degree illusive and 
 fatal ; but it is these ideas — far more than any disgust that the 
 North condemns slavery as immoral, or any apprehension that 
 slavery will be disturbed, or slaves stolen, or the South annoyed 
 in the Union — that pervades the present dominant party in the 
 cotton States, and enabled it to precipitate them into revolution. 
 How far this aspect of the case aggravates or alleviates the diffi- 
 culty of dealing with it, in any hope of such an issue as we con- 
 sider fortunate, must depend on many considerations which can 
 not be discussed here. In any event, it seems clear that they 
 who would heal a malady must understand its exact nature. And 
 if it is never healed, they who eagerly desire that it should be, 
 owe to themselves and to posterity a fair and complete statement 
 of the case, and of the remedy they propose for it. 
 
 2. Human servitude, considered in its widest sense, and of 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. 15 
 
 which hereditary slavery as it exists in our slave States is the 
 extreme form — may be discussed in the light of Divine Revela- 
 tion — or in the light of the Law of Nature — or in the light of 
 the political and municipal institutions of the countries where it 
 exists. Considered in this last aspect — there ought to be no 
 dispute concerning it, and there can be none fairly, in this coun- 
 try, except in a single point of view — namely, its existence in 
 the national territory, which we will speak of separately. For, 
 undeniably, each State has the complete and exclusive right, to 
 determine concerning it as a strictly domestic institution ; and, 
 undeniably, neither any other State, nor the government which is 
 common to all the States, has any power to interfere with it, or 
 concerning it, in any State. And this is not only matter of con- 
 stitutional obligation on one side, and uncontrolled right on the 
 other ; but the plainest dictates of prudence, and the clearest obli- 
 gations of morality, impose upon the States, and the general 
 government, the duty of a simple, sincere, and faithful observance 
 of all that is implied, as well as all that is expressed, in these re- 
 strictions. Massachusetts has no right, of any kind, to assail 
 slavery in South Carolina, — nor has South Carolina any right of 
 any sort to encourage the introduction of slavery into Massachu- 
 setts : and any attempt on the part of the General Government, 
 directly or indirectly, to favour any such endeavour on the part 
 of either of them, is a foolish and wicked perversion of its own 
 nature. Nor is there any plea that can be offered, either by the 
 General Government, or by any State, for departing from this 
 clear line of mutual duty, which is not immoral in itself, and 
 revolutionary in its tendency. Moreover the prompt and cordial 
 performance by all parties, towards each other, of all the mutual 
 duties binding upon them under the Federal Constitution touching 
 every subject, and amongst the rest the subject of slavery, and 
 amongst the duties connected with slavery the rendition of fugi- 
 tive slaves, of which we will speak separately ; besides being 
 every way binding before God and man, is the sure, the wise, and 
 the peaceful way to promote all the interests of all the parties, 
 and to secure the lasting glory and prosperity of the country. 
 
 3. When we undertake to determine this, or indeed any ques- 
 tion, under what we call the Law of Nature, we encounter the 
 
jtig OUR COUNTRY. [IVIarch, 
 
 most serjous difficulties at every step. What we shall say, there- 
 fore, on this topic, must be in subordination to what has just been 
 said under the aspect of our civil and political obligations, and 
 what we shall say presently under the aspect of revealed truth and 
 duty. Besides the statement of the Law of Nature, recorded and 
 reiterated in the Word of God, of which we do not speak at 
 present, there are other — perhaps numerous, but certainly indis- 
 tinct, and perhaps contradictory utterances of that great and per- 
 manent law. At the head of these utterances we may place that 
 which the human reason discloses : next to that, perhaps, the 
 common impulses of the human soul : then, perhaps, the current 
 opinions and beliefs of the human race : and then, which in some 
 respects ought to be held most valid of all — the common and 
 apparently inevitable, if not voluntary state of our race in all 
 ages — as the best concrete expression of its reason, its impulses, 
 and its current belief — and therefore of the Law of its Nature 
 in its present state. If we will reflect carefully on each of these 
 utterances of the Law of Nature touching this vast topic of human 
 servitude, we will perceive how narrow is the foothold they afl"ord 
 to support us in disloyalty towards the civil and political institu- 
 tions of our country, much less to sustain us in rejecting the re- 
 vealed will of God. (1.) The human reason teaches with clear- 
 ness, that if there can be such a thing, or such an idea, as property, 
 the highest form of it — nay, the very basis of it — is the right 
 which every one has to himself: and just as clearly, that the 
 claim of property by the Law of Nature, on the part of one per- 
 son in another person, is founded in the rejection of the very 
 foundation of the idea of property, since my right to have another 
 rests on my previous right to myself. On the otlier hand, human 
 reason teaches us that property in ourself is as capable of being 
 forfeited, limited, or alienated, as any other property. For ex- 
 ample, the right of existence is higher than our property in our- 
 self; and it is as absurd to say that I may not part absolutely with 
 the latter, in order to secure the former, as it is to say I may not 
 limit my property in myself, in order to make my existence more 
 endurable, or even more comfortable. And the very nature of 
 human society is such, that the liberty, as well as the life and 
 property of every one, passes by the fact of the existence of 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. 1^ 
 
 society, from its absolute personal form, into a modified form de- 
 terminable only by the aggregate will — which will ought to be 
 determined by the will of God. But as the human race is in 
 rebellion against God — human reason lands the problem very 
 nearly in a paradox. (2.) If we appeal next for guidance to tho 
 common impulses of the human soul, in order to have this great 
 question of human servitude interpreted, we obtain a response 
 equally vague, but far more vehement than before. Surely it is, 
 and it has always been, the desire of every human being to be 
 free from restraint — the passionate desire of our race to possess 
 what each member of it, in his particular condition, meant by 
 liberty. And the aggregate impulse of the race in that direction, 
 is more powerful and is better regulated to-day than it ever was 
 before, — and the hope of true, and stable, and universal freedom, 
 as the final inheritance of all mankind, may be more rationally 
 cherished, than at any former period. But the wisest men and the 
 freest people know the best — that this personal desire of freedom 
 from restraint is no evidence whatever that restraint is wrong; 
 and that this universal impulse towards what they mean by liberty, 
 totally fails — of itself — in proving that they who cherish it 
 would do aught but mischief, if God were to gratify all their de- 
 sires. It is one of the most sorrowful aspects of human nature 
 
 — this consuming impulse towards liberty and equality — this 
 lasting desire of the good and the wise that it might be gratified 
 
 — this total impossibility of its gratification, except under special 
 conditions of advancement, reached as yet by comparatively small 
 portions of our race. (3.) And now if we turn to the common 
 opinion ayid belief of the human race, as the true expositor of that 
 law of their nature under the light of which the institutions of the 
 most civilized states are to be abolished and the inspired teach- 
 ings of God are to be silenced ; we may take one firm step, and 
 then all is chaos, which thickens as we advance. Assuredly there 
 is a sense of good and of true — and therefore of right and just 
 
 — universal in our race ; and a sense, moreover, that these things 
 apply to, and ought to regulate, all the conditions and relations 
 of man — servitude in all its forms amongst the rest. If there 
 was ever an opinion and belief common to our race, that servitude 
 in its widest sense was contrary to the nature of man ; then the 
 
i^ OUR COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 race had before it always, in the actual condition of the larger 
 part of it, the clearest proof that the belief was absurd. If there 
 had ever been such a common belief strong enough to form the 
 basis of practical life ; then half the race would have immediately 
 perished from want — or universal rapine would have become its 
 habitual condition. The belief has, no doubt, been common to 
 our race in all time, that every one ought to enjoy all the gifts 
 of God, and amongst the rest the inestimable one of personal 
 freedom, so far as was compatible with the circumstances in 
 which God's providence had placed each person — that is, so far 
 as was compatible with the will of the Giver of all good, thus 
 made known to every person. And this belief is true and just. 
 But what is established by it is, that according to the Law of 
 Nature as explained by the spontaneous belief of mankind, servi- 
 tude in every form may, though of itself indifferent, become 
 right or wrong, good or bad, according to the circumstances of 
 each particular case. And beyond this unquestionable truth — 
 he who will enquire will get no intelhgible response. (4.) The 
 last of the four utterances of the Law of Nature which we have 
 specified, is the actual execution of the law, as that is exhibited to 
 us in the common state of the human race, in all ages, and in 
 every stage of civilization. Here there is no possibility of mis- 
 take. The testimony is as unanimous, as it is frightful and uni- 
 versal. The different races, the different nations, the different 
 tribes, the different families, the different individuals — all, every 
 where, have felt themselves to be naturally impelled to reduce 
 each other into a condition of subjection — and have felt them- 
 selves to be naturally permitted, upon a change of fortune, to 
 submit to a state of subjection. Nor is it possible to doubt that 
 the natural and univ n'sal con luct of mankind, as clearly proves that 
 men are as thorougldy convinced they ought to be masters, as 
 their conduct could possibly prove they were convinced that they 
 ought not to be slaves. Those conditions of mankind which arc 
 alledged to resemble most nearly the condition claimed to be nat- 
 ural to man, are the very conditions in which servitude, in some 
 form or other, is the most spontaneous and complete; and it is in 
 conditions of advanced civilization that the extreme forms of ser- 
 vitude gradually expire — unless some peculiar element in the 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. 19 
 
 state of society opposes an insuperable barrier to its extinction. 
 It takes nothing from this boundless testimony, to assert that the 
 dreary conclusion it establishes is contrary to the reason, the im- 
 pulses, and the beliefs of mankind : for if the assertion were true, 
 it only shows that mankind cannot be, what mankind asserts, de- 
 sires, and believes it should be. And the more desolate the con- 
 viction thus begotten may be, the more are we compelled to look 
 — for the mitigation of human servitude — not to revolution 
 based on our notions of the Law of Nature, but the wise and 
 temperate amelioration of existing institutions, under the in- 
 fluence of the love of God. And the more all other rules of 
 judgment and conduct fail us, the more ought we to feel obliged 
 to submit ourselves to the guidance of God, in matters which con- 
 cern us so nearly as these now do. What remains, therefore, is 
 to consider the question of human servitude in the light of divine 
 revelation. 
 
 4. It is in the Word of God that this great problem is com- 
 pletely solved. Human servitude, in all its forms, is one of the 
 badges of the fallen condition of the human race ; and every in- 
 cident of it, that aggravates any particular form of it, or that 
 augments the severity of all the forms of it from the very lightest 
 to the very heaviest, is a separate proof that our natural condi- 
 tion is one of sin and misery. And whatever revolt there may 
 be in human nature against any form of servitude, is a kind of 
 testimony to the original freedom in Avhich man was created in 
 the image of God, and to the remaining susceptibility of his de- 
 praved nature to be restored ; while the utter inability of the race 
 to escape this part of its deplorable condition, shows how deeply 
 the grounds and reasons of that condition are laid in its nature. 
 A fallen race, lying under the wrath of God and the condemna- 
 tion of his holy law — but having his promise of deliverance even 
 in this life and of immortal blessedness in a better life to come — 
 is making its way, in this condition of probation, through the ages 
 and across the earth. The accumulated experience of the entire 
 existence of the race, and the uniform course of divine provi- 
 dence, and the explicit declarations of God's Word, show us in 
 the clearest manner, that the career of such a race, in such a 
 state, and yet under such a probation, must necessarily exhibit 
 
20 ouK COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 much that is, so to speak, unavoidably incident to such a case, in 
 some respects alleviating, and in some respects aggravating its or- 
 dinary, average condition. War is inevitable ; sometimes in its re- 
 sult glorious and blessed, sometimes frightful in all its issues ; but 
 war, so far from being of itself, and to all who engage in it either 
 just or sinful, is often atrocious, and often amongst the liighest du- 
 ties of mankind. Sickness is the product of God's just sentence of 
 death upon our sinful race, and is of itself a temporal evil cover- 
 ing the whole earth ; yet it is often made an unspeakable blessing, 
 and no one ventures to say is of itself sinful. Sorrow and afflic- 
 tion are brought on us in innumerable forms, and from every quar- 
 ter, and often by means of our truest, and noblest, and wisest im- 
 pulses ; — in every instance they are incidents of sin, direct or 
 remote, but perhaps not in one instance of a million of the sin of 
 him who suffers. Poverty, and its consequent, suffering, is of it- 
 self one of the direst and most universal calamities of mankind ; 
 and yet it is the parent of many of our highest virtues and at- 
 tainments — and so far from being sinful of itself, is the subject 
 of many of the most tender and urgent provisions both of the law 
 of God and the Gospel of Christ. It is to this great class of inci- 
 dents of the actual condition of our race, that human servitude in 
 all its forms belongs. Existing, like all we have named, and mul- 
 titudes besides, because our condition is just what it is — a con- 
 dition of sin and misery in a state of probation ; wrought out 
 inevitably, in some form or other, in the bosom of such a condi- 
 tion; modified indefinitely, by every circumstance that affects 
 any considerable portion of the race; but utterly incapable of 
 being permanently and universally abolished, while our race con- 
 tinues in a state of sin and misery, attended with probation. It 
 seems to us as absurd to call the relation of master and servant 
 (in any form of servitude) sinful of itself, or to expect the relation 
 to cease upon earth ; as it is to call the relation between a sick 
 man and a well one, an afflicted man and a happy man, a rich 
 man and a poor one, sinful of itself, or expect either of them to 
 come to an end. And this, it seems to us, is the simple, the ra- 
 tional, and the scriptural account of human servitude in all its 
 possible aspects, and in its essential nature in the sight of God. 
 5. If we acknowledge the sacred Scriptures to be the divine 
 
1861.] OTJR COUNTRY. SB. 
 
 rule of our faith and our practice, there ought to be an end to all 
 extreme opinions, and all violent proceedings, on this entire sub- 
 ject. From the days of Abraham, to the death of the last in- 
 spired Apostle, there is one uniform doctrine, one uniform prac- 
 tice, one unchanging aspect of the whole matter — presented by 
 God for the guidance of mankind. Throughout the total revela- 
 tion which God has made to man — throughout the immense period 
 embracing the dispensations of Abraham, of Moses, and of Christ, 
 — human servitude, Abrahamic, Jewish, Christian, and heathen — 
 and the heathen aspect of it, such as was presented in every nation 
 of antiquity, Asiatic, African and European, down to and after the 
 period of universal dominion by the Romans ; we have this im- 
 mense subject exhibited to us, in all its possible bearings, by God 
 himself. Never, in a single instance, is it represented to us as a 
 thing good in itself: never, in a single instance, as a thing sinful 
 in itself: always as a thing actually existing, always to be ex- 
 pected, allowed by God, considered and treated in his law, regu- 
 lated by his providence, wholly indifferent as concerning his grace, 
 and to enter into our final account to him, both as we may be mas- 
 ters and as we may be servants, in the light of our faithful dis- 
 charge or our Avicked neglect of our duties to each other in that 
 relation. As masters, the measure of our authority is the mea- 
 sure of our guilt, if we neglect the duties binding on us, or abuse 
 the power we possess : so that the slavery which exists amongst 
 us, carries this responsibility to a height which, to all thoughtful 
 Christian persons, gives the institution one of its heaviest burdens. 
 To consider the relation, on the side of the master, one merely 
 of profit to himself, is to forfeit at once every justification for its 
 continuance ; while, on the other hand, to rob the relation Avholly 
 of that aspect, can be founded only on the notion that all servitude 
 is sinful, or else on some fanatical idea of justice or charity, 
 which if rendered practical would put an end to society, by put- 
 ting an end to all motive for any one to obtain any sort of service 
 from another. That every form of servitude ought to be ameli- 
 orated continually, even if we are sure it can never be abolished, 
 is as clear as that poverty should be alleviated though we knoAv it 
 can never be prevented, or that sickness should be relieved, 
 though it is certain it will recur forever. Clear as may be the 
 
22 OUR COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 justification of every form of servitude so far as the mere question 
 of sin is concerned — and perfect as may be the right to persist 
 in the extreme form of it, so far as the civil power is concerned — 
 there are a thousand considerations, personal and public, moral 
 and political, which may so bear upon individuals and communi- 
 ties, as to make it their clear duty, under given circumstances, to 
 put an end to the hereditary slavery which exists amongst us, or 
 under given circumstances to make it improper to attempt it, or 
 impossible to accomplish it. It is absurd, therefore, if not mon- 
 strous, to contend that vast regions of our country are morally 
 bound to the last extremity and as their chief duty, to labour for the 
 more secure establishment and the more effectual perpetuation of 
 negro slavery ; and equally so to array public opinion, and to di- 
 rect political parties, in other vast portions of the country, to the 
 repression or the destruction of it, on any pretext at all, much 
 less any connected with its moral nature. We have already shown 
 that a faithful observance of our constitutional obligations would 
 put an end to all such opinions and practices ; and that there is 
 no justification for any of the principles on which they rest, or 
 the proceedings to which they lead, to be found in natural law. 
 And now it seems clear, that the only infallible rule of conduct, 
 God's blessed Word, condemns in the most positive manner, all 
 the pretexts concerning negro slavery, whether at the North or 
 the South, upon which the public mind has been lashed into mad- 
 ness. Slavery is an institution, which revolutions neither per- 
 petuate nor abolish, except under conditions wholly accidental. 
 And if the anarchical spirit, whose seditious career we have 
 traced, finally triumphs and this nation is destroyed — the real 
 problem to be afterwards worked out will be, the ultimate do- 
 minion of the White race, or of a mixed race essentially African, 
 over the cotton region of this continent. Is the inaugurating of 
 that problem, worth the ruin of this great nation V 
 
 IV. 1. In attempting to develop the topic which remains, we 
 are fully aware of the diflBculties of the task. Both at the North 
 and at the South, there are great parties thoroughly organized 
 and acting in precisely opposite directions as to opinion, but one 
 direction as effective as the other toward the common object of 
 their labors — namely, the tearing of the nation to pieces. They 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. 23 
 
 who agree in nothing else, agree in the common desire for that 
 result, which involves our national ruin. In the meantime, the 
 immense popular masses at the North which have only partially 
 cooperated with the organized parts bent on destruction, or have 
 fallen into minorities openly resisting that party — are neither or- 
 ganized in part, nor of one accord amongst themselves, except 
 upon the single point, that they are suddenly awakened to the ex- 
 treme peril of the situation, and are rapidly settling into a reso- 
 lute purpose to avert the danger, if it is still possible. In the 
 whole South, the condition of affairs is similar, but more perilous. 
 The disruption of the Democratic party at Charleston and at Bal- 
 timore, is susceptible of but three possible interpretations : it was 
 an act of mere passion — or it was an act of deep intention, de- 
 signed to produce exactly what has followed — or it was an act 
 looking to the reconstruction of that party and to new endeavors 
 for its permanent triumph as a national party. Recent events 
 tend to show, that the disruption was made in the fixed sense of 
 the second of these three possible interpretations ; or at any rate, 
 in the contemplation, and perfect preparation of many leading men 
 to take that alternative, even if they are not chargeable with having 
 intentionally procured it. What occurred was, that the cotton 
 growing South suddenly awoke to a consciousness, that a great and 
 perfectly organized party in her bosom, was .precipitating state 
 after state into secession ; while in every seceding state — even in 
 South Carolina — masses of the people, stunned by the suddenness 
 and vehemence and thorough organization of the movement, were 
 borne along by it, or made resistance only on collateral points, 
 or remained in dissatisfied silence as the storm swept over them. 
 And in all the remaining slave states, state after state became 
 suddenl}'^ the theatre of a concerted agitation propagated origin- 
 ally from South Carolina, and tending everywhere to the same 
 violent result, by the same seditious proceedings, in the venerable 
 names of state sovereignty and constitutional power. In these 
 latter states, the resistance on the part of the community to this 
 revolutionary fanaticism, was more in accordance with what be- 
 came a free people ; and whatever the issue may be, the most of 
 them, possibly every one of them, will reach it with a decorum, 
 a gravity, and a public decency inseparable even in death itself 
 
24 OUR COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 from all true greatness, on all great occasions. But these great 
 popular masses throughout the fifteen slave states — embracing all 
 men Avho were not ready to rush into immediate secession, and 
 embracing, therefore, the immense majority of the people in that 
 half of the nation — were taken by surprise — cut up into three 
 mutually hostile political parties — disorganized by an infinite di- 
 versity of opinion — and destitute for the moment of great leaders 
 to whom they could turn with a common consent. Rapidly, and 
 by a movement almost spontaneous, public opinion, overborne for 
 the moment in the six seceding states, and trembling in the bal- 
 ance in several other states, appears to us to be consolidating in 
 the greater number and the most powerful of those states, in a 
 determinate manner, and upon fixed points. In them there is 
 none of that frantic hostility to the union which has been ostenta- 
 tiously manifested in other places ; but on the contrary, an avowed 
 attachment to the union, and a declared purpose to maintain it, 
 if it can be done consistently with their security, their honor, and 
 their rights. In them, there is no disposition to contend for ex- 
 treme rights, or to demand conditions which in changed circum- 
 stances they would not grant themselves, much less to fly to arms 
 by way of preliminary menace, or to look to foreign nations for 
 aid in the execution of any designs present or future ; but on the 
 contrary, there is an upright and an outspoken desire to adjust 
 all existing troubles, and if possible to secure the future, upon 
 terms of perfect equity and equality, such as ought to satisfy true 
 men, and such as true men ought spontaneously to grant. Now 
 it is not to confirmed Abolitionists of the North, nor is it to con- 
 firmed Secessionists of the South, that any suggestions of peace 
 need be made, or any terms of honorable composition need be pro- 
 pounded, which look to the preservation of a country which they 
 do not profess to love, and the salvation of institutions which they 
 own they abhor. But it is to the great, true, and faithful people of 
 the irlorious American Nation that must not be destroyed, no matter 
 of what sovereign state they may be citizens, and no matter liow 
 much they may now appear to be scattered and disorganized ; tliat 
 suggestions of peace, and justice, and fraternity, looking to end- 
 less and boundless glory and prosperity, may be offered, with a 
 good hope through God, that they may enter into the mass of 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. 0S 
 
 human thought, and be felt according to the wisdom that may be 
 in them. 
 
 2. Let it be observed, that the free states and the slave states 
 occupy in some respects totally different positions, relatively to 
 the difficulties about slavery, and to the ground on which those 
 difficulties are to be adjusted. With the North, the whole affair is 
 a sentiment — an opinion. With the South, it is an affair of life 
 and death. The North has not one dollar of estate at stake — the 
 South has four thousand millions of» dollars invested in slaves. 
 The North has not one dollar of income directly dependent on 
 slavery — the South has an annual income of two hundred and 
 fifty millions dependent directly on slave labour. Moreover, there 
 are no negro slaves among the nineteen millions of people in the 
 eighteen free states — so that all questions of a national aspect 
 tending to influence slavery, are perfectly void of force as to the 
 interior peace, quiet, and security, of all these eighteen states; 
 ■whereas the fifteen slave states have four millions of slaves dis- 
 persed through their eight millions of white people, and every na- 
 tional question that can, in any of its bearings, either agitate or 
 quiet this vast slave population, is of itself a question, between 
 different nations, of war or peace. Still further, the institution 
 of slavery has no necessary bearing whatever, upon the social, 
 economical, personal or political condition of any state or individ- 
 ual at the North ; whereas it is thoroughly interAvoven with every 
 fibre of society at the South — and as an institution is so pervad- 
 ing in its effects wherever it exists, that a community long trained 
 in the forms of life connected with it, does not incur the change 
 involved in its destruction, except under some most powerful im- 
 pulse. And again, this nation was once a nation composed exclu- 
 sively of slave states — and if in the progress of events the greater 
 part of the states become free states — every consideration of 
 decency and good faith obliges those thus changing their condition 
 to be more and more, instead of less and less, observant of the 
 duties and even the proprieties they owe to those who remain in 
 the condition once common to all. And, to suggest nothing 
 more, the preponderating power of the free states in the Union, 
 added to the unscrupulous and disloyal principles avowed and 
 propagated, to a greater or less extent, in every one of them 
 
26 OUR COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 during the last thirty years ; obliges the North, by every consid- 
 eration of prudence, of equity, and of magnanimity, to concede 
 to the South all that the spirit of their mutual engagements re- 
 quire, instead of striving to rob her of every security which is not 
 expressed in the narroAvest letter of the law. So clear is this con- 
 trolling aspect of the subject, and so deeply does it enter into the 
 convictions of all just men, that, on the one hand, the whole feel- 
 ing of loyalty to the Union in the South, is connected with an 
 abiding confidence that the *North will act as becomes her in this 
 emergency ; and on the other hand, with an unshaken purpose, in 
 the Union or out of it, to vindicate the security, the equality, and 
 the rights, of slave States. It is upon these two points — can the 
 South rely upon the North — and can the South maintain her 
 vital interests in union — that public opinion in the slave States 
 which have not seceded, is struggling at this moment. For 
 our own part, thoroughly convinced that both of those questions 
 ought to be answered in the affirmative, we must not disguise that 
 the thousands of loyal and patriotic men who have reached an op- 
 posite conclusion, and under it have been precipitated, by the force 
 of a trained and long organized conspiracy, unto fatal proceedings ; 
 are able to render reasons for their want of confidence, to which 
 coming ages will say, the North ought to have given earlier and 
 more considerate heed. It is idle to attempt here, a statement of 
 particular aggressions, upon a case so large, so long continued, so 
 aggravating, and so palpable. If there is one sentiment perfectly 
 cordial, and perfectly unanimous throughout the fifteen slave 
 States, it is that they have just cause of complaint; a sentiment 
 in which it is extremely probable, that the actual majority of the 
 entire North would to some extent concur. Nay, the very form 
 of any amicable settlement that can ever be made, reveals the true 
 nature of the case — as every possible statement of it must show. 
 3. There are two points upon which the South has made up its 
 mind, and which arc decisive, one way or the other, of the whole 
 matter ; and upon which the course which the North may take, 
 will either arrest the farther spread of the secession pestilence, 
 and under firm and temperate treatment, as we have before shown, 
 will probably bring back tlie seceding States ; or will probably 
 throw the whole nation into a state of political convulsion, the 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. 2$ 
 
 end of which no man can conjecture, and no living man will see. 
 These two points relate, 1. To the fair and complete execution of 
 the provisions of the Federal Constitution, made expressly in 
 favor of property in slaves — and most especially the provision 
 for the rendition of fugitive slaves : 2. To the recognition of the 
 perfect equality of the slave States with the free States, under 
 the Federal Constitution, in all things — and most especially in 
 the matter of Federal Territories. We will briefly treat of 
 each of these points separately. And as it appears to us 
 very clear that adequate power exists under the Federal Consti- 
 tution to settle both points in a fair, complete, and satisfactory 
 manner — we will not enter upon the discussion of any of the 
 proposed changes in that instrument. There are also several in- 
 cidental questions, such as slavery in the District of Columbia, 
 the migration of slaves from one slave State to another, and the 
 like, which we shall not discuss ; since, as we doubt not, the 
 settlement of the real question will draw after it the settlement 
 of the rest ; and a refusal to settle them renders all discussion of 
 the others idle. 
 
 4. If any one will compare the unquestionable right of the 
 owners of slaves, secured by the Federal Constitution, to have 
 them delivered to them in the States to which they may escape, 
 with what has occured during many past years with reference to 
 the fair and sincere enforcement of this right, in any Northern 
 State where its enforcement has been attempted, — or with the 
 average aggregate conduct of the whole North upon the subject; 
 he will be struck with astonishment, in proportion as he gets a 
 complete idea of what the border slave States have suffered, and 
 of the demoralized condition of opinion at the North on the Avhole 
 subject, and of the utter wickedness of the organized robbery 
 which has been systematically carried on. Mark — the Constitu- 
 tion of the nation expressly requires the rendition of slaves when 
 they escape. Then observe, that along the border common to Ohio 
 and Kentucky, slaves have been systematically enticed from their 
 owners, by organized societies in Ohio, and carried off by ar- 
 rangements so extensive, so complete, and so effectual, that along 
 the entire border between those States, two or three counties deep, 
 Blavery is totally insecure in Kentucky. Along the frontier of 
 
j|g OUR COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 all the other border slave States, a similar system of organized 
 plunder has been in active operation. To what extent the system 
 penetrates the interior regions of the slave States, it is difficult to 
 say ; but it is known that emissaries from the North have syste- 
 matically pervaded the entire South, in every imaginable disguise, 
 schoolmaster, pedler, agent, quack, preacher, labourer — every 
 thing — making known to the slaves the routes and methods of 
 escape, and instilling into their minds principles that result in 
 house-burning, poisoning, murder, and rape, if escape is impossi- 
 ble. What success has attended these diabolical proceedings, 
 with regard to the whole number of slaves stolen, we have no 
 better means of knowing than the published statement of jour- 
 nals that advocate the robbery : and after allowing for much 
 boasting on their part, prompted by very obvious reasons, the 
 number can hardly be set lower than a yearly average of ten 
 thousand slaves — worth little short of ten millions of dollars — 
 for some years past. Nor must it be forgotten, tliat although 
 large sums of money are contributed by fanatics throughout the 
 North, to the yearly support of these operations, yet the imme- 
 diate agents of the work make it very profitable. We, and many 
 hundred persons, have personal knowledge of a case which oc- 
 curred a few years ago in Kentucky, in which between fifty and 
 sixty negro men were attempted to be run off at one time, from 
 Lexington and the surrounding region ; in which the fee of the 
 white organizer and leader of the company varied, according to 
 the success of the negroes in stealing, from twenty-five to one 
 hundred and fifty dollars, each. In that case the party was sur- 
 prised when near the Ohio River, and the slaves recovered ; and 
 the white man is now in the Kentucky Penitentiary — instead of 
 being lynched, as he would have been any where but in one of the 
 finest communities in the world; Now let it be further observed, 
 that this state of liorrible perfidy, though notorious at the North, 
 instead of awaking the universal horror of the community, finds 
 the fundamental princijjles which underlie it, gradually pen- 
 etiiiting in all directions; widely infhiontial journals advocating 
 them ; t^upporters of them sitting in many State Legislatures, 
 and in both Houses of Congress ; political parties impregnated 
 with them ; the laws of many States changed so as to give them 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. S9 
 
 security ; tlie current literature deeply imbued with them ; and to 
 crown all, the ministers of religion, to the extent almost of whole 
 sects and denominations, making them the chief themes of their 
 instruction from the pulpit. We do not enumerate the election 
 of Mr. Lincoln as the climax, and final triumph of these princi- 
 ples : on the contrary, it is clear to us that his nomination for the 
 Presidency is to be accounted evidence of a reaction against 
 them : and we know of little in the modern history of parties, 
 braver, or more manly, than his unflinching and reiterated decla- 
 rations, that the South is entitled to an effective law for the ren- 
 dition of fugitive slaves, and to its effective execution. 
 
 5. That is precisely what the whole South demands. Planted 
 on the Constitution — loyal to it and to the country — the evi- 
 dence of the wrongs she has endured written on the whole face of 
 society North and South, Mr. Lincoln himself has long ago spoken 
 the brave and true word ; the South is entitled to an effective law, 
 and to its effective execution, whereby these outrages shall be put 
 down forever. The time to discuss the propriety of putting such 
 a clause in the Federal Constitution, terminated seventy years 
 ago. The time to plead conscientious scruples for breach of faith 
 founded on the alleged immorality of property in slaves, will 
 come after it is shown that a nation can exist — much less that a 
 free people can tranquilly sustain a common government, for the 
 sake of enabling one half to plunder and degrade the other half. 
 One of the worst symptoms of the case is manifested in the indi- 
 rect manner in which many Northern States have endeavoured to 
 defeat the execution of public law by unfriendly legislation, di- 
 rected in some instances against their OAvn citizens, in some 
 against citizens of the South, and in some against both ; and in, 
 not only an apparent popular approval of such laws, and the most 
 stolid indifference to the matter on the part of those who did not 
 approve them, but even in their careful and Avell-considered de- 
 fense by some of the ablest and best men in the North, as being 
 without serious objection in principle. That is, all the people in 
 Massachusetts being both citizens of that State and citizens of 
 the United States, and there being nobody there to act in either 
 capacity, except those who must act in both ; what follows under 
 this new political morality, and what is attempted under the pre- 
 
30 OUR COTINTRY. [IMarch, 
 
 text of religious scruples is — that the people of Massachusetts 
 as citizens of the United States acknowledge the obligation rest- 
 ing on them under the Federal Constitution for the rendition of fu- 
 gitive slaves in Massachusetts ;'and at the same moment as citizens 
 of the State, they pass laws refusing the use of their prisons and 
 making it criminal for their officers or even their citizens to assist, 
 and contrive remedies whereby the owner who seeks to recover 
 his slave may be arrested as a trespasser, or even imprisoned as 
 a felon. It is an exceedingly palpable instance, on a large scale, 
 of what resources were possessed by those fortunate and unscru- 
 pulous gentlemen of a past age, who were princes and bishops at 
 the same time. In point of morals, such pretexts are simply 
 scandalous. In private life, no man who resorts to them can be 
 held to be a gentleman — or in pecuniary transactions, can be 
 considered honest. In public life, such attempts are chargeable 
 with the folly and wickedness of begetting conflicts of civil and 
 political duties in mere wantonness — or with being, as we have 
 before shown they are, the organized results of that seditious 
 spirit of anarchy which is destroying our country, and which a 
 better public sentiment must crush wherever it exists, before so- 
 ciety can be safe in any part of it. The people of the free States, 
 wherever and in so far as they have been seduced into such legis- 
 lation, owe to public morality, to their own character, and to their 
 highest interests, not less than to their constitutional obligations 
 as citizens of the United States, and the mutual relations of the 
 States to each other under our noble institutions ; to erase at 
 once all State enactments that cast obloquy on their own national 
 obligations, or look towards the dishonor or the obstruction of 
 the just and unquestionable claims of others upon them. And 
 we rejoice with all our heart at the indication in so many portions 
 of the North, that what is right will be promptly done in this 
 matter ; and by this means, one of the steps indispensable to the 
 permanent raaintainance of our institutions be firmly taken, and 
 the friends of the Union every where, but especially in the South, 
 have a noble vindication of their resolute confidence that the na- 
 tion was still sound at heart, 
 
 6. The other point of the tAvo which the whole nation perceives 
 to be fundamental, relates to the equality of the States in the 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. 31. 
 
 Union, and especially as that bears upon the question of slavery 
 in the Federal Territories, as we have already stated. The great 
 idea of all our institutions, though complex, is perfectly clear. 
 We constitute one nation, whose people, however, are divided into 
 many sovereign States. We have no nation but as we have these 
 States ; and we have no States but as they make this nation ; and 
 our people are citizens both of the nation and of some particular 
 State — and strictly speaking, to be one involves the other. The 
 fundamental principles of our liberty is the sovereignty, not of 
 governments, but of society itself — the people; and the deepest 
 foundation of this sovereignty of the people, is their right to 
 change, to order, and to interpret, their political and civil institu- 
 tions, by voting ; to do this as separate States where the matter 
 relates exclusively to the particular State — to do it in concert 
 where it relates to the nation. In the exercise of this sovereign 
 power the people of this nation have made all their constitutions — 
 the very oldest of which now existing is the Federal Constitution. 
 And the broad distinction between that Constitution made for the 
 nation, which by its nature and its terms is supreme over all in its 
 proper sphere, and the Constitutions made for the States respec- 
 tively, is simply this ; that by the former no powers are conferred 
 on the General Government created by it except such as are ex- 
 pressly enumerated and such as are incidental and necessary 
 thereto ; and that by the latter all powers residing in society are 
 conferred on the State Governments created by them, except such 
 as are expressly withheld by Bills of Right, or some similar device. 
 We do not mean that these results are inherent and inevitable ; but 
 we mean that these are the facts — the great and Avise things ac- 
 tually accomplished by our ancestors. In the balancing of the 
 powers of the Federal and State Governments, and in defining and 
 ordering their mutual spheres and extent, lies that wide debatable 
 ground over which statesmen have fought their battles, and organ- 
 ized parties. Amongst these battles none have been more hotly 
 fought, or more perilous to the country, than the one which has 
 been waged over this question of Slavery in the Federal Terri- 
 tories. What we propose, is not to enter into a history of these 
 difficulties — nor to discuss the soundness of any of the conflicting 
 interpretations of the Constitution, upon which the extreme claims 
 
32 OUR COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 of hostile parties or sections rest; but to accept the actual and 
 notorious postui'e of the whole affair — and having pointed out, in 
 the nature of our system of government, the ground and the chai'- 
 acter of the real tUflficulty, to state the principles on which alone, 
 as it appears to us, the integrity of the Union between slave States 
 and free States can be preserved. 
 
 7. There are three possible results to the matter, namely : all 
 the Territories may become free States, or all may become slave 
 States, or some may become one, and some may become the other. 
 No one who has a grain of common sense, can suppose it to be 
 possible for either of the first two results to occur, by any peace- 
 ful means, or that the general government can throw its influence 
 systematically in favour of either of them, without breaking up 
 the confederacy — or that extensive combinations of States on 
 either side to secure either result, can terminate otherwise than 
 in war. It follows, therefore, that the practical enforcement of 
 the dogma on which Mr. Lincoln comes into power, namely, that 
 there shall be no more slavery in the Territories, is impossible 
 otherwise than by means of the dissolution of the Union, and the 
 subsequent conquest of one portion of the country by the other. 
 But Mr. Lincoln and his party, if they are insane enough to push 
 their dogma to that terrible issue, will — to say nothing of their 
 other perils — probably find themselves arrested, as soon as they 
 show that they are in earnest, by a counter revolution at the 
 Nortli, Avhich will crush the diabolical conspiracy. Admitting 
 that the Congress of the United States has absolute power over 
 the National Territories — and admitting that the Nortliern States 
 had the permanent control of both Houses of Congress"; we have not 
 the least idea, that a congress and a national administration in 
 this, or any other free country, would encounter tlic peril, and 
 heap on themselves the degradation of attempting to rob numer- 
 ous States and many millions of people, all subject to tlie same 
 goverimient, and all portions of the same nation with tliemselvcs, of 
 their total share in an imperial inheritance. Such ideas may be 
 made effectual in the organisation of parties, and may assume 
 prominence in popular movements ; but when it becomes necessary 
 to give them legal form and validity, to enforce them at the point 
 of the bayonet, to risk counter-revolution in support of them, to 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. j|g 
 
 establish them upon the ruins of society, and cover either the tri- 
 umph or the failure of the attempt with the detestation of man- 
 kind, their evasion, in some way or other, is one of those uncon- 
 trollable necessities of responsible power, before which human 
 passions bow in reverent awe. In like manner, the opposite ex- 
 treme opinion and claim, is in its nature equally incapable of being 
 realized. Admitting it to be true, that by the Constitution of the 
 United States, every Federal Territory is dedicated to slavery, 
 until on becoming a State, the people abolish it by a sovereign 
 act ; and admitting that the Supreme Court has the power to estab- 
 lish, beyond reversion, this sense of the Constitution, and that it 
 has done so in a case regularly before it, and demanding for its 
 decision the settlement of this point; still the practical enforce- 
 ment of the thing, is both morally and politically impossible. We 
 have not the least idea, that a congress composed exclusively of 
 Southern men, could be gathered by popular election, that would 
 entertain a proposition to rob free States weaker than themselves, 
 of their share of a common inheritance, upon any plea that can 
 be imagined ; we do not believe the minority of any slave State 
 would enforce such a proposition ; we do not believe that any 
 Southern gentleman would execute such a scheme. Moreover, 
 the political impossibility is complete ; and the actual state of the 
 country as presented by the relative number and power of the ftee 
 and slave States, and as exhibited by the state of opinion every- 
 where — the notion of establishing slavery in all the national Ter- 
 ritories as of constitutional right, has about the same practical 
 value as the notion of securing all those Territories for slavery, by 
 secession. Now, let it be borne in mind, that we have taken these 
 claims and the demands on the one side and the other, as being 
 founded on truths that are undeniable, and rights that are unques- 
 tionable ; and have pointed out the impossibility of any just, prac- 
 tical, or peaceful result, in the direction indicated on either side. 
 How immeasurably is that conclusion strengthened, when it is 
 considered that there is not a truth asserted, a principle laid 
 down, or a claim advanced on either side, that is not vehemently 
 repudiated by about half the population of the nation ! Well may 
 we assert the complete impossibility both of excluding slavery 
 from all the Territories, and of establishing it in them all ; and de- 
 
g4 OUR COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 nounce the wickedness of all parties who persist in such endeavors. 
 Those Territories, if the notion survives, must necessarily be, and 
 ought to be, partly slave and partly free. Political necessity de- 
 mands it, public justice requires it, all true statesmanship points 
 to that result, the undisturbed force of events would terminate in 
 that issue, and all attempts to prevent it are founded in consider- 
 ations forbidden alike by wisdom, by equity, and by patriotism; 
 and will end in crime, and misery, and dishonour, precisely in the 
 degree that they are successful. If the country shall be destroyed, 
 the chief importance of the questions on which our ruin is brought 
 about, will afterwards be, that all men may see how scandalous 
 were the pretexts upon which the noblest product of human civil- 
 ization was made desolate. 
 
 8. The national domain not embraced by the boundaries of any 
 existing State, amounts to one and a half, or two millions of square 
 miles ; an area much greater than that covered by all the States 
 lying between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River ; not 
 much less, perhaps, than the area covered by all the present 
 States. That the people of the larger and more numerous free 
 States should combine to exclude the people of the weaker and 
 less numerous slave States, from the enjoyment of the whole of 
 this immense inheritance, is an outrage so preposterous, that 
 one is the less astonished that it should react in a counter com- 
 bination to establish slavery in the whole of it; and while the 
 pretext of conscientious scruples for seizing all was the natural, be- 
 cause the only one, however ignoble, Avhich the strong could use — 
 the counter resort of the weaker party was also natural, and the 
 only one they could make but war, namely, extreme constitutional 
 right, countenanced by their construction of a political judgment 
 of the Supreme Court. In effect, as there arc but three possible re- 
 lations of the case, as has just been shown, so there are but three 
 possible methods in which the case can be solved. One is by an 
 equitable partition of the common inheritance, founded on the mu- 
 tual recognition by the parties of the undeniable fiict that it is a 
 common property : a second is, for the OAvners of the inheritance 
 determining to fight out their opposite claims in each particular 
 Territory — somewhat after the manner of the Kansas affair : the 
 thu-d is, to dissolve the Union, and fight out the opposing claims 
 
1861.] OUR COltNTRY. 3$ 
 
 afterwards, leaving the Territories like every thing else, in a state 
 of anarchy, useless to either party. It is indeed conceivable that 
 after dissolving the Union, men might recover their senses, and be 
 capable, as alien enemies to each other, of acting with a degree of 
 mutual forbearance and justice, which if practiced when they were 
 united by the most sacred bonds, would have kept them friends for- 
 ever. The probability of such a miracle, every one will determine 
 for himself; as well as the probability that the future inhabitants 
 of the vast region thrown away by the nation in its disgraceful par- 
 oxysms, will put faith enough in such miracles to respect any par- 
 tition of them amongst the fragments of a disbanded confederacy. 
 It is in vain that we would evade the sacred duties which press us, 
 and from whose performance there is no escape that does not at 
 the same moment brand us with infamy, and hurry us towards des- 
 truction. There is but one possible result that is just and right — 
 and there is but one possible way of reaching that result that is 
 either sure, fair, or peaceful : but that result, and that way of reach- 
 ing it, are perfectly obvious — and when once recognized and pur- 
 sued, they remove whatever difficulty the fair and complete 
 execution of the duty to restore fugitive slaves leaves to be re- 
 moved. It is upon these two points, as Ave have tried in all fair- 
 ness to show, that the nation is bound and obliged to set herself 
 right — that the people are required to make their majestic voice 
 audible above the clamor of factions, and that all good men are 
 called of God, by word and by deed, to rebuke on every side the 
 phrenzy of the hour. 
 
 9. The particular mode in which this recognition of the common 
 right of all the States in the national Territories, should be made ; 
 and the particular way and extent to which practical efficacy 
 shall, at the moment, be given to that recognition ; do not appear 
 to us to be matters of very high importance in themselves, or mat- 
 ters which it is necessary that we should discuss here. An effec- 
 tual law, and its effectual execution, concerning the rendition of 
 fugitive slaves; a sincere recognition of the common right of all 
 the States in the national domain, and the mutual abandonment 
 by the North and the South of all claim and attempt to make all 
 the Territories either free or slave : it is upon these points that a 
 good understanding, will settle all the rest — and that a refusal to 
 
^ OUR COUNTRY. [TVIarcli, 
 
 come to such an understanding, will throw upon those so acting 
 the whole responsibility of all that may follow. The foregone 
 conclusions of political parties, and the previous committals of 
 public men, are utterly insignificant in any true appreciation of 
 the interests now at stake. The propounding of particular the- 
 ories, or of special lines of policy, or of lists of propositions, or any 
 thing of the sort — by State Legislatures, by resolutions in Con- 
 gress, by Conventions of the people, or in any other way — where 
 the design or the effect is to embarrass or to obstruct the indis- 
 pensable settlement, is either a great weakness, or a covert attempt 
 to prevent any settlement. The demand of either party to have 
 a division of the Territories that is grossly unequal, is that far un- 
 just, and a manifestation of the same spirit of claiming all, which has 
 already wrought so much mischief. And with a million or two of 
 square miles of national domain, not yet embraced in any State, 
 with a country large enough to contain fifty or a hundred times its 
 present population — and with instant difiiculties which have al- 
 ready produced the most terrible calamities, and whose early settle- 
 ment maybe indispensable to the prevention of universal revolu- 
 tion ; the purpose to make that settlement depend upon an explicit 
 agreement concerning the disposition we will hereafter make of for- 
 eign states, which we may possibly conquer or purchase at some 
 future day ; can be considered nothing else than a purpose of pre- 
 venting the possibility of any settlement. Beyond all doubt, if the 
 free States consider that the main use of our Constitutional Union 
 and our continued national existence, is the extinction of negro 
 slavery on this continent ; or if the slave States consider that the 
 chief value of those incalculable advantages, lies in the use of them 
 for the indefinite extension of slavery ; the knell of our destiny is 
 Btruck — and our glory, our felicity, and our triumph are as a tale 
 that has been told. 
 
 V. 1. We have said, on a previous page, that the revolution in 
 the seceding States would not stop where it now is, and that the 
 course it would hereafter take, depended upon causes in some de- 
 gree appreciable now ; of which causes we enumerated those which 
 appeared to us most important in the production of such results as 
 would restore those States to their former position in the nation. 
 Amongst them, the conduct of the Federal government towards 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. Sf 
 
 the seceding States — according as it might be firm and yet 
 temperate, or as it might be vacillating and timid, was enumer- 
 ated as a decided element of the future. No one can doubt that 
 this is true, or fail to experience great anxiety on the sub- 
 ject. We feel no disposition to speak confidently about pro- 
 ceedings of the general government not yet adequately ex- 
 plained; nor, under any circumstances, to judge the President 
 harshly. We consider Mr. Buchanan to be situated just in that 
 manner, that if he saves his country, posterity will forgive him 
 much, and place his name high on the roll of history ; but that if, 
 either by his own fault, or by the fatal temper of the times, his ad- 
 ministration is made the term of his country's grand career, he 
 must be classed with the greatest victims of misfortune. Few have 
 presided at obsequies that ought to have been so illustrious — 
 and that threaten to be so ignominious. Apparently the sport of 
 a Cabinet divided into factions, of which one was irresolute, an- 
 other neither loyal to him nor to the country, and the isolated 
 members without authority ; the use made of the national admin- 
 istration seems to have been to promote the interest of the lead- 
 ers of sedition ; until the President found himself with no alterna- 
 tive but to sacrifice alike his official duty and his personal honour, 
 or at a most perilous moment, to reconstruct his Cabinet on the 
 basis of one or two faithful and able men, the remnant of his old 
 advisers. There may be some ground for diff'erence of opinion as 
 to the probable result, if the same conduct had been pursued by 
 the administration from the beginning, as has been since the re- 
 construction of the Cabinet. Nothing short of complete success, 
 rendered only more difiicult by his own previous conduct, can now 
 avert from the President, the stern condemnation of posterity. 
 And the secession party, prompt, diligent, and sagacious, after se- 
 curing from Mr. Buchanan the utterance of such opinions, and 
 the acquiescence in such proceedings, as rendered their fii-st organ- 
 ized movements safe from interruption; and after treating all 
 national rights that stood in the way of their subsequent move- 
 ments as mere nullities, and all national property in their reach 
 as lawful plunder ; are now diligently engaged in propagating the 
 sentiment, that all attempts of the nation even to expire with de- 
 cency, much less to defend its dignity, its honour, its authority, 
 
38 OUR COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 its military posts, or its property, should be esteemed outrages on 
 sovereign States — and be condemned as acts of useless folly that 
 can lead only to bloodshed ; seeing that the premeditated work is 
 done, and all composition is impossible. At the same critical mo- 
 ment, a signal change manifests itself in the bosom of the party 
 in the North, which resists all fair settlement, and yet dreads pop- 
 ular revolution there. As long as threats of violence Avere parti- 
 ticularly empty and insulting, they were hurled at the South. 
 Now, when their disloyal hopes point in another direction, the 
 method they take to avert the coming reaction which may save the 
 country, is to unite in vehement protests against what they are 
 pleased to designate as coercion. If the nation, first deluded and 
 then disgraced, can be paralyzed — and the whole South driven 
 into secession — the extreme party at the North, and the extreme 
 party at the South, each gains its special ends ; and the mass of 
 the people every where, and especially in the great Central States, 
 may, at their leisure, wake to the reality of a situation fatal and 
 detestable to them — which it would have been far easier for them 
 to have prevented, than it will be to correct. In short, it is to deter 
 the national government from every act which can even tend to 
 restore the supremacy of the Constitution, and the integrity of 
 the nation, that the cry against what they call coercion, is substi- 
 tuted for the cry against what they called oppression, in the first 
 stages of the revolt. 
 
 2. It is deplorable, in every stage and act of this sad drama, 
 how an almost preternatural ingenuity of error has trifled Avith the 
 noblest impulses of the people, and with tlie simplest truths 
 which support all our institutions. Let the dominant party in 
 South Carolina start with the political falsehood, that the people 
 of tliat State are not citizens of the United States, except through 
 the constitution and government of that State ; and let the Na- 
 tional Administration start with the corresponding political filse- 
 hood, that the supreme law of the land cannot be enforced towards 
 the people of South Carolina, contrary to the Avishes and acts of 
 this dominant party ; and let both parties concur in the additional 
 political falsehood, that the ruin of society is better than the risk 
 of collision with any body in enforcing the laws: then, of 
 course, nullification, secession, sedition, revolution, anarchy — 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. 39 
 
 are inevitable products of the organization of society, and public 
 order, and regulated liberty, and the security of property and life 
 become more and more impossible as the organization of society 
 becomes more and more perfect. We pointed out, on a previous 
 page — when exposing the perfidy of the pretext resorted to in jus- 
 tifying the conduct of dominant parties in some of the free States, 
 touching the rendition of fugitive slaves — the simple and obvious 
 refutation, founded in the double citizenship of the people of the 
 United States; and here the refutation is just as clear, and 
 is founded on the same truth. By the express terms, as well 
 as by the very nature of the Federal Constitution, a secession 
 ordinance in the South is as totally void as a personal liberty 
 law in the North possibly can be. The Federal Government 
 has no more need to deal with the South Carolina convention, 
 in executing the post office laws, the revenue laws, or any 
 other laws — than it has to deal with the Massachusetts Legisla- 
 ture in executing the fugitive slave law ; and there was no more 
 legal necessity, nor any more logical consistency, in diatribes 
 about lack of power to coerce a State, in one case than the other. 
 There was no need, nor any power, to coerce a State, in either case ; 
 but in both cases the need was urgent, and the power was com- 
 plete, to execute the Laws of the United States upon every citizen 
 of the United States, whatever relation he might happen to occupy 
 towards any one of the States ; and to enforce those laws against 
 all wrong doers. Nor is there any consideration arising out of 
 the nature or the form of the opposition, that may be made to the 
 execution of the supreme law, which can go farther than to ad- 
 dress itself to the sound discretion of the national government, 
 in the way of determining the most proper and effectual, and at 
 the same time the least arbitrary, perilous, and destructive method 
 of overcoming the resistaiice that is made. If the President, in 
 the exercise of this discretion, allows millions of dollars worth of 
 national property in buildings, in cash, in munitions of war, to 
 be seized and held by citizens of the United States in avowed re- 
 volt against the general government; if he permits them to take 
 forcible possession of the national fortresses, and hold them in 
 armed hostility to the nation ; if he permits the officers and sol- 
 diers of the army of the United States, to be taken prisoners of 
 
40 OUR COUNTRY. [March, 
 
 war, and treated by hostile commanders as captured enemies ; if 
 he permits armies to be organized, munitions of war to be col- 
 lected, batteries to be directed against the national fortresses ; if 
 he permits the flag of the nation to be torn down from the public 
 edifices and fortresses, and hostile flags to be planted on them — 
 nay, permits that proud emblem of our national unity and force 
 to be fired on with impunity, when it covers an armed force of the 
 nation; if he allows the mail to be broken open and the corres- 
 pondence of the government itself to be tampered with ; the for- 
 eign commerce of the country to be interrupted and the revenue 
 from it seized ; the internal commerce to be menaced by batte- 
 ries erected under State authority on our great W' ater courses ; if, 
 to add no more, he permits ambassadors from secession conven- 
 tions and assemblies to menace him with war in the capital of 
 the nation, and conspirators plotting the military occupation of 
 the Federal City, to go unpunished : it really appears to us that 
 the most nervous secessionist might consider the question of co- 
 ercion, as being about as ofiensive to the President as to himself. 
 Every man who has any remaining loyalty to the nation, or any 
 hope or desire for the restoration of the seceding States to the 
 confederacy ; must see that what is meant by the outcry against 
 coercion is in the interest of secession, and that what is meant is 
 in effect, that the Federal government must be terrified or seduced 
 into complete cooperation with the revolution, which it was its 
 most binding duty to have used all its power and influence to 
 prevent. 
 
 3. We believe it is the desire of the American people that the 
 present revolution should be brought to such a conclusion that 
 the seceding States shall all be restored to their position in the 
 nation ; and that to this end such a settlement of existing difficulties 
 shall be made, as, will eff"ectually and peacefully secure this re- 
 sult. In order to that, it is impossible for the nation to permit 
 anytliing to be done by the general government, which will take 
 for granted that the state of exaggerated and disloyal opinion either 
 in the extreme North or the extreme South, is irrevocably fixed as 
 a final and sovereign expression. On the contrary, what the na- 
 tion must take for granted, as the basis of every hope of peaceful 
 success, is that a revolution in opinion must take place in both 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. 4|. 
 
 quarters, in view of the imminent peril of our position. But beyond 
 all doubt, every thing that can strengthen the hands of the party 
 now dondnant, either at the extreme North or the extreme South 
 — must weaken every hope of any revolution in opinion — every 
 hope of a solution at once peaceful and successful. Nothing could 
 be so fatal as the conviction in the mind of loyal citizens, both in 
 the extreme North and the extreme South, that the nation does 
 not sympathise with them, and will abandon them. It is, there- 
 fore, sheer folly to weaken the posture of the general government 
 towards the secession moment. The duties of that government, 
 are perfectly clear as to their nature — no matter how difficult 
 they may be as to the mode of their performance. The nation 
 has no alternative, for the movement, but to abide the firm and sin- 
 cere performance of those duties, — meantime striving for a settle- 
 ment of the whole difficulty. If the seceding States follow up 
 their past outrages by rushing into war with the nation, no matter 
 on what pretext, that will only prove that the pestilence has 
 ah'eady gone beyond the reach of peacefiil remedies. On the 
 other hand, let it be taken for granted that the nation cannot be 
 saved — and that a peaceful separation, if that be possible, is the 
 best hope of all parties. Even in that case, and with a view to 
 that result, the position of the general government towards the 
 seceding States should be one of forbearance and moderation in- 
 deed, but of unalterable firmness. The nation has an interest in 
 the manner of this supposed separation, hardly inferior to its in- 
 terest in preventing any separation : nor is the interest of the 
 States that may go out, less permanent and fundamental in the 
 right ordering of that great, and as we think terrible result, than 
 any they may suppose they have in founding a new empire. That 
 this particular constitutional government should fail, is dreadful 
 enough ; but we owe it to ourselves, to the glorious cause of con- 
 stitutional government, and indeed to the human race, that we 
 should not establish by our downfall the imbecihty of republican 
 freedom ; but, on the contrary, that the very wreck of our institu- 
 tions should exhibit the principles of constitutional liberty — in 
 contrast with every aspect of anarchy — and in all their unaltera- 
 ble force and beauty. Let our ruin be the thousandth proof of 
 the violence of human passions, and the instability of human 
 
42 OUR, coinsrTRY. [IVIarch, 
 
 hopes: let it not be a damning evidence against constitutional 
 government. To us nothing appears more certain^ than that look- 
 ing to either result, the nation has no necessity more imperative, 
 as means to any endurable result, than that the Federal Govern- 
 ment — instead of shrinking from its true position on the one hand, 
 or resorting to needless violence on the other — should accept its 
 true mission as the representative of the nation, and so to a great 
 extent master of the situation, and pilot the ark in which such 
 transcendent treasures are embarked, courageously amidst the 
 howling waters. God will bring it to the right haven : for the 
 prayers of many hundreds of thousands of his children — lie yet 
 unanswered before his face. 
 
 4. It is from a single point of view that we have conducted this 
 exposition, and it is unto one single result, that we have directed 
 it. The point of view is that of one steadily beholding the immi- 
 nent and deadly peril of his country — nay, its ruin, already in some 
 degree accomplished, and hastening to be complete ; and the single 
 result developed, is the salvation of the country — the whole coun- 
 try. Many topics have, tlierefore, been passed in silence, which, 
 from any other point of view, or in expounding any other result, 
 would have required careful treatment ; and many other topics 
 eminently pertinent here, have been omitted, because we have al- 
 ready discussed them on a recent occasion.* It is of the last im- 
 portance, that we should not be deceived by appearances, or mis- 
 led either by our hopes or our terrors. The voice that can alone 
 silence the storm that is raging around us — the hand that is alone 
 competent to grasp and to crush every element of disorder — that 
 voice has not yet spoken, that hand has not yet put forth its 
 strength : it is the voice and the hand of this great nation. It is 
 time for it to speak — time for it to act. If Ave may dare to trust 
 all the lessons of the past, it will be true to itself — true to every 
 one who is faitliful to it. In that case we are safe ; though we 
 may suffer much and long before the end is reached. Our civili- 
 
 * See " Discourse of Dr. Robert J. Breckenridge. Delivered at Lexington^ 
 Ky., Januarij 4tk, 18G1 ; on the Day of National Humiliation:' It has been widely 
 piillishcd in the Newspapers, both secular and religious, and in pamphlet form 
 by Hull -j- IJrother, Louisville, Ky. ; Faran .j- McLean, Cincinnati, Ohio ; Woods, 
 Baltimore, Wd. ; and perhaps iu other places by other persons. 
 
1861.] OUR COUNTRY. 48 
 
 zation, in its present form, is the growth of nearly a century — 
 the growth of two centuries and a half on this continent — the 
 growth of all preceding ages in the old world, before its best 
 inhabitants came hither, to construct society afresh out of all 
 the treasures of the past. The gigantic oaks of the forest are 
 not planted more deeply — the everlasting mountains have not 
 a surer foundation — than our American Civilization. Let the 
 nation stir itself as a giant, waking from his slumber. Let the 
 voice of God be heard amongst us, as the voice of many waters, 
 and as the voice of a great thunder. Let us not hold our peace, 
 — let us not rest, till the peril is overpassed, that we should be 
 termed Forsaken and our land be termed Desolate — nor till our 
 country be as a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and as 
 a royal diadem in the hand of our God ! 
 
l 
 
 w^ 
 
Pulolislier's Circular. 
 
 DANVILLE QUARTERLY REVIEAV. 
 
 The first number of this new Theological and Literary Periodical — destined 
 to take high rank at once among the ablest in America or Europe— is now in 
 the printer's hands, and will be issued promptlj- on the 22d of March, 1861, 
 and quarterly thereafter. Its publication is designed mainly for the exposi- 
 tion, advancement, and defense of the Christian Religion, considered in its 
 purely Evangelical sense; and for open resistance to whatever is hostile to it, 
 or inconsistent with it. In perfect consistency with that chief design, its pages 
 will be open to the consideration of all other interests of man, and the discus- 
 sion of everything that promotes or obstructs any one of these interests. The 
 work is projected, and will be controlled, by persons all of whom are members 
 of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, all of whom 
 accept the standards of that Church in their obvious sense. 
 
 It will be conducted by an Association of Ministers, as follows: 
 
 Bev. ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D.D., LL.D.. "i pj-ofessora in Dan- 
 
 " EDWARD P. HUMPHREY, D. D., I ^^^q Theological 
 
 " STEPHEN YERKES, D. D., | Seminary. 
 
 " JOSEPH T. SMITH, B.D., J 
 
 " JACOB COOPER, I Professors in Centre College, Danville. 
 
 " JAMES MATTHEWS, ^ 
 
 " ROBERT W. LANDIS, D.D., Somerset, Ky. 
 
 " JOHN M. WORRALL, Covington, Ky. 
 
 " ROBERT L. BRECK, New Albany, Indiana. 
 
 The Review will be issued regularly in the months of March, June, Sep- 
 tember, and December, in the best style of such works, and contain about 176 
 pages of original matter in each Number, or about 700 pages per year. 
 
 Terms. — $3.00 per annum. One copy two years for $5.00, if paid strictly 
 in advance. Four copies one year, if paid in advance, $10.00. 
 
 The Publislier offers the following inducements to any who will interest 
 themselves in extending the circulation of the Review : 
 
 For four subscribers and the money, ($12.00,) an extra copy of the Review 
 for one year. 
 
 For two subscribers, and the money in advance, ($(5.00,) any one of the fol- 
 lowing works, each $1.2.'> : 
 
 RFV DK .1 AUDISON AI.EX.^NDERS COMMKNT.XRY ON MARK, 1 vol. 
 
 REV. DU. .7. AnmSON ALEXANDERS C'OMMENTARV: ON MATTHEW, 1 vol. Issued 
 
 11Ev"T)k' VaPDTSON ALEXANDER'S NOTES ON NEW TESTAMENT LITEKA- 
 
 TUIiE AND ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, 1 vol. Issued since his death. 
 REV. JA.MES W. ALEXANDER'S THOUGHTS ON PREACHING, I vol. 
 
 For four subscribers, and the money in advance, ($12.00,) any one of the 
 following works: 
 
 REV DR. J. ADDISON ALEXANDER'S COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS, 2 vols.. S2.50. 
 REV DR R. J. BRECKINRIDGE'S THEOLOGY, (The Knowledge of God, Objectively 
 Consiilored,) 82.01); or, tlie oIliiT volume by the same niithor, (The Knowledge of God, 
 Subjectively Considered,) $2. .10. 
 
 Address, RICHARD H. COLLINS, 
 
 Publisher "Danville Review," 26 West Fourth St., Cincinnati, 
 or, DANVILLE REVIEW. Danville, Ky. 
 

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