War of the rebellion; or, Scylla and Charybdis

Front matter

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Class JL.4:^

Bonk - F^ ^

Chapter I

Introductory Remarks. — Allusion to the "Irrepressible Conflict" Theory. — Dii-ect Issue made therewith. — Sectionalism. — Its dangerous Tendencies. — Geographical Parties. — Washington's Warning against them. — Mr. Webster's Remarks upon Sectionalism. — Author's first Acquaintance with Mr. Webster in 1825. — Renewal of that Acquaintance twenty Years thereafter. — Allusions to Mr. Webster's Life and Character. — Remarks upon his great Ability as a Statesman and Orator. — His amiable Qualities in private Life. — Mr. Webster's funeral Notice of his great Rival, Mr. Calhoun Page 13

Chapter II

Early colonial Settlements in North America. — Character of the People very nearly identical. — Similitude of Customs, Language, Religion, Laws, and Mode of Life. — No Conflict of Sentiment then between the Colonists of the North and South in regard to African Slavery. — Testimony of INIr. Greeley on this Point, — Kindly social and commercial Intercourse between the Colonists North and South. — Their united Defense of the infant American Settlements against Indian Violence and the hostile French. — Early Suggestion of a confe'derate Union between all the British Colonies in North America. — Strange Interpretation of a Portion of the Language of the Declaration of Independence. — Mr. Jefferson's important Statement as to the Action of the Confederate Congress in regard to Slavery at the Time the Declaration was adopted. — Mr. Webster's important Recital of historic Facts connected with this Subject in his 7th of March Speech 30

CHAPTER IIL

Continuation of the same Subject. — Cession of Northwestern Territory by Virginia and other States in 1781. — Ordinance of 1787. — Federal Con-

IV CONTENTS.

vention. — Correlative and contemporaneous Action of that Body and of the Confederate Congress upon the Subject of African Slavery, — No Conflict worth mentioning then existed between the States of the North and the South in regard to African Slavery. — Action of Congress upon Abolition Petitions in 1790. — Congressional Resolution on the Subject of non-interference with Slavery in the States by the general Government for many Years faithfully observed in the North. — Mr. Webster's uncontradicted Statement on this Subject in the Debate between Mr. Hayne and himself. — Washington's Administration. — Election of John Adams ; his stormy Administration. — Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison, and Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, '9. — Nullification and Secession growing out of these. — John C. Calhoun. — Confederate Constitution professedly based upon the absolute Sovereignty of the States. — This Principle shamefully abandoned by the Confederate Government itself. — Successive Administrations of JNIr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, and Mr. Monroe. — Rise of the Missouri Question, and violent Agitation consequent thereupon. — Wise and salutary Compromise of that Question. — Remarks upon the Value of legislative Compromises in general, with Mr. Calhoun's Views of the same Page 40

Chapter IV

Happy Cessation of Excitement after the Adoption of the Missouri Compromise. — Era of good Feeling during the Remainder of Mr. Monroe's Administration. — Presidential Contest of 1824. — Mr. Adams's Election by the House of Representatives to the Presidency. — Inaugural Speech of Mr. Adams. — Interesting Scene in the White House on the Occasion of President Monroe's taking Leave of his Friends to return to his private Home in Virginia. — Intense Excitement growing out of Mr. Adams's Election, but without any Intermixture of sectional Feeling. — Violent and illiberal Opposition to his Administration. — Defeat of Mr. Adams for Re-election in 1828, and Elevation of General Andrew Jackson in his Stead. — Rise of Nullification in South Carolina in 1832. — General Jackson's Proclamation against South Carolina. — Mr. Clay's successful Scheme of Pacification, known as the Compromise Tariff Bill. — Origin of Abolition Societies in 1835. — Minute historical Account of these Societies given in Mr. Greeley's "American Conflict." — Mr. Webster's striking Remarks upon these Societies in his 7th of March Speech. — Author declines any special Notice of the Present a-

CONTENTS. V

tion of Abolition Petitions, and the excited Discussions growing out of the same. — Notice of the Acquisition of Texas with the general Consent of the American People. — Breaking out of the Mexican War, and Presentation of the Wilraot Proviso in the Midst thereof.— Author's Election to the United States Senate, with Jefferson Davis as his official Colleague. — Serious political Disagreements between them. — Sketch of President Davis's Character, with some Notice of his History. — Session of the United States Senate commencing in December, 184:7. — Mr. Dickinson's Non-intervention Resolution, and BIr. Calhoun's extreme Opposition to it.— Curious colloquial Scene in the Senate.— General Cass's Nicholson Letter.— Complimentary Notice of General Cass Page 58

Chapter V

Proceedings upon the Wilmot Proviso during the Congressional Session of 1847, '8.— Mr. Clayton's Compromise Bill, and its unfortunate Defeat in the House of Representatives.— General Cass as the Presidential Candidate of the Democratic Party in 1848. —The Contest between

himself and General Taylor by no means of a sectional Character.

Election of the latter. — Appearance of "William L. Yancey at the Baltimore Convention of 1848, and the prompt Rejection by that Body of his celebrated Protection Proposition. — Unfortunate Division of the Strength of the Democratic Party in 1848 between the Hunkers and Barnburners, resulting in the Nomination of Martin Van Buren and Cliarles Francis Adams by the Buffalo Convention.— Mr. Gott's Resolution.— Declaration, as early as 1843, by Messrs. Adams, Slade, Giddings, and others in Favor of dissolving the Federal Union in the Event of the Annexation of Texas. — Inflammatory Address issued by these Gentlemen. — Author's first acquaintance with John Quincy Adams and his accomplished Lady. — Commendatory Notice of his Life and Character. — Parallel between John Quincy Adams and John C. Calhoun 73

Chapter VI

Session of Congress closing on the 3d of March, 1849.— Important Test Question raised by Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, in Connection with the Oregon Bill, which was then pending.— Defeat of Mr. Douglas's Proposition by the unexpected but effective Interposition of Mr. Wm. H.

VI COXTENTS.

Seward, who had not yet taken his Seat as a Senator from New York. — Mr. Seward at that Time opposed to all Compromise of the Slavery Question. — Extract from a memorable Speech of his, delivered in the United States Senate in the Year 1850, having Relation to this Subject. — Mr. Seward's Cleveland Speech in 1848. — Important Extracts therefrom. — General Taylor's Administration. — Violent Excitement beginning to rage both North and South upon the Slavery Question, and in Connection with the Admission of California. — Unfortunate non-action Policy of General Taylor's Administration. — Alarming Condition of the Country. — Election of Messrs. Gwin and Fremont United States Senators from California. — Attempt of Colonel Thomas II. Benton to revive his decaying Popularity by becoming the Champion of Californian Admission. — Efforts of the Author to defeat this Scheme of selfish Ambition. — Retrospect of Colonel Benton's Attempt, about the Close of Mr. Polk's Administration, to bring about the Rescission of the Treaty with Mexico, by which all the territorial Domain recently acquired would have been lost to the United States but for the Defeat of that Attempt. — Signal Defeat of this unpatriotic Scheme, and remarkable Particulars connected therewith not heretofore divulged. — Colonel Benton deprived in Democratic Caucus of the Chairmanship of the Committee of Foreign Affairs in the Senate on the Motion of the Author, after a two-days' Struggle, by a Majority of one Vote only. — Mr. Benton's extraordinary Attack on Mr. Calhoun and Others in his public Speech delivered in Missouri in the Summer of 1848, and Mr. Calhoun's overwhelming Response thereto, drawn up at Author's earnest Instance. — Short Sketch of Colonel Benton's public Character, and Delineation of his intellectual Qualities , Page 94

Chapter VII

Review of General Taylor's non-action Policy.— Painful and exciting Rumors in regard to the Instrumentalities employed by him to carry that Policy into Operation. — Intense Alarm awakened among Patriots as to the Fate of the Country. — Mr. Clay leaves his own Home, and comes to Washington upon a Mission of Pacification. — He is met upon his arrival there with general Cordiality and Respect. — Mr. Benton attempts to inveigle him into a false Position in regard to the Measure of admitting California, and is for a time successful. — Mr. Clay's Programme of Adjustment, and the "five bleeding Wounds." — Tliis

CONTENTS. vii

Gentleman severs his Alliance with Mr. Benton, and becomes the Champion of the famous Omnibus Scheme.— rHis magnanimous waver of certain abstract Opinions with a View to general Conciliation. — First meeting of the Nashville Convention. — Great Excitement consequent upon its Proceedings. — Anti-slavery Movements about the same Period, and Mr. Seward's anti-compromise Speech. — llesolution introduced by the Author, several weeks before, for the raising of the famous Committee of Thirteen, finally pushed to a> Vote at the Instance of Mr. Cass. — Eminently patriotic Conduct of Mr. Webster on this Occasion. — Resolution finally carried. — Mr. Clay appointed Chairman thereof, who speedily brings in his Report, upon which an animated Discussion occurs Page 113

Chapter VIII

Great Compromise Struggle of 1850. — Mr. Clay and Mr. "Webster the principal Figures in the Picture. — Mr. Webster's 7th of March Speech, and its prodigious Efifect upon the Public Mind. — Striking Extracts therefrom. — Mr. Calhoun's last Speech in the Senate, in which he urges that the Admission of California shall be made a test Question. — Emphatic Protest by the Author to this Portion of the Speech, and painful Altercation with Mr. Calhoun in Reference to the disputed Point. — Proceedings of the Nashville Convention. — Wise and patriotic Conduct of Judge Sharkey, the President thereof, which prevents immediate Mischief. — Judge Sharkey arrives in Washington, and is offered the Department of War, which he declines. — Some Account of Judge Sharkey's Life and Character 129

Chapter IX

Omnibus Bill under Consideration. — Strenuous Opposition of General Taylor's Admiiiistration to its Adoption. — Last Appearance of President Taylor in Public on the 4th of Jul}', 1850, at Monument Square, in Washington City, and touching Scene which occurred there. — General Taylor's Decease a few Days thereafter. — Mr. Webster's eloquent Funeral Notice of him. — Mr. Fillmore's Inauguration as President, and efficient Support of the Compromise Measures. — Official Order found on General Taylor's Table after his Decease, ordering the forcible Expulsion from New Mexico by the Military of Texan Settlers. — Mr. Clay's heroic Remonstrance against this coercive Policy, which he re-

VI 11 CONTENTS.

garded as needlessly endangering the Union. — Fierce Opposition to the Compromise Measures on the Part both of Extremists of the North and Extremists of the South. — Terrible Struggle over the Omnibus Bill in the Senate, which is finally broken into Fragments mainly by the Indiscretion of its own Friends, but the integral Portions of which finally pass both Houses. — The Country quieted under the Influence of this Measure. — Sage and firm Conduct of President Fillmore in causing the Compromise Enactments to be every where faithfully executed. — Celebrated Rescue Case in Massachusetts, and interesting Proceedings in Congress in Connection therewith Page 14:8

Chapter X

Country completely restored to Quiet under the Compromise Measures, except in several of the Southern States. — Exciting Contest in Georgia and Mississippi in 1850, '1, upon the Disunion Issue, in both of which States the Union Cause is finally triumphant. — South Carolina, failing to obtain co-operative Aid, at last subsides into a State of Quietude. — The Election of Mr. Pierce to the Presidency as an avowed Supporter of the Finality Principle, who calls Mr. Davis to the Department of War, and the Slavery Agitation is at once renewed. — Mr. Pierce's gross Infidelity to his Pledges, by whose Indiscretion and Misconduct the Conflict of sectional Factions is again revived. — Mr. Douglas unfortunately yields to the Counsels addressed to him from various Quarters, and introduces the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. — Sectional Excitement greatly increased and intensified by that Measure. — Notice of the De-

' cease of Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster, and of their commanding intellectual Powers and interesting Traits of Character 1G9

Chapter XI

Excited Struggle in Congress over the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. — Manly but ineffectual Opposition to that Bill in Congress. — Regret expressed at the Disappearance from the public Scene of Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, and Mr. Calhoun. — Confident Opinion expressed as to what would have been Mr. Calhoun's Course had he survived up to our Times. — Fearful awakening of sectional Excitement both in the South and in the North under the Influence of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. — Multiplied Scenes of Blood and Violence in the Territory of Kansas. — Mr. Pierce and his Cabinet lose the Confidence of all Men of true Nationalitv of Sentiment.

CONTENTS. ix

—Mr. Pierce defeated in the Cincinnati Democratic Convention by Mr. Buchanan, Avho is afterward elected to the Presidency by a plurality Vote over Fremont and Fillmore.— Mr. Buchanan delivers an Inaugural Address as President, replete with national Sentiment, which attracts to him the Support of the American Party, and his Administration grows overwhelmingly popular.— He afterward treacherously violates all his Promises to the Country under the Threats of Southern Secession Leaders, and his Administration suddenly becomes both odious and contemptible.- TJhe Democratic Party of the North completely crushed and broken down by the fatal Lecompton Issue, and the way surely paved for the Election of a Republican President in 18G0.— Review of the State of Parties at that Period.— Some Notice of the American Party and its particular Tenets.— Great Mistake of the Southern People in not yielding their Support to Mr. Fillmore in 185G.— Some Notice of the Republican Candidates for President and Vice-President in 1856, and of certain curious Scenes which took j^lace during the short period of General Fremont's official Connection with, that Body. —Sketch of General Baker, one of the earliest Victims of the War, and a recital of certain romantic Occurrences connected with his Residence in California and Oregon.— Signal Triumph of his extraordinary oratorical Powers over popular Excitement and Prejudice Page 192

CHAPTER XH.

Some farther Notice of the "Irrepressible Conflict" Theory.— Analysis of the Condition of Parties at the Time of Mr. Buchanan's Inauguration.— Statement of the Election Results during the first Year of his Administration. — Historic Recital of some important Facts which occurred during the Summer of 1857, anterior to Mr. Buchanan's succumbing to the Dictation of the Secession Leaders.— Eilbrts to reanimate his Courage made at that Period, all of which signally failed.— Recital of Particulars connected with the Lecompton Struggle in Congress.— Some Scenes, both amusing and painful, which at that time had their progress in Washington.— Remarkable banqueting Scene, in which Mr. Seward bore the principal Part.— Last Interview between Mr. Buchanan and the Author, in which some startling Revelations were ni^^^e , 219

A2

X CONTENTS.

Chapter XIII

Conspiracy of certain Senators to defeat the " Little Giant of the West" in his supposed presidential Aspirations. — Signal Triumph of this Gentleman as a Debater over all Opposition. — Opening of the senatorial Contest between Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln, of Illinois. — Extraordinary Efforts of Mr. Buchanan and other Individuals of the Democratic Party to effect Mr. Douglas's Defeat and secure the Election of his Opponent. — Eventual Triumph of Mr. Douglas, who returns to the Senate to undergo Ostracism at the Hands of senatorfal Democrats in Caucus under the direction of Mr. Buchanan. — Deep Injury done to the Southern Cause by the unjust Course pursued toward Mr. Douglas, which caused many of this Gentleman's political Supporters in the North to grow lukewarm in the support of Southern Rights. — Special Causes which now operated to produce sectional Excitement. — Indecent and ruffianly Assault upon Mr. Sumner. — Dred Scott Decision. — The South indiscreetly exultant over it, and the North indignant. — Attempt by certain Persons in the South to bring about the reopening of the African Slave-trade. — Important judicial Contest in Ohio touching the validity of the Fugitive Slave Law. — Ossawatomie Brown upon a Rampage in the Bosom of Virginia as a radical, political, and moral Reformer, ready to shed Oceans of Blood in defense of universal Freedom. — Interesting Debate in the United States Senate on this Subject. — Impolitic Execution of Brown, by which he was unnecessarily made a Martyr Page 246

Chapter XIV

Other Causes of sectional Excitement at this Period. — The Helper Book, and its unfortunate Discussion in Congress. — Resolutions forced through the Senate, mainly though the Agency of Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, having in View the double Object of destroying Mr. Douglas, and dragging the Democratic Party into an unnational and aggressive Attitude. — Movements of William L. Yancey in the Year 1859, and early in the Year 18G0, having in View the breaking up of the Federal Union in the event of a Republican President being elected. — Efforts in the South to bring about the Election of Mr. Lincoln, in order to obtain the desired Object. — Democratic Conventions at Charleston and Baltimore reviewed. — Leading Incidents of the Presidential Canvass of 18C0 and its Results. — Sketch of William L. Yancev 204

CONTENTS. Xi

Chapter XV

Movements in the South looking to Secession.— South Carolina takes the Lead in the Execution of her long-cherished Scheme.— Adoption of the Ordinance of Secession by that State.— Georgia and the otlier Cotton States follow the Lead of South Carolina. — Commendable Efforts in several of the States of the North to moderate Southern Excitement and secure the yielding of reasonable Concessions to the slaveholding Interests of the South.— Tennessee and the Border States still remain firm.— Extraordinary Message of Mr. Buchanan to Congress in the Month of December, 1860, and its unhappy Effect upon public Sentiment.— Furious Debate in both Houses of Congress upon the Questions pending at this Crisis.— All Efforts at Compromise prove abortive.— Unwise and unpatriotic Conduct on the Part of Southern Senators and Representatives in vacating their Seats in Congress. Page 295

CHAPTER XVL

Speculative Views as to the self-defensive Powers of all Governments, and of the Government of the United States in particular.— View of the Circumstances existing, so far as the State of Tennessee is concerned, in the Outset of the War, and Vindication of the Conduct of that State. — View of the Condition of Things existing in Washington in particular, and of the non-action Policy of Mr. Buchanan. — Notice of this Gentleman's late Defense of himself — View of Mr. Lincoln's moderate and patriotic Conduct after his Election, and Notice of Speeches made by him at Indianapolis, Pittsburg, and Philadelphia. — Mr. Lincoln's Inaugural Speech, and commendatory Remarks thereupon. — Admirably patriotic Speech of Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, demonstrating the gross Impolicy of Secession.— Some Allusions to the early Movements of the War, and a short Discussion of the Monroe Doctrine. — Enforcement of that Doctrine the true Means of restoring the national Unity and Concord 318

Chapter XVII

Beginning of the War.— Its gross Impolicy.— Mr. Davis and his official Associates did not comprehend its true Dimensions. — Mr. Davis's sevoral exultant Speeches after having been made President. — Striking Declaration made by the Confederate Secretary of War, Leroy Pope Walker, at Montgomery, Alabama. — Mr, Lincoln's View of the physxii CONTENTS.

ical Impracticability of Secession. — Philosophic Views of the Effects of War in general, and of Civil War in particular. — View of the existing Condition of Things as the Result of the late War.— Responsible Attftude of President Johnson, and Duty of all good Citizens to sustain him. — Short Explanation of Author's own Attitude in the beginning of the War. — The Confederate Provisional Congress. — Its extraordinary Harmony and Unanimity, and the Causes thereof. — View of the permanent Confederate Congress. — Rapid Review of Mr. Davis's Conduct as Executive Chief.— Peace Efforts in the Confederate Congress. — Their signal Failure, and the Causes thereof. — Informal Efforts of Author, in Connection with many influential Persons of the South, to make Peace in Spite of Mr. Davis, and, if need be, by a Counter-revolution. — Eailure of those Efforts, and probable Causes therefor. — Author asks Passport across the Ocean, which is granted him. — Close of the War, and Remarks thereupon Page 335

Chapter XVIII

Observations mainly upon the Facts recited in the preceding Chapters 418

Conclusion 433

SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS.

Chapter I

Introductory Eemarks. — Allusion to the "Irrepressible Conflict" Tlieory, — Direct Issue made therewith. — Sectionalism. — Its dangerous Tendencies. — Geographical Parties. — Washington's Warning against them. — Mr. Webster's Remarks upon Sectionalism. — Author's first Acquaintance with Mr. Webster in 1825. — Renewal of that Acquaintance twenty Years thereafter. — Allusions to Mr. Webster's Life and Character. — Remarks upon his great Ability as a Statesman and Orator. — His amiable Qualities in private Life. — Mr. Webster's funeral Notice of his great Rival, Mr. Calhoun.

In no community of Christendom can the public mind be reasonably supposed, at the present moment, to bo prepared to receive with a fitting respect an honest and impartial account of all the exciting and lamentable occurrences which have had their progress on this continent, and in the bosom of our own country, during the last four years. Yarious and conflicting interests, existina: to some extent wheresoever commerce is known or free intercourse by mail has been provided for, diverse and repugnant statements, embodied in massy and imposing volumes, in pointed and glittering editorials, in gusty and delusive partisan harangues {the wordy wonders of an liour)^ in solemn, didactic discourses, in labored official documents, and in innumerable reports of sanguinary battles, of obstinate and long-continued sieges.

of the fearful and heartrending devastation of large and populous districts, or brilliant and sudden assaults and captures upon land or water, and fierce marauding incursions — a necessary concomitant of war, and yet how shocking and deplorable — have awakened and diffused such clashing and intensely -cherished prejudices and predilections as naught would be of power to remove, save, perchance, the toilsome diligence of such discriminating writers as some future age may supply, and the ever softening and effacing influence of Time. If this be true in regard even to distant nations, how much more forcibly must the statement just made be found applicable to the different parts of our own country, within whose territorial limits all these momentous events have been taking place, and where all the multiplied sources of error referred to have had their original location. But, even were tho*se who are now upon the stage of action, in our own and in other lands, ever so ready to receive the truth in relation to occurrences so irritating and so recent, there would seem to be but little reason to expect that a suitable writer would be found to record, in language worthy of general credence and respect, scenes which the powers of a Livy or a Tacitus would have been scarcely able to depicture, and of a nature well calculated to discompose even the philosophic serenity of a Gibbon or a Hume. With such views as these, and with no exorbitant conception of my own ability as a writer, it will not be held surprising that I have chosen to indicate in advance, by the title which I have thought proper to prefix to this work, that I do not at airaspire to be recognized as the Historian of the most momentous conflict of arms, viewed

AUTHpR NO SECTIONALIST. 15

in its various aspects and bearings, that the world has yet known. In truth, I shall aim only to present, in as simple and perspicuous language as possible, a series of remarkable occurrences, running through a period of some twenty years or more, accompanied by sober and impartial delineations of character, and personal anecdotes, more or less illustrative of public events, with some account of the rival movements of parties, and the characteristic acts and utterances of acknowledged party leaders. Having, at a period in my past life not yet remote, be-en thrown into contact, in the councils of the nation, with a large number of our public men of great distinction and influence, and having held relations more or less familiar with a few of the most eminent among them, I am not without a hope of being able to revive some gratifying and instructive reminiscences of illustrious personages now no longer living, as well as of others yet fortunately surviving, which will not prove altogether uninteresting to such as may glance over these pages. It having been my fortune, though born in a Southern state, to have resided for considerable periods in both the great sections of our now reconciled country^ and having contracted the most delicate and endearing ties, both social and domestic, in each of them, I dare to presume that, in the execution of the task which I have assumed, I shall be able, in a great degree, if not altogether, to avoid the exhibition of any thing like a decided local bias.

I shall at once give notice that I do not by any means agree in opinion with those who assert that the gigantic military struggle from wliich. we have but just emerged was, to any considerable extent, the result of what has-been so vociferously bruited as an "irrepressible conflict of antagonisms imbedded in the very nature of our heterogeneous institutions ;" and, with all proper courtesy and deference, I shall venture to make direct issue with those, wheresoever they shall be found, who undertake to promulgate the notion that "the successive compromises whereby" civil war, with all its attendant horrors, " was so long put off," were, after all, but "deplorable mistakes, detrimental to our national character."* I shall, on the contrary, endea^vor to maintain, more by an array of irresistible facts than by any effort of over-subtle reasoning, or by ingenious appeals to long-standing prejudices, that the fearful domestic troubles in which our noble republic has been so recently involved could not possibly have arisen but for the most unskillful and blundering management of men in power — the incessant agitation of sectional factionists, both in the I^orth and in the South, and the unwise disregard of that august spirit of conciliation and compromise in which our complex frame of government is known to have had its origin, and to the faithful cultivation of which, if it be destined to endure for future ages, it must undoubtedly owe both its preservation and its maintenance.

Without in the least degree calling in question the patriotism or sincerity of others, I may be permitted to say that no dogma more fraught with mischief could possibly have been set afloat among the American people, or one better calculated, if widely diffused, to undermine the sacred compact of union established by our fathers, than that which has just been alluded to. Let two considera-

* Extract from Mr. Greeley's "American Conflict."

IRREPEESSIBLE CONFLICT. 17

ble segments or classes of a free and enlightened people any where be once induced conscientiously to believe that such an irremovable incompatibility of essential interests exists between them that the permanent repose and happiness of the whole, or of certain of its parts, will be impossible^ except by a great and fearful sacrifice on the one side or on the other, and it is most obvious that exciting thoughts and schemes of separation^ and even of armed collision, would not be very long in making themselves manifest. Such, in fact, is known to have been the precise condition of things in the early days of the Eoman republic, between the Patricians and the Plebeians ; and hence certain noted attempts on the part of the weaker class in Eome, and the one which deemed itself oppressed, to provide security against future injuries by secession to Mons Sacer. So it was also with the people of the American colonies in the last century, when, becoming convinced that it was not at all consistent with their safety and happiness that they should remain longer under British rule, they boldly erected the all-inspiring standard of independence. The successful propagation of this theory of an "irrepressible conflict" of hostile forces, in two different sections of the same country, it is evident, must generate ^^ geographiccd parties f against the formation of which, Washington, in his Farewell Address, so solemnly and so pathetically warned his countrymen. The continued existence of these geographical parties, when once fairly organized, as our melancholy experience has now demonstrated, must naturally beget schemes of territorial partition; which, however peacefully and quietly put in execution, if resisted on the part of those who shall chance to feel that they would be deeply injured thereby, more especially if the latter party shall suppose itself to possess adequate means of preventions must inevitably lead to a civil war, more or less serious and protracted.

And it is plain that the danger of such a result must be very greatly increased, if, in addition to the influences described, the opinion should be given currency that the antagonisyn asserted to exist is organic and permanent in its character, not growing out of interests superficial and temporary in their nature, and therefore subject to easy processes of modification and amelioration in one mode or another, but solid, enduring, and "imbedded in the very nature" of ^H7istiiutions^'' thus sol-- emnly adjudged to be '•''heterogeneous.'''' Washington and his illustrious associates of a former age taught no such perilous and visionary doctrine ; nor did the great statesmen who succeeded them in the administration of the government for several successive generations at all suspect the existence of any such fatal tendency to discord and domestic feud to be lurking in the very vitals of our civil system. I am not prepared to assert that this "irrepressible conflict" theory originated either in the North or in the South exclusively. I know that a distinguished citizen of the State of New York has been given credit for the first formal promulgation of it ; and recent occurrences would seem to indicate that this gentleman still firmly adheres to his well-known declaration on this subject. Certain it is, though, that I have heard this same radical incompatibility of interests between the Northern and Southern states of the Union — between that portion of the republic recognized until recently as the slave-