full view in the debates of the several
State Assemblies on the adoption of the Federal Constitution, in which
instrument Luther Martin, Patrick Henry, and others, insisted that they
were implanted. African slavery at the time was universal, and its
extinction in the North, as well as its extension in the South, was due
to economic reasons alone.

The first serious difficulty of the Federal Government arose from the
attempt to lay an excise on distilled spirits. The second arose from the
hostility of New England traders to the policy of the Government in the
war of 1812, by which their special interests were menaced; and there is
now evidence to prove that, but for the unexpected peace, an attempt to
disrupt the Union would then have been made.

The "Missouri Compromise" of 1820 was in reality a truce between
antagonistic revenue systems, each seeking to gain the balance of power.
For many years subsequently, slaves--as domestic servants--were taken to
the Territories without exciting remark, and the "Nullification"
movement in South Carolina was entirely directed against the tariff.

Anti-slavery was agitated from an early period, but failed to attract
public attention for many years. At length, by unwearied industry, by
ingeniously attaching itself to exciting questions of the day, with
which it had no natural connection, it succeeded in making a lodgment in
the public mind, which, like a subject exhausted by long effort, is
exposed to the attack of some malignant fever, that in a normal
condition of vigor would have been resisted. The common belief that
slavery was the cause of civil war is incorrect, and Abolitionists are
not justified in claiming the glory and spoils of the conflict and in
pluming themselves as "choosers of the slain."

The vast immigration that poured into the country between the years 1840
and 1860 had a very important influence in directing the events of the
latter year. The numbers were too great to be absorbed and assimilated
by the native population. States in the West were controlled by German
and Scandinavian voters, while the Irish took possession of the seaboard
towns. Although the balance of party strength was not much affected by
these naturalized voters, the modes of political thought were seriously
disturbed, and a tendency was manifested to transfer exciting topics
from the domain of argument to that of violence.

The aged and feeble President, Mr. Buchanan, unfitted for troublou