tand upon,
and I think also that the fact of their being a secret society will
rather hasten their end than otherwise.

The last point I shall allude to is the future prospects of the
Republic; a question which doubtless is veiled in much obscurity. The
black cloud of the South hangs perpetually over their heads, ever from
time to time threatening to burst upon them. In the Free States many
feel strongly the degradation of being forced to aid in the capture of
the fugitive slave; and the aversion to the repulsive task is increasing
rather than decreasing. The citizens have on many occasions risen in
masses against those who were executing the law, and the military have
been brought into collision with them in defending the authorities. The
dread of breaking up the Union alone prevents that clause being struck
out from the Constitution, by which they are compelled not merely to
restore but to hunt up the fugitive. The "Freesoilers" also feel
indignant at seeing their nation turning virgin soil into a land of
Slavery; the Nebraska Bill has strengthened that feeling considerably.
The Abolitionists are subject to constant fits of rabidity which
increase intensity with each successive attack. Thousands and thousands
of Northerns, who writhe under the feeling that their star-spangled
banner is crossed with the stripes of the slave, turn back to the
history of their country, and recalling to mind the glorious deeds that
their ancestors have accomplished under that flag, their hearts
respond--"The Union for ever!"

But perhaps the strongest feeling in the Republic which tends to keep
things quiet, is that the intelligence of the community of the North,
who are opposed both to slavery and to the fugitive law, foresee that if
those objects are only to be obtained at the price of separation from
the South, greater evils would probably accrue than those they are
anxious to remove. However peaceably a separation might be made in
appearance, it could never take place without the most bitter feelings
of animosity. Junius describes the intensity of the feeling, by saying,
"He hated me as much as if he had once been my friend;" and so it would
assuredly prove. Squabbles would breed quarrels, and quarrels would grow
into wars; the comparative harmony of a continent would be broken up,
and standing armies and fleets become as necessary in the New World as
they unfortunately are in the Old. If the South are determined to
perpetuate Slave