the
demands of a market which represented the wants of the civilized
world. In the decade between 1850 and 1860 the wealth of the South
had increased three thousand millions of dollars, and this not from
an overvalution of slaves, but from increased cultivation of land,
the extension of railways, and all the aids and appliances of vast
agricultural enterprises. Georgia alone had increased in wealth
over three hundred millions of dollars, no small proportion of
which was from commercial and manufacturing ventures that had proved
extremely profitable. There was never a community of the face of
the globe whose condition so little justified revolution as that
of the slave States in the year 1860. Indeed, it was a sense of
strength born of exceptional prosperity which led them to their
rash adventure of war.

THE FIRST EFFORT AT SECESSION.

It would however be an injustice to the People of the South to say
that in November, 1860, they desired, unanimously, or by a majority,
or on the part of any considerable minority, to engage in a scheme
of violent resistance to the National authority. The slave-holders
were in the main peacefully disposed, and contented with the
situation. But slavery as an economical institution and slavery
as a political force were quite distinct. Those who viewed it and
used it merely as a system of labor, naturally desired peace and
dreaded commotion. Those who used it as a political engine for
the consolidation of political power had views and ambitions
inconsistent with the plans and hopes of law-abiding citizens. It
was only by strenuous effort on the part of the latter class that
an apparent majority of the Southern people committed themselves
to the desperate design of destroying the National Government.

The first effort at secession was made, as might have been expected,
by South Carolina. She did not wait for the actual result of the
election, but early in October, on the assumption of Lincoln's
success, began a correspondence with the other Cotton States. The
general tenor of the responses did not indicate a decided wish or
purpose to separate from the Union. North Carolina was positively
unwilling to take any hasty step. Louisiana, evidently remembering
the importance and value of the Mississippi River and of its numerous
tributaries to her commercial prosperity, expressed an utter
disinclination to separate from the North-West.