But, perhaps, the most extraordinary part of your letter is your bold
denunciation of "_the shameful compromises_" of our Constitution, and
your earnest recommendation to those you address to overthrow or
revolutionize it. In so many words you say to them, "_you must either
separate yourselves_ from all political connection with the South, and
make your own laws; or if you do not choose such a separation, you must
break up _the political ascendency which the Southern have had for so
long a time over the Northern States_. The italics in this, as in all
other quotations, are your own. It is well for those who circulate your
letter here, that the Constitution you denounce requires an overt act to
constitute treason. It may be tolerated for an American by birth, to use
on his own soil the freedom of speaking and writing which is guaranteed
him, and abuse our Constitution, our Union, and our people. But that a
foreigner should use such seditious language, in a circular letter
addressed to a portion of the American people, is a presumption well
calculated to excite the indignation of all. The party known in this
country as the abolition party has long since avowed the sentiments you
express, and adopted the policy you enjoin. At the recent presidential
election, they gave over 62,000 votes for their own candidate, and held
the balance of power in two of the largest States--wanting but little of
doing it in several others. In the last four years their vote has
quadrupled. Should the infatuation continue, and their vote increase in
the same ratio for the next four years, it will be as large as the vote
of the _actual slaveholders_ of the Union. Such a prospect is,
doubtless, extremely gratifying to you. It gives hope of a contest on
such terms as may insure the downfall of slavery or our Constitution.
The South venerates the Constitution, and is prepared to stand by it
forever, _such as it came from the hands of our fathers_; to risk every
thing to defend and maintain it _in its integrity_. But the South is
under no such delusion as to believe that it derives any _peculiar_
protection from the Union. On the contrary, it is well known we incur
_peculiar danger_, and that we bear far more than our porportion of the
burdens. The apprehension is also fast fading away that any of the
dreadful consequences commonly predicted will necessarily result from a
separation of the States. And _come what may_, we are firmly resolved
that OUR S