t we
are fighting to establish a slave empire. Nothing could be further from
the truth. We are seeking to find that peace and tranquillity outside
the Union we have not been able to enjoy for the past forty years
inside. If the Southern States enact a Constitution of their own, they
will merely reaffirm the Constitution of their fathers with no essential
change. The North is leading a revolution, not the South.

"Not one man in twenty down here owns a slave. The South would never
fight to maintain Slavery. We know that it is doomed. We simply demand
as the sons of the men who created this Republic, equal rights under its
laws. If we fight, it will be for our independence as freemen that we
may maintain those rights."

"I must confess, sir," Socola replied with carefully modulated voice,
"that I fail to see as a student from without, why, if Slavery is doomed
and your leaders realize that fact, a compromise without bloodshed
would not be possible?"

"If Slavery were the only issue, it would be possible--although as a
proud and sensitive people we propose to be the judge of the time when
we see fit to emancipate our slaves. Abolition fanatics, whose fathers
sold their slaves to us, can't dictate to the South on such a _moral_
issue."

"I see--your pride is involved."

"Not merely pride--our self-respect. In 1831 before the Northern
Abolitionists began their crusade of violence there were one hundred
four abolition societies in America--ninety-eight of them in the South
and only six in the entire North. But the South grew rich. At the bottom
of our whole trouble lies the issue of sectional power. New England
threatened to secede from the Union when we added the Territory of
Louisiana to our domain, out of which we have carved seven great States.
Slavery at that time was not an issue. Sectional rivalry and sectional
hatred antedates even our fight against England for our freedom.
Washington was compelled to warn his soldiers when they entered New
England to avoid the appearance of offense. The Governor of
Massachusetts refused to call on George Washington, the first President
of the Union, when he visited Boston.

"And mark you, back of the sectional issue looms a vastly bigger
one--whether the Union is a Republic of republics or a Centralized
Empire. The millions of foreigners who have poured into the North from
Europe during the past thirty years, until their white population
outnumbers ours four to one, know noth