y high price, it follows that motives of interest oppose the
adoption of the destructive system of Cuba. Other higher motives also
oppose it, I am certain; and I am far from comparing the system of
Louisiana or the Carolinas to that which prevails in the Spanish island.
We exaggerate nothing, however; and whatever may be the points of
difference, we may hold it as certain that those of resemblance are
still more numerous: the tree is the same, it cannot but bear the same
fruits.

It must be affirmed, besides, that slavery is peculiarly odious on that
soil where the equality of mankind has been inscribed with so much eclat
at the head of a celebrated constitution. Liberty imposes obligations;
there is at the bottom of the human conscience something which will
always cause slavery to be more scandalous at Washington than at Havana.
What happens in the United States will be denounced more violently, more
loudly, than what happens in Brazil; and this is right.

This said, I pause: I have not the slightest wish to introduce here a
perfectly superfluous discussion on the principle and the consequences
of slavery. I know all with which Americans reproach us Europeans. It
was we, Frenchmen, Englishmen, Spaniards, Hollanders, who imposed on
them this institution which we take delight in combating--this
inheritance which we anathematize! Before attacking slavery, we would
do well to turn our attention to our own crimes--to the oppression of
the weak in our manufactories, for instance! But these retaliatory
arguments have the fault of proving nothing at all. We will leave them;
we have said enough on the nature of American slavery; let us proceed to
the special subject of our work.

CHAPTER II.

WHERE THE UNITED STATES WERE DRIFTING BEFORE THE ELECTION OF MR. LINCOLN.

I have spoken of the great perils which the United States encountered
before the election of Mr. Lincoln. The time has come to enter into some
details in justification of this proposition, which must have appeared
strange at first sight, but the terms of which I have weighed well: if
the slavery party had again achieved a victory, the United States would
have gone to ruin. Here are the facts:

Formerly, there was but one opinion among Americans on the subject of
slavery. The Southerners may have considered it as a necessary evil; in
any case, they considered it as an evil. Carolina herself nobly resisted
its introduction upon her soil; other colonies d