ance,
which perhaps only refrain from seceding for the better protection of
those that have done so, and whose present role consists in preventing
all repression, while its future role will be to trammel all progress by
the continued threat of joining the Southern Confederacy?

These are serious obstacles; yet I have not pointed out the most serious
of all--the intense and sincere repugnance which many Northern people,
though declared adversaries of slavery, experience towards measures
that are calculated to provoke slave insurrections, and endanger the
safety of the planters. I must acknowledge that the patience of the
strong seems here rather more laudable than the so much vaunted audacity
of the weak, who count on this patience, and know that they can be
arrogant without much risk.

The second pretext that is audaciously brought forward to solicit our
good will towards the South, is that it has just ameliorated the Federal
institutions. Let us ask in what consists this pretended amelioration?
The South has not feared to write in set terms, in its fundamental law,
what none before it ever dared write, _the constitutional guarantee of
slavery_. Slavery, in accordance with the Constitution of the South, can
neither be suppressed nor assailed. Slavery will be the holy ark to be
regarded with respect from afar off, the corner-stone which all are
forbidden to touch. By the side of this, the South ostentatiously
proclaims freedom of speech, of the press, of discussion in every form!
Men shall be free to speak, but on condition of not touching, nearly or
remotely, on any subject connected with slavery, (and every thing is
connected with it in the South.) They shall be free to print, but on
condition of giving no writing whatever to the public from which may be
inferred the unity of mankind, the sanctity of family ties, the great
principles, in fact, which the "patriarchal system" throws overboard.
They shall be free to discuss, but on condition of not disturbing this
institution, impatient by nature, and still more so in future, now that
it feels itself hemmed in and threatened on all sides. It will be by
itself alone the whole Constitution of the South; this one article will
devour the rest; in default of legislatures and courts, the Southern
populace know how to give force to the guarantee of slavery, and to
restrain freedom of speech, of the press, and of discussion.

It is true that adroit patrons of the South Carolini