om
time to time to declare, as current exigencies may indicate,
what the Constitution was intended to secure and provide. Our
flag bears no new device. Upon its folds our principles are
written in living light; all proclaiming the constitutional
Union, justice, equality, and fraternity of our ocean-bound
domain, for a limitless future."

[Footnote 14: The words, "within the limits of its constitutional
powers," were subsequently added to this resolution, on the suggestion
of Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, with the approval of the mover.]

[Footnote 15: The speech of the author, delivered on the 7th of May
ensuing, in exposition of these resolutions, will be found in Appendix
F.]

[Footnote 16: In the Democratic Convention, which had been recently held
in Charleston. (See the ensuing chapter.)]

CHAPTER VII

A Retrospect.--Growth of Sectional Rivalry.--The Generosity of
Virginia.--Unequal Accessions of Territory.--The Tariff and its
Effects.--The Republican Convention of 1860, its Resolutions and
its Nominations.--The Democratic Convention at Charleston, its
Divisions and Disruption.--The Nominations at Baltimore.--The
"Constitutional-Union" Party and its Nominees.--An Effort in
Behalf of Agreement declined by Mr. Douglas.--The Election of
Lincoln and Hamlin.--Proceedings in the South.--Evidences of
Calmness and Deliberation.--Mr. Buchanan's Conservatism and the
weakness of his Position.--Republican Taunts.--The "New York
Tribune," etc.

When, at the close of the war of the Revolution, each of the thirteen
colonies that had been engaged in that contest was severally
acknowledged by the mother-country, Great Britain, to be a free and
independent State, the confederation of those States embraced an area so
extensive, with climate and products so various, that rivalries and
conflicts of interest soon began to be manifested. It required all the
power of wisdom and patriotism, animated by the affection engendered by
common sufferings and dangers, to keep these rivalries under restraint,
and to effect those compromises which it was fondly hoped would insure
the harmony and mutual good offices of each for the benefit of all. It
was in this spirit of patriotism and confidence in the continuance of
such abiding good will as would for all time preclude hostile
aggression, that Virginia ceded, for the use of the confederated States,
all that vast extent