forbearing, still
hoping, still striving for peace and union, we waited until a sectional
President, nominated by a sectional convention, elected by a sectional
vote--and that the vote of a minority of the people--was about to be
inducted into office, under the warning of his own distinct announcement
that the Union could not permanently endure "half slave and half free";
meaning thereby that it could not continue to exist in the condition in
which it was formed and its Constitution adopted. The leader of his
party, who was to be the chief of his Cabinet, was the man who had first
proclaimed an "irrepressible conflict" between the North and the South,
and who had declared that abolitionism, having triumphed in the
Territories, would proceed to the invasion of the States. Even then the
Southern people did not finally despair until the temper of the
triumphant party had been tested in Congress and found adverse to any
terms of reconciliation consistent with the honor and safety of all
parties.

No alternative remained except to seek the security out of the Union
which they had vainly tried to obtain within it. The hope of our people
may be stated in a sentence. It was to escape from injury and strife in
the Union, to find prosperity and peace out of it. The mode and
principles of their action will next be presented.

[Footnote 27: "There was but little necessity in those times, nor long
after, for an act of Congress to authorize the recovery of fugitive
slaves. The laws of the free States and, still more, the force of public
opinion were the owners' best safeguards. Public opinion was against the
abduction of slaves; and, if any one was seduced from his owner, it was
done furtively and secretly, without show or force, and as any other
moral offense would be committed. State laws favored the owner, and to a
greater extent than the act of Congress did or could. In Pennsylvania
there was an act (it was passed in 1780, and only repealed in 1847)
discriminating between the traveler and sojourner and the permanent
resident, allowing the former to remain six months in the State before
his slaves would become subject to the emancipation laws; and, in the
case of a Federal officer, allowing as much more time as his duties
required him to remain. New York had the same act, only varying in time,
which was nine months. While these two acts were in force, and supported
by public opinion, the traveler and sojourner was safe with hi