indeed "a nurse's tale," if the final victory does not
rest with the party of unity and discipline. While the monopoly of
cotton exists with the South, and it is cultivated exclusively by native
African labor, the national government will as surely tend, in spite of
all momentarily disturbing influences, towards a united South as the
needle to the pole. But even if the government were permanently wrested
from its control, would the evil be remedied? Surely not. The disease
which is sapping the foundations of our liberty is not eradicated
because its workings are forced inward. What remedy is that which leaves
a false and pernicious policy--a policy in avowed war with the whole
spirit of our civilization and in open hostility to our whole experiment
as a government--in full working, almost a religious creed with near
one-half of our people? As a remedy, this would be but a quack medicine
at the best. The cure must be a more thorough one. The remedy we must
look for--the only one which can meet the exigencies of the case--must
be one which will restore to the South the attributes of a democracy. It
must cause our Southern brethren of their own free will to reverse their
steps,--to return from their divergence. It must teach them a purer
Christianity, a truer philosophy, a sounder economy. It must lead them
to new paths of industry. It must gently persuade them that a true
national prosperity is not the result of a total abandonment of
the community to the culture of one staple. It must make them
self-dependent, so that no longer they shall have to import their
corn from the Northwest, their lumber-men and hay from Maine, their
manufactures from Massachusetts, their minerals from Pennsylvania, and
to employ the shipping of the world. Finally, it must make it impossible
for one overgrown interest to plunge the whole community unresistingly
into frantic rebellion or needless war. They must learn that a
well-conditioned state is, so far as may be, perfect in itself,--and,
to be perfect in itself, must be intelligent and free. When these
lessons are taught to the South, then will their divergence cease,
and they will enter upon a new path of enjoyment, prosperity, and
permanence. The world at present pays them an annual bribe of some
$65,000,000 to learn none of these lessons. Their material interest
teaches them to bow down to the shrine of King Cotton. Here, then, lies
the remedy with the disease. The prosperity of the countr