lavery question." General Jackson was no doubt right as to the
existence of a settled purpose to break up the Union, and to
establish a Southern Confederacy, as long ago as 1832. But why was
there such a purpose? On what ground did it stand?

Great political parties, whether sectional or otherwise, do not
come by accident, nor are they the invention of political intrigue.
A faction born of a clique may have some strength at one or two
elections, but the wisest political wire-workers can not, by merely
"taking thought," create a strong and permanent party. The result
of the Philadelphia Convention last summer probably taught this
truth to the authors of that movement. Great political movements
always have some adequate cause.

Now, on what did the conspirators who plotted the destruction of
the Union and the establishment of a Southern Confederacy rely? In
the first place, they taught a false construction of the National
constitution, which was miscalled State rights, the essential part
of which was that "any State of the Union might secede from the
Union whenever it liked." This doctrine was the instrument employed
to destroy the unity of the Nation. The fact which gave strength
and energy to those who employed this instrument was that in the
southern half of the Union, society, business, property, religion,
and law were all based on the proposition that over four millions
of our countrymen, capable of civilization and religion, were,
because of their race and color, "so far inferior that they had no
rights which the white man was bound to respect." The practice,
founded upon this denial of the Declaration of Independence,
protected by law and sanctioned by usage, was our great National
transgression, and was the cause of our great National calamity.

In a country where discussion was free, sooner or later, parties
were sure to be formed on the issues presented by the slaveholders.
The supporters of the Union and of human rights would band together
against the supporters of disunion and slavery. For many years
after the struggle really began, the issues were not clearly
defined, and neither party was able to occupy its true and final
position, or to rally to its standard all who were in fact its
friends. Old parties encumbered the ground. Men were