e made upon us, if we yield now
under the threats of a mob,--for men acting under passion or terror, or
both, are a mob, no matter what their numbers and intelligence.

A dissolution of the Union would be a terrible thing, but not so
terrible as an acquiescence in the theory that Property is the only
interest that binds men together in society, and that its protection
is the highest object of human government. Nothing could well be more
solemn than the thought of a disruption of our great and prosperous
Republic. Even if peaceful, the derangement consequent upon it would
cause incalculable suffering and disaster. Already the mere threat
of it, assisted by the efforts of interested persons, has caused a
commercial panic. But would it be wisdom in the Free States to put
themselves at the mercy of such a panic whenever the whim took South
Carolina to be discontented? That would be the inevitable result of a
craven spirit now. Let the Republican party be mild and forbearing,--for
the opportunity to be so is the best reward of victory, and taunts and
recriminations belong to boys; but, above all, let them be manly. The
moral taint of once submitting to be bullied is a scrofula that will
never out of the character.

We do not believe that the danger is so great as it appears. Rumor is
like one of those multiplying-mirrors that make a mob of shadows out
of one real object. The interests of three-fifths of the Slave-holding
States are diametrically opposed to secession; so are those of
five-sixths of the people of the seceding States, if they did but know
it. The difficulties in the way of organizing a new form of government
are great, almost insuperable; the expenses enormous. As the public
burdens grow heavier, the lesson of resistance and rebellion will find
its aptest scholars in the non-slave-owning majority who will be paying
taxes for the support of the very institution that has made and keeps
them poor. Men are not long in arriving at just notions of the value of
what they pay for, especially when it is for other people. Taxes are a
price that people are slowest to pay for a cat in a bag. If matters are
allowed to take their own course for a little longer, the inevitable
reaction is sure to set in. The Hartford Convention gave more uneasiness
to the Government and the country than the present movement in the
South, but the result of it was the ruin of the Federal Party, and not
of the Federal Union.

Even if the sece