struck _at the life of the nation_; and in self-defence the nation
must strike down slavery. If our Government is only the compact of a
confederation, then not only is there no need, but we have not the right
to adopt the proposed amendment. For by it an institution fostered by
the legislation of some of the States would be overthrown, in defiance
of that legislation. But the right, or constitutional power, of itself
implies the necessity to adopt the amendment whenever the occasion for
it may arise. The right is made part of the Constitution: the necessity,
or expediency, must be determined by circumstances outside of the
Constitution. We contend that circumstances at present point to the
complete extinguishment of slavery as the political necessity of the
period. The time for timid counsels is past. The day of tenderness for
Southern prejudices is gone by.

Coming, then, directly to the root of the matter, we lay down this first
proposition:

1. The proposed amendment finds its justification and highest warrant,
as a measure of political reform, in the _fact of the Southern
Confederacy_. This fact, pure and simple, is the controlling and
abundant necessity for it. We need not take the ground that slavery is
the cause of the rebellion: though to the philosophical inquirer it
certainly seems difficult to reach any other conclusion. We Americans
are so much under the influence of partisan prejudices, so surrounded
with the complications of present and past political issues, that for us
a dispassionate study of this point is almost, or quite, impossible. But
the investigations of impartial and unprejudiced foreigners seem
remarkably to concur in designating slavery as the moving cause of the
war. We may cite, for example, the recent profound review of the slave
power by Professor Cairnes. And surely no person who pauses to reflect
upon the inherent nature of the slave system as a labor basis of
society, will venture to deny that such a principle is at war with the
elemental principles of our Government. No person will deny that slavery
depreciates the dignity of labor, which is the pride and boast of our
institutions. Nor does it need any but the logic of common sense to
point out the incongruity of a free government resting, even partially,
upon a basis of slave labor.

But all this may be waived. We may discard all these considerations.
Perhaps it is wise to discard them. Let us forget our differences of
political op