t remove it. At one time her deserted
villages were attributed to the undue patronage bestowed upon settlers
on the public lands: at another, the tariff is the cause of her
desolation. Slavery, the real root of the evil, is carefully kept out
of sight, as a "delicate subject," which must not be alluded to. It is
a singular fact in the present age of the world, that delicate and
indelicate subjects mean precisely the same thing.

If any proof were wanted, that _slavery_ is the cause of all this
discord, it is furnished by Eastern and Western Virginia. They belong to
the same State, and are protected by the same laws; but in the former,
the slaveholding interest is very strong--while in the latter, it is
scarcely any thing. The result is, warfare, and continual complaints,
and threats of separation. There are no such contentions between the
different sections of _free_ States; simply because slavery, the
exciting cause of strife, does not exist among them.

The constant threat of the slaveholding States is the dissolution of the
Union; and they have repeated it with all the earnestness of sincerity,
though there are powerful reasons why it would not be well for them to
venture upon that untried state of being. In one respect only, are these
threats of any consequence--they have familiarized the public mind with
the subject of separation, and diminished the reverence, with which the
free States have hitherto regarded the Union.

The farewell advice of Washington operated like a spell upon the hearts
and consciences of his countrymen. For many, many years after his death,
it would almost have been deemed blasphemy to speak of separation as a
possible event. I would that it still continued so! But it is now an
every-day occurrence, to hear politicians, of all parties, conjecturing
what system would be pursued by different sections of the country, in
case of a dissolution of the Union. This evil is likewise chargeable
upon slavery. The threats of separation have _uniformly_ come from the
slaveholding States; and on many important measures the free States have
been awed into acquiescence by their respect for the Union.

Mr. Adams, in the able and manly report before alluded to, says: "It
cannot be denied that in a community spreading over a large extent of
territory, and politically founded upon the principles proclaimed in the
Declaration of Independence, but differing so widely in the elements of
their social condition, t