e administered
uniformly by the friends of slavery. Secondly, that the administration
of the government would be controlled by the ideas of the free States.

These conclusions would have been sufficiently unwelcome to the Southern
leaders, if they had had no purpose or policy beyond the maintenance of
slavery where it exists; but they had already determined to extend the
institution southward over Mexico and Central America, and they knew
full well the necessity of destroying the Union and the government
before such an enterprise could be undertaken with any hope of success.
Hence they denied the right of the majority to rule unless they ruled in
obedience to the will of the minority. Thus the slaveholders came
naturally and unavoidably to the denial of the fundamental principle of
the government; and, having denied the principle, there remained no
reason why they should not undertake the overthrow of the government
itself. And thus the conspiracy and the rebellion sprung naturally and
unavoidably from the institution of slavery.

Further, slavery is the support of the conspiracy and the rebellion both
in Europe and America. However disastrous slavery may be to the mass of
the whites, it affords to the governing class the opportunity and means
for constant attention to public affairs.

In all our history the North has felt the force of this advantage. As a
general thing, a northern member occupies a seat in Congress for one or
two terms, and then his place is taken by an untried man. And even
during his term of service, his attention is given in part to his
private affairs, or to plans and schemes designed to secure a
re-election. The Southern member takes his seat with a conscious
independence due to the fact that his slaves are making crops upon his
plantation, and that his re-election does not depend upon the hot breath
of the multitude. He enjoys a long and independent experience in the
public service; and he thus acquires a power to serve his party, his
country or his section, which is disproportionate even to his
experience. A good deal of the consideration which the South enjoys
abroad, and especially in England, is due to the fact that in the South
a governing class is recognized, which corresponds to the governing
classes wherever an aristocracy or monarchism exists. By a community of
ideas the South commands the sympathy, and enjoys the confidence and
secret support of the enemies of democracy the world over