cal
policy of the Slave Power through these last forty years is this
endeavor to capture the Senate of the United States, and hold it, by
bringing in a superior _number_ of Slave States. So well did it play
this card that, till 1850, it maintained an equality of senatorial
representation, and, by the help of Northern allies and the superior
political dexterity of the aristocracy, controlled our foreign policy;
kept its own representatives in all the great courts of Europe; made
peace or war at will; managed the Executive through a veto on his
appointments; and endeavored to fill the Supreme Court with men in favor
of its policy, while the House of Representatives never was able to pass
a measure without its consent. Under the past forty years' reign of the
Slave Power, the Senate of the United States has been a greater farce in
the republic than the crown and House of Lords in the British empire.
Indeed, so well did this aristocracy play its part, _that it was
supposed by the whole world to be the American Government_; and the news
that the people of the United States had refused, in 1860, to register
its behests, was received abroad with the same astonishment and
indignation as if there had been a revolt of the subjects of any
European nation against their anointed rulers.

But spite of these great advantages at the outset--spite of its
incredible political activity and admirable concentration, the slave
aristocracy was finally defeated by the people. How this was done is the
most interesting narrative in modern history. Never has the intrinsic
superiority of a democratic over an aristocratic order of society been
so magnificently vindicated as during the last forty years of our
national career. During that period the free portion of this Union has
grown to an overwhelming superiority over the slave portion, and
compelled the slaveholders to draw the sword to save themselves from
material and providential destruction.

This period of forty years may be regarded as that of the _consolidation
of the people_. The first thirty years of it was the era of their
_industrial and social consolidation_; the last ten years has been the
period of their _political union against the Slave Power_.

An aristocracy always exhibits the uttermost pitch of human policy in
its career, and amazes and outwits society by its marvellous display of
executive ability. But the people are always moved by great supernatural
forces that are beyon