re general and less obscure. In fact, the old cry of
Disunion has lost its terrors, if it ever had any, at the North. The
South itself seems to have become alarmed at its own scarecrow, and
speakers there are beginning to assure their hearers that the election
of Mr. Lincoln will do them no harm. We entirely agree with them, for
it will save them from themselves.

To believe any organized attempt by the Republican party to disturb
the existing internal policy of the Southern States possible
presupposes a manifest absurdity. Before anything of the kind could
take place, the country must be in a state of forcible revolution. But
there is no premonitory symptom of any such convulsion, unless we
except Mr. Yancey, and that gentleman's throwing a solitary somerset
will hardly turn the continent head over heels. The administration of
Mr. Lincoln will be conservative, because no government is ever
intentionally otherwise, and because power never knowingly undermines
the foundation on which it rests. All that the Free States demand is
that influence in the councils of the nation to which they are justly
entitled by their population, wealth, and intelligence. That these
elements of prosperity have increased more rapidly among them than in
communities otherwise organized, with greater advantages of soil,
climate, and mineral productions, is certainly no argument that they
are incapable of the duties of efficient and prudent administration,
however strong a one it may be for their endeavoring to secure for the
Territories the single superiority that has made them what they are.
The object of the Republican party is not the abolition of African
slavery, but the utter extirpation of dogmas which are the logical
sequence of the attempts to establish its righteousness and wisdom,
and which would serve equally well to justify the enslavement of every
white man unable to protect himself. They believe that slavery is a
wrong morally, a mistake politically, and a misfortune practically,
wherever it exists; that it has nullified our influence abroad and
forced us to compromise with our better instincts at home; that it has
perverted our government from its legitimate objects, weakened the
respect for the laws by making them the tools of its purposes, and
sapped the faith of men in any higher political morality than interest
or any better statesmanship than chicane. They mean in every lawful
way to hem it within its present limits.

We ar