cal, feel
themselves bound to use all efforts to effect the same object; while
those who are least opposed and hostile, regard it as a blot and a
stain on the character of what they call the Nation, and feel themselves
accordingly bound to give it no countenance or support. On the contrary,
the southern section regards the relation as one which cannot be
destroyed without subjecting the two races to the greatest calamity, and
the section to poverty, desolation, and wretchedness; and accordingly
they feel bound, by every consideration of interest and safety, to
defend it.

This hostile feeling on the part of the North toward the social
organization of the South long lay dormant, and it only required some
cause to act on those who felt most intensely that they were responsible
for its continuance, to call it into action. The increasing power of
this Government, and of the control of the northern section over all its
departments, furnished the cause. It was this which made the impression
on the minds of many, that there was little or no restraint to prevent
the Government from doing whatever it might choose to do. This was
sufficient of itself to put the most fanatical portion of the North in
action, for the purpose of destroying the existing relation between the
two races in the South.

The first organized movement toward it commenced in 1835. Then, for the
first time, societies were organized, presses established, lecturers
sent forth to excite the people of the North, and incendiary
publications scattered over the whole South, through the mail. The South
was thoroughly aroused. Meetings were held everywhere, and resolutions
adopted, calling upon the North to apply a remedy to arrest the
threatened evil, and pledging themselves to adopt measures for their
own protection, if it was not arrested. At the meeting of Congress,
petitions poured in from the North, calling upon Congress to abolish
slavery in the District of Columbia, and to prohibit, what they called,
the internal slave trade between the States--announcing at the same
time, that their ultimate object was to abolish slavery, not only in the
District, but in the States and throughout the Union. At this period,
the number engaged in the agitation was small, and possessed little or
no personal influence.

Neither party in Congress had, at that time, any sympathy with them or
their cause. The members of each party presented their petitions with
great reluctance.