or disseminating the
Bible--establishing missions, distributing tracts--and of establishing
presses for the publication of tracts, newspapers, and periodicals, with
a view of diffusing religious information--and for the support of their
respective doctrines and creeds. All this combined contributed
greatly to strengthen the bonds of the Union. The ties which held each
denomination together formed a strong cord to hold the whole Union
together, but, powerful as they were, they have not been able to resist
the explosive effect of slavery agitation.

The first of these cords which snapped, under its explosive force, was
that of the powerful Methodist Episcopal Church. The numerous and strong
ties which held it together, are all broken, and its unity is gone. They
now form separate churches; and, instead of that feeling of attachment
and devotion to the interests of the whole church which was formerly
felt, they are now arrayed into two hostile bodies, engaged in
litigation about what was formerly their common property.

The next cord that snapped was that of the Baptists--one of the largest
and most respectable of the denominations. That of the Presbyterian is
not entirely snapped, but some of its strands have given way. That
of the Episcopal Church is the only one of the four great Protestant
denominations which remains unbroken and entire.

The strongest cord, of a political character, consists of the many and
powerful ties that have held together the two great parties which have,
with some modifications, existed from the beginning of the Government.
They both extended to every portion of the Union, and strongly
contributed to hold all its parts together. But this powerful cord has
fared no better than the spiritual. It resisted, for a long time, the
explosive tendency of the agitation, but has finally snapped under its
force--if not entirely, in a great measure. Nor is there one of the
remaining cords which has not been greatly weakened. To this extent the
Union has already been destroyed by agitation, in the only way it can
be, by sundering and weakening the cords which bind it together.

If the agitation goes on, the same force, acting with increased
intensity, as has been shown, will finally snap every cord, when nothing
will be left to hold the States together except force. But, surely, that
can, with no propriety of language, be called a Union, when the only
means by which the weaker is held connected with the s