COLN.

In the election of November, 1860, Mr. Lincoln received 1,857,610 votes,
and the combined opposition 2,787,780 votes, the successful candidate
being in a minority of nearly a million votes. The new House of
Representatives was Democratic, and the Senate had not been won over to
the antislavery party. But the trend of Northern politics was
unmistakably toward the extinction of slavery. As Mr. Lincoln said in
his letter to Mr. Stephens: "You think slavery is right and ought to be
extended, while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. There,
I suppose, is the rub." Mr. Buchanan's message to Congress was full of
conservative counsel, but the Northern pressure was too strong. His
Cabinet was soon dissolved, and the places of Southern men were taken by
Northern representatives, whose influence was not assuring to Southern
people.

Just before his departure for Congress Mr. Toombs, in response to an
invitation, wrote a conservative letter to his constituents in Danburg,
Wilkes County, Ga. It bore date of December 13, 1860. The General
Assembly of Georgia had unanimously passed a resolution calling for a
State convention to meet on January 16, 1861. Mr. Toombs took the ground
that separation, sooner or later, was inevitable. The time when the
remedy was to be applied was the point of difference. He opposed delay
longer than March 4, but declared that he would certainly yield that
point "to earnest and honest men who are with me in principle but are
more hopeful of redress from the aggressors than I am. To go beyond
March 4, we should require such preliminary measures to be taken as
would, with reasonable certainty, lead to adequate redress, and in the
meantime, we should take care that the delay gives no advantage to the
adversary." Mr. Toombs declared that he believed the policy of Mr.
Lincoln was to ultimately abolish slavery in the States, by driving
slavery out of the Territories, by abrogating Fugitive-slave laws, and
by protecting those who stole slaves and incited insurrections. The only
way to remedy these evils, in the Union, was by such constitutional
amendments as can be neither resisted nor evaded. "If the Republican
party votes for the amendments, we may postpone final action. This will
be putting planks where they are good for something. A cartload of new
planks in the party platform will not redress one wrong nor protect one
right."

As strong and unmistakable as this letter seemed, the grea