offered in South Carolina, and
the country stood aghast at the prospect of civil war. Here again Henry
Clay's eloquence saved the day. He proposed the measure of gradually
reducing the tariff through a period of ten years till it would provide
only for the expenses of the government. This removed the cause of
trouble, so South Carolina rescinded her act of nullification.

The South had continually yielded up portions of her immense territory
to the Union, and thus far there had been an equal balance of power in
the legislative voting of the two sections. The annexation of Texas
raised a stormy conflict. The South hoped for a division of this large
tract into five slave states. The North, as usual, wished to obtain
the lion's share. In 1835 Arkansas was admitted a slave State. In 1836
Michigan came in with free labor. After the Mexican War the retrospect
showed that since the Declaration of Independence the North had
possessed herself of nearly three-fourths of all the territory added
to the original states. She fought the annexation of Texas because it
would be slave-holding. In 1845 Florida was admitted with slave labor.
In the same year Texas came in as a slave State. In 1846 Iowa came in
with free labor; in 1848 Wisconsin, also free. When California applied
for admission in 1850 there was such bitter antagonism that it was
universally feared the Southern States would secede from the Union.
Should she be a free state there would then be no other State to offset
it with slaves. It was finally decided to leave the choice to California
herself. Henry Clay was again at hand to effect a satisfactory
compromise. In a former paper I have referred to the Fugitive Slave Law,
whereby runaway slaves should be captured and sent back to their owners.
But about a decade before the war, a great Abolition wave had begun
to flood the country. Thurlow Weed, William Lloyd Garrison, Parson
Brownlow, John Brown and Mrs. Stowe, by the power of tongue and pen
and printing press, endeavored to stir up the North to the pitch of
fanatical desperation, and the slaves to revolt against their masters.
It was not for the sake of the Union. Perish the Union, if only the
slaves were freed. Drive out the Southern States if they refused to
abolish them. Their acts and their words were the extreme of anarchy
and tyranny.

Jealousy had long formed a vindictive element in their breasts. And how
could the two sections be wholly fraternal? They had come