th the contrast more vivid from year to year,
of the immeasurable superiority of free labor, has brought about a
growing aversion, in the South, to the free States, until with every
opportunity presented for pro-slavery extension, there has resulted the
present organized combination of slave States that have seceded from the
Union. When the mind goes back to the early formation of our Government
and the adoption of the Constitution, it will be found that an entire
revolution of opinion and feeling has taken place upon the subject of
slavery. From being regarded, as formerly, an evil by the South, it is
now proclaimed a blessing; from being viewed as opposed to the whole
spirit and teachings of the Bible, it is now thought to be of divine
sanction; from being regarded as opposed to political liberty, and the
elevation of the masses, the popular doctrine now is, that slavery is
the corner-stone of republican institutions, and essential for a manly
development of character upon the part of the white population. Formerly
slavery was looked upon as peculiarly pernicious to the diffusion of
wealth and the progress of national greatness; now the South is
intoxicated with ideas of the profitableness of slave labor, and the
power of King Cotton in controlling the exchanges of the world. And the
same change has taken place in relation to the African slave-trade.
While the laws of the land brand as piracy the capture of negroes upon
their native soil, and the transportation of them over the ocean, it is
nevertheless true that a mighty change in Southern opinion has taken
place in respect to the character of this business. It is not looked
upon with the same horror as formerly. It is apologized for, and in some
places openly defended as a measure indispensable to the prosperity of
the cotton States. As a natural inference from the theory of those who
hold to the views of Calhoun upon State sovereignty, the doctrine of
coercion in any form by the Federal Union is denounced, and to attempt
to put it in practice even so far as the protection of national property
is concerned, is construed into a war upon the South. Thus, while it is
perfectly proper for the slave States to steal, and plunder the nation
of its property, to leave the Union at their pleasure, and to do every
thing in their power to destroy the unity of the National Government, it
is made out that to attempt to recover the property of the Federal Union
is unjustifiable aggr