revious, in favor of a 'peaceable separation;'
but--thanks to the blind impetuosity of 'Southern chivalry'--with the
fall of Sumter, and the inauguration of the war, the only hope for this
Union revived! Wicked or foolish people have said that the bombardment
of Sumter was the death-knell of the Union;--we believe it was just the
reverse;--as the turning point of a great crisis, it signalled the birth
of a new era. It threw the trimming and temporizing politicians of the
North off their old tracks, and tore their platforms from under them;
their antipathies were suddenly neutralized; their prejudices vanished;
they were unexpectedly floating anew on the sea of public sentiment; the
opinions of influential men were subject to a new ordeal; and the views
of many an entire clique, faction, and party were revolutionized in a
day. Northern pride was wounded; Anglo-Saxon energy was aroused; there
was a demand for determination and 'pluck,' and the result is known to
all. Secession, in the Free States, was suddenly transformed; there was
a grand uprising for the vindication of a great principle of political
development; and nearly a million of armed men of all parties are now in
the field; and God grant that they may be able to overcome the abettors
of a barbarian policy!

But if the cause of patriotism and civilization should fail in this
struggle, what will be the consequences? Standing armies, stronger
governments, leagues, and ruptures, internecine wars, European
interference. Let this division of our once happy country be consummated
now, and there can be no reunion for ages. The Southern nation
recognized by European Governments, treaties and alliances formed, and
we are involved in European complications through which the separation
will be perpetuated. And this disunion made permanent, others will
develop themselves, and in time be consummated. It is the interest of
the reigning dynasties in Europe to see our nation dismembered: the
South would be our rival; and we should not have power to enforce union
hereafter. When a politico-geographical weakness is developed along the
Rocky Mountains, the Pacific States will not be without ambitious
demagogues to attempt the establishment of an independent organization
on the Pacific. Another fracture may be developed along the Alleghanies,
and the great agricultural West may set up for itself among the nations.
New England may be seized with a like madness, and unworthily aspire