The Continental Monthly, Vol I, Issue I, January 1862 | Page 3

was specially set forth in
the programme entrusted to the exclusive few, that those States were to
remain in the 'Old Union' as a fender between the 'South' and the free
States; always ready in Congress to stand up for a good fugitive slave
law, and various other little privileges, and prepared to threaten
secession if Congress did not yield just what was demanded. In this
way the free States would be perpetually entangled by embarrassing
questions, and the new empire left to pursue unrestricted its dazzling
plans of conquest and occupation.
A comfortable arrangement truly, and one very easy of
accomplishment,--provided the free States would consent.

'Certainly they will consent. Trade, commerce, manufactures and
mechanical pursuits, occupy them exclusively, and these promise better
results under the new order of things than under the old. As to
patriotism or public spirit, the North have neither. The people do not
even resent a personal affront, much less will they go to war for an
idea.'
So reasoned the South.
'It is not possible those fellows down yonder can be in earnest. They are
only playing the game of "brag." In their hearts they are really devoted
to the Union. They have not the least idea of separating from us.'
So reasoned the North.
Neither side thought the other in earnest. Both were mistaken.
Negro slaves were introduced into Virginia as early as 1620. In the year
1786 England employed in the slave-trade 130 ships, and that year
alone seized and carried from their homes into slavery 42,000 blacks.
Wilberforce experienced many defeats through the influence of the
slave-trade interest, but at length carried his point, and the trade was
finally abolished in England in 1807,--not a very remote period
certainly. The same year witnessed the suppression of the slave-trade in
our own country; but, unfortunately, not the abolition of slave-holding.
All our readers understand how, when the Constitution of the United
States was adopted, slavery was regarded entirely as a domestic matter,
left to each of the States to manage and dispose of as each saw fit. But
at that period there was no dissenting voice to the proposition, that,
abstractly considered, slave-holding was wrong; yet the owner of a
large number of negroes could honestly declare he was himself
innocent of the first transgression, and ignorant of any practicable way
to get rid of the evil,--for it was counted an evil. When the rice, cotton
and sugar fields demanded larger developments, it was counted a
necessary evil. Congress was called on for more guards and pledges,
and gave them freely. It disclaimed any power to interfere with what
had now become an institution; it had no power to do so. It went further,
and by legislation sought fully to protect the slave-holding States in the

perfect enjoyment of their rights under the Constitution.
Meanwhile many wise and good men, North and South, who regarded
slavery as a blight and a curse upon the States where it existed,
endeavored by all the means in their power to prepare the way for
gradual emancipation. It seemed at one time that they would succeed in
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky. In Virginia, an
emancipation act failed of passing by a single vote.
About the time that Calhoun was spreading the heresy of his
state-rights doctrine in South Carolina and taking his 'logical ground'
on the slavery question, a class, then almost universally branded as
fanatics, but whose proportions have since very largely swelled, arose
at the North, which were a match for the South Carolina senator with
his own weapons. Each laid hold of an extreme point and maintained it.
We refer to the Abolitionists of thirty years ago, under Garrison,
Tappan & Co. These people seized on a single idea, exclusive of any
other, and went nearly mad over it. Apparently blind to the evils around
them, which were close at hand, within their own doors, swelling
perhaps in their own hearts, they were suddenly 'brought to see' the 'vile
enormity' of slave-holding. Their argument was very simple. 'Slavery is
an awful sin in the sight of God. Slave-holders are awful sinners. We of
the North, having made a covenant with such sinners, are equally guilty
of the sin of slavery with them. Slavery must be immediately abolished.
Fiat justitia ruat coelum. Better that the Republic fall than continue in
the unholy league one day.' These men were ready to 'dissolve the
Union,' to disintegrate the nation, to blast the hopes of perhaps millions
of persons over the world, who were watching with anxious hearts the
experiment of our government, trembling lest it should fail.
In South Carolina John C. Calhoun was ready to do the same. And thus
extremes met.
Meanwhile the Southern conspirators pursued their labors. Gathering
up the reports of the