If, then, it might be asked, slavery ran no risk of unconditional
abolition, why should the Southern political leaders have acted with
such extraordinary precipitation? Why, in a country in which, to all
appearances, the two sections had been cordially united, should the
advent to power of one political party have been the signal for so
much disquietude on the part of the other? Had the presidential seat
been suddenly usurped by an abolitionist tyrant of the type of
Robespierre the South could hardly have exhibited greater
apprehension. Few Americans denied that a permanent Union, such as
had been designed by the founders of the Republic, was the best
guarantee of prosperity and peace. And yet because a certain number
of misguided if well-meaning men clamoured for emancipation, the
South chose to bring down in ruin the splendid fabric which their
forefathers had constructed. In thus refusing to trust the good sense
and fair dealing of the Republicans, it would seem, at a superficial
glance, that the course adopted by the members of the new
Confederacy, whether legitimate or not, could not possibly be
justified.* (* I have been somewhat severely taken to task for
attaching the epithets "misguided," "unpractical," "fanatical," to
the abolitionists.
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