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to them in the
Federal Constitution, he spoke the following fervid language in reply to them, in one of the numbers of the ‘Federalist.’
‘Hearken not to the unnatural voice, which tells you, that the people of
America, knit together, as they are, by so many natural cords of affection, can no longer live together as members of the same family; can no longer continue mutual guardians of their mutual happiness. * * * No, my countrymen, shut your ears against this unhallowed language.
Shut your hearts against the poison which it conveys.
The kindred blood which flows in the veins of American citizens, the mingled blood which they have shed in defence of their sacred rights, consecrate their union, and excite horror at the idea of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies.’
Much of this feeling still lingered in the bosoms of Southern men. They were slow to awaken from this dream of delusion.
A rude and rough hand had been necessary to disenchant them.
But they were compelled, in spite of themselves, to realize the fact at last, that they had been deceived, and betrayed into the federal compact, that they might be made slaves.
Like an unhappy bride, upon whose brow the orange-wreath had been placed, by hands that promised tenderness, and protection, the
South had been rudely scorned, and repelled, and forced, in tears, and bitter lamentation, to retract the faith which she had plighted.
To carry still further our simile; like the deceived, and betrayed bride, the least show of relenting, and tenderness was sufficient to induce the
South to forgive, and to endeavor to forget.
The history of our unhappy connection with the North is full of compromises, and apparent reconciliations—prominent among which was the compromise of 1833, growing out of the nullification of South Carolina, on the tariff question; and the compromise of 1850, in which it was promised, that Congress should not interfere with the question of slavery, either in the States, or Territories.
The South, like the too credulous bride, accepted these evidences of returning tenderness, in good faith; the North, like the coarse and brutal husband, whose selfishness was superior to his sense of justice, withdrew them, almost as soon as made.
The obnoxious laws which had
