the special subject of our work.




CHAPTER II.

WHERE THE UNITED STATES WERE DRIFTING BEFORE THE ELECTION OF MR. LINCOLN.


I have spoken of the great perils which the United States encountered
before the election of Mr. Lincoln. The time has come to enter into some
details in justification of this proposition, which must have appeared
strange at first sight, but the terms of which I have weighed well: if
the slavery party had again achieved a victory, the United States would
have gone to ruin. Here are the facts:

Formerly, there was but one opinion among Americans on the subject of
slavery. The Southerners may have considered it as a necessary evil; in
any case, they considered it as an evil. Carolina herself nobly resisted
its introduction upon her soil; other colonies did the same. Washington
inscribed the wish in his will that so baleful an institution might be
promptly suppressed. To pen up slavery, to prevent its extension, to
reduce it to the _rôle_ of a local and temporary fact, which it was
determined to restrain still more--such was the sentiment which
prevailed in the South, as in the North. And, in fact, slavery was ere
long abolished in the majority of the States composing the Union.
To-day, slavery has become a beneficent, evangelical institution, the
corner-stone of republics, the foundation of all liberties; it has
become a source of blessings for the blacks as for the whites. We not