but two classes--free and slave, or we may say, slave-holders and
slaves, for the non slave-holders are completely lost and absorbed
in the all-controlling element which is above them; they work
in with it, and are indeed a part of it. As slavery called this
aristocracy into being, and created its power, so it holds it in
being; anything which strikes at slavery strikes at the root of
this power; to destroy slavery would be to blot it out of existence.

Around this point the whole contest is waged, and from it alone
every movement is to be interpreted. In the days of South Carolina
nulification the tariff was indeed the pretext of rebellion, and
the true motive was a separate government and the perpetuation of
the power of the dominant class, but this power depended wholly
upon the status of slavery, and so, back of all slavery was even
then the thought, and to strengthen slavery the great end. In
this we find the accurate explanation of the studied and persistent
efforts to extend and perpetuate it, not because it is admired
in itself, or because it is seen to be politically or socially
beneficial, but because it is the cornerstone of a valued social
state. A friend, some years ago sailing down the Potomac, was
engaged in conversation with the captain of the boat, a blunt, bluff
Southerner, and looking over the beautiful scenery on either side
of the river, said, "Why do you Virginians hold on to slavery? it is
a thousand pities that such a country as this should be so poorly
used." "I know it," replied the captain, "slavery does ruin the
state; but the fact is, we like it; a man feels good when he owns
twenty or fifty negroes, and can say to one go, and he goes, and
to another come and he comes." Here the whole philosophy of the
social state of the South is in a nut-shell. To abandon slavery is
to abandon a position which has been held as a tenure of nobility