thought it would advance their selfish interests, they were prepared
to abandon it or immolate it upon the altar of "expediency," when the
great clouds of treason burst upon them in the form of gigantic
rebellion. The politicians of that time, like the politicians of all
times, were incapable of appreciating the magnitude of the questions
involved in the conflict.

But the slave-power had been aroused. It was not to be appeased by
overtures; it wanted no compromise. It would brook no interference
inimical to its "peculiar institution." In the Congress of the nation,
in the high places of power, it had so long been permitted to dictate
the policy to be pursued towards slavery, it had so inoculated the
institutions of the government with the virus of its vicious opinions,
that, to be interfered with, to be dictated to, was out of the
question. It was Ephraim and his idol repeated.

The South forced the issue upon the people of the country. The
Southerners marched off under the banner of "States Rights"--a
doctrine they have always championed. They cared nothing for the Union
_then_; they care less for the Union _now_. The State to them is
sovereign; the nation a magnificent combination of nothingness. The
State has in its keeping all option over life, individual rights, and
property. The spirit of Hayne and Calhoun is still the star that
lights the pathway of the Southern man in his duty to the government.
He recognizes no sovereignty more potential than that of his State.

Long years of agitation and bloody war have failed to decide the
rights of States, or the measure of protection which the National
government owes to the individual members of States. We still grope in
the sinuous by-ways of uncertainty. The State still defies the