politicans philanthropists, ministers, suddenly starting up to find
that they had been all along in error in thinking that slavery was
an evil, and hoping that some day it would be removed, that they
had been wrong in speaking of being "opposed to slavery in the
abstract," it was abstractly not wrong, but right; they had been
mistaken when regretting the circumstances which made emancipation
ought not to be desire. This change of sentiment an doctrine was
not gradual, but sudden; it went with telegraphic speed. The reason
was that events were pressing upon the aristocracy of the South and
threatening its destruction. Slavery had ceased to be a dominant
power in the Federal legislation, and the social state which rested
upon it was trembling to its foundation. There was but one thing
to be done, and that was the setting up of a new government, the
corner stone of which should be slavery. And this was not accidental
or capricious, but simply a necessity The state of society which
was sought to be maintained had its origin in slavery, and slavery
could not but be put in the foremost place. Alexander Stephens
understood both himself and the matter which he had in hand when
he told the people, and the world that they had hitherto understand
this thing. Before, they had sought to maintain their social state
and only tolerate slavery, they had not seen that all depended
on it; here was the true corner-stone which former builders had
rejected, but which they were now making the head of the corner. The
secession was a foregone conclusion long enough before it actually
occurred: it was so understood throughout the South by thinking
men, and the sudden spread of the new doctrine on slavery was the
necessary preparation for it.

He, then who does not take slavery into the account in his thinking
on this war, has not begun to get a glimpse of what it means; he