(3) See Shakespeare's *Merchant of Venice.*

It behooved a clear-headed man in his position not to yield so far to
an honest indignation against the brokers of treason in the North as
to lose sight of the materials for misleading which were their stock
in trade, and to forget that it is not the falsehood of sophistry which
is to be feared, but the grain of truth mingled with it to make it
specious,--that it is not the knavery of the leaders so much as the
honesty of the followers they may seduce, that gives them power
for evil. It was especially his duty to do nothing which might help
the people to forget the true cause of the war in fruitless disputes
about its inevitable consequences.

The doctrine of State rights can be so handled by an adroit
demagogue as easily to confound the distinction between liberty
and lawlessness in the minds of ignorant persons, accustomed
always to be influenced by the sound of certain words, rather than
to reflect upon the principles which give them meaning. For,
though Secession involves the manifest absurdity of denying to the
State the right of making war against any foreign power while
permitting it against the United States; though it supposes a
compact of mutual concessions and guaranties among States
without any arbiter in case of dissension; though it contradicts
common-sense in assuming that the men who framed our
government did not know what they meant when they substituted
Union for confederation; though it falsifies history, which shows
that the main opposition to the adoption of the Constitution was
based on the argument that it did not allow that independence in the
several States which alone would justify them in seceding;--yet, as
slavery was universally admitted to be a reserved right, an inference