They are the
legitimate and necessary fruits of the numerous compromises by which
well-meaning men have sought to avert a crisis which could only be
postponed. The North has been diligently educated to connive at
injustice and wink at oppression for the sake of peace, until there was
good reason to fear that the public sense of right was blunted, and the
public conscience seared as with a hot iron. While the South kept always
clearly in view the single object on which it had staked everything, the
North was daily growing more and more absorbed in the accumulation of
wealth, and more and more callous to all considerations of humanity and
all claims of natural justice. The feeblest remonstrance against the
increasing insolence of Southern demands was rudely dismissed as
fanatical, and any attempt to awaken attention to the disloyal
sentiments of Southern politicians was believed to be fully met
and conclusively answered by the cry of "Abolitionist" and
"Negro-Worshipper."
It must be confessed that for a time these expedients were successful.
Like another Cassandra predicting the coming disasters of another Troy,
the statesman who foresaw and foretold the perils which threatened the
nation addressed a careless or contemptuous public.
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