celebrated by master and slave with music and feasting, and great concourse of friends and relations; when gold was kept in chests, after the downfall of Continental paper, and weighed in scales, and lent to neighbours for short terms without note, interest, witness, or security; and when petty litigation was at so low an ebb that it required a fine of forty pounds of tobacco to make a man serve as constable. The reverse of all this was now seen and felt-not to the whole extent which fancy or policy painted, but to extent enough to constitute a reverse, and to make a contrast, and to excite the regrets which the memory of past joys never fails to awaken."

It is true that this picture will in no degree apply to those of the Southern States which have come into being since the Union. But it applies to a sufficient number to supply the leaders of a movement. Upon the leaders all such movements depend, and their feelings will not be unaffected by such facts as these. It is true that slavery is really the main cause, and the working of the Union a lesser one; but when there are two causes of such facts, of which men will not see or know not how to change the one, they will assuredly desire to try the effect of changing the other. The reasoning may be wrong, but the fact is there, and we cannot but see in it a reasonable ground for doubt on the part of a Virginian whether the Union has, in his own case, promoted that "pursuit of happiness" which, in

America, it is an avowed object of Government to

secure.

We have considered the disturbing political effect of immigration to the exclusive gain of the North. But its effect on existing States is small when compared with its importance in respect of the admission of new States into the Union. At the commencement of the present century, the purchase of Louisiana from France, and the abstraction of Florida from Spain, gave a vast accession of territory to the South, and appeared to dispel for ever the prospect of its supremacy being disputed. The attempt, indeed, on the part of the North was long abandoned. But the rate of immigration into the Free States grew more rapid. The onward progress of the Lake States became truly marvellous; and in 1820, when Missouri applied for admission, the relative numbers in the Senate were so evenly balanced, that it came to be decisive of the continuance of political power in the South, whether that State should be an addition to its own ranks, or to those of the adversary. It was this which caused the desperate character of that struggle. The mere admission of a single State had been accepted with indifference before, when regarded merely as the addition of one to a number, but it had become the weight that was to turn the scale. Previously, each one neutralized but one; in this case it might neutralize the whole by its casting vote. As a question of Slave extension, Missouri was of no great interest, being too

far North for the advantageous employment of Slaves. There was abundance of better soil in the South untouched. But as affecting the balance of power, the importance of the Missouri question

was supreme.

It is hardly necessary to state that the contest ended in favour of the South by the admission of Missouri as a Slave State, accompanied by the well-known compromise, under the provisions of which slavery was to be excluded from all the territory embraced in the Louisiana purchase, north of 36° 30′ latitude. For a time this restored peace, or rather it was followed by a truce.

The original compromises on which, as we have seen, the Constitution was framed, have been followed by this and others in its working. But all such compromises, when they relate to questions of right or wrong, must involve on one side at least an abandonment of principle, and leave resentment behind. They are also evidence that the States which are strong enough to enforce them, are strong enough to break them if so disposed; and the disposition is not likely to be long absent where such antagonism exists. It is the great misfortune of America, that the thirteen colonies were ever combined into one incongruous whole. But the impression prevailed in those days that Slavery would gradually die out. Had the able statesmen of that time anticipated the existing condition of affairs, they would not have attempted to tie together interests of such magnitude and so

discordant. They would have avoided the necessity for these continuous and humiliating compromises by forming two republics, each with laws suited to its special condition.

The next severe struggle occurred on the admission of Texas. The history of that event is sufficiently deplorable. It was at first an insidious encroachment, and at last the spoliation, not of some tyrannical monarchy, but of a poor and feeble republic. Able Northern men protested against, and now denounce, this transaction; but it does not seem very logical to denounce the most important results of a system of government, and yet to hold that such system must be maintained. The event itself was not novel in its nature. General Jackson wrote to President Monroe: "Let it be signified to me, through any channel, that the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the United States, and in sixty days it will be accomplished." As the mother country, Spain, was thus denuded of a province during a period of peace, why should the daughter, Mexico, be differently used? In both cases, Southern men were the prominent actors, but the people of the North were partners in the profits. Those who denounce in vehement terms the conduct of Southern men in this and other cases, appear to forget that they are denouncing the policy and the fruits of the Union, and that by its fruits every government must be judged.

Again, the political power of the South seemed

to be relieved from jeopardy, for the vast extent of Texas afforded room to carve four more States of average magnitude out of it. It seemed as if this had settled for ever the question of political predominance in favour of its original possessors.

Two unforeseen events entirely disturbed this calculation. The admission of Texas led to the war with Mexico, and to the extension of the Union along the shores of the Pacific. The land of gold, for which Columbus had sought, and Raleigh had striven in vain, was at last discovered. An enormous addition to Northern territory became rapidly peopled with a population, allured from every quarter of the globe. And whilst the search for wealth was thus telling upon number in the farthest West, escape from want was impelling a huge wave of immigration to the Atlantic shore. The Irish famine had occurred. It was no longer a movement of individuals, but the exodus of a people to be added bodily to the Northern power. Where tens of thousands had gone of old, hundreds of thousands followed now. With events so vast and irresistible it grew hopeless to contend. Each census had for a long period disclosed, more and more plainly, the superior progress of the North; but the last census presented the fact in so striking a manner, that further struggle against the over whelming tide became manifestly vain. The attempt must be abandoned in despair, or some entirely new line of action need be adopted.

The long conflict we have described had the