6 nations, like Olympic chariot-horses, draw abreast the car of civilization. We advanced rapidly; the task assigned to us by Providence was performed with a rapidity which had not been known before; for we had a National Government commensurate to our land and, it seemed, adequate to our destiny. But while thus united and freed from provincial retardation and entanglements, a new portent appeared. Slavery, which had been planted here in the colonial times, and which had been increased in this country, by the parent government, against the urgent protestations of the colonists, and especially of the Virginians, existed in all the colonies at the time when they declared themselves independent. It was felt by all to be an evil which must be dealt with as best it might be, and the gradual extinction of which must be wisely yet surely provided for. Even Mr. Calhoun, in his earlier days, called slavery a scaffolding erected to rear the mansion of civilization, which must be taken down when the fabric is finished. This institution gave way gradually as civilization advanced. It has done so in all periods of history, and especially of Christian history. Slavery melts away like snow before the rays of rising civilization. The South envied the North for getting rid of slavery so easily, and often expressed her envy. But a combination of untoward circumstances led the South to change her mind. First, it was maintained that if slavery is an evil, it was their affair and no one else had a right to discuss it or to interfere with it; then it came to be maintained that it was no evil; then slavery came to be declared an important national element, which required its own distinct representation and especial protection ; then it was said—we feel ashamed to mention it—that slavery is a divine institution. To use the words of the great South-Carolinian, whose death we deeply mourn—of James Louis Petigru—they placed, like the templars, Christ and Ba- phornet on the same altar, worshipping God and Satan simultaneously. But though slavery were divine, they choked the wells of common knowledge with sand and stones, and enacted perpetual ignorance for the slave. Then the renewal of that traffic, the records of which fills far the darkest pages of European history, and which the most strenuous and protracted efforts of civilized nations have not yet wholly succeeded in abolishing, was loudly called for; and our national laws, making that unhallowed trade piracy, were declared unconstitutional. Yet still another step was to be taken. It was proclaimed that slavery is a necessary element of a new and glorious civilization ; and those who call themselves conservatives plunged recklessly into a new-fangled theory of politics and civilization. Some thirty years ago we first heard of Southern Rights. Some twenty years since we were first made familiar with the expression, Southern Principles. Within the present lustre, Southern Civilization has been proclaimed. What else remained but to invent Southern Mathematics and to decree a Southern God ? And what does Southern mean in this connection"? South is a word which indicates relative position in geography. Yet, in these combinations, it refers neither to geography, nor to climate, nor to product, but singly and exclusively to Slavery. Southern Rights, Southern Principles, Southern Civilization^ and Southern Honor or li Chivalry,” are novel phrases, to express the new idea of
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