Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/103

 Annual Reunion of the Association of A, N. V, 95

the country in the interest of those industrial ** infants *' — since grown hoary with years and gouty from continued repletion — has always held its place as a great national issue, it was now eclipsed for a time by another which promised far greater immediate results by reason of the combination of sentiment with selfish interest. The issue of slavery was re-enthroned and became king regnant in our politics, until in its overthrow it very nearly involved in its ruins the liberties of the entire American people. The cry against the extension of slavery had been raised as early as 1820. When it was heard again in opposition to the annexation of Texas, and yet again in still louder tones, claiming for the dominant section the whole of the vast territory acquired from Mexico ; when it dictated the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1850 by a purely sectional vote, when it had once become the slogan of a distinct and purely sectional party, its success in the ultimate accomplishment of its revolutionary purposes was not beyond the ken of the veriest tyro among political prophets.

A POLITICAL METAMORPHOSIS.

The States of the South had been the earliest advocates of the suppression of the slave trade and the staunchest supporters of the union of the States, but when the gathering clouds on the northern horizon began to throw their shadows athwart the whole southern sky, ' they prepared for the exercise of their sovereignty in the only way which was justified by precedent and which seemed to offer adequate protection to their rights and interests.

But tempora mutantur et mutamur cum Hits Times had indeed changed, and parties had so changed with them as to remind us forcibly of a scene from the " Inferno'' of Dante, in which the poet saw **a strange encounter between a man and a serpent. After the infliction of cruel wounds they stood for a time glaring at each other. A great cloud surrounded them, and then a wonderful change took place. Each creature was transformed into the likeness of its antag- onist. The serpent's tail divided itself into two legs, the man's legs intertwined themselves into a tail. The body of the serpent put forth arms, the man's arms shrank into his body. At length the man sank down a serpent, and the serpent stood up a man and spake." The former secessionists of the North were now devoted adherents of the Union, even if blood was necessary to cement it. The Union-loving South of the early days felt that she could no longer uphold it consistently with her interests and her honor.