Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/104

 96 Southern Historical Society Papers.

THE DIE IS CAST.

At length, in the closing days of i860, the long war of the ballot box is ended. A president is elected upon stricdy geographical lines. The head of the government is soon to pass into the hands of a faction representing less than one-third of the voters of the Union, and whose governing principle is an irrepressible conflict be- tween the sections. The day of temporizing closes. South Caro- lina puts in practice her previous declaration of equality in the Union or independence out of it. She is closely followed by Georgia, Ala- bama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and ere the recently elected sectional President of the United States dons the robes of office a new nation has been born, whose life of storm and tragic death will always present one of the most heroic pictures " on his- tory's titled page." North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas soon cast in their lot with the new Confederacy, followed at last, when all .her efforts for a peaceable settlement had failed, by the great mother of statesmen and Presidents, of States and of the Federal Union it- self. Thus closed the first epoch of the Confederate revolution.

THE COURT OF LAST RESORT.

And now the loud trumpet clangs its harsh notes of war. Fierce spirits of strife haunt the air. From city and from hamlet, from mountain side and from rolling plain, from seashore and from inland river the Northern clans are gathering. And for what ? Is it to purify their consciences by wiping out the curse of slavery forever from American soil ? Oh, no ! such purpose is expressly disclaimed.* They come to spread the broad mantle of the Union around the States of the Confederacy and take their wayward sisters home. Is it to annihilate the rights of the States ? No, never ! Their mission, as declared by themselves, is to preserve these inviolate. They only march against a band of rebels who have refused to disperse at their command, as their own brave ancestors at Lexington and Concord refused to do at British bidding.

But pause a moment and listen. Responsive to the Northern bugle-call comes an answering note from across the lordly Potomac.

an amendment to the Constitution providing that Congress should never abolish or meddle with slavery in the States.
 * March 2, 1861, Congress adopted and sent to the States for ratification