Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/121

 CALHOUN No; some cause far deeper and more power- ful than the one supposed must exist, to ac- count for discontent so wide and deep. The question then recurs: What is the cause of this discontent? It will be found in the belief of the people of the Southern States, as prevalent as the discontent itself, that they can not re- main, as things now are, consistently with honor and safety, in the Union. The next question to be considered is: What has caused this belief? One of the causes is, undoubtedly, to be traced to the long-continued agitation of the slave question on the part of the North, and the many aggressions which they have made on the rights of the South during the time. I will not enumer- ate them at present, as it will be done hereafter in its proper place. There is another lying back of it — ^with which this is intimately connected — that may be re- garded as the great and primary cause. This is to be found in the fact that the equilibrium between the two sections in the government as it stood when the Constitution was ratified and the government put in action has been destroyed. At that time there was nearly a perfect equilib- rium between the two, which afforded ample means to each to protect itself against the aggres- sion of the other ; but, as it now stands, one sec- tion has the exclusive power of controlling the government, w^hich leaves the other without any adequate means of protecting itself against its encroachment and oppression. Ill