or opposing interests, within the limits of one body politic, but practically that of two distinct communities or peoples, speaking indeed a common language, and united by a Federal bond, but opposed in principles and interests, alienated in feeling, and jealous rivals in the pursuit of political power.

The Union originally consisted of thirteen small and weak societies. This has merged into two great and jealous confronting powers. A principle of elective affinity has resolved the several elements into two bodies, within themselves homogeneous and cohesive, each repellant towards the other. The Constitution is the same, but the condition to which it was adapted is entirely changed; and the machinery, ably contrived to suit the old state of affairs, is quite inapplicable now. Originally no State could be deemed the especial rival of another, nor was there any question of the supremacy of one over the rest. But when two powers are face to face, the question of supremacy must arise, and arise without an umpire. It is not in the nature of things that they should be precisely equal, and they cannot remain in political union, except on the condition that one be subordinate to the other.

Up to the present period the Southern interest has been paramount. Virginia, the "old dominion," was originally, in all respects, the leading State. In wealth, in birth, in extent, in the value of their products, on all these points the

In political

Southerners had the advantage. ability their superiority was still more striking. They supplied the statesmen of the Union, and Virginia acquired the title of Mother of Presidents. The capital of the country was placed upon their soil; the father of the country sleeps in it. And not only was this the condition of affairs at the period of the framing of the Constitution, but, so far as expectation could reach into the future, the superiority of the South was likely to be fully maintained, or even to increase. Their territories beyond the Alleghanies, the vast regions in the West appertaining to Virginia and Georgia, coupled with the greater value of their productions, afforded the prospect of growth and wealth in the future to an extent beyond any promise of the Northern States. In their position as slave-owners there was nothing to awaken alarm, for that system, though greatly more prevalent in the South, as the natural result of its climate, was still common to the whole country, and but one of the thirteen States, Massachusetts, was entirely free. None anticipated the great disruptive force that now convulses the country; it was unknown, and unforeseen. A Southern State first moved in the formation of the present Constitution; and those States, when they acceded to it, not only enjoyed the supremacy which naturally attached to their position, but were safe, to all appearance, from the reach of any influence that could undermine it.

From its earliest days the progress of the United States has been less that of growth than of a movement of the people of the Old World across to the New. At first the great stream of labour reached both divisions of the country pretty equally. That of the South was supplied to it in the form of negroes from Africa; that of the North in the shape of free emigrants from Northern Europe. The extinction of the Slave Trade, in 1808, altered this rule. It stopped this mode of increase to the population of the South, whilst that of the North augmented with accelerating rapidity. And whilst this change was taking place, it was accompanied by another, which gave it political force. The Northern States were gradually becoming free. Their climate in winter is far too severe to permit the African race to thrive there. There is no pursuit in which their labour has any advantage over that of the white, whilst in general respects it is far inferior; and as the supply of white labour increased, the negro became an incumbrance.

There were those also who, from the first, were opposed to Slavery on moral grounds. The spirit of their religion was indeed that of the Old Testament, which gives the records of ages in which Slavery existed as an institution common to all nations. But the spirit of their political faith was directly opposed to it. Those who had wrestled with every hardship, disdained every comfort, and triumphed over all obstacles in pursuit of unshackled

freedom, were not the class of men to look with indulgence upon any form of bondage. It was repugnant to the genius of the race. Moderate men disapproved, zealous men denounced it. Unquestionably the removal of Slavery from the North was, in the main, an economic measure, and would have occurred, apart from all moral considerations. The majority of the slaves were sold to the South, where they were of greater value. But still, at an early period, there were the germs of that Abolitionist movement which has since exercised so powerful an influence on the destinies of the Union, not from the numbers in its ranks, but from their ability, and the passionate intensity of their zeal. And thus, at the same time that the North was moving from its original equality with the South in population, it was diverging still more widely in social views, and thus aggravating the permanent effects of the change.

In many countries a process so slow, and exciting so little notice as the growth of population, might have proceeded for a long period without attracting observation. When observed, it might have been accepted as an inevitable fact, of no political significance. This is impossible under the Constitution and policy of the United States. Increased population converts a territory into a new State, claiming admission; and it must be either a Slave State, or Free. The political effect of emancipation in the Northern States was still greater.

Each State sends to the Senate two

members, and this change in its condition removed them from the side of the Southern to that of the Northern interest, thus producing the effect of four votes on a division. In so small an assembly this had the utmost political importance. The Southerner saw his power in the Senate rapidly passing away, whilst at the same time the number of his members in the House of Representatives was steadily dwindling, in comparison with that of the North. Nor was this merely comparative; it was also absolute, in consequence of the changes in the ratio, the rapid increase in the number required to return a representative. This was at first 33,000; it is now above 120,000. Hence a State, though increasing in population, if it should not advance at this ratio, will appear to fall behind. Originally Virginia returned 10 members, to 6 from New York; the proportions are nowVirginia 11, to New York 30. But this is not all. Virginia had at one time 23 members, now reduced to 11, although her population has increased, slowly indeed, but steadily, during the period. And South Carolina which, in the scheme of the Constitution, stands for 5 in 65, or onethirteenth of the representation, will return, under the last census, 4 out of 233, or one-sixtieth part. Hence that State has now less than a quarter of the representative power it had when the Federal compact was framed-a compact entered into with the expectation of advantage from it.

It must be at all times a source of pain to the