secession, as the snows on the mountain melt under the influence of the vernal sun, disappear almost unobserved and run off? No, sir! No, sir! I will not state what might produce the disruption of the Union; but, sir, I see as plainly as I can see the sun in heaven what that disruption itself must produce; I see that it must produce war, and such a war as I will not describe, in its twofold character."

"When my State is right," said Clay, in the same debate, "when it has a cause for resistance-when tyranny, and wrong and oppression insufferable arise, I will then share her fortunes; but if she summons me to the battle-field, or to support her in any cause which is unjust against the Union, never, never will I engage with her in such a cause."

It is evident that to whatsoever issue we turn, from the inception of the government down to 1850, we are brought, sooner or later, to slavery: State sovereignty, nullification, the tariff, all by that time were identified with it and with the essential idea underlying it that the Union was a Confederacy of sovereign Republics, a League of free, sovereign and independent States. It was inevitable therefore that all opposition, all hostility to slavery should gradually identify itself with the national idea. By 1850, the great issue practically took this form: Should slavery be extended over the Territories? Were these Territories national soil or the property of the States? In 1856, this territory is spoken of by the Republicans, in their platform, on which they had nominated Frémont and Dayton, as "national territory"; but the Democratic platform, supporting Buchanan and Breckenridge, declared that the States had equal rights in the Territories. Here plainly was suggested the fundamental difference-Confederacy or Nation; a League of States or a Supreme Organic Body, the Nation.

Throughout Lincoln's debates with Douglas, and in his other speeches between 1854 and 1861, there is little said of tariffs, State sovereignty, nullification, or secession, but much said of slavery. One may perhaps wonder why Lincoln ignored these elements of sectional contention. The reason

is plain he knew that slavery included all the rest; that in advocating the limitation of slavery to the slaveholding States he was evoking national support and antagonizing Confederate support. His precise position he does not leave in doubt:

"I wish to be no less than national in all positions I may take"-words he uttered at Peoria, in 1854, his first appearance in the contest which was to decide that "our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

While South Carolina was preparing its Declaration of Causes and inditing its Address to the slaveholding States, Southern senators and representatives, lingering in Washington, freely expressed on the floor of House and Senate the motives which actuated the South.

"The Southern States now moving in this matter," said Alfred Iverson, a senator from Georgia, "are not doing it without due consideration. We have looked over the whole field. We believe that the only security for the institution. to which we attach so much importance is secession and a Southern confederacy. We are satisfied, notwithstanding the disclaimers upon the part of Black Republicans to the contrary, that they intend to use the Federal power, when they get possession of it, to put down and extinguish the institution of slavery in the Southern States." These words were spoken two weeks before South Carolina seceded. Iverson's colleague, Robert Toombs, on January 7, 1861, declared in the Senate that the South took up arms to defend four thousand millions of their property in the territories of the United States and charged the North with the avowed purpose of making this property insecure.

The appeal of South Carolina to the South was for a Confederacy of slaveholding States. Early in February, 1861, forty-two delegates, representing six States that had seceded -South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida-organized in Convention at Montgomery,

Alabama, and entered upon the formation of a Southern Confederacy, framing, to that end, a Provisional Constitution. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, late a United States Senator, was elected president and Alexander H. Stephens, vicepresident of the Confederacy for one year, and on the 18th, Mr. Davis was inaugurated. In his inaugural he blamed the North for her aggressions against the South and declared secession and the separation of the South a remedy resorted to of necessity rather than choice. He in no way alluded to slavery.

The new Confederate government organized in an orderly manner; executive departments were created and the Congress authorized President Davis to borrow $15,000,000 at eight per cent on the credit of the Confederacy, and levied an export tax on raw cotton of one-eighth of one cent a pound. In spite of Southern hostility to tariffs this new Congress continued the tariff law of 1857. A commission was appointed, under resolution of the Congress, by President Davis, to proceed to Washington and negotiate a treaty of peace with the United States.

The Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States was adopted on the 8th February, 1861, and continued in force one year. It was ordained and established, as its preamble declares, by "the deputies of the sovereign and independent States" which first organized under it. It was closely modelled after the Constitution of the United States but called negroes negroes and slaves slaves. It forbade the African slave trade and empowered the Congress "to prohibit the introduction of slaves from any State not a member of this Confederacy," thus cutting off the lucrative slave trade of the border States unless they joined the Confederacy. It forbade the States to enter into any treaty, alliance or confederation.

The Confederate Congress elected under this Provisional Constitution worked out a Permanent Constitution for the Confederacy which was unanimously adopted, March II, 1861, by the seven States then composing the Confederacy,