Our Federal Union [pp. 31-42]

OUR FEDERAL UNION.
and bruises itself has inflicted; and the sacrilegious infatuation goes to the length of invoking the name of Washington
to consecrate the cause of arbitrary power. Nothing is more
stupid than this general disposition to judge the transactions
of the present, by the principles and teachings of the past-a
fallacy that cost Charles Stuart his head and throne,. and
which will cost the South her liberty, independence, and political empire. In spirit, neither is the government nor the
people of the Federal Union of 1860, the same with that of
1790; and if the revered memory of Washington is attempted
to be made the vicarious scape-goat for all the sins and iniquities of a grinding political absolutism, then should it go down,
laden with the curses of freemen, to the latest generations.
But South Carolina, standing solitary and alone, sublime in
her friendless isolation, austere in the stern iaflexibility of her
principles, unawed by the frowns of power, nor cast down by
the dangers that surround her, will meet the crisis with a
firmness and dignity worthy of her ancient renown, and be.
coming the spirit of a noble and chivalrous people. Nor will
it be hers to inquire, "How shall all this be done?" nor yet,
"Where shall the line of separation between North and South
be drawn?" but, with her own strong arms, throwing open
the gates of the temple of Janus, and pointing to her ownState boundaries, as the extreme limits of her obedience, she
will, like Marius, amid the ruins of Carthage, seat herself
among the prostrate columns and broken arches of the Federal
Union, and meditate on the fate of those governments that
attempt to build durable empires on the foundations of truth
forsaken, faith betrayed, and justice perverted.
ART. IV.-OUR FEDERAL UNION.
I AM not about to discuss the claims of parties, but the
Federal Union. Indeed, no one can deny the unmistakable
evidences everywhere throughout the country of a deep and
increasing discontent pervading the public mind. Nor is this
condition of affairs confined to yesterday or to-day; on the
contrary, for more than a quarter of a century the sentiment
of alienation between the Northern and Southern sections of
the confederacy, has been developed so steadily and rapidly as
to arouse the gravest apprehensions for the perpetuity of the
union of the States. Had this feeling been accidental, it would
have long since reached its climax, and forever ceased; but it
has been growing deeper and wider, until its force is felt
31