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awaken enough to consequences to prevent any consummation in acts. This
menace was a natural argument of the politically weak in America, just
as the physically weak lay hold of knives and clubs, where the strong
rely on their hands. It must be remembered that the latter, at need, can
resort to weapons, too. I do not believe there could be found in all
America any great number of respectable men who wish the Union
dissolved; and until that shall be the case, I see no great grounds of
apprehension. Moreover, I told him that so long as the northern states
were tranquil I had no fears, for I felt persuaded that no great
political change would occur in America that did not come from that
section of the Union. As this is a novel opinion, he inquired for its
reasons, and, in brief, this was the answer:--
There is but one interest that would be likely to unite all the south
against the north, and this was the interest connected with slavery.
Now, it was notorious that neither the federal government nor the
individual states have anything to do with this as a national question,
and it was not easy to see in what manner anything could be done that
would be likely to push matters as far as disunion on such a point There
might be, and there probably would be, discussion and
denunciations--nay, there often had been; but a compromise having been
virtually made, by which all new states at the north are to be free
states, and all at the south slave-holding, I saw nothing else that was
likely to be serious.[46] As respects all other interests, it would be
difficult to unite the whole south. Taking the present discussion as an
example: those that were disaffected, to use the strongest term the case
admits of, were so environed by those that were not, that a serious
separation became impossible. The tier of states that lies behind the
Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia, for instance, are in no degree
dependent on them for an outlet to the sea, while they are so near
neighbours as to overshadow them in a measure. Then the south must
always have a northern boundary of free states, if they separate _en
masse_--a circumstance not very desirable, as they would infallibly lose
most of their slaves.
[Footnote 46: Recent facts have confirmed this opinion.]
On the other hand, the north is very differently situated. New England,
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the tier of states west, are closely
connected geographically, must and would go together, and they have one
frontier that is nearly all water. They contain already a free
population of eight millions, which is rapidly increasing, and are
strong enough, and united enough, to act as they please. It is their
interest to remain united with the south, and it is also a matter of
feeling with them, and I apprehend little to the Union so long as these
states continue of this mind.[47]
[Footnote 47: This was written before the recent events in Texas, which
give a new aspect to the question.]
Lafayette wished to know if I did not think the Union was getting too
large for its safety. I thought not, so long as the means of necessary
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intercommunication were preserved, but just the reverse, as the larger
the Union, the less probability there would be of agitating its whole
surface by any one interest; and the parties that were tranquil, as a
matter of course, would influence those that were disturbed. Were the
Union to-day, for instance, confined to the coast, as it was forty years
since, there would be no south-western states to hold the southern in
check, as we all know is the fact at present, and the danger from
nullification would be doubled. These things act both ways; for even the
state governments, while they offer positive organised and _quasi_ legal
means of resisting the federal government, also afford the same
organized local means of counteracting them in their own neighbourhood.
Thus, Carolina and Georgia do not pull together in this very affair,
and, in a sense, one neutralizes the other. The long and short of the
matter was, that the Union was a compromise that grew out of practical
wants and _facts_, and this was the strongest possible foundation for
any polity. Men would assail it in words, precisely as they believed it
important and valued by the public, to attain their ends.--We were here
summoned to the breakfast.
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