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 slavery 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 enumerate 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 regarded 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 equilibrium between the two, which afforded ample means
to each to protect itself against the aggression of the other; but, as
it now stands, one section has the exclusive power of controlling
the Government, which leaves the other without any adequate means of
protecting itself against its encroachment and oppression.
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