Unless something decisive is done, I again ask, what is
to stop this agitation, before the great and final object at which it
aims--the abolition of slavery in the States--is consummated? Is it,
then, not certain, that if something is not done to arrest it, the South
will be forced to choose between abolition and secession? Indeed, as
events are now moving, it will not require the South to secede, in order
to dissolve the Union. Agitation will of itself effect it, of which its
past history furnishes abundant proof--as I shall next proceed to show.
It is a great mistake to suppose that disunion can be effected by a
single blow. The cords which bound these States together in one common
Union, are far too numerous and powerful for that. Disunion must be the
work of time. It is only through a long process, and successively, that
the cords can be snapped, until the whole fabric falls asunder. Already
the agitation of the slavery question has snapped some of the most
important, and has greatly weakened all the others, as I shall proceed
to show.
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