It has followed those causes which always influence the human mind and
operate upon it. What, then, have been the causes which have created so
new a feeling in favor of slavery in the South, which have changed the
whole nomenclature of the South on that subject, so that, from being
thought and described in the terms I have mentioned and will not repeat,
it has now become an institution, a cherished institution, in that
quarter; no evil, no scourge, but a great religious, social, and moral
blessing, as I think I have heard it latterly spoken of? I suppose this,
sir, is owing to the rapid growth and sudden extension of the cotton
plantations of the South. So far as any motive consistent with honor,
justice, and general judgment could act, it was the cotton interest
that gave a new desire to promote slavery, to spread it, and to use its
labor.
I again say that this change was produced by causes which must always
produce like effects. The whole interest of the South became connected,
more or less, with the extension of slavery.
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