But now, more than then, has this agitation been
increased. Now, more than then, are the dangers which exist, if the
controversy remains unsettled, more aggravated and more to be dreaded.
The idea of disunion was then scarcely a low whisper. Now, it has become
a familiar language in certain portions of the country. The public mind
and the public heart are becoming familiarized with that most dangerous
and fatal of all events--the disunion of the States. People begin to
contend that this is not so bad a thing as they had supposed. Like the
progress in all human affairs, as we approach danger it disappears, it
diminishes in our conception, and we no longer regard it with that awful
apprehension of consequences that we did before we came into contact
with it. Everywhere now there is a state of things, a degree of alarm
and apprehension, and determination to fight, as they regard it, against
the aggressions of the North. That did not so demonstrate itself at the
period of the Missouri compromise.
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