of trade; and her impoverished people would imprecate the madness of those who sundered the holy tie that knit them to the South.

But is pecuniary ruin the only, or the worst consequence of disunion? How is it possible to tear asunder the limbs of this confederacy, without convulsion and bloodshed? Or, if it be possible, how long could a good understanding be maintained between people so peculiarly situated, and with so many causes of difficulty? We cannot pourtray the thousand evils, which must flow from the fratricidal blow that dissevers the Union. It is enough to know, that misery and shame must follow it; that poverty and want would stalk abroad, and violence and crime dog their footsteps; and that civil war, to fill the measure of our country's wretchedness, would run riot, its tiger tooth dripping with the best blood of our land.

"The picture of the consequences of disunion," said the illustrious Madison, "cannot be too highly coloured, or too often exhibited. Every man who loves peace, every man who loves his country, every man who loves liberty, ought to have it ever before his eyes, that he may cherish in his heart a due attachment to the Union of America, and be able to set a due value on the means of preserving it."

It is painful to know, that there are men, who regard the prospect of disunion, without emotion, and who are determined to urge their insane projects, indifferent what barriers are broken down, what altars overthrown, what sacrifices made. To them the recollection of our common war of independence, where the North stood breast to breast with the South, when they poured out their blood, like water, beneath the same proud flag, and in the same holy cause-appeals in vain. The glory of the

To

past, the hopes of the future, are nothing to them. They are willing to see the land of Washingtonthe glory and pride of the earth-shattered, overthrown and trampled in the dust-her past glories blotted out-her future hopes forever blasted. such men nothing is sacred. They will follow their phantom-rending asunder the holiest ties, and bringing shame and ruin upon all that should be dear to them.

If a

Yet they ask credit for their motives! A word on this point. It is generally unsafe to judge men's motives by any other test than their actions. man places a torch to a magazine, the explosion of which must destroy a city, and tells you, when his arm is arrested, that his motives are good-you would decide, that the man was either a dangerous madman, who should be chained, or a guilty miscreant, who would perpetrate the worst crimes under the holiest pretences. Men never avow evil motives. The vilest felon has recourse to this paltry defence; and the act which cannot borrow so poor a gloss, so thin and common a veil, must be base and black indeed. Hell itself, the proverb tells us, is paved with good intentions. Until we find some more satisfactory explanation of the course of the abolitionists, we cannot see them busy in their work of agitation

"While at their feet,

Leashed in like hounds, famine, and sword, and fire,
Crouch for employment,"-

we cannot see them coolly promoting the horrors of civil discord, and hold them guiltless on the score of pure intentions. Were there room for error, they might plead the soundness of their motives. But how can they be deceived? They have already sown the wind and reaped the whirl

wind. Riots and violence in the North, popular indignation and servile insurrection at the Southare the first and only fruits of their efforts. Can they point us to any good they have accomplished, or can reasonably hope to accomplish? They cannot. They shut their eyes to the manifold and fearful consequences of their madness, exclaim, "we are doing our duty," and rush on in their headlong career. And they will continue to rush on until arrested by legislative interference; until they dash themselves to pieces against the rock of our Union; or until they have toppled that Union into the dust, and filled this happy country with the din, and guilt, and terrors of fratricidal and fraternal warfare.

CHAPTER XXIII.

British Agency in urging Abolition-Motives, &c.-Religious interference-Extent-Nature, consequences of clerical influence in the agitation of this question.

Ir the scheme of emancipation were entitled to our approbation and support, the manner in which it is urged, would be sufficient to excite just and general suspicion and alarm. A political cause that comes before the people, sustained on the one side by English influence, and on the other by an aspiring priesthood-may well be regarded, by republicans, with distrust and terror.

It is not difficult to divine the motives which induce Great Britain to encourage the incendiary efforts of the abolitionists. They are the same, which heretofore, at different periods, in our history, prompted the same nation to endeavour to distract and destroy our Union, and excite the slaves of the South against their masters. Like their own wreckers, they are anxious to decoy our vessel upon the rocks, that they may be enriched by the spoil of the wreck. Our ruined commerce and manufactures, would afford Great Britain a new and boundless source of affluence; while the destruction of a former foe and a present rival, would be regarded with feelings of malicious satisfaction. Many of her people also regard the example of republicanism

in this country, as dangerous to the existing institutions of Europe, and would rejoice to see the fabric of our Union torn to pieces, and our land bleeding and groaning beneath the parricidal arms of her own infuriated children.

Such, we have every reason to believe, are the motives that have induced England to send her emissaries into this country, to aid the incendiary schemes of the emancipationists, to volunteer and contribute pecuniary support, in forwarding the same cause; and in short, to exercise every means in her power, to excite division and insurrection, and consummate the infamy of our people, and the downfall of our country. It is true, that she avows only motives of philanthropy. But why is that philanthropy directed hither? Why does it not turn to their brethren, the oppressed and starving people of Ireland, whose condition is so much worse than that of our slaves? Why does it overlook the perishing thousands, in the manufactories in England? Why is it not turned to the almost countless millions of slaves who groan beneath English tyrrany in India? Or, if their own brethren, or their own victims are beneath their notice, why have not the oppressed of their neighbouring kingdoms of Europe-the serfs of Russia and Poland, the slaves of Turkey, and the down-trodden of other lands-claimed their attention? England has not, hitherto, exhibited such peculiar interest in our welfare; and this sudden and singular anxiety cannot, under the circumstances, but excite suspicion and terror. It remains to be seen, whether British money will be allowed openly to circulate, in maintaining an opposition to our Union and our Constitution; and whether English emissaries will be permitted to go from state to state, preaching treason against those sacred rights, which were wrested