But even then, and during the whole war, the stern fact
remains that (not only did the north put it down, but) _the secession
cause had numerically just as many sympathizers in the free as in the
rebel States_.
As to slavery, abstractly and practically, (its idea, and the
determination to establish and expand it, especially in the new
territories, the future America,) it is too common, I repeat, to
identify it exclusively with the south. In fact down to the opening of
the war, the whole country had about an equal hand in it. The north
had at least been just as guilty, if not more guilty; and the east and
west had. The former Presidents and Congresses had been guilty--the
governors and legislatures of every northern State had been guilty,
and the mayors of New York and other northern cities had all been
guilty--their hands were all stain'd. And as the conflict took decided
shape, it is hard to tell which class, the leading southern or
northern disunionists, was more stunn'd and disappointed at the
non-action of the free-State secession element, so largely existing
and counted on by those leaders, both sections.
So much for that point, and for the north. As to the inception and
direct instigation of the war, in the south itself, I shall not
attempt interiors or complications. Behind all, the idea that it was
from a resolute and arrogant determination on the part of the extreme
slaveholders, the Calhounites, to carry the States-rights' portion
of the constitutional compact to its farthest verge, and nationalize
slavery, or else disrupt the Union, and found a new empire, with
slavery for its corner-stone, was and is undoubtedly the true theory.
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