Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 42.djvu/28

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16　　　　　　SOUTHERN HISTORICAL SOCIETY PAPERS


pecially where there are no legal or social barriers to hinder it, continually tend to the same standard of intelligence, and to sub- mit to the rule of the same opinions. The decomposition or disturbance of this body of opinion and doctrine are the parent of anarchy and confusion and lead to revolution.

The moral war upon us, as we are justified in terming it, was an inevitable fact to occur in our history. The question was only one of time."

I have never attached the same importance to this expres- sion of Mr. Lincoln or Gov. Seward that many others seem to have done, for the remark is, to some extent, if not in the absolute manner in which they state it, true. This conflict of opinion and feeling does exist, and the misfortune is that many seek to aggravate and intensify the operation of the causes that produce it.

But the question for wise men at the South to consider is not what these politicians think of the nature or operation of existing causes of conflict, but to determine what their own course of conduct and that of our people should be in respect to them.

I think now, as I said in 1850, "the inquiries for the Southern States cannot be reduced to questions of wounded sensibility, contumacious treatment, national indignities or in- dignities or injuries; they go to the foundation of our institutions, and involve the existence of our social fabric."

The subjects of inquiry are these: "Can the institution of slavery be maintained or parted with, in safety to the communi- ties in which it is tolerated, under the existing Union and the present condition of public sentiment by any and what modifi- cations of the Federal Constitution? Or would it be better for those Southern States most interested, under a new constitution and a different confederation, to seek their safety and hap- piness?"

The conditions have not altered in such a degree as to change the apramount importance of these inquiries. My advice then was, as it now is, for the Southern people to take counsel

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