those which arouse the passions, make revolutions.

Yet though, perhaps, the least active agent in causing the disruption, it seems,-taking it alone, -quite as sufficient, as that which produced the revolt of the colonies from this country. Here is a course of preferential and unjust taxation, persevered in, and that on a great scale, for thirty years, against reiterated protests. On that occasion, there was a duty of threepence per pound on tea, -trivial in amount,--and imposed for the profit of no special class, but for the general good. Nor was it imposed for remote objects, but to defray in part the expenses of a war entirely American, which had resulted to the benefit of the colonies, in the conquest of Canada, and left over, a debt not justly chargeable to the British taxpayer alone. When that trifling duty is contrasted, with the history we have narrated of the tariff question, it would seem as if, in this subject alone, the South had graver justification, than that which is held to have warranted the first revolution.

To this it will be replied, that the duty on teain itself a small matter-embodied a great principle-" Taxation without representation." In passing the Morrill tariff, there was taxation, in the absence of representation. But passing that point, and fully admitting the principle announced, we think another may be found as great,—the principle of justice. Taxation without representation, was held to violate the British Consti

tution, although great cities in England were so taxed. Is it not a violation of the American Constitution, so to impose taxation, that it shall benefit one portion of the Union, at the expense of the other? The people of the South appear to have the same cause, as regards the fact, to an infinitely greater degree; and as regards the principle, they seem to have one above any theoretical deductions a principle-embodied in a compact legible by all, and acknowledged by men, where no Constitutions exist-the principle of justice.

A tariff question may appear to be one, unlikely to be mingled with any kind of sentiment. Between two sections of a community equally prosperous, this would be the case. But circumstances may exist, that will render it a source of strong feeling also. Senator Benton remarks on the tariff of 1828: "The South believed itself impoverished to enrich the North, by this system; and certainly, an unexpected result had been seen in these two sections. In the colonial state, the Southern were the richer part of the colonies, and they expected to do well in a state of independence. But in the first half century after independence, this expectation was reversed. wealth of the North was enormously aggrandized; that of the South had declined. Northern towns had become great cities, Southern cities had decayed, or become stationary; and Charleston, the principal port of the South, was less considerable than before the revolution. The North

The

become a money-lender to the South, and Southern citizens made pilgrimages to Northern cities to raise money upon their patrimonial estates. The Southern States attributed this result to the action of the Federal Government-its double action of levying revenue upon the industry of one section of the Union, and expending it in another, and especially to its protective tariffs." In truth, the view common in the Southern States, is, that the South has been used as a tributary, drained for the benefit of the North. To some extent, though by no means to the extent they imagine, this has really been the case. The same belief exists quietly, too, in the North, and possibly may be one element in the intense desire of New York to retain the connection. In a community entirely mercantile, it is probable that, at the root of such a sentiment, there will be found some conception of profit.

Now, it cannot be without some sensibility, that the Southerner of the older States will look upon the seats of its former gentry now mouldering in decay, and grown with weeds. And when laws are imposed upon him, manifestly unjust, which in his judgment are calculated to bring about such results as he beholds, a sense of wrong will be embittered by feelings of humiliated pride, and of regret for the fallen importance of his State. This feeling of attachment to his own State is peculiarly strong in the older portions of the South. The Union is an epithet, an abstraction,

the State is a reality before him. He drew his breath upon its soil, he has played upon its shores, he has rambled in its woods, he has bathed in its streams,-the outline of its mountains is familiar to his mind, as the features of some face engraven in the memories of youth. The Union may be a theme for imagination,—one part of it only can stir his heart. The Scotchman feels pride in the greatness of the British empire, but this is a poor and feeble emotion, to that with which he turns to Scotland. All this may be called local attachment, it may be unconstitutional, it may be unwise, but, after all, it is human nature. And those who pretend to govern great dominions, have not to legislate for men as they would have them to be, but as they are. It is for statesmen to take strong feelings into account, when they know them to exist; and when those feelings are embittered by surrounding. circumstances, and are morbid, or excited, be it ever so erroneously, on some special topic, it would at any rate have been well,--when face to face with the gaunt spirit of Revolution,—to have left that subject alone.

*

We have now examined the three principal grievances advanced by the South. They hold that, under a Constitution which prescribes perfect equality, and forbids " preference," they ought not to be compelled to pay enormous duties on all they require for their industry from abroad, whilst all that is required for its industry by the North

is obtained by it free of duty. They have protested against this for thirty years in vain. They now see that, under the irresistible growth of population in the North, political power has passed from its original tenure, and is gone without hope of return. They feel the bitterness of the gnawing agitation long carried on by the Abolitionists, in plain violation of the spirit of the Constitution. They ask if it be expedient to remain under a bond which it no longer suits the other parties to fulfil. It has been written-" The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life" they feel that this spirit which giveth life has long passed away, whilst the letter remains, and kills them. The objects of the Union, expressed in the preamble to the Constitution, have not been accomplished. It has not formed "a more perfect union" of interests, or opinions, or affections. All these have grown more and more discordant. It has not maintained justice in matters of commerce; and in those of the law, all that could be done, has been done to degrade it. Whether or not it has “ provided for the general welfare" is essentially a question of opinion. In the opinion of the people of the South, it has been made to provide for the welfare of the North, at their expense,

Looking to its continuance, they see themselves consigned to a perpetual minority, in hopeless subserviency to a people whom they neither love nor respect to those who differ in habits, in social system, in interests, in tastes. They might resign