One of
the most eminent of the Republicans of Massachusetts declared that he
felt hurt at the thought that his party could be suspected of approving
the conduct of Captain John Brown at Harper's Ferry. Down to the
spring-time of 1860, it required, on the part of the American
slaveholding interest, only a moderate display of that prudence which is
said to be the chief virtue of an aristocracy, to secure all they
possessed,--which was all the country had to give,--and to prepare the
way for such gains as it might be found necessary to make, as the
American nation should increase in strength. But this prudence the
slaveholders would not display. They annoyed and insulted the people of
the Free States. They broke up the Democratic party, which was well
disposed to do their work. They pursued such a course as compelled the
great majority of the American people to take up arms against them, and
to abolish slavery by an act of war. The effect was the fall of a body
of men who certainly were very powerful, and who were believed to be
very wise in their generation. It was impossible to attack them as long
as they were true to their own interests, and they could fall only
through being attacked. They made war on the nation, and the nation was
forced to defend herself, and destroyed them.
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