The New Englander sees this just as plainly as the Virginian, and both
have an equal pride in thinking that Cavalier and Roundhead are fighting
the old battle once more. Disputes about tariffs and falsified
compromises have only been specious pretexts for indulging in a spirit
of antagonism, which was then scarcely dissembled, and can never be
glossed over again. But the Federal Government are not only pursuing a
_mirage_, in trying to enforce a Union which could scarcely be
maintained if all the South country lay depopulated and desolate: they
are risking, every day, more perilously, the cohesion of the States that
still cling to the old Commonwealth. The Black Republican tendency to
put down all political opposition with the armed hand, or with the
_lettre de cachet_, is perpetually conflicting with the State rights,
which many true-hearted Americans value no less highly than their
allegiance to the Union. The Democrats are almost strong enough to defy
their opponents, even while the latter are in power; and resistance to
the Conscription may be only the beginning of a struggle that will
terminate in a second solution of political continuity, not less earnest
than the first. Listen to _The World_, of the 19th May, speaking of
Vallandigham's arrest:
"The blood that already makes crimson Virginian and Kentucky hill-sides,
is but a drop to that which will flow on northern soil, when the
American people discover that the battle has begun to save the
Constitution from tyrants.
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