Thus over nearly half of the national domain and among a large minority
of the citizens of the Republic, the dynasty of Cotton has worked a
divergence from original principle. Wherever the sway of King Cotton
extends, the people have for the present lost sight of the most
essential of our national attributes. They are seeking to found a great
and prosperous republic on the cultivation of a single staple product,
and not on intelligence universally diffused: consequently they
have founded their house upon the sand. Among them, cotton, and
not knowledge, is power. When thus reduced to its logical
necessities,--brought down, as it were, to the hard pan,--the experience
of two thousand years convincingly proves that their experiment as a
democracy must fail. It is, then, a question of vital importance to
the whole people,--How can this divergence be terminated? Is there any
result, any agency, which can destroy this dynasty, and restore us as a
people to the firm foundations upon which our experiment was begun? Can
the present agitation effect this result? If it could, the country might
joyfully bid a long farewell to "the canker of peace," and "hail the
blood-red blossom of war with a heart of fire"; but the sad answer, that
it cannot, whether resulting in the successor Democrat or Republican,
seems almost too evident for discussion.
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