The Disciples Of Jefferson, Even Though They Have Not
Known Themselves To Be His Disciples, Have Been Carrying On That
Fight for State rights which has ended in secession; and the
disciples of Hamilton, certainly not knowing themselves to be
His
disciples, have been making that stand for central government, and
for the one acknowledged republic, which is now at work in opposing
secession, and which, even though secession should to some extent be
accomplished, will, we may hope, nevertheless, and not the less on
account of such secession, conquer and put down the spirit of
democracy.
The political contest of parties which is being waged now, and which
has been waged throughout the history of the United States, has been
pursued on one side in support of that idea of an undivided
nationality of which I have spoken - of a nationality in which the
interests of a part should be esteemed as the interests of the
whole; and on the other side it has been pursued in opposition to
that idea. I will not here go into the interminable question of
slavery - though it is on that question that the Southern or
democratic States have most loudly declared their own sovereign
rights and their aversion to national interference. Were I to do so
I should fail in my present object of explaining the nature of the
Constitution of the United States. But I protest against any
argument which shall be used to show that the Constitution has
failed because it has allowed slavery to produce the present
division among the States.
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