' But it will be the wail of selfishness for the
sceptre which has departed forever from their hands. There is nothing to
fear from these. Very soon after the Government shall have vindicated
its competence and extended its jurisdiction over the rebel States, will
the most influential and active of their people range themselves on the
side of the 'powers that be'--such is the charm of power, the magic of
interest, the welcome of peace. All the antagonism generated and
cherished by slavery will have totally disappeared; and the South will
soon be on the side of all freedom. There will be cordial cooeperation
under free labor and free trade, between her people and our people; and
though diversified as to occupations, habits, and tastes, they will
constitute essentially one great political brotherhood.
When slavery, the cause of the present unhappy strife, is extinguished,
our country has little to fear, except, perhaps, from the Rocky
Mountains, which interpose so formidable a barrier between the Atlantic
and Pacific States of our great Federal Union. This mountain barrier and
the great distance by water may one day afford an occasion for the
encouragement of ambitious men to repeat the experiment of secession.
The antidote to this possible evil is the reduction of the most
formidable features of the barrier, and the shortening of the forbidding
interval.
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