People have taken in earnest the plans of the Southern Confederacy.  Nothing could be more imposing, in fact, if they had the least chance of success.  The fifteen Southern States, already immense, joined to Mexico, Cuba, and Central America—­what a power this would be!  And, doubtless, this power would not stop at the Isthmus of Panama:  it would be no more difficult to reestablish slavery in Bolivia, on the Equator, and in Peru, than in Mexico.  Thus the “patriarchal institution” would advance to rejoin Brazil, and the dismayed eye would not find a single free spot upon which to rest between Delaware Bay and the banks of the Uruguay.  Furthermore, this colossal negro jail would be stocked by a no less colossal slave trade:  barracoons would be refilled in Africa, slave expeditions would be organized on a scale hitherto unknown, and whole squadrons of slave ships (those “floating hells”) would transport their cargoes under the Southern colors, proudly unfurled; patriotic indignation would be aroused at the mere name of the right of search, and the whole world would be challenged to defend the liberty of the seas.

Such is the project in its majestic unity.  Such is the glorious ideal which the extreme South hoped to attain by its union with the North, and which it now seeks to attain by its separation.  The hearts of men beat high at the thought, and many are ready to give their lives heroically in order to secure its realization.  Alas! we are thus made; passion excuses every thing, transfigures every thing.

Each one feels instinctively, moreover, that no part of the plan can be separated from the whole; that it must be great to be respected; that to people this vast extent with slaves, the African slave trade is indispensable; of course, they took care not to avow all this at the first moment; it was necessary, in the beginning, to delude others, and perhaps themselves; it was necessary to obtain recognition.  On this account, the prudent politicians who have just drawn up the programme of the South, have been careful to record in it the prohibition of the African slave trade, and the disavowal of plans of conquest.  But this does not prevent the necessities of the position from becoming known by and by.  True programmes, adapted to the position of affairs, are not changed from day to day.  I defy the slave States, provided their Confederation succeeds in existing, to do otherwise than seek to extend towards the South; hemmed in on all sides by liberty, incessantly provoked by the impossibility of preventing the flight of their negroes, they will fall on those of their neighbors who are the least capable of resistance, and whose territory is most to their convenience.  This fact is obvious, as it is also obvious that they will have recourse to the African slave trade to people these new possessions.  It is in vain to deny it, on account of Europe, or of the border States; the necessities will subsist, and, sooner or later, they will be obeyed.  If