It is a great mistake to suppose that disunion can be effected by a single blow.  The cords which bound these States together in one common Union, are far too numerous and powerful for that.  Disunion must be the work of time.  It is only through a long process, and successively, that the cords can be snapped, until the whole fabric falls asunder.  Already the agitation of the slavery question has snapped some of the most important, and has greatly weakened all the others, as I shall proceed to show.

The cords that bind the States together are not only many, but various in character.  Some are spiritual or ecclesiastical; some political; others social.  Some appertain to the benefit conferred by the Union, and others to the feeling of duty and obligation.

The strongest of those of a spiritual and ecclesiastical nature, consisted in the unity of the great religious denominations, all of which originally embraced the whole Union.  All these denominations, with the exception, perhaps, of the Catholics, were organized very much upon the principle of our political institutions.  Beginning with smaller meetings, corresponding with the political divisions of the country, their organization terminated in one great central assemblage, corresponding very much with the character of Congress.  At these meetings the principal clergymen and lay members of the respective denominations from all parts of the Union, met to transact business relating to their common concerns.  It was not confined to what appertained to the doctrines and discipline of the respective denominations, but extended to plans for disseminating the Bible—­establishing missions, distributing tracts—­and of establishing presses for the publication of tracts, newspapers, and periodicals, with a view of diffusing religious information—­and for the support of their respective doctrines and creeds.  All this combined contributed greatly to strengthen the bonds of the Union.  The ties which held each denomination together formed a strong cord to hold the whole Union together, but, powerful as they were, they have not been able to resist the explosive effect of slavery agitation.

The first of these cords which snapped, under its explosive force, was that of the powerful Methodist Episcopal Church.  The numerous and strong ties which held it together, are all broken, and its unity is gone.  They now form separate churches; and, instead of that feeling of attachment and devotion to the interests of the whole church which was formerly felt, they are now arrayed into two hostile bodies, engaged in litigation about what was formerly their common property.

The next cord that snapped was that of the Baptists—­one of the largest and most respectable of the denominations.  That of the Presbyterian is not entirely snapped, but some of its strands have given way.  That of the Episcopal Church is the only one of the four great Protestant denominations which remains unbroken and entire.