Mrs. Whately felt that she must turn the tables at once, and so remarked, “It seems to me that the whole force of your argument tells against the North.  You are bent upon conquering the South and making it think as you do.”

“Oh, no.  Here the law of self-preservation comes in.  If the South can secede, so can the East and the West.  New York City can secede from the State.  We should have no country.  There could be no national life.  Would England accept the doctrine of secession, and permit any part of her dominions to set up for themselves when they chose?  I know you are about to say that is just what our fathers did.  Yes, but old mother England did not say, ’Go, my children, God bless you!’ Nor would she say it now to any other region over which floats her flag.  Of course, if you whip us, we shall have to submit, just as England did.  What government has helplessly sucked its thumbs when certain portions of the territory over which it had jurisdiction defied its power?  We are called Goths and Vandals, but that is absurd.  We are not seeking to conquer the South in any such old-world ways.  We are fighting that the old flag may be as supreme here as in New England.  The moment this is true you will be as free as are the people of New England.  The same constitution and laws will govern all.”

“And can you imagine for a moment, sir,” cried Mr. Baron, “that we will submit to a government that would be acceptable to New England?” “Yes, sir; and years hence, when the South has become as loyal as New England is now, if that abode of the Yankees should seek independence of the rest of the country she would be brought back under the flag.  I would fight New England as readily as I do the South, if she sought to break up the Union.  I would fight her if every man, woman and child within her borders believed themselves right.”

Now he saw Miss Lou looking perplexed.  Her quick mind detected the spirit of coercion, of substituting wills, against which he had been inveighing and from which she had suffered.  Mrs. Whately was quick to see the apparent weakness in his argument, for she said, “Consistency is a jewel which I suppose is little cared for by those so ready to appeal to force.  With one breath you say we must not coerce the wills of others, and now you say you would, even though you did violence to universal and sacred beliefs.”

“I say only that the nation must do this as must the individual.  Some one might say to me, ’I honestly think I should take off your right arm.’  I would not permit it if I could help it.  No more can a nation submit passively to dismemberment.  The South did not expect that this nation would do so.  It promptly prepared for war.  If the North had said, ’We can do nothing, there’s a blank, write out your terms and we’ll sign,’ we would have been more thoroughly despised than we were, if that were possible.  There are two kinds of coercion.  For instance, I do not say to you, Mrs. Whately, representing