Slavery at that time was not an issue. Sectional rivalry and sectional
hatred antedates even our fight against England for our freedom.
Washington was compelled to warn his soldiers when they entered New
England to avoid the appearance of offense. The Governor of
Massachusetts refused to call on George Washington, the first President
of the Union, when he visited Boston.
"And mark you, back of the sectional issue looms a vastly bigger
one--whether the Union is a Republic of republics or a Centralized
Empire. The millions of foreigners who have poured into the North from
Europe during the past thirty years, until their white population
outnumbers ours four to one, know nothing and care nothing about the
Constitution of our fathers. They know nothing and care nothing for the
principles on which the Federal Union was founded. They came from
empires. They think as their fathers thought in Europe. And they are
driving the sons of the old Revolution in the North into the acceptance
of the ideas of centralized power. If this tendency continues the
President of the United States will become the most autocratic ruler of
the world. The South stands for the sovereignty of the States as the
only bulwark against the growth of this irresponsible centralized
despotism.
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