But why refer to slavery, it may be asked, since it has already become a thing of the past?
Slavery, to be sure, on the ground of political expediency, has been abolished.

For the time being, the ballots and bayonets of its opponents have outnumbered those of its partisans.

But has this changed the disposition by which it has heretofore been fostered?
Has it converted the South?
Have they been brought to look upon it as an evil which should be given up on account of its own intrinsic wrong?
We would that we could answer these questions in the affirmative.

But there are acts too patent to be denied, which show that the virus of this great iniquity still rankles in the body politic; that the system of slavery has been given up by the people of the South simply as a matter of necessity; that if they had the power they would re-instate it again though they should rend and ruin the Republic in their attempt; and hundreds of thousands in the North would sympathize with them in the movement, and second them in their efforts.

The disease is driven from the surface, but it is not cured.