The South was insisting in all stages of passion that the tide of Abolition be checked in the North, that the flood of incendiary publications be suppressed at their sources in the free States.

The Southern slave-holding President had suggested the suppression of these by Congress.

He would "prohibit, under severe penalties, the circulation in the Southern States, through the mail, of incendiary publications intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection." But when Webster and a few Northern leaders objected to such a proceeding as unconstitutional and in derogation of the freedom of the press, the South treated the objection as inimical to Southern interest and security.

Thereupon the Southern excitement increased all the faster.

The slave-power was not disposed to accept anything short of complete submission on the part of the North.