row, if they could go unchallenged. Secessionseparation by any means-is forever out of question, and out of mind. The overthrow of the principle is not so much as regretted. This, at least, has been gained by war, and it is a great deal to have gained, in any event. Perhaps it is worth all that it cost. On both sides there is now the sincere and earnest desire for "a more perfect union," that was confined to one side before the attempt at division was made. This, too, has been gained, and it is the greatest result attained by the war, since it places the Union on a firmer foundation than ever before. The most serious error that the people of the North have committed since the war has been in not recognizing and acting on this natural and assured change in the sentiment of Southern men, of all classes, but mainly of the most intelligent class. There has been enough of troubles in the South in its new condition, but none of them has been due to lack of loyalty to the restored Union itself. There is undoubtedly, in short, as sincere and ardent a desire for a cordial and complete reconciliation and reunion on the part of the people of the South, as there is on the part of the people of the North. Whatever degree of estrangement exists is due, not to the choice of either side, but to circumstances which neither side is wholly responsible for, and which are now beyond the control of either side alone. The hope of the future of this country rests on the common re

gard of both sides for the Union, on their common desire for reconciliation, and on their joint action for the common good which this common regard and desire shall inspire them to undertake.

And yet, notwithstanding these gains, and this common disposition and desire, the two peoples are still far apart. Regret it, explain it, as we may, the persistent truth comes to us constantly in countless disquieting forms, to mock our hope and vain self-deception. The Union of to-day is at last but the Union of yesterday, in fact, an indissoluble alliance of the North and the South, not a union of the People of the whole country.

Is it not so? The very existence and oftrepeated expression of a desire for a closer union is evidence that that desire has not been fulfilled. On how many occasions, every year, are we assured that, now the Union is certainly restored, and sectionalism is no more. We have heard this over and over again nearly every day for more than twenty years. Each new assertion but shows how little of truth there was in the last.

It is not necessary to press this view farther, or to qualify it in the particulars in which it may be qualified. The truth is better known by every man in the Republic than it can be told to him. Let the reader consider for himself how near together in sentiment, in sympathy, in true national spirit, are the people, for instance, of Connecticut and California; of South Carolina and Texas;

how far apart are the people of Pennsylvania and Virginia, of Ohio and Kentucky; and he cannot miss the meaning of what is asserted, or deny its verity.

The deliberate testimony of three United States Senators, not uttered in the heat of debate and without weighing their words, but committed to writing and published after careful revision, ought to be conclusive, at any rate. All that has been said in this chapter as to our divided state, is said in much more forcible terms in the speech of Senator John Sherman, of Ohio, already mentioned; in an article contributed by Senator J. J. Ingalls, of Kansas, to the June, 1888, number of the North American Review, and by Senator Wm. E. Chandler, of New Hampshire, in the Forum for July, 1888. These Senators are among the foremost statesmen and representatives of the Eastern, Middle, and Western States. Their views are in entire accord with each other, and together compel acceptance, if there were ground for doubt before. Their words are on record, and need not be repeated here.

The fact of a divided country is recognized and asserted on all hands. It cannot be set aside without setting aside the plainest, strongest evidence in which it could be presented. We may deal with it as a hard, cold, ugly fact, temporarily and thinly disguised, undoubtedly; but a fact, nevertheless, and one which the revival of a single political issue would certainly expose in all its ugliness,

II.

THE DIVISIONAL LINE.

BUT if the fact of division, of the continued existence of two sections in the Union, is plain and well known, is not the cause of such division equally plain and notorious? Has it, indeed, ever been hidden, or even obscure? Does any intelligent and honest man, North or South, doubt where it is to be found, or what it is? Every day it confronts us anew, as it has confronted us through all these many years, and compels recognition and consideration and action. We could not avoid stumbling over it, if we would, and we have stumbled often enough and fallen more than once. We are not yet a united people, because we are not yet a homogeneous people. And we are not a homogeneous people because of the presence and potent operation of an important and pervading factor in the social and civil life of the one section which is absent from or exerts scarcely an appreciable direct influence on the life of the other section. We need not mince words, nor multiply them. The presence of the Negro, in so largely disproportionate numbers, is the one distinguishing and differentiating characteristic of the condition of the South, as it has been from

the beginning; and as to this special and important feature of its condition we must attribute whatever is peculiar to that section, so likewise to its peculiarities, thus produced, we must attribute its inharmonious and isolated position in the Republic, and the diversity of character, opinion, and sentiment between the two peoples, North and South, of which that isolation is the stubborn, conspicuous, and fateful token.

Is not this true? Here is a notable and conspicuous fact in our past and present history, at all events.

The North has stretched away, unhindered in its growth, adding States and countries to its territory, until it reaches from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean; and very much of that growth has taken place since the war ended and the slave was made free. The population of the whole extended section, composed as it is of the most diverse elements, drawn from many and widely removed lands, are practically one in sentiment, in purpose-in all that goes to make of a people one nation.

The South remains separate and apart from the newer North and the old North alike; and is further removed, perhaps, in respect of sympathy and harmony, from the newer North than from the old-if that be possible.

The sun, from its rising to its setting, shines on a united people spread across the whole extended Continent, and ever growing more numerous,