Violent _moral_ reforms constituted the _second_ stage of advancement with this disturbing spirit of our land; and the impunity which it realized in its progress seemed to be a warrant for the still farther extension of its domain. And behold! the next step was an invasion of the political fabric of our country, by a crusade on the Southern States for the rescue of the slaves! By this time a mighty moral associated power had been arrayed for any violent enterprise that should be set on foot. The entire ranks had been well schooled in a thorough contempt of all opinions except their own, and seemed to think, that the whole world were under a moral obligation to respect and yield to theirs. Custom and law seemed to have no respect in their eyes _because_ they were custom and law; but existing institutions were rather assumed to be wrong _because_ they existed. They had found the religious world all wrong, and undertook to revolutionize it without scruple; they had found the conventional social state all wrong, and assumed the task of imposing new laws upon that; and now they have discovered that the political fabric of our country is wrong, and have begun to tear it down, without leave, and in open violation of the supreme law of the land. Before they had stepped foot upon this ground, they had nothing to oppose them, and success inspired confidence. Wrong themselves they could not be, in their own esteem; they have never dreamed of being wrong; it is not the nature of fanaticism. But this stepping out of the appropriate sphere of religious and moral reform, into the arena of political strife, under a vast and powerful political machinery of their own creation, puts them in a new position. The religious world, and the conventional social state, they might invade with impunity, and devastate at pleasure; there was no adequate power to withstand them; but a recognized and long established political fabric will not give way so easy. Avaunt, ye infidels, and suspend your song of triumph, that religion is fallen, though it cannot be denied, that she is dishonored. She has been betrayed in her own house, and by her professed adherents: but their true character stands revealed. Christianity has never authorized such proceedings; but they are violations of her most sacred principles.