In this respect, there is a moral dignity, and even grandeur, in the struggles, secretly or openly going on in Italy, Austria, Germany, and France, which never can belong to the mere questions of mode and manner which occupy us--boundary questions, banks, tariffs, internal improvements, currency; all very necessary but secondary topics. They touch nothing deeper than the pocket. In this respect, there would be a marked contrast between the subjects which occupy us, and the grander life-themes that dignify European thought, were it not for one subject--_Slavery_. THAT is the ONLY _question, in our day and in our community, full of vital struggles turning upon fundamental principles_. If Slavery were a plantation-question, concerning only the master and the slave, disconnected from us, and isolated--then, though we should regret it, and apply moral forces for its ultimate remedy, yet, it would be, (as are questions of the same kind in India or South America,) remote, constituting a single element in that globe of darkness of which this world is the core, and which Christianity is yet to shine through and change to light. But it is _not_ a plantation-question. It is a national question. The disputes implied by the violent relations between the owner and the chattel may only _morally_ touch us.--But the disputes between the masters and the Government, and between the Government, impregnated with Slavery, and the Northern citizen, these touch us sharply, and if not wisely met, will yet scourge us with thorns! Indeed, I cannot say that I believe that New England and the near North will be affected _locally_, and immediately by an adverse issue of the great national struggle now going on. But the North will be an utterly dead force in the American nation. She will be rolled up in a corner, like a cocoon waiting for its transmigration. The whole North will become provincial; it will be but a fringe to a nation whose heart will beat in the South. But New-England was not raised up by Divine Providence to play a mean part in the world's affairs. Remember, that New-England brought to America those principles which every State in the Union has more or less thoroughly adopted. New-England first formed those institutions which liberty requires for beneficient activity; and from her, both before and since the Revolution, they have been copied throughout the Land. Having given to America its ideas and its institutions, I think the North is bound to stand by them. Until 1800, the North had distinctive national influence, and gave shape, in due measure, to national _policy_, as she had before to national institutions.