“the piercing cry Which shook the waves and rent the sky: E’en now, e’en now, on yonder western shores Weeps pale Despair, and writhing Anguish roars; E’en now on Afric’s groves, with hideous yell Fierce Slavery stalks, and slips the dogs of hell; From vale to vale the gathering cries rebound, And sable nations tremble at the sound!” The South actually could boast of but this one institution: for all others, either of commerce, agriculture, education, arts or sciences, they were indebted to the North. And yet they rebelled! The moment men, as well as nations, feel their own insignificance and witness the rising greatness of others, that moment they begin to plot mischief. Treason is the offspring of disappointment and a desire for power. Defeated ambition not unfrequently steps in, and out of such elements rebellions are made. Lucifer, therefore, may be quoted as the personification of the treason of Jeff Davis. The South also made the discovery that slave labor, devoted only to one object, was demoralizing the soil, as it had already demoralized society. Northern men and Northern manners did not suit their ideas of refinement, and thus the social relations became unpleasant. Every foot of ground neglected or simply used for one especial purpose was gradually wearing out. The census of 1850 furnishes the following facts connected with the decadency of the Southern soil. Three hundred and thirty-five thousand natives of Virginia emigrated from the State of Virginia and found homes elsewhere. South Carolina sent forth 163,000. North Carolina lost 261,575,—equal to thirty-one per cent. As regards Maryland, the extreme poverty of her soil can be directly traced to man’s neglect of what kind Nature sent him, that by the “sweat of his brow” he should cultivate and enjoy. If we were to trace the cause of this, it would be found to have originated in the sterility of the soil, the absence of free labor and agricultural knowledge. Southern men are not favorably disposed towards Northern improvements in any department, no matter whether it be trade, commerce, or agriculture: hence they have no such farms South as they have North, even in portions of their country where the soil is equally susceptible of improvement. The South stated distinctly, speaking through her secret councils, using their own language, “_that it could only hope for the real enjoyment of its rights in a_ SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY”! Mr. Kendall’s letter to the postmaster was applauded by the Southern press, and most severely censured by that of the North. One editor said, “There was but one course for the postmaster-general to pursue in relation to the distribution of the documents at Charleston, and that is, to have directed his subordinate officer to follow the statutes as laid down, and leave the result to the law. Instead of this, he tells him that it is _patriotism sometimes to disregard the law_!”