So stands the case between the sections. If the “anti-slavery” party was based on truth—if the negro, except in color, was a man like ourselves—if social subordination of this negro was wrong, and the four millions of these people at the South entitled to the same liberty as ourselves—and if the men who made this government designed it to include the inferior races of this continent, and it were really beneficial to equalize and fraternize with these negroes, then, though it may be doubted, if using the common government to bring it about were proper, the _end_ in view would be so beneficent, and such a transcendent act of justice to these assumed slaves, that all honest, earnest, and patriotic citizens should promptly sustain the party now striving to accomplish it. But, on the contrary, if this party is based on a stupendous falsehood—if the negro is a different and inferior being, and in his normal condition at the South—and if the men who made this government, designed it for white men alone—then the length and breadth and width and depth of the “anti-slavery” delusion, and the crime of the “anti-slavery” party, which has broken up the Union in a blind crusade after negro freedom, will be fully comprehended by the American people. The whole mighty question, therefore, with all its vast and boundless consequences, hinges on the apparently simple question of _fact_—is the negro, except in color, a man like ourselves, and therefore naturally entitled to the same liberty? It is absolutely certain that neither the liberty, the rights, nor the interests of one single northern citizen is involved; nothing whatever but a blind and foolish theory of “negro slavery” which is attempted to be forced on the South. If the people of the two great sections of the country could change places, the vast “anti-slavery” delusion would be exploded in sixty days. But as this is impossible, the next best thing is to explain the actual condition of things in the South to the northern mind. This great work the author has undertaken, not to defend an imaginary slavery, for it needs no defense, but to explain the social order—to demonstrate to the senses, as well as the reason, that the negro is a different and subordinate being, and in his normal condition at the South; and thus to show the enormous and fathomless folly, crime, and impiety wrapped up in the great “anti-slavery” delusion of the day. The former edition of this work was put to press so hurriedly, that it contained many errors, but the present one has been carefully revised; and, moreover, the introductory chapter has been rewritten, in order to present a more distinct history of the origin and progress of the great British “anti-slavery” imposture which is now working out its legitimate and designed purpose in the destruction of the American Union.