They were sorely chagrined, and full of wrath. They hated the
South and her people. It was growing, and they were nursing it. Even
then we were a divided people, with every interest conserving to unite
us--the South producing and consuming; the North manufacturing,
carrying, and selling for, and to, the South. The harmony of commerce,
and the harmony of interest, had lost its power, and we were a divided
people. The breach widened, war followed, and ruin riots over the land.
The South was the weaker, and went down; the North was the stronger,
and triumphed--and the day of her vengeance has come.
In that remote time, the chase after the almighty dollar had commenced,
and especially in New England, where every sentiment was subordinate to
this. Patriotism was a secondary sentiment. Hypocritical pretension to
the purity of religion was used to cover the vilest practices, and to
shield from public indignation men who, praying, pressed into their
service the vilest means to make haste to be rich. The sordid parsimony
of ninety-hundredths of the population shut out every sentiment of
generosity, and rooted from the heart every emotion honorable to human
nature.
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