Who can say where Secession will stop? That is a question which is raised by Mr. Lincoln, in a part of his inaugural address, directed to enforce upon fools and madmen the necessity of acquiescence by minorities in the decision of majorities. The President tells the frantic portion of his fellow countrymen that:—
"There is no alternative for continuing the Government but acquiescence on one side or the other. If a minority in such a case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will ruin and divide them, for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such a minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this."
The force of this simple reasoning will be seen by the lunatics to whom it is addressed, during their lucid intervals, if they have any. It may even be hoped that some of them may recover the use of their reflecting faculties so far as to be enabled to follow out President Lincoln's argument, and their own folly, into ultimate consequences and conclusions. Then they will see what is likely to be the end of Secession, for it is not quite true that there is no end to Secession, and the end of Secession will be for the Secessionists an end of everything. Seceders will go on seceding and subseceding, until at last every citizen will secede from every other citizen, and each individual will be a sovereign state in himself, self-government personified, a walking autonomy, a lone star, doing business and supporting itself off its own hook.
When the seceding states were in search of a name, Punch suggested that of Slaveownia, and when at the convention held February 9, 1861, at Montgomery, Alabama, they adopted the title of the Confederate States of America, Punch reopened his battery in this fashion:
"The Southern Secessionists must be admitted to be blessed with at least the philosophical virtue of self-knowledge. They term this new league the 'Confederate States of America'; thus they call themselves by what they doubtless feel to be their right name. They are confederates in the crime of upholding slavery. A correct estimate of their moral position is manifest in that distinctive denomination of theirs, 'Confederate States.' This title is a beautiful antithesis to that of the United States of America. The more doggedly confederate slave mongers combine, the more firmly good republicans should unite."
Once more when reviewing Jefferson Davis' message to the Confederate Congress, Punch recognized that slavery was really the bone of contention between the two sections:
THE JUST AND HOLY CAUSE OF SLAVERY
"We feel," says President Jefferson Davis, in his Message to the Secessional Congress, "that our cause is just and holy." Could not the negroes of the Southern States, if they rose against their masters, say just as much, with at least equal justice, for their own insurrection? The less Mr Davis says about justice and holiness the better, if he does not want to preach a dangerous doctrine, besides being considered a humbug. "Dash holiness, and justice be blanked!" is the consistent language for Mr. Jefferson Davis. "Might is right; we expect to thrash the Northerners; and the Institution of Slavery for ever!"
Again, when General Beauregard declared in a proclamation to the South that "unborn generations would arise and call them blessed," Punch declared that the reporters, with their proverbial inaccuracy, had omitted the concluding word "rascals."
Yet even now, it appealed to both sections to restrain their hands from flying at each other's throats: