"Not in its practical issues. The South needs no more territory; has not negroes to colonize it. The doctrine of 'No more Slave States' is an insult to us, but hardly an injury. The flow of population has settled that matter. You have won all the Territories, not even excepting New Mexico, where slavery exists nominally, but is sure to die out under the hostile influences of unpropitious soil and climate. The Territorial Question has become a mere abstraction. We no longer talk of it."
"Then your great grievance is the election of Lincoln?"
"Yes."
"And the grievance is all the greater because he was elected according to all the forms of law?"
"Yes."
"If he had been got into the Presidency by trickery, by manifest cheating, your grievance would have been less complete?"
"Yes."
"Is Lincoln considered here to be a bad or dangerous man?"
"Not personally. I understand that he is a man of excellent private character, and I have nothing to say against him as a ruler, inasmuch as he has never been tried. Mr. Lincoln is simply a sign to us that we are in danger, and must provide for our own safety."
"You secede, then, solely because you think his election proves that the mass of the Northern people is adverse to you and your interests?"