Cobbs-Hoffman Elizabeth, Blum Edward J., Gjerde Jon. Major Problems in American History, Volume I, 3 edition (ENG)

CHAPTER 13

Careening Toward Civil War

For many Americans, the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2,

1848, was a moment of fulfillment and a cause for jubilation. The United States had

just won a war against Mexico and had gained title to some 500,000 square miles of

land. Although in retrospect we may see the Mexican-American War as a war of aggression

by the United States, many Americans at the time saw it as the realization of manifest

destiny. The nation now encompassed nearly three million square miles; in some seventy

years, the United States had become a transcontinental colossus. Ironically, this national

victory planted the seeds for civil war. As Americans celebrated, they had to determine

politically the ways in which the newly acquired lands would be developed. For nearly

thirty years, American politicians had attempted to create a balance between slave and free

states. Now the issue of how or if slavery would be extended westward became the question

of the day. As politicians endeavored to deal with the question, Americans of various stripes

became actively engaged in the debate and increasingly illustrated the fact that perhaps this

was not an issue that had a political solution. Americans became increasingly violent in

their political and economic opinions.

Both before the 1840s and afterward, politicians typically attempted to arrive at com-

promise. Because there were two strong national political parties vying for power, it was in

their interests to maintain a spirit of compromise between the North and South. Accord-

ingly, after bitter debate, Congress passed the Compromise of 1850, which purportedly

solved the problem. One part of the compromise admitted California as a free state, thus

forever creating an imbalance between free and slave states. Another component of the com-

promise was the Fugitive Slave Act, which empowered slaveowners to go to court to recap-

ture people who had escaped northward. Alleged fugitives were denied the right of trial by

jury, and white people in the North were required to abet efforts to recapture fugitive slaves.

As Americans soon found out, however, this time compromise did not solve the problem; in

fact, it may have worsened it.

Distrust among Americans multiplied in the 1850s, in part because of the failure

of the attempts at compromise. The abolitionist movement grew in the North, in part

because of the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe

that powerfully indicted slavery and the Fugitive Slave Act. Many northerners contended

that their region, with its growing population, flourishing industry, and “free labor,” was

383

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the best model for America’s future. They worried about a “slave power conspiracy” that

seemingly controlled the national government and was intent on spreading slavery west-

ward, to the detriment of white farmers who also wanted to farm the available western

lands. With increased reliance on the economy of the slave trade, southern whites seemed

to need more and more land. At the same time, white people in the South became increas-

ingly distrustful of northerners. In the southern view, northerners were promoting abolition-

ism and thus endangering the system of plantation slavery, which from their perspective was

what created an ordered and stable society.

As these divisions grew, the strains on the political party systems became so great that

a political crisis developed in the 1850s. First the Whig Party, then the newly formed

American Party, and finally the Democratic Party were unable to address the concerns of

their constituents. These failures were compounded by further attempts to address the ques-

tion of slavery. The Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 resulted in de facto civil war in Kansas

Territory shortly after its passage; the Dred Scott decision in 1857 convinced many north-

erners that the Supreme Court was proslavery; and John Brown’s raid in 1859 persuaded

many white southerners that northern abolitionists were intent on fomenting slave rebellion.

In 1860, when Abraham Lincoln became the first candidate of the Republican Party to be

elected president, he received only 39 percent of the popular vote and only a little over

1 percent of the vote in slave states. Many white southerners considered Lincoln to represent

not just the North, but the incendiary abolitionist elements of northern society. Within five

weeks of Lincoln’s election, seven legislatures of the Lower South had called for elections to

consider secession. By February 22, they had formed a new nation, written a constitution,

and inaugurated their new president, Jefferson Davis. Ten days remained before Lincoln

would take office. The United States was on the brink of its bloodiest war.

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT

Was the Civil War inevitable? Can you think of ways in which compromises

might have forestalled the division between the North and the South? Were

economic or political issues at the base of the conflict? Of the documents you

have read in this chapter, which is most conciliatory toward the other side?

Which is most antagonistic?

DOCUMENTS

During the debate that ended in the Compromise of 1850, Senator John C.

Calhoun in document 1 warns about the divisions that have grown between

the sections. He argues that these divisions will increase as the disequilibrium

between North and South in the national government grows. In document 2,

Frederick Douglass powerfully depicts the hypocrisy of celebrating American

freedom on the Fourth of July as long as slavery exists. The reactions to Uncle

Tom’s Cabin varied, as the two reviews included as document 3 illustrate.

Whereas a literary journal in the South considers Stowe’s depiction of slavery

384 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY

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to be too harsh, an abolitionist paper objects to the nonviolence of Uncle Tom.

In document 4, a series of letters written in “bleeding Kansas ” in 1856, a south-

erner recounts the violence between southerners and “Yankees” that existed in

the territory following the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The violence in Kansas ulti-

mately was duplicated on the floors of Congress. Senator Charles Sumner’s

speech, delivered in May of 1856, about the “crime against Kansas,” document 5,

was viewed by many white southerners as excessive. Sumner was attacked some

days later by a relative of Senator Butler, who is vilified in the speech. Document

6 is Chief Justice Roger Taney’s decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford, which was

hailed by proslavery southerners and condemned by antislavery northerners.

Among other things, Taney held that neither slaves nor free black people could

sue in court because they were not citizens and that no law could be passed to

prohibit slavery in the territories. In document 7, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen

Douglas debate the future of slavery and the legality of slavery in the territories.

Although Lincoln and Douglas were running for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois,

they replayed the debate two years later when they ran for president. In docu-

ment 8, Senator William Seward celebrates the system of free labor and argues

that conflict between societies based on free and slave labor is irrepressible. After

John Brown led a raid into the South in hopes of fostering a slave revolt, he

became a hero to many northerners, and his calm speech (document 9) in the

face of execution, denying any intentions of violence, only served to increase

his popularity. Finally, in document 10, just eight months before Lincoln’s elec-

tion, the Charleston Mercury argues that slavery must be protected in the territories

because the spread of the American nation westward and southward is all but

inevitable.

1. Senator John C. Calhoun

Proposes Ways to Preserve the Union, 1850

I have, Senators, believed from the first that the agitation of the subject of slavery

would, if not prevented by some timely and effective measure, end in

disunion…. [T]he Union is in danger. You have thus had forced upon you the

greatest and the gravest question that can ever come under your consideration:

How can the Union be preserved?…

The first question, then,… is: What is it that has endangered the Union?

To this question there can be but one answer: That the immediate cause is

the almost universal discontent which pervades all the States composing the

southern section of the Union….

… What is the cause of this discontent? It will be found in the belief of the

people of the southern States, as prevalent as the discontent itself, that they can-

not remain, as things now are, consistently with honor and safety, in the Union.

The next question to be considered is: What has caused this belief ?

John C. Calhoun, “Proposal to Preserve the Union,” speech on the Compromise of 1850.

CAREENING TOWARD CIVIL WAR

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One of the causes is, undoubtedly, to be traced to the long-continued agita-

tion of the slave question on the part of the North, and the many aggressions

which they have made on the rights of the South during the time….

There is another, lying back of it, with which this is intimately connected,

that may be regarded as the great and primary cause. That is to be found in the

fact that the equilibrium between the two Sections in the Government, as it

stood when the Constitution was ratified and the Government put in action

has been destroyed…. [A]s it now stands, one section has the exclusive power

of controlling the Government, which leaves the other without any adequate

means of protecting itself against its encroachment and oppression….

[The] great increase of Senators, added to the great increase of the House of

Representatives and the electoral college on the part of the North, which must

take place under the next decade, will effectually and irretrievably destroy the

equilibrium which existed when the Government commenced….

As … the North has the absolute control over the Government, it is mani-

fest that on all questions between it and the South, where there is a diversity of

interests, the interests of the latter will be sacrificed to the former, however op-

pressive the effects may be….

If the agitation goes on, the same force, acting with increased intensity, as

has been shown, will finally snap every cord, when nothing will be left to bind

the States together except force….

How can the Union be saved? To this I answer, there is but one way by

which it can be, and that is by adopting such measures as will satisfy the States

belonging to the southern section that they can remain in the Union consistently

with their honor and their safety.

2. Frederick Douglass Asks How a Slave

Can Celebrate the Fourth of July, 1852

Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak

here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national inde-

pendence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice,

embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, there-

fore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to con-

fess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your

independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer

could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light,

and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation’s

sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of

gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who

so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a

Frederick Douglass, Fourth of July Oration (1852), in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, Vol. II, Pre-Civil War

Decade, 1850–1860, ed. Philip S. Foner (New York: International Publishers Co., Inc. 1950). Obtained from http://

www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927t.html.

386 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY

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nation’s jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am

not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the

“lame man leap as an hart.”

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity

between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high

independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings

in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance

of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is

shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you,

has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine….

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals

to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to

which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your

boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your

sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass

fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your

prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious

parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and

hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of

savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and

bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies

and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out

every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the

everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting

barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.

3. Reviewers Offer Differing Opinions

About Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852

I.

In the execution of her very difficult task, Mrs. Stowe has displayed rare descrip-

tive powers, a familiar acquaintance with slavery under its best and its worst

phases, uncommon moral and philosophical acumen, great facility of thought

and expression, feelings and emotions of the strongest character….

The appalling liabilities which constantly impend over such slaves as have

“kind and indulgent masters” are thrillingly illustrated in various personal narra-

tives; especially in that of “Uncle Tom,” over whose fate every reader will drop

the scalding tear, and for whose character the highest reverence will be felt. No

insult, no outrage, no suffering, could ruffle the Christ-like meekness of his spirit,

or shake the steadfastness of his faith. Towards his merciless oppressors, he cher-

ished no animosity, and breathed nothing of retaliation. Like his Lord and

(I) William Lloyd Garrison, Review in The Liberator, March 26, 1852, 50.

CAREENING TOWARD CIVIL WAR

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Master, he was willing to be “led as a lamb to the slaughter,” returning blessing

for cursing, and anxious only for the salvation of his enemies. His character is

sketched with great power and rare religious perception. It triumphantly exem-

plifies the nature, tendency and results of C

HRISTIAN NON-RESISTANCE. We are

curious to know whether Mrs. Stowe is a believer in the duty of non-resistance

for the white man, under all possible outrage and peril, as well as for the black

man…. That all the slaves at the South ought, “if smitten on the one cheek, to

turn the other also”—to repudiate all carnal weapons, shed no blood, “be obe-

dient to their masters,” wait for a peaceful deliverance, and abstain from all in-

surrectionary movements—is every where taken for granted, because the

VICTIMS

ARE BLACK

. They cannot be animated by a Christian spirit, and yet return blow

for blow, or conspire for the destruction of their oppressors. They are required by

the Bible to put away all wrath, to submit to every conceivable outrage without

resistance, to suffer with Christ if they would reign with him…. Is there one law

of submission and non-resistance for the black man, and another law of rebellion

and conflict for the white man? When it is the whites who are trodden in the

dust, does Christ justify them in taking up arms to vindicate their rights? And

when it is the blacks who are thus treated, does Christ require them to be pa-

tient, harmless, long-suffering, and forgiving? And are there two Christs?

II.

We have devoted a much larger space to the plot of “Uncle Tom’sCabin” than we

designed…; it only remains for us to consider briefly those points upon which the

authoress rests her abuse of the Southern States, in the book as a whole. These may

be reduced to three—the cruel treatment of the slaves, their lack of religious instruc-

tion, and a wanton disregard of the sacred ties of consanguinity in selling members

of the same family apart from each other.

… [M]any of the allegations of cruelty towards the slaves, brought forward

by Mrs. Stowe, are absolutely and unqualifiedly false. As for the comfort of their

daily lives and the almost parental care taken of them on well-regulated planta-

tions, we may say that the picture of the Shelby estate, drawn by Mrs. Stowe

herself, is no bad representation. The world may safely be challenged to produce

a laboring class, whose regular toil is rewarded with more of the substantial con-

flicts of life than the negroes of the South. The “property interest” at which the

authoress sneers so frequently in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” is quite sufficient to

ensure for the negro a kindness and attention, which the day-laborer in New

England might in vain endeavor to win from his employer….

The lack of religious instruction for slaves is a charge against the South, in

great favor with Northern fanatics, many of whom are deplorably in want of

“religious instruction” themselves, and vastly beneath the pious slave in that

love for their neighbour which is the keystone of the Christian arch. Yet never

was there a charge more extravagant. We can tell these worthies that throughout

the Southern States a portion of every house of worship is set apart for the

(II) Unsigned (probably John R. Thompson), Review in Southern Literary Messenger, October 1852, 637–638.

388 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY

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accommodation of slaves; that upon very many plantations, may be seen rude

but comfortable buildings, dedicated to God, where stated preaching of His

Holy Word is ordained; that Sabbath schools for negroes are established in sev-

eral of the Southern cities; and that in every Southern family, almost without an

exception, where morning and evening prayers are held, the domestics of the

household are called together to unite in them …. Writers like Mrs. Stowe, in

treating of this subject, assume that there can be no acquaintance with gospel

truth among a class who are not permitted to learn to read. But how many

of the early Christians were ignorant and illiterate persons? The fishermen of

Galilee were men without instruction when they first followed the fortunes of

the lowly Nazarene. As for Mrs. Stowe, she is answered upon this point in her

own pages. Uncle Tom was no scholar, and after many years of diligent applica-

tion could at last read his bible with difficulty. Yet where shall we find a nobler

and purer exemplification of the “beauty of holiness” than in him? It is, indeed, a

triumphant vindication of the institution of slavery against Mrs. Stowe’s assaults,

that in a slaveholding community, a character so perfect as “Uncle Tom” could

be produced ….

The sundering of family ties among the negroes is undoubtedly a dreadful

thing as represented by Abolition pamphleteers. Nor have we any desire to close

our eyes to the fact that occasionally there do occur instances of compulsory sepa-

ration involving peculiar hardship. But … in the very State which Mrs. Stowe has

chosen for her most painful incident of this character, there are statutory regula-

tions mitigating very much the severity of this condition of affairs, and we may add

that every where the salutary influence of an enlightened public opinion enforces

the sale of near relatives in such manner as that they may be kept as much as pos-

sible together. We are of opinion too that heart-rending separations are much less

frequent under the institution of slavery than in countries where poverty rules the

working classes with despotic sway. But admit the hardship to its full extent, and

what does it prove? Evils are inseparable from all forms of society and this giant

evil (if you will call it so) is more than counterbalanced by the advantages the

negro enjoys.

4. Axalla John Hoole, a Southerner,

Depicts “Bleeding Kansas,” 1856

Kansas City, Missouri, Apl. 3d., 1856

My Dear Brother …

The Missourians (all of whom I have conversed with, with the exception of

one who, by the way, I found out to be an Abolitionist) are very sanguine about

Kansas being a slave state & I have heard some of them say it shall be. I have met

with warm reception from two or three, but generally speaking, I have not met

William Stanley Hoole, ed., “A Southerner’s Viewpoint of the Kansas Situation” (1856–1857), Kansas Historical

Quarterly, Vol. 3 (1934).

CAREENING TOWARD CIVIL WAR

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with the reception which I expected. Everyone seems bent on the Almighty

Dollar, and as a general thing that seems to be their only thought….

… Give my love to [the immediate family] and all the Negroes….

Your ever affectionate brother, Axalla.

Lecompton, K. T., Sept. 12, 1856

My dear Mother …

You perceive from the heading of this that I am now in Lecompton, almost

all of the Proslavery party between this place and Lawrence are here. We

brought our families here, as we thought that we would be better able to defend

ourselves when altogether than if we scattered over the country.

Lane came against us last Friday (a week ago t o-day). As it happened we

had almo st 400 men with two cannon—we march ed out to meet him, th ough

we were under the impression at the time that w e had 1,000 men. We came in

gunshot of each other, but the regular soldiers came and interferred, but not

before our party had shot some dozen gun s, by which it is reported tha t five

of the Abolitionists were killed or wounded. We had strict orders fro m our

commanding officer (Gen’l Marshall) not to fire until they made the attack,

but some of our boys wo uld not be restrained. I was a rifleman and on e of

the skirmishers, but did all that I could to restrain our men though I itched

all over to shoot….

… I am more uneasy about making money than I am about being killed by

the Yankees…

Your Affectionate Son.

Douglas, K. T., July the 5th., 1857

Dear Sister

I fear, Sister, that coming here will do no good at last, as I begin to think

that this will be made a Free State at last. ’Tis true we have elected Proslavery

men to draft a state constitution, but I feel pretty certain, if it is put to the vote

of the people, it will be rejected, as I feel pretty confident they have a majority

here at this time. The South has ceased all efforts, while the North is redoubling

her exertions ….

One of our most staunch Proslavery men was killed in Leavensworth a few

days ago. It is hard to ascertain the facts in relation to the murder correctly, but

as far as I can learn, there was an election for something. The man who was

killed ( Jas. Lyle) went up to the polls and asked for a ticket. An Abolitionist

handed him one which he, Lyle, tore in two. The other asked him why he did

that; he replied he did all such tickets that way. The Abolitionist told him he had

better not do so again, when Lyle told him if he would give him another he

would. It was given him, and he tore it also, at which the Abolitionist drew a

bowie knife and stabbed Lyle to the heart, then ran a few paces, drew a revolver,

and commenced firing at the dying man. The fellow was taken prisoner and

eighty men were sent from Lawrence that night, by Jim Lane, to keep Lyle’s

friends from hanging him. Gov. Walker put out for Leavensworth on Friday to

390 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY

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have the prisoner carried to the fort, in order to keep the Abolitionists from

rescuing him, or prevent Lyle’s friends from hanging him by mob law….

You must give my love to all…. Tell all the Negroes a hundred Howdies

for us….

Your Affectionate Brother, Axalla.

5. Senator Charles Sumner Addresses

the “Crime Against Kansas,” 1856

MR. PRESIDENT:

You are now called to redress a great transgression. Seldom in the history of

nations has such a question been presented….

Take down your map, sir, and you will find that the Territory of Kansas,

more than any other region, occupies the middle spot of North America….

A few short months only have passed since this spacious and mediterranean coun-

try was open only to the savage who ran wild in its woods and prairies; and now it

has already drawn to its bosom a population of freemen larger than Athens….

Against this Territory, thus fortunate in position and population, a crime has

been committed, which is without example in the records of the past….

… It is the rape of a virgin Territory, compelling it to the hateful embrace of

Slavery; and it may be clearly traced to a depraved longing for a new slave State,

the hideous offspring of such a crime, in the hope of adding to the power of

slavery in the National Government….

… The strife is no longer local, but national. Even now, while I speak, portents

hang on all the arches of the horizon threatening to darken the broad land, which

already yawns with the mutterings of civil war. The fury of the propagandists of Slav-

ery, and the calm determination of their opponents, are now diffused from the dis-

tant Territory over widespread communities, and the whole country….

… [A] madness for Slavery which would disregard the Constitution, the

laws, and all the great examples of our history; also a consciousness of power

such as comes from the habit of power; a combination of energies found only

in a hundred arms directed by a hundred eyes; a control of public opinion

through venal pens and a prostituted press; an ability to subsidize crowds in every

vocation of life—the politician with his local importance, the lawyer with his

subtle tongue, and even the authority of the judge on the bench; and a familiar

use of men in places high and low, so that none, from the President to the low-

est border postmaster, should decline to be its tool; all these things and more

were needed, and they were found in the slave power of our Republic. There,

sir, stands the criminal, all unmasked before you—heartless, grasping, and

tyrannical….

Senator Charles Sumner, speech in the U.S. Senate on the “Crime Against Kansas,” delivered May 19–20, 1856;

reprinted in Evening Journal (Albany, N.Y.), May 22–23, 1856.

CAREENING TOWARD CIVIL WAR

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… I must say something of a general character, particularly in response to

what has fallen from Senators who have raised themselves to eminence on

this floor in championship of human wrongs. I mean the Senator from South

Carolina (Mr. Butler), and the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas)…. The Senator

from South Carolina has read many books of chivalry, and believes himself a

chivalrous knight, with sentiments of honor and courage. Of course he has cho-

sen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is

always lovely to him: though polluted in the sight of the world; is chaste in his

sight. I mean the harlot, Slavery. For her, his tongue is always profuse in words.

Let her be impeached in character, or any proposition made to shut her out from

the extension of her wantonness, and no extravagance of manner or hardihood

of assertion is then too great for this Senator. The frenzy of Don Quixote, in

behalf of his wench, Dulcinea del Toboso, is all surpassed. The asserted rights

of Slavery, which shock equality of all kinds, are cloaked by a fantastic claim of

equality. If the slave States cannot enjoy what, in mockery of the great fathers of

the Republic, he misnames equality under the Constitution in other words, the

full power in the National Territories to compel fellowmen to unpaid toil, to

separate husband and wife, and to sell little children at the auction block then,

sir, the chivalric Senator will conduct the State of South Carolina out of the

Union! Heroic knight! Exalted Senator! A second Moses come for a second

exodus!

… [T]he Senator in the unrestrained chivalry of his nature, has under-

taken to apply opprobrious words to those who differ from him on this floor.

He calls them “sectional and fanatical”; and opposition to the usurpation in

Kansas he denounces as “an uncalculating fanaticism.”… He is the uncom-

promising, unblushing representative on this floor of a flagrant sectio nalism,

which n ow domineers over the Republic, and yet with a ludicrou s ignorance

of his own position unable to see himself as others see him…,heappliesto

those here who resist his sectionalism the very epithet which designates

himself….

… [T]he Senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas) is the Squire of Slavery, its very

Sancho Panza, ready to do all its humiliating offices…. Standing on this floor,

the Senator issued his rescript, requiring submission to the Usurped Power of

Kansas; and this was accompanied by a manner—all his own—such as befits the

tyrannical threat. Very well. Let the Senator try. I tell him now that he cannot

enforce any such submission. The Senator, with the slave power at his back, is

strong; but he is not strong enough for this purpose….

The Senator dreams that he can subdue the North. He disclaims the open

threat, but his conduct still implies it. How little that Senator knows himself or

the strength of the cause which he persecutes! He is but a mortal man; against

him is an immortal principle. With finite power he wrestles with the infinite, and

he must fall. Against him are stronger battalions than any marshalled by mortal

arm[,] the inborn, ineradicable, invincible sentiments of the human heart[;]

against him is nature in all her subtle forces; against him is God. Let him try to

subdue these.

392 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY

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Cobbs-Hoffman Elizabeth, Blum Edward J., Gjerde Jon. Major Problems in American History, Volume I, 3 edition (ENG)

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