SHADOWS OF COMING TROUBLES 121 



precipitate the acquisition of Cuba, and John Brown's 

 raid at Harper's Ferry. He beheved that the people as 

 a whole, both of the North and of the South, were not 

 in sympathy with such schemes, but that such raids and 

 filibustering expeditions were fostered by the unwisely 

 partisan press, pulpit, and politicians. 



He, therefore, suggested the calling of a council of 

 men out of politics, ex-governors and old judges, from 

 different states of the South to formulate some kind of 

 a proposition to lay before the people of the North. 

 ''It will never do", he wrote, "to suffer this Union to 

 drift into dissolution". With this end in view, he wrote 

 to the governors of the border states, Pennsylvania, 

 New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware, to act as medi- 

 ators. 



His letter to Governor Packer of Pennsylvania will 

 give an idea of what he hoped to accomxplish. "When 

 the affairs of a nation are disturbed", he declared, "quiet 

 people, however humble their station, may be justified 

 in stepping a little out of their usual way. In all exer- 

 tions of duty, something is to be hazarded ; and I am sure 

 you have only time to hear what I wish to write — none 

 to listen to apologies for venturing to write you this 

 letter. You recollect that, in the nullification times of 

 South Carolina, Virginia stepped forward as mediator, 

 and sent her commissioners to that state with the 

 happiest results. But we are now in the midst of a 

 crisis, more alarming to the peace and integrity of the 

 Union than those memorable times. We have the 

 people, in no less than seven of those states, assembling 

 or preparing to assemble in their sovereign capacity to 

 decide in the most solemn manner known to them 

 whether they will remain in the Union or no. The most 



