SHADOWS OF COMING TROUBLES 123 



of the Keystone State, assembled likewise in their 

 sovereign capacity, but that she will recommend it to 

 her sister states of the North, for like action on their 

 part, and so let the people, and not the politicians, 

 decide whether this Union is to be broken up". 



No tangible results, however, came from this effort, 

 and Maury began to despair of the two sections' being 

 able to arrive at a peaceable solution of the difficult 

 problem. He had a clear conception of the nature of 

 this fundamental question dividing the sections. ''The 

 diseavse", he wrote, "the root of the thing, is not in 

 cotton or slavery, nor in the election of Lincoln. But 

 it is deep down in the human heart. The real question 

 is a question of Empire. And I do not think our political 

 doctors will be able to treat the case upon any other 

 diagnosis than this. The country is divided into sec- 

 tions; it is immaterial by what influence". 



Meanwhile, Maury went about his work at the Ob- 

 servatory as well as he could with his mind distracted 

 by the unsettled state of the country. In September, 

 1860, he made a visit with Mrs. Maury and other mem- 

 bers of his family to Niagara Falls, and to Newburgh, 

 New York to see the family of his old friend Hasbrouck. 

 During the following month he went to Tennessee to 

 speak at the laying of the corner stone of the University 

 of the South at Sewanee, as has already been related. 

 On this visit, Maury weut to Nashville, where he de- 

 livered two speeches. One was to the school children 

 on the subject of the sea; the other was before the same 

 audience that heard Robert L. Yancey and on the same 

 subject, the state of the country. Yancey urged war 

 and made extravagant claims for success; but Maury 

 counseled moderation and warned the people that dan- 



