CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. MANTELL. 189 



TO DR. MANTELL. 



YALE COLLEGE, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, 

 July 18, 1833. 



MY DEAR SIR, You manifest very kind and 



liberal feelings towards our institutions and the trial to 

 which they have been subjected by the recent opposition 

 of South Carolina. You have, ere this, seen that it has 

 subsided with the mitigation of the Tariff, the acceptance 

 of that mitigation by the Senators and Representatives 

 of South Carolina, at Washington, and with the energetic 

 course which the government were prepared to pursue in 

 case of actual resistance. I trust the danger is gone by ; 

 certainly it has for the present, for the country is almost 

 unanimous in support of the government. The opposition 

 at the South was fomented by a few disappointed, ambitious 

 men, some of them men of great talent and influence. They 

 are now disposed to fasten upon the subject of slavery as a 

 means of excitement. Some of the features of that most 

 anxious subject are sketched in the little tract which I sent 

 you, and which, with your usual kindness, you appreciate 

 beyond its merits. It may have served, however, to give 

 some hints as to the danger which impends over this coun- 

 try, from its domestic slavery. It is probable that slavery 

 will in future be the principal source of disunion, and it is 

 impossible to tell what may be the result. As to all other 

 subjects, my impression is, that our popular institutions give 

 every promise of permanency. The most important reason 

 is that the people have the power, and have already had it ; 

 and they are too generally well educated to trifle with the 

 security of their own persons and property ; they elect those 

 men who, as they suppose, sympathize with them, and there 

 is generally a willing obedience to law. It is the habit of 

 the people to obey law, and to reverence it, and respect 

 magistrates. It is impossible to say how long it may be 

 before the means of subsistence shall be obtained with dif- 



