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Since the first edition of this work was issued, startling and deplorable events have occurred. The great “Anti-Slavery” delusion, that originated with European monarchists more than fifty years ago, has culminated in disunion and civil war, as its authors always predicted it would. A party strongly imbued with the false theories and absurd assumptions of British writers and abolition societies, is in possession of the Federal Government, which it stands pledged to use to reduce its assumptions to practice. It holds that the negro, except in color, is a man like themselves, and naturally entitled to the same liberty—that to deny him this liberty, is to enslave him—that, therefore, Southern society is wrong, and should be revolutionized, and it avows it to be its mission to accomplish this—to institute a policy that shall finally abolish or destroy the supremacy of the white man, and secure “impartial freedom” for negroes! To this the South replies, that this government was created for white men alone, and their posterity, as declared in the preamble to the Constitution—that the Supreme Court has recently declared the same great truth—that, seizing the government by a mere sectional vote, and placing it in distinct conflict with the social order of the South, with the avowed purpose of penning up its negro population, in order to bring about some day the extinction or overthrow of the existing condition, is, therefore, an overthrow of the Constitution—that the object avowed necessarily involves their future destruction, and to save themselves from the wild delusion and malignant fanaticism of the North, they are forced, in self-defense, to withdraw from the Union, hitherto, or until this hostile and dangerous party entered the field, so beneficial to all sections of the country.

So stands the case between the sections. If the “anti-slavery” party was based on truth—if the negro, except in color, was a man like ourselves—if social subordination of this negro was wrong, and the four millions of these people at the South entitled to the same liberty as ourselves—and if the men who made this government designed it to include the inferior races of this continent, and it were really beneficial to equalize and fraternize with these negroes, then, though it may be doubted, if using the common government to bring it about were proper, the end in view would be so beneficent, and such a transcendent act of justice to these assumed slaves, that all honest, earnest, and patriotic citizens should promptly sustain the party now striving to accomplish it. But, on the contrary, if this party is based on a stupendous falsehood—if the negro is a different and inferior being, and in his normal condition at the South—and if the men who made this government, designed it for white men alone—then the length and breadth and width and depth of the “anti-slavery” delusion, and the crime of the “anti-slavery” party, which has broken up the Union in a blind crusade after negro freedom, will be fully comprehended by the American people. The whole mighty question, therefore, with all its vast and boundless consequences, hinges on the apparently simple question of fact—is the negro, except in color, a man like ourselves, and therefore naturally entitled to the same liberty?

It is absolutely certain that neither the liberty, the rights, nor the interests of one single northern citizen is involved; nothing whatever but a blind and foolish theory of “negro slavery” which is attempted to be forced on the South. If the people of the two great sections of the country could change places, the vast “anti-slavery” delusion would be exploded in sixty days. But as this is impossible, the next best thing is to explain the actual condition of things in the South to the northern mind. This great work the author has undertaken, not to defend an imaginary slavery, for it needs no defense, but to explain the social order—to demonstrate to the senses, as well as the reason, that the negro is a different and subordinate being, and in his normal condition at the South; and thus to show the enormous and fathomless folly, crime, and impiety wrapped up in the great “anti-slavery” delusion of the day. The former edition of this work was put to press so hurriedly, that it contained many errors, but the present one has been carefully revised; and, moreover, the introductory chapter has been rewritten, in order to present a more distinct history of the origin and progress of the great British “anti-slavery” imposture which is now working out its legitimate and designed purpose in the destruction of the American Union.

In conclusion, the author begs to say, that mere literary display or fine writing is with him quite a subordinate consideration. He only desires to be understood, and, that the grand and momentous truths described in this book shall be clearly comprehended by the masses, with the confident assurance that when they come to understand that their own liberty, welfare, and prosperity are all hazarded in a blind crusade after that which, could it be accomplished, would be the greatest calamity ever inflicted on a civilized people, the causeless and senseless, but frightful sectional conflict now raging will be speedily terminated by the universal uprising of the northern masses in favor of a government of WHITE MEN, and UNION with the South.