And, naturally, it should, for the perpetuation of the Union is simply the perpetuation of a republican form of government.

But there are stronger grounds to be considered.
1.

The United States government is directly responsible for the illiteracy and the widespread poverty which obtain in the South.

Under its sanction and by its connivance the institution of slavery flourished and prospered, until it had taken such deep root as to be almost impossible of extirpation.

It was the _Union_, and not the _States_, severally, which made slavery part and parcel of the fundamental law of the land.