symptom than a moving cause. While the excitement among that portion of the Northern people who took a constant interest in public affairs remained as great as ever, it had for some time been abating among those who became publicly active only on occasion. This did not escape the observation of Southern men. Already, on December 5, 1849, Alexander H. Stephens wrote to his brother: “The North is beginning to count the cost, — not the Free Soilers, but the mercantile class. I shall not yet despair of the Republic.” He judged correctly. The country was prosperous. The flow of gold from California, present and prospective, seemed to increase the opportunities of enterprise and gain. The field of profitable operations was constantly expanding on all sides. Thus grew from day to day the number of those who feared to see these opportunities disturbed by a great national crisis. The threats of disunion and civil war, so vociferously put forth by the Southern hotspurs, had their effect. Timid patriotism was frightened, and the commercial spirit wanted some settlement of the pending difficulties, without being very exacting.
Such a current of feeling is apt to work by a sort of atmospheric contagion, and could not fail to make itself felt in Congress. Of the Democratic Free Soilers, many sought the sheltering roof of the party whose main force was Southern, and the Whigs were divided. In January the Wilmot Proviso had still a majority in the House of Rep-
