But you argue the unfitness of the masses for this destiny.  Lyon answers,—­not in any musically-rounded sentences, in phrases nicely balanced; the man is plain and outspoken,—­’This is a truth of philosophy and political economy, that man rises to a condition corresponding to the rights, duties and responsibilities devolved upon him; and therefore the only true way to make a man is to invest him with the rights, duties and responsibilities of a man, and he generally rises in intellectual and moral greatness to a position corresponding to these circumstances.’  It is a mistake to suppose the great body of the people ignorant of their position, or unconscious of their growing importance and dignity as representatives of a mighty empire.  Vice and poverty have indeed well-nigh quenched humanity in thousands in our great cities, but these are but a drop in the ocean.  Behind lies our vast West, with its teeming population, sturdy, active and energetic.  All our mountain districts are alive with men who, thanks to the press, are beginning to feel their power.  Every advantage of physical development their hardy life gives them, and the growing consciousness and comprehension of freedom, blooming under a munificent free-school dispensation, will do the rest.  Our internal manufacturing and agricultural elements at the North, already powerful and irrepressible, will soon exercise a tremendous influence in our government.  Shall it be the influence of ignorance played upon by the sophistry of demagogues and helping to rebuild the vicious doctrines that have stood firmly for so many years, or the healthful influence of intelligent industry tending to our greatness and prosperity?  This our war is to decide.  No peaceful solution of the great question could be made.  This Lyon foresaw in the truckling of politicians North to win the unit of Southern political sympathy:  the main end and aim of the South being the appointment of Southern men to the Presidency, ’as security on the one hand against unfavorable executive action toward slavery, and on the other against executive patronage adverse to its interests, the democratic party North succeeded, by trimming party sails and decking party leaders, in suiting their fastidious Southern leaders.’  The question once at issue, even a peaceful separation was impossible, though an amendment of the Constitution should sanction it.  War was inevitable.  The great bugbear of slavery would still exist; fugitive slave laws be forever upon the political carpet; formidable jealousies spring up between two nations founded upon such diverse principles, yet united by very natural circumstance of language and climate; internal wrangling would destroy all unity, conspiracies give the death-blow to all prosperity and all hope of advancement.  All this if there were no great party at the North to rise upon the vast ground of humanity, claiming for its millions the privilege of an unfettered life, for its children a fair start in the future.  Only