States for more than the whole continent of Eu-
rope; indeed, the continental nations were likely
to await and to follow her lead. Southern orators,
advocating secession, assured their hearers that
"King Cotton" would be the supreme power, and
would compel that realm of spinners and weavers
to friendship if not to alliance with the Confeder-
acy. Northern men, on the other hand, expressed
confidence that a people with the record of Eng-
lishmen against slavery would not countenance a
war conducted in behalf of that institution; nor
did they allow their hopes to be at all impaired
by the consideration that, in order to found them
upon this support, they had to overlook the fact
that they were at the same time distinctly declar-
ing that slavery really had nothing to do with the
war, in which only and strictly the question of
the Union, the integrity of the nation, was at
stake. When the issue was pressing for actual
decision, each side was disappointed; and each
found that it had counted upon a motive which
fell far short of exerting the anticipated influence.
It was, of course, the case that England suffered
much from the short supply of cotton; but she
made shift to procure it elsewhere, while the work-
ing people, sympathizing with the North, were
surprisingly patient. Thus the political pressure
arising from commercial distress was much less
than had been expected, and the South learned
that cotton was only a spurious monarch. Not
less did the North find itself deceived; for the

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