It is natural that everyone should be curious to ascertain his Mission upon earth. Of course I have thought much about it. As yet I have no inkling of mine, unless it is to drain morasses and convert them - without profit to myself - into the most fertile land. But I think I see what I was not made to do and why perhaps Providence has interposed to change my apparent destiny. I believe that with the help of heaven, if my career had not been so often cut short, I could and would have dissolved this Union. In my day, it has only required The Man to do it. And I have seen so clearly how to do it, that I believe I could have done it, if it had been God's Will. But it was not his Will to destroy it now, at all events, and he has chained me down.
-James Henry Hammond, December 6, 1851
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