LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 c ,,<h 
 
 Class 
 
\\ ._~,. 
 
 . . 
 
SPEECHES AND ESSAYS. 
 
SPEECHES AND ESSAYS 
 
 UPON 
 
 POLITICAL SUBJECTS, 
 
 FROM 
 
 1860 TO 1869. 
 
 BY WILLIAM D. NORTHEND. 
 
 UNIVERSITY | 
 
 OF / 
 
 SALEM : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY H. I>. 
 
 1869. 
 
Swasey Printing Office, 
 
 235, ESSEX STREET, SALEM. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The speeches and essays on political subjects 
 which are collected in this volume, were delivered 
 or published during the eventful period which has 
 elapsed since the Presidential election of 1860. 
 
 The opinions expressed wero not in accordance 
 with the popular sentiment at the time. My pur 
 pose was to vindicate, so far as I was able, the immuta 
 ble principles upon which the Union as organized by 
 the Constitution was based ; and to show the im 
 portance of that Union for the welfare and happi 
 ness of the different great Communities which com. 
 posed it. Although a wide departure from these 
 principles has been made during this period, yet I 
 have the fullest confidence that the American people 
 will, at no distant day, return to them with a love 
 strengthened by their experience ; and that under 
 the organism of the past, or a more effectual one 
 which shall be suggested by the events of this pe 
 riod, a harmonious co-operation, based upon the 
 reciprocity of interests of the people of the several 
 States, will be revived and made perpetual. 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 With these convictions, I submit these speeches 
 and essays to the calm judgment of my fellow-citi 
 zens of my native County of Essex, to whom I re 
 spectfully dedicate this small volume. 
 
 SALEM, AUGUST 20th, 1 869. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 THE PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL 9 
 
 A speech delivered in Massachusetts Senate February 27, 1861. 
 
 FOURTH OF FEBRUARY CONVENTION 29 
 
 A speech delivered in Massachusetts Senate February 4, 1861. 
 
 RESOLVES ON THE PRESIDENT S MESSAGE. . . 34 
 
 A speech delivered in Massachusetts Senate March 26, 1862. 
 
 MARYLAND AND MASSACHUSETTS 44 
 
 A speech delivered in Massachusetts Senate, April 22, 1862. 
 
 ADDRESS AT SALEM 46 
 
 An address delivered before the citizens of Salem, July 4, 1862 
 
 SPEECH AT BOSTON. ......... 78 
 
 Delivered before the Constitutional Democratic Club, Boston 
 November 4, 1863. 
 
 SPEECH AT SALEM. ......... 98 
 
 Delivered before the Democratic Convention at Salem, April 21 
 1864; 
 
 SPEECH IN FANEUIL HALL 107 
 
 Delivered at the Convention to elect Delegates to the Philadelphia 
 Convention, in Faneuil Hall, August 1866. 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. . . -. .. . . 113 
 
 Delivered at Manchester N. H., January 22, 1868. 
 
 THE UNITED STATES CONSCRIPTION ACT. . . 134 
 
 Published in the Boston Courier, August 20, 1863. 
 
 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY 155 
 
 Published in the American Monthly Magazine, January 1865. 
 
 THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. . . . . . 178 
 
 Published in the American Monthly Magazine, April 1865. 
 
 CAUSES OP SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. . . . 204 
 
 Published in the Southern Keview, July 1867. 
 
 THE SWAMPSCOTT RIOT CASE 251 
 
 An argument made in the case of Stone v Segur et ah. in the Su 
 preme Court at Salem, November Term, 1865. 
 
THE PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL.* 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT The subject which it has become 
 our duty to consider at the present time, is one in 
 volving principles and rules of action, vastly trans 
 cending in importance the practical question of the 
 utility of the laws which it is proposed to repeal or 
 modify. 
 
 The subject forces irresistibly upon our minds a 
 consideration of our duties and obligations as citi 
 zens, to sustain and give vitality to the wise and 
 beneficent system of civil government which we 
 have inherited, under which we live, and in which 
 are involved all our precious hopes of the future. 
 
 By our action of to-day we shall deliberate!}" and 
 formally express for ourselves, and so far as we rep 
 resent them, for the people of Massachusetts, wheth 
 er, irrespective of what people in other sections may 
 do, without throwing into the balance our likes and 
 our dislikes, our convictions for this or against that 
 
 provision, we will, to the letter and in the spirit, 
 
 i 
 
 * Delivered in the Senate of Massachusetts, February 27, 1861. 
 2 
 
10 PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 
 
 perform all of our obligations under the Constitu 
 tion of the United States ; or whether, governed by 
 a spirit of retaliation, by hostile opinions and deter 
 minations, we will manifest an open contempt for. 
 and so far as we can, nullify, objectionable provis 
 ions of that great instrument. 
 
 This government was instituted by, and its 
 healthful existence depends upon, the will of the 
 people, and during its continuance it is more or less 
 efficient, gathers strength or develops weakness as 
 it is respected and obeyed on the one hand, or tra 
 duced and its requirements evaded on the other. 
 
 And as the Constitution was based upon compro 
 mises and concessions of the different States and 
 sections, any State or section which avails itself of 
 the benefits and compromises in its favor, without 
 performing its entire obligations in those matters 
 conceded to other States in this great charter of our 
 rights, acts unfairly towards such other States, dis 
 loyally towards the Constitution, and inflicts irjuries 
 upon the government itself, which, if persisted in. 
 must in the end prove fatal. 
 
 From the necessity of the case, arising from the 
 complications of the sovereignties of the State and 
 General Governments, the Constitution must deal in 
 general terms with many subjects, leaving it to the 
 wisdom, patriotism, and highest interest of the peo 
 ple of the different sections to carry out its obvious? 
 intent honestly and in good faith. 
 
PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. \\ 
 
 If the people of each State and section, in a spir 
 it unfriendly to the Constitution, should determine 
 and undertake to legislate and act without regard 
 to the opinions and interests of the people of other 
 States and sections, the Constitution would become 
 practically a nullity, and the government would not 
 be worth preserving. 
 
 And any State which undertakes to exercise such 
 extreme powers, except in instances where self pro 
 tection absolutely requires it, commits a grievous 
 wrong on the Constitution, and the government it 
 created. 
 
 If experience has demonstrated that provisions 
 of the Constitution, or legal enactments under it. are 
 so oppressive or offensive that we cannot consent 
 to them as our fathers did, then counsel with the 
 people for whose benefit they were made, appeal to 
 the ballot-box, call a convention for their change; 
 or even, if these fail, raise the standard of revolt, 
 which is far more honorable, and, in the end, not 
 more destructive than acknowledging the obliga 
 tions with our lips, and evading and nullifying them 
 in our practice. 
 
 I do not mean in what I say to reproach Massa 
 chusetts for her acts in the past. She does not de 
 serve it. I fail to sec anything in her history as a 
 Commonwealth which renders her justly amenable 
 to any charge of disloyalty. She has performed 
 her full duty when it was repugnant to the best and 
 
12 PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 
 
 highest feelings of her citizens. She has uttered her 
 complaints and expressed her convictions when she 
 has felt that the general government was too severe 
 in its exactions, but she has always obeyed all its 
 legal requirements. 
 
 And sir, I am not prepared to pass a censorious 
 judgment upon her for the enactment of the laws of 
 1855, with her apprehensions of danger to her citi 
 zens from the indefensible severity of the fugitive 
 slave law of 1850 ; they were passed before the fu 
 gitive slave law had been .declared constitutional 
 by the United States Court, and their precise legal 
 effect was not sufficiently considered by the Legis 
 lature. 
 
 But when our attention is now directed toward 
 them, and from a careful examination we have rea 
 son to believe that they are in conflict with legal 
 enactments under the Constitution of the United 
 States, I do s&y that we may for the first time put 
 Massachusetts clearly and culpably in the wrong, by 
 refusing to repeal them, or to so modify them as to 
 relieve them of all objections of uncpnstitution- 
 ality. 
 
 And to a full understanding of our obligations 
 under the acts of Congress relating to the rendition 
 of fugitive slaves, it will be useful to refer to the 
 circumstances connected with, and reasons for, the 
 provision in the Constitution of the United States 
 upon the subject. It is obvious to every one that 
 
PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL, 13 
 
 the Constitution could not have been adopted and 
 the Union consummated, unless the North had con 
 sented that slavery remain in the States where it 
 existed, and with that acknowledged fact it became 
 "necessary, as an incident to it, that the owners should 
 have the right to retake their slaves if they escaped 
 into other States in the Confederacy ; without this, 
 slavery could hardly exist in the Border States, and 
 a powerful temptation would be offered to those op 
 posed to the system in the Free States to aid 
 in the escape of fugitives, and thus a serious 
 source of difficulty in the future would be opened. 
 Accordingly a provision was inserted in the Consti 
 tution that " no person held to service or labor in 
 one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into an 
 other, shall in consequence of any law or regulation 
 therein be discharged from such service or labor, 
 but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to 
 whom such service or labor may be due." This 
 was adopted by the convention unanimously ; and 
 in the convention of this State, called for its ratifi 
 cation, composed of our ablest and best men, no ob 
 jection was made to this provision. And this was 
 not the first instance of the recognition of such a 
 law. In the ordinance of 1787, drawn up by Na 
 than Dane, was a similar provision. And in the 
 earlier history of our country we find the same ne 
 cessity acknowledged. 
 
 In 1643 the Colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Ply- 
 
14 PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 
 
 mouth, Connecticut and New Haven entered into ar- 
 tioles of Confederacy, in which was the following stip 
 ulation : "It is also agreed, if any servar.t run away 
 from his master into any other of these confederated 
 jurisdictions, that in such cases, upon the certificate of 
 one magistrate in the jurisdiction out of which the 
 said servant fled, or upon other due prcof. the said 
 servant shall be delivered either to his master or 
 any other that pursues and brings such certificate of 
 proof." And in 1650 a compact was made between 
 this Confederacy and New Netherlands, in which it 
 was agreed that "the same way and course" con 
 cerning fugitives should be adopted. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the provision in the 
 Constitution concerning fugitive slaves was in con 
 formity to precedent, and was a necessary conse 
 quence of the compromises of that instrument. 
 And in accordance with the Constitution it was 
 legitimate for Congress to legislate for the purpose 
 of carrying into effect this provision, and according 
 ly, in 1793, Congress enacted a law for the rendi 
 tion of slaves. This passed the senate without 
 division, and there were only seven votes against it 
 in the house, of which one was from Massachusetts, 
 one from Virginia, and one from Maryland. This 
 law remained in force for half a century without 
 any serious objection. In 1842, a slave (Latimer) 
 was incarcerated in one of our jails under circum 
 stances of aggravation, and the same year the 
 
PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 15 
 
 Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of 
 Prigg vs. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, held that 
 the States were not obliged to aid in the execution 
 of the law, which induced and justified the law en 
 acted by the next session of our legislature, which 
 prohibited the use of our jails for the purposes of 
 the fugitive slave law, and forbade certain State mag 
 istrates from taking part in cases of rendition. 
 
 In 1850, a supplementary fugitive slave law was 
 passed by Congress, containing many odious and 
 harsh provisions. 
 
 The people of the free States believed that the 
 very severity of the law would prevent its success 
 ful operation, and waited in the hope that it would 
 be declared void by the judicial tribunals. 
 
 In 1854, a slave (Burns) was returned into sla 
 very from Boston, under circumstances which 
 created much excitement in the Commonwealth, 
 and the legislature, in 1855, enacted laws which, 
 with the laws of 1843, constitute the so-called 
 " Personal Liberty Hill" 
 
 The attention of the legislature of 1856 was di 
 rected to the anomalous provisions of this law, and 
 a bill for its repeal passed the house of representa 
 tives, when intelligence of an assault upon one of 
 our senators in Congress prevented its further pas 
 sage ; and it is very clear that had it not been for 
 this outrage, this law would have been swept from 
 the statute books by that, the first republican legis 
 lature of this State. 
 
16 PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 
 
 In 1858 the attention of the legislature was di 
 rected to the law, and upon the recommendation of 
 governor Banks, some of the most objectionable por 
 tions of it were repealed. For reasons stated in 
 his recent message, he did not advise further revis 
 ion of it at that time, although in his judgment it 
 was proper that further revision should be made. 
 
 Our attention is now directed to it by the use 
 that has been made of it as a pretext in other 
 States, and also by petitions from a large and re 
 spectable portion of our own citizens ; and a large 
 committee of both branches have patiently and fully 
 considered the entire subject, and made a unanimous 
 report as the result of their deliberations, which we 
 are now called upon to consider. 
 
 In my judgment the bill proposed by the Com 
 mittee relieves the law from unconstitutional objec 
 tions, and should be passed as reported, although 
 with my convictions of the slight practical value of 
 the law, and of the sufficient protection our laws af 
 ford without it. I should have preferred an uncondi 
 tional repeal of all, excepting the section relating 
 to kidnapping. 
 
 The original personal liberty act. in the recent 
 revision of our statutes, was divided up, and in our 
 general statutes is to be found in the 144th chapter, 
 under the titles of personal liberty, and habeas car 
 pus, and I would call your attention briefly to a 
 consideration of the different sections. Under the 
 
PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 17 
 
 head of personal liberty, sections 58 and 59 pro 
 vide for the defence of alleged fugitives at the ex 
 pense of the State. Sections 60 and 67 forbid per 
 sons holding certain offices under the State from 
 aiding in cases of rendition, and certain United 
 States officers from holding certain State offices. 
 We may legally enact such prohibitions, although of 
 little practical value to the alleged fugitive ; the ob 
 jection to them, if any exists, is in the penalties at 
 tached to them. 
 
 Sections 63, 64 and 65 forbid sheriffs, militia, 
 &c., from rendering any aid in cases of rendition. 
 It is contended, and fairly I think, that these sec 
 tions forbid the employment of the militia to sup 
 press any popular outbreak in cases of rendition. 
 This is wrong and in bad faith. It manifests a dispo 
 sition to nullify the law by giving license to a mob to 
 obstruct its exercise and violate the peace without 
 any resistance from the authorities. This objec 
 tion is met and relieved by the bill of the Com 
 mittee. Section 62 provides for punishing the 
 offence of kidnapping. This is clearly a proper 
 subject for legislation, but as under this section a 
 liability attaches to a person acting honestly under 
 a supposed right, the Committee have reported an 
 amendment which relieves it of this objection. The 
 above are all of the sections under the head of 
 "Personal Liberty," intended to have any effect in 
 cases of rendition. 
 
 3 
 
18 PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 
 
 I now propose to consider the sections of the 
 habeas corpus law relating to this subject. They 
 are the 6th, 19th, 20th and 21st sections of said 
 144th chapter. 
 
 They are intended to authorize 
 
 1st. The taking of the fugitive from restraint. 
 
 2d. A trial by jury upon all matters in the re 
 turn of the officer, "or alleged" 
 
 3d. Pleadings and rules of evidence on the trial, 
 of an anomalous character. 
 
 So far as these sections are intended for the pur 
 pose of authorizing the taking of the alleged fugi 
 tive from the custody of the United States Marshals, 
 by an officer of this Commonwealth, or for a trial 
 by jury upon the question whether service or labor 
 is due, or to hinder and obstruct the execution of 
 the law by unusual and anomalous proceedings on 
 the trial, they conflict with laws of the United 
 States; as the Constitution provides that "The 
 Constitution, and the laws of the United States 
 which shall be made in pursuance thereof, * * * 
 shall be the supreme law of the land; and the 
 judges of every State shall be bound thereby, any 
 thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the 
 contrary notwithstanding." 
 
 Section 6 provides for the form of the writ of 
 habeas corpus, to be directed to the sheriff and his 
 deputies, in cases of restraint by persons not sher 
 iffs, deputy sheriffs, coroners or jailors. By the Re- 
 
PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 19 
 
 vised Statutes, cases of restraint by the marshal 
 and his deputies were included. These have 
 been striken out since. From a literal construction of 
 this section, which is aided by our previous legisla 
 tion just stated, it is clearly the intent that our 
 sheriff shall be authorized to take from the custody 
 from the hands of the United States Marshal, 
 the alleged fugitive, whom he may have under a 
 proper warrant under the authority of the United 
 States laws ; and if that is the construction of it, 
 there is no one who doubts that the provision is 
 unconstitutional. We have no right, we can have no 
 power, by any State law, to take a man out of the 
 custody of the United States Marshal, held under a 
 proper warrant. If, in any way, the Marshal can, 
 by summons or otherwise, be brought before a State 
 tribunal ; if he there shows that he holds the prison 
 er by a warrant under the laws of the United States, 
 issued by a court of competent jurisdiction, then 
 our courts can go not one step further. They have 
 no right to inquire into the constitutionality of the 
 law under which that warrant was issued; they 
 have no right to go back of that warrant and in 
 quire into the question whether service was due 
 from the fugitive, which was the basis of the pro 
 ceeding upon which that warrant was issued. They 
 can only look at the papers; they can only pass 
 upon the question whether the person holding him 
 is a United States officer, and whether the process 
 
20 PERSONAL LIBERTY DILL. 
 
 was issued by a proper officer or court, under the 
 authority of the United States ; and back of that 
 there is no authority, and there can be no power, in 
 any of our State courts, to act. If this law goes 
 further, if it is intended to permit a fugitive slave 
 a trial, by jury or by the court, upon the question 
 whether he owes service or labor, that would be 
 clearly unconstitutional. There is no jury, and no 
 court, that can have the power, in this State, to pass 
 upon the question whether a slave, properly in the 
 hands of the Marshal, owes service or labor. The 
 statute is to this effect: that the alleged fugitive 
 shall have a trial by jury, and that upon that trial 
 the jury shall pass upon those particular matters 
 contained in the return of the officer, or alleged. 
 This being a civil proceeding, any matters may be 
 alleged on either side, and it may be alleged that 
 he was not a fugitive, or did not owe service ; and 
 the jury, under this law, are empowered, and it is 
 their duty, to pass upon the subject, and bring in a 
 general verdict, which shall be final and conclusive. 
 I submit that if this is the construction of the law, 
 it is clearly and unqualifiedly in contravention of 
 the laws of the United States. 
 
 Then in regard to the evidence. It seems to me 
 that when we undertake to depart from the usual 
 modes of trial, and institute a new and anomalous 
 mode, one which puts burdens which are unprece 
 dented upon the party claiming, in the court, and 
 
PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 21 
 
 when that is made to apply to a law of the United 
 States upon this subject, and to no other, it is cer 
 tainly offensive to that government, it is certainly 
 open to the objection that it is an attempt, upon 
 our part, to interfere with and delay proceedings 
 under a law of the United States. 
 
 The bill proposed by the Committee entirely re 
 lieves this law of these objections. 
 
 The bill of the Committee proceeds further to 
 provide that the sheriff, after he has served the writ, 
 may make his return thereof only to the Justices of 
 the Supreme Court, instead of to the Justices of the 
 Supreme Court and of the Superior Court, as pro 
 vided by the present law. That point has been 
 properly commented upon by the Chairman, [Mr. 
 Stone,] and every one who is cognizant of the pro 
 ceedings in court, knows that this is for the protec 
 tion and for the benefit of any one who seeks 
 redress under a writ of habeas corpus. I am will 
 ing and desirous, in this matter, to give all the aid 
 and protection which it is within the power of the 
 legislature to give, and I do not wish to take away 
 any legal immunities the fugitive may properly have 
 under our laws. 
 
 This is the last provision. The bill of the Com 
 mittee, in my opinion, provides for the relief of the 
 constitutional objections to the law as it now 
 stands. 
 
 There are few in the community who do not believe 
 
22 PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 
 
 that the law in regard to personal liberty and 
 habeas corpus should be construed as this Committee 
 have construed it. I do not think that there is any 
 one who, with a view to our obligations under the 
 Constitution of the United States, will not admit 
 that the law should be thus construed. There are 
 some who believe that with this construction the act 
 is valid. But I do not see how any one one can hold 
 that opinion in regard to these two sections, with 
 out very grave doubt, in opposition to the opin 
 ion of some of our ablest and most learned jurists. 
 Many will feel regret that the law, with this con 
 struction, will be of little practical value. For, 
 if a fugitive slave is arrested by the United States 
 Marshal or his deputy, under a warrant, and there 
 is no power to take him out of their hands, the 
 law can be of no benefit to fugitives in that 
 class of cases. It is the largest class, and with 
 this construction would, of course, be the only class 
 in the future. For no person who should come to 
 Massachusetts to retake his slave would come and 
 undertake to do it personally, when he could be pro 
 tected by a warrant, and act under the authority of 
 a United States Commissioner. For this reason I 
 consider the law of little practical value to the 
 fugitive. It may still be of possible benefit to 
 him if he should be arrested by his owner without 
 a warrant. And if, as is contended, the law as it 
 will remain, or as it should properly be construed, 
 
PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 23 
 
 operates to give to the slave an opportunity to 
 raise questions of law to further test any provisions 
 of the fugitive slave law, then certainly I should de 
 sire that he should have the benefit of it. And if I 
 believed that privilege was one material to him in any 
 respect, I should certainly not entertain the views I 
 now hold in regard to the repeal of the entire act. 
 
 But 7 sir, there are many who have doubted the 
 propriety of making any revision of these laws, 
 from an apprehension that if they were repealed, no 
 safeguard would be left for our personal liberties, 
 We are told that any individual might with impuni 
 ty be dragged from his house, in the night time 
 that there is nothing to protect the free citizens of 
 Massachusetts, if these laws are repealed, or of no 
 effect. Why, sir, if these laws are repealed, we 
 have still remaining upon our statute-books the pro 
 visions of the law of habeas corpus which have pro 
 tected our people in the past, and which are capa 
 ble of protecting them amply in the future. We 
 have the most admirable system of habeas corpus. 
 Any person who may be improperly in restraint may 
 demand the writ, precisely the same as under this 
 law, even if constitutional. In the first proceeding, 
 in the proceeding of rescuing a man from immedi 
 ate danger, there is not a pretended provision in the 
 personal liberty act which gives him any protection 
 over the habeas corpus laws, which would remain if 
 the whole act of 1855 were repealed. The writ of 
 
24 PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 
 
 habeas corpus would be issued as now by any Judge 
 of the Supreme, Superior, Probate or Police Courts, 
 and if none known to be within five miles, then by 
 any Justice of the Peace. That, after all, is the 
 great point of importance to the community; 
 because, there is no one who can reasonably 
 doubt but that if a person improperly restrained 
 is taken out of the hands of those who im 
 prison him, by a writ of this Commonwealth, 
 and brought before the Supreme Judicial Court, his 
 rights will be secured to him, whether it be by the 
 wisdom of the Court, or by a trial by jury, with the 
 protections afforded by this bill. 
 
 Mr. President, we have ample securities for every 
 one, for the white man, for the black man, for* the 
 freeman and for the fugitive. It is, sir. the great 
 objection to this act, that our laws had already 
 covered the whole ground, and that we have full pro 
 tection without going beyond them and infringing 
 upon the Constitution and laws of the United States. 
 
 But it is further objected to the repeal or modifi 
 cation of these laws, that although the arguments 
 against them which I have suggested may be well 
 founded, although there may be doubt with regard 
 to their constitutionality, yet we should let them 
 remain until the Court has declared them void. To 
 such I would say that it is of importance, always, 
 that all laws be clear, and particularly that a law of 
 this character, which affects rights of persons in 
 
PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 25 
 
 other States, should not be misunderstood. It is 
 important further that the law should not hold out 
 a false security to those who are intended to be 
 bcnefittcd by its provisions. We do injustice to the 
 fugitive, if we hold out to him an apparent protec 
 tion when he has none in fact. It is right for him, 
 for us, and for the people of other States, that there 
 should be no ground for misconstruction of our laws 
 upon this subject. 
 
 Another objection urged is, that it is not how the 
 time to take this action, that the existence of these 
 laws upon our Statute Book has been used by dishon* 
 est men in other States to our discredit and to the dis 
 advantage of the country. There is no doubt, Mr. 
 President, that this is true. But the men who have 
 used sucli arguments have used them as pretexts 
 they have used them to overpower Union men in the 
 Southern States in South Carolina, in Georgia, 
 and in other seceding States, with more or less ef 
 fect. I would do nothing at this time with the 
 expectation of influencing the people of those States, 
 as they arc situated. . But there is another class of 
 people there is another class of States, upon which, 
 if this modification can have any beneficial effect, it 
 seems to me all will desire it. There are the Bor 
 der States, so called there are the States of Vir 
 ginia, of Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Delaware, 
 Maryland States which, with all the efforts that 
 have been made to seduce them, with all the excite- 
 
26 PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 
 
 ments in the Gulf States, have as yet remained true 
 and loyal to the Union. And it is not without diffi 
 culty that it has been so. The Union men in those 
 States have had to contend against great odds. 
 They have had to fight against this spirit which has 
 come in upon them from the neighboring States, and 
 some of them have thus far achieved glorious results. 
 If, by any action, we can strengthen the hands and 
 cheer the hearts of these noble men who are fight 
 ing for the Constitution and the Union, should we 
 not do it ? I think there is no one who would not 
 rejoice, if in any way he could aid them in their 
 patriotic struggles. 
 
 It is of the greatest importance, in my judgment 
 to the future of this people, that these States re 
 main true. Sir, notwithstanding all that has hap 
 pened, I have a faith that we shall live to see the 
 day when every State which has ever been connect 
 ed with the Union will be in the Union. I have a 
 belief that when the hour of madness has passed 
 away, one by one, these States will return, to re 
 main, without compulsion without coercion. And 
 until that time, these noble border States will stand 
 as they have stood, with us. Their people will have 
 met the reproaches of the people of the slave 
 States of the South. They will have taken us by 
 the hand; we shall have talked with them as we 
 have never talked with people of the slave States 
 before, and they will have talked with us as they 
 
PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 27 
 
 never talked with us before ; we shall have opened 
 our hearts to them and they theirs to us ; we shall 
 have removed all the doubts and misunderstandings 
 that existed between us, and they will see us as we 
 are, true and patriotic men, as they have not before 
 believed us to be. If these States remain in the 
 Union, it never stood so strong as it will stand 
 under these circumstances. These Border States, 
 situate between us and the States of the Gulf, will be 
 the conservative States ; and if the States of the 
 Gulf shall return, there can be no pretext used from 
 which the people of the Border States will not de 
 fend the North, nothing in which they will not stand 
 by the North. Let us do all we can, honorably and 
 properly, that may aid the people of the Border 
 States to understand our real sentiments, and that 
 will give strength and courage to their Union loving 
 men. 
 
 Sir, I feel a solicitude that in this crisis of our 
 national affairs Massachusetts should stand above 
 reproach or even suspicion. I will not consider, for 
 it is not the time nor the occasion, whether other 
 States have done their duty. We all have our con 
 victions upon this point. We are only now to con 
 sider whether Massachusetts shall do her duty. 
 If we can go before the country with no stain of 
 disloyalty on our garments, with a consciousness 
 that no enactment of our beloved Commonwealth 
 affords just cause of offence to our brethren in other 
 
28 PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL. 
 
 States, we carry with us an immense moral influ 
 ence ; we present an example which in the present, 
 and more in the future, will have a commanding in 
 fluence upon our sister States. Sir, the ways of 
 Providence in their inception and progress are often 
 mysterious to us, but it is not un/requently given to 
 man to trace back their unerring courses from the 
 final results. And, sir, I have felt oftentimes that 
 as a people we have not any of us appreciated our 
 blessings as we should that in the enjoyment of un 
 equalled privileges for nearly a century under the 
 wonderful system which our fathers inaugurated, we 
 have forgotten that their continuance depends upon 
 the performance by us of some disagreeable duties. 
 And, sir, if the present unhappy state of the coun 
 try shall lead us all, in all the States, back to the 
 living fountains from which our fathers drank if it 
 will cause us to forget our animosities and estrange 
 ments, and bring us all, North and South, East and 
 West, with fraternal love about the altar of our 
 common country, the experience, bitter as it is, will 
 not have been in vain. 
 
FOURTH OF FEBRUARY CONVEN 
 TION.* 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT It is a time when all true pa 
 triots should carefully consider every proper sug 
 gestion having for its object the peace and safety of 
 the country, and we should be very careful that the 
 strong and natural feelings excited by the flagrant 
 acts of rebellion in a very considerable section of 
 the country, do not unduly affect our judgment in 
 looking ; at the real state of affairs, or in considering 
 remedies that may be proposed. It is morally cer 
 tain, from the present condition of the country, that 
 a resort to arms for the protection of the Govern 
 ment will be necessary, unless through the influence 
 of wise, judicious and prudent men the intense ex 
 citement in the seceding States can be allayed, and 
 thus an opportunity offered for the returning ascen 
 dency of reason and judgment. 
 
 Whilst no lover of his country will hesitate to 
 perform his full duty in the last resort, yet wisdom 
 
 * Delivered in the Senate of Massachusetts, February 4, 1861, 
 upon the Resolves for the appointment of Commissioners to tho 
 Virginia Convention of February 4th. 
 
30 FOURTH OF FEBRUARY CONVENTION 
 
 patriotism, and true courage, demand that we shall 
 not neglect to improve every proper opportunity to 
 avert such a calamity, and any proposition, from any 
 quarter, which opens a possible and honorable ave 
 nue to avoid precipitating the country into a war 
 should be entertained by us. In considering our 
 duties in regard to the States in open rebellion 
 even, we should remember the truth which all his 
 tory demonstrates, and to which I trust this in 
 stance is not anexception, that all attempted revolu 
 tions and sectional resistance to the laws, underta 
 ken without an adequate cause, are instigated and 
 controlled by a misguided and excited minority 
 whose desperation and madness suppress the voice 
 even of the majority whom they appear to repre 
 sent, yet who in reality deplore the catastrophe 
 which in their position they have been powerless to 
 avert. I believe a majority of the people of the 
 States which have undertaken secession, excepting, 
 perhaps, the people of South Carolina, love the 
 Union, and look anxiously forward to the time when 
 the wise action of patriots in other sections will 
 prove the falsity of the pretexts by which unscrupu 
 lous politicians have been enabled to deceive and 
 mislead their infatuated followers, and allay the ex 
 citement ; or when, this proving ineffectual, the 
 strong and paternal arm of the government shall 
 compel the offenders to an obedience to the laws. 
 Upon this ground I base my hopes of our beloved 
 
FOURTH OF FEBRUARY CONVENTION. 31 
 
 country in the future, and for one, whatever were 
 the motives which dictated the calling of the Con 
 vention of February Fourth, I would respond to the 
 invitation, hoping, however faintly, that it will legiti 
 mately aid in relieving the embarrassments of the 
 country ; and if not, that we shall have the satisfac 
 tion in the uncertain future, that in this instance, 
 at least, we endeavored to leave no duty undone. 
 
 The purport of the Resolutions of Virginia have 
 been misunderstood by many Senators. The first 
 Resolve is the only one which prescribes the pur 
 poses of the Convention, and the only one intended 
 to give direction to its proceedings. The other 
 resolutions provide for the election of Commis 
 sioners by the several States and express the opin 
 ion of Virginia as to the basis upon which an ad 
 justment should be made, but there is nothing in 
 them mandatory upon the action of the Convention. 
 
 The first Resolve is as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That on behalf of the Commonwealth of Virginia, an 
 invitation is hereby extended to all such States, whether slave, 
 holding or non-slaveholding, as are willing to unite with Virginia 
 in an earnest effort to adjust the present unhappy controversies, in 
 the spirit in which the Constitution was originally formed, and 
 consistently with its principles, so as to afford to the people of the 
 slaveholding States adequate guarantees for the security of their 
 rights, to appoint Commissioners to meet on the 4th day of Febru 
 ary next, in the City of Washington, similar Commissioners ap 
 pointed by Virginia, to consider and if practicable agree upon 
 some suitable adjustment. 
 
 By this Resolve is clearly intended an adjustment 
 
32 FOURTH OF FEBRUARY CONVENTION. 
 
 of existing controversies upon correct principles 
 and in a proper spirit, and Virginia only claims 
 that in the adjustment adequate guarantees for the 
 securities of the rights of the slave States be in 
 cluded. In this I believe Virginia is right, and no 
 adjustment can or should be made without such 
 guarantees. I believe that Virginia will not, and 
 under the Resolves cannot, claim that the establish 
 ment of such guarantees is the exclusive duty of the 
 Convention, and that if she does, the Commissioners 
 from the other States will and should oppose such a 
 construction. If this Convention is called in good 
 faith, with a sincere desire to avert civil dissension, 
 we may confer a benefit on the country by taking 
 part in it j and if not thus called, as supposed by 
 some, then it seems to me it is clearly our duty to 
 be represented in the convention to see that no mis 
 chief is clone. It is time for us to act and act de 
 cidedly in the matter. There has been already too 
 much delay. A majority of the free States have al 
 ready chosen Commissioners, and whatever our own 
 opinions, we should defer somewhat to the opinions 
 of the people of our sister States. Let us not, as 
 is proposed by the substitute offered, evade the sub 
 ject let us meet the question fairly, and determine 
 uneqtiivo:ally whether we will or will not take part 
 in the Convention. 
 
 Above all, let Massachusetts show to Virginia 
 that if she shall prove recreant, that here still ex- 
 
FOURTH OF FEBRUARY CONVENTION. 33 
 
 ists a love and devotion for our common country 
 that the spirit of liberality and fraternal love 
 which animated our fathers has not diminished with 
 time, and that we at least have not forgotten the 
 sufferings and sacrifices of the founders of the Re 
 public, that the people of these United States and 
 their posterity forever, might enjoy the blessings of 
 an enlightened republican civil government. 
 
RESOLVES ON THE PRESIDENT S 
 
 MESSAGE.* 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT : It is impossible for any of us 
 to exaggerate the importance of the great struggle 
 in which the Government is involved, important to 
 the entire future of this great people, and not less 
 so to the cause of free institutions throughout the 
 world. The Government of the Union was inau 
 gurated, not without doubt, by our fathers. By a 
 large majority of the people of the old world it was 
 regarded as an experiment, unsupported by the 
 great facts of history. Its failure was predicted. 
 But it was everywhere conceded that, if the system 
 should prove successful, if this Government, em 
 anating from and depending upon the people, could 
 sustain itself through those great trials and crises 
 which 1 had been incident to the history of every 
 Government, and in which so many with immense 
 
 *Delivered in the Senate of Massachusetts, March 26th, 1862, 
 Resolutions had been reported approving the President s Message 
 of March 6th, to which an amendment was moved by Mr. Thomp 
 son of Hampden, approving the entire policy of the President^ 
 which amendment, after full discussion, was defeated by a vote of 
 12 to 22. 
 
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE, 36 
 
 central powers had suffered shipwreck, it would 
 mark an era, and would be the signal for an 
 immense and universal advancement in the great 
 cause of liberty and of popular institutions through 
 out the civilized world. 
 
 This Government has survived the exigencies 
 and trials of nearly three-quarters of a century, 
 and many of them of such a character as to lead 
 us. and its friends in the old world, to the belief 
 that its permanency and success were substantially 
 demonstrated. 
 
 But in the hour of our greatest prosperity, when 
 the people of the country had come to regard the 
 invincibility of the Government as an established 
 fact, and looked forward to a future of uninterrupt 
 ed peace and prosperity, we have been suddenly 
 called to meet a crisis of such magnitude and pro 
 portions as no one could have anticipated. The 
 only great and untested trial to our Government, 
 under most inauspicious combinations and circum 
 stances, is now upon us, and in our day and genera 
 tion the great problem of popular institutions is to 
 be settled for at least a century to come. The 
 principles our fathers fought for, the Government 
 they established, the prestige of its unexampled suc 
 cess for so long a time, all stand trembling in the 
 balance; and the responsibility for a right issue, 
 with the interposition of a wise Providence, is upon 
 us, upon the individuals of the country, upon the 
 
36 PRESIDENT S MESSAGE. 
 
 citizens in the legislative halls, and the citizens in 
 their homes. No one is exempt from responsibili 
 ty, and upon individual patriotism, and individual 
 efforts, will history declare the great results of this 
 time. 
 
 For months we have waited with the deepest 
 anxiety for tidings of success of our army against 
 the stupendous rebellion. We have recent cause 
 for gratitude that our fellow-citizens in the army 
 are doing their entire duty, and are exhibiting a 
 patriotism and heroism which will, sooner or later, 
 put to an ignominious flight all those arrayed in 
 arms against the Government. But is this all that 
 is to be accomplished ? Is the great work of the 
 time finished with the " crushing out " of armed re 
 bellion ? Although indispensable, it is but the com 
 mencement of the performance of our duties. That 
 finished, we have a country to restore, the Govern 
 ment to be obeyed by a willing people. This re. 
 suit will not depend upon the army, but upon us, 
 upon the legislators and the people. This is not a 
 war of subjugation. It is a war for and under the 
 Constitution, to protect loyal men oppressed by 
 armed rebellion ; and to induce a return to loyalty r 
 and a love and reverence for the Constitution, by 
 showing, as we shall have an opportunity, that can 
 not and will not be mistaken, that the incendiary 
 statements of the authors of the rebellion were not 
 founded on fact that they were only plausible pre 
 texts. 
 
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE. 37 
 
 This once fully shown, we have a more united and 
 loyal people than we have had for thirty years, and 
 we continue on our great and glorious mission with 
 a power and authority which will more than compen 
 sate for all our losses ami trials. But if it shall be 
 otherwise, if the people of this Confederacy, to 
 whom has been entrusted the maintenance of the 
 Government in this great crisis, shall determine to 
 forget the instructions of the fathers, if they shall 
 be governed by their passions, if demagogues arid 
 the tyranny of party shall usurp the seat ol patriot 
 ism and true loyalty, if an unbridled and licen 
 tious spirit of recklessness shall madden and impel 
 our people to disregard the guarantees of the Con 
 stitution, without which our Government would have 
 never been established, then sir, I see nothing but 
 ruin and disaster in the future. 
 
 Let it, sir, be once distinctly understood, that this 
 Government intends to take advantage of the pow 
 er which this unprecedented state of affairs has en 
 trusted it with, to the subversion of Constitutional 
 rights, and a disregard of constitutional obligations, 
 and the success of our arms will have been in vain. 
 Loyal men of to-day at the South, will see that their 
 rights are violated, and they will strike the heaviest 
 blows for their protection against usurpation. The 
 authors of the rebellion will be able to triumphantly 
 show to their followers, that the specious pretexts 
 which they had- used so successfully, if not based 
 
3 8 PRESIDENT S MESS A GE. 
 
 upon fact, have resulted in reality, and the last ray 
 of hope for a restoration of the Union will have dis 
 appeared. 
 
 The President of the United States, from the day 
 of his inauguration to the present time, has pro 
 claimed that the purpose of this war is the restora 
 tion of the Union under the Constitution ; and un 
 der this proclamation, and for the purposes of it, 
 one-half million pf our fellow-citizens have volun 
 teered for the war! Every act of the Administra 
 tion has been consistent with this proclamation, and 
 we are now called upon to express our opinions up 
 on this policy of the Administration ; and*! beg leave 
 of the Senate, to read from the messages of the 
 President, to show the clear, unqualified, and unmis 
 takable position of the Administration, upon the 
 prosecution of the war. 
 
 President Lincoln, in his Inaugural Message, says : 
 
 "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the 
 institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have 
 no lawful right to do so, and J have no inclination to do so. Those 
 who nominated and elected me, did so with the full knowledge that 
 I had made this, and many similar declarations, and had never re 
 canted them. And, more than this, they placed in the platform for 
 my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and 
 emphatic resolution which I now read." 
 
 "Resolved That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the 
 States, and especially the right of each State to order and control 
 its own domestic institutions, according to its own judgment exclu 
 sively, is essential to that balance ot power on which the perfection 
 and endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the 
 lawless invasion, by armed fores, of the soil of any State or Ter 
 
PRESIDENT S MESSAGE. 3$ 
 
 ritory, no matter under what pretext, as among th e gravest of 
 crimes/ 
 
 "I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so, I only press 
 upon the pffblic attention, the most conclusive evidence of which 
 the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and security of no 
 section, are to be in anywise endangered by the now incoming Ad 
 ministration." 
 
 In his message to the special session of Congress, 
 July 4th, he says : 
 
 "Lest there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid men as 
 to what is to be the course of the Government toward the Southern 
 States after the rebellion shall have been suppressed; the Executive 
 deems it proper to say, it will be his purpose then, as ever, to be 
 guided by the Constitution and the Laws, and that he will probably 
 have no different understanding of the powers and duties of the 
 Federal Government, relatively to the rights of the States and the 
 people under the Constitution, than that expressed in the inaugu, 
 ral address. He desires to preserve the Government, that it may 
 be administered for all, as it was administered by the men who 
 made it." 
 
 In his Message to the present session of Congress, 
 in December, the President refers to his two former 
 messages upon this subject, and says, -Nothing now 
 occurs to add or subtract to or from the principles 
 or general purposes stated and expressed in those 
 documents." 
 
 In his Message of March 6th, the President re 
 commends to Congress, the adoption of a joint res 
 olution, to the effect that the United States ought 
 to co-operate with any State which may adopt a 
 gradual abolishment of slavery, by giving pecuniary 
 aid for such purpose. 
 
40 PRESIDENT S MESSAGE. 
 
 This course has been approved by eminent and 
 conservative statesmen, for many years, and its adop 
 tion at the prevent time is specially recommended 
 with the hope that it may induce some of the more 
 Northern slaveholding States to emancipate their 
 slaves, and by so doing, weaken the hopes of the 
 leaders of the insurrection. The resolution contem 
 plates only such action as is strictly within the lim. 
 
 its of the Constitution. As the President correctlv 
 
 
 
 states in the Message proposing the resolve. 
 
 "Such a proposition on the part of the General Governme nt, se 
 up no claim of a right by Federal authority to interfere with slav 
 ery within State limits, referring as it does the absolute control o 
 the subject, in each case, to the State and its people immediately 
 interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice with 
 them." 
 
 The President further says : 
 
 "The point is not that all the States tolerating slavery would 
 soon, if at all, initiate emancipation; but that while the offer is 
 equally made to all, the more Northern shall by such initiation 
 make it certain to the more southern, that in no event will the for 
 mer ever join the latter in their proposed Confederacy. Initiation 
 because, in my judgment, gradual and not sudden emancipation 
 is better for all." 
 
 These plain and intelligible enunciations of the 
 principles by which the Administration proposed to 
 be guided, met with the approval of the entire peo 
 ple of the loyal States, excepting the class whose 
 basis of operations is outside the Constitution. 
 Men of all parties joined in a patriotic and enthusi 
 astic support of the President upon this distinct 
 
PRESIDENT S MESSAGE. 41 
 
 line of policy, who would not upon any other ; and 
 all who now advocate a different principle of action 
 not only place themselves in opposition to the Ad 
 ministration, but initiate a partisan conflict. This 
 war on the part of the Federal Government, is ei 
 ther for the purpose of restoring and maintaining 
 the supremacy of the Constitution, or for the de 
 struction of it. There is no middle ground. If 
 Senators believe there is such a necessary antago 
 nism between slave labor in one State and free la 
 bor in another that they cannot exist together in the 
 future, they should reflect how far this belief justifies 
 an attempt at separation. I believe there is no 
 such antagonism, and the experience of seventy 
 years demonstrates it. 
 
 I have not favored the passage of any resolutions 
 by the Legislature upon the conduct of national af 
 fairs, and have taken no part in discussions refer 
 ring to past issues, but these resolutions have been 
 pressed upon us, and we shall be wanting in duty if 
 we remain silent. It is proposed to endorse a por 
 tion of the President s policy without reference to 
 the remainder. Such a course, as stated by the 
 Senator from Hampden, Mr. Thompson, in his elo 
 quent remarks, might imply a repudiation of the pol 
 icy not referred to. All Senators who have spoken, 
 have stated that the people concurred in the entire 
 policy of the President. If this is true, why not 
 express it here. The policy of the President has 
 
42 PRESIDENT 8 J\ 1ESSA GE. 
 
 been continuous, connected, and consistent, and 
 should be endorsed as a whole. I believe that it 
 has been wise, judicious, patriotic. The people be 
 lieve so. Senators who state that the policy of the 
 President previous to March 6th is approved by their 
 constituents, and record their votes against the pro 
 posed resolve, will be misunderstood by the people. 
 We should act with a view to oar great responsibil 
 ities in the present, with a wise regard to the future, 
 forgetting all past differences and party divisions. 
 
 Our greatest and most holy duty is to sustain the 
 Government. Every other consideration, however 
 important, is secondary to it. The evils of slavery 
 were known to the fathers, as they are known to us, 
 yet they permitted them, in order that they might 
 achieve the paramount good of a Government for 
 this whole people. Let us not assume to be better 
 or wiser than they were. These evils cannot be 
 properly relieved by violence, or the arbitrary use 
 of power. They were not born in a day. They 
 cannot be cured in a day. Providence will work 
 out its own great results. This war is for the puri 
 fication of the nation, but not by the overthrow of 
 the Government, or a perversion of any of its fun 
 damental principles. Events sublime, collossal, irre- 
 sistable, arc at work. If we listen, we can hear 
 their mighty tread. We cannot hasten or aid their 
 progress by the exercise of extraordinary powers. 
 Our duty is to exercise faith, patience, in the sup- 
 
PRESIDENT S MESSAGE. 43 
 
 port of the Government. Let us do this, and God 
 will protect the right 7 and in his own way, and in 
 his own good time, will purify us from the wrong. 
 
 I know of no way for the restoration of the Un 
 ion, unless the pilots of the great ship of State shall 
 be guided by the North Star of the Constitution. 
 If this shall be obscured if we veer to the right 
 hand or the left, we shall find ourselves on a dark 
 and tempestuous ocean, with no haven for safety, our 
 brave soldiers and seamen will have fought to no 
 purpose, the host of noble patriots who have offered 
 up their lives, will have died in vain ; and history 
 will record the humiliating truth, that because the 
 sons would not perform the conditions imposed by 
 the fathers, they lost forever, for themselves and 
 their posterity, the most precious inheritance ever 
 bequeathed to a great and prosperous people. 
 
MARYLAND AND MASSACHUSETTS.* 
 
 Mr. President : In this hour of darkness to the 
 Republic, when suspicion and distrust prevail, and 
 the public mind is inflamed with bitter animosities, 
 the slightest occurrence exhibiting good will, 13 the 
 smallest word spoken in kindness by one portion^of 
 this people to another, is not without its beneficent 
 effect. The State of Maryland from her position, 
 her business, her social connections, and her institu 
 tions, was susceptible to the contagion of Rebellion 
 v:hich had swept like a blight through States on her 
 border. And, maddened by the distractions of the % 
 time, by the malaria which was borne upon every 
 breeze from the South, a portion of her people com 
 mitted a most grievous crime against the Govern 
 ment, by murderous assaults upon loyal citizens has 
 tening to the national capital to protect it from 
 traitor hands which were raised for its destruction ; 
 and the victims were men of Massachusetts, our 
 own neighbors, brothers, and sons. Massachusetts 
 
 ^Delivered in the Senate of Massachusetts, April 22, 1862, 
 upon the Resolve in relation to the Act passed by the General As 
 sembly of Maryland, for the relief of the families of the killed and 
 wounded of Massachusetts, at Baltimore, April 19th, 1861. 
 
MARYLAND AND MASSACHUSETTS, 45 
 
 felt most deeply the wrong, but she felt it more in 
 sorrow and sadness, than in anger. She mourned 
 that any citizen could raise his hand against that 
 Government which had showered blessings upon all, 
 and in whose perpetuity all her hopes of the future 
 were centred. It was more to her than the loss of 
 her children. And now, when by the patriotic ef 
 forts of the sons of Maryland, that noble State is 
 rescued from the vortex of secession into which a 
 portion of her people would have plunged her, she 
 speaks to Massachusetts. She deplores the wrong 
 which some of her citizens committed, and, although 
 as a State she was not responsible for it, she sends 
 from her treasury for the relief of the wounded and 
 the families of the killed. The loyal heart of Mary 
 land has spoken. Massachusetts will respond with 
 a magnanimous spirit. Side by side, and shoulder 
 to shoulder, the sons of Maryland and of Massachu 
 setts are fighting the battles of our country ; and 
 when the blessings of peace shall be proclaimed 
 with not a star obliterated from our banner, may all, 
 these experiences contribute to cement these two 
 noble and ancient States in the common brother 
 hood of the Union. 
 
ADDRESS AT SALEM.* 
 
 Day of hallowed memories anniversary of our 
 National Independence and of the birth of the Un- 
 on with hearts filled with gratitude we welcome 
 thy return. To God we render devout thanks that 
 we are permitted this inestimable privilege, and 
 that through the thick clouds and darkness which 
 envelope us, we may yet see hope for the future of 
 our beloved country. 
 
 It is meet and proper that we should consecrate 
 this day to our country. Its hours are sacred. 
 They connect us with the fathers. In their patri 
 otism and wisdom the people of this great Republic, 
 distracted and embittered by civil dissensions, con 
 cur. If we will study their recorded opinions, and 
 become imbued with their spirit, the path of our 
 duty in the momentous future will be plain and in 
 telligible. Read the history of the fathers, of their 
 sufferings and privations, not alone that you may 
 be animated with a feeling of pride at their devo- 
 
 Delivered before the citizens of Salem, at Mechanic s Hall, July 
 4th, 1862. 
 
ADDRESS AT SALEM. 47 
 
 tion, courage and self-sacrifice, but that it may serve 
 to fix and intensify in your minds the great princi 
 ples and objects for which they labored. 
 
 It was not for power ; it was not from motives of 
 personal ambition or aggrandizement that they suf 
 fered; but that they might vindicate the authority 
 of the people, and be enabled to rear a governmental 
 fabric, which should be for the permanent happiness 
 and prosperity of the teeming millions who they fore 
 saw must in the future people this immense continent. 
 It was not for themselves and those with whom they 
 acted alone, but for their children s children to the 
 latest generation, that they devoted their lives and 
 efforts. They were not enthusiasts. Dispassionate 
 judgment, reason and forethought characterized all 
 their acts. 
 
 The great and sublime object of their lives was con. 
 stantly before them. Unmoved and serene, they 
 seemed elevated above the excitements of the time r 
 and from their majestic height to direct calmly the 
 progress of events. Temporary disappointments 
 and disasters, difficulties and dangers, served only to 
 increase their efforts, and strengthen their faith and 
 devotion. 
 
 Under their guidance, the war of the Revolution 
 was brought to a successful termination. Their first 
 purpose was accomplished, and the way opened for 
 the consummation of the great object of their labors 
 the establishment of a government which would 
 
48 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 
 
 secure to all the nighest blessings of civil liberty, 
 and bind the people of the thirteen States in a per 
 petual Union. Both were in their view indispensa 
 ble. A permanent government based upon the will 
 of the people was the end to be attained ; and to 
 accomplish this they deemed a union of. the people 
 of all the States an absolute necessity. They felt 
 that a liberal government, to be perpetual must in 
 clude the whole^-that it would be impossible for 
 more than one government to maintain a peaceable 
 existence on this continent over people of the same 
 race, civilization and spirit. * 
 
 It was for the purpose of establishing such a gov 
 ernment -and Union that the Convention of 1787 
 was held. It was composed ol the master spirits of 
 the Revolution, and presided over by the immortal 
 Washington. The men who had directed the desti 
 nies of the people through the trials and discourage 
 ments of an eight years war, were now called upon 
 to undertake the most arduous and responsible 
 duties of the stateman. But they shrank not from 
 the labor and responsibility. They assembled to 
 gether, animated by a common spirit of patriotism, 
 and occupied a continuous session of three months, in a 
 calm and deliberate consideration and discussion of 
 the object for which they were convened, and the 
 best mode of accomplishing it. It was a stupendous 
 work. The opinions and prejudices of the people, 
 sectional interests, and existing powers aud right 
 
ADDRESS AT SALEM. 49 
 
 were to be harmonized, and a government proposed 
 which would be accepted by all. These difficulties 
 were aggravated by the experience they had passed 
 through. There had existed a Confederation of the 
 States for five years and a virtual Union for a longer 
 period. Yet during all this time each State exer 
 cised all rights of sovereignty ; and even under the 
 Confederation, no act of the Continental Congress 
 which it established was effectual until adopted by 
 the States. Its powers were practically only advi 
 sory. Great difficulties had occurred ; and the local 
 power was often invoked against the requirements 
 of the Union, adding strength to State authority and . 
 zeal to sectional prejudice. These difficulties were 
 to be encountered and overcome. It required and 
 called forth a spirit of compromise and concession, 
 by which alone the great result could be accomplish 
 ed. The most serious difficulty which embarassed 
 the Convention was in the disposal of the rights ex 
 isting in the States. From the experience of the 
 past, all felt the beneficial results of local legislation 
 upon the interests of the people j and yet it was 
 evident that, if a permanent and authoritive govern 
 ment was to be established for the entire people, it 
 must be clothed with important rights and preroga 
 tives which would essentially abridge the powers of 
 the States. 
 
 In viaw of the difficulties and embarassments 
 arising from this state of things, the Convention fi- 
 
50 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 
 
 nally determined that the proposed new government 
 should be invested only with such rights and powers 
 as would be necessary for the general purposes of 
 government leaving to the State governments the 
 entire control of their local institutions and laws, 
 not conflicting with the positively prescribed object s> 
 and authority of the General Government : and that 
 each Government within its prescribed sphere should 
 be independent of the other. 
 
 This system, originating in the necessities of the 
 time although recently perverted by a portion of 
 the people has had and will continue to have with 
 our increasing growth a most important influence 
 upon our prosperity. With a country of such vast 
 territory, difference of production, interests and 
 habits, it would be impossible for a central govern, 
 inent to legislate satisfactorily for the local require 
 ments of the several sections. But with this reser 
 vation of authority in the States to control their do 
 mestic institutions and to legislate for their local 
 purposes, a most important security is aiforded 
 against the conflict of interests which must otherwise 
 result from the future increase of territory and pop 
 ulation. 
 
 By this system each State through its Legislature 
 controls and provides for its own peculiar interests, 
 and the General Government, representing the unity 
 of the States, acts as a powerful guardian to pro 
 tect them in their progress, to decide upon their 
 
ADDRESS A T SALEM. 5 1 
 
 conflicting relations, and to accomplish for the gen. 
 eral good what it would be impossible for the State 
 authorities to effect by their separate legislation. 
 This system of government, embodied in the Con 
 stitution of the United States, was proposed by the 
 Convention to the people of the several States for 
 ratification or rejection. Conventions were held in 
 the different States ; and finally, after a full discus 
 sion, and with a clear understanding of its various 
 provisions, it was adopted by the people of every 
 State. George Washington was chosen the first 
 President under the Constitution. The wheels of 
 government were set in motion, and the great ex 
 periment, as it was called, was put to the test of 
 practical operation. The effect upon the country 
 was at once seen and felt. Treaties with foreign 
 powers were made, commerce increased with won 
 derful rapidity, manufactures sprung up and agri 
 culture was stimulated. A national credit was es 
 tablished ; and, by the close of Washington s admin 
 istration, we were on the high road to greatness and 
 prosperity. 
 
 We have lived under this Constitution for more 
 than seventy years. We have, under its wonderful 
 and beneficient operations, achieved prosperity and 
 success unparalleled in the history of the world. The 
 ordinary tests of the strength of a government have 
 been applied. Difficulties and disputes between 
 different States have been adjusted, civil distarban- 
 
52 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 
 
 ces quieted, and the trials and exactions of wars 
 with foreign powers successfully met. We have 
 come out of all with renewed strength. We have 
 laid deep and strong the foundations of literary and 
 religious institutions. In material prosperity we 
 have made almost incredible strides. Our commerce 
 whitens every sea. The stars and stripes, the em 
 blem of our national honor and power, wave in every 
 port. Our manufactures, with a high price for 
 labor, compete successfully in every market, and, en 
 couraged by them and by the wants of the world, 
 our agriculture has increased a thousand fold. 
 
 All this success has been attained by this great 
 people under the Government arid in the Union as 
 established by the fathers . From the childhood of 
 the most aged amongst us, until within a recent pe 
 riod, their continued permanency has never been 
 reasonably doubted. But within this period, diffi 
 culties and dangers beyond the anticipations of any 
 one have been upon us. From the heights of pros 
 perity and from the enjoyment of a long-continued 
 peace, we have been precipitated into a conflict of 
 such colossal proportions as to threaten the very 
 existence of the Government and the Union. 
 
 This conflict has been waged with unremitted 
 zeal. It has called to the field in defence of the 
 Government over one-half million of our fellow cit 
 izens. Through their heroic efforts, and the wisdom 
 
ADDRESS AT SALEM. 53 
 
 and prudence of the Federal Administration we have 
 reason to hope that the crisis of rebellion will soon 
 be passed ; and that the time is approaching when 
 from the carnage of the battle-field and the excite- 
 ments of the strife of armies, we shall be called upon 
 to review the ground over which the tornado has 
 swept, and to consider great and important questions 
 upon the correct decision of which as much as up 
 on the success of our armies, will depend the fu 
 ture continuance of our beloved Union. 
 
 These questions deserve your most careful and im 
 partial consideration. At this time, when events 
 are so fast crowding upon us, we cannot determine 
 the entire and inevitable policy of the future. But 
 there are certain great truths and important general 
 principles, which, properly understood and appre 
 ciated, will serve to guide us in judging of our duties 
 hereafter. To a brief consideration of some of 
 them I would earnestly urge your attention. In re 
 ferring to them, I do not propose to appeal to pas- 
 sion or prejudice. They are never safe guides to 
 duty, and are always dangerous in times of great 
 popular excitements. I wish to address myself to 
 your calm reason and judgment. These must be 
 our counsellors, if we would save our country from 
 the perils that threaten it. 
 
 In judging of our duties as circumstances shall be 
 developed, it is of primary importance that we un 
 derstand clearly, appreciate fully, and keep con- 
 
54 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 
 
 stantly before us, the great object to be attained 
 that object is the preservation and continuance of the 
 Constitution and the Union. 
 
 This conflict must result in the supremacy of the 
 Union or in the overthrow of it. It will be the gov 
 ernment of the fathers, or another government or 
 governments to be hereafter established. It will be 
 the Constitution and the Union in their integrity, or 
 the Constitution and the Union in ruins. 
 
 Let us not be deceived let us not deceive our 
 selves. The Constitution is the fundamental law 
 which is to govern and control us. From it the gov 
 ernment and the Union have their legal existence* 
 It confers rights and privileges, and imposes duties 
 and obligations. The former must be fairly per 
 mitted, and the latter fairly performed, or the Con 
 stitution is inoperative. If the performance of these 
 duties and obligations is successfully resisted by the 
 people of any State or section, a revolution in that 
 State or section is achieved ; and the natural ten 
 dency is to extend revolution to other States and 
 sections until the prestige and authority of the gov 
 ernment will have become extinct. If, on the other 
 hand, the General Government, in obedience to the 
 demands of the majority, shall proceed to deprive the 
 people of any State or section of their rights and 
 privileges under the Constitution, except so far as 
 the necessities of the government may require, for 
 its preservation, their temporary supension or abridge 
 
ADDRESS AT SALEM. 55 
 
 ment, it will be a usurpation of power, revolutionary, 
 and destructive of the Constitution. 
 
 The Government and the Union can only ex 
 ist and be respected by a strict adherence to the 
 Constitution. We must be guided by it, if we hope 
 for peace, safety and union hereafter. It will sur 
 vive the present conflict invested with increased 
 strength and authority, or it will suffer wounds 
 which will sooner or later prove mortal. 
 
 If we favor reconstruction, that presupposes dis 
 solution. If we would proclaim universal emanci 
 pation of slaves in the States, we can only do it by 
 trampling upon the Constitution, which leaves the 
 entire and exclusive control of the subject to the 
 respective States. If we determine to conquer, and 
 hold as subjugated, the people of great States or 
 sections, we can find no authority in the letter or 
 spirit of the Constitution for the act. 
 
 The exercise of powers indispensable for the main 
 tenance of the Government, in the absence of pre 
 scribed law, is not in violation of the Constitution. 
 In a case like the present it is made the duty of the 
 President, by the Constitution, to suppress rebellion ; 
 the means were in his hands, and it was incumbent 
 on him to employ those means honestly and fairly, for 
 the purpose of such suppression. The right and 
 duty are based upon the clearly recognized law of 
 self-preservation. Yet this law has well defined 
 imits. The employment of the means is limited by 
 
56 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 
 
 the necessity. Although it imposes upon the Presi 
 dent the duty of employing such power as shall be 
 sufficient to meet the necessity or, in the words of 
 President Lincoln, "inevitable necessity" yet it 
 forbids his using more than is necessary, or prevert- 
 ing the power for any other purpose. It imposes 
 upon the head of the nation the exercise of the high 
 est discretion ; and he undertakes, with no written 
 law to guide him, a most responsible duty, when he 
 employs the means in his hands for the suppression 
 of a rebellion threatening the existence of the Gov 
 ernment ; and he would be guilty of the grossest 
 wrong, if, under the pretext of necessity, he should 
 invoke powers not indispensable, or means for other 
 objects not required by the exigency. The greater 
 the discretionary power, the greater the responsibility 
 that exists for a proper and prudent application and 
 employment of it. 
 
 And it is to us a cause of great satisfaction that 
 the Chief Executive of the Union, in the trying and 
 perplexing emergencies in which the Government has 
 been placed, has exhibited such patriotism, sound 
 wisdom and discretion in the exercise of this power, 
 as to meet the approval of all loyal citizens. 
 
 Believing, then, that all true patriots concur in 
 the conviction that the great object of our efforts is 
 the maintenance of the Constitution inviolate, it be 
 comes our duty to do everything consistent with 
 honor to promote that object. To this end, we must 
 
A DDRESS A T SALEM. 57 
 
 at all sacrifices put down armed rebellion. We 
 must scatter the armies of the rebels, and satisfy the 
 people of the rebellious States that the power of the 
 General Government, wherever restored, will be for 
 ever after maintained. This being done, our next duty 
 is to secure obedience to the government by a willing 
 people. The first is to be effected through the in 
 strumentality of the army and navy ; and the next 
 through the instrumentality of the people. For the 
 successful accomplishment of both, it is necessary 
 that it be distinctly understood what the policy of 
 the Government will be towards those who have re 
 belled against its authority. 
 
 If it shall be proclaimed that the purpose of the 
 Government is to hold the so-called seceded States 
 as subjugated and tributary provinces ; or that the 
 masses of the people, upon the acknowledgement of 
 their errors, are to be stripped of their property 
 and to forfeit their rights under the Constitution, 
 we cannot hope for a speedy termination of the war. 
 We may have success on the battle-field, but we can 
 not conquer a peace. History should teach us the 
 Herculean task a government undertakes, which 
 would hold, impoverished and disfranchised, a pop 
 ulation so large as that of the South, and occupying 
 such a vast extent of territory. 
 
 The practical difficulties of such a course, even if 
 such were within our rightful discretion, should be 
 sufficient to compel us to reflection, without consid- 
 
58 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 
 
 ering further its inconsistency with the great princi 
 ples of equality, upon which our institutions are 
 based. 
 
 The necessity which exists for the temporary ex 
 ercise of authority by officers appointed by the Pres 
 ident, in States from which the armies of the rebels 
 have been expelled, does not conflict with these 
 views. These officers are not placed in authority 
 for the purpose of compelling the people to submit to 
 deprivations of their rights and property, but as 
 substitutes for the civil authorities who have abdica 
 ted, and for the purpose of maintaining the laws and 
 protecting the rights and property of the people, un 
 til they shall elect loyal rulers to take their places. 
 
 A government of a civilized people can only hope 
 for a return of its rebellious citizens to loyalty, 
 obedience and respect, through the adoption of a 
 lenient and forgiving policy toward the masses. 
 This is not only a political necessity, but consistent 
 with that charitable and merciful spirit which should 
 ever animate a civilized and Christian government. 
 Upon this all publicists agree. It is the policy laid 
 down by the law of nations. The force of this law 
 has been incidentally stated by one of our Senators 
 in Congress, in the discussion of another topic; he 
 says international law, "when justly and authorita 
 tively settled, becomes a safeguard of peace and a 
 landmark of civilization. It constitutes a part of 
 that code which is the supreme law, above all mu- 
 
ADDRESS AT SALEM. 59 
 
 nicipal laws, binding the whole commonwealth of 
 nations." 
 
 Vattel, in his great work upon international law, 
 says : "Subjects rising against their prince without 
 cause deserve severe punishments ; yet here the num 
 ber of delinquents calls for the sovereign s clemency. 
 Shall he depopulate a city or desolate a province in 
 punishing their rebellion? Such a chastisement, 
 however just in itself, becomes a cruelty when ex 
 tended to so great a number of persons." And 
 further "As for penalties, let them be reserved for 
 the authors of the rebellion, for those incendiaries 
 who incite the people to revolt." 
 
 If a rebellious people, when brought within the 
 power of the government, are, for their errors, to be 
 deprived of their rights, immunities and property, 
 they will forever after entertain sentiments of hos 
 tility, which will manifest themselves against the 
 government upon every occasion. They will con 
 tinually feel their humiliation and deprivations, and 
 can never be faithful citizens. Whereas, if those 
 who have been induced to commit wrongs against 
 their government are forgiven their offences, the mag 
 nanimity of the act operates to increase and strength 
 en their returning sentiments of loyalty. 
 
 This rule, in its policy and mercy, does not extend 
 to the leaders of the rebellion. Few in number, the 
 authorities can deal with them differently. Their 
 crime is deeper. Their punishment, upon conviction 
 
60 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 
 
 under the laws of the land, will be a just retribution 
 to them, and will afford an example in the tuture. 
 These general principles, so necessary in their appli 
 cation, so wise and merciful in their operations, are 
 acknowledged by all as obligatory upon our govern 
 ment. 
 
 But, with this acknowledgement upon their lips, 
 there are individuals who refuse that these princi 
 ples shall be applied to the relation which exist be 
 tween the master and his slaves, in the rebellious 
 States. They claim that the slaves of all in rebel 
 lion, of the leaders and the masses alike, shall be 
 freed. This claim is in direct violation of these 
 principles. If it is necessary to a voluntary return, 
 that the masses shall be reinstated in their rights 
 under the Constitution, and that their property shall 
 not be confiscated, will not such a course as is pro 
 posed, absolutely prevent their return? Can it 
 have any other effect upon them than to keep alive 
 feelings of enmity toward the Government, instead 
 of that respect and love which is indispensable to 
 make them faithful citizens ? It is most important 
 to understand the value which they attach to the 
 right of which you would deprive them, to compre 
 hend the effect of the act upon their minds. The 
 importance to them is the measure of its effect. The 
 right is one they estimate of the highest value ; 
 and there is no right connected with property, with 
 the strong feeling engendered upon the subject, of 
 
ADDRESS AT SALEM. 61 
 
 which they are more tenacious or sensitive. I 
 believe that if such an innovation upon the princi 
 ples, which it is admitted should control the action 
 of the Government, is adopted, there can be no hope 
 of a voluntary return. The conflict will result in 
 successful revolution, abject subjugation or utter ex 
 termination. Those who propose this course attempt 
 to justify it upon the ground that it is necessary for 
 the suppression of the rebellion. But, as I have 
 before stated, there must exist an absolute necessity 
 in order to justify the use of powers not prescribed 
 by the laws. It is not sufficient that a certain course, 
 or the adoption of certain means, will aid in putting 
 down the rebellion that they will strengthen the 
 hands of the government or that, through their in 
 fluence, the conflict may be brought to a speedy con 
 clusion. There must exist an inevitable necessity, 
 one which the calm judgment of the future will 
 acknowledge, to justify the use of any such extraor 
 dinary powers. With the immense numerical super 
 iority of our population, our vast resources, and 
 great success in the past, can it be said that our 
 government is now under such a necessity for self- 
 preservation, that it must interfere with important 
 constitutional rights for its relief? And if such 
 necessity should exist, the government must use such 
 means only as are useful and appropriate to meet it. 
 The fact that there exists an exigency which cannot 
 be relieved through the means and modes prescribed 
 
62 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 
 
 by law, does not authorize the government recklessly 
 to interfere with rights irrespective of the effect. It 
 must be reasonably assured that a proposed course 
 will materially aid in overcoming the impending 
 necessity, and that it is adapted to that end. The 
 President has thus far seen no exigency which re 
 quired the exercise of the proposed power. None 
 such exists, and there is little reason to anticipate 
 that any will exist in the future. If any such neces 
 sity shall arise, it will result from such a state of 
 facts as to satisfy all reasonable loyal men, both 
 North and South ; and they will cheerfully acquiesce 
 in the exercise of the necessary power. 
 
 If the Government is under the necessity of em 
 ploying extraordinary powers, it is very evident that, 
 under present circumstances, an attempt to free the 
 slaves of all in rebellion would not aid the Govern- 
 
 
 
 ment. A proclamation for the purpose could have 
 no effect in advance of our military power. It could 
 hardly secure the freedom of a single slave who is 
 not liberated as a necessity, with the progress of the 
 Federal army. For material aid, such a proclama 
 tion would be but of paper strength. But, on the 
 other hand, such a proclamation would aggravate 
 the difficulties to be overcome, and operate most dis- 
 asterously upon the great object for which we are 
 striving. It would encourage the masses in resist 
 ance, who have taken up arms in the belief that the 
 object of the Government is to force emancipation 
 
ADDRESS AT SALEM. 63 
 
 upon the States ; and would dispel the ray of hope 
 from the hearts of those in the South who have 
 looked to the eventual restoration of the Union for 
 relief from the present reign of terror. And the 
 effect of such a proclamation, unless justified by ne 
 cessity, would operate most injuriously upon the peo 
 ple of Delware, Maryland, Missouri and Kentucky. 
 They would see that their rights are involved ; and 
 that, if the Goverwnent should unjustifiably interfere 
 with slavery in the rebellious States, there would be 
 but little hope in the future for security to slavery 
 in their own States. These people are entitled to 
 our highest consideration. By the patriotic and 
 strenuous efforts of these men, those great States 
 have been saved from the vortex of secession, and 
 held true to the Constitution and the Union ; and a 
 large portion of them are slaveholders. It was 
 stated in Congress, by one of the Representatives 
 from Kentucky, that "it appears by the assessor s 
 books of that State, that over eighty per cent of the 
 slaves there, are owned by Union men, whose blood 
 has been shed upon every battle-field since Kentucky 
 entered this war." Without the co-operation of 
 these States, we might well despair of the cajise of 
 the Union j and, with them, under a wise policy, 
 there can be no permanent separation. Their in 
 terests, to a large extent, were with the seceding 
 States, but their duty was to the Government to 
 which they owed allegiance ; and they followed the 
 
64 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 
 
 path of their duty. And they have shown their loy 
 alty through their sufferings. If there are any men 
 in the country whom I especially honor, they are the 
 noble and self-sacrificing patriots of the Border 
 States. Their homes have been desolated and their 
 fields devastated, but they have stood firm by the 
 Constitution. Their rights and their interests should 
 be sacred to the loyal people of the Union. 
 
 There is nothing connected with the conduct of 
 the war, from which more mischievous results will 
 follow, than from an unjustifiable interference with 
 slavery in the States. 
 
 The effect of the wrongful exercise of power, up 
 on those who are its victims, may be illustrated by 
 the familiar instance of the action of the civil au 
 thorities in staying the spread of a conflagration in 
 a large city. If necessary for the purpose, the mu 
 nicipal officers may destroy buildings in advance of 
 the devouring element. They are justified from the 
 existence of an overwhelming necessity; and the 
 public cheerfully acquiesce. But if, instead of de 
 molishing buildings near to the conflagration, they 
 should destroy others at a distance from the scene 
 of danger, and to which there is no apparent prob 
 ability the flames can extend, the act cannot be jus 
 tified ; and the authorities will be amenable. And if, 
 in addition, the owners of the buildings entertain the 
 belief, with or without sufficient cause, that their de 
 struction had been long desired by the authoritise, 
 
OF THE 
 
 " r RSITY 
 
 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 65 
 
 for other and distinct purposes, they would connect 
 such motive with the act, and regard it as a gross 
 violation of their rights. The fact that they are de 
 stroyed under the mere pretext of necessity, instead* 
 of diminishing, will only add to their resentment. 
 
 It is plain that, under existing circumstances, to 
 declare the emancipation of the slaves of all in re 
 bellion, could have no other influence than to prevent 
 the accomplishment of our object obedience to the 
 Government by a willing people. 
 
 It is sufficient for us to provide for the great exi 
 gencies of the present, with an anxious effort so to 
 direct events, as to accomplish the great result, upon 
 the expediency, propriety and right of which, there 
 should exist no difference of opinion among loyal 
 men. 
 
 Another ground, upon which such interference 
 with slavery is attempted to be justified, is that of 
 political necessity. The statement is, that the Un 
 ion will not hereafter be safe if slavery is permitted 
 in the States. This ground has no foundation upon 
 any possible legitimate principle. Even if it were 
 true that there existed lawfully under the Constitu 
 tion, institutions and systems, from which danger 
 in the future is to be apprehended, it would give no 
 authority to the people to remove them by the lay 
 ing of violent hands on the Constitution. The Con 
 stitution provides for its own amendment, and no 
 exigencies of political necessity can justify the ac 
 
6 6 ADDRESS A T SALEM. 
 
 complishment of a desired change, except through 
 the mode provided in the instrument itself. Such an 
 attempt would be clearly and unqualifiedly revolu 
 tionary. 
 
 But it may be useful to look further, and to en 
 quire if there is any such danger to our Government 
 in the future, from the existence of slavery, as to de 
 mand a change through the mode established by the 
 Constitution. 
 
 There is nothing in the relation of slavery to our 
 material prosperity which is dangerous. The fact 
 that all of the cotton and tobacco of the country is cul 
 tivated by slave labor is not dangerous to the Gov 
 ernment, and does not injuriously affect the charac 
 ter of free labor upon other productions, in other 
 sections. The effect of permitting slave labor is 
 most injurious to free labor in the same State and 
 society, but not beyond it. Further, if free labor 
 can control, in any State in which the great staples 
 now cultivated by slave labor are produced, free 
 labor, instead of being prejudiced, will be benefitted 
 by the competition. Upon the same product, the 
 economy of free labor will drive slave labor from the 
 field ; and if a great cotton growing State, like Texas 
 for example, could be converted to free labor to 
 which its population and events seem fast compelling 
 it the result would be the abandonment, within no 
 great length of time, of slave labor in every Gulf 
 State. It would quietly and gradually yield to the 
 
ADDRESS AT SALEM. 67 
 
 competition ; and the people would find their best in 
 terests subserved in the substitution of free labor. 
 
 The evils of slavery, the fathers of the country 
 knew and felt ; yet the system was so strongly sus 
 tained by the sentiment of the people in the States 
 where it existed, that they could not demand its 
 abandonment without thereby preventing the estab. 
 lishment of the Uuion. Although comparatively 
 stronger then than now as it existed in a majority 
 of the States they voluntarily left it where the Con 
 stitution found it under the control and to the 
 responsibility of the respective States, hoping that 
 circumstances and the highest interests of the people 
 themselves would, sooner or later, put it in the way 
 of ultimate extinction. The people of the North 
 have believed that, if its extention into future 
 States could be prohibited, it would gradually come 
 to a termination, and, upon the question of such ex 
 tension, there has been severe political strife. This 
 rebellion has forever settled it ia favor of freedom. 
 All the territory of the country has, by a recent vote 
 of Congress, been forever dedicated to free labor; 
 and no future legislation or power can wresf it from 
 the freemen who will people it at the close of the 
 war. 
 
 Congress has also, upon the recommendation of 
 the President, passed a resolve to the effect that the 
 General Government will render pecuniary aid to 
 any State which shall determine upon the emancipa- 
 
68 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 
 
 tion of its slaves, and with the march of our armies 
 into the rebellious States, slavery, from necessity 
 has received the severest blow. 
 
 These important results have been lawfully achiev 
 ed. They follow legitimately from the state of 
 affairs caused by the rebellion. Slavery precipitated, 
 by its friends, has received a blow from which it can 
 never recover. Events, more effectual than arbitrary 
 and unauthorized power will gradually and peace 
 ably, but surely dispose of it. With these great 
 and significant facts before our eyes, God save us 
 from the suicidal act of precipitating slavery and 
 the Union into one common grave. Fellow-citizens, 
 judge of this carefully. Be not allured by the siren 
 song of those who would persuade you to seek by 
 rash and forcible means to escape possible evils, by 
 plunging into dangers from which there can be no 
 return. 
 
 I entertain now, as I have ever entertained the 
 clearest convictions of the evils of slavery, and I look 
 forward with hope to the day when it will be peace 
 ably and wholly removed from our midst. But 
 strong as are these convictions and earnest as are 
 these hopes, I have never learned to weigh in the 
 balance, the importance of its immediate removal 
 against the life of this great Government. 
 
 For the restoration of the Union in its integrity, 
 there is only one certain path. It may lead over 
 
ADDRESS AT SALEM. 69 
 
 rough mountains, across deep abysses, and by the 
 edge of fearful precipices, but it is the only path to 
 safety and peace. Any other course will be revolu 
 tionary and destructive of the Constitution. Any 
 other course must result in a necessity for recon 
 struction. Does the word reconstruction convey no 
 terror to the American mind ? It is not and cannot 
 be a peaceable and insensible transition from the 
 present to the future Government. 
 
 Absolute destruction must precede reconstruction 
 and with it must come anarchy, confusion, fierce 
 civil dissensions at home, and all the long and dis 
 astrous train of evils to which misguided and uncon 
 trolled human passions lead. Twenty millions of 
 people, with diversity of interests, dispositions and 
 political opinions, which, under our beneficent sys 
 tem, have co-operated so harmoniously that the 
 very diversity imparted additional strength and se 
 curity will be absolved from their reciprocal obli 
 gations. Disintegration will ensue ; and the people 
 will be called upon to establish a new government. 
 Will no conflicts of interests spring up ? Will there 
 be no jealousies between the East and the West, 
 between New England and the great States border 
 ing upon the seceded section ? Will there be no 
 difficulty in establishing a basis for the payment of 
 the debt of the old Government or the whole of 
 it being due to the East, will an attempt be made 
 to repudiate it? Will there be no resentments 
 
70 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 
 
 arising from divided opinions upon the policy which 
 had made reconstruction necessary ? Will there not 
 be innumerable causes and pretexts for variance ? 
 The real danger from such a state of things cannot 
 be exaggerated. In our own history we learn the 
 difficulty of establishing a government by the people t 
 even after a long experience which satisfied all of its 
 necessity. We know with what anxiety the subject 
 was considered by the people with what faithful - 
 ness, ability and patriotism it was discussed by the 
 reat men of the day. the length of time required 
 to accomplish the adoption of the Constitution, and 
 that the fact of its final adoption was regarded as 
 almost a miracle. 
 
 The appeal of Alexander Hamilton to the Ameri 
 can people in behalf of the present Constitution, 
 when, although it had been adopted by seven of the 
 States, apprehensions were felt that it might not be 
 by all shows the deep anxiety that great and 
 patriotic statesman felt in the result. It is in the 
 last number of the Federalist. He said : " It may 
 be in me a defect of political fortitude, but I ac 
 knowledge that I cannot entertain an equal tran- 
 quility with those who affect to treat the danger of 
 a longer continuance in our present situation as 
 imaginary. A nation without a national government 
 is an awful spectacle. The establishment of a Con 
 stitution, in time of profound peace, by the voluntary 
 consent of a whole people, is a prodigy, to the con- 
 
ADDRESS A7 SALEM. 71 
 
 templation of which I look forward with trembling 
 anxiety. In so arduous an enterprise, I can reconcile 
 it to no rules of prudence to let go the hold we now 
 have upon seven out of the thirteen States, and after 
 having passed over so considerable a part of the 
 ground, to recommence the course. I dread the 
 more the consequences of new attempts, because I 
 know that powerful individuals, in this and in other 
 States, are enemies to a general national government 
 in every possible shape." 
 
 These words will apply with great force to our 
 position if we shall be called upon to reconstruct the 
 government ; and the apprehensions will be intensi 
 fied from the fact that it is a call to reconstruct, 
 with the discouraging reflection that the new gov 
 ernment is to succeed the best government which 
 ever existed on the face of the globe, and which 
 had been unnecessarily and capriciously thrown 
 away. 
 
 But the important question remains to be consid 
 ered. Will the people of the States in rebellion, 
 after the power of the Government has been suc 
 cessfully manifested, and with the exercise of a 
 rightful policy, voluntarily return to their allegiance ? 
 
 Our expectations upon this question will be mate 
 rially affected by an understanding of the causes of 
 the rebellion. If an intelligent people have taken 
 up anus against their G-overnnient to effect a revo 
 lution from an adequate cause, it is useless to hope 
 
72 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 
 
 for their return to loyalty, until that cause has been 
 removed by the Government. If, on the other hand, 
 a revolt has been instigated and overt acts of rebel 
 lion committed, without an adequate cause, we may 
 reasonably hope for a return to loyalty when, after 
 failure of armed resistance, time has been given for 
 calm reflection. The slaveholders and the non-slave- 
 holding whites, who took an early and active part 
 in the rebellion, were governed by the belief that 
 the National Administration had determined to 
 pervert the powers of the government to compel 
 emancipation of slaves in the States. The slave 
 holders were induced to action for the protection of 
 their material interests; and the non-slaveholding 
 population, which constituted by far the larger 
 portion, from dislike of the negro, and a belief that 
 he was to be emancipated and placed on an equality 
 with themselves. These opinions were strengthened 
 through the incendiary eloquence of their political 
 leaders, upon whom the people of the South have 
 ever placed great reliance. 
 
 Without this belief, these various classes could 
 not have been induced to the course they adopted. 
 History teaches us that masses of men are not easily 
 moved to take up arms against their government j 
 and, in the words of the Declaration of Indepen 
 dence, which have just been read, "all experience, 
 hath shown that mankind are more disposed to 
 suffer,while evils are sufferable, than to right them- 
 
ADDRESS AT SALEM. 73 
 
 selves by abolishing the forms to which they were 
 accustomed. " 
 
 They may have acted upon a mistaken belief. 
 But as a motive to action, a mistaken conviction of 
 the existence of a fact is as influential as if the fact 
 itself existed. 
 
 I believe it is true thair a majority of the people 
 in most, if riot all of the rebellious States, even to 
 the hour of the passage of their acts of secession, 
 were loyal; and that a large portion of them were 
 the land-holders. And I believe it is also true that 
 a very large portion of them have since, more or 
 less actively, sustained the rebellion. The reasons 
 and motives which affected this change well deserve 
 our consideration. A portion of this class sincerely 
 believed in the doctrine that a State has a right to 
 secede ; and although they preferred that the Union 
 should be maintained, yet they felt bound by the 
 action of their State, and believed that it was their 
 duty to support it, even against their individual 
 convictions of its inexpediency. 
 
 Another portion, with the same preferences, be 
 lieved that from what had been accomplished a sepa 
 ration of the States was inevitable ; and, with this 
 conviction, they deemed that the general good of all 
 would be best promoted by its speedy accomplish 
 ment. They saw the utter futility, in their position, 
 of making any attempt to resist the storm of re 
 bellion j and concluded that a dissolution of the 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 74 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 
 
 Union and the chances of establishing new govern 
 ments, were to be preferred to fierce and lasting civil 
 dissensions at home. May we not be too censorious 
 in judging of the decisions and acts of these men ? 
 We must remember the position in which they were 
 placed, the fact that the entire power of their own 
 States, and of neighboring States, was exerted in 
 favor of revolution ; and that all interference of the 
 general Government was forcibly and effectually ex 
 cluded. 
 
 Another portion was undoubtedly compelled to 
 u decision through fear. The acts of confiscation 
 and other stringent laws enacted against the prop 
 erty and persons of those who should oppose the 
 revolutionary policy, forced them to compliance. 
 
 Those who enlisted in the cause of rebellion from 
 other motives than the wish to break up the Union, 
 may be more readily won back to allegiance. They 
 will see, with the advance of our victorious armies 
 that they have acted upon erroneous views, and with 
 mistaken opinions of the result. May we aot rea 
 sonably hope to see the day when they will rejoice 
 with us in the accomplished salvation of our com 
 mon country ? 
 
 All this is not the work of a day. It will call 
 for time, patience, perseverance, labor. But, if, in 
 the end, through the dark shadows which surround 
 us we can see peace and safety, and a strengthened 
 and confirmed Union, it will be to us all a sufficient 
 
ADDRESS AT SALEM. 75 
 
 reward for our efforts. 
 
 God disciplines nations as he does individuals. 
 It is only through trials, temptations and dangers 
 that we are strengthened and exalted. May it not 
 be that, in His infinite wisdom, He has sent this 
 sore trial upon us to discipline our hearts, to chasten 
 our pride, to test our patience and forbearance, to 
 increase our faith and hope * and above all, to. 
 manifest to the people of this great nation His infi 
 nite power. 
 
 But, fellow citizens, time admonishes me that I 
 may weary your patience. Appreciating, as I humbly 
 trust, somewhat, the magnitude of the dangers 
 which threaten our beloved country, and feeling as 
 L do the conviction, that unless the American mind 
 shall be inspired with prudence and wisdom, the 
 return of this day may witness a permanently divi 
 ded union and a distracted people that within 
 that brief period this great Government, set as a 
 light to the world, may be extinguished forever - I 
 cannot close without solemnly adjuring each citizen 
 within the sound of my voice, to enquire anxiously 
 for himself what course he can pursue which will best 
 subserve the maintenance of the Constitution and 
 the restoration of the Union, in the preservation 
 and integrity of which are centred all our precious 
 hopes of the future. 
 
 Divest your minds of the passions and resent 
 ments of the time. It is no easy task. Bury with 
 
76 ADDRESS AT SALEM. 
 
 the dead all party ambition and jealousies. The 
 spirit of party is now a genius of evil. Look only 
 at your bleeding country, that you may be animated 
 with the single purpose of saving it from its perils. 
 The people of this country can save it. What no 
 bler cause can engage your efforts ? It is above 
 every other earthly consideration. Pride and sel 
 fishness should bow before the awful majesty of the 
 occasion. What is the temporary success or pro 
 motion of an individual compared with his interest 
 and that of his children in the perpetuation of 
 American institutions. Learn a lesson from the no 
 ble men who are fighting our battles. They count 
 their lives as nothing for the protection of the Gov 
 ernment. Can we not, emulating their spirit, yield 
 something? Can we not cast prejudice and passion 
 a burning and acceptable sacrifice, upon the altar of 
 our country ? 
 
 Fellow-citizens, great is the responsibility which 
 rests upon us of this generation. To our wisdom, 
 reason and patriotism has Providence submitted the 
 question of the future existence of the great Amer 
 ican system, for a final decision. The life of this 
 great nation is in the hands of the people. Will 
 you save it ? I appeal to your dearest and highest 
 interests. I appeal to you in behalf of the millions 
 in other lands, who are looking with the intensest, 
 interest upon the fortunes of this great struggle. I 
 call upon you, in behalf of a great posterity, to rige 
 
ADDRESS AT SALEM. 77 
 
 to the terrible importance of the hour. 
 
 I beseech of you all to determine that, God help 
 ing, you will, under the guidance of the great and 
 
 glorious principles of the Civil and Christian law, 
 
 do what you can to bring back to a common love 
 and allegiance, this great and unhappy people. 
 
SPEECH AT BOSTON.* 
 
 The excitements of the annual canvass have passed 
 with the election, and it is now a peculiarly fitting 
 time to consider dispassionately the actual condition 
 and exigencies of the country, and to counsel to 
 gether upon our duties in the great and momentous 
 future. The country has been now for nearly three 
 years contending with a colossal rebellion. The 
 sacrifice of blood and treasure, and the destruction 
 of resources in this struggle, are almost, if not entire 
 ly, unprecedented in the history of the civilized 
 world. Within that brief period of time we have 
 sent to the field of carnage nearly one and a half 
 million of our chosen youth, a majority of whom to 
 day lie buried beneath the soil of distant battle 
 fields, languish in hospitals, or are returned, enfee 
 bled and incapacitated for labor. 
 
 We have expended nearly two thousand millions 
 of dollars of treasure. A large portion of the 
 country has been swept as by the besom of destruc- 
 
 * Delivered before the Constitutional Democratic Club, Boston, 
 November 4, 1863. 
 
SPEECH AT BOSTON. 79 
 
 tion. Whole States almost have been devastated. 
 Business, even in the most prosperous portion of the 
 country, has been forced from its natural channels, 
 and turned principally to provide for the necessities 
 occasioned in the prosecution of the war, and has 
 been feeding on the credit of the country, for the 
 support of which the labor and energies of the peo 
 ple must be taxed for generations to come and 
 the end is not yet. 
 
 This state of affairs calls for the most anxious 
 and careful consideration, and a most thorough and 
 impartial discussion of the various important ques 
 tions connected with the struggle, to the end that 
 the people may concur in, and require the adoption 
 of such measures as will accomplish the settlement 
 of our National difficulties, and a return of the bles 
 sings of peace, within some appreciable period. 
 . It is our duty, in considering these great and im 
 portant questions, to discard, so far as we may be 
 able, all passion, animosity and partizan bitterness, 
 and to appeal to the judgment and the reason alone. 
 True patriots can now look only to the interests of 
 the country. All mere party considerations are but 
 dust in the balance, when compared with the gigan 
 tic issues in which are involved the life and the death 
 of the Union. Under our institutions the people 
 can only unite in the expression of their opinions 
 upon these great issues through political organiza 
 tions, and it is for this purpose now that they are 
 
80 SPEECH AT BOSTON. 
 
 or should be, of any value. The object of the peo 
 ple in support of the Government is to restore our 
 country, so far as it may be done, to its former con 
 dition, through the suppression of the force which is 
 employed against it, and by allaying the animosities 
 which have for the time estranged and divided the 
 people of the country. It is indispensable that both 
 these purposes be accomplished, if the Constitution 
 is to be continued and the Union restored. These 
 results can be accomplished only through the adop 
 tion and execution of a wise, comprehensive and pat 
 riotic policy. Abstract dogmas, speculative theo 
 ries, partizan intensity and zeal, cannot compass this 
 end. It must be effected, if at all, through policy, 
 through the employment of such means, compatable 
 with law and honor, as shall under the circumstan 
 ces be best adapted for the accomplishment of the 
 desired result. What we can honorably and legit 
 imately do, that will most effectually and speedily 
 suppress the force opposed to the government and 
 restore the lost affections of the people, it is our first 
 and highest duty to do. No great rebellion 
 was ever undertaken, that did not originate either 
 in the oppression of the government, or in imagin 
 ary grievances, believed to be real by the masses of 
 those who rebelled. No such rebellion as we are 
 called upon to meet was ever undertaken and perse 
 vered in with such an intensity by any civilized peo 
 ple, through mere recklessness, or the influence of 
 
SPEECH AT BOSTON. 81 
 
 ambitious leaders alone. It is our duty, then, to 
 look for the cause of the rebellion, for that which 
 has given strength and vitality to the force employ 
 ed. If we shall find that any actual grievance was 
 the cause of the insurrection, then it is our duty, in 
 accordance with the policy pursued by civilized na 
 tions, to relieve it; and if the grievance is only 
 imaginary " a phantom, " the same policy demands 
 of us that we should attempt to remove and dispel 
 the delusion. This is necessary, not only to regain 
 the confidence and affections of the people in the end, 
 but indispensable for the purpose of so weakening 
 the strength of the force which sustains the rebel 
 lion, that it may be overcome by the government. 
 
 A. people thoroughly united in support of a rebel 
 lion, can never be conquered and made obedient and 
 faithful subjects or citizens, through the application 
 of force alone; and so long as force is employed 
 against a united people, without conciliation, it will 
 fail of its object, and tend only to confirm the inten 
 sity of the spirit of resistance. 
 
 The immediate cause of the rebellion was per 
 fectly well understood by the President, by Congress 
 and by the people, at the time of the breaking out 
 of the war. The subject had been for months dis 
 cussed in Congress and before the people, and there 1 
 was no misconception or misunderstanding in regard 
 to it. The President appreciating it fully, expressed 
 it in clear and emphatic language in his inaugural 
 
82 SPEECH AT BOSTON. 
 
 message, March 4, 1861. He said: 
 
 "Apprehension seems to exist among the people of 
 the Southern States, that by the awossion of a Re 
 publican Administration, their property, their peace, 
 and their personal S33iirifcy are to be endangered." 
 
 This was the SD!C immediate cause of the disturbed 
 feeling that agitated the South and ominously threat 
 ened the pease and ths integrity of th? country. It 
 was not the power of leaders, it was not reckless 
 ness in the people, it was not a spirit of aggression 
 on the part of the South that endangered the peace 
 of the country, but an apprehension a real actual 
 fear among the people of the South, that the new 
 Administration, based upon principles antagonistic 
 to their institutions, controlled by men who had de 
 clared a purpose to illegally interfere with the rights 
 of the people of the Southern States, and succeeding 
 to power by a purely sectional vote, intended to 
 strike at their property, their peace and their per 
 sonal security. This every man in the country knew 
 was the sole immediate cause from which the peace 
 of the country was endangered, and every man felt 
 that if this apprehension could be relieved, the coun 
 try would be composed. Conservative men of both 
 sections made every effort to remove these appre 
 hensions and avert the war. Mr Crittenden, a man 
 in whose wisdom, disinterestedness and loyalty, no 
 one doubted, presented to Congress, early in the 
 winter, a series of resolutions intended to remove 
 
OF THE 
 
 SPEECH AT BOSTON. 
 
 8, Ty I 
 
 , r ,/ 
 
 83 
 
 these apprehensions. Jefferson Davis, even, assented 
 to the statement of their effect, and approved of 
 their passage for the purpose of preventing war ; 
 but the leaders of the Republican party refused to 
 accept them. The cause was not removed, concil 
 iation was declined to be offered, and war followed. 
 The President, in his inaugural message, proposed 
 conciliation. He stated the aprehensions of the peo 
 ple of the South, solemnly affirmed that he had no 
 purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the 
 institution of slavery in the States where it exists 
 and that he had no lawful right nor inclination thus 
 to interfere. He referred to his statements in the 
 past, the resolution of the Chicago platform on the 
 subject, and in the strongest and most convincing 
 language, assured the people that the property, peace 
 and security of no section were to be in anywise en 
 dangered by the incoming Administration. These 
 assurances had great influence upon a large portion 
 of the people of the South, but the refusal of the 
 Republicans in Congress, to pledge their party to 
 non-interference, in their refusal to pass the Critten- 
 den resolutions, had already rendered it morally 
 certain, that open rupture could not be avoided. 
 Those men at the South, who were relieved of their 
 apprehensions through the patriotic assurances of the 
 President, were sustained through the terrible pres 
 sure which the commencement of the war brought 
 upon their whole section by the hope that, through 
 
84 SPEECH AT BOSTON. 
 
 his wisdom and patriotism, the rebellion would bo 
 speedily suppressed, and the lost affections of the 
 people restored ; and the President had the satisfac 
 tion of stating to Congress, in his message in July, 
 nearly three months after the attack on Fort Sumtef, 
 that " It may well be questioned, whether there is 
 to-day a majority of the legally qualified voters of 
 any State, except, perhaps, South Carolina in favor 
 of disunion. There is much reason to believe that 
 the Union men are the majority, in many, if not in 
 every one of the so-called seceded States/ 
 
 The effect of the President s announcement of the 
 policy that would govern him, was still more influen 
 tial upon the people of the North. It united the 
 whole people in a most cordial and enthusiastic sup 
 port of the Administration for the vigorous prosecu- 
 ion of the war against armed rebellion, with the 
 confidence that under a wise management, it could 
 soon be suppressed and the Union restored to peace 
 through the aid of the Unionists of the South. So 
 influential was this sentiment of the people, that 
 Congress, immediately after the battle of Bull Run, 
 passed, with almost entire unanimity, the Crittenden 
 resolves. Under this policy, in the winter and 
 spring following, successful efforts were made against 
 the rebellion in all quarters. The rebels themselves 
 were dismayed at their defeats ; and the Union men 
 looked forward to an early day when they could 
 again see the old stars and stripes wave over their 
 
SPEECH AT BOSTON. 85 
 
 heads. Richmond alone remained to be ta 
 ken. Although within our grasp, it was not taken, 
 and history will not attribute the failure to the want 
 of bravery in our men, or of generalship in that 
 noble military chieftain who led his forces unsustain- 
 ed, within sight of the spires of the Confederate 
 capital. 
 
 If the administration had properly supported Gen. 
 McClellan, Richmond would have fallen, the back 
 bone of the rebellion would have been broken, and 
 the Union restored through the vote of a majority of 
 the people of the South, who had never sympathized 
 with the rebellion. 
 
 But whilst our brave men were fighting armed re 
 bellion under the declared policy of the President 
 and Congress, mischievous and zealous politicians 
 were plotting the overthrow of the policy, and advo 
 cating an antagonistic and partisan system of opera 
 tions against the insurgents. They did not desire 
 reconciliation through conciliation, and feared above 
 all things the return of the people of the South to 
 allegiance and a participation in the Government, as 
 they knew it would prove the death knell to their 
 party organization. They saw it was indispensable 
 for their future success to repudiate the real cause 
 of the war, and to attribute it to such a cause as 
 would aid them in their partisan designs. The the 
 ory they promulgated was, that the apprehension of 
 the people of the South that their peace, property 
 
86 SPEECH AT BOSTON. 
 
 and security would be endangered by the new Ad 
 ministration, did not cause the national disturbance, 
 but that the existence of slavery was the sole cause 
 of it that in itself slavery is such an antagonistic 
 and disturbing element, that the only solution of our 
 present difficulties, and our only hope of peace in the 
 future, is from the overthrow and extinction of it ; 
 and that consequently, instead of attempting concil 
 iation, the war should be directed to the forcible 
 overthrow of the system. This policy was initiated 
 by the introduction into Congress and subsequent 
 passage of the confiscation act, and finally adopted 
 by the President, September, 1862, and under it, 
 substantially, the war has been prosecuted from that 
 time to the present. The destructive character of 
 this policy, and the fallacy on which it is based, are 
 apparent to every unprejudiced mind. Yet, the fact 
 that it has been adopted to govern in the prosecu 
 tion of the war, and that it is the basis of the plat 
 form of the Administration party, and accepted by 
 many without consideration, under the pressure of 
 partisan influences, demands an examination of it 
 which it otherwise would not deserve. 
 
 If it shall be conceded for the moment, that the 
 authors of the new policy are correct in their state 
 ment that slavery, as it legally exists under the Con 
 stitution, was not only the sole cause of the war, but 
 that it is intrinsically so disturbing an element, that 
 so long as it exists, this people can never live togeth- 
 
SPEECH AT BOSTON. 87 
 
 er in the Union in peace, does it legally or morally 
 justify their sequence, that therefore, it should be 
 forcibly destroyed, without the consent of the people, 
 who, under the Constitution, have the exclusive con 
 trol of it ? If their statement is correct, the only 
 just and logical sequence is, that if the people of the 
 South cannot be induced voluntarily to abandon it 
 then that we should at once consent to a separation 
 of the Union. Upon their statement of facts, we 
 have no legal or moral right to compel a change, 
 and we assume a fearful responsibility, if we pro 
 ceed to sacrifice life, treasure and national resources 
 for the accomplishment of such an unjust and illegal 
 purpose. What would be thought in a community, 
 of a firm which should undertake by force to pre 
 vent one of its members from doing a private busi 
 ness, which it was agreed, in the partnership 
 bond he might do, merely upon the ground that the 
 strict exercise of the privilege operated more inju 
 riously and destructively upon the business of the 
 firm than it was anticipated it would when the part 
 nership was created ? The only remedy in such a 
 case would be, if the partner would not voluntarily 
 yield the privilege, to cancel the bond and dissolve 
 the partnership. Should any other rule control in a 
 government of the people ? 
 
 If the statement of the authors of the new pol 
 icy is correct, I know of no reason why they should 
 not concur in the demands of the South. 
 
88 SPEECH AT BOSTON. 
 
 But this statement is not correct, and it is per 
 haps not strange that in a time of such intense ex 
 citement, members of the Republican party should 
 willingly and without examination accept a theory 
 in itself plausible but ill-founded, which harmonizes 
 with their partisan interests and is consistent with 
 their party shibboleth. Slavery was in no sense 
 the cause of the war. The fact that labor is 
 performed in one State of the Union by slaves, and 
 in another by free men, occasions no " irrepressible 
 conflict." This the author of the term admitted in 
 a speech delivered just before the commencement of 
 the war. The fact furnishes no antagonism which 
 is destructive of the national life. For one hundred 
 years before the adoption of the Constitution, the 
 labor in one part of the country was performed by 
 slaves, and in another principally by free men, and 
 no antagonism was produced or dreamed of. In 
 the convention which framed the Constitution there 
 were men from both sections who openly deplored 
 the fact that slavery existed, and who opposed the 
 continuance of the slave trade, yet there was not 
 one who suggested that there was any intrinsic an 
 tagonism in the system, which could endanger the 
 government they were creating ; and upon the test 
 question on the subject, the provision for the rendi 
 tion of fugitives, there was not one dissenting vote. 
 For forty years after the adoption of the Constitu 
 tion, we lived together in the Union, a portion of the 
 
SPEECH AT BOSTON. 89 
 
 States slave and a portion free, not only without 
 any antagonism exhibiting itself, but without any 
 being suggested. The only civil disturbance of mag 
 nitude which has threatened us in the past, was in 
 South Carolina, on the subject of the tariff alone. But 
 the last thirty years has witnessed a great political 
 strife on the subject of slavery. It commenced 
 with the organization of the anti-slavery society in 
 1833. This was formed not upon the ground that 
 slavery was dangerous to the National Government, 
 but purely upon the moral questions arising out of 
 it. From that time to the present, able and elo 
 quent men and women have addressed meetings in 
 every village of the North, in which they denounced 
 the people of the South as a barbarous and unchris- 
 tian race, not fit to be associated under the same 
 government with the people of the North. Fanati 
 cal philanthropists, excited upon the subject, demand 
 ed a separation of the Union, and fanatical clergymen 
 called for a separation of the church. This excited 
 a counter irritation at the South. The excitement 
 there was stronger, as it was connected with their 
 most important material interests. The inevitable 
 result was the rank growth of a most bitter ani 
 mosity and hatred between the people of the two 
 sections. Demagogues in both sections turned the 
 excitement to their own partisan purposes. Strin 
 gent legislation in South Carolina and other South 
 ern States upon the subject of free negroes followed. 
 
90 SPEECH AT BOSTON. 
 
 The North retaliated, and passed personal liberty 
 bills, and other acts of a similar purport. Hatred 
 increased, and was intensified. It broke up the 
 unity of the churches, destroyed one great national 
 party, and disorganized for the time the other, and 
 at last organized and gave success to a purely sec 
 tional party organization. The people of the South, 
 influenced by the spirit of hate, and excited by the 
 struggle, believed that this success was the signal 
 for an attack upon their constitutional rights, and 
 the radicals of the North refused to do what was 
 indispensable to correct the apprehension, and the 
 result was war. Hatred aggravated and intensified 
 between neighbors finds cause or pretext for per 
 sonal conflict, and no people, under a free govern 
 ment can long dwell together with hatred rankling 
 *in their hearts, the one portion against the other, 
 without civil war, upon some misapprehension or 
 pretext. 
 
 The authors of the new policy are not only wrong 
 in their theory that slavery is the cause of the war, 
 and a destructive element in our political system, 
 but the policy they base on it is entirely antagonis 
 tic to the principles which must govern us if we 
 would restore the Union ; and if successfully accom 
 plished would furnish a fruitful cause of civil dissen 
 sions in the future. 
 
 This policy cannot be consummated without stamp 
 ing the States, in which it is accomplished, with hu- 
 
SPEECH AT BOSTON. 91 
 
 miliation. Their assertion is, that this right the 
 authority to hold slaves, is exercised by only a mi 
 nority of the people of the States in rebellion, con 
 trary to the interests, and even wishes of the 
 majority, and that this forcible interference with 
 slavery will be approved by the majority. In 
 reply to this, it is sufficient to say that this majority 
 can fairly be presumed to understand their own in 
 terests better than their philanthropic neighbors j 
 and that if they desire, being in the majority, to be 
 relieved of the system, they can easily effect it at 
 the ballot-box. But further^ and still more impor 
 tant, the right to hold slaves is a right, which al 
 though exercised only by a minority, attaches to the 
 entire people of the States where it is permitted, 
 and a forcible and illegal interference with it, is an 
 insult to the dignity and character of the State, and 
 will be resented by the whole people, independent 
 of their personal interest in the privileges it grants, 
 or even of their opinion of its utility, or of the ex 
 pediency of continuing the right. 
 
 If the President or Congress, upon any pretence, 
 should interfere with any right of the citizens of 
 Massachusetts under the Constitution, even if that 
 right were unimportant and of insignificant practi 
 cal value, would not the act be resented by the 
 whole people as an insult and usurpation? and 
 could the people be ever appeased until reparation 
 was made ? In the suppression of the rebellion, the 
 
92 SPEECH AT BOSTON. 
 
 army may appropriate for its use, or destroy, as the 
 necessities of the exigency shall require, any prop 
 erty of the enemy that may be reached. This is an 
 acknowledged power incident to such a contest, and 
 however much property of the people of the territo 
 ry occupied by the army may be taken, in the proper 
 exercise of this power, no cause of resentment will 
 be occasioned which will survive the war. But .if 
 the Government shall, by force, annul a right which, 
 under the Constitution, is to be perpetual except 
 through the consent of the people, it will afford a 
 constant cause of dissatisfaction and of discontent 
 in the future. Slaves that are reached, or who shall 
 come within our lines, whilst the war is being waged, 
 may be freed ; but the assertion that if, at the close 
 of the war, any slaves are not thus liberated, the 
 right of the master to hold them is annulled or can 
 be annulled, without the consent of the people, 
 through a proclamation or other act of the Pres 
 ident, will never, in the present or in the future, be 
 willingly acquiesced in by the people of the States 
 possessing the right. 
 
 If peace could be restored, and the people of the 
 States in rebellion be permitted to exercise all their 
 rights under the Constitution excepting this one, 
 could we look for a permanent peace in the future ? 
 Would not the act itself humiliate the State in 
 which it should be exercised, and would not every 
 man in the State feel the humiliation ? Even if we 
 
SPEECH AT BOSTON. 93 
 
 could so far subjugate the people of the States in 
 insurrection, as to seize and confiscate a considerable 
 portion of their lands, and apportion them to our 
 soldiers, and they should settle upon them and possess 
 them peaceably, would they be exempt from this feel 
 ing ? Would they not become identified with the inter 
 ests of the section which was to be the home of them 
 selves and their children, and within a brief period 
 partake of and become imbued with all its feelings 
 and prejudices ? Would they not soon learn to 
 resent the humiliation to which their section had 
 been subjected, as strongly as those who were born 
 upon its soil ? Would not this new, and as it is 
 claimed, stronger and more efficient portion of the 
 population, afford to the section an increased 
 strength in future struggles to wipe out the dis 
 grace. 
 
 The theory of the new policy points inevitably to 
 ward disunion. Even if the authors of it could 
 reach to the visionary result which they aim .to ac 
 complish, it could be done only by planting the 
 seeds of eternal discord. The consummation of their 
 scheme would be the signal for other and more de 
 termined dissensions, and destructive of the future 
 peace of the country. The President in adopting 
 the new policy, repudiated the promises and the 
 platform to which he pledged his administration in 
 his inaugural message. The policy itself renders 
 conciliation inadmissible, and under it, notwithstand- 
 
94 SPEECH AT BOSTON. 
 
 ing the favorable opportunities of the past few 
 months, no overtures for adjustment have been 
 made. 
 
 Lord Chatham, when measures of force alone had 
 governed in the prosecution of the war against 
 America for more that two years, said in the Brit 
 ish Parliament, upon the proposition of an address 
 to the throne upon the subject, "You cannot concil 
 iate America by your present measures. You cannot 
 subdue her by your present, or by any measures." 
 And we say to the Administration, you cannot con 
 ciliate the South by your present measures, you can 
 not subdue her by your present, or by any measures, 
 if you persistently refuse conciliation. But it is 
 said, it does not comport with the dignity of the 
 nation to proffer conciliation that no accommoda 
 tion should be attempted with rebels in arms. So 
 thought the administration of Lord North, in the 
 war of the Revolution. The war was prosecuted 
 upon this policy for nearly three years, when Par 
 liament interposed, passed conciliatory acts, under 
 which commissioners were sent to America with full 
 instructions and authority to treat with rebels in 
 arms. The terms proposed were such as America 
 would have originally complied with. But the prof 
 fer came too late. It came when, in the words 
 of the historian Marshall, "All those affections 
 which parts of the same empire should feel for each 
 other, had been eradicated by a distressing war ,- 
 
SPEECH AT BOSTON. 95 
 
 and the great body of the nation was determined, 
 at every sacrifice, to maintain its independence." 
 England was not humiliated by the offer. She was 
 humbled only from the fact that she delayed it so 
 long. Our administration may well seek instruc 
 tion from this great lesson of history. 
 
 There is nothing plainer than that this struggle 
 must result in the restoration of the Union through 
 the consent, ultimately to be obtained, of the people 
 of both sections, or in disunion. The first result 
 cannot be attained by the sword alone. The griev 
 ances or apprehension that caused the war must be 
 removed. By conciliation, influential men of the 
 South must be won back to a love for the Union, 
 and through their co-operatioa under such a policy 
 the military power of the rebellion will be weaken 
 ed, with a vigorous effort it may be overcome, and 
 we may reasonably hope for a return of the masses 
 to loyalty at no distant period. Any other policy 
 must end in separation. Wild projects of subjuga 
 tion may be attempted, and prosecuted under the 
 excitements of the crisis, to the exhaustion of the 
 people. They will not only end in disunion, if per 
 sisted in, but tend to prevent a permanent peace 
 between the new governments that succeed. The 
 hatred that will have culminated in the separation, 
 will be handed down from generation to generation 
 by both people, and constantly endanger their peace, 
 on the slightest pretexts. 
 
96 SPEECH AT BOSTON. 
 
 The people of the country should faithfully and 
 carefully examine these important subjects, and wise 
 ly determine what their highest duty to their coun 
 try requires of them at the present crisis. Above 
 all, let them not be mistaken in their judgment upon 
 the true criterion of loyalty and of patriotism. The 
 stern and inexorable future alone will decide impar 
 tially and correctly upon the events that are now 
 transpiring. If the Union shall be restored, the 
 Constitution preserved in the future, the memory of 
 those who, amid perils, demanded and finally obtain 
 ed the adoption of the policy which secured them, 
 will be blessed through all coming time ; and if on 
 the other hand, through madness and fanaticism, the 
 colossal pillars of the noblest government the world 
 has ever known shall be pulled down, the Union dis 
 solved and the government destroyed, the descen 
 dants of this great people, amid their execrations 
 against the authors of this terrible calamity, will re - 
 member with gratitude and admiration those men 
 who, amid the pitiless peltings of the storm, stood 
 true to the Constitution and the Union. The Ad 
 ministration that persisted in the attempt to conquer 
 the rebellion in America by the sword alone, stands 
 to-day condemned before England and the world, 
 whilst Chatham and Burke and the other noble 
 statesmen who understood and defended the true 
 policy and interests of the nation against the pas 
 sions of an excited majority, are known and believed 
 
SPEECH AT BOSTON. 97 
 
 by all men to have been the truest and best friends 
 of their country. Let us, then, perform our duties 
 in the great future, calmly, discreetly and courage 
 ously. Let us, as faithful citizens, obey every law 
 ful command of those who for the time administer 
 the affairs of the country, and on the other hand, let 
 us require of the Administration a faithful adher 
 ence to the Constitution^ of the country, and the 
 adoption of such a policy as will bring us out of all 
 our perils, one people under the Union of our 
 fathers a Union bound together with the ties of 
 kindred blood, mutual interests, and equality of 
 rights. This is the only Union that can be restor 
 ed it is the only Union worth restoring. 
 
SPEECH AT SALEM.* 
 
 The questions of our duty are connected with the 
 colossal struggle in which the people of the country 
 have been engaged for more than three years. 
 These questions are to be met ; and considered calm 
 ly, wisely, fully and courageously. In this hour of 
 peril to our Union and our institutions, that man is 
 not worthy the title of an American citizen who 
 fails to utter his convictions and warnings, if he be 
 lieves they may exert a salutary influence, however 
 small, upon his fellow-citizens. 
 
 The questions proposed to every American citi 
 zen to-day are : What shall I do to preserve and 
 perpetuate the great principles of civil liberty, upon 
 which the governments of the States and of the 
 Union are based ? and how can I best act for the pur 
 pose of continuing the political relations which have 
 existed between the people of the entire country, 
 and conferred upon them such immeasurable bene 
 fits in the^ past ? I state the issues in the order of 
 
 ^Delivered before the Democratic Convention at Salem, April 
 21, 1864. 
 
SPEECH AT SALEM. 99 
 
 their importance. For, for one, I prefer to live in a 
 country no larger than Massachusetts alone would 
 constitute, with the blessings and privileges of the 
 principles of self-government unimpaired, than dwell 
 in a nation embracing the entire continent, over 
 shadowed and darkened by the black wings of a 
 despotism. 
 
 The war on the part of the Government was 
 commenced for the declared purpose of restoring 
 the Union and the Constitution. It was believed 
 that a majority of the people of the South desired 
 the continuance of the Union, but were controlled 
 by an excited and desperate minority who had pos 
 sessed themselves of the reins of the State Govern 
 ments, and the object of the people of the North 
 was to suppress armed rebellion, and give to the real 
 majority the supremacy in the seceded States. The 
 result was to be accomplished not by the overthrow, 
 but through the instrumentality of the principles of 
 self-government. The people of the North, uninflu 
 enced by the terrible passions which the war has 
 since excited, then believed that the Union could 
 and should be restored only through the consent of 
 the majority of the people of the several States. 
 I believe now that the only way the Union can be 
 restored or any Union reconstructed is through the 
 voluntary cooperation of the people of the different 
 sections of the country. There can be no other 
 union upon republican principles. There may be 
 
100 SPEECH AT SALEM. 
 
 theoretically a unity extorted and sustained by 
 force, such as now exists and is maintained between 
 Eussia and Poland and between Austria and Hun 
 gary a despotic power and a people acquiescing 
 only through military coercion which it is powerless 
 to resist such a unity will dissolve the moment 
 the armed hand is removed, a unity which, if it 
 could be compelled in this country, would be scarce 
 ly less oppressive to the conquering than to the con 
 quered section. It is true in our own experience, 
 that an attempt to subjugate one portion of the peo 
 ple is, and can only be prosecuted by the exercise of 
 despotic power. The constitutional liberties of the 
 people are now suspended, their rights under the 
 laws denied, and the principles of self-government 
 subordinated to the will of the Federal Executive. 
 The President claims that it is necessary for him to 
 assume these powers in the prosecution of the war, 
 and that he is authorized to exercise them from 
 military necessity. If this claim is a correct one 
 the despotic and anti-republican character of the 
 acts is not changed. No one will deny that if the 
 present exigencies demand and justify such exercise 
 of power, the same necessity will require a contin 
 uance of their use so long as the exigencies con. 
 tinue ; and that if these exigencies shall be perpet 
 ual in duration, then that we must have a perpetual 
 despotism, strengthening and increasing as all power 
 does in its exercise. It is true that a large portion 
 
SPEECH AT SALEM. 101 
 
 of the people have not personally felt the inflictions 
 of the despotism which exists. Power is invaria 
 bly obsequious, and conceals its serpent head under 
 specious pretexts, until it is securely planted on its 
 throne ; but from the moment it gets seated and con 
 firmed, it makes no distinctions among the people in 
 its exactions. Under institutions like our?, it avails 
 itself of the spirit and passion of party in a time of 
 great popular excitement, to cover the inception and 
 progress of its aggressions upon the liberties of the 
 people, but when it once obtains a sure foothold it 
 makes no distinction of party. Confirmed despot 
 ism sympathizes with, and receives sympathy, from no 
 party of the people. It bestows its favors upon a 
 few sycophants, and the people of all parties are 
 equally its subjects. 
 
 If subjugation of the South, should be practically 
 accomplished, there will continue the same neces 
 sity for the application of force that now exists. 
 If the entire scheme of the Administration could 
 be consummated, and we obtain military possession 
 of every State which has seceded, and find one-tenth 
 of the people who can be induced to take the pre 
 scribed oath, and elect State and Federal officers, 
 will it not require as large a force at least as is now 
 employed, to protect the Government of one-terth 
 against the power of the other nine-tenths? So 
 long as the policy of subjugation is persisted in, we 
 must live under arbitrary military power, and a na- 
 
102 SPEECH AT bALEM. 
 
 tional unity, based upon its successful issue, can be 
 sustained only by a continued exercise of the same 
 power. 
 
 There can be no union of the people of the differ 
 ent sections of the country with our republican insti 
 tutions preserved, without it is based ultimately 
 upon the free exercise of the right of self-govern 
 ment in the people of the several States. The de- 
 clared policy of the Administration is now subjuga 
 tion. It has announced its determination to 
 prosecute the war not for the purpose of effecting a 
 result which will permit the people of the South to 
 exercise the rights of self-government, but for the 
 purpose of compelling the adoption of such constitu 
 tions and laws in the several States of that section 
 as the dominant party of the other section of the 
 country, or its representatives, shall prescribe. These 
 results, the experience of the world and human 
 reason teach can be accomplished only through a 
 thorough subjugation and keeping in subjection, or 
 in the extermination of the people of the South. 
 The principles of self-government are refused the 
 people of the Southern States, and in their place is 
 attempted to be substituted a power in one-tenth 
 who have subscribed to the oath under the so-called 
 amnesty proclamation, to rule over the other nine- 
 tenths, and that oath taken in most instances through 
 the influence of military power, for without this in 
 fluence there is not a State in the South in which 
 
SPEECH AT SALEM. 103 
 
 one-tenth of the people can be found to acquiesce 
 in the policy and requirements of the Federal Ex 
 ecutive. 
 
 This policy of the Administration is sustained in 
 full by the Republican party of the North, and so 
 strong are the passions and animosities excited in 
 the war, that if the people now resisting the author 
 ity of the General Government should offer to lay 
 down their arms, subject to all the penalties pre 
 scribed by the Constitution, upon the sole condition 
 of a restoration or reconstruction of the Union, 
 based upon the rights and privileges established by 
 that great charter of our liberties, it is plain that 
 the Republican party would refuse the offer. The 
 war has been and is prosecuted under this declared 
 policy of the Administration. More than three 
 years of terrible blood-shed show the desperate 
 character of the undertaking. Without considering 
 the enormous sacrifice in blood and treasure which 
 must be made in the further prosecution of the war 
 under such a policy, or the uncertainty, at least, of 
 its successful issue, I believe that if the subjugation 
 and practical extermination of the people of the 
 South could be accomplished, it could be effected 
 only through such an exercise of power as the God 
 of Heaven would frown upon, and that the day of 
 its consummation would mark the saddest era in the 
 history of the people of the North. From that day 
 they would live under a Government not depending 
 
104 SPEECH AT SALEM. 
 
 upon the consent of the governed. On the shaft 
 that would commemorate the consummation of the 
 policy of subjugation, and the emancipation by it of 
 four millions of negroes, would be inscribed the epi 
 taph of the liberties of thirty millions of people - 
 who voluntarily acquiesced hi the destruction of a 
 political system, under which they and their fathers 
 had enjoyed greater freedom, prosperity, and happi 
 ness than was ever before vouchsafed to any other 
 people under the light of the sun. 
 
 The idea of a compelled Union is preposterous. 
 The Union under which we have lived was not ere. 
 ated by compulsion, it cannot be continued by com 
 pulsion. Whilst a majority at the South really 
 favored the Union, there was hope of restoring it 
 by giving them the supremacy in the seceded States ; 
 but now that every man of influence at the South 
 has been driven from our cause, there can be no pos 
 sibility of reunion, without their being first concil 
 iated. The policy of the Administration is not 
 intended for conciliation. It is with every day con 
 firming hatred against the Government, and render 
 ing a restoration of the Union more impossible, and 
 it is now a most momentous question whether, under 
 any change of policy or administration, reconcilia 
 tion can be effected. If the people of the country 
 would revert to the principles on which the Union 
 was established, and, instead of hatred, would cher 
 ish a love and respect for each other, we could hope 
 
SPEECH AT BOSTON. 1Q5 
 
 for a reunion, not otherwise. Constitutions, laws 
 forced consent, cb not make a Union, any more than 
 the marriage ceremony can unite hearts which have 
 no sympathy with each other. The Constitution did 
 not create the Union. It existed in the hearts of 
 the people of the different States, and the Constitu 
 tion was its open recognition and the golden bond 
 which encircled it. The Constitution would not 
 have been worth the parchment on which it was 
 written, without the fact of a pre-existing Union, 
 and it has no power in itself to compel a Union in 
 the future, if the fraternal spirit which created the 
 Union shall have been destroyed. 
 
 If, in the providence of G-od, the people of this 
 generation are doomad to witness the destruction 
 of the American Union, the sp33ta3le will bring no 
 sorrow to the hearts of those who for long years 
 have prayed for sush a consummation, and but little 
 of regret to those who, intoxicated with the excite 
 ments of the time, have anticipated the event, and 
 thanked God that the Union was gone, never to re 
 turn. 
 
 The only real, sincere, heartfelt mourners at the 
 grave of the Union will be the conservative men 
 of the country. They have in the past enjoyed its 
 priceless blessings with gratitude, and performed all 
 its requirements with cheerfulness. They have 
 stood by it in good report and in evil report in 
 prosperity and in adversity in peace and in war j 
 
106 SPEECH AT BOSTON. 
 
 and they will stand by it now, so long as there is a 
 ray of hope that this great people may be again rec 
 onciled. 
 
] \to*$r 
 SPEECH IN FANEUIL HALL.* 
 
 Historians relate that after a long and cruel war 
 between the Romans and the Samnites, the Samnite 
 people were exhausted and asked for terms which 
 the Romans refused to give. In this emergency the 
 Samnite General, by an adroit movement, drew the 
 whole Roman army into a dark defile. The Roman 
 General when too late, suspected a snare, and attempt 
 ed to retrace his steps, when he found the entrance and 
 the craggy heights on either side of the defile, com 
 manded by the Samnite troops. The entire Roman 
 army was completely in the power of the Samnites. 
 Caius Pontius, the Samnite General, deliberated 
 upon the course he should pursue, and sent for ad 
 vice to his aged father, the wise Herennius. The 
 old man came to the camp and pronounced this or 
 acle : "kill them all, or send them all back with hon 
 or ; destroy your enemies, or make friends of them." 
 Historians further relate that the Samnite General 
 refused to follow either of these counsels, and that 
 he required the Roman army to pass under the yoke 
 
 ^Delivered in Faneuil Hall at the Convention for election of 
 Delegates to the Philadelphia Convention, August 8, 1866. 
 
108 SPEECH IN FANEUIL HALL. 
 
 thereby inflicting upon it the greatest humiliation; 
 and history further records the details of a war of 
 more than thirty years duration between the Ro 
 mans and the Samnites, as the result of that humil 
 iation, unprecedented in the cruelty with which it 
 was prosecuted, and in the amount of blood that 
 was shed. 
 
 These great facts of history, are full of in 
 struction and warning to the American people. For 
 the future peace of the country, there has been but 
 one of two policies to be pursaed since the close of 
 the war. Either to make a wilderness of the fer 
 tile acres of the South, and to so far crush all hope 
 of liberty in the future, that her population could 
 be held impassive in our iron grasp, or to restore 
 to her people the rights of American citizens, treat 
 them with magnanimity and honor, encourage their 
 hopes, and stimulate their industry. 
 
 These alternatives were presented to the Generals 
 who commanded our armies at the close of the war. 
 They spurned the first, as unworthy the American 
 name and character, and on the battle-field, amid 
 the plaudits of their gallant troops, offered to tho 
 brave men who had surrendered, the fullest amnes 
 ty, and required of them only that they should peace 
 ably return to their homes and obey the laws. This 
 conduct was met with a hearty approval from the 
 great mass of the American people. The partisan 
 leaders alone objected to it. They thought they saw 
 
SPEECH IN FANEU1L HALL. 109 
 
 in the spirit of the act, the subsidence of the par 
 tisan passion and sectional hatred, to which they owed 
 their prominence and positions. 
 
 But the will of the people was too strong and 
 unmistakable, to be openly resisted. It was not 
 deemed prudent by the radical leaders, to demand 
 that the South be blotted out of the Union, and her 
 people held as slaves to the North. They pretend 
 ed to acquiesce in the popular will, but claimed 
 that the interests of the country required that the 
 Southern States should be restored to the Union, 
 only after a period of probation ; they asked only 
 for delay. They proposed only that the white peo 
 ple of the South should be held for an indefinite 
 time by military power ; and, as it was necessary 
 for their party success that they should secure the 
 votes of these States whilst thus held, they devised 
 a plan of organizing governments, to be controlled, 
 through the instrumentality of enfranchised negroes, 
 protected by the military, and directed by the offi 
 cers of the Freedmen s Bureau. 
 
 These partisan leaders observed a worse than 
 punic faith, not only with the people of the South, 
 but with the people of the North. They refused to 
 be governed by the principles which the people of 
 the South understood by the terms of the capitulation 
 of their armies, were to be applied to that section, 
 and through plausible pretexts they thwarted the 
 will of the people of the North. Their object was 
 
HO SPEECH IN FANEU1L HALL. 
 
 political power. They well knew that if the white 
 people of the South should be allowed their rights 
 under the Constitution, they would act politically 
 with the Conservative party of the North, which 
 would give to it the numerical majority in the 
 country. Their object was to prevent this. These 
 men who have prated so loudty within the past few 
 years of the divine rights of the majority, and of 
 the duty of the minority to acquiesce in its will, have 
 determined, as the only means of perpetuating their 
 own power, to make by force the majority subser 
 vient to the minority. It requires no argument 
 from me to show that this is entirely subversive of 
 republican principles. If it was claimed by these 
 leaders that there should be further protection to 
 minorities, it would be concurred in by the conserva 
 tives as the Constitution was framed for the 
 purpose of protecting minority interests ; and if the 
 protection it gives is insufficient, it is legitimate to 
 make an amendment to give further protection. 
 New England claimed in 1814, that the Constitu 
 tion gave inadequate protection to the interests of 
 minorities, and the South has made the same claim 
 since. It is one thing however to give to the minor 
 ity power to protect itself, through checks upon the 
 action of the majority, and quite another thing to 
 empower the minority to legislate against the will 
 of the majority. 
 
 But aside from the anti-republican principles of 
 
SPEECH IN FANEU1L HALL. 
 
 the policy of the radical leaders, what must be the 
 practical effect of that policy upon the interests of 
 the Union. They admit that the Constitutional 
 rights of the people of the South, must at some fu 
 ture period be restored to them ; that it is only a 
 question of time. Is it then expedient that there 
 shall be any delay in restoring these rights ? Can 
 the people of the South be trusted after five or ten 
 years of abuse out of the Union, better than they 
 can be if permitted the rights of American citizens 
 to-day. Will unkind and unchristian treatment 
 of years cause the people of the South to love us 
 better than they do now ? Cruel punishments, and 
 deprivations never yet brought love and respect. 
 Every one knows that hatred and animosities are 
 fearfully increased with every day of a postponed 
 Union. Every one knows that the sentiment of the 
 people of the South in favor of a restored Union 
 is not nearly so strong as it was a year ago. It 
 will be weakened with every act under the present 
 policy. If the sole object of the radical leaders in 
 Congress was to render a restored Union impossible, 
 they could have devised no more effective method to 
 accomplish it than the one they are now pursuing. 
 
 The president of the United States, mindful of his 
 high duties, and of his oath to preserve, protect and 
 defend the Constitution of the United States, has 
 fearlessly and most ably opposed the entire policy of 
 the Radical Congress. He has stood alone and 
 
112 SPEECH IN FANEUIL HALL. 
 
 employed all the powers that were vested in him by 
 virtue of his high office, to resist its attempted usur 
 pations, looking anxiously forward to the time when 
 the Constitution loving people of the country would 
 rally to his support. The Convention to be held at 
 Philadelphia is called for the purpose of expressing 
 the will of the people. I believe if the members of 
 that Convention shall act with wisdom and patriot- 
 ism,~they will render important service in the salva 
 tion of the country, and that at no distant day 
 the people of every State will be represented in the 
 Congress of the Union, and such protection given to 
 all the great and important interests of the country 
 as to prevent any jealousies or conflicts in the fu 
 ture, and that then again, the whole American peo 
 ple will proclaim in the words of the defender of the 
 Constitution : "Liberty and Union, now and forever, 
 one and inseparable/ 
 
SPEECH AT MANCHESTER.* 
 
 It is now nearly three years since the people of 
 the North rejoiced at the termination of the war, ac 
 complished with the complete triumph of their ar 
 mies, and looked hopefully forward to the immediate 
 practical reunion of the disrupted sections of the 
 country under the system, and in accordance with 
 the principles, which had united them in the prosper 
 ous and happy past. They expected th#t, this re 
 sult accomplished, the great productive interests of 
 the South would be revived, and many believed they 
 would be revived under more favorable auspices than 
 before the war, and that consequent upon the re 
 newed prosperity of that great section, the commer 
 cial, manufacturing and other great interests of the 
 country would be reinvigorated, and gradually, but 
 speedily restored to the condition of permanent 
 prosperity which they enjoyed at the commencement 
 of the struggle. It was then universally hoped and 
 believed, that with the strength and confidence this 
 expected state of affairs would give, with rigid 
 
 *Deliwed at Manchester, N. H., January 22, 1868. 
 
114 SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 
 
 economy in the administration of the government, 
 and the vast reduction of expenditures incident to a 
 return to the rule of the constitution, the country 
 could bear the burden the war had entailed upon it, 
 and that the business of the country could be 
 brought back to the constitutional currency, which 
 was deemed indispensable to its healthful and pros 
 perous condition. 
 
 But now after such a long interval of time, in 
 stead of rejoicing in the realization of their reason 
 able hopes, the people of the North are oppressed 
 with feelings of uncertainty and anxiety in regard 
 to all their important interests, greater than at any 
 period in their past history. In the nearly three 
 years that have thus elapsed, the political relations 
 of the South to the Union have not been restored, 
 its productive interests have not been revived, and 
 largely as a consequence, the commercial, manufac 
 turing and other industrial interests of the North 
 have languished, and are now in a condition which 
 causes disquietude and alarm. 
 
 The agricultural sections of the North feel sensi 
 bly the great diminution in the demands of the 
 South for their cereals ; the manufacturing sections 
 feel no less sensibly the substantial loss of so great 
 a market for their fabrics, and the largely decreased 
 production of the great staple which is the basis of 
 their manufacture, and its consequent enhanced 
 price, render their future prosperity doubtful.* Our 
 
SPEECH A T MANCHESTER. 1 1 5 
 
 commerce, which depends largely on the export of 
 the great product of the South, which before the 
 war was of more value than all our other exports 
 combined, feels most sensibly the loss, as its present 
 depressed condition and the balances of our mer 
 chants abroad abundantly prove. 
 
 With this depression of the great business inter 
 ests of the country, the extraordinary expenses of 
 policies outside the Constitution have been and are 
 continued, and increased ; and reckless extravagance 
 instead of rigid economy, is practiced in all the ex 
 penditures of the General Government. 
 
 Why are these things so ? Are the people of the 
 South unwilling to resume their position under the 
 Constitution, and does there exist a necessity for the 
 continuance of vast extra-constitutional expenditures 
 for the purpose of protecting the government, which 
 is the only ground on which the exercise of powers 
 not enumerated in the Constitution has been 
 claimed ? 
 
 The South, from the day of the surrender of its 
 armies, has been absolutely powerless of aggressive 
 action. This every man at the North knows and 
 believes. In no quarter of that vast section, in the 
 time that has elapsed since the close of the war, has 
 there been manifested any desire or intention to re. 
 new the struggle. From the hour the people of the 
 South abandoned their hope of independence, they 
 have earnestly sought and pleaded for a full resto. 
 
116 SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 
 
 ration of the Union under the Constitution. With 
 out a murmur they yielded up their immense proper 
 ty in slaves, and passed ordinances for the repudiation 
 of the debts of their communities contracted in the 
 struggle, for the purpose of effecting the restoration 
 of their relations to the Union, and as an earnest 
 of their good faith in the future. Everything that 
 a great, civilized and Christian people could do, con 
 sistent with honor and the future welfare of their 
 communities, the people of the South have done, to 
 restore the Union, and to re-assert the rule of the 
 Constitution throughout their section. 
 
 But how has this conduct on the part of the people 
 of the South been met by the people of the North ? 
 The Congress of the United States which represents 
 them, and is so united in its action as to control all 
 the powers of legislation, has persistently refused 
 all overtures made by the South, has refused to ac 
 knowledge their constitutional local governments* 
 has refused to receive the States of that section back 
 into the Union, and to acknowledge, or allow a seat 
 in its body, to their Representives duly elected in 
 accordance with the provisions of the Constitution 
 of the United States, and has held, and is now hold 
 ing, the States of that entire section by military 
 power. This is not all. It not only has held, and 
 now holds, these States under military rule, with 
 armed soldiery quartered in every District, but 
 whilst thus holding them, has disfranchised the better 
 
SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 117 
 
 and more influential portion of the white population, 
 given the ballot to the emancipated negroes, who, in 
 many States constituted a majority of the population, 
 stationed partisan officers at the polls, and have 
 gone through with the wicked mockery of the form 
 of holding elections. As if it were not a sufficient 
 oppression and humiliation of the people of the 
 South, to refuse them a voice in the General Govern - 
 ment, and to supersede their constitutional local 
 governments by military rule, Congress is practising 
 upon them the refinement of cruelty and insult, by 
 securing the pretended formal consent of their com 
 munities to its acts and partisan policies, enforced 
 by the bayonet, and expressed through the ballots of 
 negroes and far more degraded white men, against 
 the intelligence of the better portion of the white 
 population which is forbidden any participation in 
 the elections. A more cruel, wicked, diabolical treat 
 ment was never before attempted by a civilized gov 
 ernment on a Christian people. Prussia holds Pol 
 and 5 Austria, Hungary ; England, Ireland, by force 
 of military power, but neither of these governments, 
 in the face of the civilized world, has ever attempted 
 or dared attempt, through such a degrading pol icy 
 to extort a consent to oppression, from the victims 
 of their tyranny, 
 
 The purpose of Congress in the adoption of these 
 extra constitutional measures must be, either to per 
 manently hold these States by military power, or 
 
118 SPEECH A T MANCHESTER. 
 
 eventually to commit the destinies of one of the 
 most important of the great sections of the country 
 into the hands of the emancipated negroes who will 
 constitute in most of the States a majority of the 
 voting population. Congress has declared the lat 
 ter to be its purpose. Better, far better, for the 
 interests of the South ; better, far better for repub 
 lican institutions in the future, that that fair section 
 be forever held in the most relentless military grasp. 
 Peace and order might then for a portion of the 
 time at least be maintained, and an opportunity giv 
 en for a partial development of the great interests 
 of that section ; and the policy of the government, 
 while it wo aid bring Republican principles into con 
 tempt, would not necessarily work their ruin. 
 
 But entrust the great interests of that section to 
 the control of negroes, inferior in natural capacity, 
 degraded as the authors of the policy declare by 
 centuries of oppression uneducated, without any con 
 ception of the proprieties and obligations of civilized 
 life, with no knowledge, or traditions even, of our 
 form of government, and if not relieved through 
 revolution, a howling wilderness will be made of the 
 fertile acres of the South, and not only reproach, but 
 destruction, brought to Republican institutions in ten 
 States of the American Union. But this result I 
 believe a wise and just God will never permit to be 
 accomplished. If persisted in, it will in time bring 
 revolution and a war of races, in which the weaker 
 
SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 1 19 
 
 will go down. 
 
 Five millions of American people nurtured in the 
 spirit of American liberty, and educated in the prin 
 ciples of the American system of government, may 
 be overpowered, may be oppressed and down-trodden 
 for the time, but can never be made slaves. Inhab 
 iting a territory larger than the territories of Great 
 Britain, France, Austria and Prussia combined, with 
 a climate unsurpassed, and productions more varied 
 abundant and rich than any territory of similar ex 
 tent on the face of the globe, they are not to be ex 
 terminated or enslaved, or their lands roamed over 
 by mongrels and negroes. 
 
 But whatever may be the effect of the policy of 
 Congress upon the liberties of the people of the 
 South, or on the future of Republican principles, so 
 long as it is persisted in, all the great and impor 
 tant interests of that section will be uncared for, 
 and all energy and enterprise paralyzed. Good gov 
 ernment is indispensable for the prosperity of any 
 community. Held under military rule, or governed 
 by negroes, with the entire system of labor disor 
 ganized, how can the country hope for any restora 
 tion of the interests of the South, or expect any 
 thing but further deterioration with the progress of 
 time ? What capitalist from abroad will seek invest 
 ment in a province under negro rule, or what hardy 
 laborer of the Caucasian race can be induced to 
 make there a home for himself and his family ? Does 
 
120 SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 
 
 even any enterprising friend of the policy from the 
 North, notwithstanding the great cheapness of the 
 lands, venture to go to the South and live under the 
 policy he has assisted to prescribe for that section ? 
 
 But what must be the effect of this conduct to 
 ward the South upon the public securities of the 
 country ? To say nothing of the loss of revenue it 
 must occasion from the unproductiveness of an entire 
 section, is there nothing to be apprehended from it 
 in the future, from the accession to our voting pop 
 ulation of four millions of negroes, not one of whom 
 owns a dollar in the bonds of the government ? Ig 
 norant though they are, the instincts of self-interest 
 will not be found wanting. 
 
 They will be found voting in a body for the most 
 extravagant expenditures, as it is the radical boast 
 they did several months since in one of the most 
 important cities of the South, where they with unan 
 imity, voted the credit of the municipality in which 
 they voted, for $2,000,000, in a single day; the 
 credit really of the white population which was for 
 bidden to vote. The same class will, as unanimous 
 ly and more enthusiastically in the future, vote for 
 the repudiation of all obligations which detract from 
 the income of their labor. But more directly and 
 inevitably does this extra-constitutional policy to 
 ward the South tend to, aye accomplish, repudiation, 
 from the necessary absorption of the revenues of 
 the country which it requires. Never, before the 
 
SPEECH A T MANCHESTER. 121 
 
 war, did the annual expenses of the government ex- 
 ceed about $75, 000, 000. The last year, the expen 
 ses of the government, exclusive of interest and 
 pensions, amounted to about $200, 000, 000. The 
 Radical leaders openly avow that the expenses of 
 the government must be necessarily large in the fu 
 ture, and it is undeniable, if their policy is to be 
 continued. They must be constantly increasing. 
 The difference between the amount of the anual ex 
 penses before and since the war, or rather the ex 
 penses of the extra-constitutional policy is sufficient 
 to pay nearly, if not quite, five per cent, on the en 
 tire present amount of the indebtedness of the 
 United States. 
 
 The danger of repudiation in the future is far great 
 er from the inability of the country to furnish suffic 
 ient revenue for the payment of the debt, than 
 from any formal action of the people to rid them 
 selves of their burdens. The business of the coun 
 try is now taxed to the fullest extent. Any increase 
 would depress business without augmenting the 
 revenue, yet it is evident that if we should effect a 
 return to specie payments, the revenues would be 
 insufficient to defray the probable expenses of the 
 General Government under the present policy, and 
 the interest on its indebtedness. If this is true, 
 then either the expenses of the Government must 
 be reduced, or we shall be unable to meet the de 
 mands of our public creditors upon such a consum- 
 
122 SPEE CH AT MANCHESTER 
 
 mation. It should be remembered that the actual 
 expenses of the government constitute the first claim 
 upon the treasury. They must be first paid before 
 any appropriations can be made for the public debt. 
 Therefore the solution of the question of our ability 
 to meet our indebtedness in the future depends 
 largely, if not entirely, upon the determination of 
 the question of what the annual expenditures of the 
 General Government are to be. It is useless to 
 speculate upon the amount that can be applied an 
 nually to the principal or interest of our bonds, 
 until it is determined with approximate correctness 
 at least, what the prior claims on the treasury the 
 annual expenses of the government are to be. 
 
 The most important enquiry then as affecting the 
 value of our public securities is, are the expenses 
 of the General Government to be increased, or even 
 to be continued as at present, or are they to be re 
 duced ? Are we to perpetuate the policy of extra- 
 constitutional appropriations for an army of over 
 50, 000 men, for officers and men of the Freedmen s 
 Bureau throughout the South, and for all other appli 
 ances necessary to carry out and maintain the entire 
 radical scheme in that section. The para 
 mount question for those interested in our public 
 securities to-day, is that of retrenchment, by return 
 ing to the rule of the constitution, saving to the 
 country an annual expenditure nearly sufficient to 
 pay our entire interest, and thereby putting the 
 
SPEE CH AT MANCHESTER. \ 2 3 
 
 people of the Southern States in a position to con 
 tribute something to the treasury of the country. 
 
 The perfidy of this entire Radical scheme for the 
 oppression of the white people of the South at an 
 annual expense of scarcely less than $100, 000, 000 
 to the tax-payers of the country, is paralleled only 
 by the mendacity with which its authors in Congress 
 attempt to justify their acts with the people of the 
 North. They assert that their policy is demanded 
 to carry into effect the purposes for which the war 
 was waged. No such purpose was ever declared 
 before, or during, the war. Congress declared by 
 solemn resolve in the commencement of the struggle, 
 that the war was waged not in any spirit of oppres 
 sion, nor for conquest or subjugation, but to defend 
 and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution/and 
 preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality and 
 rights of the several States, unimpaired. This 
 pledge was repeated by the Executive and Legisla 
 tive departments during the war. No proclamation 
 was ever made to the army that they were to fight 
 for the establishment of negro suffrage, and it is 
 plain that if it had been, no armies would have vol 
 unteered for the purpose, and the war would not 
 have been conducted under the auspicies which in 
 sured the final triumph of our arms. No such pur 
 pose was understood by the army, or by the masses 
 of the people at the North. If such a purpose was 
 contemplated by the radical Congressional leaders, 
 
124 SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 
 
 it would tend strongly to justify the charge that has 
 been made, that the war was desired by them only 
 for partisan purposes, and that they entered upon 
 and conducted it as they would a political campaign, 
 for power and place in other words that they re 
 garded the great civil war, and the slaughter of hun 
 dreds of thousands of brave men ; only as a means 
 for the maintenance and perpetuity of the political 
 organization of which they were the leaders. 
 
 Professing to be honest champions of universal 
 suffrage, these same Congressional leaders claim 
 that every negro, without any discrimination re 
 garding his capacity or intelligence, has a natural 
 and inalienable right to exercise the elective fran 
 chise, and they denounce the masses at the North, 
 acting under the old Democratic banner who deny 
 this postulate, as illiberal, and opposed to the pro 
 gressive spirit of republican principles. Let us ap 
 ply to these high-sounding pretensions the test of 
 experience in our past history. From the first set 
 tlement of the country to the present time, great, 
 fundamental, antagonistic tendencies upon questions 
 underlying those of suffrage, have characterized the 
 respective political parties. The one party com 
 prising the wealth of the country and the masses it 
 could control, has naturally and strongly favored 
 and tended to strengthen the power and preroga 
 tives of government. Its tendency has been tow 
 ards a government of the few. The other party 
 
SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 125 
 
 comprising the bold, intellectual strength and 
 statesmanship of the country, and sustained by the 
 independent laboring masses, has tended toward a 
 government of the whole people. The one largely 
 representing capital, has been distrustful of the nu 
 merical strength of the masses representing labor. 
 The other, with a respect for capital, and a regard 
 for its safety, has been distrustful of its political in 
 fluence, and has reposed confidence in the masses 
 representing Jlabor, with the conviction that labor 
 would in the natural order of things, in every com 
 munity, work in harmony with capital, and that 
 where their proper relations were not disturbed, 
 its democratic tendency would only serve as a salu 
 tary check and offset to the aristocratic tendencies 
 of wealth. At the period of the commencement of 
 the Revolution, the tendency in one party of the 
 people was toward a continuance of our relations 
 with Great Britain, under the belief that its power 
 was indispensable for the order and well being of 
 the Country. The tendency in the other party was 
 toward independence and a government of the 
 whole people. The leaders of both parties un 
 doubtedly acted upon their convictions regarding 
 the public good. But the popular party succeeded, 
 and large numbers of their opponents expatriated 
 themselves, under the belief that there would be no 
 safety for persons or property under a government 
 of the whole people. After the close of the Revo- 
 
126 SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 
 
 lution, the contest was renewed under issues grow 
 ing out of the altered circumstances of the country. 
 Under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, the 
 party of Democratic tendencies prevailed, and gov 
 erned in the affairs of the country, almost without 
 intermission until 1861. The fundamental princi 
 ples of that party are historic, and have been fully 
 exemplified through administrations covering half a 
 century. The Democratic party has ever been 
 based on an unswerving faith in the capacity and 
 virtue in the people for self-government. During 
 this entire period it never faltered in its trust in 
 the people. It freely and cordially welcomed to all 
 the rights of citizenship, the hardy sons of Europe 
 who sought in this country a home for themselves 
 and their descendants. This liberal policy contribu 
 ted largely to swell the tide of immigration, and to 
 it, large, influential, and well governed States of the 
 Union are indebted for their present positions and 
 prosperity. These principles, and this policy of the 
 Democracy were constantly and vehemently assailed 
 by the opponents of the party, as tending too large 
 ly to strengthen and increase the democratic ele 
 ment in the government. 
 
 The leaders of the party of universal negro suf 
 frage of to-day, excepting those who deserted the 
 Democratic party and its principles, have been in 
 the past the most bitter opponents of these princi 
 ples and this policy of the Democracy. They have 
 
SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 127 
 
 doubted the virtue and wisdom in the masses of the 
 people for self-government, and spent their lives in 
 endeavoring to hedge in and restrict the exercise of 
 the elective franchise by the laboring classes. The 
 leaders of universal negro suffrage in New England 
 to-day, were but a few years since the leaders in the 
 so-called American, or Knownothing movement, 
 which culminated in the Republican party. Under 
 their leadership State Constitutions even, were 
 amended so as to prohibit those of foreign birth 
 from voting, unless they possessed prescribed educa 
 tional qualifications. 
 
 There is little in the antecedents of the Radical 
 leaders to impart confidence in their professions of 
 regard for the laboring masses in connection with 
 their policy of universal negro suflr age. They certain 
 ly have manifested no change of principle in their con 
 duct toward the masses at the North, and there is 
 much to show that in their policy toward the South 
 they are actuated less by a regard for the negro 
 than by a hatred of the white people of that section- 
 Indeed, their entire action upon negro suffrage is 
 only consistent with an intention of availing them 
 selves of the liberal and popular democratic idea 
 on suffrage, and of pushing it to a ruinous extreme, 
 to bring into disrepute, and overwhelm, suffrage it" 
 self at the South. 
 
 In the natural and undisturbed order of things, 
 an inferior and degraded race would be largely in- 
 
128 SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 
 
 fluenced and controlled by the wealth of their re 
 spective communities ; and if to the people of each 
 Southern State had been left the management of 
 their own affairs, the relations of capital and labor 
 would perhaps have been adjusted so that little dan 
 ger of collision between the different classes would 
 have been apprehended. But the special policy of 
 the Radical leaders has been to divorce and estrange 
 the masses of the negroes from the white population 
 representing the capital of their respective communi 
 ties, through the forcible interposition of alien 
 agents supported by the military authorities, so 
 that all equilibrium of interests has been destroyed, 
 and to the negroes, being numerically the stronger 
 party, have been given practically the control in all 
 matters of legislation. 
 
 I believe that the people of the country are be 
 ginning to see through these mischievous preten 
 sions of the radical leaders, and to understand that 
 the Democratic party now, as in the past, is the 
 party of rational liberality, not only on direct ques 
 tions of suffrage, but upon all questions which affect 
 the laboring masses of the country. Upon 
 questions of suffrage, taxation, payment of the bonds, 
 the banks and the currency, the radical party is 
 largely supported by, and in return supports the de 
 mands of capital, with but little regard for the in 
 terests or welfare of the laboring classes. The 
 Democratic party now, and in the future, whilst it 
 
SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 129 
 
 will concede to capital all it can legitimately de 
 mand, will jealously and fearlessly guard the rights 
 and claims of labor, against its power and encroach 
 ments. At no time in the history of the country 
 have democratic principles been so essential for the 
 interests and happiness of the masses of the people 
 as now. 
 
 I have thus attempted, briefly, to point to the mis 
 chievous and and disorganizing policy of the radical 
 leaders, and to expose some of the pretexts under 
 which they have attempted to justify their acts with 
 the people of the North. Language is inadequate to 
 express the misery and demoralization which the 
 perpetuation of their rule must inevitably bring to 
 the people of the country. 
 
 History records no such wonderful achievements 
 as have been witnessed in the experience of this 
 country in the past. For nearly a century, all the 
 vast and varied interests of this great Continent, 
 excepting the narrow belt on its northern border, 
 have been made to fully harmonize under a wise 
 and beneficent system of reciprocity, maintained and 
 protected by the checks and balances provided in 
 the Constitution of the Union. Originally, in all 
 essential characteristics two nationalities, expand 
 ing with the developements of the West and Pacific 
 slope, into four, we have maintained a Union politi 
 cally, and a complete co-operation of resources ma 
 terially. In our later history the rich Pacific 
 
130 SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 
 
 section has poured into our coffers wealth, from its 
 mines of the precious metals, and from its agricul 
 ture. The great West has supplied largely to the 
 South, from its fertile prairies, cereals for the sup 
 port of its population engaged in a more profitable 
 culture, and has found a generous market at the 
 East. The Eastern and Middle sections, from their 
 mines and manufactories have helped largely to sup 
 ply to the people of the other sections their neces 
 sary utenstls and fabrics, and from their manufactu 
 ring communities to support a large agricultural 
 population at home. The South, from profitable 
 crops of its important staple, has not only fed all 
 the manufactories of fabrics at the East, but has 
 been our great representative of wealth abroad. 
 All these immense and diverse interests, under our 
 wonderful Constitutional system, have been made to 
 fully co-operate, and together they have created the 
 prosperity which characterized the Country at the 
 commencement of the war. The great interests of 
 neither of these Sections can be prostrated without 
 the whole Country feeling the shock. 
 
 The productions of no Section have contributed 
 more in the past, nor are so essential to-day, for the 
 prosperity of the whole Country, and especially for 
 that portion of it in which our lot is cast, as those 
 of the South. The cotton of that section, if not 
 King, has been the source of immense wealth to the 
 Country, and without it, New England prosperity is 
 
SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 131 
 
 a thing of the past. If the extensive cultivation of 
 this staple is not revived, and that speedily, the 
 manufacture of cotton fabrics in this section must 
 be abandoned. Already Europe, impelled by neces 
 sity, has caused its extensive cultivation in India and 
 Egypt, and although the plant there grown is not of 
 so good an average fibre as that of the South, yet 
 from it, with improved machinery, the best of fab 
 rics are woven. With, or without protective duties, 
 the manufacturers of England can compete success 
 fully with the manufacturers of the United States, 
 not only abroad, but in our own markets. Cheap 
 cotton at the South is the only salvation to our 
 manufacturers. If that never comes, our factories 
 will be closed, our manufacturing population will be 
 compelled elsewhere, and in other occupations, to 
 seek a living, our commerce will continue to be de 
 pressed, and our agricultural population deprived of 
 a home market for their produce, will eke a scanty 
 subsistence from their labor in the fields. 
 
 But these calamities may be averted. With 
 statesmanship in the councils of the General Govern 
 ment with a united will on the part of the people to 
 make all mere partisan considerations subordinate 
 to a fixed determination of fully restoring the Union, 
 and of repairing what the ravages of war have pros, 
 trated much, perhaps all, may yet be saved. Bring 
 back the country to the rule of the Constitution 
 reduce the expenditures of the government to ap- 
 
132 SPEE CH AT MANCHESTER. 
 
 propriations only for constitutional purposes re 
 quire rigid economy and the simplicity of the early 
 days of the republic in the management of the af 
 fairs of the General Government disband the army 
 that is now quartered on the South abolish the 
 Freedmen s Bureau and other expensive and unnec 
 essary Departments which are supported on the 
 substance of the people reduce the expenses of 
 collecting the revenues dismiss the force of super 
 numerary office-holders, more voracious and destruc 
 tive than were the locusts of Egypt reinvest the 
 States with the rights that have been torn from 
 them reassert local self-government trust the peo 
 ple and confidence will be restored; enterprise 
 and energy will awaken at the South, business will 
 revive, and all the great interests of the country re 
 ceive an immense and lasting impulse. 
 
 But, Mr. President, I should do injustice to my 
 feelings if I should close without turning from a dis 
 cussion of the material and political affairs of the 
 country, to express the sympathy I feel for the op 
 pressed and down-trodden white population of the 
 Southern section of our common country, in this 
 hour of their terrible trial. My heart bleeds to 
 night for the millions of our own flesh and blood, 
 united to us by kindred ties and the recollections 
 and deeds of a glorious past brave men, defenceless 
 women and children, suffering a slavery at the hands 
 of our own people, which, if perpetuated, will be 
 
SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 133 
 
 worse to them than death. May a wise and good 
 Providence give strength to the friends of the Con 
 stitution and the Union at the North, to hurl from 
 their seats the authors of these oppressions, and to 
 place in the councils of the country, men of human 
 ity, men with a patriotism which looks beyond their 
 own immediate neighborhoods, who will raise the 
 people of the South from their present condition, 
 and place them on the platform of equality to which 
 they are entitled by nature and the Constitution of 
 the Country with the hope that from the gratitude 
 of the saved and the generous sentiment of the sav 
 iors, there may grow up a new Union of American 
 communities a Union in the hearts of the people 
 of all the sections, which shall bind them together with 
 stronger and more enduring ties than the Union of 
 the past. 
 
THE UNITED STATES CONSCRIPTION 
 ACT* 
 
 There has been no act of the Federal Govern 
 ment during the present war, more important in its 
 principles, or which more directly affects our insti 
 tutions and the liberties of the people, for the pres 
 ent and the future, than the Conscription act, so 
 called, of the last session of Congress. 
 
 The act asserts an authority in the United States 
 Government to require the military service of every 
 able-bodied man of the country, in the national force, 
 through compulsion, for such period of service, upon 
 such conditions, and under such organizations, as 
 Congress may from time to time determine. 
 
 It is the first time in the history of the country 
 that such an authority has been asserted by the 
 Federal Government. It is an assertion which per 
 sonally and most deeply interests every man in the 
 country, capable of bearing arms. It is a power 
 which, if sanctioned and exercised, reaches to, and 
 must effect a material change in the principles upon 
 which our free institutions and system of govern- 
 
 *Published in the Boston Courier, August 20, 1863. 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 135 
 
 ment have been thus far conducted. 
 
 It is an assertion which demands the most care 
 ful and critical consideration, to the end, that if it 
 shall be found to be in consonance with the spirit of 
 the Constitution, and the principles of civil liberty 
 which that instrument was designed to protect, this 
 onerous act, based upon it, may receive the approval 
 and concurrence of the whole people, which is indis 
 pensable for its successful execution ; and that if. on 
 the other hand, it shall be proved to be in violation 
 of the intentions of the people when they adopted 
 the Constitution, and to be an unjustifiable depar 
 ture from essential fundamental principles of our 
 government, the act may be declared void by the ju 
 dicial tribunals, or repealed by the body which pass 
 ed it. 
 
 If there is authority for the act it is contained in 
 the Constitution of the United States; The Con 
 stitution provides upon the subject, that Congress 
 "Shall have power to declare war to raise and sup 
 port armies but no appropriation of money to that 
 use shall be for a loager time than two years to 
 provide for calling forth the militia to execute the 
 laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel 
 invasions to provide for organizing, arming and 
 disciplining the militia, and for governing such part 
 of them as may be employed in the service of the 
 United States, reserving to the States respectively, 
 the appointment of the officers, and the authority of 
 
136 THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 
 
 training the militia according to the discipline pre 
 scribed by Congress," and further that "The Presi 
 dent shall be Commander-in-Chief of the army and 
 navy of the United States and of the Militia of the 
 several States when called into the service of the 
 United States. 
 
 In the Amendments it is provided that "A well 
 regulated militia being necessary to the security of 
 a free State, the right of the people to keep and 
 bear arms shall not be infringed." 
 
 A proper interpretation of these provisions will 
 define the limit of the authority of the United 
 States over the persons of the citizens, for military 
 purposes. 
 
 In the amendments to the Constitution it is pro 
 vided, that, "The powers not delegated to the United 
 States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to 
 the States, are reserved to the States respectively, 
 or to the people." 
 
 At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, 
 all powers of sovereignty and legislation resided in 
 the several States and in the people. All the pow 
 ers given to the United States by the Constitution 
 were taken, carved, out of these powers of the 
 States and the people. The rules of construction of 
 the powers of the United States and of the States 
 and the people are therefore not indentical. 
 
 The powers thus carved out are limited by the ex 
 press words of the grant, and are not to be exten- 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 137 
 
 ded or determined in case of doubt, as against the 
 powers of the States and the people, by process of 
 analogy, or by implication. What is not clearly 
 given is reserved. 
 
 What power, then, for obtaining men for military 
 service is given to the United States by the Consti 
 tution ? 
 
 1st. Exclusive authority to raise and maintain ar 
 mies, restricted by the limitation of appropriations 
 to its use to the term of two years, and by the pro 
 visions relating to the militia. 
 
 2d. Authority to require the aid of the militia of 
 the States, to execute the laws of the Union, sup 
 press insurrections and repel invasions, but for no 
 other purposes, and for terms of service limited by 
 the exigency on which they are called. 
 
 The Constitution does not define the terms "ar 
 mies," and "militia," or the mode through which 
 either force is to be raised, for the reason that both 
 terms, and the mode of obtaining the respective for 
 ces, were perfectly well understood by the people at 
 the time of its adoption. 
 
 The army was a force established in Great Brit 
 ain before the settlement of the colonies. Upon the 
 decadence of the feudal system, the policy of em 
 ploying a regular and permanent national force, or 
 standing army, was initiated. 
 
 This force was composed of men obtained, not by 
 virtue of their obligations of allegiance to their sov- 
 
138 THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 
 
 ereign, but by contract ; and contracts to serve in 
 this force were made, not only with those who owed 
 allegiance, but with aliens. It was a hired, or as it 
 was sometimes styled, mercenary force, as it was 
 con posed of men who voluntarily enlisted for the 
 pay they were to receive. 
 
 This system has been continued in Great Britain 
 to the present time without change, and although 
 the Government has been involved in wars of the 
 greatest magnitude, which threatened the integrity 
 of the empire, yet it never claimed an authority to 
 obtain men for this force by compulsion. 
 
 The Colonies adopted the same force, which was 
 continued by the States, during the Revolutionary 
 War. The army, or regular army, during all the 
 trying emergencies of that great struggle, was raised 
 invariably by voluntary enlistments, by contract 
 between the States and those who were willing to 
 serve. 
 
 Early in the history of the Coloties another inde 
 pendent force was established, known as the Militia. 
 Like the army, it had its origin in the Mother Coun 
 try. It had existed in that country for a long period, 
 and in the 17th century was, by Statute, defined 
 and systematized. 
 
 "The general scheme" of which system, according 
 to Blackstone, "is to discipline a certain number of 
 the inhabitants of every county, chosen by lot for 
 three years, and officered by the Lord Lieutenant, 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 139 
 
 the Deputy Lieutenants, and other principal land 
 holders, under a commission from the crown. They 
 are not compel lable to march out of their counties, 
 unless in case of invasion or actual rebellion within 
 the realm ( or any of its dominions or territories, ) 
 nor in any case compel lable to march out of the 
 kingdom. They are to be exercised at stated times 
 and their discipline in general, is liberal and easy ; 
 but when drawn out into actual service, they are 
 subject to the rigors of martial law, as necessary to 
 keep them in order. This is the constitutional se 
 curity which our laws have provided for the public 
 peace, and for protecting the realm against foreign 
 or domestic violence." 
 
 Under the system thus established in this country 
 the whole body of the people of the colonies, or 
 States, were enrolled, organized, and subjected to a 
 certain degree of discipline. From this body, in the 
 event of a sudden emergency, a requisite force was 
 obtained by allotment or draft. The people were 
 deeply impressed with the severity of the burdens, 
 and the danger to the liberties of the people inci 
 dent to the maintenance of a large standing army, 
 and adopted this system as a substitute. They pre 
 ferred to give service, in the event of an emergency, 
 through this mode, rather than to maintain at all 
 times a large army ; and as the exigencies for which 
 this force was established would be ordinarily of 
 short duration, the people could comply with its re- 
 
140 THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 
 
 quisitions, without materially affecting their business 
 or other private interests. And when the exigency 
 was such as to require the service of this force for a 
 long period of time, it was met by a draft of a por 
 tion for a brief period, ordinarily for not more than 
 three months, and never exceeding nine months, 
 whose places were supplied at the expiration of 
 their period of service, by an additional draft. 
 
 At the j;ime of the commencement of the Revolu 
 tionary War, this system was fully established and 
 thoroughly understood by the people ; and in the 
 articles of Confederation of the several States, adop 
 ted in 1777, after limiting the authority of the 
 States to maintain regular forces in time of peace, it 
 is provided : 
 
 "But every State shall always keep up a well-reg 
 ulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and 
 accoutred," &c. 
 
 During the Revolutionary War, upon requisitions 
 from Congress, quotas of militia were from time to 
 time raised by draft, and furnished by the several 
 States, for the common cause. 
 
 At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, 
 therefore, there were two distinct and independent 
 military forces known to and understood by, the 
 people. 
 
 The army, or regulars, composed of men obtained 
 by contract, through voluntary enlistment, for long 
 periods of service, and the militia composed of the 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 
 
 body of the people capable of bearing arms, at all 
 times enrolled, organized and disciplined, to be 
 called out in emergencies, and for brief periods, by 
 draft. From the time of the adoption of the Con 
 stitution to the present year, the army and the mili 
 tia have been invariably raised and furnished in ac 
 cordance with these established usages. 
 
 Upon the happening of exigencies which entitled 
 the United States to the services of the militia, quo 
 tas have uniformly been called for by requisition of 
 the President upon the Governors of the respective 
 States, as Commander s-in- Chief of the force. It has 
 never been claimed, even when, as in the war of 
 1812, the Governor of Massachusetts declined to re 
 spond to a requisition, that the United States could 
 require the service of this force, except through the 
 agency of the officers of the States. 
 
 The army has been, during this period, as invaria 
 bly raised by voluntary enlistments. With one ex 
 ception, no claim has ever been made that it could 
 be raised through any other mode. In 1814 a suffi 
 cient force had not been obtained through enlist 
 ments, and a bill was proposed in Congress author 
 izing a draft upon certain contingencies. This 
 proposition was met with the most uncompromising 
 opposition. It was denounced in the strongest lan 
 guage by Daniel Webster, Jeremiah Mason, Judge 
 Dagget, Gov. Gore, and others, as unconstitution 
 al, and destructive of the liberties of the people. 
 
142 THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 
 
 It was defeated, and the authors of it were saved 
 from the effects of its universal condemnation by the 
 people, only through the cessation of excitement on 
 the subject, which followed the immediate settlement 
 of the war. 
 
 The reason for this distinction in the mode of rais 
 ing the respective forces is obvious. It would be 
 wholly inconsistent with the spirit of the free insti 
 tutions of this country, or of England, to require 
 the citizens to make a profession of arms, and to 
 abandon for a term of years, their business and other 
 important interests. It is a power which only the 
 most absolute governments have dared to exercise. 
 
 What disposition of these two military forces did 
 the people intend to make, in adopting the Consti- . 
 tution ? 
 
 They clearly intended to give the United States ex 
 clusive authority to raise and maintain the army, in 
 tending to limit its numbers in time of peace, by the 
 provision in regard to appropriations of money to its 
 use ; and to the respective States exclusive author 
 ity over the militia, excepting that it was to be dis 
 ciplined in conformity with directions of Congress, 
 and portions of it lurnished to the United States in 
 the event of either of the three exigencies enumera 
 ted in the Constitution. In every other respect, and 
 for every other legitimate purpose, the militia, as a 
 military force, was reserved to the several States, 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 143 
 
 as the guardians of their respective powers and sov 
 ereignties. The people were extremely jealous of 
 the powers given to the General Government by the 
 Constitution, and desired to adopt every precaution 
 to prevent the General Government from overriding 
 or absorbing the powers reserved to the States. 
 This is apparent, not only from the debates in the 
 Convention which framed it, but from the debates 
 in the Conventions of the people in the several 
 States, assembled for its ratification. 
 
 So profoundly were the people impressed with the 
 importance of this subject, that, although the origi 
 nal Constitution was sufficiently explicit, under any 
 proper rules of construction, upon the question of 
 the reserved powers of the States and their right 
 to maintain the militia, Congress at its first session, 
 upon the recommendation of different States, through 
 resolutions passed when they ratified the Constitu 
 tion, initiated the amendments, which were subse 
 quently adopted, asserting that "the powers not del 
 egated to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
 prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the 
 States respectively, or to the people," and that : 
 
 U A well regulated militia being necessary to the 
 security of a free State, the right of the people to 
 keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." 
 
 It is very clear that the people not only intended to 
 reserve important authority in the States, but also 
 the power to vindicate and protect such authority. 
 
144 THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 
 
 In the Convention of the people of Massachusetts 
 which ratified the Constitution, the importance of 
 these reserved rights in the States was fully discuss 
 ed, and the dangers to be apprehended from the 
 power of the United States, under the proposed 
 Constitution amply considered. 
 
 Chief Justice Parsons was a member of the Con 
 vention, from Newburyport, and in favor of the adop 
 tion of the Constitution. In an able argument he 
 vindicated the powers of the States under the pro 
 posed instrument. He said : 
 
 "The oath the several legislative, executive and 
 judicial officers of the several States take to support 
 the Federal Constitution, is as effectual a security 
 against the usurpation of the General Government as 
 it is against the encroachment of the State govern 
 ments. For an increase of the powers by usurpa 
 tion, is as clearly a violation of the Federal Consti 
 tution, as a diminution of these powers by private 
 encroachment and that the oath obliges the officers 
 of the several States as vigorously to oppose the 
 one as the other. But there is another check foun 
 ded in the nature of the Union, superior to all the 
 parchment checks that can be invented. If there 
 should be an usurpation it will not be upon the far 
 mer and merchant, employed and attentive only to 
 their several occupations, it will be upon thirteen 
 legislatures, completely organized, possessed of the 
 confidence of the people, and having the means as 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 145 
 
 well as inclination, successfully to oppose it. Under 
 these circumstances, none but madmen would attempt 
 an usurpation. But, sir, the people themselves have 
 it in their power effectually to resist usurpation, 
 without being driven to an appeal to arms. An act 
 of usurpation is not obligatory, it is not law, and 
 any man may be justified in his resistance. But let 
 him be considered as a criminal by the General 
 Government, yet only his own fellow citizens can 
 convict him they are his jury, and if they pro 
 nounce him innocent, not all the powers of Congress 
 can hurt him ; and innocent they certainly will pro 
 nounce him, if the supposed law he resisted was an 
 act of usurpation." It may appear strange to some 
 that it did not occur to this eminent jurist that the 
 citizen in such a crisis might be deprived of the 
 benefits of a trial, under the plea of military ne 
 cessity. 
 
 Under the Constitution, the several States have 
 various and important powers, entirely independent 
 of the control of the General Government, and 
 within the sphere of their exclusive jurisdictions 
 they are supreme to the same extent that the United 
 States is, in the exercise of the exclusive powers 
 with which it is clothed. 
 
 If States or the people undertake to obstruct the 
 lawful authority of the United States Government, 
 that Government is invested with a power, and it 
 becomes its duty, to forcibly protect its authority, 
 
146 THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 
 
 and if the United States Government attempts to 
 usurp any of the powers of the States, or to ille 
 gally interfere -with the rights of their citizens, they 
 have a force under their command, and it becomes 
 their duty, to defend their threatened rights and au 
 thority. 
 
 The success of our system of Government has 
 always depended, and must always depend, upon 
 the strict maintenance of the equilibrium of author 
 ities created and recognized by the Constitution. 
 If the authority of the United States shall be over 
 thrown, then the whole system falls to the ground ; 
 and if the powers of the States shall be wrested 
 from them, the same catastrophe must follow. It is 
 indispensable for the safety of our institutions, that 
 those representing the respective powers established 
 by the Constitution jealously guard those powers 
 against all encroachments. Our institutions and our 
 liberties are to be preserved by performing, and re 
 quiring performance of, all the obligations imposed 
 by the Constitution, and not by any reliance upon 
 the infallibility of men. 
 
 Men, however honest we may believe them to be, 
 may change or be changed. The tendency of power 
 is never to curtail, but invariably to extend its pre 
 rogatives. This is a necessary result of the prin 
 ciples of man s nature, and the best men are not 
 proof against this influence. Therefore, those in 
 power are never impartial judges upon the question 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 147 
 
 of the just limits of their authority. It is only 
 through independent tribunals that its limits can be 
 properly defined, and through the remonstrance of 
 those who must suffer from its encroachments, and 
 have the power to* resist, that it is to be restrained 
 within its legitimate boundaries. 
 
 Such is a brief sketch of the history of the army 
 and the militia of the established usages in the 
 employment of each of the distribution of these 
 forces under the Constitution, and the importance 
 of these distributions to the preservation of our po 
 litical system. 
 
 It is now important to enquire, whether, indepen 
 dent of questions of expediency, Congress has au 
 thority under the Constitution, to require, by com 
 pulsion, the service of the body of the people in 
 the army, or national forces of the United States. 
 
 No rules of construction, applicable to the limited 
 powers of the General Government, in the absence of 
 express provisions prescribing the mode of raising 
 armies, will authorize a departure from existing 
 modes, established by long and invariable usage, es 
 pecially when such an innovation cannot be execu 
 ted without seriously affecting the dearest and most 
 important personal rights of the people. 
 
 The usages in regard to the raising of armies, as 
 has been shown, had been uniform, for centuries be 
 fore the adoption of the Constitution, and the con 
 struction of the sections of the Constitution author- 
 
148 THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 
 
 izing this force, has been for nearly eighty years 
 under that instrument, strictly in accordance with 
 these usages. 
 
 But, further, the Constitution practically takes 
 from the United States the power to require the 
 military service of the body of the people in the 
 army, through compulsion, in its clear and uncontro- 
 verted provisions regarding the militia. It specially 
 recognizes the existence of this force, and provides 
 for its maintenance. This force could never be ma 
 terially affected by voluntary enlistments in the 
 army; but if the United States has authority to 
 compel the body of the people, who compose the 
 militia, into the army/ is it not clearly a power 
 which may be entirely destructive of the militia, and 
 consequently of the power of the States ? 
 
 Therefore, the claim on the part of Congress of 
 an authority to draft the body of the people into the 
 Federal Army, is not only without any express au 
 thority in the Constitution, and opposed to estab 
 lished usages, but can only be carried into practical 
 effect through such encroachments upon the estab 
 lished usages upon which another and important 
 force is established by the Constitution, in which the 
 several States have an iodependent and vital inter 
 est, as to practically destroy that force. 
 
 But it is asserted by some, that the Constitution 
 may be construed to admit of a concurrent power in 
 the United States and the several States, over the 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 149 
 
 body of the people for their respective forces. : This 
 claim is equally unsupported by express grant, usage, 
 or our practice under the Constitution. It is also 
 clearly impossible, from the nature of things, that 
 any such authority could have been intended. It is 
 an assertion that the people intended to give concur 
 rent power to two governments, over the same per 
 sons, which would inevitably result in direct conflict. 
 If the United States has concurrent power with the 
 respective States to enroll and draft the body of the 
 people, the one into the army and the other into the 
 militia, and in the exercise of it both make a draft, 
 and the same person or persons are drawn by both 
 authorities, which will have the paramount right ? 
 Or will it be claimed that the authority which first 
 drafts the individual will be entitled to his service ? 
 If this is so, and a conflict between the two author 
 ities should spring up, a simultaneous attempt would 
 be made to secure the force. If the United States 
 should order a dj?aft of the entire body, and perfect 
 it in advance of the State, where, then, is the power 
 of the State, and its militia ? and if the State should 
 be in advance of the General Government in the 
 draft, what has become of the power of the General 
 Government over the men it has enrolled ? It is ab 
 surd to suppose that any such dangerous concurrent 
 power could have been intended. 
 
 It is further asserted, under the fashionable doc 
 trines that have of late been prevalent, that the ne- 
 
150 THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 
 
 cessities of the present exigency authorize the exer 
 cise of such extraordinary power. No more perni 
 cious or dangerous doctrine was ever entertained by 
 a free people. But if this doctrine were admissible, 
 is it supported by the facts ? The power to enlarge 
 the army by increased pay or bounties, is not ex 
 hausted. The United States Government has a 
 right to require the aid of the militia to an indefinite 
 extent, which, reasoning from past experience in this 
 war, and upon the presumptions arising from legal 
 obligation, will be promptly furnished upon requisi 
 tion. The people will readily respond to a call to 
 this s ervice, as they will feel it is a duty they clear 
 ly owe to the Government. They will not feel op 
 pressed by the demand, as they know the limits of 
 that service, and that they can perform their obliga 
 tions in the company of their neighbors and friends, 
 and under officers from their vicinage, who will feel 
 a personal interest arid ambition in their comfort and 
 welfare. They will also feel, that in the event of an 
 illegal demand by the United States, or an attempt 
 to exercise an unauthorized power over them, they 
 can rely upon the authorities of their State for pro 
 tection. Besides, the militia is the very force espe. 
 cially provided by the Constitution for such an exi 
 gency as the present. Blackstone, in the extract 
 above quoted, says of the miiitia, in England : 
 
 "This is the constitutional security which our laws 
 have provided for the public peace, and for protect- 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 151 
 
 ing the realm against foreign or domestic violence." 
 The militia in this country is the constitutional 
 security which our Constitution has provided for the 
 public peace, and for protecting the G-overnment 
 against foreign and domestic violence. So long as it 
 exists can it be said that there is an exigency for a 
 military force which the Constitution has not provi 
 ded for ? 
 
 Independent of the service of the militia, under 
 the extraordinary calls that have been made on the 
 people for voluntary enlistments during the past two 
 years, there has been such a ready and willing re 
 sponse as was never before made in this, or in any 
 other country. Why, then, is it to be assumed that 
 the same spirit will not continue ? Is it because a 
 majority of the people believe that the principles 
 upon which the war is being waged by the adminis 
 tration, will prove destructive of our institutions ? 
 If so, then the administration should defer to the 
 will of the people. No war should be waged by an 
 administration, in a republic, against the opinions of 
 a majority of the people. Is it upon the ground 
 that the administration intends, upon the principles 
 it has asserted, to prosecute the war on such an un 
 precedented and gigantic scale, that the modes es 
 tablished by the wisdom of the past fail of meeting 
 its requirements ? Then is it not its duty to con 
 sult, instead of compelling, the people ? Is it for the 
 purpose of consolidating all power, civil and mili- 
 
152 THE CONSCRIPTION .ACT. 
 
 tary, in the United States, regardless of the consti 
 tutional rights of the States ? If so the people will 
 never permit it. 
 
 The modes of raising military forces provided by 
 the Constitution are sufficient for the prosecution of 
 any war that ought to be prosecuted, and an Ad 
 ministration takes upon itself a fearful responsibil 
 ity, and one for which in the end it must answer to 
 the people, when, in its own discretion, it oversteps 
 the bounds prescribed by the fathers for the protec 
 tion of the liberties of the people, and compels by 
 its power, the citizen to perform a military service, 
 which the Constitution and laws do not require. 
 
 The powers asserted in the Conscription Act are 
 clear and intelligible. In the first section it is pro 
 vided, 
 
 "That all able-bodied male citizens of the United 
 States, and persons of foreign birth who shall have 
 declared on oath their intention to become citizens 
 under and in pursuance of the laws thereof, between 
 the ages of twenty and fort j -five years, except as 
 hereinafter excepted, are hereby declared to consti 
 tute the national forces, and shall be liable to per 
 form military duty in the service of the United States 
 when called out by the President for that purpose." 
 
 In section eleven it is provided, 
 
 "That all persons thus enrolled shall be subject 
 for two years after the first day of July succeeding 
 the enrollment, to be called into the military service 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 153 
 
 of the United States, and to continue in service 
 during the present rebellion, not however exceeding 
 the term of three years." 
 
 In section thirty-four it is provided, 
 
 "That all persons drafted under the provisions of 
 this Act shall be assigned by the President to mili 
 tary duty in such corps, regiments, or other branches 
 of the service, as the exigencies of the service may 
 require." 
 
 Now. what is the authority asserted in this act ? 
 Under it Congress has not claimed, in terms, the 
 right to compel the service of the militia as such, 
 independent of State agencies; nor has it claimed 
 the right, in terms, to compel militia men, as such, 
 into the army of the United States. These would 
 have been too plainly expressed usurpations oi 
 power. But the act does assert the right in Con 
 gress to enrol every man of the militia, in every 
 State of the Union, in the National force, and to 
 compel his service in the army of the United States. 
 
 The militia is repeatedly recognized in the act 
 itself, and reference is made to the services of this 
 force in the present war ; yet the act asserts author 
 ity in the United States to take, by force, every en 
 rolled militia man in the country, and compel him 
 into the exclusive service of the United States, as a 
 member of the national force or army. 
 
 This act is an assertion of a right in the United 
 States to completely annihilate the militia of the 
 
154 THE CONSCRIPTION ACT. 
 
 States to leave the States as such entirely power 
 less and defenceless. If authoritative, it is a virtual 
 and complete destruction of all State authority and 
 power. It leaves to the several States the empty 
 form of a government, shorn of all power in itself of 
 enforcing its laws, protecting its citizens, or resist 
 ing unlawful demands from abroad. The assertion 
 does not even admit a concurrent power in the 
 States. No reservation whatever is made of the 
 militia or any portion of them. With one fell swoop 
 they are all gathered up in the several States, and 
 forcibly transferred to the exclusive authority of the 
 United States. 
 
DOES THE BIBLE SANCTION AMERI 
 CAN SLAVERY?* 
 
 WE have read, with much interest, a book written 
 by Gold win Smith, more than a year since, upon the 
 question, Does the Bible sanction American Slavery ? 
 also an able article sustaining the views of the 
 author, published in the last January number of the 
 North American Review. 
 
 Gold win Smith is a professor in Oxford Univer 
 sity, England, and a member of the most intellectual 
 class of the school of philanthropists. The North 
 American Review is an able exponent of the anti- 
 slavery sentiment of this country. 
 
 The theories laid down in the book are in the 
 main sound, the admissions of principles clear and 
 distinct, and but few of the deductions of the author, 
 are open to criticism, except from the poverty or 
 unsoundness of the^ statements of facts on which they 
 are based. 
 
 *Does the Bible sanction American Slavery? By Goldwin, 
 Smith. Cambridge : Sever & Francis. 1863. 
 
 Review of the above-entitled book of Gold win Smith, in the 
 North American Review, January, 1864. 
 
 Published in the American Monthly Magazine, January, 1865 
 
156 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 
 
 The admissions of both these writers are entitled 
 to great consideration, for, if true, they determine 
 grave questions, upon which the minds of large num 
 bers of our people have been perplexed in the atten 
 tion they have given to the subject. 
 
 There are many persons at the North who con 
 scientiously believe that slavery, or the involuntary 
 personal subordination of one man to another, or of 
 one class of men to another, is prohibited by the 
 Bible ; and that, consequently, it is necessarily sinful 
 for one man, under any circumstances, to hold 
 another in slavery. There are others at the North 
 who, admitting that slavery is not, under all circum 
 stances, forbidden by the Bible as sinful, yet consci 
 entiously believe that the system of servitude, as it 
 exists in the Southern States, is based upon a gross 
 violation of divine laws. Under these convictions, 
 with erroneous views of their relations to, and re 
 sponsibility for, the supposed wrong under our sys 
 tem of government, both classes attempt to justify 
 themselves in subordinating every other considera. 
 tion and interest to that of eradicating from the 
 country this sinful system. 
 
 We believe that no accurate student of the Bible 
 will contend that slavery is therein forbidden, and 
 no. one with a knowledge of mankind, and of God s 
 providences and His dealings with humanity, will 
 come rationally to the conclusion that the holding 
 of human beings in involuntary servitude is, neces- 
 
THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 157 
 
 sarily, and under all circumstances, a transgression 
 of any of God s general laws. 
 
 It is of primary importance to determine upon the 
 correctness or falsity of these propositions, before 
 we proceed to a consideration of the rightfulness or 
 wrongfulness of any particular system of slavery. 
 Because, if slavery is necessarily and under all cir 
 cumstances sinful, then no system founded on it can, 
 under any circumstances, be justified. But if slavery, 
 under some circumstances, and with certain lim 
 itations, is not sinful, then it becomes important, in 
 the consideration of any particular system, to first 
 examine and ascertain in what respects, if any, it 
 transcends the boundaries of human expediency, and 
 trenches upon the immutable principles of the divine 
 laws. 
 
 Does, then, the Bible forbid slavery, or is the in- 
 voluntary personal subordination of one man to 
 another sinful, under all circumstances? 
 
 Under the Levitical law, the Hebrews were ex 
 pressly authorized to hold slaves. They were re 
 stricted by that law in the enslavement of their own 
 people, the children of Israel, who were the chosen 
 people of God. The command was: "Both thy 
 bondmen and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, 
 shall be of the heathen that are round about you : of 
 them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. More 
 over, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn 
 among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their fami- 
 
158 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 
 
 lies that are with you, which they begat in your 
 land; and they shall be your possession. And ye 
 shall take them as an inheritance for your children 
 after you, to inherit them for a possession ; they shall 
 be your bondmen forever : but over your brethren, 
 the children of Israel, ye shall not rule over one 
 another with rigor." Under this law the Hebrews 
 held slaves, and Abraham himself had servants not 
 only " born in his house," but " bought with his 
 money." This system was continued through all 
 the nations of antiquity, and existed in Greece and 
 Rome in the time of Christ and His apostles. 
 Christ did not at any time attempt to interfere 
 with the system, and nowhere forbade it. He re 
 cognized the political and social institutions which 
 existed in the world based upon the fact of the in 
 equalities of the human raco. Pie interfered with 
 none of them. He proposed no system to regulate 
 the affairs of society, or the relations between men. 
 His mission was to the individual, to improve and 
 elevate him, through the silent and beneficent influ 
 ences of the religion He taught. His object was the 
 gradual advancement of mankind, and a consequent 
 modification of systems and correction of abuses. 
 
 The teachings of the Bible upon the subject of 
 slavery are plainly admitted by Professor Smith. 
 He says : 
 
 " It is true that the Old Testament distinctly recognizes slavery 
 as a Hebrew institution. It is also true that the New Testament 
 speaks of slavery in several passages, and does not condemn it." 
 
THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 159 
 
 Upon the question whether all men are entitled to 
 political and personal liberty, Professor Smith says : 
 
 "The authors of the Declaration of Independence, on which the 
 American Constitution for the Slave as well the Free States 
 is founded, say : We hold these truths to be self-evident : that 
 all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Cre 
 ator with certain unalienablo rights ; that among these are life, 
 liberty, and the pursuit o f happiness ; and that to secure these 
 rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just 
 powers from the consent of the governed. Supposing the negro 
 to be a man, the slave-owners who have set their hands to these 
 sentiments have pronounced the doom ot their own institution, and 
 saved its adversaries further trouble. But it must, in fairness to 
 them, be owned that they have set their hands to too much. It can 
 scarcely be held that liberty, political or personal, is the inalienable 
 right of every human being. Children possess neither political 
 nor personal liberty till they arrive at what the law, a law which 
 they had no share in making, pronounces to be years of discretion. 
 Women have no political liberties, and married women have per 
 sonal liberties only of a very qualified kind. Under despotic gov 
 ernments, the immorality of which can scarcely be held in all cases 
 self-evident, no one has political liberty. Even under constitution 
 al governments, where the suffrage is limited, as it is to some ex 
 tent in most of those which are commonly called free countries, the 
 unenfranchised classes are as destitute of political liberty as the 
 subjects of a despotism. The political power which commands 
 their obedience is vested, it is true, in a great number of hands, 
 and is on that account more controlled by the influence of opin 
 ions, and less liable to gross abuse ; but it commands their obe 
 dience as absolutely and as irrespectively of their own consent, as 
 though it were that of a despotic prince. The equality between 
 man and man en which this indefeasible elaim to political and per 
 sonal liberty is founded, is in truth rather a metaphysical notion 
 than a fact. 1 
 
 Upon the same subject, the writer in the North 
 American Review says : 
 
160 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 
 
 " Servitude, therefore, or the subjection of man to man, does not 
 contradict the laws of nature. It represents the relation of weak 
 ness to strength. It has existed in all nations at some period of 
 their growth. The condition of its presence is the existence of a 
 class unfit to enjoy personal liberty, or the want of power in gov 
 ernment to protect the rights of individuals ; for personal liberty is 
 a right for those who can use it without injury to themselves or 
 others. In the former case, personal liberty may be denied or re 
 stricted by law, and according to the necessity for that law, its 
 humanity and justice, will the government that makes it be 
 judged." 
 
 And further : 
 
 " There are two kinds of liberty political and personal. The 
 former consists in a share of political power. To gain it, to keep 
 it, and to exercise it for the the good of society, implies a degree of 
 intelligence never possessed by a barbarous people, and by certain 
 classes only of the more civilized. As nations advance in w.ealth 
 and knowledge, this intelligence is more largely diffused. Intelli 
 gence means the power to think, and thinking produces the desire 
 for action. . . Political liberty, therefore, a power over the con 
 duct of government, is enjoyed now, as always, by a very small 
 proportion of mankind. . . To be governed by the few, in all 
 public affairs, is and always has been the lot of a vast majority of 
 men. . . . Personal liberty is the power which a man has over 
 himself, over his own actions and destiny, so far as these are not 
 controlled by general laws affecting the whole community. Intel 
 ligence, combined with moral force what is called ability is the 
 condition on which this sort of liberty can be enjoyed ; for power 
 is the inseparable attribute of ability, and loss of power of the want 
 of it. Personal liberty is thus, like political liberty, the boon of 
 advancing civilization, because civilization, by increasing the ob 
 jects of desire and effort, stimulates and exercises varied talent." 
 
 If we assume, then, that involuntary personal sub 
 ordination is not necessarily sinful, but that, under 
 certain conditions and restrictions, it may be justifi- 
 
THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 161 
 
 able, the questions which arise in relation to slavery 
 in the Southern States are : 
 
 First. Do the circumstances and position of the 
 two races, the Caucasian and the African, at the 
 South, render the personal subordination of the lat 
 ter to the former justifiable ? 
 
 Second. If such subordination is justifiable, then, 
 is the system of servitude that exists at the South 
 justifiable, and such as the Bible will sanction ? 
 
 Third. Are there any abuses connected with the 
 system and not necessary to its existence, that can 
 be prevented by law, that are wrongful ? 
 
 Upon the first question, the facts are, that, in the 
 words of the writer in the North American Review, 
 " we have in this country four millions of negroes. 
 They are of a race inferior to ours ; " they are dis 
 tributed through the States of the South, comprising, 
 in some States, more than one half, and in all a con 
 siderable portion, of their populations ; they are not 
 only of an inferior race, but devoid of civilization, 
 except what they have attained to since their trans 
 portation to this country. Under these circum 
 stances, what policy, consistent with right, will pro 
 mote the highest interests and happiness of both 
 races, and best advance the welfare of the society 
 which they constitute ? Will a policy which imposes 
 upon the inferior race no other political or personal 
 restraints than are imposed upon the white popula 
 tion, compass these ends ? Experience and reason 
 
162 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 
 
 teach us they will not. The negroes have not ar 
 rived at that stage of progress from which they can 
 be expected to advance with a self-evolving civiliza 
 tion ; and if left to themselves and the laws enacted 
 for the whites alone, they will inevitably relapse into 
 the state of barbarism from which they have just 
 commenced to emerge ; they will be governed by the 
 lower passions of uncivilized races, will not respect 
 or be governed by the laws of civilized society, will 
 commit depredations, and become addicted to habits 
 of indolence and vagrancy. If the assertions of the 
 writer in the North American Review are correct, 
 that "personal liberty is the boon of advancing civ 
 ilization," and is only a right " for those who can 
 use it without injury to themselves or others," does 
 our knowledge of the negroes of the South justify 
 the belief that, if left to themselves, they will use 
 their acquired liberty without injury to themselves 
 or others ? We believe it does not. Our experience 
 with the freedmen, as the enfranchised negroes at 
 the South are styled, since the commencement of the 
 present war, has furnished most important corrobo- 
 ration of this belief. The testimony of the officers 
 who have had command in the several departments 
 in which slaves in large numbers have been freed, 
 has been uniform upon the subject. 
 
 General Hunter, whilst in command in South Car. 
 olina, in an order for a draft of all the able-bodied 
 negroes in his department, said : 
 
THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 163 
 
 " No more efficient means of elevating the former bondmen 
 from their degraded condition to the civilized status of the white 
 race can be devised than the schooling they will receive in the 
 army." 
 
 He also referred to military discipline as "the 
 best prevention of any abuse of their just attained 
 freedom." 
 
 General Banks early saw the necessity of the per 
 sonal subordination of the freedrnen, and in a gen 
 eral order, dated January 29th, 1863, he provided 
 that 
 
 " Those who leave their employers will be compelled to support 
 themselves and families by labor upon the public works. Under 
 no circumstances whatever can they be maintained in idleness, or 
 alloAved to wander through the parishes and cities without employ 
 ment. Vagrancy and crime will be suppressed by an enforced and 
 constant occupation and employment." 
 
 The above are extracts from some of the many 
 orders that have been issued in the different depart 
 ments, showing the convictions of those in command 
 of the necessity of the personal subordination of the 
 freedmen, for the protection of society and the pub 
 lic interest, even in districts gccupied by our armies. 
 But these acts and expressions have not been con 
 fined to the generals in the field. The Federal Ad 
 ministration has been governed in its policy toward 
 the negroes by the inexorable logic of the truths 
 which its experience with the race has taught, and 
 in all its dealings with them has acknowledged the 
 necessity for their personal subordination. 
 
164 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 
 
 If, then, the condition of the negroes and their 
 relations to society, at the South, are such as to 
 render the personal subordination of the race neces 
 sary and proper, is the system of servitude which 
 exists in that section justifiable, and such as the 
 Bible can sanction ? 
 
 In the consideration of this question we shall refer 
 only to the fundamental principles of the system, 
 essential to its existence, which are involved in the 
 ownership by the master of the personal services of 
 the slave, and the reciprocal obligations and duties 
 which the system has imposed upon the master; 
 leaving the consideration of incidental provisions 
 connected with, but not necessary to the continu 
 ance of the system, to be discussed in another con 
 nection. 
 
 Is, then, this system, upon the facts that have 
 been stated, wrongful? not, are there abuses con. 
 nected with it which should be relieved ? but is the 
 system, the mode of subordination itself, a wrongful 
 one ? Not to go back of our own experience, the 
 system which exists at .the South is the same which 
 has prevailed in this country from the time of its 
 first settlement. It is the only system that has ever 
 existed at the South, and the precise system under 
 which slaves were held at the North for more than 
 a century. Less than a century* ago it was discon 
 tinued at the North, but plainly upon the ground 
 that its continuance wonld not promote the material 
 
THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 165 
 
 interests of the section. The laws for its prohibi 
 tion at the North were in each instance prospective, 
 thereby affording an, opportunity to owners of slaves 
 to dispose of them in States where the system was 
 to be continued ; which could not have been done if 
 the reason of the discontinuance was the moral 
 wrong of the system. Whilst the system was per 
 mitted at the North, it was approved of not only by 
 the more mercenary and irreligious classes, but by 
 the best men in the communities where it was main 
 tained. One hundred years ago there were few 
 clergymen at the North, of sufficient means, who did 
 not own one or more slaves ; and is it a violent pre 
 sumption that the same class to-day would own ser 
 vants, bought with their, money," if the system had 
 continued to be beneficial to the material interests 
 of the North ? Few men will contend that the cler 
 gymen of the different religious denominations at the 
 South to-day are not true and sincere Christians. 
 Yet we find them all strongly approving of the sys 
 tem as it exists in their section. From (t An Ad 
 dress to Christians throughout the world, by a Con 
 vention of Ministers assembled at Richmond, Vir 
 ginia, April, 1863," signed by ninety-six clergymen 
 of the different denominations, many of them hereto 
 fore known as among the most eminent divines of 
 the country, we give the following extract : 
 
 " We are aware that in respect to the meral aspects of slavery, 
 we differ from those who conceive of emancipation as a measure of 
 
166 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 
 
 benevolence, and on that account we suffer much reproach which 
 we are conscious of not deserving. With all the facts of the system 
 of slavery, in its practical operations, before us, as eye-witnesses 
 and ministers of the Word, having had perfect understanding of all 
 things on this subject of which we speak, we may surely claim 
 respect for our opinions and statements. Most of us have grown 
 up from childhood among the slaves ; all of us have preached to 
 and taught them the Word of Life ; have administered to them the 
 ordinances of the Christian Church ; sincerely love them as souls 
 for whom Christ died ; we go among them freely, and know them 
 in health and sickness, in labor and rest, from infancy to old age. 
 We are familiar with their physical and moral condition, and alive 
 to all their interests ; and we testify, in the sight of God, that the 
 relation of master and slave among us, however we may deplore 
 abuses in this, as in other relations of mankind, is not incompati 
 ble with our holy Christianity, and that the presence of the African 
 in our land is an occasion of gratitude on their behalf before God ; 
 seeing that thereby Divine Providence has brought them where 
 missionaries of the Cross may freely proclaim to them the word of 
 salvation, and the work is not interrupted by agitating fanaticism. 
 The Sonth has done more than any people on earth for the Chris- 
 tianization of the African race The condition of the slave here is 
 not wretched, as Northern fictions would have men believe, but 
 prosperous and happy, and wonld have been yet more so but for 
 the mistaken zeal of the abolitionists. Can emancipation obtain 
 for them a better portion ? The practicable plan for benefiting the 
 African race must be the providential plan the Scriptural plan. 
 We adopt that plan in the South, and while the States would seek 
 by wholesome legislation to regard the interest of master and 
 slave, we, as ministers, would preach the Word to both, as we are 
 commanded of God. This war has not benefited the slaves. Those 
 who have been encouraged or compelled by the enemy to leave 
 their masters have gone, and we aver can go, to no state of society 
 that offers them any better things than they have at home, either 
 in respect to their temporal or eternal welfare." 
 
 We do not claim that the fact that the system of 
 slavery which exists in this country has been uni- 
 
THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 167 
 
 formly approved of by the best men in the commu 
 nities where it has existed, necessarily proves that 
 the system is a rightful one. But when, upon, a 
 thorough knowledge of the practical operations of 
 a system, the best men in the comnlumty where it 
 exists can see nothing in it to condemn, that fact is 
 an important one to be taken into consideration in 
 determining upon the question of its sinfulness. It 
 will hardly be contended that the prevailing senti 
 ment of a community, or mere private interest, can 
 so far control the judgment and blind the eyes of 
 the spiritual guides of the world, tha.t, through suc 
 cessive generations, they can be induced to approve 
 of palpably sinful practices. 
 
 But, if the personal subordination of the negroes 
 at the South is necessary, can any better system be 
 devised for the purpose than the one which exists at 
 the South ? The Federal Administrati6n has passed 
 a sentence of condemnation against the system, and 
 the war has been directed, the last two years, for its 
 overthrow. It has proposed anew system as a sub. 
 stitute for it. Is this system more beneficial to 
 society, or to either race, than the one it would 
 supplant ? This system is based upon the letting 
 out of negroes to white masters for limited periods 
 of service, giving to the master personal control 
 over the negro. We cannot conceive of any advan 
 tages to society, or the white race, from the new 
 system over the old. The personal subordination 
 
168 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 
 
 is as effective under the one as the other. But the 
 operations of the old system, shorn of its abuses, we 
 believe to be far more beneficial to the negro than 
 the new. In the permanent relations which are 
 maintained under the old system, strong and mutual 
 attachments and sympathies are necessarily created 
 between the master and the slave, greatly to the 
 advantage of the latter. Prof. Smith says that: 
 h To the Hebrew slave, the fact that he was his 
 master s money, would always be a real though not 
 always a sufficient protection." So to the Southern 
 slave, the fact that he is his master s money affords 
 to him the strongest guaranty against injury from 
 his master. The value of the slave to his master 
 depends upon the amount of labor he performs, and 
 the cheerfulness with which he performs it. It is 
 evident that kindness and generous treatment on 
 the part of the master will best promote these ends. 
 If the slave is sick or disabled, his master not only 
 loses the benefit of his labor, but is obliged by law 
 to support him. The legal obligations of the master 
 are to care for and support the slave in health, in 
 sickness, and in old age. These mutual obligations 
 tend to mutual regard and kindness. In judging of 
 the probable operations of such a system, we should 
 keep in mind known principles of man s nature. 
 Services faithfully performed by the slave naturally 
 induce sentiments of generosity and forbearance on 
 the part of the master. The precise results of any 
 
THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 169 
 
 theoretical system cannot be understood without an 
 opportunity for accurate observations upon its prac 
 tical workings. We know that, as a class, the ne 
 groes of the South have been happy and contented 
 in their condition under the system that exists. 
 The anticipations of those at the North, that the 
 slaves were panting for enfranchisement from the 
 system, have not been realized. We have found in 
 our experience in the war, that, notwithstanding the 
 inducements offered and assistance tendered to the 
 slaves to achieve their liberties, but comparatively 
 few have made the attempt, and there has been, in 
 no instance, a servile insurrection. 
 
 It cannot be expected that such mutual attach 
 ments and sympathies will spring up between the 
 freedmen and their masters, under the system of 
 subordination adopted by the Administration. Un 
 der this system the negroes are let for limited 
 periods of service. The system appeals only to the 
 selfish nature of the master. With him it is solely 
 a matter of contract, from which he is looking only 
 for immediate pecuniary gain. The master has no 
 responsibility for the condition of the slave beyond 
 his term of service, and his object is to secure the 
 largest amount of labor from him within the pre 
 scribed time. Not only theoretically but practi 
 cally, we believe the new system to be antagonistic 
 to the interests and happiness of the negro. One of 
 the most radical of the anti-slavery papers of the 
 
170 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 
 
 country ,* at the close of an able article upon the 
 practical workings of the new system, says : " It is 
 serfdom more galling than any that ever existed 
 under the old system, and to call it anything else is 
 hypocrisy." 
 
 In the July number of the North American Review, 
 the great disappointment of those who, before the 
 war, believed the negro at the South was anxious of 
 relieving himself of the system, is plainly manifested. 
 The Review speaks of movements " in defence of lib 
 erties of blacks who can show no better title to them 
 than the at least doubtful one of a measure of " mili 
 tary necessity; " and further: 
 
 " It might be different if the negroes were men of a sterner 
 mould and a more indomitable spirit, men who not simply desired 
 freedom, but hated oppressors. But it must be confessed that 
 their .apathy during the present struggle has disappointed both 
 their friends and enemies. The tameness with which they suffer 
 themselves to be assassinated, to be carried back into bondage and 
 held in it, and with which they have submitted to every other out 
 rage which either party chooses to inflict upon them, may be proof 
 either of sublime patience or of extreme degradation ; but in either 
 case it indicates a state of mind which, though it may have spared 
 us some embarrassment during the wnr, promises to throw serious 
 obstacles in the way of their redemption after the restoration of 
 peace. Some trace of self-respect, even if it take the low form of 
 savage vindictiveness, is the first condition of moral and social ele 
 vation. When it fails to reveal itself in a whole race, and when 
 this race has to assert its claims to mere manhood against oppress 
 ors of such a fierce and vigorous type as the Southern slaveholder, 
 it is hard to say how much third parties can do to help it." 
 
 * The Boston Commonwealth. 
 
THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 171 
 
 We do not understand that Professor Smith 
 claims that the system of personal subordination at 
 the South, with the qualifications we have stated, is 
 wrongful. He arrives at certain conclusions, based 
 upon abuses of the system, which we shall consider 
 in their proper connections. He states that "slavery 
 in Greece and Rome may in the earliest times have 
 been a social necessity and a sound relation, as it 
 was in the patriarchal East." The systems of 
 Greece and Rome permitted the enslavement not 
 only of the inhabitants of surrounding nations, but 
 of the weaker and more unfortunate classes of their 
 own people. Their slaves consisted of captives 
 taken in war or obtained by piracy and kidnapping, 
 and of citizens sentenced to servitude for crime or 
 debt, and the master had absolute power of life and 
 death over the slave. 
 
 If Professor Smith can justify such a system of 
 slavery in the earlier times of Greece and Rome, he 
 could hardly denounce as sinful the system for the 
 subordination of a confessedly inferior race, which 
 exists at the South, or claim that " social necessity " 
 may not render the relation it creates " a sound re 
 lation." 
 
 If the system of personal subordination at the 
 South, with the qualifications we have stated, nay 
 be morally justifiable, are there any abuses con 
 nected with it, and riot necessary to its existence 
 which can be prevented by law, which are wrongful ? 
 
172 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 
 
 We believe there are. A considerable portion of , 
 the book of Professor Smith is filled with statements 
 of abuses to which, under the laws of the slave 
 States, the system is liable, and with repetitions of 
 the stories of instances of cruelty of slaveholders, 
 which have been from time to time reported. Upon 
 the strength of these, elaborately set forth, Professor 
 Smith comes to the conclusion, in which the writer 
 in the North American Review concurs, that we can 
 find no sanction for American slavery in the record 
 of Christianity in the Rible ; but, instead of advo 
 cating a reform of these abuses and wrongs, upon 
 which their conclusion is based, both writers fall into 
 the current of the radical anti-slavery sentiment of 
 this country, in favor of a revolutionary policy. 
 Such a policy is entirely inconsistent with the ad 
 missions they both make, of the social necessity of 
 the personal subordination of people unfit to enjoy 
 personal liberty, when introduced in .considerable 
 numbers, to remain, in the society of others fitted to 
 enjoy this privilege. 
 
 The writer in the North American Review says, in 
 regard to the negroes at the South : 
 
 " We are told, also, that they are nnfit to enjoy personal liberty, 
 to exercise power individually over themselves, to be governed each 
 by his own will under the law. Is this true? Let us grant it- 
 What, then, is the duty of the superior race which has power over 
 the negro ? Does not the possession of this power, by every prin 
 ciple of justice and humanity, make it a trustee for the negro ? 
 What is meant when it is said the negro is unfit for personal liber- 
 
THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 173 
 
 ty ? Is it not that he is unable to take care of himself, that he ret 
 quires a care-taker, a guide, a support, as a child does? Are no- 
 those, therefore, who hare power over him, who claim and take 
 that pOAver, bound to furnish the guardianship he needs for his 
 benefit, and, since his conduct and condition affect their interests, 
 for their own also ? " 
 
 He grants, what he nowhere else disputes, that 
 the negroes of the South are now unfit to enjoy per 
 sonal liberty, and yet, inferentially at least, approves 
 of the abolition of the system in existence at the 
 South, without proposing any other system as a sub 
 stitute for it, or even a scheme for the government 
 of the negroes, when freed. 
 
 The prominent opportunities of abuse by the mas 
 ter under the system, from which it is claimed that 
 the negro may be deprived of rights and benefits 
 which he is entitled to under the relation, arise from 
 want of adequate legal provisions for the education 
 of the slaves, and for the prevention of violations of 
 the marriage relations, and of the separation of fami 
 lies. Although it is not to be inferred that, because 
 there is a power of abuse, the power is necessarily 
 exercised, yet, in a system affecting the highest in 
 terests of so large a class of human beings, it is the 
 duty of the Government to prevent possibilities of 
 abuse, to the extent of its legitimate power. The 
 liability to abuse in the particulars above-named can 
 be prevented by legislation, and it is the duty of the 
 legislatures in the States where the system is per 
 mitted, to make sufficient provisions for the purpose. 
 
174 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 
 
 This subject, we have reason to believe, has engaged 
 the serious attention of the best men at the South. 
 The Pastoral Address of the Bishops of the Episco 
 pal Church in the South, issued at Augusta, Georgia, 
 in November, 1862, urges upon the people of that 
 section the duty of giving to the slaves that moral 
 and religious instruction which is to elevate them in 
 the scale of being, and says : 
 
 " It is likewise the duty of the Church to press upon the mas 
 tery of the country their obligations, as Christian men, so to ar 
 range this institution as not to necessitate the violation of those 
 sacred relations which God has created, and which men cannot, 
 consistently with Christian duty, annul. The systems of labor 
 which prevail in Europe, and which are, in many respects, more 
 severe than ours, are so arranged as to prevent all necessity for the 
 separation of parents and children, and of husbands and wives ; and 
 a very little care on our part would rid the system upon which we 
 are about to plant our national life, of these unchristian features. 
 It belongs, especially, to the Episcopal Church to urge a proper 
 teaching upon this subject, for in her fold and congregations are 
 found a verv large proportion of the great slaveholders of the 
 country. We rejoice to be able to say that the public sentiment is 
 rapidly becoming sound upon this subject, and that the legislatures 
 of several of the Confederate States have already taken steps to 
 ward this great consummation." 
 
 That there will be opportunities for abuse under 
 the system, with all the protection which human 
 laws can afford, there can be no doubt ; and this can 
 be said, to a greater or lesser extent, of every sys 
 tem adopted to control the relations of men with 
 each other. Under the system for the personal sub 
 ordination of children to parents, and wives to hus- 
 
THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 175 
 
 bands, there have been not unfrequent instances of 
 fiendish cruelty and crime. Yet these instances 
 have been exceptional, and because they have oc 
 curred, no one advocates the abolition of the sys 
 tems, or believes them to be sinful. 
 
 We mrnst deal with mankind as we find it. We 
 cannot expect perfection in this world, nor should 
 we attempt to revolutionize systems founded on the 
 necessities of our natures or relations, solely be 
 cause, under them, there are possibilities, or even 
 instances, of abuse. If we should, but few systems 
 could survive the test. Our duties, under the be 
 neficent principles of our Christian religion, are to 
 reform, and not to revolutionize to improve and 
 perfect systems and institutions, by protecting them, 
 so far as possible, from opportunity of abuse, by the 
 laws of the State j and from abuses which the law 
 cannot reach, by educating the minds of the people, 
 and inculcating in their hearts the ennobling senti 
 ments of justice and humanity. The brotherhood of 
 man is an idea which has been long striven after, but 
 never realized. It is toward this that the principles 
 of Christianity tend. In a struggle of eighteen hun 
 dred years, we can note progress ; yet, when we look 
 forward to the great consummation, 
 
 " The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before us, 
 But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it." 
 
 It may not appear plain to us why a good God, 
 
176 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 
 
 in His infinite wisdom, has created men and races 
 differing in capacities and condition, and has not 
 given to all the same opportunities for worldly hap 
 piness and prosperity. But these distinctions and 
 varieties exist, and must be necessarily recognized 
 in the social systems which are organized for the 
 protection and advancement of society. 
 
 It is with the moral questions of a system based 
 upon such distinctions, we have attempted to deal. 
 We have not considered the question of the moral 
 responsibility of those who brought the negro to this 
 country. Prof. Smith says : u The position into 
 which the piratical cupidity of the whites has 
 brought the two races at the South is an awkward 
 one." We grant it. But who were guilty of this 
 piratical cupidity? It was the policy of England 
 that forced the negro to our shores, and her power 
 that maintained the slave trade between the colonies 
 and Africa, even against the remonstrances of the 
 colonists. In 1760, South Carolina passed an act 
 prohibiting the further importation of African slaves. 
 The act was not only rejected by the Crown, but 
 the Governor was reprimanded, and the Governors 
 of all the colonies warned, by royal edict, against 
 countenancing similar legislation ; and even as late 
 as in 1775, in answer to a remonstrance from the 
 colonies, upon the subject, the Premier of England 
 replied : " We cannot allow the colonies to check or 
 discourage in any degree a traffic so beneficial to 
 
THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 177 
 
 the nation." But whatever the share our fathers 
 may have had in the responsibility of transporting 
 the negroes here, certainly the white population of 
 the South, of this generation, lias not contributed to 
 the wrong. It found in its midst a numerous peo 
 ple of an inferior race, unfitted for personal liberty, 
 and for whose expatriation no adequate, practicable 
 plan had ever been proposed, and it continued the 
 system of subordination which it found in operation, 
 which had been sanctioned by the fathers of both 
 sections. " The position " into which ll the piratical 
 cupidity of the whites " has brought the two races 
 at the South may be not only " an awkward one," 
 but an unfortunate one, for the highest interests of 
 the white population and the progress of society in 
 that section. But the position, however awkward, 
 is one that, under one system or another, must be 
 endured, unless the negroes are exterminated, or 
 some feasible mode of effectual colonization shall be 
 devised. 
 
 We believe that, not by revolutionary, but by re 
 formatory and truly philanthropic efforts, the insti 
 tution of slavery at the South will be shorn of its 
 worst abuses, the negro gradually improved and 
 lifted in the scale of being, and the condition of his 
 practical relations with the white race modified 
 until, in the fulness of time, if it shall be proved he 
 is capable of such advancement, he will be fitted for, 
 and will inevitably enjoy, the boon of personal lib 
 erty. 
 
THE CAUSE OF OUR STRIFE AND THE 
 REMEDY.* 
 
 EVERY reader of American history must be im 
 pressed with the marked distinctions which have 
 existed, from the first settlement of the country to 
 the present time, between the people of the two 
 great sections, the North and the South. These 
 distinctions were plainly to be seen long before the 
 Colonies declared their independence of Great Brit 
 ain ; they were marked during the war of the Revo 
 lution, and the period which immediately succeeded 
 it ; they were fully acknowledged in the Convention 
 which framed the Constitution ; and have been more 
 signally manifested since, with the increase of the 
 population and growth of the material interests of 
 the respective sections. 
 
 A careful study of the history of the two people 
 for such they certainly have been and are in most 
 important characteristics will disclose the plainest 
 evidence of such prominent and influential differ 
 ences of interests and character, as would naturally 
 and without the intervention of the American system 
 
 * Published in the American Monthly Magazine, April, 1865. 
 
THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 179 
 
 of government, have led to their organization into 
 two separate and independent nationalities. 
 
 There have also been developed at the West, with 
 the spread of population over its vast and fertile 
 prairies, especially within the last thirty years, al 
 though not such decisive, yet prominent characteris 
 tics, distinguishing its people from those of either of 
 the other sections ; and more recently the settlement 
 of the region west of the Rocky Mountains is dis 
 closing yet another germ of independent interests 
 and character. 
 
 These facts, if facts they are, should be carefully 
 considered at all times by the statesmen of the coun 
 try, and never more carefully than at a juncture like 
 the present, when the people of one great section, 
 through an apprehension that its great and distin 
 guishing interests and characteristics were to be sub 
 ordinated to the will of the majority of the people of 
 other sections of the country, is engaged in a terri 
 ble struggle to assert its independence, and to es 
 tablish for itself a separate nationality. 
 
 Recognizing those differences between the people 
 of the South and the other sections, which are uni 
 versally acknowledged, it is important for us to as 
 certain whether they have been created by circum 
 stances which may be controlled or modified, or 
 whether they have grown up from natural causes, 
 which no human power is capable of restraining. 
 
 The distinctions between the people of the two 
 
180 THE CAUSE AND TH&EEMEDY. 
 
 sections are manifested in the difference of their in 
 terests, occupations, sentiments, manners, customs, 
 and institutions. What caused these differences? 
 Judge Story, in a dissertation upon the origin of 
 nations, in his work on International Law, says : 
 
 " Climate and geographical position, and the physical adapta 
 tions springing from them, must at all times have had a powerful 
 influence in the organization of each society, and have given a pe 
 culiar complexion and character to many of its arrangements. The 
 hold, intrepid, and hardy natives of the north of Europe, whether 
 civilized or barbarous, would scarcely desire or tolerate the indo 
 lent inactivity and lascivious indulgences of the Asiatics. Nations 
 inhiabting the borders of the ocean, and accustomed to maritime 
 intercourse with other nations, would naturally require institutions 
 and laws, adapted to their pursuits and enterprises, which would be 
 wholly unfit for those who should be placed in the interior of a 
 continent, and should maintain very different relations with their 
 neighbors, both in peace and war." 
 
 We believe that all the essential differences be 
 tween the people of the South and the other sections 
 have arisen, principally from the first of the two 
 causes above stated, namely, climate ; and that all 
 the essential differences between the people of the 
 West and of the Pacific coast and the other sections, 
 had their origin, principally, in the second cause 
 above stated, namely, geographical position. 
 
 We propose to consider briefly, how far climate 
 has been influential in creating the differences which 
 exist between the people of the South and those of 
 the other sections. 
 
 The territory of the United States, extending 
 
THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 181 
 
 through sixteen degrees of latitude, reaches at the 
 North to a climate colder than that of the northern 
 portion of Prussia, and at the South to a climate 
 scarcely less tropical than that of the extreme south 
 of Spain or Portugal. From an early day sectional 
 divisions have been recognized, corresponding with 
 these differences of climate. The States have been 
 classed as Northern and Southern. In the first- 
 named class are included all the States of the cold, 
 and in the second, all the States of the warm climate. 
 A still further distinction has been recognized, in 
 the designation of the northern tier of States of the 
 southern section, as the Border States. This dis 
 tinction corresponds with the phenomena of climate, 
 as in the gradual transition from a cold to a warm 
 country there must necessarily be found an interme 
 diate region, partaking somewhat of the climate of 
 both, with none of the marked characteristics of 
 either. 
 
 This dissimilarity in climate has been the cause of 
 the difference in the agricultural productions oi the 
 two sections, and has exerted a powerful influence 
 upon the character and conditions of the ..labor of 
 the two people. Under a climate like that of the 
 North, it is impossible for the laboring classes to 
 obtain the comforts of life without constant exertion. 
 The sterility of the soil of that section, and the length 
 of its winters, in which the laboring classes are pre 
 vented from working in the field, naturally induce 
 
182 THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 
 
 them to seek other employments. Hence a large 
 portion of the population of the North, especially in 
 the seaboard States, have sought occupation in the 
 laborious employments of commerce and manufac 
 tures. 
 
 Under a climate like that of the South, with a soil 
 of extreme fertility, with none of the necessities 
 which long inclement seasons create, the laboring 
 classes are enabled to support themselves by agri 
 cultural pursuits, with little exertion ; and thus, in 
 dependent of the enervating influences of climate, but 
 little incentive is presented for engaging in the more 
 skilful and laborious employments. 
 
 At the South, commercial and manufacturing in 
 terests must always be subordinate to the agricul 
 tural, and at the North, until the further develop 
 ments of the dominant interests of the Western 
 and Pacific States, commercial and manufacturing 
 interests must predominate. 
 
 But the influence of climate is shown in the differ 
 ence of temperament, customs, and institutions of 
 the two people, scarcely less than in their labor and 
 productions. These differences have been plainly 
 observable from the time of the earliest history of 
 the country, and have not been materially influenced 
 by any differences in the characters of those who 
 colonized the respective sections. Both sections 
 were settled principally by people of the same race, 
 and from the same nation. There certainly was no 
 
THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 183 
 
 greater difference of characteristics in the settlers of 
 the two sections, than in the settlers of the different 
 States of both sections, and yet, no one will pretend 
 that want of homogenity in the settlers of the differ 
 ent States of either section has created any cause of 
 conflict or disturbance. We believe that, in no in 
 stance, can any essential difference between the peo 
 ple of the two sections be traced to want of homo- 
 genity in. the original colonists. 
 
 The effect of climatic causes upon individual char- 
 aoter is plainly seen in the change produced in rep. 
 rasentative men even, who have removed from the 
 one section into the other. They have invariably, 
 within a short time, not only conformed to the cus 
 toms and institutions of the people of their adopted 
 section, but have partaken of all their peculiarities 
 and prejudices. 
 
 The continuance and growth of the system of 
 slavery have also been determined principally by the 
 influence of climate. When England first conceived 
 the policy of introducing African slaves to this coun 
 try, and during the period of their early importation, 
 there existed no greater prejudice against the system 
 at the North than at the South. The same cause 
 induced the largest importation into the South, and 
 subsequently the abandonment of the system at the 
 North, and its growth at the South. It is plain that 
 climate has substantially controlled the fortunes of 
 this institution in this country from the commence- 
 
184 THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY, 
 
 ment. Slave labor was not, and could not be 
 made profitable under the cold climate of the North; 
 hence it was discontinued. In the Border or inter 
 mediate states, the system, as would be expected if 
 climate controls its destiny, has been continued with 
 a feeble growth ; and, beyond them, under the well- 
 defined climate of the South, the slave population 
 has largely increased, and now constitutes the prin 
 cipal laboring class of that section. 
 
 But it is chimed, although the circumstances and 
 continued existence of the institution of slavery may 
 have been determined by the influences of climate, 
 yet that the institution itself has been influential in 
 creating a landed aristocracy at the South, which 
 has possessed itself largely of the social and political 
 powers of that section. It has, undoubtedly, like 
 every other institution at the South, exerted an in 
 fluence in the formation of its social and political 
 systems. The influences of climate, and of the con 
 ditions it has been instrumental in creating, neces 
 sarily act and react upon each other, and all con 
 tribute more or less in the formation of the peculiar 
 systems which exist at the South. Yet slavery has 
 not been a primary cause, nor has it had a control 
 ling influence on either the social or political con 
 dition of the Southern people. 
 
 It will be difficult to prove that the institution of 
 slavery has given rise to any of the prominent social 
 or political phenomena that have been manifested at 
 
THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 185 
 
 the South. Its influence has been to increase and 
 intensify, rather than to originate, social and politi 
 cal idiosyncracies. We believe that, if slave labor 
 had never been employed at the South, there would 
 have grown up in that section a landed aristocracy, 
 which would have wielded a large share of social and 
 political power. 
 
 There is an inevitable tendency to inequality of 
 wealth in all warm countries, especially during the 
 early periods of their development. It is shown in 
 the possession of large landed estates by the few, 
 while the great masses of the population are mere 
 laborers, with neither the incentives nor means of 
 acquiring capital enjoyed by the laborers of more 
 temperate regions. There is nothing in the "circum 
 stances or history of the South to exempt its people 
 from the operations of this general law established 
 by climate. Inequality in wealth is inevitably fol 
 lowed by inequality in social and political power. 
 Without slave labor, the great landed proprietors of 
 the South would have constituted an aristocracy, 
 with powers differing only in degree from those ex 
 ercised by the same class in the past ; and if the in 
 stitution of slavery shall be abolished, yet the negro 
 will remain, and in time it will be proved how much, 
 if at all, his social and political power will be in 
 creased, and consequently the power of the aris 
 tocracy diminished, by the change. 
 
 If these views are correct, then all of the impor* 
 
186 THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY 
 
 tant differences between the people of the South and 
 of the other sections arise from, or their conditions 
 are determined by, the influences of climate. If the 
 climate and soil of the North were similar to the 
 climate and soil of the South, the people of the 
 North to-day would be employed in the cultivation 
 of cotton, rice, and sugar-cane, to which commercial 
 and manufacturing interests would be subordinate; 
 and in sentiments, customs, and institutions, we 
 should be assimilated to the people of the South. 
 Under these conditions, even the institution of 
 slavery would afford no causo of difference or 
 offence between the sections, as there is every rea 
 son to believe it would be approved and sustained 
 alike by the people of both. 
 
 If the above views are correct, it is evident, also, 
 that the influential differences between the two peo 
 ple cannot be removed by any human agency. The 
 material interests of the South may be prostrated 
 for the time, but they cannot be made to conform to 
 those of the other sections. The laws which govern 
 labor at the Soath may be suspended through vio 
 lence, yet it will be impossible to substitute for them 
 the laws which control the labor of the North. The 
 moment that force is withdrawn, the people of the 
 South will engage in the same pursuits as in the 
 past, and the character and conditions of its labor 
 will be determined by influences over which enact 
 ments of Congress can have but little control. Nei- 
 
THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 187 
 
 ther will it be possible, by force or statute, to change 
 the great characteristics of the people of the South- 
 The causes which have produced them cannot be 
 destroyed. Tljeir operations may be disturbed by 
 the violence of civil war, but when the struggle is 
 over, and peace resumes its sway, they will again 
 exert their silent influences, as in the past, upon the 
 characters of those who shall people the States o* 
 the South. It is impossible to efface the marked 
 differences in the characters of the two people by the 
 exertion of any force. No policy which the general 
 Government can adopt, can produce homogenity be 
 tween the inhabitants of the two sections. There is 
 no power in legislation that can compel the inhabit 
 ants of South Carolina and Georgia, or even of Illi 
 nois and California, to conform their institutions, 
 habits, and modes of thought to those which govern 
 the people of New England. Nor would the at 
 tempt to reduce the character of the people of the 
 entire country to a single type be materially aided 
 by a thorough change of population at the South. 
 If the white race of that section should be complete 
 ly exterminated, and its place filled by a people rep 
 resenting the most extreme Northern sentiments, we 
 believe that within the time of one generation there 
 would be developed quite as much difference in in 
 terests and character between the people of the two 
 sections as has ever existed in the past ; and that if 
 the new population should prove to be more ener- 
 
188 THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 
 
 getic and more jealous of its rights than that which 
 preceded it, there would exist greater cause of ap 
 prehension of hostilities between the two people, 
 with no additional protection to sections under the 
 Constitution, than has ever existed in the past. The 
 abolition of slavery would remove the moral ele 
 ments which have contributed so much to fire the 
 heart of the North in the present struggle, without 
 essentially modifying any of the prominent causes of 
 dispute between the two sections. 
 
 But it may be asked how has it happened that, 
 with such radical differences between the people of the 
 two sections, both have lived together in peace under 
 one flag for nearly eighty years, and enjoyed under 
 it. during that period, unexampled prosperity. The 
 answer to this is, that these results have been 
 achieved through the beneficent operations of our 
 peculiar system of government. The peculiarity of 
 the system is in the divisions of power between the 
 local or State governments and the General Govern 
 ment. The basis of the system is local self-govern 
 ment ; its fundamental principle is, that the people 
 of each considerable geographical section have the 
 exclusive power of legislation and control, in all 
 matters which pertain to their peculiar interests, 
 customs, and institutions. Upon this basis is built 
 the general or federative government, for the man 
 agement of the external relations of the several 
 States, and for their general protection* The Gen- 
 
THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 189 
 
 eral Government was framed by the Governments of 
 the different States through a Convention, and con 
 sented to by their peoples. Their object in estab 
 lishing it was to give additional security, strength, 
 and vitality to the local or State governments. As 
 Governments generally, are established for the pur 
 pose of affording protection to the individuals of the 
 community in the enjoyment of their natural rights 
 and of organizing and directing their aggregate force 
 against enemies from abroad, so the General Govern 
 ment was established, for the purpose of affording 
 protection to individual States in the enjoyment and 
 exercise of their rights under the system of local 
 self-government which had grown up, and for the 
 purpose of organizing and directing their aggregate 
 strength against foreign aggressors. 
 
 It is to this system that the people of the country 
 are indebted for their success in the past. Under 
 it, each State managed its own affairs, and exercised 
 exclusive control in all matters which pertained to 
 the domestic happiness of its people. We believe 
 that this system is the only one that could have se 
 cured the political co-operation of the people of the 
 two sections in the past ; that a consolidated gov 
 ernment would have signally failed of this object ; 
 and that even a despotic government would have 
 been unable, by the exercise of any force, to have 
 compelled a political unity of the two people for 
 eighty years. 
 
190 THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY . 
 
 The dissatisfaction which culminated in the pres 
 ent struggle, arose, not from any dislike of our sys 
 tem of government, but from a jealousy lest the pow 
 ers of the General Government should be perverted 
 to the subversion of the principles of local self-gov 
 ernment. The cause of the dissatisfaction was sta 
 ted by President Lincoln in his inaugural message, 
 March fourth, 1861, in the following language: "Ap 
 prehension seems to exist among the people of the 
 Southern States, that by the accession of a Republi 
 can administration, their property, their peace, and 
 their personal security are to be endangered ! " 
 
 This apprehension existed, and was wide-spread, 
 and whether justified by facts or not, induced the 
 people of the Southern States to make an attempt 
 at separation from the control of the General Gov 
 ernment. If the facts justified the apprehension, 
 they would also justify the people of the South in 
 their revolutionary attempt. Under a General Gov 
 ernment like ours, if a majority of the people and 
 States unite for the determined purpose of oppress 
 ing the minority, or of interfering with its constitu. 
 tional rights, the ninority will have just cause for 
 apprehension. For under the forms of law, through 
 a gradual perversion of the spirit and intent of the 
 Constitution, and by an exercise of questionable 
 powers against which there may be no means of im 
 mediate redress, much injustice may be done to th e 
 rights and interests of the minority. The justifica- 
 
THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 191 
 
 tion of a resort to revolutionary measures, which 
 such acts by the majority would afford, is plainly 
 stated in the message of President Lincoln above 
 quoted from. He says : "If, by mere force of num. 
 bers, a majority should deprive a minority of any 
 clearly written constitutional right, it might in a 
 moral point of view, justify revolution it certainly 
 would, if such right were a vital one." It is true, 
 further, that if a majority shall have combined for 
 the declared purpose of depriving the minority of 
 any clearly written Constitutional rights, the minor 
 ity is not bound to wait till the blow is struck, till 
 its liberties are within the grasp of a hostile power, 
 but is justified in adopting measures to avert the 
 threatened calamity ; and, unfortunately perhaps for 
 the peace of Nations, the people whose rights are en 
 dangered are, in each case, the sole judges of the 
 exigency, and necessarily make the decision under 
 circumstances of passion and excitement^ President 
 Lincoln, in the same message, challenged reference 
 to a single instance in which a plainly written pro 
 vision of the Constitution had ever been denied, and 
 disclaimed, for himself and his party, any intention 
 of interfering with the constitutional rights of the 
 people of the Southern States. We believe it true 
 that a large majority of the party which elevated 
 him and his administration to power, had not, at the 
 time, an intention of violating clearly written con- 
 stitutional rights : yet, the circumstances connected 
 
192 THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 
 
 with the organization of the party, its history, the 
 subjects on which it based its political platform, and 
 the declaration s of many of its representative men, 
 of its intentions, were such as would naturally tend 
 to excite jealousy in the minds of the people of the 
 Southern States, and such as called, on the acces 
 sion of that party to power, for an explicit and em 
 phatic declaration of intentions from its representa 
 tives in Congress, which they persistently refused to 
 make. The result was, the civil war which has now 
 been waged upon a gigantic scale for four years. 
 
 All the important questions which now agitate the 
 public; mind, arise out of the state of affairs which 
 this struggle has developed. By far the most im 
 portant of these arise put of the issues presented, 
 which affect the future existence of our system of 
 government. 
 
 The liberties, happiness, and prosperity of the 
 people of f he country, in the future, depend upon a 
 correct decision of these questions. Towns that 
 have been destroyed may be rebuilt ; interests that 
 languish may be revived ; wealth that has been sac - 
 rificed may be replaced, through the energy and en 
 terprise of the people ; and immigration may, in part 
 at least, supply to the industry of the country a 
 population in the place of that the war has de 
 stroyed. But the liberties of the people once strick 
 en down the American system once abandoned to 
 despotic rule if not lost for ever, can be rescued 
 
THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 193 
 
 only after long years of suffering, through the terri 
 ble and desperate struggles of an oppressed people. 
 Our experience as a people since the adoption of 
 the Constitution, has demonstrated the wisdom of 
 our political system, and confirmed the faith of its 
 founders that it was adapted to the exigencies of the 
 country through all coining time. The dangers that 
 have threatened, and troubles that have visited the 
 country, have been caused by real or apprehended 
 perversions of the system ; and our experience, es 
 pecially during the last four years, has demonstrated 
 the necessity of additional securities for the future 
 maintenance of the system. All our difficulties have 
 resulted from the development of the different inter- 
 ests of the respective sections, to w hich there was 
 given no adequate defensive powers in the organism 
 of the General Government. The danger to the sys 
 tem from this source did not escape the attention of 
 the framers of the Constitution. After determining 
 upon the powers to be delegated to the General Gov 
 ernment, and consequently the powers to be reserved 
 to the States and the people, their attention was di 
 rected to the subject of the interests of minorities 
 which might be endangered by the action of the ma 
 jority, in the administration of the affairs of the Gen 
 eral Government. They believed it to be unsafe to 
 intrust power in the hands of the majority, with no 
 other restrictions than mere constitutional prohibi 
 tions would afford. They recognized the truth, that 
 
194: THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 
 
 the great governing principle of .majorities, as of in 
 dividuals, is self-interest, and that the former are 
 more unscrupulous in the exercise of power for the 
 advancement of their interests, than the latter ; and 
 they feared that, under a General Government, framed 
 upon a democratic basis and invested with the pow 
 ers of the purse and the sword, the majority could 
 and would adopt measures with but little regard to 
 their effect upon the infcer^ts of the minority; and 
 saw that the only way to prevent such abuse was to 
 give to the minority a power in the government it 
 self, to prevent the adoption of unfriendly measures. 
 Consequently, they sought to ascertain what classes 
 of States or individuals might be endangered through 
 the exercise of the powers of the General Govern 
 ment, with a view to give them a defensive power. 
 
 The small States were regarded as in a position 
 of danger, as it was evident that a few of the large 
 States, having a community of interests and a ma 
 jority of the voters of the country, might unite, and 
 obtain control of the several departments of govern 
 ment. After full discussion, the dangers from this 
 source were provided against, by giving to each 
 State an equal representation in one branch of the 
 Government the Senate ; thereby conferring upon 
 the small States equal powers with the large ones, 
 in preventing the enactment of laws which they 
 might deem unfriendly to their interests. No inju 
 rious effects in the legislation of the country have 
 
THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 195 
 
 resulted from this anti-democratic feature in the 
 Government, and it has served to prevent not only 
 conflicts, but even jealousies, between these two 
 classes of States. 
 
 Pending the discussion in the Convention, upon 
 the subject of the large and small States, Mr. Mad 
 ison said : "He admitted that every peculiar interest, 
 whether in any class of citizens or any description 
 of States, ought to be secured as far as possible." 
 That "whenever there is danger of attack, there 
 ought to be given a constitutional power of defence." 
 But he contended that the great difference of inter - 
 ests did not lie between the large and small States, 
 but, That it lies "between the Northern and South 
 ern, and if any defensive power were necessary, it 
 ought to be unitedly given to these two interests." 
 Mr. Pinckney said there was u a real distinction be 
 tween the Northern and Southern interests;" and 
 that : These different interests would be a source of 
 oppressive regulations, if no check to a bare major 
 ity should be provided." Mr. King said : "He was 
 fully convinced that the question concerning a differ 
 ence of interests did not lie, where it had hitherto 
 been discussed, between the great and small States; 
 but between the Southern and Eastern." He said : 
 <<He W^LS not averse to giving them (the Southern) a 
 still greater security, but did not see how it could 
 be done." Colonel Mason said : "If the Government 
 is to be lasting, it must be founded in the confidence 
 
196 THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 
 
 and affections of the people ; and must be so con 
 structed as to obtain these. The majority will be 
 governed by their interests. The Southern States 
 are the minority in both Houses. Is it to be expec 
 ted that they will deliver themselves bound hand and 
 foot to the Eastern States ; and enable them to ex 
 claim, in the words of Cromwell upon a certain oc 
 casion: "The Lord hath delivered them into our 
 hands ? " 
 
 Notwithstanding the members of the Convention 
 saw plainly the necessity of giving a defensive pow 
 er to sections in the Constitution, yet, unfortunately 
 for the peace of the country, they adopted no pro 
 vision for the purpose. It is evident^ from the pub 
 lished debates, that such a defensive power was not 
 provided, from an apprehension that the additional 
 inequalities of powers in the departments of the 
 government, which a provision adequate for this pur 
 pose would constitute, might peril the ratification of 
 the system by the people. If such a power had 
 been given in the Constitution, the controversies and 
 jealousies that have arisen between the sections in 
 the past, would have been avoided : and there would 
 have been no occasion for the discussion of the ques 
 tion of the right of secession, which is practically 
 only a question of the right of peaceable revolution. 
 
 But our experience in the past is chiefly valuable 
 for the light it throws upon the path of our duty in 
 the future. Whether, under the circumstances of the 
 
THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 197 
 
 people of tho two sections at the time of the adop 
 tion of the Constitution, a defensive power to sec 
 tions was necessary or not, it is evident that, with 
 the great subsequent increase of population, and 
 vast development of resources, not only in the Nor 
 thern and Southern, but in the other great divisions 
 of the country, such a power is now indispensable, 
 not only to secure the future co-operation of the peo 
 ple of the South, but to preserve the union between 
 the people of the East, West, and Pacific Coast. 
 
 We believe that, if a defensive power to the dif 
 ferent sections shall be given in the government it 
 self, all controversies and jealousies in the future 
 will be prevented, and that, with this security, the 
 Southern States will be induced voluntarily to re 
 sume their places in the Union ; and the people of 
 the whole country, sadder but wiser from the expe 
 rience they have suffered, will heartily cooperate for 
 the accomplishment of the great mission which we 
 still hope God has designed for the people of this 
 continent. With nothing to excite ill-feeling, the 
 people of each section will continue to develop their 
 peculiar form of civilization under the beneficent and 
 harmonizing influences of free institutions j and all 
 jealousies against the General Government being re 
 moved, there will spring up in the hearts of the peo 
 ple a spirit of national unity, which will be confirmed 
 and strengthened with the growth of the population 
 and development of the resources of the country. 
 
198 THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 
 
 But it may be contended that, if the concurrence 
 of the people of all the sections is required in the 
 enactment of laws, the Government will be necessa 
 rily weak. On the contrary, such a requirement 
 would give to it additional strength. It would bring 
 to the support of its measures the people represent 
 ing every interest of the country, instead of, as now, 
 those representing only the majority interests. 
 When we refer to the strength of a government, we 
 should remember there are two classes of govern 
 ments ; the one Depending for its strength upon its 
 independence of the consent of the governed, and 
 the other depending for its strength upon the volun 
 tary consent of the governed. Our government is 
 of the latter class. Its strength depends upon the 
 approval of its measures by the people, and the lar 
 ger the numbers that approve its acts especially if 
 they represent the different interests of the country 
 -the greater the strength of the government. The 
 truth of this is verified by many instances in our ex 
 perience. The disaffections in New-England, which 
 deprived the country of the cordial support of her 
 people in the war of 1812, and the disturbance in 
 South- Carolina in 1830, resulted from the exercise 
 of powers by the General Government without the 
 concurrence of the people of all the sections. 
 
 The grant of such a defensive power to sections 
 would undoubtedly tend to modify the legislation of 
 the General Government. It would restrict action 
 
THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 199 
 
 upon subjects affecting the different interests of the 
 sections, and prevent the passage of acts for the 
 promotion of the interests of the majority, to the 
 prejudice of those of the minority, except with the 
 consent of the latter. Upon referring to the pow 
 ers delegated to the General Government by the Con 
 stitution, it will be seen that there are but few sub 
 jects within their legitimate reach upon which there 
 would exist a difference of opinion between the peo 
 ple of the several sections ; and that, even if legis 
 lation upon those subjects which affect the different 
 interests of sections should be confined to the adop 
 tion of such measures only as would promote equally 
 the interests of all, no interest would seriously suf 
 fer. Bnt it would not be thus confined. Bach sec 
 tion having peculiar interests, mutual concessions 
 would be made, and the legislation would conform to 
 the highest interests of the whole people. 
 
 The importance of giving such a defensive power 
 to sections cannot be overestimated. Without it; 
 the American system cannot be sustained in the fu 
 ture. It is not to be disguised that there are many 
 influential men in power, and connected with it, who 
 are enemies of the American system, and determined 
 upon its overthrow. They would build upon its ru 
 ins a new and, as they assert, a stronger govern 
 ment, based upon powers independent of the consent 
 of the governed. Some boldly proclaim their pur 
 pose ; others, knowing the strength of the attach- 
 
200 THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 
 
 ment of the people to the principles of the system 
 they would subvert, seek to promote their object 
 through a system of covert and indirect attacks- 
 Appreciating the defenceless position of the system, 
 and believing that it can only be preserved through 
 the adoption of additional securities, they protest 
 strongly against all compromises and guarantees, and 
 point to our difficulties in the past, which were occa 
 sioned by a deficiency of guarantees, as proof that 
 the principles of the system are inadequate for the 
 exigencies of the country. 
 
 It is also strongly asserted by the enemies of the 
 system, that additional defensive powers to sections 
 are called for, only to satisfy imperious demands of 
 the people of the South. This is untrue. Although 
 indispensable to secure their voluntary co-operation, 
 they are not less important for the protection of the 
 rights and interests of the people of the other sec 
 tions, in the future. 
 
 Upon the sectional questions out of which our 
 present difficulties sprung, the people of the West 
 acted with the people of the East. But if the 
 Union shall be restored, without the adoption of ad 
 ditional guarantees for sections, new jealousies and 
 questions of conflict of interests will arise, upon 
 which the people of the East cannot expect the co 
 operation of the people of the West. Heretofore 
 the political action of the West has been largely in 
 fluenced by the dependence of its interests upon the 
 
THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 201 
 
 capital of the East; but when, with the develop 
 ment of its resources, it is relieved of this depen 
 dence, its people will be governed in their political 
 action by the controlling interests of their section. 
 The great interest of the West, as of the South, is 
 agriculture ; and this will inevitably insure political 
 co-operation between the people of these sections 
 upon all important questions that may arise in the 
 future, from conflicts of interests. It is plain that 
 the people of the Eastern States cannot, in the fu 
 ture, exert the control they have in the past, over 
 the people of other sections ; and that, within a 
 brief period, the various agricultural interests of the 
 country will be able to control the legislation of the 
 General Government. When that time shall come> 
 the people of the Eastern States will fully appreci 
 ate the importance of defensive powers to sections, 
 in the organism of the Government. 
 
 We can have no doubt of the ultimate triumph of 
 the American system over its enemies, if the educa* 
 ted conservative men of the country shall prove 
 faithful in the performance of their duties. The 
 friends of the system are not confined to the con- 
 servative party of the country. Many influential 
 members and presses of the Administration party 
 are among its zealous defenders, and there are plain 
 indications that they are not blind to the dangers to 
 which the system is exposed. But, more important 
 than these, history proves how difficult it is for the 
 
202 THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 
 
 executives of government to effect a permanent 
 change in the institutions of a country, even amid 
 the distractions of civil war. 
 
 Although there have been not infrequent instances, 
 in the history of civilized nations, of patient submis 
 sion to usurpations and gross perversions of the pow 
 ers of government during the pendency of a great 
 struggle, yet, in nearly every instance, when the cri 
 sis had passed, the people have demanded and ob 
 tained, often after a protracted struggle, a return to 
 the principles and system of government with 
 which all their habits of thought and recollections 
 of the past were indentified. 
 
 We believe this struggle will tend to confirm the 
 attachment of the people to the principles of the 
 American system. They have been educated under ? 
 and all their recollections of the past are connected 
 with, the most beneficent system of government the 
 world has ever known. For nearly eighty years, we 
 and our fathers enjoyed the most ample protection 
 ever afforded by any system of government, without 
 the imposition of a burden that could be felt. The 
 evils that have befallen the country have not resul 
 ted from any defect in the principles of the system, 
 but from the insufficiency of the provisions for the 
 prevention of jealousies and conflicts between the 
 people representing the different great interests of 
 the country. And when the passions and excite 
 ments of the struggle are over, we believe the peo- 
 
THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 203 
 
 pie will return to the system with a love stronger 
 than in the past ; and, profiting by the terrible ex 
 perience* through which they shall have passed, will, 
 without the change of a single principle, adopt ad 
 ditional guarantees, which will insure to each great 
 interest and section such ample protection tha 
 there will be no opportunity, even for jealousy, in 
 the future. 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT/ 
 
 There are no facts in the experience of a Govern 
 ment more deserving of thorough investigation by 
 the student of political history, than those which re 
 late to periods of popular discontents, from which 
 no government of any considerable antiquity has 
 ever enjoyed immunity. 
 
 It is from the study of the history of such periods 
 that we learn the defects of the system of govern 
 ment, or discover the impolicy with which it has 
 been administered. Although in times of peace and 
 quiet the causes which produce discontent may be 
 actively at work, yet they are often so remote as to 
 escape the attention of contemporaneous statesmen; 
 or/ if detected and explained, their operations are 
 so intermingled with the general and prosperous 
 current of public affairs, that it is difficult to per 
 suade those who administer the Government of their 
 importance, or of the dangers with which they are 
 fraught. 
 
 ^Published in the Southern Review, July, 1868. 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 205 
 
 But when popular discontents come, and events 
 happen which interfere with the harmonious co-oper 
 ation of the Government and the people, the exist 
 ence and operations of influential disturbing causes 
 are no longer doubtful, and an investigation of their 
 origin and progress is demanded by the exigencies 
 which are created. 
 
 But, important as is an accurate knowledge of the 
 causes of an existing discontent by the Government, 
 that it may devise a permanent remedy, yet experi 
 ence has shown that this knowledge is rarely attained 
 during the continuance of the discontent. Indeed 
 it is doubtful if any instance can be adduced from 
 history, of a discontent culminating in actual conflict, 
 which the Government at tho time attributed to the 
 real causes. The explanation of this is to be sought 
 in the fallibility of those who administer the Gov 
 ernment, and in the complicated circumstances con 
 nected with the origin and development of the causes 
 themselves. 
 
 In a large majority of instances) the formidable 
 discontents which have arisen in civilized communi 
 ties have had their origin in systematic oppression 
 of the people by the Government, or in the destruc 
 tion of those securities against future oppression 
 which the people have acquired, often through des 
 perate struggles, and for the preservation of which 
 they are animated with the greatest jealousy and 
 zeal. Although in the progress of discontents other 
 
206 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 causes have frequently supervened, and sometimes 
 partizan or moral and religious forces have been 
 brought into requisition, yet they have served in 
 each instance only to accelerate and give intensity 
 to, rather than retard the progress of, the great pri 
 mary causes. 
 
 In the instances of discontent which have resulted 
 from measures of Government either indiscriminate 
 ly oppressive of all the great interests of the people 
 or subversive of their securities, the connection be 
 tween cause and effect would seem to be too plain 
 to admit of any doubt. Yet in these instances, 
 when the measures of the Government have not 
 been adopted for the tyrannical and wicked purpose 
 of oppressing the people, those in authority have 
 rarely comprehended, and more seldom acknowl 
 edged at the time, the real origin of the dissatisfac 
 tion. In the adoption of the obnoxious measures 
 they have been governed by erroneous views of their 
 relations to the people, and have proceeded upon 
 the assumption, that their paramount duty was to 
 maintain and strengthen the prerogatives of govern 
 ment, and that the interests of the people should 
 always be subordinate to any policy which they 
 might deem expedient for this purpose. Their plea 
 has invariably been the exigencies of the State. 
 They have consequently treated as groundless all 
 complaints of the people which have followed upon 
 the adoption of their measures, and attributed their 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 207 
 
 inevitable discontents to the prevalence of a spirit 
 of insubordination and sedition. It has been only 
 when the discontents have become so formidable as 
 to cause serious alarm; that they have been led to 
 an impartial consideratior, of the real causes, which 
 they have often comprehended and acknowledged 
 too late to prevent the overthrow of the govern 
 ment. 
 
 In the more frequent instances of discontent which 
 have resulted from measures of government oppress 
 ive of a portion only of the great interests of the 
 people, or endangering their securities, the investiga 
 tion of the causes is often, at the time, a more diffi 
 cult and complicated task. The oppressive meas 
 ures may have been adopted by those who adminis 
 tered the Government, from the best of motives, and 
 with a sincere desire to subserve the highest inter 
 ests of the people. Their authors may have been 
 insensibly under the undue influence of the impor 
 tant interests which their measures tended to pro 
 mote to the prejudice of the rest, and have deemed 
 the policy they have adopted necessary for their 
 successful operation, without sufficiently weighing 
 the effect upon other interests ; or they may have 
 acted without a knowledge of the requirements of 
 such other interests, especially when those interests 
 have been local and remote from the seat of Gov 
 ernment, or not ably represented in its administra 
 tion. 
 
208 CAUSES or SECTIONAL DISCOXTj 
 
 The complaints of the people representing such 
 oppressed interests have been addressed not only to 
 the administrators of Government, but to the peo 
 ple representing the favored interests, whose opin 
 ions would be naturally and strongly in support of 
 the measures complained of, and who have invaria 
 bly co-operated with the Government to sustain and 
 vindicate its policy upon the most plausible pretexts. 
 The Government in these instances has had the nu 
 merical and moral strength of a large party of the 
 people deeply interested in the support of its meas 
 ures. Partisan and local feelings have been strong 
 ly enlisted in their favor and added intensity to the 
 discontent, which, when not allayed by a repeal of 
 the obnoxious measures, lias invariably resulted in 
 most bitter and sanguinary conflicts. 
 
 That measures of government thus generally con 
 stitute the primary cause of popular discontents, not 
 only experience, but a knowledge of the nature of 
 mankind furnishes abundant proof. It is difficult to 
 conceive of a discontent pervading large and intel 
 ligent classes of people, or entire communities, and 
 resulting in forcible resistance to the authorities, 
 which did not have its origin ia the conduct of the 
 Government. The people, unless actuated by the 
 belief that systematic measures of Government are 
 unjust and oppressive of their interests, or subver 
 sive of their just securities, can have no adequate 
 motive for making the vast sacrifices, and incurring 
 
CAUSES OF SEC IIONAL hlSCONTEXT. i>()<) 
 
 the tremendous responsibilities, which a resistance 
 to the Government necessarily involves. Every in 
 terest of the people is on the side of peace and tran 
 quillity. When the conduct of the Government is 
 substantially just, the tendency in the people is to an 
 affection for it. They have lived under and enjoyed 
 its protection, and have learned to conform their 
 opinions, habits, and modes of thought to its require 
 ments. Even when the form of the Government is 
 arbitrary, the people become accustomed to its rule, 
 and endure occasional oppression not only without 
 complaint, but without destroying their feelings of 
 attachment to it. In the words of the American 
 Declaration of Independence "All experience hath 
 shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer 
 while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by 
 abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." 
 But, while it is true that the primary causes of 
 great popular discontents are to be sought in op 
 pressive or dangerous measures of Government, yet 
 experience has proved that in the progress of the 
 discontents, the people often act without reasonable 
 prudence or discretion. It rarely happens that 
 they are wise in their modes of seeking redress, or 
 judicious in the extent of their demands. They feel 
 that their important interests are disregarded, or 
 their securities imperilled, often without comprehen 
 ding fully the most expedient remedy. The strong 
 est passions are aroused. The people are inflamed 
 
210 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 by mutual contact, and not infrequently a,ct with 
 reckless impetuosity, and rush madly into the great 
 est dangers, from which they cannot reasonably hope 
 for a successful issue. 
 
 It is our purpose in this article to make an inqui 
 ry into the primary causes of the three great dis 
 contents which have existed in this Country since 
 the adoption of the Federal Constitution ; the dis 
 content of New England in the war of 1812; the 
 discontent of South Carolina in 1832; and the dis 
 content which pervaded the Southern States in 
 1860; and to show the modes of redress, and the 
 nature of the interposition proposed or adopted, in 
 each instance, by the disaffected, against the author 
 ities of the United States. 
 
 In this inquiry we propose to confine ourselves 
 principally to the evidence furnished in each instance 
 by the authoritative statements and declarations of 
 the disaffected. This is proposed, not that it is the 
 only evidence upon the subject, or that it is conclu 
 sive ; but because it is evidence which is important 
 and in its nature unmistakable, and because it has 
 not generally received that consideration to which 
 we believe it is entitled in discussions of the causes 
 of discontents. The evidence is important. For if 
 grievances exist, those who suffer, or deem their im 
 portant interests endangered by them, are best ca 
 pable of judging of their nature, and have the 
 strongest motives for tracing their antecedents. Be- 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 211 
 
 sides, history teaches that the causes to which dis 
 contented communities have at the time attributed 
 their dissatisfactions, have been generally determin 
 ed by the calm and dispassionate judgment of 
 posterity to be the corre3t ones. The importance 
 of this evidence in our own experience will be more 
 manifest, if it shall appear upon investigation, as we 
 think it will, that in the several discontents to which 
 we have referred, occurring at different periods, per 
 vading the people of different sections, and arising 
 under different circumstances, the discontented in 
 each instance attributed their grievances to the same 
 general primary causes ; and if it shall also appear 
 that the causes stated have been adequate to pro 
 duce the results, and that, under our system of Gov- 
 ernnent as organized by the Constitution, there has 
 been opportunity for their operations. 
 
 The primary causes of all our discontents, accor 
 ding to the concurrent testimony of the disaffected 
 at the different periods, are to be sought in attempts, 
 or apprehended attempts, by the majority of the 
 aggregate people of the country representing the 
 great interests of a section, or by a combination of 
 the people representing the great interests of differ 
 ent sections, to subordinate to their requirements, 
 through measures of the General Government, the 
 people representing the interests of the weaker sec 
 tions. It requires no argument to prove that, in a 
 country with such a variety of great interests, geo- 
 
212 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 graphically separated, as exist in the United States, 
 the danger of such attempts is always imminent, 
 unless such effectual checks are provided in the or 
 ganism of the Government itself, as to preclude the 
 reasonable probability of their being successful. 
 
 In the Constitution careful provisions were made 
 with a view to prevent the exercise of such power. 
 The authority of the Federal Government which it 
 created, was expressly limited, its power distributed 
 among different departments, and in one branch of 
 the Legislative Department, the Senate, an equal 
 representation was given to all the States ; so that 
 no law could be enacted without the concurrence of 
 a majority of the States. In addition to the securi 
 ty to minority interests, which these protective pro 
 visions in the organism of the Government would 
 give, it was believed that the fact that the several 
 communities of each great section were to retain 
 their political organizations, through which they 
 could easily combine to resist encroachments upon 
 their rights, or the rights and liberties of their peo 
 ple, would tend strongly to discourage partial legis 
 lation by the Federal Government. 
 
 These securities were provided in accordance with 
 the requirements which it was supposed the circum 
 stances of the country at the time demanded. The 
 only sections then peopled were the Eastern and 
 Southern, and between the interests of these sec 
 tions, the Constitution established a balance of pow- 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 213 
 
 er which it was deemed would afford to each ample 
 protection. 
 
 But such was the wonderful development of the 
 country, that within twenty-five years after the 
 adoption of the Constitution, five new States were 
 admitted into the Union, one by the separation of 
 Vermont from New York, and/owr from the recent 
 ly settled territories of the West and South-West. 
 The admission of these States, and their consequent 
 representation in the Federal Government, materi 
 ally changed the balance of power of the different 
 interests, as the interests of a majority of the States 
 and people admitted were largely indentified with 
 the interests of the South. 
 
 With their adir ission sprung up jealousies in the 
 Eastern section, as the Southern and South Western 
 States had the power to control the legislation of 
 the Federal Government. 
 
 Opportunities for the exhibition of this feeling of 
 jealousy were afforded in the circumstances and pol 
 icies which preceded, and culminated in, the war with 
 England in 1812. The predominant interest of the 
 Eastern States at that time was commerce, and that 
 of the Southern and South Western States agricul 
 ture. The Embargo act, which went into operation 
 in 1808, and the Non-intercourse Act passed in 1809 
 in retaliation for the restriction imposed upon our 
 commerce by France, in the adoption of the Berlin 
 and Milan decrees, and by Great Britain in the 
 
214 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 adoption of the British Orders in Council, operated 
 most injuriously upon our commerce ; and the com 
 mercial States looked forward to a war with Eng 
 land, which it was believed must result, as ruinous 
 to the interests and destructive of the prosperity of 
 their section. So strong was the feeling excited 
 against the restrictive policy of the Federal Gov 
 ernment, that, although the war with England which 
 followed was declared for the purpose of prevent 
 ing foreign interference with our commerce, and for 
 the protection of our seamen, yet it early met with 
 a spirit of the most determined opposition from the 
 coirimercial States. 
 
 The feeling of opposition to the war in the com 
 mercial States increased with the progress of the 
 struggle, and the adoption of the measures which 
 were deemed by the Federal Government necessary 
 for its successful prosecution. In October, 1814, 
 in response to memorials from a large number of 
 towns, a resolution was reported in the House of 
 Representatives of Massachusetts, "That twelve 
 persons be appointed as delegates from this Com 
 monwealth to meet and confer with delegates from 
 the other New England States, or any other, upon 
 the subject of their public grievances and concerns," 
 &c., which was adopted by a vote of 260 to 90. 
 The Senate concurred in the resolution, and on the 
 18th of October both Houses in convention elected 
 the delegates by a vote of 226 to 67. The Legis- 
 
CA USES OF SE CT10NAL DISCONTENT. 215 
 
 lature directed that copies of their proceedings be 
 transmitted to the authorities of the several States. 
 The Legislatures of Connecticut and Rhode Island 
 were then in session and immediately passed reso 
 lutions in favor of such a convention, and elected 
 delegates. The Legislature of Connecticut desig 
 nated the 15th day of December following for its 
 convocation. The Legislatures of New Hampshire 
 and Vermont were not in session, but delegates 
 were appointed from one or more counties of each. 
 The convention assembled at the time designated, 
 and continued in secret session- for three weeks. 
 The result of its deliberations was embodied fti a 
 report which wao signed by all the members, copies 
 of which were directed to be transmitted to the 
 Governors of the several New England States. 
 
 This report is of great importance as the author 
 itative statement of the people of New England 
 upon the subject of the alleged grievances which had 
 produced the wide-spread discontent which then pre 
 vailed. The convention was composed of delegates 
 elected by the Legislatures of three of the New 
 England States, and by conventions of the people 
 in the other two. The members of the convention 
 were the ablest representative men of New England. 
 The report, with a copy of the proceedings of the 
 
 convention, excepting the debates, is published in 
 the volume of Mr. D wight, who was secretary of 
 
 the convention. 
 
216 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 Upon the question of the primary causes of the 
 discontent, the report says, "Events may prove that 
 the causes of our calamities are deep and permanent. 
 They may be found to proceed, not merely from the 
 blindness of prejudice, pride of opinion, violence of 
 party spirit, or the confusion of the times ; but they 
 may be traced to implacable combinations of indi 
 viduals, or of States, to monopolize power and of 
 fice, and to trample without remorse upon the rights 
 and interests of commercial sections of the Union. 
 Whenever it shall appear that these causes are rad 
 ical and permanent, a separation by equitable ar 
 rangement will be preferable to an alliance by con 
 straint, among nominal friends, but real enemies, 
 inflamed by mutual hatred and jealousy, and invi 
 ting, by intestine divisions, contempt and aggressions 
 from abroad." Referring to the past policy of the 
 Government, the report says, "The administration, 
 after a long perseverance in plans to baffle every ef 
 fort of commercial enterprise, had fatally succeeded 
 in their attempts at the epoch of the war. Com 
 merce, the vital spring of New England s prosperity, 
 was annihilated. Embargoes, restrictions, and the 
 rapacity of revenue officers, had completed its de 
 struction. The various objects for the employment 
 of productive labor, in the branches of business de 
 pendent on commerce, have disappeared. The fish 
 eries have shared its fate. Manufactures, which 
 government has professed an intention to favor and 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 217 
 
 to cherish, as an indemnity for the failure of these 
 branches of business, are doomed to struggle in their 
 infancy with taxes and obstructions, which cannot 
 fail most seriously to affect their growth." Of the 
 danger to which the commercial States, being in the 
 minority, were subject to, the report says, "Whatever 
 theories upon the subject of commerce have hitherto 
 divided the opinions of statesmen, experience has at 
 last shown that it is a vital interest in the United 
 States, and that its success is essential to. the en 
 couragement of agriculture and manufactures, and 
 to the wealth, finances, defence, and liberty of the 
 nation. Its welfare can never interfere with the 
 other great interests of the State, but must promote 
 and uphold them. Still, those who are immediately 
 concerned in the prosecution of commerce will of 
 necessity be always a minority of the nation. They 
 are, however, best qualified to manage and direct its 
 course by the advantages of experience, and the 
 sense of interest. But they are entirely unable to 
 protect themselves against the sudden and injudi 
 cious decisions of bare majorities, and the mistaken 
 or oppressive projects of those who are not actively 
 concerned in its pursuits. Of consequence, this in 
 terest is always exposed to be harassed, interrupted 
 and entirely destroyed upon pretence of securing 
 other interests." And further, "No union can be 
 durably cemented, in which every great interest 
 does not find itself reasonably secured against the 
 
218 CA USES OF SE CT10NA L D\ S CONTENT. 
 
 encroachments and combinations of other interests." 
 The convention adopted resolutions recommend 
 ing the Legislatures of the several States repre 
 sented to authorize immediate and earnest applica 
 tion to be made to the Government of the United 
 States, requesting its consent to some arrangement 
 whereby these States might assume the defence of 
 their territory, and be allowed a portion of their 
 taxes for the expense of the same; and recommen 
 ding that the Governors of each of these States be 
 authorized by their Legislatures to raise and equip 
 men for the purpose of repelling any invasion of 
 their territory, which should be .made or attempted 
 by the public enemy. It also proposed amendments 
 to the Constitution of the United States to the fol 
 lowing effect: 1st. That Representatives and direct 
 taxes should be apportioned among the several 
 States according to their respective numbers of free 
 persons. 2nd. That no new State be admitted with 
 out the concurrence of two-thirds of both houses. 
 3rd. That Congress should not have power to lay 
 any embargo on vessels for more than sixty days. 
 4th. That Congress should not have power to inter 
 dict commercial intercourse with other countries, 
 without the concurrence of two-thirds of both houses. 
 5th. That Congress should not make or declare any 
 war with a foreign power, without the concurrence 
 of two-thirds of both houses^ 6th. That no person 
 thereafter naturalized, should hold any civil office 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 219 
 
 under the authority of the United States. And 7th. 
 That the same person should not be elected Presi 
 dent of the United States a second time, nor a 
 President be elected from the same State twice in 
 succession. 
 
 Upon the proposed amendment relating to the 
 admission of new States, the report says, "This 
 amendment is deemed to be highly important, and 
 in fact indispensable. In proposing it, it is not in 
 tended to recognize the right of Congress to admit 
 new States without the original limits of the United 
 States, nor is any idea entertained of disturbing the 
 tranquillity of any State already admitted into the 
 Union. The object is merely to restrain the con 
 stitutional power of Congress in admitting new 
 States. At the adoption of the Constitution, a cer 
 tain balance of power among the original parties 
 was considered to exist, and there was at that time, 
 and yet is among those parties, a strong affinity be 
 tween their great and general interests. By the ad 
 mission of these States that balance has been mate 
 rially affected, and unless the practice be modified 
 must ultimately be destroyed. The Southern States 
 will first avail themselves of their new confederates 
 to govern the East, and finally the Western States, 
 multiplied in numbers, and augmented in popula 
 tion, will control the interests of the whole. Thus 
 for the sake of present power, the Southern States 
 will be common sufferers with the East, in the loss 
 
220 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 of permanent anvantages. None of the old States 
 can find an interest in creating prematurely an over 
 whelming Western influence, which may hereafter 
 discern (as it has heretofore) benefits to be derived 
 to them by wars and commercial restrictions." 
 
 The foregoing extracts show plainly the causes 
 to which the convention attributed the discontent of 
 the people of New England, and the permanent 
 remedies they deemed essential for their future pro 
 tection. 
 
 The convention also suggested immediate reme 
 dies in the event that its complaints should be un 
 heeded by the Federal Government; which it claimed 
 might be legitimately resorted to. A recurrence to 
 them is important both to show the spirit that actu 
 ated the members of the convention and to explain 
 the views of the people of New England at that 
 early period upon the rights of the States. 
 
 The report of the convention states, "That acts 
 of Congress in violation of the constitution are ab 
 solutely void, is an undeniable position. It does 
 not, however, consist with the respect and forbear 
 ance due from a confederate State towards the Gen 
 eral Government, to fly to open resistance upon 
 every infraction of the Constitution. The mode and 
 the energy of the opposition should always conform 
 to the nature of the violation, the intention of its 
 authors, the extent of the injury inflicted, the deter 
 mination manifested to persist in it, and the danger 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 211 
 
 of delay. But in cases of deliberate, dangerous, 
 and palpable infractions of the Constitution, affect 
 ing the sovereignty of a State, and liberties of the 
 people, it is not only the right but the duty of such 
 a State to interpose its authority for their protec 
 tion, iri the manner best calculated to secure that 
 end. When emergencies occur which are either be 
 yond the reach of the judicial tribunals, or too press 
 ing to admit of the delay incident to their forms, 
 States which have no common umpire must be their 
 own judges, and execute their own decisions. It 
 will thus be, proper for the several States to await the 
 ultimate disposal of the obnoxious measures recom 
 mended by the Secretary of War, or pending before 
 Congress ; and so to use their power according to the 
 character these measures shall finally assume, as ef 
 fectually to protect their own sovereignty, and the 
 rights and liberties of their citizens. It further 
 claimed in reference to the rights of the respective 
 governments that, it is as much the duty of the 
 State authorities to watch over the rights reserved, 
 as of the United States to exercise the powers which 
 are delegated. The convention further resolved 
 that if the application to the Government of the 
 United States should be unsuccessful, if peace should 
 not be concluded and the defence of these States 
 should continue to be neglected, then it would, in the 
 opinion of the convention, be expedient for the leg 
 islatures of the several States to appoint delegates 
 
222 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 to another convention, to meet at Boston, in the 
 State of Massachusetts, on the third Thursday of 
 June next, with such powers and instructions as the 
 exigency of a crisis so momentous may require. 
 
 The convention adjourned without day, January 
 5th, 1815. A few days after its adjournment, the 
 treaty of peace with Great Britain, which had been 
 signed while the convention was in session, reached 
 this country and was immediately ratified by Con 
 gress. Thus happily the immediate cause of dissat 
 isfaction was removed and the discontent allayed. 
 
 The passions of the people, which had^ been in 
 tensely excited during the war, soon subsided with 
 its termination. In the general rejoicing upon the 
 return of peace, partisan and sectional animosities 
 were for the time forgotton. James Monroe was 
 elected President in 1816, having received the unan 
 imous vote of every electoral college but three, and 
 re-elected in 1820, having received every electorial 
 vote but one. The epoch of his administra 
 tion has been often referred to as the era of good 
 feeling. Yet during this period, causes were at 
 work which were destined to result in discontent of 
 a most formidable character. The exigencies creat 
 ed by the war afforded the opportunity for their de 
 velopments. 
 
 A large public debt had been contracted, for the 
 payment of which it was necessary that extraordi 
 nary provisions should be made. In 1816 the 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 223 
 
 Tariff was revised, and the duties on imposts large 
 ly increased. The revision was made particularly 
 with a view to revenue, but it necessarily operated 
 to give incidently increased protection to domestic 
 manufactures. Encouraged by this act, and by the 
 favorable circumstances of the country, manufactures 
 were rapidly developed, and before the close of 
 President Monroe s administration, constituted an 
 important and influential interest in large sections 
 of the country. With their growth came demands 
 for still further protection, and in the Congress of 
 1823 and 1824 a revision of the tariff of 1816 was 
 proposed with a view to discrimination for the pur 
 pose of protection. This proposition was warmly 
 discussed. The friends of the American system, as 
 the advocates of a tariff for the purpose of protec 
 tion styled themselves, claimed that additional pro 
 tection was needed, temporarily, at least, not only to 
 secure the introduction of new branches of manufac 
 tures, but to sustain those already established. They 
 claimed further, that although manufactures especial 
 ly benefitted the sections of the country in which 
 they were established, yet that their successful op 
 eration inured to the advantage of the whole country, 
 by increasing its aggregate wealth and resources, 
 and by relieving it, in the event of a war, of all de 
 pendence upon the manufactures of other countries. 
 The enemies of a protective tariff opposed the re 
 vision on the ground that the Constitution granted 
 
224 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 no express power to the Federal Government to lay 
 imposts for the purpose of protection, and that no 
 such power could be legitimately exercised as an in 
 cidental right. They admitted that, under the Con 
 stitution, Congress could lay imposts to defray the 
 necessary expenses of the Government, which might 
 incidentally operate to protect domestic manufac 
 tures ; yet that Congress had no authority to lay a 
 tariff for the purpose of protection to which the 
 raising of a revenue would be incidental and subor 
 dinate. 
 
 They also contended that the protection of the 
 Government was not necessary to the healthful 
 growth of manufactures, and that the principal effect 
 of high protective duties was to stimulate manufac 
 tures unduly, and to enrich the large capitalists who 
 control their operations. 
 
 They asserted further, that a tariff for protection 
 was necessarily based upon discriminations injurious 
 to the interests of the staple-growing States, and 
 that it deprived the people of those States of the 
 right they claimed, of selling in the highest market, 
 and purchasing in the lowest. 
 
 Notwithstanding these objections, a revision of 
 the tariff was made in 1 824, by which largely in - 
 creased protection was given to domestic manufac 
 tures. The act caused great dissatisfaction among 
 the people of the Southern States. But it was ac 
 quiesced in, with the hope that the policy it embod- 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 225 
 
 led would be abandoned upon the extinction of the 
 public debt, which it was believed would soon be 
 accomplished. 
 
 In 1827 the subject was again agitated, and a bill 
 was proposed in Congress for increased protection to 
 woolens. This attracted the attention of those en 
 gaged in other branches of manufactures, and was 
 followed by a convention of the friends of a high 
 protective tariff at Harrisburg, in July of the same 
 year. The manufacturers of cotton and woolen 
 goods of the Eastern States , the iron manufacturers 
 of Pennsylvania and the growers of wool and hemp 
 of the Western States were fully represented in the 
 convention. It was difficult to harmonize the va 
 rious conflicting interests represented; but, after 
 much discussion, a system of increased duties was 
 agreed upon, which secured the co-operation of all 
 the large manufacturers. 
 
 In the next Congress the subject was again dis 
 cussed, upon a bill proposing largely increased pro 
 tective duties on all articles of manufacture ; which 
 passed by a vote of 105 to 95 in the House of Rep 
 resentatives, and by a vote of 26 to 21 in the Senate 
 and was approved May 19, 1828. The passage of 
 this act and the determiuation manifested by the ma 
 jority to make the system of protection a permanent 
 one, caused great excitement and intense dissatis. 
 faction throughout the staple-growing States, which 
 remonstrated through their legislatures against the 
 
226 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 measure as unconstitutional and oppressive of their 
 interests. 
 
 In his annual message to the Congress of 1831, 
 President Jackson announced that the public debt 
 would soon be entirely paid, and recommended the 
 reduction of duties to the amount needed for the 
 payment of the ordinary expenses of the Govern 
 ment. The recommendation was considered by 
 Congress, which passed an act diminishing the duties 
 on articles not affecting the interests of the manu 
 facturers, without reducing the duties on manufact 
 ured goods. This act was approved July 14, 1832, 
 and tended greatly to increase the excitement which 
 prevailed in the Southern States, as it indicated a 
 determination to persist in the protective policy, not 
 withstanding the payment of the public debt. Re 
 sistance to the enforcement of the act was openly ad 
 vocated. The Legislature of South Carolina con 
 vened October 22d, and on October 26th passed an 
 act by the necessary majority vote of two-thirds of 
 the members, authorizing a convention of the people, 
 to meet at Columbia, on the 19th day of November 
 following, to determine the course to be pursued by 
 the State in view of the dangerous condition of af 
 fairs which existed. Delegates were chosen, and the 
 convention assembled at the time and place appoint 
 ed. The subject for the consideration of which the 
 convention was called, was referred to a committee, 
 which, on the the 24th day of November, made a re- 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 227 
 
 port, setting forth the grievances of the people of 
 the State, and proposing an ordinance for adoption 
 by the convention, which was adopted by a vote of 
 136 ayes and 26 noes. The convention also adopt 
 ed two addresses, one to the people of South Caro 
 lina amd the other to the people of the other States 
 of the Union. These papers and the report subse 
 quently made to the convention on The Force Bill/ 
 so-called, may be considered as authoritative state 
 ments of the people of South Carolina upon the sub 
 ject of their alleged grievances. 
 
 Upon the question of the primary causes of the ex 
 isting discontent, the report on the Force Bill, after 
 reciting the measures which had been adopted by the 
 Federal Government tending to the prostitution of 
 our system of Government to the arbitrary will of the 
 aggregate majority, which if persisted in would re 
 sult in a consolidated Government, states, And what 
 is it to the Southern States to be subjected to a con 
 solidated Government ? These States constitute a 
 minority and are likely to do so forever. They dif 
 fer in institutions and modes of industry from the 
 States of the majority, and have different, and in some 
 degree, incompatible interests. It is to be govern 
 ed, not with reference to their own interests, but ac 
 cording to the prejudices of their rulers, the majori 
 ty. It has been truly said that the protecting sys 
 tem constitutes but small part of our controversy 
 with the Federal Government. Unless we can ob- 
 
228 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 tain the recognition of some effectual constitutional 
 check on the usurpation of power, which can only be 
 derived from the sovereignty of the States, and their 
 right to interpose for the preservation of their reser 
 ved powers, we shall experience oppression more cru 
 el and revolting than this. * 
 
 The immediate cause of the discontent is stated 
 at length in the report first made to the convention, 
 from which we give the following extract : The 
 laws have accordingly been so framed as to give a di 
 rect pecuniary interest to a sectional majority, in 
 maintaining a grand system by which taxes are in 
 effect imposed upon the few, for the benefit of the 
 many ; and imposed too, by a system of indirect 
 taxation, so artfully contrived, as to escape the vig 
 ilance of the common eye, arid masked under such 
 ingenious devices as to make it extremely difficult to 
 expose their true character. Thus under the pre 
 text of imposing duties for the payment of the pub 
 lic debt, and providing for the common defence and 
 general welfare (powers expressly conferred on the 
 Federal Government by the constitution,) acts are 
 passed containing provisions designed exclusively 
 and avowedly for the purpose of securing to the 
 American manufacturers a monopoly in our markets, 
 to the great and manifest prejudice of those who fur- 
 nish the agricultural productions which are exchanged 
 in foreign markets for the very articles which it is 
 the avowed object of these laws to exclude. It so 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 229 
 
 happens, that six of the Southern States, whose in 
 dustry is equal to only one-third part of the whole 
 Union, actually produce for exportation near $40, 
 000,000 annually, being about two-thirds of the 
 whole domestic exports of the United States. A sit 
 their interest so it is unquestionably, their 
 right, to carry these fruits of their own honest 
 industry to the best market, without any 
 molestation, hindrance, or restraint, whatsoever 
 and subject to no taxes or other charges, but 
 such as may be necessary for the payment of the 
 reasonable expenses of the Government. But how 
 does this system operate upon our industry ? While 
 imposts to the amount of ten or twelve per cent., (if 
 arranged on just and equal principles) must be ad 
 mitted to be fully adequate to all the legitimate pur 
 poses of Government, duties are actually imposed 
 (with a few inconsiderable exceptions) upon all the 
 woolens, cottons, iron and manufactures of iron, sugar, 
 and salt, and almost every article received in ex 
 change for the cotton, rice, and tobacco of the South- 
 equal on average to about fifty per cent, j whereby 
 (in addition to the injurious effects of this system in 
 prohibiting some articles, and discouraging the in 
 troduction of others) a tax equal to one-half of the 
 first cost is imposed upon cottons, woolens, and iron 
 which are the fruits of Southern industry, in order 
 to secure an advantage in the home market, to their 
 rivals the American manufacturers of similar articles 
 
230 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 equivalent to one-half of their value, thereby stimula 
 ting the industry of the North and discouraging that 
 of the South, by granting bounties to the one and 
 imposing taxes upon the other. 
 
 The immediate remedies proposed are set forth in 
 the ordinance which was adopted. It declares the 
 Tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 unconstitutional, and 
 null and void, and not binding upon the State, its 
 officers or its citizens ; forbids any officer, State or 
 Federal, to enforce the revenue laws within the 
 limits of the State ; and further declares, that, if any 
 attempts shall be made on the part of the Federal 
 Government to enforce said acts or to coerce the 
 State, the people thereof would forthwith proceed to 
 organize a separate Government. 
 
 In the address to the people of the other States of 
 the Union, the right of the State to nullify is claimed. 
 The report asserts That the States have the right in 
 the same sovereign capacity in which they adopted 
 the Federal Constitution, to pronounce, in the last 
 resort, authoritative judgment on the usurpations of 
 of the Federal Government, and to adopt such meas 
 ures as they may deem neccessary and expedient to 
 arrest the operation of unconstitutional acts of that 
 Government within their respective limits. . . .And 
 the obligation of the oath which is imposed, under 
 the Constitution, on every functionary of the States, 
 to "preserve, protect, and defend" the Federal Con 
 stitution, as clearly comprehends the duty of protect- 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 231 
 
 ing and defending it against the usurpations of the 
 Federal Government, as that of protecting and de 
 fending it against violation in any other form or 
 from any other quarter .But clear and un 
 doubted as we regard the right, and sacred as we 
 regard the duty of the States to interpose their sov 
 ereign power for the purpose of protecting their citi 
 zens from the unconstitutional and oppressive acts of 
 the Federal Government, yet we are as clearly of 
 the opinion that nothing short of that high moral and 
 political necessity which results from acts of usurpa 
 tion, subversive of the rights and liberties of the 
 people, should induce amember of this confederacy to 
 resort to this interposition. Such, however, is the 
 melancholy and painful necessity under which we 
 have declared the acts of Congress, imposing protect- 
 .ing duties, null and void within the limits of Sonth 
 
 Carolina There is no right which enters more 
 
 essentially into a just conception of liberty, than that 
 of the free and unrestricted use of the productions of 
 that industry wherever they can be most advan 
 tageously exchanged, whether in foreign or domestic 
 markets. South Carolina produces, almost exclu 
 sively, agricultural staples, which derive their princi 
 pal value from the demand for them in foreign coun 
 tries. Under these circumstances, her natural mar 
 kets are abroad ; and restrictive duties imposed upon 
 her intercourse with those markets, diminish the ex 
 changeable value of her productions very nearly to 
 
232 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 the full extent of those duties. In this address the 
 following proposition for adjustment was made: 
 But we are willing to make a large offering to pre 
 serve the Union ; and with a distinct declaration 
 that it is a concession on our part, we will consent 
 that the same rate of duty may be imposed upon the 
 protected articles that shall be imposed upon the un 
 protected, provided that no more revenue be raised 
 than is necessary to meet the demands of the Gov 
 ernment for constitutional purposes, and provided 
 also, that a duty, substantially uniform, be im 
 posed upon all foreign imports. 
 
 On the 10th day of December following, President 
 Jackson issued a proclamation asserting his right 
 and duty as President, to execute and enforce all 
 laws of the United States within the State of Soutli 
 Carolina, and declaring that this duty would be faith 
 fully performed. In it he admitted that the people 
 of that State had indeed felt the unequal operation 
 of laws which might have been unwisely but not un 
 constitutionally passed, but that inequality must 
 necessarily be removed j and made to them a patri 
 otic appeal to refrain from the commission of acts 
 which might require the employment of force on the 
 part of the Federal Executive. 
 
 The apprehension of open collision between the 
 Federal authorities and the people of South Caroli 
 na caused great excitement throughout the country. 
 The Legislature of Virginia, with a view to avert the 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 233 
 
 danger, on the 26th day of January, 1833, adopted 
 resolutions requesting the authorities of the State of 
 South Carolina to rescind the ordinance of nullifica 
 tion, or at least to suspend its operation until the 
 close of the first session of the next Congress ; and 
 requesting of Congress that it would modify the 
 Tariff acts to effect a gradual but speedy reduction 
 of the revenues of the General Government to the 
 standard of the necessary and proper expenditures 
 for the support thereof. The resolutions also de 
 clared that the people of Virginia expected, and had 
 a right to expect, that the General Government and 
 the Government of South Carolina would carefully 
 abstain from any and all acts calculated to disturb 
 the tranquility of the country, or endanger the ex 
 istence of the Union. 
 
 The subject had been considered in Congress be 
 fore the date of the adoption of these resolutions, 
 and a Bill had been proposed, known as the Com 
 promise Bill, providing for a gradual reduction of 
 duties. Mr. Clay, the acknowleged leader of the par 
 ty in favor of the American System, advocated its 
 passage in a statesmanlike and patriotic speech, from 
 which we make the following extract : ^It has been 
 intimated by the Senator from Massachusetts, that, if 
 we legislate at this session on the tariff, we would 
 seem to legislate under the influence of a panic. I 
 believe, Mr. President, I am not more sensible to 
 danger of any kind than my fellow-men are general- 
 
234 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 ly. It perhaps requires as much moral courage to 
 legislate under the imputation of a panic, as to 
 refrain from it lest such an imputation should be 
 made. But he who regards the present question as 
 being limited to South Carolina alone, takes a view 
 of it too much contracted. There is a sympathy of 
 feeling and interest throughout the whole South. 
 Other Southern States may differ from that as to the 
 remedy to be used, but all agree, (great as, in my 
 humble judgment, is their error,) in the substantial 
 justice of the cause. Can there be a doubt that those 
 who think in common will sooner or later act in con 
 cert ? Events are on the wing, and hastening this 
 co-operation. Since the commencement of this ses 
 sion, the most powerful Southern member of the 
 Union has taken a measure which cannot fail to lead 
 to the most important consequences. She has 
 deputed one of her most distinguished citizens to re 
 quest a suspension of measures of resistance. No 
 attentive observer can doubt that the suspension 
 will be made. Well, sir, suppose it takes place, and 
 Congress should fail at the next session to afford the 
 redress which will be solicited, what course would 
 every principle of honor, and every consideration of 
 the interests of Virginia, as she understands them 
 exact from her ? Would she not make common, 
 cause with South Carolina, and if she did, would 
 not the entire South eventually become parties to 
 the contest ? The rest of the Union might put down 
 
CAUSES OF SECIIONAL DISCONTENT. 235 
 
 the South, and reduce it to submission ; but to say 
 nothing of the uncertainly and hazards of all war, 
 is that a desirable state of things ? Ought it not to 
 be avoided if it can be honorably prevented ? I ani 
 not of those who think that we must rely exclusive 
 ly upon moral power, and never resort to physical 
 force. I know too well the frailties and follies of 
 man, in his collective as well as individual character, 
 to reject in all possible cases, the employment of 
 force ; but I do think that when resorted to, especial 
 ly among the members of a confederacy, it should 
 manifestly appear to be the only remaining appeal. 
 
 The Compromise Bill was passed March 2d, and 
 on March 15th the Convention of South Carolina, by 
 a nearly unanimous vote, rescinded its ordinance of 
 nullification. 
 
 The relief of the discontent in South Carolina and 
 the other staple growing States, through the adop 
 tion of a magnanimous and conciliatory policy on the 
 part of the Federal Government, gave much ground 
 for the hope that even if the guaranties of the Con 
 stitution should prove inadequate for the security of 
 minority interests, yet that the wisdom, patriotism, 
 and spirit of devotion to the Union in the American 
 people, would in the future prevent a reference to 
 the last resort on issues involving material -interests 
 alone. But other and powerful causes were already 
 actively at work, and their influence had been felt 
 
236 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 before the time of the adoption of the Compromise 
 measures on the tariff. 
 
 The American system of negro slavery which pre 
 vailed in all the States at the time of the adoption 
 of the Federal Constitution, having proved unprofit 
 able under the climate of the Eastern and North- 
 Western States of the Union, had been gradually 
 discontinued in those States ; and at the time of the 
 disaffection in South Carolina, had been abolished by 
 law in all excepting the Southern States. 
 
 Soon after the adoption of the Constitution, move 
 ments were inaugurated by citizens of States in 
 which the system had been discontinued, for the pur 
 pose of procuring legislation by the Federal Congress 
 on the subject of slavery. These movements were sup 
 ported by only an inconsiderable number of individ 
 uals, and for many years attracted but little public 
 attention. But the application of Missouri for ad 
 mission into the Union in 1818, opened a wide field 
 for agitation upon the subject. A bill was reported 
 in the House of Representatives, by the Committee 
 to which the subject was referred, for the admission 
 of Missouri as a State into the Union upon an equal 
 footing with the original States. An amendment 
 was proposed to the bill in the House prohibiting 
 slavery in the State. This was agreed to by the 
 House, but nonconcurred in by the Senate. Neither 
 branch would recede, so the bill was lost. 
 
 The application was renewed at the next session. 
 

 
 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 237 
 
 After a protracted discussion in the House of Repre 
 sentatives, which called forth much sectional feeling, 
 a motion was made to amend the bill reported for 
 its admission, by adding to it a new section prohibit - 
 ing slavery forever in all territories ceded to the 
 United States by France, under the name of Louisi 
 ana, not included within the limits of Missouri, north 
 of a proposed conventional geographical line. 
 
 The adoption of this amendment was strenuously 
 opposed by the Southern members. They contended 
 that Congress had no constitutional power to de 
 prive settlers of the the common territory of the 
 Union of the privilege of taking with them and em 
 ploying their slaves, which they owned as property 
 .by the laws of the States from which they emigrated ; 
 and further, that the passage of the act would estab 
 lish a most dangerous precedent, as it would initi 
 ate a policy of arbitrary discriminations by the Fed 
 eral Government upon the subject of slavery in the 
 territories T But the amendment was adopted, and 
 the bill as amended, passed both Houses and was 
 approved by the President. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson, then in the retirement of pri 
 vate life, had watched the progress of the discussion 
 with intense interest, and immediately upon the pas 
 sage of the act wrote to a friend : But this momen 
 tous question (the Missouri one) like a fire-bell in 
 the night, awakened me and filled me with terror- 
 I considered it at once as the 8eath-knell of the 
 
238 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 Union. It is hushed indeed for the moment; 
 but* this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A 
 geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, 
 moral and political, once conceived and held up to the 
 angry passions ot men, will never be obliterated j and 
 every new agitation will mark it deeper and deeper. 
 This great and sagacious statesman was not mistak 
 en. Although hushed for the time, the agitation upon 
 the subject was renewed a few years later with in 
 creased warmth. 
 
 In 1830, societies were formed in the Northern 
 States for the avowed object of abolishing slavery in 
 the States, or dissolving the Union. Contributions 
 were made, zealous agents employed, and the 
 Southern mails flooded with documents of a most in 
 cendiary character, which excited a feeling of indig 
 nation mingled with alarm throughout the South. 
 These societies rapidly increased and the numbers of 
 their members were augmented. Public attention in 
 the Southern States was called to their movements. 
 The people of Charleston, South Carolina, held a 
 large public meeting, May, 11, 1835, for the purpose 
 of preventing seditious pamphlets from being sent 
 through the mail. Resolutions were adopted and a 
 large number of copies of the proceedings of the 
 meeting were published and sent to different parts of 
 the country. 
 
 Public meetings in reference to it were held in Bos- 
 tonand other cities of the North. The meeting in l>os- 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 239 
 
 ton wag held, May 21st, in Faneuil Hall. It was 
 a very large and respectable meeting, and was ad 
 dressed by Harrison Gray Otis, Richard Fletcher, 
 Peleg Sprague, and others. Judge Sprague in his 
 speech upon the occasion, referred to the dangerous 
 character of the movement in the following prophetic 
 language : If these abolitionists shall go on, if their 
 associations shall continue to increase, if their doc 
 trines shall spread and their measures be adopted 
 until they become the general sentiment and action 
 of a majority of the people of the North, and this 
 shall be known, as known it will be, at the South, 
 the fate of our government is sealed the day that 
 sees such a consummation, will look only upon the 
 broken fragments of our Union. 
 
 The meeting adopted a series of resolutions in 
 which they declared, We solemnly protest against 
 the principles and conduct of the few, who in their 
 zeal would scatter fire-brands, arrows, and death. 
 
 But the spirit of abolitionism was not to be thus 
 silenced. New conflicts of material interests were 
 continually springing up between the sections ; and 
 political leaders soon learned the power cf this new 
 agency in uniting and intensifying the feelings of 
 the people in support of their political measures. 
 For a few years there was no open co-operation be 
 tween the abolitionists and politicians, as no impor 
 tant issues could be framed on the subject of slavery 
 which could be defended on constitutional grounds. 
 
240 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 But the proposition to admit Texas as a State into 
 the Union in 1 844, and subsequently the establish 
 ment of Governments for the territories acquired in 
 the war with Mexico, afforded an opportunity which 
 was not neglected, for the organization of a political 
 party upon important anti-slavery issues which were 
 claimed to be within the purview of the Constitution. 
 
 This party asserted that Congress has a right to 
 prohibit the people of the Southern States from emi 
 grating with their slaves into any portion of the pub 
 lic domain, and claimed that by the act of 1820 the 
 country was committed to the policy of slavery-ex 
 clusion in the territories. The immediate, avowed 
 object of this party was to prevent, through legisla 
 tion of the Federal Government, the admission of 
 any new State into the Union with a Constitution 
 legalizing slavery, and consequently to increase the 
 number and preponderance of the free States in the 
 Union. 
 
 The professed objects were purely moral ones, 
 yet the dividing line between the slave and free 
 States coinciding geographically with the line of de 
 marcation between the conflicting interests of the 
 country, a co-operation of material and moral forces 
 was rendered inevitable on all great questions in 
 volving the material interests of the country. 
 
 The result which neither the conflict of interests 
 nor the power of abolitionism had been able alone to" 
 accomplish, was destined to be consummated through 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 241 
 
 the vigorous co-operation of both. With the power 
 to subordinate the interests of the weaker section to 
 those of the stronger, within the reach of the majority 
 in the stronger section, and with great moral issues 
 on which to inflame the people and vindicate their 
 acts, a way was opened to political demagogues at 
 the North for the establishment of a great sectional 
 party with power to control the administration of 
 the Federal Government. 
 
 The organization of this new party was the signal 
 for fierce and desperate political conflicts. Based 
 upon the great predominant interests of the majority 
 section of the country, appealing to and reviving all 
 the sectional prejudices of the past, and animated 
 by the intolerant spirit of a bitter fanaticism, the 
 political anti-slavery party of the North rapidly in 
 creased in numbers and power. It soon obtained 
 the supremacy in the Governments of many of the 
 free States, and in each instance of success pursued 
 a most relentless and prescriptive course against 
 the local minorities which attempted to arrest its 
 progress. The administration of the Federal Gov 
 ernment was looked upon as a barrier in the way of 
 its success, and the authorities of the States in which 
 it had control were invoked against the acts of the 
 Federal Congress. 
 
 The legislature of Massachusetts, as early as the 
 period of the admission of Texas, Resolved, That 
 Massachusetts hereby refuses to acknowledge the 
 
242 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 act of the Government of the United States author 
 izing the admission of Texas, as a legal act in any way 
 binding her from using her uttermost exertions, in 
 co-operation with her sister States, by every lawful 
 and constitutional measure, to annul its condition 
 and defeat its accomplishment. A few years later 
 the Legislature of the same State passed an act 
 known as the personal liberty bill, intended to nullify 
 within the Commonwealth the provisions of the act 
 of Congress passed for the rendition of fugitives 
 from service and labor ; and as late as in 1856, 
 Resolved, That the Legislature of Massachusetts is 
 imperatively called upon by the plainest dictates of 
 duty, from a decent regard to the rights of her citi 
 zens and a respect for her character as a sovereign 
 State to demand of the National Congress a prompt 
 and strict investigation into the recent assault upon 
 Senator Sumner, and the expulsion, by the House, of 
 Mr. Brooks of South Carolina, and every other mem 
 ber concerned with him in said assault. 
 
 Massachusetts not only claimed authority as a 
 sovereign State, but the right to interpose that au 
 thority against acts of the Federal Government, 
 which her Legislature and not the Judicial Tribunals 
 of the country might deem to be unconstitutional. 
 The Legislatures of other States of the North asser 
 ted the same authority and passed personal liberty 
 bills similar to that enacted by the Legislature of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 243 
 
 But the great immediate object of the party was 
 to increase the relative power of the North, and 
 through a union of its people to obtain control of all 
 the Legislative Departments of the Federal Govern 
 ment. The numerical superiority of the people of 
 the North over the people of the South was so large 
 as to insure the election by it of the President and a 
 majority ot the United States House of Representa 
 tives, upon any considerable unanimity of political 
 action. The Senate, representing the States, was 
 more equally divided ; and although in this branch of 
 the Government, during the entire period of the 
 struggle, the North had a majority, yet it was so 
 small as not to be relied upon except on a thorough 
 union of the people of all the States. Thus the 
 struggle for slavery-exclusion in the territories be 
 came one of the deepest significance. Each party 
 contributed to the contest its most strenuous efforts. 
 For years this struggle for power in the Senate ab 
 sorbed every other issue. The North, having the 
 control of two branches of the Federal Government 
 within, its power, strove with the fiercest energy to 
 secure to itself the same predominance in the other 
 branch, that it might control the legislation of the 
 Federal Government. This accomplished, the Su 
 preme Court of the United States would remain the 
 only obstacle to the complete perversion of all pow 
 ers of the Federal Government to the arbitrary will 
 of a sectional majority. Systematic efforts were 
 
244 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 made to destroy its influence. Its decisions were 
 treated with contempt, and the tribunal itself traduced 
 in political speeches and platforms. The people of 
 the South, on the other hand, were united with the 
 intensest zeal to retain their relative strength in the 
 Senate of the United States. They felt that their 
 negative power in this branch of the Government 
 constituted the only barrier against oppression that 
 remained ; as under a sectional administration of the 
 Government, decisions of the Supreme Court would 
 be evaded or disregarded, and that eventually, by 
 new appointments, the character of the tribunal would 
 be radically changed. The prejudices as well as the 
 interests of the respective sections were enlisted in 
 the struggle. 
 
 At the North, the grossest misrepresentations 
 were made by the political leaders to arouse and in 
 flame the passions and jealousies of the masses. They 
 declaimed to the people with effect, that in this con 
 test for power, which it really was, the people of the 
 South were striving for supremacy in the Federal 
 Government ; although the relative numbers of the 
 populations of the respective sections were such as 
 to render it impossible for the South in a sectional 
 conflict, to control the election of President or of a 
 majority of thfe House of Representatives, both of 
 which would be necessary for such a consummation ; 
 and they attempted to justify their own sectional 
 policies under most specious and fallacious pretexts. 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 245 
 
 A thorough amalgamation of political and moral 
 issues was accomplished. The party of politics and 
 conscience rapidly increased. It received a check 
 from the compromise measures of 1850, but rallied 
 to secure the supremacy of the North in the territory 
 of Kansas, in anticipation of the application to it of 
 the principles of the Legislation of 1 850. But the 
 Kansas issues proved insufficient. In 1858, a bold 
 advance step was taken. The doctrine of the irre 
 pressible conflict, substantially the doctrine of the 
 early abolitionists, scattering fire-brands, arrows, and 
 death, was proclaimed by Messrs. Seward and Lin 
 coln, and adopted by the party of which they were 
 the acknowleged leaders. From this time Constitu 
 tional limitations and guarantees were disregarded, 
 and an open appeal was made for a union of the peo 
 ple of the North against the people and institutions 
 of the South. The appeal was successfully made, 
 and in 1860 a President was elected on a platform 
 based upon absolute slavery- exclusion in the territo 
 ries, and a practical nullification of the decisions of 
 the Federal Courts. 
 
 Deep-felt alarm pervaded the people of the South 
 ern States. In December following the election, a 
 convention of the people of South Carolina was held, 
 and passed an ordinance of secession and adopted a 
 declaration of the causes which it claimed justified 
 the measure. We give the following extract from 
 it: 
 
246 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 1 We affirm that those ends for which this Govern 
 ment was instituted have been defeated, and the Gov 
 ernment itself has been made destructive of them by 
 the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those 
 States have assumed the right of deciding upon the 
 propriety of our domestic institutions, and have 
 denied the rights of property established in fifteen 
 of the States, and recognized by the Constitution ; 
 they have denounced as sinful the institution of 
 slavery ; they have permitted the open establishment 
 among them of societies whose avowed object is to dis 
 turb the peace and to endanger the property of the 
 citizens of other States. They have encouraged and 
 assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes, 
 and those who remain have been incited by emissa 
 ries, books and pictures, to servile insurrection. 
 
 For seventy-five years this agitation has been 
 steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its 
 aid the power of the common Government. Observ 
 ing the forms of the Constitution, a sectional party 
 has found within that article establishing the Exec 
 utive Department, the means of subverting the Con 
 stitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn 
 across the Union, and all the States north of that 
 line have united in the election of a man to the high 
 office of President of the United States, whose opin 
 ions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to 
 be entrusted with the administration of the common 
 Government, because he has declared that that "Gov- 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 247 
 
 ernment cannot endure permanently half-slave, half- 
 free/ and that the public mind must rest in the be 
 lief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinc 
 tion. 
 
 This sectional combination for the subversion of 
 the Constitution has been aided in some of the States 
 by elevating to citizenship persons, who, by the su 
 preme law of the land, are incapable of becoming 
 citizens, and their votes have been used to inaugu 
 rate a new policy hostile to the South, and destruc 
 tive of its peace and safety. 
 
 On the 4th of March next this party will take 
 possession of the Government. It has announced 
 that the South shall be excluded from the common 
 territory ; that the judicial tribunals shall be made 
 sectional, and that a war must be waged against 
 slavery until it shall cease throughout the United 
 States. 
 
 The guarantees of the Constitution will then no 
 longer exist; the equal rights of the States will be 
 lost. The slaveholding States will no longer have 
 the power of self-government or self-production, and 
 the Federal Government will have become their 
 enemies. 
 
 Sectional interest and animosity will deepen the 
 irritation, and all hope of remedy is rendered vain 
 by the fact that public opinion at the North has in 
 vested a great political error with the sanctions of a 
 more erroneous religious belief. 
 
248 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 We, therefore, the people of South Carolina, by 
 our delegation in Convention assembled, appealing to 
 the Supreme Judge. of the world for the rectitude of 
 our intentions, have solemnly declared that the 
 Union heretofore existing between this State and the 
 other States of North America is dissolved, and that 
 the State of South Carolina has resumed her posi 
 tion among the nations of the world, as a free, sov- 
 erign, and independent State, with full power to 
 levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish 
 commerce, and to do all other acts and things which 
 independent States may of right do. 
 
 And, for the support of this declaration, with firm 
 reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we 
 mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes 
 and our sacred honor. 
 
 The States of Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Louisi 
 ana and Alabama, in January followed the example 
 of South Carolina. On February 4th, a convention 
 of deputies of the seceded States met at Montgom 
 ery, Alabama, to organize a Southern Confederacy, 
 and on February 8th, adopted a Constitution for a 
 Provisional Government. The Congress of the 
 United States was at the time in session. Senator 
 Crittenden, of Kentucky, the last of the great states 
 men of his generation, proposed in the Senate, De-r 
 cember 19th, a series of resolutions for adoption, 
 with a view to relieve the apprehensions of the peo 
 ple of the South, and allay the existing discontent. 
 
CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 249 
 
 Intense excitement prevailed throughout the coun 
 try. It was evident that unless Congress should 
 take some decided action to relieve the discontent, 
 seperation or war was inevitable. It was generally 
 believed that nothing short .of the adoption of the 
 resolutions of Mr. Crittenden could effect the desired 
 result. The resolutions were temperate. They 
 were not intended to extend the rights of the people 
 of either section under the Constitution ; but to dis 
 pose of disputed questions by compromise, to reaf 
 firm plain constitutional rights which had been 
 threatened, and to afford to them additional protec 
 tion. They were in accordance with the genius of 
 our institutions, and were such as could have been 
 adopted consistently with the honor of the country. 
 The Southern members of Congress, including Mr. 
 Jefferson Davis and Mr. Toombs, declared their wil 
 lingness to accept of the resolutions as a final settle 
 ment of the difficulties, if adopted with the concur 
 rence of the representatives of the dominant party j 
 and expressed their opinion, that if thus adopted, the 
 excitement at the South could be allayed. 
 
 The Legislative assemblies of Kentucky and Vir 
 ginia adopted the resolutions. Conservative citi 
 zens in all parts of the country joined in earnest 
 memorials to Congress, urging their adoption by 
 that body. Mr. Pugh, Senator from Ohio, declared 
 in his place in the Senate, March 3, 1861, that the 
 resolutions had been petitioned for by a larger num- 
 
250 CAUSES OF SECTIONAL DISCONTENT. 
 
 ber of electors of the United States than any propo 
 sition that was ever before Congress. But the reso 
 lutions met the united opposition of the representa 
 tives of the Republican party in Congress. They 
 were not adopted. The -excitement at the South in 
 creased. Other States passed secession ordinances. 
 A war of sections followed. The North prevailed in 
 the conflict of arms. The great result upon the inter 
 ests of the country, and the Union of the States as 
 organized by the Constitution; is to be determined 
 in the uncertain future* 
 
CLOSING ARGUMENT FOR PLAINTIFF, 
 
 IN CASE OF 
 
 GEO. W. STONE VS. WM. SEGUR ET ALS. 
 
 in the Supreme Court, at Salem, Mass., November Term, 
 
 1865. Justice Gray, presiding. 
 
 I have listened with attention to the eloquent re 
 marks of the counsel who has closed in behalf of the 
 defendants, and am happy that I am able to agree 
 with him on many of the legal propositions he has 
 enunciated ; but I regretted to hear from his lips, as 
 I know you gentleman of the jury did, expressions of 
 opinion that there is a spirit higher, nobler, and 
 rather to be emulated, than the spirit *of what he was 
 pleased to style the cold law ; and, to repeat the lan 
 guage of the counsel, that there is nothing to be ad 
 mired in the spirit which a rigid adherence to rules 
 calls forth. I was pained gentlemen, to hear such 
 language from one sworn to fidelity to the law, 
 uttered in the very ,temple of justice itself, and in 
 the presence of so many of his fellow citizens. 
 But, perhaps, something should be pardoned 
 to counsel placed in the embarrassing position 
 of the counsel for the defendants, called upon to de- 
 
252 ARGUMENT IN SWAMPSCOTT CASE. 
 
 fend plain and confessed violators of the law, and I 
 trust that many of the expressions to which we have 
 been obliged to listen were uttered without due 
 consideration, under the* pressure and excitement of 
 the occasion. 
 
 The counsel for the defendants has attempted cov 
 ertly, yet unmistakably, in his eulogistic language up 
 on the spirit of license, to justify the outrages com. 
 mitted by his clients. In no part of his argument did 
 he dispute the truth of the charges preferred against 
 the defendants, or the illegality of their acts, and yet 
 he found little if anything, to condemn, in all that 
 was done. It will, I trust, require no argument from 
 me to convince you, gentlemen of the jury, that the 
 doctrine he addressed to you is entirely subversive 
 of all law, and destructive of the peace and even the 
 existence of civilized society. No one can be safe, 
 gentlemen, if irresponsible men may at their pleasure 
 take the law into their own hands, and order can 
 never be preserved in communities where such a 
 practice is permitted. 
 
 I need only to refer to the injustice and cruelty 
 which mark every such violation of the law. Mobs 
 not only usurp the province of judges and juries, but 
 that of the law making power itself, and set at de 
 fiance all the salutary safeguards of innocence which 
 have been established and confirmed by the wisdom 
 of ages. Upon the strength of rumors circulated 
 against an individual, an impromptu crowd, wild 
 
ARGUMENT IN SWAMPSCOTT CASE. 253 
 
 with excitement, determine to inflict summary 
 punishment on the assumed offender. There is no 
 form of trial instead of the calm intellect and dis 
 passionate judgment which alone should pass upon 
 the guilt or innocence of any human being, is the 
 tumult and madness of passion, strengthened and in 
 tensified by the presence and contact of numbers. 
 In the place of a trial with all the presumptions 
 and securities which the wisdom of the law has estab 
 lished, and at which the accused is confronted by his 
 accusers face to face, is a sudden and summary judg 
 ment, not on evidence, but on wild report, and all 
 this in the absence of the accused. The judgment is 
 pronounced before the victim is aware even of the 
 charge, and the first intimation he has is the presence 
 of the mob to carry into execution the sentence 
 they have passed: There have been not infrequent 
 instances in newJy settled portions of the country 
 of executions by an infuriate populace, of criminals 
 seized from the hand of the officers, whose offences 
 had been determined under the law, who had been 
 legally tried, convicted, and sentenced. In every 
 such instance the cruelty of the actors has been re 
 volting to humanity, and inflicted an indelible stain 
 upon the community in which the outrage was com 
 mitted. How much more revolting the spectacle, and 
 terrible the catastrophe, when a band of infuriated 
 men have not only taken the execution of a sentence 
 out of the hands of the constituted authorities, but 
 
254 ARGUMENT IN SWAMPSCOTT CASE. 
 
 have prefaced the act by a summary, exparte, and ex 
 tra judicial trial and judgment. 
 
 The facts in the present case afford a marked 
 illustration of the doctrine of the counsel for the 
 defendants, not only in the results to the individual, 
 but to the community. A rumor was started against 
 the plaintiff men congregated ; without even an in- 
 quiry into the truth of the rumor they rushed to 
 the building on which the plaintiff was at work ; the 
 first salutation was a demand in loud tones that he 
 should come down and deliver himself up to the 
 crowd. He refused to comply with it, when one of 
 the leaders discharged at him a revolver loaded with 
 powder and ball, and was only prevented from re 
 peating the act by the interference of his associates. 
 Stones and other missiles were then thrown. The 
 plaintiff, alarmed, sought refuge within the building. 
 The doors to the lower floor which were fastened 
 were forced open, and the crowd rushed to the 
 room on the second floor into which the plaintiff had 
 retreated. He was immediately seized, and 
 dragged with violence down the stairs, kicked by 
 his assailants, and then placed in the centre of the 
 crowd and led to an appointed rendezvous, and on 
 the way was struck a dastardly blow in the face. 
 When he arrived at the place of destination, 
 a line was formed and a vote taken, not upon the 
 question of the guilt or innocence of the plaintiff, but 
 solely upon the mode of punishment. It was pro- 
 
ARGUMENT IN SWAMPSCOTT CASE. 255 
 
 posed that he be tarred and feathered the vote was 
 immediately taken and resulted in a unanimous affirm 
 ative. After this, and you will judge, gentlemen, 
 whether it was not the first opportunity he had to 
 open his lips, upon the claim of a bystander that he 
 ought to be heard, a vote was formerly taken, in the 
 words of Brackett, one of the defendants, to allow 
 him to speak. No accusation was preferred against 
 him. He could only conjecture his assumed offence 
 from the remarks of the mob on the way. He was 
 asked only what he had to say. He replied that he 
 had not made the remarks he understood were at 
 tributed to him, and reiterated, as he said upon the 
 stand, the denial that he had said anything wrong or 
 offensive. But his words reached only the seething 
 passions of the mob. He was instantly seized, his 
 hat was pulled from his head, his frock and shirt torn 
 from his person, and the tar and feathers, which had 
 been previously procured, were applied to his head 
 and body, by the crowd, amid shouts of fiendish joy. 
 He was then marched to the Town Hall, in which the 
 teachers of the county were assembled at their 
 annual gathering. Their approach was heralded by 
 Rev. Mr. Clark, a clergyman of the village, who was 
 presiding over the convention, and, as he stated up 
 on the stand, the convention was adjourned at his 
 suggestion, that the members might proceed to the 
 balcony to witness the spectacle, thereby countenan 
 cing and approving the acts of the mob. After a 
 
256 ARGUMENT IN SWAMPSCOTT CASE. 
 
 brief detention at this place, he was marched down 
 the street a short distance, and then placed in a boat, 
 and dragged to the beach, the crowd most of the 
 time attended by Mr. Galeucia, a constable of the 
 town, one of the defendants, who, as he stated on 
 the stand, at no time uttered a word of rebuke or 
 disapprobation. Upon the way dirt was thrown 
 upon his person. Finally, wearied of their efforts, 
 after a detention of from two to three hours they 
 permitted the plaintiff to return to his home. This 
 gentlemen, was a practical and full illustration of the 
 spirit which is higher and nobler than that of the 
 law. 
 
 Gentlemen, a case has been referred to in the testi 
 mony, which occurred more than half a century 
 since in a neighboring town , which affords the strong 
 est illustration of the injustice and cruelty of judg 
 ing a man without the law. Upon the strength of a 
 wild rumor, Skipper Ire son was seized, tarred and 
 feathered, placed in a cart, drawn from Marblehead 
 to Salem, and through the principal streets of this 
 city, attended by an indignant crowd repeating the 
 lines composed on the occasion, and familiar to all. 
 The old man never recovered from the effects of 
 this humiliation. Yet now it is well understood that 
 the rumor, upon the strength of which these outrages 
 were committed, was false. Gentlemen, no instance 
 of the acts of a mob can be adduced where cruelty 
 and injustice have not been done to the victim and 
 
ARGUMENT IN SWAMP SCOTT CASE. 257 
 
 public decency has not been thoroughly outraged. 
 
 But I trust, gentlemen, it is not necessary before a 
 jury of Essex County, to occupy time in arguments 
 against the evils of lawlessness and license, or to re 
 mind the members of this tribunal of their own obli 
 gations to the law. 1 believe that, in your delibera 
 tions, you will be governed solely by the instructions 
 you will receive from the Judge who presides over 
 these deliberations. Let none of us assume to a 
 knowledge higher than that of the law of the land, 
 or aspire to a wisdom that is greater than the wis 
 dom of the law. There can never be any excuse or 
 palliation for any violation of the salutary regula 
 tions that are made for the protection of all. The 
 law makes ample provisions for the conviction and 
 punishment of all offenders against its majesty, and 
 in instances of gross violations of the proprieties 
 of life, in language uttered, which are not within the 
 purview of the Statutes, there is always a sufficient 
 punishment to the offender in the scorn and contempt 
 in which he is held by the community. 
 
 The great object of law, gentlemen, is the protec 
 tion of the citizen in social life j it throws around 
 every individual, high and low, rich and poor, those 
 beneficent and tranquilizing securities which no 
 other human instrumentality can give. Without these 
 securities, there can be no safety or happiness in lifo 
 without them the father, as he leaves his dwelling 
 to perform the duties of his avocation, must feel a 
 
258 ARGUMENT IN SWAMPSCOTT CASE. 
 
 constant solicitude for the safety of those he leaves 
 behind ; and the wife and those]of tender age will 
 live in perpetual apprehensions, not only for their 
 own safety but for the safety of him who. has gone 
 forth from the sacred vprecincts of home. There can 
 be, gentlemen, there is, no safety for any one, any 
 where, except under the protecting aegis of the law. 
 It is not enough that laws be enacted alone they 
 must be respected andreverenced by the people, or the 
 best code is but a solemn mockery and farce. Liber 
 ty, gentlemen, is not license, it is the right to do 
 those things which the law does not prohibit; 
 and the measure of liberty is in the amount of the 
 protection which is assured the individual in doing 
 all those things which he has a right to do under 
 the law. Liberty is maintained in its highest perfec 
 tion when the system of laws, or restraints upon the 
 the actions of the individuals of society, is most 
 wisely adjusted, and the conduct of all the members 
 of the society is made to fully conform to its regula 
 tions. If under such a system of laws, or any sys 
 tem of laws, one member of society can with impuni 
 ty do what the law does not permit, there is no 
 liberty for any one, as all the other members can 
 exercise the same power with the same impunity. 
 If one man may violate the law in what he con 
 siders a good cause to-day, his neighbor, on the 
 strength of the precedent it will afford, may vio 
 late it with impunity in what the former may con- 
 
ARGUMENT IN SWAMP SCOTT CASE. 259 
 
 sider a bad cause to-morrow. If one having the 
 power to-day, exercises it against his neighbor for ex 
 pressions of opinion which he does not approve ; to 
 morrow the case may be reversed, and his neighbor 
 may have and exercise the same power against him 
 for the utterance of opinions which the former does 
 not approve. 
 
 There is no safety anywhere or to anybody, ex 
 cept in an exact obedience to the laws ; and if a jury 
 in a case like this, to which public attention has been 
 strongly directed, should fail to carry out plain pro 
 visions of the law, it would afford a precedent most 
 dangerous for the future, and cause a general and 
 prevading sense of insecurity among the people. 
 
 The counsel for the defendants has spoken of the 
 effect upon the community of a verdict against his 
 clients that it would cause sorrow to those he styles 
 the loyal portion of the community. I deem it, gentle 
 men, my duty to say that, if the case is proved against 
 the* defendants, the highest and holiest interests of 
 the whole community demand that you shall give a 
 verdict against them. Not only the interests of the 
 community, but justice to my client, and I believe 
 mercy to the defendants, require at your hands a 
 rigid adherence to the provisions and rules of the 
 law. With the spirit manifested by the defendants 
 in the commission of the outrage for which they are 
 prosecuted, in their subsequent acts, in their appear 
 ance on the witness stand, I believe that if they shall 
 
260 ARGUMENT IN SWAMPSCOTT CASE. 
 
 go from this trial unpunished, it will only incite 
 them to further acts of lawlessness and outrage, for 
 which a more severe punishment than can be meted 
 to them in this case, will be inflicted. 
 
 What then, gentlemen, is the charge against the 
 defendants to which your attention is directed ? 
 
 The plaintiff alleges that, on the morning of the 
 fifteenth day of April last, whilst at work painting 
 the outside of a house in the town of Swampscott, he 
 was approached by the defendants and others, and 
 finally seized and outraged in the manner I have 
 already stated. The defendants, in their answers to 
 the plaintiff s declaration, only formally deny the al 
 legations, and call upon the plaintiff, as they proper 
 ly may under the law, to prove his case. They do 
 not attempt to set up any justification, as in law they 
 well know there can be none for the acts if proved 
 as alleged against them. 
 
 There are only two questions for you, gentlemen 
 of the jury, to pass upon. 
 
 1st Did the defendants or any of them commit 
 the acts alleged against them ? 
 
 2d If they, or any of them, did commit the acts, 
 what is a proper compensation to the plaintiff for 
 the injuries inflicted ? 
 
 In regard to all but one of the defendants there is, 
 there can be, no dispute. The proof submitted by 
 the plaintiff against them is amply sufficient, but 
 that is not all. Each one of the defendants has been 
 
AR G UMENT IN S WA MP SCOTT CASE. 261 
 
 placed by his counsel on the stand, and has admitted 
 in detail ^his complicity with the outrage. So in re 
 gard to them there can be no doubt or question. 
 Their acts are not only proved, but confessed in 
 open court. In regard to the other defendant, 
 Galeucia, the constable, the evidence is that he, at 
 different times, walked by the side of the crowd and 
 did nothing and said nothing against the commission 
 of the outrage of which he was a witness. When on 
 the stand, he admitted that he did not attempt to 
 interfere with the proceedings of the mob, but said 
 that he tried to keep himself clear of any responsibil 
 ity. His associate officer, Mr. Porter, on the cross- 
 examination, said that Galeucia lent to the mob the 
 official sanction of his presence. The acts of this 
 officer, gentlemen, are to be carefully scrutinized by 
 you. It was his sworn duty as an officer of the law 
 to preserve the peace, and it was plainly his duty to 
 attempt, at least, to put a stop to the gross violations 
 of law of which he was a witness. Yet, by his pres 
 ence during the commission of these acts, without a 
 word or act of disapproval, he lent to the offenders his 
 countenance and approval of their proceedings , and 
 is liable as principal equally with those who took a 
 more active part in what was done. From the evi 
 dence, I believe that no one engaged in the trans, 
 action was more culpable than Mr. Galeucia, and I 
 trust you, gentleme n, will not relieve him of the re 
 sponsibility which he thus voluntarily assumed. 
 
262 ARGUMENT IN SWAMP SCOTI CASE. 
 
 Upon the question of the amount of damages, the 
 counsel for the defendants has claimed that you 
 could only find such a sum as will be a compensation 
 to the plaintiff for the injury done him, and that you 
 should give no exemplary or vindictive damages. I 
 agree fully with the counsel in this. This is a suit 
 to recover only compensation for the personal inju 
 ries suffered by the plaintiff; the punishment for the 
 disturbance of the peace of the community, and as 
 an example in the future, is to be inflicted by indict 
 ment, by fine and imprisonment, by tlie criminal courts, 
 under the direction of officers of the Commonwealth. It 
 is only compensation that is sought for here, com 
 pensation for the bodily injuries inflicted on the plain 
 tiff, the bodily pains and the mental suffering 
 he endured. In due time, and before the 
 proper tribunal, the defendants will be punished for 
 their violation of the public peace. But the counsel 
 for the defendants, for the evident purpose of affect 
 ing the amount of your verdict, enlarged with much 
 eloquence upon the fact that a portion of his clients, 
 and those most active in the commission of the out 
 rage upon the plaintiff, were returned soldiers, and 
 had served their country in the army of the 
 Potomac. I deem it my duty to defend the army 
 against the aspersion that is thus attempted to be 
 cast upon it. There is no one who entertains a 
 higher respect for the noble profession of arms than 
 I do, and no one who appreciates more fully the cour- 
 
ARGUMENT IN SWAMPSCOTT CASE. 263 
 
 age of those who have fought their country s battles. 
 Entertaining these sentiments, I must protest 
 against all attempts to place such persons as these 
 defendants in the position of representative men of 
 the army with which they have been connected. It 
 is well known that, although a large majority of the 
 men who composed our armies were young men of 
 character who returned from the field ennobled and 
 refined by the discipline of the camp, yet that there 
 were others who were mustered into the service and 
 remained a longer or a shorter time, who were bad 
 men when they Centered, and much worse when they 
 left the field. The true soldiers have been engaged 
 in fighting against mobs for the maintenance of Gov 
 ernment and law, and no class of our citizens will 
 feel greater indignation at violations ot peace and 
 order^ at home than these men. You, gentle 
 men of the jury, have listened to the evidence of the 
 acts of these defendants, and what is of greater im 
 portance you have seen them and^heard them all . 
 testify from the stand. You are fully able to judge 
 to which class those of the defendants who have 
 been connected with the army, belong. I could ask 
 for nothing more severe for^those military defendant s 
 than that they should be tried by a jury of their com 
 rades whom they have so disgraced by their acts. 
 Such men as those of the defendants who have been 
 in the army are to-day, and will be more in the fu 
 ture, a terror to the community, and the sooner and 
 
264 ARGUMENT TN SWAMPSCOTT CASE. 
 
 the more emphatically they are made to feel the 
 power of the law they have violated, the better it 
 will be for all. 
 
 The counsel, who opened the case for the defend 
 ants, expressed indignation at the term which my 
 able associate applied to the defendants in his open 
 ing argument, and referred with a great deal of en 
 thusiasm to his clients as citizens, soldiers, fishermen 
 and tradesmen. It is impossible for me to say how 
 such conduct as we have proved against the defend 
 ants effects their counsel, but for my part I can only 
 say that my client, as he looked upon the infuriate 
 mob that surrounded him, might well have imagined 
 himself in a den of human hyenas. Sudh utter vio 
 lations of sacred personal rights, and gross injustice 
 and cruelty as were practiced are entirely unpreceden 
 ted in the history of the country. For these acts, 
 gentlemen, I can conceive of no excuse or palliation. 
 
 The counsel who closed for the defendants seemed 
 to be imbued with the same defiant spirit which has 
 characterized his clients from the date of the com 
 mission of the outrage to the present time ; the same 
 spirit that incited the proceedings of the defendants 
 on the fifteenth of April, their subsequent cowardly 
 acts in destroying in the night time the growing 
 crops of the plaintiff, and their conduct around his 
 dwelling even whilst this trial has been proceeding. 
 The counsel in his argument, justified the defendants, 
 he gloried in their acts, and evidently considered the 
 
ARGUMENT IN SWAMPSCOTT CASE. 265 
 
 whole transaction as a commendable illustration of 
 the true spirit of what he calls liberty. He seems 
 fired with the spirit of the heated partizan in Eng 
 land, who exclaimed, "I wish I were free." "And are 
 you not free/ replied a friend, "can you not do as 
 you please ?" "yes," he replied, bnt I cannot make 
 you do as I please." Is this the liberty the counsel 
 pants for ? It is the kind of liberty he has so elo 
 quently eulogized. In his wild enthusiasm he has 
 even defied the law and you gentlemen of the jury. 
 He said to you, gentlemen, in reference to his clients 
 that verdicts and judgment, might be repeated in 
 vain that their spirits could not be repressed. It 
 will be your duty, gentlemen, to test the irrepressi 
 ble spirit of these men by one verdict, and we will 
 wait and see the effect. I believe it will be. saluta 
 ry and repressive. 
 
 Upon the question of damages, it may be useiul to 
 carefully consider all the acts of the defendants at 
 the time of the commission of the outrage to ascer 
 tain fully the spirit by which they were animated. 
 The greatest outrage was committed on the plaintiff) yet 
 these irrepressible men were possessed of a spirit of 
 lawlessness, or as their counsel prefers to style it, of 
 liberty, which was not confined to acts against the 
 plaintiff. On the way to the rendezvous, which was 
 the village Post Office, the mob met a Mr. Reynolds 
 on his wagon. He was admonished to leave at once , 
 or as Mr. Brackett said, to make himself scarce 
 
266 ARGUMENT IN SWAMPSCOTT CASE. 
 
 as Mr. Brackett stated, he had uttered expressions 
 similar to those rumor had attributed to the plain 
 tiff, but upon cross-examination, Mr. Brackett was 
 compelled to admit that he had never uttered a word . 
 
 They next pass Mr. Hill, the milk-man, just as 
 the courageous Mr. Blaney struck the plaintiff on 
 the face. Mr. Hill exclaimed, "It is too bad" where 
 upon a portion of the mob turned upon and severely 
 beat him, and compelled him to take refuge in the 
 woods. A little further on they met Mr. Alexander 
 Greenlaw returning in a wagon from the village to 
 his home. He was stopped, accused of using lan 
 guage similar to that attributed to the plaintiff, and 
 threatened with a similar treatment, and, later still 
 in the proceedings, one of the leaders of the mob 
 said to a citizen who was gazing on the spectacle 
 from his carriage, This is the way we are goiog to 
 serve the whole of you." Thus was fully manifested 
 the spirit of these irrepressible men. 
 
 The details of the outrages on the plaintiff have 
 been recited. As they transpired they called forth 
 feelings and expressions of sorrow and indignation 
 from every impartial witness of their atrocity. Mr- 
 Atkins, a near neighbor of the plaintiff, testified that 
 he felt so badly when he witnessed the spectacle that 
 he immediately went into his house. Mr. Hill could 
 not refrain from expressing his indignation, when he 
 saw the plaintiff struck in the face. Mr. Greene 
 when the plaintiff was about to be tarred and feath- 
 
ARGUMENT IN SWAMPSCOTT CASE. 267 
 
 ered. although from his testimony on the stand it 
 appeared he was either in sympathy with or in fear 
 of the rioters, cried out, - For God s sake let the 
 man speak," and Mr. Leavitt in reply to a remark of 
 Segur, one of the defendants, exclaimed, "It is the 
 worst sight I ever saw." Such were the feelings 
 which the acts of these irrepressible men excited in 
 the breasts of honest citizens at the time, and such to 
 day are the feelings of all good citizens of Swamp- 
 scott, whose peace has been so violently outraged by 
 the wicked conduct of a portion of her misguided 
 people. 
 
 In regard to the rumors against the plaintiff, there 
 is no evidence that he ever uttered a word offensive 
 to the most patriotic ear. He never did utter any. If 
 it had been competent, we could have fully proved 
 that the rumor which was circulated, upon the strength 
 of which the outrage was committed, was devoid o 
 truth ; and it will be borne in mind, no two of the 
 defendants gave the same version of the rumor it 
 self. 
 
 The amount of the damages it is for you, gentle, 
 men, to determine. It is for you to say what is a 
 proper compensation to the plaintiff for all the in 
 jury that has been proved. A worthy and peace 
 able -citizen, one who has ever been strictly faithful 
 to all his obligations to the community and the conn, 
 try, has been seized and treated with an inhumanity 
 paralleled only in savage life, and it is for you, gentle 
 
268 ARGUMENT IN SWAMPSCOTT CASE 
 
 men, to fix the compensation for the outrage. 
 
 The people of Essex County have been long dis 
 tinguished as a law abiding, law sustaining people, and 
 it is you? responsible duty to see to it, gentlemen, 
 that this reputation suffers no detriment at your 
 hands. It is for you, gentlemen of the jury, to render 
 such a verdict as you can in the future look back upon 
 with satisfaction, and one that will meet with the ap 
 proval of all good men in the community. 
 
 The jury returned a verdict against all the de 
 fendants, assessing damages in the sum of $800 
 
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