LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ODDDbimiaE I "^o <> ' • • • , ■?■'■ -^^ ** .T* A <> *';. •** ^-^^ ">.*** .To' .^0 >^ V*^"*\/ ^q,;'^^-'.o'> .^ ... ^- °- /\-^i.% ^°-i!^'> /.-^'^ ^\red at tlio P'inst Presbyterian (-luireli, 0lication. Resi^ectfully Yours, John Fine. A. B. James, R. W. Judson, Geo. Iliilburt, D. M. Cliapin, F. B. Hitchcock, J. W. Hopkins, S. N. Sherman, Alric M. Ilerriman, Eliiah White, B. 11. Varv, Smith Stiilwcll, C. P Geer, W. E. Guest, L. A. Pierce, K. M. Barnes, StiUman Foote, I. L. Seymour, W. C. Browu. Ogdensburgh, April .30, 18C1. To Messrs. J. Fine, A. B. James and others, Sirs : — Your note asking for a copy of my Sermon, preached last Sabbath evening, has just come to hand. Yielding to your judgment and wishes, I herewith transmit it with the desire that it may aid your patriotic eiforts in behalf of our beloved Country in this day of her peril. Yours Truly, L. MERRILL MILLER. THE UNION-A BLESSmG; IT m:xjst be preserved. :^y aE=8LoTr. 31a. IVt^BS^STLXXiXj IMEHjXjESIE^. ^ II i | I II ^ 1 Destroy it not; for a Blessing is in it.— Isiali, 65 : 8. Periods occur in the history of indi- viduals when their destiny for life and eternity may be decided by the determi- nations and actions of an houi\ At such a time, whatever may be the occasion, whether civil, political or moral, in which that person's interest is bound, he is under imperative oljligations to consid- er and weigh his duty conscientiously and religiously. In like manner occasions arise, Avhen the future of a nation, and even its cxist- en(e hang suspended on the decisions and -actions of a day. , Then the duties of the Patriot are to be measured by the stand- ard of the Christian. Questions of civil policy and political action become emi- nently religious. They are to be de- cided by the voice of duty and the law of God. We are to carry them on our knees to the family altar, and into our retreats of silent communing and secret jjraycr. — Then it becomes the Pulpit to speak in all the wisdom it can command, and with all the christian love and fervor and in- tegiitv it can exercise and cherish. Such a j>eiiod is upon us to-day. Our Nation- al existence is imperilled. The complete dismemberment of these United States is threatened. A princii^le is inaugurated which would resolve this great nationali- ty, so honorable, so powerful, and so prosperous in the eyes of the whole world, into an indefinite number of petty con- federacies, no one of which could reason- ably expect long-continued peace at home or respect abroad. Not only is the wel- fare and happiness of the country invad- ed, but, what is of eminent importance to the child of God, the general interests of the Church of Christ are distracted, and the progress of his kingdom delayed. "We therefore use the language of the text, similarly to its application to the Jewish people, and say of our Union : " Destroy it not ; for a blessing is in it." Let us consider the subject thus introduc- ed by showing, first, The blessing in the Union of the United States ; second, Regard its impending destruction ; third, Our duty to prevent. I. There is a Ijlcssing involved in tlic existence of this Government and in the perpetuity of our Union. This blessing rises before us, as great and ricli and varied, challenging all our powers of lan- guage to suggest or indicate it. The American Nation has not exjierienced an existence of four score years since its recognition after a long and bloody struggle of seven years, and when its inhabitants all told numbered only three millions, and when heavy debts and delicate questions of consolidation encumbered it. Nevertheless, under the genial influences of our Republican form of Government and the signal endorse- ment of Divine Providence, we have reached a prosperity unj^aralleled in the history of all the nations of the Avorld. — Our numbers have swelled to over thirty millions. Our possessions extend from the broad Atlantic to the great Paciiic. They are washed by the clear, cold waters of the Northern Lakes and the St. Law- rence on the one hand, and the M'armly- flowing Gulf-tides on the South. Count- less millions of wealth are scattered over this great district, and everywhere peace and gladness, until a few days since, pre- vailed. The sound of the viol and hai-p were universally heard. Men went whither they pleased. They gathered in churches and worshipped at the Ix^ck of no voice except tlie voice of God, and the call of their own conscience. The press was unfettered, and men sat under their own vines and fig trees, with none to molest or make them afraid. Our ports and privileges and strong guaran- tees were open to the strangers of all nations, and the wearied and discontent- ed and oppressed of many tongues and climes flocked thither for rest and laugh- ed with pure delight under the shadows of our free institutions. Wherever the prows of our vessels ploughed distant waters, or the stars and stripes floated in foreign ports, princes and merchants have paid our country homage and blessed the nolle fliKj as the harbinger (^f Freedom. — Our citizens travelling on a foreign soil have spoken with impassioned pride of the security and respect paid to them be- cause they had their birth in the United States of America. Now all this is ijrosi^erity unprecedent- ed and marvellous, to be accorded to and enjoyed by a nation Avhich has been ac- knowledged among the nations not j^et quite eighty years. Still all this has been an actual existence. The thirty-four United States of America were crowned with it as Avith a garland of liays and re- joiced in it as a Queen, honored and loved above all the nobility of the earth. In- strumentally, under Providence, this is the fruit of our Republican institutions. This growth has been fostered and cher- ished under the benign influences of the^ Union. We have thought too little and been too little grateful for the blessings thus secured to us. The burdens of the Government have weighed upon us so lightly and been spread out over so broad a surface that we have l^een scarce- ly conscious of their presence, and have hardly realized through what channels they have come to us. And jjerhaps for that reason we have been led to sjjeak of them lightly, blindly to tamper with them and recklessly seek to embitter the springs from whence they flow. If the thirteen original States had chosen to re- main indej^endent and to construct their own individual fortunes, irrespective of a solemn contract to make their destiny one and indivisible, surely no such prosperity could have been jiossible. Their union has been their strength. The liberal pol- icy and strong arm of the general gov- ernment have given us our prestige and our i^cace and plenty. Undoulitedly God has used these as the source of our great blessings. And, while it is painful- ly and sadly true that we have forgotten properly to acknowledge Ilim as the au- thor of our benefits, still it is equally true that without this Union and this liberal Government these things could never have been. Great therefore is the blessing in it. And it is a blessing to have had'the origin and ancestry that lielong to this Republic. Our Fathers came here under the impuls- es of a pure conscience, and with the sol- emn intent of establishing a free govern- ment, securing to all " Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,-' granting free- dom to clierish and utter their own opin- ions, and to worship God without the re- straint of an oligarchy or a despotism. — They founded the Republic on the prin- ciples of an open Bible, reared its super- structure with prayer, and when it became necesssary, cemented its bonds with theu- blood. They were a noble galaxy of men trom the beginning. And no Nation can point to a monumental record with so much just pride as can we, when on it we read in letters of living light such names as Washington, Adams, Living- ston and Witherspoon, the eloquent Hen- ry, Hamilton, Jeiferson and Clay, the towering Webster, om* own beloved Wright and the inflexible Jackson, with Franklin and Fulton, and Whitney and Morse, who has taught us to sjieak to each other, though thousands of miles away, in lightning words our love and union. Many like these names have giv- en to the Union their most ardent love, and genius and lives. It is a record that shall span all earth's eternity, and shine conspicuous and of the first magnitude amid all its constellations. It is, too, no small blessing that the rights of the individual citizen are res- pected, however humble they may be, and that the choice of their Rulers is tlic privilege and Iionor guaranteed to all the people. It is here publicly acknowledged that the private citizen has the right of petition and remonstrance against what- ever he really believes to be oppressive and injurious in the administration of Government. The word of God speaks of the right to elect our rulers as a great privilege. "Their nobles shall be of themselves, and their Governors shall pro- ceed from the midst of them. This is a privilege, which, though all nations liave desired, very few have ever enjoyed. — Many an evanescent struggle has been made for it, and millions of men have in vain poured out their heart's blood to ob- tain it. But here this privilege is enjoy- ed in the largest degree. Our civil gov- ernment is the only one in the world which is completely elective, and thus gives to the masses of the people, from the highest to the lowest, the right of ut- tering their wishes in regard to the person who shall rule over them without the least restraint. And the will of the majority expressed silently at the ballot-box be- comes the law of the land, and the utter- ance of its might and its desire. Then has not this union of States, in our noble Republican forni of govern- ment, a blessing in it ? Who shall sound its dej)ths ? Who shall tell us in words the sum of its influence for good at home and abroad ? How will you too much magnify its growing position among the principalities of men? What great bloodless victories are achieved by its commerce, its moral force among the na- tions, and the aid it gives to the glorious cause of missions and the kingdom of Christ in the earth ? God has signally honored us by the repeated outpouring of his Holy Spirit. He has largely built up the church of Christ, and througli it sent hundreds to foreign lands to carry in glad words the messages of the ever- lasting gospel. Who can tell the good thus accomplished ? We have no arith- metic to measure the blessing conveyed to us and the world in these things. Nor have we on the other hand powers of computation to announce the guilt and crime of disintegrating this Union, thus constituted, and destroy this great lilcss- ing — dashing its cup of gladness with bitter bowls, and giving all our dear rights, privileges and expectations over to utter disappointment, dismay and death. " Destroy it not ; for a blessing • is in it." " Who would stiver Freedom's shrine ? Who should draw the invidious line 1 Thoupfh by birth, one spot be mine, Dear is all the rest ; Dear to me the South's fair land, Dear the central mountain band, By oui altars, pure and free, By our Law's deep-rooted tree. By the past dread memory. By our Washington ; By our common parent tongue. By our ho^k•.s, bright, buoyant, young. By the tide of country strong We will still be one." " Great God ! we thank thoe for this home. This bounteous birth land of the free, Where wanderers from afar may come. And breathe the air of Liberty ! Still may her flowers untrampled spring, Her harvest's wave, her cities rise ; And yet, till time shall fold her wing, Remain earth's loveliest paradise !" II. The destruction of this Government is threatened, the dissolution of the Union is inaugm-ated. I have now no partizan words to utter. I speak from the feelings of my love to the Union, as a Christian minister who beholds in the powers that be the ordinance and voice of God. I am also well aware that in the heat of de- bate and the strife of passion, many pro- vocations have been uttered, and enacted, and reciprocated Ijy partizans and ex- tremists, North as well as South. Much bitterness has been caused by these things, yet at the same time I believe that for these neither the Republican nor the Dem- ocratic parties, as such, are responsible. The treasonable doctrine of Secession belongs to a party that demoralized and broke up the Democratic party both a1 Charleston and Baltimore, and only seizet as the time and lame apology for treasor the occasion of the election of Mr. Lincolr to the Presidency to be the period for in' augurating their work. President Jack-, son said, years ago, after he had quelled nullification, which was raised about the; Tariff in South Carolina, that the Tarifi was not the cause, it was simply the oc^n- sion of Rebellion, and then added that the effort will be made again by-and-byi and the question of slavery will then be made the pretext tor secession. So that the attempt to dissolve the Union is nc nei/^ thing. The leaders in it have been quietly and in their own way preparing for it for years. Three years since, during my sojourn in Kentucky, a gentleman ol that State boastingly said that in two years' time the South would inaugurate a general war for this very purpose. Hence in Kentucky last week a Union gentleman of distinguished ability and influence said that in their work of secession the ultra- politicians of tl^e South were impelled by a life-long hatred of the Union ; and by their action rendered the election of the Northern candidates inevitable, and then ^ised the event of their election to produce hatred of the North and to precipitate State after State into the surging vortex of dissolution. In keeinng with this de- claration of facts the Kentucky Tribune printed last week in Danville, says : " We regard the late assault ui^on Fort Sumter as an act of unji:stifiable aggression, an act of war, deserving the severest repre- hension and the severest punishment;" and a recent speech of a member of Con- gress from the South takes the position and proves conclusively that " there is no right which either an individual or a State can ask l3ut what is granted by the Federal Government, and that to consider secession as a remedy for any evil com- plained of by our Soijthcru rights friends is fallacious, and a step in the dark that will inevitably precipitate us all into one common destruction." So that wc must understand at the North, as it is openly avowed at the South, that the real design of the leaders in this rebellion against the Government, is the ruin of the United States, and the forma- tion of another confederacy, established on a different ] jasis, and having for its aim different designs and objects. It is es- timated in certain cxuarters, so that we cannot misunderstand it, that many de- sire a Government with more centraliza- tion of jjower and less of the representa- tive element — a jjurg oligarchy — where the few rule the many, with no voice of theirs in the matter. And on the part of others it is openly avowed, notwithstand- ing its denial in certain quarters, that the perpetuity and prosperity of the new con- federacy are to be augmented by the re- opening of the slave trade ; and thus in the cheaper jjroduction of cotton, and by an unlimited free trade, they believe the new confederacy would Ijecome rich and prosperous beyond all competition. — Neither of these objects could be obtained in the Tlnion, therefore with desj^erate madness they would ol)literate all traces of the Union at the South, seize its forts and arsenals, its bullion and navy, and desecrate its flag. Now they throw out the threat that they will occupy or des- troy the Federal capital, and drive the Administration to some retreat in the North, if perchance they cannot destroy it utterly. Shall all this be done? This Union belongs to the peoi>le. Shall Ave, in whose hands its existence and safety are reposed, stand by and submit to such an attack upon all that belongs to us in the Union, and under the folds of the Stars and Stripes ? We are not prepared for this. The old spirit of our Fathers is not so quenched within us. We are not so far removed from the memory of Wash- ington, the heroes of '7G and the stirring tales of the Revolution. But some one re2)lics — " Why not allow the South to go its own way ? In the Union there will he a constant irritation and conflict "VAath them on questions grow- ing out of slavery, so that a wise and peaceful policy calls for a separation. To this, douljtless, conservative men would long since have agreed. But this is not the question now at issue. We presume that if the Cotton States, or even the en- tire body of the Slave States, had really desired and asked for a sej)arate confeder- acy, the great l:)ody of the Northern peo- ple would say at once, "let them have it," though deep might be the sorrow and sincere the regret to witness their depar- ture. But if this is really desired, how shall it be effected ? It can be done by a Convention of. all the States called to alter the Constitution agreeably to its provisions. This would be honorable and peaceful. As the Union began in co- operation — where the voice of all the peo- l)le has been heard through their repre- sentatives — so its dissolution can be righteously efiected in no other way. But the South has never asked for such a con- vention, and we believe, if allowed a free expression of their opinions, they would not vote to call such a convention. The leaders at the South arc scrupulously un- willing to suljmit anything important to their vote. A second way in which a dissolution could be effected would be by Revolution, and this, if justified by projier considera- tion, would be right and virtuous. — The Gulf States, however, have not put themselves on this right, and have never complained of a grievance fvliich cannot better be adjustcel in the Union than out of it. 6 There is but ouc other plan oZ dissolu- tion which is by secession, and which, un- fortunately, the Gulf States have seen fit to adopt. We cannot submit to or recog- nize this action without self-destruction on the part of the whole Union. The doctrine of Secession assumes that we are not a nation, and have no right to exer- cise its functions if a State chooses to se- cede from its bonds. This idea is nlon- strous and fearful. It is opposed to the declarations of our most eminent states- men and to the unanimous action of both North and South in past legislation. Mr. Madison, who drafted the Virginia State Rights Resolutions, was sternly oiDposed to the doctrine of Secession. Similar re- solutions were passed in Kentucky in 1799. Dr. R. J. Breckinridge recently said expressly that any ordinance of Se- cession passed by the Legislature or Con- vention of any State is null and void; and William Collins, Esq., of Baltimore, in his recent address to the people of Maryland, uses the same language. The indissolubility of the Union by Secession was declared even in the articles of the old confederation. The present Constitu- tion w^as adopted to effect a more perfect Union. How, then, can we assume the right of Secession which resolves the United States into a rope of sand ? Henry Clay, who has been called "the Henry the Fourth of our Republic," asserted that " allegiance to the Union was a higher and more sacred duty than allegiance to any individual State," and it has been well said, that the doctrine of Secession throws the w^hole country into chaos. If one State may secede, any other may. If Florida, at the extremity of the Union, may go off and connect herself with a foreign nation, and thus command the Gulf of Mexico, so may Ohio, in the cen- tre of the Union. If Louisiana may se- cede and obtain exclusive command of the mouth of the MigBissii^iji, she thereby assumes the right not only of disposing of her own interests, but of controlling the whole Mississippi basin. Should Rhode Island go out of the Union and give her- self to Great Britain, then an English fleet in the harlwr of Newport would have command of the whole commerce of the United States, North of the DelaAvare. Legally and morally, these ordinances of secession are null and 'void, and should be so regarded and pronounced. Surely the people of this country are never going to submit to such a process of disintegra- tion. They will never give up their life in this way. Death in some other way is preferable. If we "were persuaded that the entire South were so Ijlind to law and justice as to sanction such a doctrine, then so far from acquiescing*in it, it would be- come us to resort to ^1 possible means to save oiu* national existence and pre- vent the onslaught of intolerable wrongs. We have already well-nigh submitted to it too long. By forbearance on the part of the Federal Government, and vain at- tempts at conciliation and long delay to resort to arms, treason has gro\ATi strong, and the advances of rebellion become boastful and formidable. If we now de- lay or linger, we shall be stranded by the fury of the gathering storm, and the mon- uments, and labors, and accumulations of many prosperous years mil be scattered to the winds beyond recovery. What shall we do ? in. TJietext says, "Destroy it not." We are to regard the danger as imminent and great, and arouse oui-selves to immediate and summary action. The time for mere talking is past. We have no choice or election in the case. The issue is thrown upon us, and we must stand up for the Union, or it will l)c thrown down. The last President did not seem to apprehend such an extreme of danger. President Lincoln, also, seems to have been reluc- tant to admit it. But the sad issue has come and stares us in the face. The ne- cessity of meeting it now cannot l)e averted. Hence, old party lines are pro- 2)crly abandoned. And there should be one rallying cry, " For the Union and the Stars and Stripes," until so Ijold a front is presented on the field of battle, and so heavy a blow directed, that our misled and misinformed brethren at the South shall understand that we are in solemn earnest, and are ready to commit ourselves to the care of the God of Battles for our institutions, our hearthstones, and our precious inheritance. In such a policy our highest safety now lies. Less blood will be shed and more profitable and sal- utary peace will follow. Beholding how aggressive and l>old and powerful this feeling of secession had become, I have been sick at heart dnring its j)rogress under the fear that we had no Union, no Government, and that we should all drift away at the mercy of the storm. And when our President boldly spoke, announcing that a sense of the danger had reached the Capitol, then my heart sunk like lead in the fear that his call for aid would not find an adequate resi^onse. When recently I read that our Secretary of Legation had been murdered in Japan, and one of our Consuls insulted in the streets of Rome, I trembled for our honor and the security of our citizens' property al^road. It has been intimated on foreign shores and among certain phi- losophers, that our unexampled stride from a few weak colonies to a large and populous Republic, fi-om our condition of poverty and heavy indebtedness to a state of great wealth and expanded commerce and strife for gain, would jirovc disas- trous, and that the spirit of true pat- riotism would likely disappear, and that before the aggressions of tyranny and the 'ssaults of war, even with the liberties of our native land at stake, we would sooner submit to an inglorious peace than a bloody victory. But we give thanks to God that our fears here have been groundless. In the millions of money which have been poured out like water, in the quick tramp of thousands of volunteers, in the readiness with which fathers and mothers have given their sons, ardent for the Union — in the unison of all parties, and the response of rich and poor, and of those who lead in our counsels of state, as well as those who are led, in all this we behold that love of country and patriotism are not dead. — When hundreds of mothers who have de- licately brought up their sons to man- hood in New- York can givd^|, and two, and three, and four of therflWffth a " God speed you !" to the tented field, and then tm-n back to meet daily around the pub- lic altar of the sanctuary, to pray for God's blessing upon them — and when from all our villages and churches, as our own, our very communicants are ral- lying to the standard of the country, and all these churches are rememl^ering them in prayer, there is room and ground for hope. But the confiict we may justly fear has only begun. Our duty has but just commenced in this new field. Let us now speak kiudlj^ and forl^eariugly of the Government. By all our influence let us sustain it. Let us cherish no hatred toward any — yield to no spirit of bitter recrimination over the i^ast — forget old difficulties — speak kindly to and of each other. Let those that can be ready to go at the call of the Government, and those that remain at home bear their exjienses. Let us pray for our country North and South, and commend it continually to God. Pray for onr rulers that they may have wisdom and courage to know and discharge their whole duty. And while we pray for our volunteers (the commu- nicants who have gone from our Church — the noble sons who have gone from our families — the whole-souled men who have left our homes at a moment's call) — let us not forget to pray for the brethren with whom we differ and with whom we are joined at issue — that God in whose hands are all our hearts — may cause us to look at each other again soon in peace and to strike hands once more and forever as brethren. Let us give ourselves up daily and constantly to the divine direction. No one can now, unaided by God's good Providence and spirit, tell what course it is best things should take in the settle- ment ultimately before us. Human wis- dom is inadequate to the occasion. It is powcrles^Hpr the problem of this crisis. But one we are sure can be, " God can issue this state of things exceedingly to the honor of his Son. And wc can ask Him to do this." Let us ever remember and urge this plea. Let us with all earnestness do the right as consceienco and opportunity bid us and say with the ancient leader of Israel : " In the Lord put I my trust, " I will not fear what flesh can do unto me, " solemnly re- membering our constitutional Covenant as members of these U. S., and our Spi- ritual allegiance to the King of Nations and Saints, may we like one man, E pluribus umim, serve God with all our hearts and all our trust and do our best for our country that its blessed bonds may be strengtliened, and its fraternity and peace, and Liberty and Union may be preserved for ages to come. " Destroy it not ; for a blessing is in it." ireo ^c w-'y\!^^'. ^0 -^^ .wf:* J. .*'"■%.