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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
AN ADDRESS 
 
 mmm of mm in ONTiftiy, 
 
 AND OTHER LOYAL STATES, 
 
 IN REGARD TO THE 
 
 TREATMENT OF CHURCH-MEMBERS 
 
 WHO HAVE BEEN ENGAGED IN THE REBELLION. 
 
 BY JOHN TAFFE, M. D., 
 
 Late Chaplain of the 11th Kentucky Cavalry 
 
 CI:N"C1NXATT: 
 
 H. S. BOSWOKTH, PRINT. 
 
 1 8 G G . 
 

TO THE READER. 
 
 The following pages were written, not with a 
 view to destroy, but to save, if possible, by leading 
 the guilty to repentance — to induce the Churches 
 to take proper action in the premises ; and to 
 contribute somewhat to the diffusion of a healthy 
 loyal sentiment throughout the country. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 What should the Churches of Christ, in Kentucky 
 and other loyal States, do tvith their returned members, 
 ivho have been in the armies and councils of the 
 Southern Confederacy or elsewhere— aiding and abet- 
 ting in the effort to overthrow the Government of the 
 United States and dismember the Republic ? 
 
 Let no one take counsel of passion or prejudice 
 in the decision of this question. These are unsafe 
 counsellors. The ears of passion are too dull to 
 hear the voice of reason and of truth, amid the noisy 
 din and senseless clamor, with which she is ever sur- 
 rounded; and the eyes of prejudice too feeble to see 
 the truth through the thick vail that ever covers her 
 face. 
 
 Let these both alike, then, be excluded from the 
 forum, the jury box and the judicial bench, and let 
 reason, in the clear light of the word of God, and of 
 the embodied wisdom and judgment of mankind, 
 decide the question. Let no considerations but the 
 interests of Zion, the good of those involved in the 
 question, the good of the churches and our common 
 country, be mixed up in the decision of this momen- 
 tous question. Let us remember that the eyes of 
 the allwise and benificent Ruler of the universe are 
 (5) 
 
6 ADDRESS. 
 
 upon US — penetrating the deep recesses of our hearts 
 and all the secret springs of our conduct, and that 
 to Him T\'e must give an account on the great day of 
 retribution. 
 
 What are the divine injunctions bearing upon this 
 subject, as they came from the lips of the Great 
 Messiah, and from the pens of His inspired apostles? 
 When the chief priests and scribes, to tempt the 
 Messiah, asked him if it were lawful to pay tribute 
 to Csesar, He called for a penny: "Whose image 
 and superscription hath it?" saith He. They an- 
 swer, "Cesar's." And He said to them, ''''render 
 therefore unto Ccesar the things that are Ccesar^s, and 
 unto God the things which are God^s^ — Luke xx: 
 19-20. 
 
 Here Jesus enjoins upon the Jews not only the 
 payment of tribute to Caesar, but the faithful discharge 
 of every duty which they owed to Caesar and to God. 
 He enjoins upon them loyalty in its highest and most 
 comprehensive sense — making their obligation to 
 obey the laws and edicts of Caesar absolute and im- 
 perative, save and except (by implication), in those 
 cases in which the commands of Caesar might be in 
 contravention to the laws of God ; in which cases it 
 was their duty to obey God rather than man, and to 
 take the consequences ; but in no instance does He 
 license them to raise their arms to resist or to strike 
 down the government of Csesar. 
 
 Judea had been conquered by the Roman arms. 
 
ADDRESS. 7 
 
 and had become a Roman province. Caesar was only 
 another name for the Roman emperor who then 
 swayed a scepter over the civilized world. His juris- 
 diction over the Jews had been acquired by conquest, 
 and yet Jesus enjoins obedience to his authority in 
 the clearest and most emphatic language. Obedience, 
 then, to Csesar was obedience to God (save and ex- 
 cept in those cases in which the laws of Caesar might 
 be in derogation of the Divine law), and to resist the 
 authority of Caesar was to resist the authority of 
 God himself — for He has ordained political govern- 
 ments, and clothed them with the high sanction of His 
 authority. Jesus, therefore, in His answer to the 
 chief priests and scribes, only enjoins upon them 
 duties which had been always binding upon them from 
 the very relation which they sustained to Caesar and 
 to God. To the one as the ruler of the Roman empire, 
 and to the other as the great ruler of the universe. 
 
 If, then, the obligation of the Jew to submit to the 
 government of Cresar was thus imperative, though 
 his authority had been acquired by conquest over the 
 chosen people of God, how much stronger is the ob- 
 ligation of Christians to submit to the government 
 of the United States, instituted by the American 
 people themselves, for the preservation of the great 
 heritage of freedom for themselves and posterity, in 
 all time to come! and how dreadful the sin committed 
 by them against God and the American people, in 
 raising their arms and aiding and abetting in the 
 
8 ADDRESS. 
 
 effort that has been made to strike it down ! I say 
 Christians, because the churches have jurisdiction 
 only over their own members — those without will be 
 judged by the civil and military tribunals of the 
 country. 
 
 Political governments are organizations ordained 
 of God for the punishment of evil-doers and for the 
 praise of them that do well, and are to be faithfully 
 and religiously obeyed as such. And no one can 
 have any reasonable apology for raising his arm to 
 strike them down, unless they fail of these great ends. 
 Then, and then only, may they be abated as public 
 nuisances. But in a representative democracy, like 
 that of the United States, w^ith a written constitution, 
 which makes provision for any change or amendment, 
 which experience or advancing civilization may re- 
 quire, the better to adapt it to the great ends of free 
 government; and where the rulers are elected for 
 short terms b}^ the people, and then returned to their 
 constituents, to give an account of their stewardship, 
 I can not conceive of any defect in the constitution 
 that could not be better remedied in a constitutional 
 way; nor of any wrong or oppression by the tempo- 
 rary rulers, that could not be better redressed by an 
 appeal to the people through the ballot-box than by 
 an appeal to arms. An insurrection in such a case 
 is attempted suicide — is an insurrection of the peo- 
 ple against themselves — a rebellion of the minority 
 against the majority, in utter disregard of the great 
 
ADDRESS. ' 9 
 
 principle, "which must from inexorable necessity, 
 control all free governments, namely, that the ma- 
 jority shall rule; and when they shall have declared 
 their will in a legal and constitutional way, that the 
 minority shall submit to their sovereign decree. But 
 in case of a rebellion of the minority against the 
 majority, should they succeed in such a strange and 
 hopeless enterprise, is there any probability, or even 
 possibility that they could institute a new form of 
 government that would better secure the rights of 
 the people, than the happy form of government under 
 wdiich we live, with a provision in its organic law, 
 for any amendment in a peaceable and constitutional 
 way, which the American people may deem necessary 
 in the great charter of their freedom? Every right- 
 minded man must answer this question with a broad 
 and emphatic NO ! 
 
 The teaching of the Apostle Peter upon the great 
 subject of submission to political rulers, is equally 
 clear and explicit : " Submit yourselves,'' says he to 
 his Christian brethren, " to every ordinance of man 
 for the Lorofs sake, luhetJier to the king as supreme 
 {ruler), or unto governors as unto them, who are sent 
 \y him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the 
 praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, 
 that with well-doirig you might put to silence the igno- 
 rance of foolish men. As free aiid 7iot using your 
 liberty for a cloak of maliciousness; but as the servants 
 of God. Honor allynen. Love the brotherhood ; fear 
 
10 ADDRESS. 
 
 God; honor the kingj' (1st Peter, ii, 13-17.) How 
 could submission to kings, and governors, and politi- 
 cal rulers, be more clearly and explicitly enjoined. 
 The Apostle Peter and his Christian brethren were 
 then living under the authority of the Roman empire, 
 and these injunctions of Peter apply to political 
 rulers in general, and to those of the Roman empire 
 in particular. And if such was the obligation rest- 
 ing upon Christians, to submit to the authorities of 
 the Roman government, often stained with crime, 
 and with the most cruel and relentless persecution 
 of Christians, with what additional weight does the 
 obligation rest upon Christians to submit to the be- 
 nign government of the United States, which had 
 never been felt as a burden, and had only been felt 
 in the benefits and blessings it conferred? It had 
 never wronged the States that raised their arms to 
 strike it down, unless, indeed, it was in indulging 
 their whims and in gratifying their unreasonable de- 
 mands, as a too-fond mother sometimes does those of 
 her spoiled and petted children. The wrong, if any, 
 was not in withholding favors, but was in bestowing 
 too many. 
 
 Paul is equally definite in teaching his Christian 
 brethren the duty of submission to their political 
 rulers. To Titus he says, (iii, 1). " Put them in 
 mind to he subject to principalities and powers, to obey 
 magistrates^' etc. The Jewish Christians had become 
 very restive under the Roman yoke ; many of them 
 
ADDRESS. 11 
 
 thought it incompatible with the dignity of a Jew and 
 a Christian to be subject to the authority of a heathen 
 magistrate. Hence the injunction of Paul to Titus. 
 He would have him to correct this error among the 
 Jewish Christians, and to enjoin upon all the Christian 
 brethren submission to the authority of their political 
 rulers, though that authority might, in the providence 
 of God, be vested in the hands of a heathen magis- 
 trate. 
 
 The Roman government, with all its sins upon its 
 head, was one of the best of ancient times, and how 
 long and dark the dreadful night that followed, when 
 the sun of that empire set to rise no more ! 
 
 Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, treats this sub- 
 ject more in extenso, and in terms yet more em- 
 phatic. He says : " Let every soul he subject to the 
 higher poivers. For there is no potver but of God. 
 The poivers that be are ordained of God. Who- 
 ever therefore resisteth the poiver, resisteth the or- 
 dinance of God^ and they that resist shall receive to 
 themselves dainnation. For rulers are not a terror to 
 good tvo7'ks, hut to the evil. Wilt thou then not be 
 afraid of the poiuer? Do that tvhich is good, and 
 thou shall have praise of the same — for he is the min- 
 ister of God to thee for good. Bid if thou do that 
 which is evil be afraid ; for he beareth not the sivord 
 in vain ; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to 
 execute ivrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore 
 you must needs he suhjectj not only for ivrath, hut also 
 
12 ADDRESS. 
 
 for conscience sake. For this cause pay ye tribute 
 also ; for they are God's ministers — attending contin- 
 ually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all 
 their dues ; tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to 
 whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom 
 honor. Owe no man any thing, but to love one an- 
 other^' (that is, discharge all your obligations), "/or 
 he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.'' (Rom. 
 xiii, 1-8. 
 
 Here the apostle enjoins upon his Christian breth- 
 ren submission to the powers that be, in the clear- 
 est and most emphatic language ; and launches 
 against all who resist the power the most dreadful 
 denunciation. JSFo sophistry can evade the force of 
 the injunction, or turn the edge of the terrible denun- 
 ciation. .Both the injunction and denunciation come 
 clothed with the awful sanction of Divine authority, 
 and sound like an echo from Sinai's awful summit. 
 Whoever, therefore (be he Jew or Christian or 
 heathen, whoever he may be), that resisteth the 
 power, resisteth the ordinance of God ; and they 
 that resist, shall receive to themselves damna- 
 TION ; because they not only resist the political 
 power, but in so doing, they resist also the ordinance 
 of God — defy alike the power of God and man, and 
 therefore shall receive to themselves damnation. 
 
 The term powers that be, here applies to all po- 
 litical powers generally ; but more especially to the 
 powers of the Roman empire, under whose jurisdic- 
 
ADDRESS. 13 
 
 tion the apostle and his Christian brethren were liv- 
 ing. These powers are organizations, clothed with 
 the dread sanction of Divine authority, for the pim- 
 ishment of evil doers^ and for the praise of them thai 
 do loell; and are to be submitted to as a high and 
 sacred religious duty, due alike to the political power, 
 and to God himself; for He ordained and established 
 the power for the protectioyi and security of human 
 7'ights. 
 ' If then submission even to the Roman power, 
 often stained with the blood of the martyred heroes 
 of the Church, was a sacred religious duty ; and re- 
 sistance to that power was resistance to the ordi- 
 nance of God; and damnation was denounced against 
 those who resisted the power, by an inspired apostle 
 who wrote as the Divine Spirit directed his pen; 
 where shall toe find language to express iviih sufficient 
 emphasis the obligation of Christians^ and of all citi- 
 zens, to submit to the government of the United States, 
 which stands out the wonder and admiration of the 
 world, as the best and most benign government ever 
 devised by the wisdom of man? And where shall 
 ive find fitting terms to decla^'e the deep damnation 
 due to' those who have not only resisted this benign 
 government, but have raised their traitorous arms to 
 strike it down, and in the mad eifort have destroyed 
 the lives of half a million of men — have deluged the 
 country in blood — filled the land with widows and 
 orphans, with the maimed, diseased, and dying — the 
 
14 ADDRESS. 
 
 asylums with lunatics, the poorhouses with paupers, 
 and burdened all the winds under heaven with the 
 ^sighs and groans and lamentations of bereaved 
 widows, and orphans, and fathers, and mothers, and 
 brothers, and sisters, who refuse to be comforted 
 because their loved ones are no more ? They sleep 
 in unknown graves beneath a southern sky. They 
 went down in the shock and tempest of battle, or 
 died in the dreadful prison-pens of the South — ren- 
 dering up their lives to save the republic from dis- 
 ruption, and to perpetuate the great heritage of 
 American freedom, which these misguided church- 
 members and their confederates in crime sought to 
 destroy. And, 0, how many widows and orphans, 
 in poverty and in tears, wait and watch for husbands 
 and fathers who shall never come again, because 
 they died by the hands of these church-members, 
 and sleep their last sleep in unknown graves ! 
 
 If a true history of this rebellion, with all its at- 
 tendant circumstances of atrocity, shall ever be writ- 
 ten, it will stand out on the page of history as the 
 blackest of all the crimes in the dark and dreadful 
 catalogue of human guilt. And yet many, who have 
 been engaged in this dreadful work, come back from 
 the slaughter of their countrymen, with garments all 
 dripping with the blood of the heroic defenders of 
 our nationality, and of our heritage of freedom, to 
 resume their places in the churches, as if they had 
 only been absent on excursions of ordinary business 
 
ADDRESS. 15 
 
 or pleasure. And the churches, either from sym- 
 pathy with their treason, or for the sake of peace, 
 seem disposed to receive them without repentance, 
 without admonition, and without reproof; forgetting 
 that treason is rebellion against God, and that the 
 wisdom which comes from above is first pure and 
 then peaceable; and that they are required to put 
 away from among them every wicked person, and to 
 withdraw from every one called a brother Avho walks 
 disorderly. We here drop the Bible aspect of the 
 subject, with a view of considering the offense in a 
 civil and political point of light, and then of group- 
 ing both views together. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States declares that 
 " treason against the U7iited States shall consist only 
 in levying war against them, or in adhering to their 
 enemies — giving them aid and cornfoii.'' It also 
 clothes Congress with power to declare the punish- 
 ment of treason. This Congress has done, declar- 
 ing, besides other penalties, that the offender shall 
 be hanged by the neck until he is dead. 
 
 " In England," until a very recent date, " the 
 punishment of treason was most terrible and appal- 
 ling : 1. That the offender be drawn to the gallows, 
 and not be carried or walk, though (usually by con- 
 nivance, at length ripened by humanity into law), a 
 sledge or hurdle was allowed to preserve the offender 
 from the extreme torment of being dragged on the 
 ground or pavement; 2. That he be hanged by the 
 
16 ADDRESS. 
 
 neck and then cut clown alive; 3. That his entrails 
 be taken out, and burned while he is yet alive; 4. 
 That his head be cut off; 5. That his body be divided 
 into four parts ; 6. That his head and quarters be 
 at the king's disposal." (" Though the king might 
 dispense with all these items of punishment save the 
 hanging.") Such was the dreadful punishment pre- 
 scribed by the law of England for treason. And 
 w^hy this terrible punishment, so shocking to the 
 sensibilities of modern civilization ? It was because 
 in the judgment of England, as well as in the com- 
 mon judgment of mankind, embodied in the solemn 
 form of law, by all nations ancient and modern, 
 treason is the highest crime which man (considered 
 as a member of society) can possibly commit. For 
 it strikes at the very existence of all social order, 
 and imperils the lives, the liberty, and the property 
 of the entire community; and is in itself an aggre- 
 gation of all crime — involving robbery, arson, mur- 
 der, and almost every other crime in the calendar 
 of human guilt. Our ancestors, therefore, in some 
 instances, punished with these circumstances of ex- 
 treme torture a crime that upheaves, as with the 
 throes of an earthquake, the very foundations of 
 society, and opens a bottomless fiery abyss, in which 
 millions may be ingulfed. This barbarous punish- 
 ment has happily passed away with the iron age in 
 which it originated, and the abrogated law prescrib- 
 ing it only remains on the records of the dead past 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 17 
 
 as a monument of the horror with which our ances- 
 tors viewed a crime fraught with such incalculable 
 woes. 
 
 The treason of Kentucky rebels is of the deepest 
 and most atrocious die, because not only committed 
 against the United States, the mildest and best gov- 
 ernment in the world, but committed also against 
 their own State of Kentucky (if indeed treason can 
 .be committed against a state). Their crime, there- 
 fore, stands forth in all its naked deformity, without 
 any plea, not even the miserable heresy of state 
 rights, to mitigate its dreadful atrocity. The same 
 is true of the rebels of other loyal states. They 
 are justly regarded by the President of the United 
 States as more guilty than those of the disloyal 
 states ; and are, therefore, excepted from his am- 
 nesty proclamation. And shall these guilty men, 
 with damnation denounced against them by the law 
 of God, and confiscation, disfranchisement, and death 
 denounced against them by the laws of their coun- 
 try, be permitted to come back — take their seats in 
 the congregations of which they had been members, 
 and enjoy again all the privileges of membership, 
 without repentance and without reproof? The 
 churches that suffer these things become partakers 
 of these men's sins and render their damnation sure. 
 For as certain as a righteous God rules over the 
 universe, and as certain as he has denounced dam- 
 nation against those who resist the powers that be, 
 2 
 
18 ADDRESS 
 
 just SO certain, does this terrible denunciation rest 
 with more than ordinary weight and solemnity upon 
 these guilty men ; and also that other denunciation 
 that " no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.'' 
 For they are murderers in the common judgment of 
 mankind, embodied in the forni of law by every civil- 
 ized nation under heaven. For by the laws of the 
 civilized world, where a number of persons combine 
 to destroy the life of another, and all are on the 
 ground, aiding and abetting in the act, or stationed 
 sufficiently near to afford aid and assistance if neces- 
 sary, all are principals in the murder. Those that 
 strike the mortal blows, are principals in the first 
 degree, and the others are principals in the second 
 degree. All are held equally guilty of murder and 
 punishable with death. And in treason there are 
 no accessories, all are principals. These men, 
 therefore, are not only traitors, but murderers, 
 though perhaps some of them might not with their 
 own hands have actually killed any one, yet they 
 were on the ground making the effort to kill, and 
 aiding and abetting those who did actually kill by 
 thousands and hundreds of thousands our patriotic 
 soldiers, who had gathered around the life of our 
 nation to save it from destruction by armed traitors. 
 Will the churches, then, admonish these men of 
 the dreadful sins they have committed, and endeavor 
 to lead them to true repentance and to a throne of 
 grace, that they may obtain mercy and forgiveness — 
 
ADDRESS. 19 
 
 remembering that he who converts a sinner from the 
 error of his way, shall save a soul from death and 
 hide a multitude of sins? Great as are the sins 
 these brethren have committed, I do not regard 
 their cases as hopeless ; but their repentance must 
 be deep and tliorougli if they would obtain forgive- 
 ness from a righteous and merciful God. They 
 must heartily forsake and repudiate the sin — do 
 works meet for repentance by making amends, as 
 far as possible, for the wrongs they have done; and 
 must then seek forgiveness from God and also from 
 the churches of which they are members, and then 
 according to the law of the Lord, upon public admo- 
 nition, they may be restored to church fellowship. 
 For those who sin are to be rebuked before all, that 
 others also may fear (1 Tim. v, 20). And those 
 who oppose any church action in the cases of these 
 misguided brethren are (unwittingly perhaps) the 
 greatest enemies to their spiritual and everlasting 
 interest. 
 
 But brethren say, " 0, these brethren are just as 
 good as we are !" Brethren may say this of them- 
 selves, because they probably know themselves bet- 
 ter than I do ; but with all my imperfections upon 
 my head, in the name of all that is true and of good 
 report among men, I protest against being included 
 in any such category. This sweeping remark levels 
 all distinction between loyalty and disloyalty; be- 
 tween righteousness and iniquity ; between obe- 
 
20 ADDRESS. 
 
 (lience to God and the powers that be, and treason 
 against all government both human and divine. 
 What strange judicial blindness has fallen upon the 
 moral vision of men as they stand amid the moral 
 and physical desolation that has been wrought by 
 the roaring, raging tempest of treason in its wide 
 and dreadful sweep 1 Like men lost and bewildered, 
 they have utterly lost their moral bearings, and in 
 their moral dementia they call evil good and good 
 evil_^ut darkness for light and light for darkness, 
 and thus incur the woe of the prophet. Who shall 
 anoint these blind eyes that they may see? or un- 
 stop these deaf ears that they may hear? Who 
 shall clothe the dry bones of this desolate valley 
 with flesh, and breathe into the renewed forms the 
 breath of life, that they may live again ? Who shall 
 be able for these things? Is there no hope for 
 spiritual Israel ? 
 
 Another brother says, "These brethren are just 
 as conscientious as we are, and therefore we ought 
 to receive them without any mention of the past." 
 I do not know whether these men are so conscien- 
 tious or not. I can not penetrate the deep of the 
 human heart, and pronounce upon the consciences 
 of rebels ; and I do not exactly see how any one 
 can do it that has not traveled that road as well as 
 the way of loyalty; and even then that would only 
 be the experience of one person, and would by no 
 means prove that such was the experience of all 
 
ADDRESS. 21 
 
 rebels. I doubt whether any sane mind can be so 
 perverted as to come to such a conclusion as this. 
 Still some persons are given over to strong delu- 
 sions that they may believe a lie and be damned, 
 because they receive not the love of the truth. The 
 conscience may become strangely perverted and 
 estranged from the way of righteousness. AVhat is 
 properly called conscience is only a moral feeling, 
 and like all the other feelings of the human heart, 
 is blind. It follows the decisions of the understand- 
 ing upon moral questions as inseparably as a shadow 
 follows a substance in the sunshine ; so that if the 
 understanding errs in its decisions, which are mere 
 intellectual processes, conscience errs with it ; if the 
 understanding stumbles and falls into the ditch, con- 
 science falls in after it. If the understanding or 
 intellect, then, has been trained to call evil good 
 and good evil, treason loyalty and loyalty treason ; 
 to call rebels patriots and patriots rebels (as was 
 done in the South to work up and perpetuate the 
 rebellion), and therefore errs in its decisions, con- 
 science errs with it. So true is this that Jesus told 
 his disciples that " the time would come, when those 
 who put them to death would think they did God 
 service." But did He say to his disciples, they are 
 therefore just as conscientious and as good as you 
 are? No verily, such confounding of good and evil, 
 of righteousness and iniquity had been utterly fatal 
 
22 ADDREvSS. 
 
 to His Divine pretensions. (He taught if the blind 
 lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch.) 
 
 Paul was one of those misguided men. He de- 
 clares that he had lived in all good canscience from 
 his forefathers. Even when dabbling his hands in 
 the blood of the saints for doing the very things 
 which the Messiah had commanded them to do, he 
 was acting in all good conscience. But was he there- 
 fore innocent and as good as they? Was this his 
 view after his mind had been enlightened by the 
 Word of God? No! looking back afterward on this 
 career of blood, he most feelingly and in deepest self- 
 abasement upbraids himself as the chief of sinners. 
 And in all his after life, with a broken and contrite 
 heart, and with a burning zeal always at a white 
 heat, amid hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, 
 obloquy and disgrace, stripes and imprisonment — 
 amid perils by land and by sea, among heathen and 
 among false brethren, with a restless energy which 
 knew no languor or abatement, he labored by night 
 and by day to save others from the dreadful gulf of 
 ruin from which he had been rescued by the mercy 
 of God, and to make some amends for the great sins 
 he had committed — presenting in his wonderful 
 labors of love a spectacle of moral grandeur that has 
 no parallel in the world's history. 0, then, teach 
 these returning rebels that only in deep contrition 
 and a hearty repudiation of their sins, and earnest 
 prayer to God for mercy, can they expect forgive- 
 
ADDRESS. 23 
 
 ness from God for the great sins they have com- 
 mitted, and that only on these conditions can they 
 again he received back into the churches. Any 
 other course woukl be disloyalty to the King of 
 kings. And any other course must utterly destroy 
 the saving power of the churches. How can the 
 churches rebuke any minor sins, when the crowning 
 sin of the age, nag, of the ages, goes unrebuked? 
 Church-members will spurn and spit upon your 
 authority, if you attempt to lay the hand of disci- 
 pline upon them for dancing, gambling, lying, 
 defrauding, drunkenness, or any of the common sins 
 of the age, when the crowning sin of the ages — com- 
 prehending within its terrible sweep the sum of all 
 sin, goes utterly unrebuked. How would a church 
 appear after deciding that this great sin in the per- 
 son of one of its members should go unreproved, 
 and yet at the very same meeting should take up a 
 young sister, and exclude her for dancing, or a 
 young brother, and exclude him for cheating his 
 neighbor in a horse-swop ; or an old brother, and 
 exclude him for getting drunk? Would not this 
 look like keeping the church pure ? It would look 
 very much like straining out a gnat and swallowing 
 a camel. That church would then be prepared for 
 the coming of the Lord ! 
 
 We will suppose that the above case occurs in a 
 church, where members are tried in committee of the 
 whole, and that after the church has decided that 
 
24 ADDRESS. 
 
 the returned rebel lias committed no offense deserv- 
 ing reproof, he holds up his hand for the exclusion 
 of the sister or brother in the supposed case. 
 Would not this look like Satan reproving sin ? 0, 
 shame on such trifling with divine authority! Save, 
 save, my Christian brethren of every denomina- 
 tion, the Church of Christ from such defilement and 
 ruin ; and save, if possible, these misguided brethren 
 from the terrible judgments of God that await them, 
 unless they repent, do works meet for repentance, 
 and sue for mercy at a throne of grace, and when 
 you think that God has received the returning peni- 
 tent then you may receive him and restore him to 
 the privileges of the church ; otherwise it is your 
 duty to withdraw from him and from all others 
 called brethren who walk disorderly. 
 
 But, again, brethren w^ould have no church action 
 in the cases of these brethren, because they were 
 honest in what they did, and thought they were do- 
 ing right. Why, some of those concerned in the 
 dreadful tragedies in Washington, if any credit is to 
 be given to their statements, thought that they were 
 doing right! And this was the plea urged in de- 
 fense of Payne. His counsel asked him wdiy he 
 attempted to assassinate Mr. Seward, and he replied 
 because he thouo;ht it was right. His counsel en- 
 deavored to show that he was a regularly educated 
 assassin, and having graduated in this profession, 
 when he found a case suited to his taste, he ad- 
 
ADDRESS. 25 
 
 dressed himself to the accomplishment of the work ; 
 and his counsel, with the audacity of a spirit fresh 
 from pandemonium, urged his acquittal on that 
 ground, because it was simply in the line of the pro- 
 fession to which the man had been educated, and of 
 which he was a regular graduate ! And it is very 
 possible, that these good, conscientious brethren, 
 who have returned from the innocent work of 
 slaughtering their fellow-citizens, because they stood 
 in the way of the destruction of the life of the na- 
 tion, are pretty much of the same way of thinking ! 
 Shall the murderer, when the hand of justice is 
 laid upon him, turn and raise his blood-red hands 
 and reeking dagger toward heaven, and declare he 
 is innocent, because he is conscientious in what he 
 has done, and thought he was doing right, and there- 
 fore justice has no claim upon him ? Shall the 
 hand of justice be palsied by such a plea? and shall 
 he release the criminal from his grasp ? This is the 
 strange doctrine that is now brought to our ears. 
 Then close the sanctuaries of religion and the halls 
 of justice, for the religion of our fathers and the 
 genius of justice that presided over the tribunals of 
 our country have taken their flight from earth, the 
 landmarks of virtue are efi'aced from the records of 
 time, and all distinctions between virtue and vice, 
 righteousness and iniquity are swept away by the 
 rushing, raging flood of evil that bears away on its 
 resistless tide the hopes and fortunes of men ! Has 
 3 
 
26 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 pandemonium been established on earth? and has 
 virtue fled from the abodes of men ? Stay, stay, 
 my brethren, this dreadful springtide of evil, that 
 threatens ruin alike to both church and state, and 
 let the law of the Lord be enforced though it sift 
 the church as wheat. 
 
 But, says another good brother, "We don't notice 
 the cases of these brethren, because we do n't suifer 
 politics to be brought into the church." Pray, my 
 good brother, what do you mean by politics? 
 Many use this term very flippantly, who know not 
 what they mean nor whereof they affirm. The term 
 politics, according to Mr. Webster, in its largest and 
 most comprehensive sense, comprehends the science 
 of government both human and Divine. And surely 
 this good brother would not have all this excluded 
 from the church. But what is frequently meant by 
 politics is the partisan squabbles about the policy of 
 the state or nation in regard to political economy, 
 or the contests between the outs and the ins for the 
 loaves and fishes of office. Surely these matters 
 ought to be kept out of the church. But are ques- 
 tions of overt acts of treason, that have baptized the 
 country in blood and filled the whole heavens with 
 wailings and lamentations for husbands and fathers, 
 sons and brothers, slaughtered by hundreds of thou- 
 sands, to be summarily dismissed from the conside- 
 ration of the churches by the simple announcement, 
 '' 0, we do n't sufi'er politics to come into our 
 
ADDRESS. 27 
 
 church!" May the Lord save the church from the 
 sin of misnaming treason politics, and allowing the 
 criminal, like other criminals, to escape under an 
 alias, when the penalties of confiscation, disfran- 
 chisement, and death are denounced against the of- 
 fender bj the laws of the country, and damnation by 
 the law of God. 
 
 But it is further objected, that the President of 
 the United States has pardoned most of the rebels, 
 and surely the church ought to be as merciful as the 
 state, and not pursue these men with vengeance, 
 when the chief executive of the nation has pardoned 
 them. 
 
 But neither the one nor the other of these is the 
 question before us. The great matter that I would 
 urge upon the common brotherhood, is to save, if 
 possible, these misguided brethren from the error of 
 their way that God may forgive them. This would 
 save many souls from death and cover multitudes of 
 sins, and would save the church from the sin and 
 guilt and shame of winking at the sins of these 
 brethren, and perhaps of making their damnation 
 sure. But the President's proclamation extends 
 not to Kentucky rebels and those of other loyal 
 states. They are expressly excepted from its mer- 
 ciful provisions, as above stated, and doubtless for 
 the reasons there adverted to. 
 
 All the arguments that have been urged, to show 
 the weighty and imperative obligations resting upon 
 
28 ADDRESS. 
 
 Christians to submit to the benign government of 
 the United States and to obey its injunctions, and 
 the dreadful denunciations cited both from the law 
 of God and the laws of our country against those 
 who resist its authority, apply with all their force to 
 all citizens (and to all sojourners in our country, 
 who owe to our government temporary allegiance), 
 whether they be Christians, skeptics, infidels, or 
 heathens. 
 
 But I am asked, what should be done with those 
 church-members who have remained at home, but 
 who have persuaded and seduced others to take up 
 arms against their state and country ; or who have 
 otherwise aided and abetted the rebellion, and per- 
 haps guerrilla warfare against unarmed citizens-; 
 and who perhaps have the guilt of perjury upon 
 their souls in the oath they have taken, that they 
 have never aided and abetted the rebellion ? 
 
 I answer imeqaivocalli/^ if any of these facts can he 
 proved against them, they should be, forthwith, sepa- 
 rated from the churches of which they are members, 
 and never again received until they shall have re- 
 pented and heartily repudiated their sin, and done 
 works meet for repentance ; both because the se- 
 ducer is more guilty than the victim of seduction, 
 and because he who secretly plots and works mis- 
 chief in the dark is more dangerous than the open 
 and avowed enemy, as the viper that strikes from 
 his cover in the dark is more dangerous than the 
 
ADDRESS. 20 
 
 more noble serpent that gives warning by tbe sound 
 of his rattle before he strikes. And if any church 
 refuse to take action in regard to any of these mis- 
 guided men, all other churches should withdraw 
 from such church all fellowship and co-operation . 
 
 But what should be done with those brethren who 
 "despise dominion and speak evil of dignities;" 
 habitually speaking evil of the rulers of our country, 
 weakening the authority of government, and encour- 
 aging the spirit of lawlessness and rebellion that 
 abounds throughout the land ? 
 
 They should be promptly admonished, and if they 
 persist in their course, they should be separated 
 from their respective congregations. Though they 
 may not have actually committed overt acts of trea- 
 son, yet they have committed treason in their 
 hearts — are exposed to the divine displeasure, and 
 if they persist in their course they must perish in 
 the gainsaying of Cora. They are making the re- 
 turned rebel soldiers more disloyal than ever, and 
 are sowing the seeds of dislo3^alty to all government 
 both human and divine. 
 
 Again; I am asked what should be done with 
 those, called ministers of Christ, who have been aid- 
 ing and abetting the rebellion, whether by word or 
 deed, giving to it the weight of their influence ? 
 
 My answer is : they should be excluded alike 
 from the pulpit and the church. He who ministers 
 in sacred things, should come into the sanctuary of 
 
30 ADDRESS. 
 
 the Lord with clean hands, a pure heart, and with 
 hallowed lips ; and not with treason upon his lips, 
 rebellion in his heart, and with hands stained with 
 innocent blood. The breath of such a one is poison, 
 his contact is death. It is Satan in the robes of an 
 angel of light, rebuking minor sins the more effec- 
 tually to overthrow all authority both human and 
 divine, and to lead men captive at his will. 
 
 But it is objected that " our Revolutionary 
 fathers were rebels, that they resisted the power of 
 Great Britain, and if the divine law enjoining sub- 
 mission to the powers that be, and denouncing dam- 
 nation against those that resist the power, applies 
 to the rebels who have waged war against the United 
 States, it applies also to our Revolutionary fathers." 
 
 But the cases are very dissimilar. There were 
 minor questions at issue between the colonies and 
 Great Britain ; the chief questions, however, at 
 issue were taxation and representation, and the 
 right of trial by a jury of the vicinage. Parlia- 
 ment had taxed the colonies without their having 
 any voice or representation in that body, and the 
 British authorities had transported citizens of the 
 colonies to England for trial for alleged offenses in 
 America. Against these wrongs the colonies re- 
 spectfully remonstrated — contending that these acts 
 of the mother country were in violation of the 
 British Constitution ; that taxation and representa- 
 tion were inseparable, and that it was the birthright 
 
ADDRESS. 31 
 
 of every subject of Great Britain to be tried by a 
 jury of the neighborhood in which the offense with 
 which he stood charged was alleged to have been 
 committed; expressing their love and devotion to 
 the mother country, and their wish to remain colo- 
 nial dependents of Great Britain. 
 
 The remonstrances of the colonies against these 
 and other wrongs, and their protestations of love 
 and devotion to the mother country were utterly 
 disregarded by the British authorities. And after 
 a long series of wrongs committed by the mother 
 country against the colonies, the only tendency of 
 which seemed to be to enslave a free people, she 
 actually commenced hostilities against them ; and 
 long after the war had been commenced, like dutiful 
 and affectionate children, they still clung to the 
 mother country, hoping that reason would return 
 and that the mother they loved so well would yet do 
 them justice. And it was not until the mother 
 country had waged war against them for fourteen 
 months and fifteen days, when all hope of reconcili- 
 ation was gone, that the united colonies declared 
 their independence, and took their equal and inde- 
 pendent stand among the nations of the earth. 
 
 But how stands the case with Southern rebels ? 
 Without being able to allege a single wrong done 
 them by the government of the United States, 
 seven cotton states passed their ordinances of seces- 
 sion, declaring their separation from the Union. 
 
32 ADDRESS. 
 
 They, moreover, declared that they 2vanted no com- 
 promise ; that give them a carte blanche and let them 
 ivrite their own terms and they would not accept them; 
 that they wanted no farther union with the North. 
 And some of them said that they had been plotting 
 the scheme of secession for thirty, and others said 
 for forty, years. And while the government at 
 Washington was waiting for a return of reason to 
 the South, Fort Sumter was assailed and taken, 
 Washington was threatened, and it was proclaimed 
 that terms of peace would be dictated in Faneuil 
 Hall in Boston ! 
 
 Where, then, is the analogy between the case of 
 our Revolutionary fathers and Southern rebels ? It 
 is no where. And those who make the comparison 
 dishonor our fathers. The rebels and their sympa- 
 thizers will find a more fitting example in the revolt 
 of Satan and his rebel hosts against the Divine 
 government ! 
 
 But whether our Revolutionary fathers were in- 
 nocent or guilty of a violation of the law of God 
 enjoining submission to the powers that be^ and de- 
 nouncing damnation against those that resist the power, 
 does any one suppose that the American Revolu- 
 tion abrogated that law, and that the governments 
 of this world, ordained by God for the protection 
 and security of human rights, have never been un- 
 der the Divine protection since the Revolutionary 
 War? If so, that was a most unfortunate revolu- 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 33 
 
 tion, and our fathers did very wrong to repeal that 
 law, and leave the suffering nations without any 
 Divine protection ! But if that law is not a dead 
 letter, hut is in full force and vigor, as tvhen first pro- 
 mulgated, as I most certainly believe, then it applies, 
 in all its dreadful import, to the rebels who have waged 
 war against the United States — the most wicked and 
 causeless rebellion known to the annals of time. If it 
 applies not to these guilty men, to whom can it have 
 any possible ap)plication^^ Let those who make the 
 objection anstoer this question. 
 
 But one of our scribes objects, ''that the apostles 
 resisted the powers that be, in that they continued 
 to speak and teach in the name of Jesus after they 
 had been commanded not to do so by a Jewish 
 councill" 
 
 But that in this there was no resistance, any one, 
 who has any knowledge of the meaning of the term, 
 ought to know. It was a simple disregard of an 
 unauthorized command of a Jewish council — a com- 
 mand not only in contravention of the high design 
 of the Mosaic institution, but in direct violation of 
 the will of the divine Author of that institution and 
 of governments among men, and also in direct vio- 
 lation of the terms of the Great Commission which 
 the Messiah had given to those holy men. And 
 when the Lord of all speaks, hushed be the voice of 
 the councils and rulers of this world, and let all the 
 earth hear ! 
 
34 ADDRESS. 
 
 The apostles went straight forward in discharge 
 of the high trust committed to their hands, and un- 
 resistingly suffered such wrongs as wicked rulers 
 might inflict upon them. And to make their su- 
 preme devotion to God and to the great work of 
 saving a sin-ruined world, amid stripes and impris- 
 onment, obloquy and disgrace, when they lifted not 
 a finger against those who wronged them, an apology 
 for treason, is an insult to the Majesty of heaven 
 and to these godly men. 
 
 But, again, it is objected that '' these brethren 
 have given sufficient evidence of repentance, in that 
 they have returned and resumed their places in 
 their respective congregations." 
 
 This objection confesses the guilt of these breth- 
 ren, and seeks, by a false plea, to shield them from 
 church-discipline. Had they been guilty of drunk- 
 enness, or lying, or stealing, would their taking 
 their seats in their respective congregations, and 
 exercising the privileges of members, be regarded 
 as evidence of repentance, and as satisfying the 
 demands of the violated majesty of the divine law? 
 It might be regarded as heaven- daring presumption, 
 but no one could regard it as evidence of repent- 
 ance and of divine acceptance. If so, Satan him- 
 self ought long since to have been received into the 
 church, for, when the sons of God came to appear 
 before the Lord, Satan came also ! Unfortunately, 
 if this plea is accepted by the church and by these 
 
ADDRESS. 35 
 
 guilty men, in closing the door against church-dis- 
 cipline, it closes the door also against repentance, 
 and consequently against divine forgiveness, and 
 consigns these unfortunate men to the dreadful 
 doom denounced against them by the law of God. 
 
 But I am told that " these men do not feel that tlicy 
 have done any ivrongJ' Then tliey are given over 
 that they may believe a lie that they may he damned, 
 because they believe not the truths but have i^leasure 
 in uni'ighteousness. Like David, they have greatly 
 sinned, but like him, they feel not their guilt. 0, 
 for a Nathan to show them their sins that they may 
 repent and that God may forgive them ! 
 
 But it is urged in bar of any church action in the 
 cases of these brethren, that " large numbers of 
 young men, in many neighborhoods, were pressing 
 into the rebel armies, or otherwise aiding and abet- 
 ting the rebellion, and that church members were 
 carried away by the popular excitement, as by a 
 flood, and swept into the rebellion T' 
 
 Do numbers justify iniquity or sanctify treason 
 against the government either of God or man ? Can 
 numbers change the moral character of actions, and 
 make evil good or good evil ? If so, the whole ante- 
 deluvian world, instead of becoming guilty before 
 God, ought from their numbers to have become 
 innocent, and therefore should have been spared 
 instead of being swept from the face of existence 
 (except Noah and his family, faithful among the 
 
6b ADDRESS. 
 
 faithless), by the mighty waters of the deluge. If 
 the highest crime known to the laws of God and 
 man, when committed by church members, is to be 
 suffered to pass even without rebuke by the church 
 on account of the numbers engaged in the sin, why 
 not receive all the world into the church on account 
 of their numbers, though stained with every imagin- 
 able sin, because the vast majority are rebels against 
 God? Surely, if the most flagrant sin is to be 
 tolerated on account of the numbers engaged in it, 
 minor sins, a fortiori, ought to be tolerated upon the 
 same principle ; and thus would the Church of 
 Christ soon become a synagogue of Satan ! I know 
 a church in Kentucky where a young lady was 
 separated from the church for dancing a little at a 
 social party, but where red-handed rebel church- 
 members, fresh from fields of slaughter, are received 
 back into the church without the least admonition. 
 If numbers are held by churches as sanctifying sin, 
 what a melancholy exhibition does it present of the 
 frailty of those who would be governed by the 
 Bible ! The precept of the great Hebrew lawgiver, 
 " Thou shall not follow a muUilude to do evil,^^ is for- 
 gotten. Do not the churches that receive these 
 guilty men without reproof become partakers of 
 their sins, and involve themselves with them in one 
 common ruin ? 
 
 Why luere vast midiitudes of the Jewish nation cut 
 off, and others plucked up and sold into slavery 
 
ADDRESS. 37 
 
 among the nations for putting to death the Great 
 Messiah f But few of the Jews were actually con- 
 cerned in that judicial murder, and very few actually 
 concerned in it were living at the time that awful 
 punishment overtook that guilty nation. Why, 
 then, did the nation suffer for the act of a few ? It 
 was because the nation approved the act of the few^ 
 ayid thereby assumed and incurred their guilt. Let 
 the churches, therefore, beware how they receive 
 into their bosom these guilty men, lest they thereby 
 assume their guilt, and subject themselves to the 
 same dreadful punishment denounced by the law of 
 God against these rebels. 
 
 But I am told that the terrible denunciation in 
 Rom. xiii, 2, though apparently clothed with all the 
 terrors of the power of Almighty God, is only de- 
 claratory of the punishment, which the political 
 power may inflict if its authority be resisted ! 
 
 And is that all ? Have we here the anomaly of 
 a Divine law without any Divine sanction or penal- 
 ty — a Divine law with a merely human penalty ! 
 And has Divine justice no demands upon the offend- 
 ers, because the Divine law, in these cases, has only 
 a human sanction ; and must these cases for the 
 want of a Divine penalty, all be referred for final 
 adjudication to the uncertain justice of mere human 
 tribunals ! What a wide door this opens into hea- 
 ven for the bloodiest wretches that ever afflicted our 
 race ! Traitors then, may uproot the very founda- 
 
38 ADDRESS. 
 
 tions of society, may resist the ordinance of God, 
 may oppose and slay His ministers, who are waiting 
 upon the public interests, may deluge the whole land 
 in blood, and cover the face of society with a dark 
 pall of nameless sorrow, and yet go for ever un- 
 whipped of Divine justice ; because forsooth, the 
 Divine law prohibiting these dreadful sins, by some 
 strange oversight, has no Divine but only a human 
 sanction ! — and if they have been guilty of the vio- 
 lation of no other Divine law, they have an open 
 door to heaven ; and if human justice should over- 
 take them, and send them out of the world by a 
 halter, it w^ould only hasten their entrance into the 
 realms of endless bliss, though their hands and gar- 
 ments are dripping with innocent blood ! Does any 
 but a madman believe this ? Does any one suppose 
 that these bloody handed traitors, who have brought 
 upon the American people more than an Iliad of 
 woes, can without thorough repentance and reform- 
 ation of life, escape the damnation of hell. I say 
 this in mercy, — desiring their repentance that they 
 may be saved. Knowing the terrors of the Lord I 
 warn them of their danger, and I would be unfaith- 
 ful to my high trust as a Christian minister, if I did 
 not do it. 
 
 But I am asked: ^^ A7'e yoic a coercionist ? Bo you 
 believe in coercion '? '' 
 
 Who asks these questions? The highwayman; 
 who has robbed a traveler of his watch, and sets 
 
ADDRESS. 39 
 
 upon him to coerce him into a surrender of his 
 pocket book! The traveler impelled by the in- 
 stincts of self-preservation, defends himself against 
 the murderous assault of the highwayman, and 
 when the highwayman begins to sink beneath his 
 sturdy and well directed blows, he cries out : " Are 
 you a coercio7iist f Do you believe in coercion f JSoiv 
 2vho is the coercionist here? It is the hightvayman, 
 who had robbed the traveler of his watch — attempt- 
 ed to coerce him into a surrender of his pocket 
 book ; and was only prevented from succeeding in 
 his eifort at coercion, by the superior prowess of the 
 traveler. And he ought to be very thankful that he 
 got off with his life, and escaped the penitentiary. 
 
 But it is not the highwayman, who asks these 
 questions ; but criminals infinitely more guilty than 
 he. It is traitors of the most crimson die. He 
 attempted the life of a single traveler, they at- 
 tempted the life of the great Republic of America. 
 As the life then of this great nation, is to the life 
 of one man, so is the guilt of these rebels to the 
 guilt of the highwayman. They had passed seces- 
 sion ordinances, had seized upon the mint of the 
 United States at New Orleans, and upon all the 
 forts, arsenals, custom houses, arms, dock yards, 
 etc., of the United States, Avithin their power, and 
 held them in hostility to the United States. They 
 had raised large armies, and had actually commenced 
 war against the United States to coerce them into a 
 
40 ADDRESS. 
 
 surrender of all the slave states, and as much of the 
 territory of the United States as possible, that they 
 might organize them into a separate and indepen- 
 dent confederacy ; when the government and loyal 
 people of the United States, impelled by the common 
 instincts of self-preservation, accept the gage of 
 battle thus forced upon them and defend their sacred 
 rights and the life of the nation against the bloody 
 assaults of these armed traitors, with a vigor and a 
 prowess that cause the armed hosts of the rebellion 
 to stagger and reel beneath their heavy and well 
 directed blows, and that send their thinned and 
 broken columns flying in dismay before the victori- 
 ous American eagle; when defeat and disaster 
 thicken upon them and fill them with terror and 
 dismay, they lift up their bloody hands, and, as if 
 with holy horror, exclaim : " Ar-e you coercionists F 
 I}o you believe m coercion? " 
 
 JVoiv ivJio are the coercionists in this case ? Every 
 right minded man must anstver, the rebels are the 
 coercionists. They sought to coerce the government 
 and loyal people of the United States into an ac- 
 quiescence in the dismemberment of the Republic. 
 The loyal portion of the community fought purely 
 in self-defense ; and as soon as the rebels desisted 
 from their efforts to dismember the Republic, the 
 war ceased. If the rebels failed in their efforts at 
 coercion, it was only because they were over- 
 matched by the loyal portion of the American peo- 
 
ADDRESS. 41 
 
 pie, and beaten in the conflict which they themselves 
 had commenced — for the mad purposes of coercion 
 and dismemberment. But, says one: ^'Tou whipped 
 us, and compelled us to submit to your Yankee rule ; 
 and I call that coercion." Yes, when you forced 
 us into the conflict, we intended to give you a sound 
 thrashing — compel you to sul)mit to the government 
 of the United States, and, if possible, to make de- 
 cent citizens of you. 
 
 But these rebels tell us all that they asked was to 
 be let alone. A very modest request truly ! why 
 all that any pirate, rogue or highAvayman asks, is to 
 be let alone in his robbery, bloodshed and devasta- 
 tion. And all these rebels modestly ask, is to be 
 let alone in their diabolical work of plundering and 
 dismembering the great American Republic ! I 
 greatly marvel at this surpassing modesty ! And 
 they think it very hard that they were compelled to 
 desist from this mad enterprise — well, I suppose : 
 
 JVb rogue ever felt the halter draiv, 
 With good opinion of the laic. 
 
 But these rebels ought to feel very thankful that 
 their lives have been spared, and that they are gra- 
 ciously permitted to live in a country, whose soil 
 they have wantonly reddened with the blood of half 
 a million of slaughtered countrymen. In penitence 
 and deep humility may they seek forgiveness of God, 
 of the churches of which any of them may be mem- 
 bers, and of the American people against all of 
 4 
 
42 ADDRESS. 
 
 Avhom they have so greatly offended ; and may they 
 thus find forgiveness and acceptance ; and may we 
 all strive together for the glory of God, the good 
 and happiness of each other, and the honor of the 
 American name, that the sun of freedom may en- 
 lighten all the nations of the earth, and that all kin- 
 dreds, tribes and peoples may rejoice in its beams and 
 in the beams of that better sun — the sun of right- 
 eousness. 
 
 But, again, it is objected that " the institution of 
 slavery was menaced by the incoming administration 
 of Mr. Lincoln ; that the South went to war to save 
 the institution from being overthrown, and the fact 
 that it has been overthrown shows that their appre- 
 hensions were well founded. 
 
 This is a palpable noii-sequitur. The Republican 
 party expressly disavowed in their platform any 
 purpose or authority to interfere with slavery where 
 it existed, and simply declared it to be their purpose 
 to oppose its farther extension ; and notwithstand- 
 ing the Republican Congress of 1860 and 1861 had 
 been elected to oppose the further extension of 
 slavery, yet they passed laws for the organization 
 of several new territories, and in each of those laws 
 they not only did not prohibit slavery from going into 
 the territory, but as a peace-offering to the South, 
 expressly prohibited the territorial legislature from 
 interfering w^ith the domestic institutions of the ter- 
 ritory, having direct reference to the security of 
 
ADDRESS. 43 
 
 slave property in the territories. And Mr. Lincoln, 
 " one of the most upright of Chief-Magistrates," was 
 very reluctant to interfere with slavery, and it was 
 only when the life of the nation seemed to hang trem- 
 bling in the balance, and the alternative arose whether 
 the nation or slavery should perish, that Mr. Lincoln, 
 with a somewhat hesitating and reluctant hand, struck 
 the blow that sent the colossal evil, that had so long 
 disturbed the public peace, reelhig down to the dust. 
 And as a war-measure the right to do so was un- 
 questionable. The war-power of the Ignited States 
 involves the right and the duty of national preserva- 
 tion, and overrides every barrier that stands in the 
 wa.y of saving the nation from disruption or destruc- 
 tion. Pending the adoption of the Constitution of 
 the United States, it was objected that the war- 
 power under the Constitution was unlimited, and, 
 therefore, dangerous to the liberties of the people. 
 To this the immortal Alexander Hamilton replied: 
 ^' The circumstances that endanger the safety of na- 
 tions are infinite ; and for this reason no constitu- 
 tional shackles can wisely be imposed on the power 
 to which the care of it is committed. This power 
 ought to be co-extensive with all possible combina- 
 tions of such circumstances ; and ought to be under 
 the direction of the same councils which are ap- 
 pointed to preside over the common defense. 
 
 " This is one of those truths which to a correct 
 and unprejudiced mind carries its own evidence 
 
44 ADDRESS. 
 
 along with it, and may be obscured, but can not be 
 made plainer by argument or reasoning. It rests 
 upon axioms as simple as they are universal — the 
 means ought to be proportioned to the end; persons 
 from whose agency the attainment of any end is ex- 
 pected, ought to possess the means by which it is to 
 be attained." 
 
 And James Madison, called the father of the 
 Constitution, upon the same subject says: ''With 
 what color of propriety could the force necessary 
 for defense be limited by those who can not limit 
 the force of offense. . . . The means of secu- 
 rity can only be regulated by the means and danger 
 of attack. They will, in fact, be ever determined 
 by these rules, and by no others. It is in vain to 
 oppose constitutional barriers to the impulse of self- 
 preservation. It is worse than in vain, because it 
 plants in the Constitution itself necessary usurpa- 
 tions of power." 
 
 Here, then, is a power granted by the American 
 people themselves in their national Constitution — a 
 power limited only by the national resources and 
 the laws of civilized warfare. It follows, therefore, 
 as a necessary corollary to the above axiomatic 
 truths, that the government that is clothed Avith this 
 tremendous power for the protection and defense of 
 the nation against all enemies, both foreign and do- 
 mestic, may slay such enemies in battle — may wrest 
 from them their arms, their munitions of war, their 
 
ADDRESS. 45 
 
 means of subsistence, or any other means which 
 strengthen their hands or enable them to do mis- 
 chief. The government may also, as an element of 
 power, manumit the slaves of the nation, and may 
 arm them to fight against the common enemy; and, 
 as a means of weakening the enemy and of increas- 
 ing their own strength, they may emancipate his 
 slaves and arm them to fight against him. 
 
 All these principles had been settled long before 
 our late civil war, and are, indeed, coeval with wars 
 among men. They were settled by the Revolution- 
 ary war. Great Britain in that war issued a pro- 
 clamation of emancipation, and the result was the 
 emancipation of some thirty thousand slaves (I be- 
 lieve) belonging to the colonies. And our govern- 
 ment emancipated quite a number of slaves, who 
 had fought for us in that great struggle, together 
 with their families. The same great questions were 
 again settled by the Congress of the United States 
 at the close of the late war with Great Britain, and 
 also in the Florida war. Negroes, as war-measures, 
 were emancipated in both these wars. Claims for 
 them were brought by their masters in both in- 
 stances before Congress, and in both instances Con- 
 gress decided that the emancipation of the slaves 
 were legitimate war-measures, and that the owners 
 were, therefore, not entitled to any compensation 
 tliough their loyalty was unquestionable. 
 
 France, as a war-measure, emancipated the slaves 
 
46 AUURESS. 
 
 of San Domingo, and it was tlie attempt to re- 
 enslave them, that led to the bloody massacre there. 
 The right therefore of the government of the 
 United States to emancipate the slaves of the states 
 in rebellion, as a just and legitimate war measure, 
 rests upon truths as obvious and well settled, as the 
 right to repel and overthrow a public enemy. But 
 there is another reason why the government had a 
 right to strike down slavery. Slavery had been 
 arrayed against the government as a public enemy, 
 and menaced the very existence of the nation ; the 
 nation therefore had a right to strike it down as a 
 measure of public safety. But, again, the rebels 
 made slavery the prize for which they fought, and 
 having lost in the game of war, they are bound as 
 honorable sportsmen to give it up. They appealed 
 to the arbitrament of the sword, and the decision is 
 against them. Well they have given it up. They 
 have abolished slavery in all their new constitutions. 
 They have been converted into abolitionists ! The 
 hard arguments of northern abolitionists have con- 
 verted them to their new gospel ! — and it is marvel- 
 ous in our eyes ! It looks very much like the dawn 
 of the millennium ; for nations, (or rather states) are 
 born in a day ! I hope that these latter d;iy saints 
 will fellowship their northern abolition brethren, and 
 that we shall not have an abolition church north, 
 and an abolition^*, church south, but that all may 
 belong to one common communion ! 
 
ADDRESS. 47 
 
 But it is farther objected: "If cliurcli members 
 who have been engaged in the rebellion be dealt 
 with by the churches, church members who have 
 defended the life of the nation against these and 
 other rebels, who attempted its destruction, must 
 also be dealt with. 
 
 This objection is raised not as a w^eapon of offense, 
 to smite alike both rebel and Union soldiers, but as 
 a shield, to protect rebels from church discipline. 
 It may shelter them from the discipline of the church, 
 but can not shelter them from the judgments which 
 God has denounced against them. And if they 
 follow these blind guides both must fall into the 
 ditch. "Let God be true, but every man a liar." 
 Though God has enjoined submission to the powers 
 that be, and has denounced damnation against those 
 who resist the power, because in so doing they resist 
 also the ordinance of God, yet this objection levels 
 all distinction between those who obey God and the 
 powers that be, and those who resist all lawful au- 
 thority, both Divine and human. Though God de- 
 nounces damnation against those who resist the 
 power, yet these objectors, like their prototype, tell 
 them they shall not surely be damned. Will they 
 listen to these false teachers, or will they give heed 
 to the voice of God, and turn from the evil of their 
 ^vay — forsake and repudiate their sin — and live ? 
 
 Is the man, who defends himself against the assassin, 
 who attempts his life, as guilty as the assassin ? Is 
 
48 ADDRESS. 
 
 the man who defends his mother against his brother, 
 who attempts her life, as guilty as the matricide ? 
 The patriot who defends the life of his nation 
 against armed traitors, who attempt its destruction, 
 as guilty as the traitors ? Was Peter, who smote 
 oif the ear of the servant of the high priest in de- 
 fense of his Divine Master, as guilty as Judas who 
 delivered him up ? This is the doctrine taught by 
 the defenders and apologists of traitors. They 
 teach the way of death, and I fear me walk it too, 
 from their approval of treason with all its bloody 
 deeds, and the bitter and unchristian spirit which 
 they manifest toward all Union persons. 
 
 I have no space to argue the question, whether 
 Christians may fight for their country or not ; but 
 remark, in passing, that Jesus says to Pilate : " If 
 my kingdom were of this world, then would my 
 servants fight that I should not be delivered to the 
 Jews." 
 
 This language clearly recognizes the right and 
 the duty of the subjects and citizens of the king- 
 doms and governments of this world to fight for 
 their king and government. No exception is made 
 in favor of Christians ; it therefore follows that it is 
 their right and duty to fight when their country 
 demands their services; and especially when their 
 heritage of freedom and the very existence of the 
 government of their choice, are menaced by legions 
 of armed traitors. 
 
ADDRESS. 49 
 
 But again, the governments of this world are 
 organisms ordained of God for the protection and 
 security of human rights ; and are armed with the 
 sword for the maintenance of their existence, the 
 enforcement of their authority, and the protection 
 and security of their rights. 
 
 The violence and injustice which have rendered 
 necessary the governments of this world, have made 
 the sword an instrument essential to their existence, 
 and to the accomplishment of the great ends for 
 which God ordained them. And in an aggressive 
 world like ours, if any nation could be guilty of the 
 folly of dispensing with the sword, it would utterly 
 ftiil of the great ends for which God ordained gov- 
 ernments among men. It would soon fail to execute 
 even civil process, the land would be filled with vio- 
 lence, and the government without an arm to enforce 
 its authority, or protect its existence, would be 
 justly doomed to speedy and utter annihilation. 
 As the sword then is essential to national existence, 
 and to the great ends for which governments are 
 instituted among men ; and to be resorted to when- 
 ever necessary, even in the execution of civil pro- 
 cess ; often in the execution of criminal process ; 
 and when the rights of a nation are trespassed upon 
 by another power, negotiations fail, and her terri- 
 tory is, perhaps, invaded by hostile armies, a resort 
 to arms becomes essential to national existence. 
 The citizens must then fight or the nation perit^h. 
 5 
 
50 ADDRESS. 
 
 In the late bloody civil war through which we have 
 passed, the loyal citizens had to light and overcome 
 the armed hosts of the rebellioDj or suffer the nation 
 to }3erish. 
 
 Now whatever is essential for the citizens of the 
 governments of this world to do, in order to main- 
 tain their existence, or to accomplish the ends for 
 which God ordained them, is right ; and whatever is 
 right may be done by Christians ; it therefore follows 
 that it is the right and the duty of Christians, to 
 fight whenever the government calls upon them to 
 do so, to enforce its authority or to protect, defend 
 and maintain its just rights. 
 
 But again ; may not the servants of God aid his 
 public ministers Avho preside over national affairs in 
 executing the high trust which God has committed 
 to their hands ? and may they not fight to preserve 
 the government which God has ordained for the 
 security of human rights. John was to make ready 
 a people prepared for the Lord. This preparation 
 made them morally fit for the kingdom of the Mes- 
 siah. Now, " The soldiers came to John and de- 
 manded of him, saying, And what shall we do ? And 
 he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither 
 accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages." 
 They were not to be guilty of any acts of personal 
 violence toward each other or tow^ard any of the 
 people, nor to accuse any falsely, as was too often 
 done by soldiers for purposes of gain : and were to 
 
ADDKESS. 51 
 
 be content with their wages. And if thej were to 
 be content with their wages, they were required 
 necessarily to discharge the duties of soldiers for 
 which they received their wages. The important 
 part of which duty was to fight when their country 
 demanded it. Then, according to John, those who 
 had all the moral fitness necessary to Christians 
 might fight as soldiers. 
 
 And Cornelius, one of the best men of his age, 
 was a military Roman officer, commanding a hun- 
 dred men. And when Peter baptized him, there is 
 no intimation that he told him he must resign his 
 commission, that he could no longer be a soldier. 
 Wherefore we conclude that a Christian may be a 
 soldier, and as such may fight for his country. 
 
 But I am told that slavery is a Divine institution, 
 that profane abolitionists meditated its overthrow, 
 and that the pious Southerners fought to save this 
 Divine institution from destruction by Northern 
 infidels ! 
 
 Did these pious devotees of slavery love it so well 
 because they thought they saw the impress of Divin- 
 ity upon it, and did they fight from a zeal for God, 
 lest one of His institutions should be overthrown by 
 the profane hands of abolitionists ? They doubtless 
 believed in the law and the profits, but especially 
 in the profits ! But that American slavery is Di- 
 vine is not altogether clear to my mind ! I have 
 read of wild Africans being torn away from their 
 
52 ADDRESS. 
 
 native forests and sold into slavery in the American 
 colonies, and afterward in the United States of Ame- 
 rica; but that the authors of these proceedings 
 claimed any Divine warrant for what they did, or 
 wrought miracles, as did Moses, to prove that their 
 mission was divine, I never learned ! But I am told 
 that the divine charter for the proceeding is to be 
 found in the ninth chapter of Genesis, and is in the 
 words following, viz: "And he (Noah) said cursed 
 be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto 
 his brethren." 
 
 It strikes me that this is rather a vague charter 
 for the great system of American slavery. It is a 
 somewhat obscure warrant to authorize the arrest of 
 the wild African negro, his transportation to a dis- 
 tant continent, and his sale there into perpetual 
 slavery in the remote ages of the world ! I hardly 
 think the proceeding divine or justified by the 
 Oracle! There are several objections to making 
 the Oracle available in this case. 1. It is not cer- 
 tain that the curse had the divine sanction. 2. If it 
 had, was it limited to Canaan, or was it intended to 
 fall upon Canaan and descend upon his posterity in 
 all time to come? 3. If the last, does it mean that 
 Canaan and all his descendants should be slaves in- 
 dividually and actually, or that they should be infe- 
 rior to their brethren, and less honored than they, 
 as in the case of Esau ? Or, 4. That they should 
 be inferior and subordinate to their brethren in a 
 
ADDRESS. 53 
 
 national point of view? If it meant that they were 
 to be slaves individually and actually, the curse 
 failed in the first ages after it was pronounced, and 
 the right of their cousins to enslave them was lost 
 by non user. For the Canaanites settled in Pales- 
 tine, gave name to the country, and were there as 
 an independent tribe or nation when the Israelites 
 und-er Joshua entered. Many of them were cut off 
 by the Israelites, some enslaved by them, and the 
 others probably became incorporated v/ith the sur- 
 rounding tribes and lost their existence as a sepa- 
 rate tribe or nation. But that any of them were 
 black or ever settled in Africa, history deposes not. 
 All traces of them are lost at quite an early period 
 of Jewish history. What a vast gap of time exists 
 between the last historical vestiges of the Canaan- 
 ites and the wild savage negro of modern Africa ! 
 A hundred generations have gone down in the 
 mighty chasm ! Who shall bridge this vast gulf in 
 which so many nations and generations have disap- 
 peared, and call up from the dread abyss the shades 
 of departed witnesses along the line of the ages to 
 testify that the negro on a South Carolina planta- 
 tion is the veritable descendant of Canaan ? Every 
 link in the chain of title and descent must be filled 
 up, and the negro identified as the true lineal de- 
 scendant of Canaan, or the title, jura divino, must 
 fail. The claimant declares on this oracle, and the 
 negro (waiving all objections arising from the ex- 
 
54 ADDRESS. 
 
 treme improbability that a just God would doom a 
 whole race to bondage through all time on account 
 of a sin committed by the father of their first progeni- 
 tor, and all other objections arising from presump- 
 tions in favor of freedom), pleads that he is not a 
 descendant of Canaan, and throws the onus prohandi 
 upon the plaintiff. 
 
 The genius of justice is called to the judicial 
 bench to decide this litigated case. He calls upon 
 the plaintiff to proceed with his proof. His counsel 
 reads the oracle from Genesis ; and then reads from 
 some old historical work, that some of the descend- 
 ants of Ham settled in Africa. The judge informs 
 him that there are no presumptions in favor of 
 slavery, and that it is not necessary to put a con- 
 struction on Gen. ix, 25, until he proves that the 
 negro, whom he claims as his slave, jure divino^ is 
 the true lineal descendant of Canaan ; that if he 
 could prove even that some of the descendants of 
 Canaan settled in Africa, it could create no pre- 
 sumption against the negro, that the proof must be 
 clear and conclusive ; if one link in the chain of title 
 and of lineage was wanting, the title could not be 
 sustained ! Under this ruling of the court, the 
 counsel for the plaintiff, seeing that he could not 
 establish any divine right to the negro, asked leave 
 of the court to amend his pleadings. 
 
 He then declared on the maxim that might gives 
 right ! — confessing that American slavery Avas made 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 55 
 
 by the American people themselves, and that it 
 originated in cupidity. He also pleaded the usage 
 of ages in its behalf. 
 
 To this declaration the negro pleads his right to 
 life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ; and that 
 wrong might be aggravated by persistence, but never 
 could be made right by usage, — appealing to God 
 and his country. 
 
 The American people have brought in their ver- 
 dict, which is in the words following, viz : " We the 
 jury find for the defendant.^' It is therefore or- 
 dered and adjudged that the negro henceforth and 
 for ever go free. This long litigated case is there- 
 fore forever set at rest by the supreme tribunal of 
 the American people. 
 
 But an apology for treason in a form somewhat 
 new, comes from a son of South Carolina. He says : 
 "And what great crime have the secessionists 
 themselves been guilty of? They believed in that 
 sacred principle set forth in our Declaration of In- 
 dependence, that every people have the right of 
 self-government, and the right to change and alter 
 their form of government as they may see proper. 
 This was the head and front of their offending — 
 nothing more. They expressed their purpose of 
 living separate from the northern States — that was 
 all. They did not seek to invade the north or gov- 
 ern the north. It was not their purpose to wage 
 war against the northern States ; but to live quietly 
 
5G ADDRESS. 
 
 and peaceably by them as neighbors and friends. 
 They had been taught by their greatest statesmen 
 for half a century past, that they had the right to 
 peaceably secede from the Federal Government; 
 and they attempted to exercise this right. That is 
 all. For this attempt they have been conquered 
 and subdued, their property taken from them, and 
 their country desolated." 
 
 This is about as cool audacity and mendacity as 
 mortals usually exhibit. Is this the language of 
 Bedlam or Pandemonium ? Comes it from one be- 
 reft of reason or of conscience? "They believed 
 in that sacred principle set forth in our Doclaration 
 of Independence, that every people have the right 
 of self-government, and the right to change and 
 alter their form of government as they may see 
 proper." Does this apologist for treason deceive 
 himself, or would he deceive others by his fallacies ? 
 In what sense does he use the term " every people ?" 
 Does he mean by this slipshod use of the term, that 
 the people of a neighborhood have the right to 
 secede from the county of which they form a com- 
 ponent part, and erect for themselves an independent 
 government? or that the people of a county have 
 the right to secede from the state to which they be- 
 long, and organize for themselves a separate and 
 independent government? or that the people of a 
 state, or of several states of these United States, 
 have the right, ad lihiUmi, peaceably to secede from 
 
ADDRESS. 57 
 
 the union of these states, and to organize themselves 
 into a separate and independent nation or confeder- 
 acy ? Or that any faction or fraction of a nation 
 may do this ? If any of all these is his meaning, 
 then no man that is not a fit subject for a lunatic 
 asylum can believe it. The doctrine is subversive 
 of all governments among men — makes all written 
 constitutions and laws mere waste paper — re- 
 duces their most solemn provisions and enact- 
 ments to mere counsel or advice, without any power 
 to enforce submission to their injunctions, because 
 those under one jurisdiction to-day, may, to-morrow, 
 by the exercise of this " right of every people to 
 self-goverument," be under a foreign and wholly 
 different jurisdiction. What does it avail to secede 
 and form a new government to-day, for to-morrow 
 it may be dissolved and broken into fragments ? 
 This doctrine would reduce all governments to the 
 mere ephemera of an hour — would make them as 
 changeable as the drifting sands of the Arabian 
 desert. Rebels themselves, though they have the 
 audacity still to preach this doctrine, do not believe 
 it; for in time of the rebellion, when there were 
 some threats that North Carolina would secede from 
 the bogus rebel confederacy, the secessionists them- 
 selves threatened most fiercely to coerce her into 
 submission, if she made any such attempt. 
 
 If the leaders of the rebellion believed that they 
 had a just right peaceably to secede from the 
 
58 ADDRESS. 
 
 "Federal Government," and form a separate and in- 
 dependent confederacy, why did they not take a 
 straightforward, honest course to lead the people 
 into the movement? Why did they resort to lies 
 the most astounding that ever saluted mortal ears, 
 and that must have sounded strangely audacious 
 even to the ears of the father of lies himself? And 
 when every species of fraud and falsehood failed of 
 seducing many into the rebellion, w^hy was the hal- 
 ter so freely resorted to to silence the opposition of 
 numbers to the movement by stopping their breath, 
 and for the farther purpose of creating a reign of 
 terror in order to drive and stampede others into 
 the diabolical enterprise ? These are the proceed- 
 ings of incendiary outlaws in order to accomplish 
 some infernal purpose, and not the proceedings of 
 honest men who are only seeking their just rights. 
 If they believed that " every people had the 
 / right," etc., taking the term in the limited sense of 
 the people of the cotton or Southern states, why 
 did they not submit their secession ordinances to 
 the decision of the people of those states respec- 
 tively through the ballot-box? And when guilty of 
 the sham and falsehood of a pretended submission 
 of the secession ordinance of Tennessee to the vote 
 of the people of Tennessee, why did they declare, 
 " if any man appeared upon the stump to advocate 
 the Union cause, they would shoot him down." 
 The friends of the Union knew that these violent 
 
ADDRESS. 59 
 
 men meant what they said, and though many of 
 them were prepared to die if necessary to save the 
 Union, yet they thought it folly to throw their lives 
 away, and therefore they did not appear upon the 
 stump in advocacy of the cause of the Union, save 
 in East Tennessee, where the Union sentiment was 
 largely in the ascendancy ! And why did they pub- 
 lish in their papers in Tennessee pending the elec- 
 tion, " Mark every man that votes for the Union, and 
 have a cotton rope prepared for himf^ Wliy all 
 this ? It was because the leaders feared " the p)eo- 
 ple,^^ in whose name they pretended to act, lest if 
 permitted to vote and to vote freely, notwithstand- 
 ing all the foul means by which they had sought to 
 mislead them, they would vote down and annul all 
 their secession proceedings. 
 
 " They believed every people had the right," etc. 
 "This was the head and front of their oflfendino-; 
 nothing more." " They expressed their purpose of 
 living separate from the Northern states ;" " that was 
 all." " They did not seek to invade the North," etc., 
 " but to live quietly and peaceably by them as 
 neighbors and friends," etc. And was this all ? 
 Had their declarations that " their rights must be 
 baptized in blood or they would be worth nothing," 
 no meaning? Had their declarations that "blood 
 must be drawn to fire the Southern heart or the 
 whole enterprise would fail, no significancy? If 
 they wished to live in peace with the people of the 
 
60 ADDRESS. 
 
 loyal states, why did tliey raise large armies — assail 
 and take Fort Sumter — while as yet the government 
 at Washington had made no preparation for war ! 
 And when Fort Sumter fell, why did their secretary 
 of war boast that by the first of May their flag- 
 would be flying over the dome of the capital in 
 Washington City, and that they would dictate terms 
 of peace in Faneuil Hall in Boston ? Why had they 
 seized on our forts, and arsenals, and custom- 
 houses, etc., and our mint at New Orleans ? Why 
 did they with a large army menace Washington 
 City? And when Kentucky refused to join her for- 
 tunes to the rotten, bogus concern, why did they 
 declare that " they must have Kentucky though at 
 the price of blood and conquest — that they could 
 not do without her territory?" Was all this 
 nothing ? Did all this simply mean peace ? aind 
 have these secessionists been conquered and sub- 
 dued, their property taken, and their country deso- 
 lated, simply on account of their political faith? 
 No ! it was for their diabolical attempt to overthrow 
 the government of the United States and to dis- 
 member the republic by force of arms, that they 
 have been conquered and subdued. And never, 
 since time began, have rebels so guilty been treated 
 with so much mercy. And what return do they 
 make for the surpassing mercy that has been shown 
 them both by the loyal people and government of 
 the United States ? Why, wdierever they have the 
 
ADDRESS. 61 
 
 power, they ostracize and proscribe all loyal men 
 both in church and state, and fill the pulpits and civil 
 offices either with rebel sympathizers or with unre- 
 pentant rebels — men who have many regrets because 
 they failed to overthrow the government and dis- 
 meinber the republic — but none for their treason? 
 This is too sadly true in my own native and loved 
 Kentucky. With these misguided men Christianity 
 is only a name, an empty sound; neither the autho- 
 rity of God or man seems to possess the power to 
 bind their consciences ! It looks as if some vast 
 demoniacal possession was dragging them down to 
 perdition! Who shall exorcise this spirit of evil 
 whose name is legion ? And yet these men think 
 it very hard and altogether unconstitutional that 
 they should suffer any disability on account of dis- 
 loyalty both to the government of God and of the 
 United States, and for all the woes they have 
 brought upon the country. Woe both to the coun- 
 try and church where such men bear rule ! 
 
 But to return ; every people, when the term is 
 used in its true meaning and comprehension, as 
 comprising a nation ought to have the right of self- 
 government and the right to change and alter their 
 form of government whenever the nation, the sole 
 and legitimate judge in the premises, shall in its 
 aggregate capacity think proper to do so, after due 
 deliberation. But the people of a great nation like 
 the people of the United States, with a written con- 
 
62 ADDRESS. 
 
 stitution, to which all the people of all the states 
 are parties, are bound by the provisions of the con- 
 stitution while it remains unchanged. And if the 
 constitution like that of the United States contains 
 provisions for its alteration or amendment, alter- 
 ations or amendments can only be made by the 'people 
 — in manner and form as prescribed in the consti- 
 tution. To this manner, and to this manner alone, 
 the people and the whole people are bound and lim- 
 ited by their solemn compact, to which every citizen 
 is a party, and which every one is bound by more 
 than the solemnities of an ordinary oath faithfully 
 and religiously to observe. 
 
 But this apologist for traitors appeals to " the 
 Declaration of our Independence." To that Dec- 
 laration then let us go. The one people there 
 spoken of were the people of the thirteen united 
 colonies. And it was in the name and by the au- 
 thority of the good people of these colonies, that 
 their representatives in Congress assembled, de- 
 clared their independence, and for the reasons and 
 purposes stated in said Declaration. 
 
 That Declaration, penned by Thomas Jefferson, 
 called the father of Democracy, declares "that all 
 men are created equal ; that they are endowed by 
 their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that 
 among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness ; that to secure these rights governments 
 are instituted among men." It was because the 
 
ADDRESS. 63 
 
 British government had become destructive of these 
 great ends, and with a view of securing them by 
 instituting a new form of government, that the good 
 people of the colonies, after many long years of 
 oppression, declared their independence. 
 
 This is a reason and purpose somewhat different 
 from the reason and the purpose, which impelled 
 the Scruth to attempt to separate themselves from 
 the Union. Their avowed purpose was to institute 
 a new form of government, whose chief corner stone 
 should not be freedom, but slavery, with a view of 
 perpetuating the bondage of four millions of human 
 beings and their posterity, in all time to come, lest, 
 peradventure, if they remained in the Union, the 
 government of the United States might in some 
 remote and possible contingency, overthrow slavery, 
 though such purpose was positively disavowed. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson the author of the Declaration 
 of Independence, in declaring that all men are cre- 
 ated equal, etc., meant what he said and said what 
 he meant; — for though under the circumstances 
 himself a slave-holder, yet in principle he w^as 
 strongly anti-slavery : — and in the draft of the Dec- 
 laration which he presented to Congress, one of the 
 grievances of the colonies complained of, was the 
 introduction and perpetuation of slavery in said 
 colonies by the mother country. This item was 
 struck out by the pro-slavery party in Congress. 
 The reference therefore to our Declaration of lude- 
 
64 ADDRESS. 
 
 pendence as authority for the slaveholders' rebellion 
 to perpetuate slavery, is most unfortunate. Mr. 
 Jefferson afterward speaking of the wrongs of 
 slavery, remarked : '' When I remember that God is 
 just, I tremble for my country." Where is the man 
 with a heart in his bosom that does not rejoice that 
 these children of unrequited toil are free ? And as 
 their unpaid toil has contributed so largely to our 
 national wealth, who does not feel like lending them 
 a helping hand to elevate them in the scale of being ? 
 And do not their Avonderful powers of imitation, 
 which enable them not only to adopt the customs of 
 the white man, but his color also, prove their capa- 
 bility of rising in the world, and attest their claims 
 to freedom ! 
 
 But the stereotyped objection, that has been 
 iterated and reiterated a thousand times, is still 
 urged : " Oh, the rebels have suffered enough ; why 
 should they be stricken any more?" How much 
 more have they suffered than the loyal people? 
 Have any more of them fallen in battle, died of 
 wounds, or died of disease contracted in the army ? 
 Not a great many more, I apprehend. In these re- 
 spects, the sufferings are probably nearly equal. But 
 Avhen we take into consideration the dreadful suffer- 
 ings of our soldiers in the prison-pens of the South, 
 exposed on open grounds, alike in sunshine and 
 storm — winter, spring, summer and autumn — with- 
 out tents, without blankets, without overcoats (for 
 
ADDRESS. 65 
 
 these, if thej had any, had been taken from them by 
 the rebels), and generally with very scanty ordinary 
 wearing apparel, without suitable water to drink, 
 and with less than half rations, and these generally 
 of an inferior quality — and when food and clothing 
 were sent them by our government, even these god- 
 sends were, by the keepers of these abodes of death, 
 denied to these prisoners, sinking, daily sinking, by 
 slow torture from starvation and exposure to all 
 weathers, until the tardy messenger of death came 
 at last to release them from their dreadful sufferings! 
 The history of the most salvage tribes of men fur- 
 nishes no instances of equal cruelty to prisoners, 
 not even that of the Thugs of India, the Bushmen of 
 Africa, or that of the savages of the Fejee Islands. 
 They have tortured their prisoners, but no instances 
 of such protracted and cruel torture of prisoners of 
 war was ever known before. Mind and body often 
 sunk together, until the mind was blotted out, and 
 the skeleton form reduced to utter helplessness, 
 when death came at last to the relief of the wretched 
 victim of this more than savage barbarity. And in 
 one instance at least, in the prison-pen at Ander- 
 sonville, in Georgia, when these skeleton forms were 
 called up right on the verge of the dead-line, to get 
 some thing to eat, the poor fellows hobbled up to 
 partake of the scanty meal, three or four accident- 
 ally passed the dead-line, and were all instantly run 
 through with a bayonet, by one of the keepers, and 
 6 
 
66 ADDRESS. 
 
 cruellv murdered. When the terrible sufferinors of 
 these persons, ^yhora the fortunes of war placed in 
 the hands of the enemy, and who were thus mur- 
 dered, by slow torture, from exposure and starva- 
 tion, to the number of more than sixty thousand, 
 are taken into consideration, the actual sufferings 
 of the rebels bear no proportion to those of the 
 loyal people. And as for the loss of property, apart 
 from the negro, the difference is not worthy of any 
 contention. And as to that loss, it will ultimately 
 be found by the South, as well as the North, to be 
 great gain. 
 
 AYhat sense, then, is there in the objection, '* Oh, 
 the rebels have suffered enough ?'' There is not one 
 particle of sense or reason in it. "A fellow feeling" 
 makes those w^ho preach this doctrine "wondrous 
 kind." But have they been reformed by the suffer- 
 ings they have brought upon themselves and the 
 country at large? What indemnity have we for the 
 past, and what security that they will keep the peace 
 in future? If they are not reformed by their suffer- 
 ings — not purified of treason by the fiery ordeal 
 through which they have passed, why should the 
 objection be eternally rung in our ears, even by 
 those who wish to be thought loyal, " Oh, they have 
 suffered enough ?" 
 
 God pardons not sinners, except upon repentance, 
 and it were well if political rulers would profit by 
 Divine wisdom. The proclamation has gone forth 
 
ADDRESS. 67 
 
 from the Throne of God to the ends of the earth, to 
 sinners of every shade and of every dye, '' Except 
 ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." They must 
 forsake their sins, and be prepared, as fast as possi- 
 ble, to make amends for the wrongs they have done, 
 before they can obtain pardon from the merciful and 
 all-wise Ruler of the Universe. Any other course 
 would overthrow the Divine government; and any 
 other course toward rebels and other oifenders must 
 impair the authority of our State and national gov- 
 ernment, and endanger the safety of both — espe- 
 cially to restore to rebels the right of suffrage and 
 of holding ofiice, while they are yet reeking with 
 treason, and with their blood-red hands unwashid by CL^ 
 a single penitential tear. To pardon such persons, 
 and restore to them the ballot, w^hile their hearts are 
 all festering with the leprosy of treason, bodes evil, 
 and only evil, to our country. It is to enable them 
 to accomplish by the ballot what they have failed to 
 accomplish by the bayonet — namely, the ruin of our 
 country. Would you put a fire-brand into the hand 
 of an incendiary that he may set your house on fire ? 
 Would you replace the dagger in the hand of the 
 midnight assassin, who had just attempted your life, 
 and whom, with great difiiculty, you had overpow- 
 ered and disarmed? And will you replace either the 
 ballot or the bayonet in the hands of the assassins 
 who have attempted the life of the nation ? Will 
 you again intrust the fortunes of the ship of state, 
 
08 ADDRESS. 
 
 the noblest craft that ever plowed the ocean of time, 
 to those desperate men who mutinied, attempted to 
 overpower the crcAV — to scuttle and sink the noble 
 ship in mid ocean, with her crew and precious freight, 
 with the vain hope that they themselves could es- 
 cape the general wreck and ruin on a miserable 
 raft ? He who could give or take such advice is a 
 monster or a maniac. 
 
 But, alas ! the remark of the great Pettigru, of 
 South Carolina, might w^ith too much truth be ap- 
 plied to other states than that. A gentleman, visit- 
 ing Charleston, asked him the way to the lunatic 
 asylum ; he replied, " Go any way you please, you 
 can't miss it in South Carolina !" As these despe- 
 rate men are hasting to obtain pardon, let them 
 make haste to give evidence of thorough repentance 
 and reformation of life ; and when they are purified 
 from the leprosy of treason, and make amends for 
 their crimes as far as possible, then, and then only, 
 can they be safely pardoned and restored to the 
 privilege of ballot and of office. 
 
 And how can the church forgive them until they 
 shall have forsaken and repudiated their sin and 
 done works meet for repentance ! Till then, for the 
 church to pardon them or wink at the great sins 
 they have committed, could only tend to lull theui 
 into false security, and to seal their everlasting over- 
 throw. For every Bible reader, not morally de- 
 mented by treason, knows that damnation is Avritteii 
 
ADDRESS. 69 
 
 down against these men by the hand of inspiration, 
 and that without repentance God can never pardon 
 them. And why shouhl the government pardon 
 them and restore them to their rights? For if any 
 opportunity should ever occur to overthrow the 
 government by the sword or by the ballot, Avhile 
 treason yet rankles in their bosoms, they will strike 
 for its destruction. It will happen to them accord- 
 ing to the true proverb — " The dog is turned to his 
 own vomit again, and the sow that was washed, to 
 her wallowing in the mire." 
 
 When they come back, like the prodigal son, with 
 repentance in their hearts and the language of deep 
 contrition upon their lips, " Father, I have sinned 
 against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more 
 worthy to be called thy son, make me as one of thy 
 hired servants;" when they come thus penitent and 
 self-abased, then, and not till then, will God pardon 
 them ; and then, and only then, can they be safely 
 restored to their privileges either in church or 
 state. 
 
 The prodigal son and Zaccheus are genuine cases 
 of repentance. " Half my goods," said the penitent 
 Zaccheus, ' will I give to the poor, and if I have 
 defrauded any one by unjust accusation, I Avill 
 restore fourfold." When the rebels shall give half 
 their goods to the families that have been impover- 
 ished by the war they have waged against the 
 country, and shall restore fourfold to those they 
 
70 ADDRESS. 
 
 have injured, tlien God -will pardon tliem, and both 
 church and state may then forgive them, and restore 
 them to their former privileges; but until they are 
 sorry enough for the past, to make amends for the 
 wrongs they have done, it were better both for 
 church and state, to keep them on probation. 
 
 But it is farther objected, " that these breth- 
 ren and their confederates in arms, are not guilty 
 of treason, thouo;h the latter waged war acTainst the 
 United States, and the former both asjainst the 
 United States and their respective states ; because 
 they fought in vindication of the state rights of the 
 South, rights that had been left unsettled by the 
 Constitution of the United States." 
 
 '' These men not guilty of treason !" Then the 
 framers of the Constitution of the United States, 
 and all law writers and legislators of ancient and 
 modern times, have mistaken the nature of treason. 
 The Constitution of the United States defines trea- 
 son against the United States, to consist in " levying 
 war against them, or adhering to their enemies — 
 giving them aid and comfort " — the very crime that 
 these men have committed, as the tread of ndghty 
 armies, and the dreadful shock of battle, that have 
 shaken the continent, and devastated the country 
 too sadly attest. 
 
 But " it was the states' rights of the South for 
 which these men fought, rights that had been left 
 unsettled by the Constitution of the United States." 
 
ADDRESS. 71 
 
 What rio'lits of the Southern states had been as- 
 sailed, or invaded ? Had not the general govern- 
 ment most carefully guarded ever}^ right of the 
 Southern states. And did not the Republican Con- 
 gress of 1860 and 1861, both Senate and House of 
 Representatives, pass, almost unanimously, an act 
 intended to be incorporated into the Constitution of 
 the United States — providing that slavery in the 
 states should never be interfered with by the govern- 
 ment of the United States, without the consent of 
 all the states, and which nothing but secession, per- 
 sisted in, prevented from being incorporated into 
 the Constitution of the United Stp.tes, and becoming 
 a part and parcel of that instrument ? And that 
 very Congress passed several acts — organizing new 
 territories, in all of Avhich provisions were made 
 that the territorial legislatures should pass no laws 
 interfering with the domestic institutions of the 
 territories, — looking directly to the protection of 
 slavery, in the territories — another concession, as a 
 peace offering to the South, to quiet the very sen- 
 sitive slave interest. And Yancey and Mason pro- 
 claimed to France and England, that the government 
 of the United States was pro-slavery, and that they 
 could obtain for slavery any guarantee they might 
 demand. And Alexander Stephens told the South 
 that though in the minority, they had always had a 
 majority of the offices of the United States — exec- 
 utive, cabinet, judicial, consular, diplomatic, etc. — 
 
72 ADDRESS. 
 
 that they had always controlled the government, 
 and could continue to do it ; and that there was no 
 just cause for the rebellion — if they seceded and 
 involved the country in war, a proclamation of 
 emancipation would probably come, slavery would 
 be overthrown, and the whole South would be devas- 
 tated by hostile armies ; and that for the ruin they 
 would bring upon their country the names of those 
 engaged in it would be execrated to the latest ages. 
 " The state rights of the South ! " The right, as 
 they claimed, to secede and resume their separate 
 and independent sovereignty ? Resume their sepa- 
 rate and independent sovereignty ! This right, only 
 existed in nuhihus^ in the clouds, for certainly, it 
 never had any existence on earth, nor could it pos- 
 sibly have ; for the very good and valid reason, that 
 these states had never enjoyed any separate and 
 independent sovereignty ; and therefore, could not 
 resume that, which they had never assuyned. The 
 thirteen colonies were colonial dependents of Great 
 Britain, until they united to secure their indepen- 
 dence of the mother countr3^ It was as United 
 States, they declared their independence — as United 
 States they fought together the battles of the Revo- 
 lution, and gained their independence. And it was 
 only in Union that they could have succeeded in 
 securing their independence. Louisiana was subject 
 to France, until she was acquired by treaty, and 
 became a territory of the United States ; and Flor- 
 
ADDRESS. 73 
 
 ick was subject to Spain, until she, too, was acquired 
 by treaty, and passed under the jurisdiction of the 
 United States ; and the others were territories, 
 under the pupilage of the government of the United 
 States, until admitted into the Union as states. 
 Texas is the only state in the Union that ever enjoyed 
 a separate and independent sovereignty ; and that 
 was surrendered by her for ever, when she joined 
 the great sisterhood of the United States. But 
 even if these states had enjoyed separate and inde- 
 pendent sovereignties, they were merged and lost 
 in the Union upon the adoption of the Constitution 
 of the United States. For the language of the 
 Constitution is: "We the people of the United 
 States, in order to form a more perfect union ; es- 
 tablish justice ; insure domestic tranquillity ; provide 
 for the common defense; promote the general wel- 
 fare; and secure the blessings of liberty to our- 
 selves and posterity, do ordain and establish this 
 Constitution, for the United States of America." 
 How could language more clearly declare a national 
 government, in contradistinction to a league, or 
 federation of states ? The inherent and incurable 
 vices of all confederacies of states, where the ordi- 
 nances of the federal government operate upon 
 states as such, instead of upon individuals, had 
 become sufficiently manifest under the old articles 
 of the confederation ; and therefore the people, the 
 source and fountain of all political power, formed a 
 7 
 
74 ADDRESS. 
 
 national government, by making and adopting a 
 national Constitution, under which the laws of the 
 United States operate upon individuals, and are en- 
 forced by the arm of the civil magistrate, except in 
 ~fcase of insurrection or rebellion. 
 
 Under the old Articles of Confederation, the laws 
 or ordinances of the United States operated upon 
 states in their organized capacity, instead of on indi- 
 viduals, and it was in reference to that state of things, 
 under the old Confederacy, that Mr. Madison re- 
 marked that the federal government had no power to 
 coerce a state (or a sovereign state). Buchanan, in his 
 message of December, 1860, quotes this remark of Mr. 
 Madison in reference to the powers of the old de- 
 funct Confederacy, and misapplies it to the powers 
 of the government of the United States under the. 
 present Constitution. Mr. Jefferson was at issue 
 with Mr. Madison on this (piestion. He argued 
 that the government of the United States, under 
 that order of things, had the power or authority to 
 coerce a state; that the power or authority existed 
 from the very necessity of the case, otherwise the 
 laws or ordinances of the federal government would 
 be mere counsel or advice. These great statesmen 
 diff*ered on that question ; but as to the power or 
 authority of the government of the United States, 
 under the present Constitution, to coerce a state, 
 or the people of a state, that may resist the author- 
 ity of the government, the power or authority to do 
 
ADDRESS. 75 
 
 SO lias never been called in question until very re- 
 cently, and that by rebels (and their sympathizers) 
 to shield them from the just penalty of the law, and 
 from that infamy to which their guilt justly consigns 
 them. 
 
 The government of the United States is, by the 
 present Constitution, clothed with all the great and 
 essential attributes of sovereignty : " The power to 
 borrow money on the credit of the United States ; 
 To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and 
 among the several states, and with the Indian 
 tribes; To establish a uniform, rule of naturaliza- 
 tion ; and uniform laws on the subject of bankrupt- 
 cies throughout the United States ; To coin money, 
 regulate the value thereoT, and of foreign coin, and 
 fix the standard of weights and measures ; To pro- 
 vide for the punishment of counterfeiting the secu- 
 rities and current coin of the United States ; To 
 establish post offices and post roads ; To define and 
 punish piracies and felonies committed on the high 
 seas, and offenses against the law of nations ; To 
 declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, 
 and make rules concerning captures on land and 
 water ; To raise and support armies : To provide 
 and maintain a navy ; To make rules for the gov- 
 ernment and regulation of the land and naval forces ; 
 To provide for calling forth the militia to execute 
 the laws of the Union, to suppress insurrections, 
 and repel invasions;" To make treaties with other 
 
76 ADDRESS. 
 
 nations : with all the other great and essential pow- 
 ers pertaining to national sovereignty. Now, the 
 granting of these powers to the national govern- 
 ment, by the people of the United States, denies 
 them to the states by necessary implication, both 
 because they had passed out of the hands of the 
 people, and had been vested in the national govern- 
 ment, and because of the confusion arid conflict of 
 jurisdiction to which any, other vie^Y^%ould neces- 
 sarily lead. Yet the framers of the. Constitution 
 did not stop here; but expressly denied almost 
 every attribute of sovereignty to the states. 
 
 The Constitution declares : " No state shall enter 
 into any treaty, alliance or confederation ; grant let- 
 ters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills 
 of credit ; make any thing but gold and silver a ten- 
 der in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, 
 ex fost facto law, or law impairing the obligation of 
 contracts ; or grant any title of nobility. No state 
 shall, without the consent of- Congress, lay any im- 
 posts or duties on imports or exports, except what 
 may be absolutely necessary for executing its in- 
 spection laws ; and the net produce of all duties and 
 imposts laid by any state on imports or exports, 
 shall be for the use of the Treasury of the United 
 States; and all such laws shall be subject to re- 
 vision and control of the Congress. No state sliall, 
 without the consent 'of Congress, lay any duty on 
 tonnage; keep troops or ships of war in time of 
 
ADDRESS. 77 
 
 peace ; enter into any agreement or compact with 
 another state, or with a foreign power ; or engage 
 in war unless actually invaded, or in such imminent 
 danger as will not admit of delay." (The whole 
 secession movement of the Southern states was in 
 direct violation of these prohibitions, as well as of 
 the positive powers with which the United States 
 are clothed.) 
 
 Thus the states, not only by necessary implica- 
 tion, but by express prohibitions in the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States, are denied all the great 
 attributes of sovereignty ; while the United States 
 are not only expressly clothed w^ith all the attributes 
 of sovereignty, but to silence, if possible, all cavil, 
 the Constitution of the United States declares that 
 " this Constitution and the laws of the United States 
 that shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all 
 treaties made, or which shall be made, under the 
 authority of the United States, shall be the supreme 
 law of the land, and all the judges in every state 
 shall be bound thereby — any thing in the constitu- 
 tion or law of any state to the contrary notwith- 
 standing " — thus leaving to the states only a quad 
 and limited sovereignty, under the authority of the 
 United States, which is supreme over all. And it 
 is of the very nature of supremacy to control all 
 within the sphere of its operations. 
 
 Where, then, is the right of a state to secede from 
 the United yStates ? It is given to the winds. And 
 
y8 address. 
 
 where is the paramount allegiance due to the states, 
 contended for by Southern politicians, with all other 
 pestilent state-right heresies ? " Gone to the tomb, 
 where all the kindred of the Capulets lie." 
 
 Pending the adoption of the Constitution of the 
 United States, in the State of New York, there were 
 those in the convention there Avho wished to adopt 
 it conditionally. Alexander Hamilton wrote Mr. 
 Madison, called the father of the Constitution, for 
 his opinion upon the subject. Mr. Madison replied : 
 ""The adoption must he in toio and forever f^ that "a 
 conditional adoption would be worse than no adop- 
 tion at all." 
 
 The Union of the United States is, therefore, no 
 "free-love affair," but is a Union in toto and forever. 
 How could the framers of the Constitution, and the 
 great fathers of the Republic have more carefully 
 guarded the country against the state-right heresies 
 which have so long disturbed the public peace ? 
 
 But, notwithstanding these plain constitutional 
 provisions and the wise counsels of our fathers, the 
 dragon-toothed heresies of paramount allegiance 
 being due to the states, and the constitutional rights 
 of the states to secede ad libitum from the Union, 
 were by unscrupulous politicians sown broadcast 
 over the South, from which sprung multitudes of 
 armed- men, not only ready to do battle for secession, 
 but to strike* down the government of our fathers. 
 
ADDRESS. 79 
 
 Most of tlie cotton states were precipitated into 
 secession, the mint of the United States at New 
 Orleans, and most of the forts and arsenals in the 
 seceding states were seized. The whole mad scheme 
 had been worked up by strangely false and exagge- 
 rated appeals to the passions and prejudices of the 
 people ; and secession precipitated in order to com- 
 mit them to the diabolical enterprise without giving 
 them time for calm, sober reflection, and when ap- 
 peals to passion and prejudice failed, the halter and 
 the opprobrious epithets of abolitionist, submission- 
 ist, and Lincolnite were applied without stint to 
 compel recusants into submission and to silence all 
 opposition. I know what I affirm, for I was in the 
 midst of it. 
 
 But some of the cotton states and the border 
 states, though shaken, refused to embark their for- 
 tunes on board the new and suspicious- looking craft 
 that had appeared in Southern waters, lest it should be 
 carried down by the storm that seemed to be gather- 
 inor. There seemed to be a lull in the storm and 
 danger that a sober second thought of the people 
 would reverse all these proceedings. Some thing 
 must be done to fire the Southern heart, carry the 
 border and other cotton states, and alarm and in- 
 timidate the North, and compel them to acquiesce in 
 tlie demands of the South. It was proclaimed that 
 blood must be drawn, that the rights of the South 
 
80 ADDRESS. 
 
 must be baptized in blood, to fire the Southern 
 heart and carry all the Southern states into the 
 great secession movement. 
 
 Means had long been in process for this purpose, 
 and on the 12th of April, 1861, a vast armament at 
 Charleston attacked a small, starvins^ garrison of 
 seventy men in Fort Sumter, commanded by the im- 
 mortal Major (now General) Anderson. Gallant 
 was the defense made by that little band of immor- 
 tal heroes against overwhelming odds ; but, with the 
 fort in ruins and all on fire, they were compelled to 
 lower the flag of their country to rebels ; but, in con- 
 sideration of their gallantry, they were permitted to 
 bear away with them that flag and their arms. The 
 garrison surrendered the 14th day of April — the in- 
 telligence was borne on the wires to Montgomery, 
 Alabama, the then seat of government of the so- 
 called Southern Confederacy. JetF. Davis was in- 
 disposed, and Walker, the Secretary of War, from the 
 gallery of the State House, in a short speech, con- 
 gratulated his hearers on the success of the South, 
 and told them that before the first of May the Con- 
 federate flag would be flj'ing over the dome of the 
 Capitol in Washington, and that they would dictate 
 terms of peace in Faneuil Hall in Boston. 
 
 One of the ends intended to be gained by this 
 blow is partially accomplished. The Southern mael- 
 strom, that had ingulfed so many states, is again 
 
ADDRESS. 81 
 
 stirred with a strange and unearthly power. Vir- 
 ginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas are lifted from their 
 moorings by a vast wave of the roaring, raging 
 whirlpool, and, borne away on the bosom of the re- 
 fluent tide, are hurled headlong into the dreadful 
 vortex of the rebellion. The old North State yet 
 lingers, but slowly and fatally drifts until it too is 
 ingulfed. The waves break with terrific fury over 
 Maryland and Kentucky — many of their respective 
 crews are swept overboard and ingulfed, but the 
 brave old barks remain fast to their moorings. The 
 wild, roaring waves and the howling tempest break 
 with yet greater fary over Missouri. The pilot and 
 many of the crew are swept overboard and hurled 
 into the vortex of the rebellion ; and when a vast 
 wave of the dreadful Avhirlpool, and a heavy gust of the 
 roaring tempest would strike the sides of the gallant 
 old bark, and sweep with violence over her deck, 
 startino: her bolts and makiufii; all her bulwarks 
 creak, the crew would look with blank dismay into 
 each other's countenances, and sometimes the cry 
 would go round, "She is drifting! we are ingulfed!" 
 but when a pause in the violence of the rushing 
 waves and of the dark, raging tempest gave oppor- 
 tunity for observation, the brave old ship, though 
 shattered and tossed, was seen to be still fast to her 
 moorings. 
 
 The storm had been long gathering. The first 
 
82 ADDRESS. 
 
 bolt had fallen. Stars that till then had continued 
 to shine in our political canopy, are suddenly dark- 
 ened b}^ the yet gathering and increasing clouds of 
 war that now darken the whole horizon of the South, 
 and madly roll and toss in the Southern heavens. 
 And as they roll their dark and threatening volumes 
 toward the North, darker and yet more dark they 
 grow — portending such a tempest as the world has 
 rarely witnessed, and the like of which I hope 
 America may never be doomed to witness again. 
 It was not until the red, crashing thunder-bolts of 
 war were rending the heavens that the lion of the 
 North was roused from his lair. Terrible was the 
 danger, and terrible was the power of the loyal peo- 
 ple of the loyal states, and terrible their firm and 
 resolute resolve to strike for God and their country. 
 Men and money and lives were given without stint 
 to save the country from disruption, and to preserve 
 the priceless heritage of American freedom. The 
 result is before the world. 
 
 I have done; and if, in the discussion of these 
 questions, I have seemed to go beyond the province 
 of the minister of the sanctuary into foreign terri- 
 tory, it was because those whose cases I have been 
 considering had fled there for refuge, and I had to 
 pursue them to their fastnesses, to show that the de- 
 fenses behind which they have entrenched them- 
 selves are wholly untenable. 
 
ADDRESS. 83 
 
 Thus have I endeavored, my Christian brethren, 
 to Lay before you what I conceive to be your ob- 
 vious duty in the crisis that is upon you. The case 
 is with you. Discharge your duty to God, to those 
 Avhose cases I have been considering, to yourselves, 
 to the church and your country, as you shall answer 
 to God. 
 
 
LIBKHKY Oh CONliRtiib 
 
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