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 „<:-//.^ .yTT. 
 
 
 THE REBUKE 
 
 SECESSION DOCTRINES 
 
 BY SOUTHERN STATESMEN. 
 
 m 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 PRINTED FOR GRATUITOUS DISTRIBUTION. 
 
 1863. 
 
PATRIOTISM ABOVE PARTISANSHIP. 
 
 At a most enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of New York, ntteudeil, 
 as it is estimated, by more than fifty thousand citizens, Hon. 
 John Van Burkn made a speech, from which wc take the following 
 passages : 
 
 THE UTTER CAUSELESSNESS OF THE REBELLION. 
 
 I heartily congratulate you upon this magnificent uprising of the 
 people of the City of New York and the surrounding neighbourhood. 
 It shows that there has been no abatement in that spirit of patriotism 
 that distinguished the people of this country some two years since, on the 
 iirst out-break of the rebellion, which has had no parallel in the civilized 
 world. It is the first attempt on the part of men to jipset a Govern- 
 ment, when no man being engaged in that attempt was able, when it 
 commenced, or has been at any time since, to name one single particular 
 in which either his liberty, his property, or his life had been put in 
 jeopardy. No human being, whether he favoured the rebellion or 
 whether he opposed it, has been able to understand how in any single 
 ]-egard those who attempted madly to overthrow the Government of 
 this country had been in the slighted degree injured. I defy tlie 
 talent and ingenuity of the most acute rebel in the Southern couuti'y,- 
 or any sympathizer with him, to tell me how he has been injured 
 by the Government of this country up to this day. It was an 
 utterly unjustifiable attempt to overthrow the existing Government. 
 I have often conceded that there were circumstances of irritation — cir- 
 cumstances of provocation — but these constitute an excuse, not a justi- 
 fication. This rebellion is wholly without justification, in my judg- 
 ment. Tiiis being the fact, it was natural for the people of this country 
 to rise unanimously, as they did two years since, to put down the 
 rebellion so unjustifiable, and in proof of that we assembled here, as 
 other citizens in other portions of the United States have assembled, 
 to declare to the constituted Government, whether it was an Administra- 
 tion of their tjwn choice, or of their profession, that the tim: hud come 
 when party considerations must cease to operate, and when Vi\^ people 
 of tliis country with entire unanimity must uphold the Government of 
 this country irrespective of all party considerations. I have enter- 
 tiiincd that opinion always, and although I did not address the meeting 
 hcM twii years since, I derived great gratification from the proceed- 
 ings, and there never has becTi a moment from that time to this when 
 J have seen anything to induce me to relax my efforts in upholding 
 the (government and in putting down this rebellion. * * * 
 
 [^■<t third puffe of cover. 
 
>l()l)l'. IW IMiTTINO DOWN TIIK l!KRKlJ,ION. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, allow ine to siiy a few words to you about the mode 
 of putting down this rebellion. I do not believo that simply belonging 
 to the Pemocratic party will end the war that has been going on these 
 two years. Since I belonged to the party, Jeff. Davis claimed to be 
 a member, so does Mason and Smuei.l. I do nut see that that ends 
 the war. What would be thought of the passengers of a ship, who in 
 a dreadful gale found that the vessel had sprung aleak, and who should 
 pay to others, " Find out where the leak is; stop it at all hazards; if 
 our masts are all carried away, rig a jury-mast ; if you can't save the ship 
 save the passengers ; construct a raft ; be sure and save our lives, and 
 as for the rest we will sit here and grumble; we belong to the Demo- 
 (•ratie party." If that ship liad to be lightened to be saved it is easy 
 to see what part of the cargo ought to be thrown overboard. * * * 
 
 THE GRAND QUESTION AT THE PRESENT MOMENT. 
 
 The interesting inquiry to this generation, in the present crisis, is 
 what they are to do now. And now there is but one .thing to do — that 
 is, to fight. Did anybody ever hear, that when people make war upon 
 you, you are to supplicate for peace? Why, if we are conquered, of 
 course we must sue for peace ; but if we are not conquered, then all we 
 have to do is to fight. Suppose a man came up to you and took you 
 l)y the throat, would you call upon your friends to sec upon what 
 terms he would settle? I know of no way except to defend yourself, 
 and defend yourself by assailing him, and assailing him in his most 
 vulnerable part, keeping always in mind the practice of the early 
 (Christians, and keeping as near the rules of civilized warfare as the 
 circumstances will permit. Now, fellow-citizens, let us look for a few 
 moments — and I will detain you but averyfewniinutes — at the conditions 
 of this war. Let us see whether there is anything to discourage us in 
 what has occurred. I say there is everything to encourage the people 
 of the loyal States, taking a proper and rational view of the circum- 
 stances of the country. We were a people of peace two years ago ; we 
 knew nothing of war waged upon a great scale, in which the whole 
 nation should be involved. We have recovered a very large portion of 
 the territory of the United States — we have recovered a large portion 
 of Tennessee, nearly the whole of Kentucky, a large portion of 
 Louisiana, nearly the whole of Virginia, and very large districts of the 
 country; we have preserved a blockade for two years; and I have entire 
 confidence that if there was not a blow struck for twelve months, if this 
 blockade could be preserved for the twelve months, the rebellion would 
 be subdued. I don't desire to wring a victory from the pinched bellies 
 of that people, in preference to extracting it from their battered heads; 
 but there is no doubt that if this blockade is vigorously preserved, as 
 now, and it is certain that it can be, for the next twelve mouths, the 
 war will be ended. * * * 
 
 It is impossible that this controversy can have but one result; it is 
 
 [See fourth pai/e of cover. 
 
impossible that it can be protracted any great length of time, if we are 
 a united people; and to be a united people we must discard political 
 considerations. Why, have not we as much patriotism as the Southern 
 people, and did you ever hear of a contested election there during this 
 rebellion? Who ran against Jefferson Davis? What one vote 
 was cast against him when he was elected President some year ago, 
 notwithstanding the party divisions are just as acrimonious there, and 
 more so than they are at the North — and cannot we be equally devoted ? 
 My friends, we must be ; it is indispensable ; and to do that we must 
 treat each other with forbearance. If a man is loyal, whether he is 
 an officer of the army, with whose success you have not been satisfied 
 or a statesman with whom you have diflPered politically, if you believe 
 his heart is right, you must not only refuse to assail him yourself, but 
 discountenance forever, assaults upon him by anybody else. * * * 
 
 ONE CONSEQUENCE OF THE REBELLION. 
 
 What will be the end of this war in regard to one of the institutions 
 which has been a subject of much discussion ? I allude to Slavery. 
 There have been great and delicate controversies on this s ubject here- 
 tofore. We have come now to a time when by the progress of our arms, 
 Slavery is overthrown. By well-recognized principles of law it is as 
 clear as the sun at noon, that if this war goes on twelve months there 
 will not be a slave legally held in any one of the States and Territories, 
 except by the President's proclamation. That is the necessary effect 
 of the conquest of those States, and brought upon themselves by the 
 war that they commenced. 
 
 THE PROSPECT BEFORE US. 
 
 T see nothing in the world to discourage any patriot, any friend of 
 his country, any truly loyal man in the .effort now making to uphold 
 the authority of the Government, and to re-establish the Union and 
 Constitution throughout the entire limits of the Country. ] believe 
 1 know something of the people of this country ; I think I ought to. 
 I have been about with them for a large portion of my life, and I know 
 that in every great crisis in the history of the country, the truly loyal 
 men throughout the United States are disposed to uphold the Govern- 
 ment and advaiiLc its honour. * * * 
 
 I don't b(!lieve — [ never can be made to believe that this Govern- 
 ment is to perish. What strikes me as the wicked feature in this 
 rebellion, is that t know that if we had gone until to-day, such is the 
 intelligence of our jieople, such their power, such their resources, that 
 we should have been at this moment the first Power on the civilized 
 globe; and 1 look forward to the time not far distant, when the 
 authority of the Government shall be restored over the whole United 
 States, and we shall again advance in a career of prosperity and of 
 liononr, without jmrallel in the history of the world. 
 
THE REBUKE 
 
 SECESSION DOCTRINES 
 
 SOUTHERN STATESMEN. 
 
 >- '.i 
 
 i 
 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 PRINTED FOR GRATUITOUS DISTRIBUTION. 
 
 1863. 
 
nsroTE. 
 
 In the following pages will be found four very remarkable and 
 highly interesting documents, — 
 
 1. General Jackson's faithful reproof of the folly and madness 
 of the Nullifiers in 1832. 
 
 2. The lament of that pure and highminded Statesman and Patriot, 
 the late Hon. H. S. Legare, over the prospect and perpetration of the 
 the same suicidal act by the people of hig native City and State. 
 
 3. The extraordinary, but most true and uuexaggerated exhibition 
 of the causelessuess and wickedness of the present Southern Rebel- 
 lion, which Alexander H. Stephens made in his speech to the 
 Georgia Convention. And 
 
 4. The Platform on which one of the Delegates to the National 
 Democratic (convention, at Charleston, in the spring of 1860, 
 proposed to harmonize all parties, and secure the peace of the country 
 to the end of the world ! 
 
THE REBUKE OF SECESSION DOCTRINES. 
 
 On the 24th of November, 1832, a convention of delegates 
 met at Charleston, South Carolina, passed an ordinance to "pro- 
 vide for arresting the operation of certain acts of the Congress 
 of the United States, purporting to be laws laying duties and 
 imposts on the importation of foreign commodities." On the 
 10th day of December, succeeding, Andrew Jackson, of Ten- 
 nessee, then President of the United States, issued a proclama- 
 tion, in -which the folloAving memorable sentences occur : 
 
 I consider the power to annul a law of the United States, 
 assumed by one state, incompatible Avith the existence of the 
 Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, 
 unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on 
 which it is founded, and destructive of the great object for 
 which it was formed : 
 
 The President, in the same document, thus appeals to his 
 fellow citizens Avho had countenanced this insurrectionary 
 measure : 
 
 I have urged you to look back to the means that were used 
 to hurry you on to the position you have now assumed, and 
 forward to the consequences it will produce. Something more 
 is necessary. Contemplate the condition of that country of 
 which you still form an important part. Consider its govern- 
 ment uniting in one bond of common interest and general pro- 
 tection so many different states, giving to all their inhabitants the 
 good title of American Citizens, protecting their commerce, 
 securing their literature and their arts, facilitating their inter- 
 communication, defending their frontiers, and making their name 
 respected in the remotest parts of the earth. Consider the extent 
 of its territory, its increasing and happy population, its advance 
 in arts which render life agreeable, and the sciences which 
 elevate the mind. See education spreading the lights of reli- 
 gion, humanity and general information, into every cottage in 
 the wide extent of our territories and states. Behold it as the 
 asylum where the wretched and the oppressed find a refuge 
 
and support. Look on tins picture of happiness and honour, 
 and say, " We too are citizens of America." Carolina is 
 one of these proud states ; her arms have defended, her best 
 blood has cemented this happy Union. And then add, if you 
 can, without horror and remorse. This happy Union we will 
 dissolve, this picture of peace and prosperity we will deface, 
 this free intercourse we will interrupt; these fertile fields we 
 will deluge with blood, the protection of that glorious flag we 
 renounce, the very name of Americans we discard. And for 
 what, mistaken men ! for Avhat do you throw away these inesti- 
 mable blessings ? For what would you exchange your share in 
 the advantages and honours of this Union ? For a dream of a 
 separate independence — a dream interrupted by bloody conflicts 
 with your neighbours, and a vile dependence on a foreign 
 power. If your leaders could succeed in establishing a separa- 
 tion, what would be your situation ? Are you united at home ? 
 Are you free from the apprehension of civil discord with all its 
 fearful consequences ? Do our neighbouring republics, every 
 day suflering some new revolution, or contending with some 
 new insurrection, — do they excite your envy ? But the dictates 
 of a high duty oblige me solemnly to announce that you cannot 
 succeed. The laws of the United States must be executed. 
 
 At the time these measures were in progress, the Hon. H. 
 S. Legare, at one time Attorney General and acting Secretary 
 of State of the United States, was abroad. Of his character 
 and position as a man, a citizen, a scholar, a statesman and a 
 pure patriot, it is superfluous to speak. The memory of few 
 public men of any age or country is more fragrant than his. 
 With deep concern he heard, while 
 
 " Wuiidcrin;^ on a foreign strand," 
 
 of the proceedings of the convention in his native city, and 
 with characteristic promptness and ingenuousness he addressed 
 a letter to a friend at home, from which the following para- 
 graphs are taken : 
 
 October 2, 1832. 
 So you are going to nullify. Well, I can't say I have any 
 great confidence in men when they are wound up to the revo- 
 lutionary pitch, but I strive to hope against hope. I trust in 
 God that my glorious and happy country, a thousand times 
 dearer to me now, and grander in my estimation by contrast 
 
than it ever was, is not about to seal forever the dismal doom 
 of our miserable species. * * * If the Union should go to 
 pieces it Avill be one hideous wreck, of whiqh, excepting New 
 England, no two parts will hold together. None of us will 
 have ;my country, except a technical country, a legal right and 
 a civil status to decide on a question of title. But there will 
 be no flag known to the nations, and none of the ennobling and 
 and sacred charities that bind, or rather bound us together but 
 the other day. No proud retrospect of the past, no glowing 
 anticipations of the future, but piratical depredations instead, 
 and ignoble border warfare, and the rudeness, coarseness, and 
 ferocity of a race of mounted barbarians, and all the calamities 
 that have scourged this continent, without the chivalry that 
 has adorned her valour, a;nd the grandeur that has half excused 
 the ambition it has excited. * * * 
 
 April 8, 1833. 
 
 But I shall be very much surprised, or rather (for I begin 
 to be surprised at nothing at all which our orang-outang race 
 perpetrates now-a-days) I shall be exceedingly indignant, or 
 downcast, or both, if the fantastic tricks of wanton, cold- 
 blooded tyranny Avhich the Convention has played off before the 
 world, to its deep and serious instruction in politics, do not yet 
 awaken us all to the importance of the inquiry, Avhether that 
 same "-Sovereignty of the States," about which we are mouth- 
 ing as much as the Carlists do about monarchy _/«?•« divino, 
 and Avhich experience has thus shown to be of precisely the 
 same stamp ; whether that same sovereignty isn't still, as it 
 was at the beginning, much too strong, not only for purposes 
 of good government, vulgarly so-called, but, to be at all con- 
 sistent with the preservation of a very humble share of the 
 liberties transmitted to us from our English forefathers, and 
 meant to be maintained in their integrity by the revolution. 
 
 When I read your "Ordinance," I rubbed my eyes to be 
 sure that I was not in a dream. I could not believe it possible 
 that such insolent tyranny was in the heart of any man ; edu- 
 cated as and where I myself imbibed my detestation of all 
 arbitrary power, though its sceptre be in my own gripe. I 
 don't speak of it as a federal or anti-federal measure — pass for 
 that — I refer to it exclusively as a measure of government in 
 South Carolina, and I declare to you solemnly, that, for the 
 very first time during this whole controversy, I felt the spirit 
 of civil Avar burning within me, and that I fervently prayed 
 that ray friends of the Union party Avould, without- any hesita- 
 tion, swear that it should never be enforced but at the point of 
 the bayonet. What made it Avorse Avas that (if I have not 
 
6 
 
 quite forgotten the Constitution of the State) nothing is plain- 
 er than that the "■ Convention" was a mere self-constituted 
 assembly — a mob, without a place or name in our laws — be- 
 cause the Legislature which called it was no legislature until 
 the constitutional time of meeting in November. 
 
 But putting the matter of right altogether out of the ques- 
 tion, as it seems to be in South Carolina under its new govern- 
 ment, how could the leaders and their convention, knowing, as 
 they must know, unless they are mad, the inherent weakness 
 of the State and of the Avhole South, if civil war do take place 
 in good earnest ; how could they be blind to the wild impolicy 
 of their conduct ? 'Chey first practice, with the utmost de- 
 liberation, a fraud upon the people, by assuring them that 
 their premeditated scheme of violence is a perfectly regular 
 and peaceable one. They succeed in bri^iging over a bare 
 majority of our people, even with this plausible pretence in 
 their mouths. They know that out of 39,000 votes, upwards 
 of 16,000 are against them in every view of the measure. And 
 yet, holding so feeble a majority by such a tenure, they venture 
 to pass an "Ordinance," of which I never can think, and, I 
 suppose, none of my friends ever do think, without feeling that 
 life under such a tyranny (if it could be enforced) is not worth 
 having. If it had been designed as a measure of mere ven- 
 geance, if, believing they would bo ultimately thwarted in their 
 plan of resistance, and wishing to prevent the triumphant scof- 
 fings of the Union party at their anticipated discomfiture and 
 disgrace, they had determined to exterminate, at least, to 
 banish them all at once, which, as Mdton's Satan says, if not 
 victory, were, at least, revenge — a la bonne heure. But, if we 
 suppose them to have been anything but a gang of desperadoes, 
 (as they certainly were ! — am I not liberal ?) how can it be ac- 
 counted for, except by that spirit of intoxication and wilfulness 
 which is said to be the forerunner of the downfall of kings and 
 principalities and powers ? 
 
 A true Prophet but a false Man. 
 
 AhKXANDEK li. Stephens was an earnest and staunch 
 opposer of seeession doctrines. He could not fail to see the 
 inevitable consequences of the measure, though by a strange 
 halluciuation he afterwards covered his eyes, joined the infatu- 
 ated company of conspirators against a government which he 
 
had just exonerated from all reproach, and leaped into the 
 very abyss of which he had implored them to beware. Here in 
 his speech, delivered in the convention called to determine if 
 Georgia should secede, Mr. Stephens said : 
 
 That this step once taken, could never be recalled ; and all 
 the baleful and withering consequences that must follow, (as 
 they would see,) will rest on the Convention for all coming 
 time. When we and our posterity shall see our lovely South 
 desolated by the demon of war which this act of yours will in- 
 evitably invite and call forth ; when our green fields of waving 
 harvests shall be trodden down by the murderous soldiery and 
 fiery car of war sweeping over our land; our temples of justice 
 laid in ashes ; all the horrors and desolations of war upon us ; 
 who but this Convention will be held responsible for it ? and 
 who but he who shall have given his vote for this unwise and 
 ill-timed measure, (as I honestly think and believe,) shall be 
 held to strict account for this suicidal act, by the present gene- 
 ration, and probably cursed and execrated by posterity for all 
 coming time, for the wide and desolating ruin that will inevi- 
 tably follow this act you now propose to perpetrate ? 
 
 Pause, I entreat you, and consider for a moment what rea- 
 sons you can give that will even satisfy yourselves in calmer 
 moments — what reasons you can give to your fellow-suSerers in 
 the calamity that it will bring upon us? What reasons can you 
 give to the nations of the earth to justify it ? They will be the 
 calm and deliberate judges in the case; and to what cause or 
 one overt act can you name or point, on which to rest the plea 
 of justification ? What right has the North assailed ? What 
 interest of the South has been invaded ? Wliat justice has 
 been denied ? and what claim founded in justice and right has 
 been withheld ? Can either of you to-day name one gover- 
 mental act of wrong, deliberately and purposely done by the 
 government of Washington, of which the South has a right to 
 complain ? I challenge the answer ! While, on the other 
 hand, let me show the facts, (and believe me, gentlemen, I am 
 not here the advocate of the North ; but I am here the friend, 
 the firm friend and lover of the South and her institutions, and 
 for this reason I speak thus plainly and faithfully for yours, 
 mine, and every other man's interest, the words of truth and 
 soberness,) of which I wish you to judge, and I will only state 
 facts which are clear and undeniable, and which now stand as 
 records authentic in the history of our country. 
 
 When we of the South demanded the slave trade, or the im- 
 portation of African:- for the cultivation of our land?, did they 
 
8 
 
 not yield the right for twenty years ? When we asked a three- 
 fifths representation in Congress for our slaves, was it not 
 granted ? When we asked and demanded the return of any 
 fugitive from justice, or the recovery of those persons owing 
 labour or allegiance, was it not incorporated in the Constitu- 
 tion, and again ratified and strengthened in the Fugitive Slave 
 ]iawofl850? 
 
 But do you reply that in many instances they have violated 
 this compact, and have not been faithful to their engagements ? 
 As individuals and local communities they may have done so ; 
 but not by the sanction of government, for that has always been 
 true to Southern interests. Again, gentlemen, look at another 
 act : when we have asked that more territory should be added, 
 that we might spread the institution of slavery, have they not 
 yielded to our demands in giving us Louisiana, Florida and 
 Texas, out of which four States have been carved, and ample 
 territory for four more to be added in due time, if you by this 
 unwise and impolitic act do not destroy this hope, and, per- 
 haps, by it lose all, and have your last slave wa-enched from 
 you by stern military rule, as South America and Mexico were ; 
 or by the vindictive decree of a universal emancipation, which 
 may reasonably be expected to follow ? 
 
 But, again, gentlemen, what have we to gain by this pro- 
 posed change of our relation to the general government ? We 
 have always had the control of it, and can yet, if we remain 
 in it, and are as united ns we have been. We have had a ma- 
 jority of the Presidents chosen from the South ; as well as the 
 control and management of most of those chosen from the 
 North. We have had sixty years of Southern Presidents to 
 their twenty-four, thus controlling the Executive department. 
 So of the Judges of the Supreme Court, we have had eighteen 
 from the South, and but eleven from the North ; although 
 nearly four-fifths of the judicial business has arisen in the Free 
 States, yet a majority of the Court has always been from the 
 South. This we have rei^uired so as to guard against any in- 
 terpretation of the Constitution unfavorable to us. In like 
 manner we have been equally watchful to guard our interests 
 in the Legislative branch of government. In choosing the pre- 
 siding Presidents (pro tern.) of the Senate, we have had twenty- 
 four to their eleven. Speakers of the House, we have had 
 twenty-three, and they twelve. While the majority of the Re- 
 presentatives, from their greater population, have always been 
 from the North, yet we have so generally secured the Speaker, 
 because lie, to a great extent, shapes and controls the legisla- 
 tion of the country. Nor have we had less control in every 
 
other (Icpiivtment of tlie general government. Attorney-Gen- 
 erals Ave hiive had fourteen, while the North have had but live. 
 Foreign ministers we have had eighty-six, and they hut fifty- 
 four. While three-fourths of the business whicli demands diplo- 
 matic agents abroad is clearly from the Free States, from their 
 greater commerciiil interests, yet we have had the prineipal 
 embassies so as to secure the world-markets for our cotton, 
 tobacco, and sugar on the best possible terms. We have had 
 a vast majority of the higher offices of both array and navy, 
 while a larger proportion of the soldiers and sailors were drawn 
 from the North. Equally so of Clerks, Auditors, and Comp- 
 trollers filling the Executive department, the records show for 
 the last fifty years that of the three thousand thus employed, 
 Ave have had more than tAvo-thirds of the same, Avhile avc have 
 but one-third of the Avhite population of the Republic. 
 
 Again, look at another item, and one, be assured, in which 
 we have a great and vital interest ; it is that of revenue, or 
 means of supporting government. From official documents, avc 
 learn that a fraction over three-fourths of the revenue collected 
 for the support of government has uniformly been raised from 
 the North. 
 
 Pause noAv while you can, gentlemen, and contemplate care- 
 fully and candidly these important items. Look at another 
 necessary branch of government, and learn from stern statisti- 
 cal facts hoAv matters stand in that department. I mean the 
 mail and Post-Office privileges that Ave now enjoy under the 
 general government as it has been for years past. The ex- 
 pense for the transportation of the mail in the Free States Avas, 
 by the report of the Post-Master General for the year 18b*0, a 
 little over $13,000,000, while the income Avas $19,000,000. 
 But in the Slave States the transportation of the nuiil Avas 
 $14,710,000, while the revenue from the same was $8,001,020, 
 leaving a deficit of $6,115,735, to be supplied by the North for 
 our accommodation, and without it Ave must have been en- 
 tirely cut oif from this most essential branch of government. 
 
 Leaving out of view, for the present, the countless millions 
 of dollars you must expend in a Avar Avith the North ; Avith tens 
 of tkousands of your sons and brothers slain in battle, and 
 ofi'ered up as sacrifices upon the altar of your ambition, — and 
 for Avhat, Ave ask again ? Is is for the overthroAV of the Ameri- 
 can government, established by our common ancestry, cemented 
 and built up by their SAveat and blood, and founded on the broad 
 principles of Right, Justice., and Humanity ? And, as such, 
 I must declare here, as I have often done before, and which has 
 been repeated .by the greatest and wisest of statesmen and 
 
10 
 
 patriots in this and other lands, that it is the best and freest 
 goveynvicnt — the most equal in its rights — the most just in its 
 decisions — the most lenient in its measures, and the most inspir- 
 ing in its principles to elevate the race of men, that the sun of 
 heaven ever shone upon. 
 
 Now, for you to attempt to overtlirow such a government as 
 this, under which we have lived for more than three-quarters 
 of a century — in which Ave have gained our wealth, our stand- 
 ing as a nation, our domestic safety while the elements of peril 
 arc around us, with peace and tranquillity accompanied with 
 unbounded prosperity and rights unassailed — is the height of 
 madness, folly and wickedness, to which I can neither lend my 
 sanction nor my vote." 
 
 The object for which the Rebellion was planned and 
 contrived. 
 
 Nowhere is this topic more ably treated than in the speech, 
 delivered in the House of Representatives, January 31, 1863, 
 by the Hon. Horace Maynard, of Tennessee, The following 
 passages particularly arc entitled to the closest attention of 
 every man among us, who is sincerely desirous that this war 
 may cease, and may be followed by a genuine and stable 
 
 PEACE. 
 
 Another error on the part of some of our Northern friends, 
 caused by a failure adequately to appreciate the controlling 
 influences of the rebellion, consists in supposing that our 
 troubles may be composed, and the contest adjusted by com- 
 promise. Let me again repeat, that the object of the rebel 
 leaders is empire, dominion over a territory and a people that 
 they can govern ; and as incident to that, the destruction of the 
 nation, whereof you are a part, and Avhich on the 4th of July 
 next, will want but thirteen years to have lived a century. 
 They mean the death of the nation ; you mean its life. There 
 is notliing to compromise. One side or the other must ivholly 
 fail. The nation must either live or die. They know perfectly 
 well that for them safety lies only in success. Short of that, 
 no matter what compromise you make, nor what acts of 
 amnesty you pass, if the Federal Union still survives under 
 the Constitution of our fathers, they are ruined, driven into 
 obscurity, and their names clothed with infamy. Hence they. 
 
11 
 
 through all their organs, spurn the idea- of ever living more 
 with you under the same Government. Though you should 
 humble yourselves in terms the most abject, oven going to them 
 barefoat, with your arms pinioned and halters about your 
 necks, they would not receive you into the crowd of their vassals. 
 All your suggestions of an armistice and reconciliation only 
 intensify their expressions of scorn and loathing. Says one of 
 their organs : 
 
 " While the North begins to see the folly and impossibility 
 of attempting to conquer the South, they are not yet ready to 
 grant our just demands. They hope still to chain us by some 
 specious compromise to the corpse of the old Union. We 
 would not reunite with them if they Avould, one and all, con- 
 sent to occupy the same position of degradation which they 
 aimed to rivet on us. We would not consent to Jiold the North- 
 ern States as provinces.'' — Richmond Enquirer, January 6. 
 
 Another indulges in these words : 
 
 '■'■ If the ivhoJe Yankee race should fall down in the dust to- 
 morroiv and pray us to he their masters, we would spurn them 
 even as slaves. We are aware that many persons believe that 
 the party of which Brookes and Yan Buren are representatives, 
 desire and design to restore peace. We do not believe they 
 are in favor of any such thing. They would like peace on 
 condition of our returning to the Union, and they are fools 
 enough to believe that a majority of the people in the confede- 
 racy are in favor of reunion. They look only to their pockets 
 when they talk of reconciliation and restoration. Anything 
 but that. English colonization, French vassalage, Russian 
 serfdom — all, all are preferable to any association with the 
 Yankees.'" — Richmond Dispatch, January 10. 
 
 A third varies the language : 
 
 " We have committed many errors in oui' treatment of the 
 Yankees. Not the least has been in regarding them as some- 
 thing better than they really are. They are by nature menials, 
 and fitted only for menial duties. They arc in open and fla- 
 grant insurrection against their natural lords and masters, the 
 gentlemen of the South. In the exercise of their assumed 
 privileges, they deport themselves Avith all the extravagant airs, 
 the insolence, the cruelty, the cowardice, and love of ropine 
 which have ever characterized the revolt of slaves. The former 
 leniency of their masters only serves to aggravate the ferocity 
 of their natures. When they are again reduced to subjection, 
 and taught to know their place, we must take care to put such 
 trammels about them that they will never have an opportunity 
 to play these tricks again." — Richmond Whig. 
 
Davis, their chieftain, in a late speech in Richmond, asks : 
 
 " For what are they waging war ? They say, to preserve the 
 Union. Can they preserve the Union by destroying the social 
 existence of a portion of the South ? Do they hope to recon- 
 struct the Union by striking at everything which is dear to 
 men ? By showing themselves so utterly disgraced, that if the 
 question was proposed to you, whether you would combine with 
 hyenas or Yankees, I trust every Virginian would say, ' Give 
 me the hyenas ?' " 
 
 This, bear in mind, is said of your brothers and sons, whom 
 he characterizes as " off-scourings of the earth," and whose 
 career, especially in northern Mississippi, he asserts has been 
 marked by "• every crime conceivable, from the burning of de- 
 fenceless towns to the stealing of silver forks and spoons." 
 
 It is impossible not to be amused at the simplicity of a New 
 York politician, writing to one of the chief conspirators, as 
 early as January, 1861. He says : 
 
 " I think South Carolina committed a grave error when she 
 raised the Palmetto flag, to the exclusion of the stars and 
 stripes. And she erred, too, when she fired on the latter from 
 beneath the folds of the former. This was \ery impolitic. For 
 God's sake, let the seceding States cling to the Constitution, 
 cling to the national flag, and declare to the world that it is 
 for the integrity of the foruier and the honor of the latter that 
 they are found with arms in their hands. By doing this they 
 will divide the North against itself, and succeed with tenfold 
 ease. And so, whenever they seize a fort or arsenal, let the 
 old flag still float from its summit — let it be asserted that those 
 forts, &c., were erected for the defence of the States in which 
 they stand, and that upon the citizens of these States, whose 
 interests and lives are imperiled, should devolve the post of 
 honor in the hour of danger ; and that it is to save the honor 
 of the flag, and secure the rights of the people, from the trea- 
 sonable assertions of abolitionists, possession has been taken 
 of the Federal fortifications. 
 
 " Let tiie South be discreet, and she has nothing to fear. Let 
 it be rung out through the land, however, that she asks her 
 constitutional rights only — security in the possession of pro- 
 perty, equal and exact rights in all other respects. Let her 
 sons not jeopardize the safety of their Northern allies hj commit- 
 ting wrongs or excesses." 
 
 There are hundreds through the North who, like this zeal- 
 ous partisan and ally of "the South," imagined that the re- 
 bellion originated in some right denied or endangered, or some 
 wrong suffered or apprehended, and who, like him, deprecate 
 
13 
 
 the "impolitic" course of their "Southern brethren." It is 
 difficult to resist the conviction that sucli persons have far more 
 sympathy with rebels in arms against the nation's life, than 
 with those Southern men who from the beginning have with- 
 stood them, and exposed their nefarious schemes. 
 
 The truth is, there lurks at the bottom of their conduct a convic- 
 tion that the Union will be maintained, if not a determination 
 that it shall be. Hence their eye upon the coming future, when 
 it is supposed that these chief plotters will return to their vacant 
 seats and wield their former power. That future neither your 
 eyes nor mine will ever see. The South, redeemed and disen- 
 thralled from the despotism that so long has weighed like night- 
 mare upon it, will resume its ancient place beneath the flag. 
 But woe to the men who by falsehood and treachery and base 
 corruption have betrayed it into war and its consequent horrors! 
 Their day of power in the Government is past. Other men, of 
 nobler mould and fairer name, will succeed to the places they 
 so betrayed. They will sink deeper than ever plummet sounded, 
 dragging with them all who, either from guilt, sympathy or in- 
 terested hope, shall cling to their skirts. Truth, and her sister 
 Vengeance, so hand in hand. 
 
 The Tie that bound the Southern Democracy to the 
 North. 
 
 In the progress of the exciting scenes which attended the 
 Democratic National Convention at Charleston, S. C, in 1860, 
 things were said and done which are too significant in their 
 bearing to be dropped out of sight. We well know how entirely 
 metamorphosed an object becomes by changing the light in 
 which it is viewed, and how a man will do and say in one place 
 or company, what he would be quite ashamed to say elsewhere 
 or at another time. 
 
 Among the speeches made at Charleston, was one by Mr. 
 Gaulden of the Georgia delegation, giving his reasons for not 
 joining his colleagues who had seceded from the convention. 
 It discloses in a "free and easy" way, the political affiliations 
 then existing, and their basis ; and cannot fail to throw light 
 upon the present duty of true Union men. 
 
14 
 
 MR. GAULDEN "DEFINES HIS POSITION." 
 
 " I am a Southern States riglits man," said Mr. G. " I am 
 an African slave-trader. I am one of those Southern men who 
 helieve that slaver}' is right, morally, roligiousl}'-, socially, and 
 politically. I helieve that the institution of slavery has done 
 more for this country, more for civilization, than all other 
 interests put together. I helieve if it were in the power of this 
 country to strike down the institution of slavery, it would put 
 civilization back two hundred years. I helieve that our govern- 
 ment was a Confederation of States for certain specified objects 
 with limited powers — that the domestic relations of each State 
 are to be and should be k-ft to themselves ; that this eternal 
 slavery question has been the bone of contention between the 
 North and South, which if kept in the halls of Congress must 
 break up this government." 
 
 As to the exclusion of slavery from tho territories, Mr. 
 Gaulden regarded it as a mere abstraction. " You have cut 
 oft' the supply of slaves," he says. "You have crippled the 
 institution of slavery in the States by your unjust laws. We 
 have no slaves to carry into these territories. We can never 
 make another slave State with our present supply of slaves. 
 But if we could, it would not be wise, as it would only with- 
 draw slaves from Maryland, Delaware, or Virginia, and to 
 that extent make theirs free soil. * * * * 
 
 A SOUTHERN VIEW OF THE "TRUE UNION MAN." 
 
 "I would ask my friends of the South to come up in a proper 
 spirit ; ask our Northern friends to give us all our rights, and 
 take oft" the ruthless restrictions which cut off" the supply of 
 slaves from foreign lands. As a matter of right and justice to 
 the South, I would ask the democracy of the North to grant 
 us this thing, and I believe they have the patriotism and 
 honesty to do it, because it is right in itself. I tell you, fel- 
 low democrats, that the African slave-trader is the true Union 
 
 WJIY VIRGINIA OPPOSED TIIK AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. 
 
 " I tell you that the slave-trading of Virginia is more immoral, 
 more unchristian in every point of view, than that African 
 slave-trade, which goes to Africa and brings a heathen and 
 worthless man here, makes him a useful man. Christianizes 
 him, and sends him and his posterity down the stream of time, 
 to join in tiie blessings of civilization. Now, fellow democrats, 
 so far as any public expression of the State of Virginia — the 
 great slave-trading State of Virginia — has been given, they are 
 
1", 
 
 all opposed to the African slave-trade. Now, gentlemen, we 
 are told, upon high authority, that there is a certain class of 
 men Avho strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Now, Virginia 
 which authorizes the buying of Christian men, separating them 
 from their wives and children, from all the relations and asso- 
 ciations amid which they have lived for years, rolls up her eyes 
 in holy horror, when I would go to Africa, buy a savage, and 
 introduce him to the blessings of civilization and Christianity. 
 Now, fellow-democrats, the slave-trade of Virginia forms a 
 mighty and powerful reason for its opposition to the African 
 slave-trade, and in this remark I do not intend any disrespect 
 to my friends from Virginia. Virginia the mother of States 
 and of Statesmen — the mother of Presidents — I apprehend, 
 may err as well as other mortals. I am afraid that her 
 error in this regard lies in the promptings of the almighty dol- 
 lar. It has been my fortune to go into that noble old State 
 and buy a few darkies, and I have had to pay from $1000 to 
 $2000 a head, Avhen I could go to Africa and buy better 
 negroes for $50 a piece, (great laughter.) Now it is unques- 
 tionably to the interest of Virginia to break down the African 
 slave-trade, when she can sell her negroes at $2000. She 
 knows that the African Slave-trade would break up her 
 monopoly, and hence her objections to it. If any of you. North- 
 ern democrats, (for I have more faith in you than I have in 
 the carpet-knight democracy of the South,) will go home with 
 me to my plantation in Georgia, I will show you some darkies 
 that I bought in Maryland, some that I bought in Virginia, 
 some that I bought in Delaware, some in Florida, some in North 
 Carolina, and I will also show you the pure African — the noblest 
 Roman of them all. * * * 
 
 A SOUTHERN STATESMAN'S ONLY WAY TO SAVE THE COUNTKY. 
 
 " I come from the first congressional district of the State of 
 Georgia. I represent the African Slave-trade interests of that 
 section. I am proud of the position I occupy in that respect. 
 I believe that the African Slave-trader is a true missionary and 
 a true Christian, and I have pleaded with my delegation to put 
 this issue squarely to the Northern democracy and say to them, 
 Are you prepared to go back to first principles, and take off 
 your unconstitutional restrictions, and leave this question to be 
 settled by each State ? Now do this, fellow citizens, and you 
 will have peace in the country. But as long as your Federal 
 Legislature takes jurisdiction of this question, so long will there 
 be war, so long will there be ill-blood, so long will there be 
 strife ; and this glorious Union of ours shall be disrupted and 
 
16 
 
 go out in blood antl night 'forever ! I advocate a repeal of the 
 hnvs prohibiting the slave-trade, because I believe it to be the 
 true Union movement. I do not believe that sections whose 
 interests are so different as the Southern and Northern States, 
 can ever stand the shocks Qi' fanaticism unless they be equally- 
 balanced. I believe by re-opening this trade and giving us 
 negroes to populate the territories, that the equilibrium of the 
 two sections will bo maintained. Then, gentlemen, we should 
 proceed harmoniously, go on to prosper and prospering until 
 the last trump of God should sound — until time was merged in 
 the ocean of eternity." Thus far Mr. Gaulden. 
 
 But Northern Democracy was made of too stern stuff to 
 yield to the persuasive words of the Georgia Slave-trader. 
 There Avere those, undoubtedly, whose interest in sustaining a 
 party policy was deep enough to have secured their acceptance 
 of his startling.proposition. But the demand was too bald — 
 the leap too appalling for men of free sympathies and associa- 
 tions. Had the Democratic party yielded to Southern dicta- 
 tion in 1860, John C. Breckenridge Avould have been where 
 Mr. Lincoln is, with an appropriate cabinet. The slave-holding 
 interest would have remained in the ascendant. Cotton would 
 have been abundant and cheap ; the manufacturers of Lan- 
 cashire would have been heaping up gold ; and though English 
 shipwrights would have lost the opportunity to furnish a fleet 
 of war-ships for the "Emperor of China," and the English 
 Government the opportunity to illustrate their idea of "Neu- 
 trality," and though the English people could still have twitted 
 us about the significant " stripes" in our national banner, Eng- 
 land herself could have claimed a position in American eyes 
 which she has now lost and will never regain. 
 
 Because the North and West would not adopt the Southern 
 policy, nor consent to the extension of involuntary servitude 
 beyond its then present limits, nor yield to the dictation of a 
 minority, this unnatural and ferocious rebellion w^as under- 
 taken. Let our fellow-citizens and fellow-men understand that 
 our government is engaged not in a war against slavery^ hut 
 in suppressing an insurrection in behalf of slavery and the 
 slave-trade ! 
 

 
 
 
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