LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 11'' II 'II' '!' I ' IIIMIi 012 026 278 6 p6Rnul(p6« pH8^ t HI e f t i i 11 . SPEECH OF . CHANDLER BALL, OF RENSSELAER COUNTY, DELIVERED AT H O (> S I (J K FALLS APRIL 2^, 1861. TROY, N . Y . : FPniVI THE STEAM PRESSES OK THE DAILY WHIG, CCXIII RIVKU STHKKT. 1861. I n . I ^ n; \ SPEECH Mr, Chairman: The South, without justification, without cause, has inau- gurated civil war. Southern troops, with arms and money stolen from the Government, are marching upon the Federal Capital. The President of the United States, in the discharge of his duty, has called for volunteers to sustain the Government, and preserve the Union. This meeting has been called to respond to the President's Proclamation. When Liberty, which had fled from the Old World and founded a home upon the North American Continent, was as- sailed by the trained warriors of England, my grandfather joined the ranks of the minute men who rallied to her defence, and fought in many a bloody battle, to secure to himself and his pos- terity the blessings of freedom. Two of his sons fought by his side, and helped to lay, and cement with their own blood, the foundations upon which this Republic rests. With such an ancestry, and with a heart filled with the immortal memories which cluster round the American Union, brighten the pages of its history, and make sacred every thread woven into its starry banner, it would be impossible for me, when that Union is threatened with dismemberment, and the flag under which myifathers fought, is torn down and trailed in the dust by traitor hands, not to respond to my country's call, and assist to preserve the Union, and plant the Stars and Stripes upon every Fort, Arsenal, Dock-yard and Custom-house in the United States. It is for this purpose that I am here to-night — to pledge myself that if my services shall be needed, in camp or field, to sustain the Government and preserve the Union, they will be cheerfully given, and the blood which I inherited from patriot sires freely shed, to transmit to my children the blessings which I in- herited from the Fathers of the Republic. And here I take occasion to express my profound grief and shame, that one man in this community should so far forget his duty to his country, and so far dishonor the memory of his noble ancestors, as to be found upon the side of treason and rebellion. I am overwhelmed with astonishment and indignation to find that patriot blood should flow in traitor veins. You know, Mr. Chairman, that while I have always been a Republican, and annually deposited my vote for the Republican candidates, I have been in favor of conciliation and compromise. I was in favor of exhausting every peaceful remedy before re- sorting to the sword. As a member of the Legislature, and one of the commitee on Federal Relations, I recommended the division of the territories between the North and the South — the repeal of Personal Liberty Bills — the restoration of Fugitive Slaves — and stronger constitutional guarrantees for the protection of Southern interests and Southern institutions. I believe I did sink the partisan in the patriot, for I was willing to give up all the anticipated ^fruits of victory to secure peace to the country, and avert the horrors of civil war. You will ask, perhaps, why these measures were not adopted by Congress, and peace secured — Why the Territories were not divided, Personal Liberty Bills repealed, and the Constitution so amended as to make Northern interference with Slavery in the States, impossible. I answer, simply because those concessions were not sufficient to satisfy the South. The South demanded more— it wanted the entire possession and control of the Govern- ment, and it wanted to extend its institutions over all the Terri^ tories, and, if possible, into all the States of the Union. Some of you will remember, that in my first campaign speech last fall, I said that the question of Slavery was incidental and subordinate to another, a deeper and more important question. — I said that the contest in which we were then about to engage, was one for political power ; and that the real question for us to decide, vras, whether the North, Avith its tAventy millions of peo- ple, inheritors by an illustrious lineage of the rights and blessings of freedom, should possess and administer the Government, or whether the South, with its six millions, debased and brutalized by its contact with Slavery, should retain the power which it had possessed since the organization of the Government. That was the real question, as time has abundantly proved. Thirty years ago, Southern politicians saw with an evil and j'ealous eye, the North advancing in population, in wealth, and in all the elements of moral and material progress, with a rapid- ity which would soon leave them in a liopeless minority, and they looked forward with rage and desperation to the time when they would be compelled to yield the control of the Govern- ment, and follow where they had been accustomed to lead ; and they determined, when that day should arrive, to throw off their allegiance, and fire the temple at whose shrines they could no longer officiate. This is the reason why no compromise was made, no reconciliation elTected. This is the reason why the South turned thieves and traitors, and are endeavoring to destroy the best Government this side Heaven. The Federal Government, by its lopg forbearance, by its re- 6 luctauce to strike the first bloAv, even for its own preservation, has not only jeoparded its existence, but it has been driven to the very verge of irretrievable disgrace, and with all its reluc- tance to strike, it has not been able to restore those harmonious relations which this unexampled forbearance was intended to produce. The South desires no compromise, and has made no efibrts to preserve peace and maintain the integrity of the Union. The South, without justification, without cause, has voluntarily chosen war. Now, I say, let her have it — let her have it. And as the whistle of Eoderic Dhu covered the hills of Scotland with Clan Alpine's warriors, so let the thunder of cannon from Charleston that now reverberates over the land, call out a mil- lion men, and let them fall with the weight of an avalanche, and the swiftness of Heaven's own thunderbolts upon the traitors who have sought by treachery and theft, and by acts that would disgrace a savage, to overturn and destroy the Government. Let there be no flinching now. Let every man whose condition will possibly enable him to do so, let every man whose pulses beat in unison with the triumphant march of Liberty, let every man who would not live a coward and when he dies fill a coward's grave, buckle on liis armor, and win immortal honor by fighting in the defence of his country. The President has called for seventy-five thousand men. — Five times seventy-five thousand will be needed, and must be had, or else defeat will overwhelm those who are first in the field; and we shall suifer the burning, the blistering disgrace of letting the Federal Capital lall into the hands of the rebels. Whether Maryland is loyal or not, I^altimorc must be taken and held by troops from the Free States, and communication with Washington kept open at all hazards. Twenty-five thousand men will be needed for that service alone. Fifty thousand men should be concentrated at Washington. Fifty thousand more should march upon Richmond, and the blood of a thousand Virginians wash out the disgrace of placing a negro — the representa- tive of the Southern Confederacy — astride of the statue of Wash- ington. An army in diverging columns of a hundred thousand men should carry death and desolation over the cotton States; and the Ohio river, from Pittsburgh to Cairo, should bristle with one continuous line of bayonets, to stop supplies and starve the rebels into a surrender. The whole power of the Government should be used to crush out this unjustifiable, this unnatural re- bellion — and it should be accompanied with such an accumula- tion of horrors, that Treason will for ever stand aghast at the magnitude of its punishment, and History sicken as she writes the bloody record ! Come up, then, young men and old — Republicans and Dem- ocrats — Little Giants and Wide Awakes — come up as American citizens, and sustain the Government in this hour of its extrem- est peril. Let blood in rivers flow, and a hundred battle-fields be piled with the bodies of the slain ; but save the country, and preserve untarnished the Flag of the Union ! " Forever float that standard sheet ! Where breathes the foe, but falls before us ; With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us ! " I TRRfiRY OF CONGRESS ■III 012 026 278 6 I