•* ^ V V" ***** <^ aP **.J> • *« ♦ .** ♦ /x * AN APPEAL FOE KANSAS. Sir, the people of Kansas, bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh, with the education of freemen and the rights of American citizens, now stand at your door. Will you send them away or bid them enter ? Will you push them back to renew their struggles with a deadly foe, or will you preserve them in security and peace? Will you cast them again into the den of tyranny, or will you help their despairing efforts to escape ? These questions I put with no common solici- tude, for I feel that on their just determination depend all the most precious interests of the Republic ; and I perceive too'clearly the prejudices in the way and the accumulating bitterness against this distant people, now claiming their sim- ple birthright, while I am bowed with mortification as I recognize the President of the United States, who Should have been a staff* to the weak and a shield to the innocent, at the head of this strange oppression. In this contest, Kansas bravely stands forth — the stripling leader, clad in the panoply of American institutions. In calmly meeting and adopting a frame of government, her people have with intuitive promptitude performed the duties of freemen; and when' I consider the difficulties by which 44 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. she was beset, I find dignity in her attitude. In offering herself for admission into the Union as a Free State, she presents a single issue for the people to decide. And since the slave power now stakes on this issue all its ill-gotten supremacy, the people, while vindicating Kansas, will at the same time overthrow this tyranny. Thus does the contest which she now begins involve not only liberty for herself, but for the whole country. God be praised that she did not bend ignobly beneath the yoke ! Far away on the prairies she is now battling for the liberty of all, against the President, who misrepresents all. Everywhere among those who are not in- sensible to right, the generous struggle meets a generous re- sponse, f In all this sympathy there is strength. But in the cause itself there is angelic power. Unseen* of men, the great spirits of history combat by the side of the people of Kansas, breathing a divine courage. Above all towers the majestic form of Washington once more, as on the bloody field, bid- ding them to remember those rights of human nature for which the War of Independence was waged. Such a cause, thus sustained, is invincible. The contest which, beginning in Kansas, has reached us, will soon be transferred from Congress to a broader stage, where every citizen will be not only spectator but actor ; and to their judgment I confidently appeal. To the people, now on the eve of exercising the electoral franchise, in choosing a Chief Magistrate of the Republic, I -appeal, to vindicate the electoral franchise in Kansas. Let the ballot-box of the Union, with multitudinous might, protect the ballot-box in that Territory. Let the voters everywhere, while rejoicing in their own rights, help to guard the equal rights of distant fellow-citizens; that the shrines of popular institutions, now desecrated, may be sanctified anew; that the ballot-box now plundered, may be restored; and that the cry, "I am an American citizen," may not be sent forth in vain against out- rage of every kind. In just regard for free labor in that Territory, w liich it is sought to blast by unwelcome associa- tion with slave labor ; in Christian sympathy with the slave, whom it is proposed to task and sell there; in stern con- demnation of the crime which has been consummated on that beautiful soil ; in rescue of fellow-citizens, now subjugated to a tyrannical usurpation ; in dutiful respect for the early fathers, whose inspirations are now ignobly thwarted ; in the name of the Constitution, which has been outraged — of the laws trampled down — of justice banished — of humanity de- graded—of peace destroyed — of freedom crushed to earth ; SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 45 and in 'the name of the Heavenly Father, whose service is perfect freedom, I make this last appeal. Hoji. Ghas. Sumner \ 1856. MASSACHUSETTS AND BEE CHILDEEU. To Massachusetts, mother of ns all — great in resources, great in children — I now pledge my devotion. Never before did she inspire equal pride and affection. My filial love does not claim too much when it exhibits her as approaching the pattern of a Christian commonwealth, which, according to that great English republican, John Milton, ought to be but as one huge Christian personality, one mighty growth and stature of an honest man, as big and compact in virtue as in body. Not through any worldly triumph — not through the vaults of State Street — the spindles of Lowell — or even the learned endowments of Cambridge, is Massachusetts thus ; but because, seeking to extend the benign influence of civili- zation, which she cultivates at home, she stands forth the faithful, uuseduced supporter of human nature. Wealth has its splendor, and the intellect has its glory. But there is a grandeur in such a service which is above even the regard of good men, and will have the immortal life of history. For this she has also the reproach and contumely which through- out all ages have been poured on those who have striven for justice on earth. Not now for the first time in human strug- gles has truth, when most dishonored, seemed most radiant in gathering glory, even out of obloquy. When Sir Henry Vane, courageous champion of the English commonwealth, was dragged on a hurdle up the Tower Hill, to suffer death by the axe, one of the multitude cried out to him, " You never sat on so glorious a seat ;" and again, when Russell was exposed in the same streets, on the way to the same scaffold, the people, according to the simple narrative of his biographer, imagined they saw Liberty and Virtue sitting by his side. Massachusetts is not without encouragement in her own history. She has 'seen her ports closed by an arbi- trary power — has seen her name made a by-word of reproach — has seen her cherished leaders, Hancock and Adams, ex- cepted from all pardon by the crown ; but then, when most dishonored, did Massachusetts deserve most — then was she doing most for the cause of us all ; and now, when Massa- 46 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKEK. chusetts is engaged in a greater cause than that of our fathers, how serenely can she turn from the scoff and jest of heartless men. Her only disgrace will be in the disloyalty to the truth which is to make her free. Worse ! oh, far worse than the evil speaking of others, is the conduct of some of her own children. It is hard to see the scholarship which has been drawn from her cisterns, and the riches which have been accumulated under her hospitable shelter, now employed to weaken and discreflfct the cause which is above riches or scholarship. It is hard, while our fellow-citizens in Kansas, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, plead for a deliver- ance from a cruel usurpation, and while the whole country, including our own soil, is trodden down by a domineering and brutal despotism, to behold the sons of Massachusetts in sympathy, open or disguised, with the vulgar enemy ; quick- ening everywhere the lash of the task-master, and helping forward the Satanic carnival, when slavery shall be fastened, not only upon prostrate Kansas, but upon all the territories of the Republic ; when Cuba shall be torn from a friendly power by dishonest force, and when the slave trade itself, with all its crime, its woe and its shame, shall be opened anew under the American flag. With such I have no word of controversy at this hour; but turning from them now in my weakness, I trust not to seem too severe if I covet for the occasion something of the divine power : To bend the silver bow with tender skill, While void of pain the silent arrows kill. II. Gladly from these do I turn to another character, yet hap- pily spared to Massachusetts, whose heart beats strong with the best blood of the Revolution, and with the best senti- ments by which that blood was enriched — the only child of one of the authors of American liberty — for many years the able and courageous representative of Boston on the floor of Congress, where his speeches were the masterpieces of the time. Distinguished throughout a long career by the grate- ful trust of his fellow citizens — happy in all the possessions of a well-spent life, and surrounded by love, honor, obedi- ence, troops of friends — with an old age which is second youth — Josiah Quincy, still erect under the burden of eighty- four winters, puts himself before us. In the ardor of youth, or the maturity of manhood, did he show himself so grandly conspicuous, and add so much to the heroic wealth of his- SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 47 tory? His undaunted soul, lifted already to glimpses of another life, may shame the feebler spirits of a later genera- tion. There is one other personage, at another period, who, with precisely the same burthen of winters, has asserted the same supremacy of powers. It is the celebrated Dandolo, Doge of Venice, at the age of eighty-four, of whom the his- torian Gibbon has said, in words which are strictly applicable to our own Quincy : " He shone in the last period of human life as one of the most illustrious characters of the time. Under the*weight of years he retained a sound understand- ing and a manly courage, the spirit of a hero and the wisdom of a patriot." This old man carried the Venetian Republic over to the Crusaders, and exposed his person freely to all the perils of war, so that the historian describes him in words again applicable to our day, saying, " In the midst of the conflict the Doge, a venerable and conspicuous form, stood aloft, in complete armor, on the prow of the galley, while the great standard of St. Mark was displayed before him." Be- fore the form of our venerable head is displayed the standard of a greater Republic than Venice — thrilling with its sight greater multitudes than ever gazed on the standard of St. Mark, while a sublimer cause is ours than the cause of the Crusaders ; for our task is not merely to ransom an empty sepulchre, but to ransom the Saviour himself in the bodies of his innumerable children ; not merely to displace the infidel from a distant foreign soil, but to displace him from the very Jerusalem of our liberties. — Hon. Charles Sumner, 1856. THE ELECTION OF A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT A REASON POR DISUNION. I was surprised to hear that gentleman's declaration that the election to the Presidency of William H. Seward, or Chase, or any other Republican candidate, entertaining like opinions with them, would not be a sufficient cause for a dis- solution of the Union. He said he would wait for some overt act. I should consider the election of such a candidate, by a northern sectional majority, as a declaration of war against our rights ; and I rejoice in the belief that those whom I represent, and the gallant State to which I owe my first and highest allegiance, will not hesitate in such contingency, let the consequences be what they may, to fall back on their re- served rights, and declare to the world, " As for this Union, we have no longer any lot or part in it." 48 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. When this Union was founded, it was regarded as a doubtful experiment. Patrick Henry, with his matchless eloquence, and many others of the purest and best patriots of the land, men who had devoted themselves to the cause of the Revolution, opposed the ratification of the Constitu- tion. They believed then — and some of them predicted — that if the Union was formed, the Southern States would sink down into mere appendages of the North. If the framers of the Constitution had ever dreamed of this persistent, relentless Avar upon the institution*^ slavery, they would never have agreed to the formation of the Union at all. The question now is, whether, being formed, this cause is sufficient to destroy it. Mr. Clerk, the southern people have heretofore been patient and forbearing under the many injuries which they have received. They have lent too willing ears to the syren songs of those who cried "Peace, peace." Many of them have now despaired of ever witnessing the restoration of amity between the two sections. The embittered and hostile feeling which now prevails in both regions they believe, how- ever much they may regret it, must lead to a dissolution of the Union. If that is to be the inevitable result, is it not better that this separation should be made by mutual agree- ment, as was done by Abraham and Lot, when " they sepa- rated themselves the one from the other ?" Yet gentlemen tell us that there must be an appeal to arms; and, in some quarters, the southern States are threatened with subjugation. in case they resist. Thus warned, I trust they will all arm at once for the conflict. Such threats can have no other in- fluence upon a brave and spirited people. They have all the men and materials required for their defense ; and, I dare predict, are calmly prepared to meet the issue whenever a wanton infraction of their rights, or an unmistakable evidence of hostile intentions, such as that to which I have alluded, shall render necessary an appeal to the God of justice and the arbitrament of the sword. If war should follow, as I do not believe that it would, then, unless I am deceived in the spirit of the South, they would make the struggle memorable in after times, by being able to point to many glorious battle-fields, like those of Marathon and Morat, Yorktown and New Orleans. I have no apprehension respecting the final result of such conflict ; but I prefer thai no conflict should take place. I prefer that the spirit of fanaticism should be quelled; that this crusade against the South should cease; and that we should be af- forded what the Constitution intended to assure us — security SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 49 and protection in the enjoyment of our rights of person and and property. — Hon. S. Moore, 1859. LET US ALONE. Sir, I represent a constituency of Northern Laboeees — men who deem it no disgrace that they earn their subsis- tence, and lay up a competence for support in after life by their daily labor. So far as social position is concerned, they are the peers of any man on this floor, ISTorth or South. And I will resist, by all the powers that God has given me, the extension of a system into their territory which degrades them to the level of the negro slave, and which holds that all who labor, whether black or white, are fit only to be slaves themselves ! In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, let me say that we seek no quarrel with the South. This is an issue which they have forced upon us, and, with God's blessing, we will meet it as becomes worthy descendants of patriot sires! You some- times tell us that all you want is to be let alone. That is precisely what we intend to do. We will interfere with none of your rights. Whatever is "nominated in the bond," that we will yield. In turn is it too much for us to make the same request of you — that you will let us alone ? If slavery be a blessing, to you shall inure all its benefits. If it be a curse, do not seek to plant it upon our soil — to involve us in its guilt. We desire to cultivate the relations of peace and of fraternal kindness with the people of the South. And we say to them, in the language of one of New England's most gifted poets: " All that sister States should do — all that free States may, Heart, liand and purse we proffer, as in our early day ; But tins one, dark, loathsome burden, ye must struggle with ALONE, And reap the bitter harvest which ye yourselves have sown !" Hon. M. W. Tappan, 1856. THE LIMITATION OF SLAVERY EESISTED. If slavery be confined to its present limits, the institution will necessarily be overthrown. It is only a question of time. We have now four million slaves in the fifteen South- ern States. That population, doubling itself, according to 5 50 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. the census returns, every twenty-five years, by natural in- crease — to say nothing of African importations — we will in fifty years from now have sixteen millions. What else is true? It is a fact known to all, that in the border counties of Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, slavery is almost a nominal thing. Men cannot afford to own slaves where, by crossing an imaginary line, they fall into the hands of our enemies and their friends, who aid them in their flight. Hence you find slave owners in those counties selling off their slaves and crowding them down into the States on the Atlan- tic coast and Gulf of Mexico. This operation is going on daily, as every man knows. Confine us within our present limits, and it will not be long before the institution will sink of its own weight. We ought not to wait for that time. Do you think, gentlemen, that we will remain quiet while this is being done ? Do you think that we will ever consent to have our four million negroes placed on a footing of equal- ity with ourselves, our wives and children ? If you do, I tell you that you reckon without your host. The South will never submit to that state of things. It matters not what evils come upon us ; it matters not how deep we may have to wade through blood ; we are bound to keep our slaves in their present position. I tell you here, to-day, that the insti- tution of slavery must be sustained. The South has made up its mind to keep the black race in bondage. If we are not permitted to do this inside of the Union, I tell you it will be done outside of it. Yes, sir, and we will expand this insti- tution ; we do not intend to be confined within our present limits; and there are not men enough in all your borders to coerce three million armed men in the South, and prevent their going into the surrounding territories. Hon. Otho M. Singleton, 1859. A WESTERN CONFEDERACY. Sie, I will not consent that an honest and conscientious opposition to slavery forms any part of the motives of the leaders of the Republican party. In the earlier stages of the abolition agitation, it may have been otherwise ; but not so now. This whole controversy has now become but one of mere sectionalism, a war for political domination, in which slavery performs but the part of the letter x in an algebraic equation, and is used now in the political algebra of the day only to work out the problem of disunion. It was admitted SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 51 in 1820, in the beginning, by Rufus King, who hurled the first thunderbolt in the Missouri controversy, to be but a question of sectional power and control. To-day, it exists and is fostered and maintained, because the North has, or believes that she has, the power and numbers and strength and wealth, and every other element which constitutes a State, superior to you of the South. Power has always been arrogant, domineering, wrathful, inexorable, fierce, denying that constitutions and laws were made for it. Power now and here is just what power has been everywhere and in every age. But, gentlemen of the North, you who igno- rrmtly or wittingly are hurrying this Republic to its destruc- tion ; you who tell the South to go out of the Union if she dare, and you will bring her back by force or leave her to languish and to perish under your overshadowing greatness; did it never occur to you that when this most momentous but most disastrous of all the events which history shall ever to the end of time record, shall have been brought about, the West, the great West, which you now coolly reckon yours as a province, yours as a fief of your vast empire, may choose, of her own sovereign good will and pleasure, in the exercise of a popular sovereignty which will demand and will have non-intervention, to set up for herself? Did you never dream of a Western Confederacy? Did that horrid phantom never flit across you in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men ? Sir, we have fed you ; we have clothed you ; we have paid tribute to, and enriched you, for now these sixty years. We it is who have built up your marts of com- merce ; we it is who have caused your manufiicturing estab- lishments to flourish. Who made Boston? What built up New York, till now, like Tyre of old, she sits queen of the seas, and her merchant princes and traffickers are among the honorable of the earth ? Ihe cotton of the South and the XJrodv.ce of the West. Maintain this Union, and you will have them still. Dissolve this Union, if you dare; send Cal- ifornia and Oregon to the Pacific ; compel the South into a southern confederacy ; force us of the West into a western confederacy ; and then tell me what position would you as- sume among the powers of the earth ? Where then would be your pride and arrogance, your trade and business, your commerce and your dominion ? I know well, that within the Union, we of the West are now, and, so far as business and trade are concerned, must ever remain, tributaries to the North. You have made us so by that magnificent network of railroads which stretches now from the Atlantic to and beyond the Mississippi. But be not . / 52 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. deceived. That "vast inland sea" Atlantic Ocean. Once cut off from the powerful and control- ling ties of a united Government ; aliens and foreigners to each other ; with police and espionage, and armed force at every depot upon the frontiers, nature, stronger than man, would reassume her rights and her supremacy. You made . jhe railroad and the telegraph; but God Almighty made the Mississippi and her hundred tributaries. Hon. Clement L. Vallandigham^ 1859. THREATS OF DISUNION DISREGARDED. The fancied temporary interests of the few who might desire to import slaves into the Territories, should not be suf- fered to divert the national legislature from that line of policy demanded by justice, and the permanent interests of the na- tion, of the white race, and of the whole' human family. But you declare that the Union cannot be maintained un- less men are permitted to coerce the emigration of negro slaves to the Territories ! Well, sir, this threat produces no terror: as far as my knowledge extends, nobody in the Northwest is frightened by it, although it originates in a high quarter. We understand that it is your interest to stay in the Union, and that you have not the power to dissolve it ; that a dissolution of the Union would bring on you, in tenfold strength, every evil of which you complain. With this impotent threat " to dissolve the Union," if a Republican should be elected President of the United States, you not only demand the disbanding of the Republican party, and, by a logical sequence, the repeal of all laws in the free States disparaging the institution and prohibiting its exist- ence within their jurisdiction ; but you attempt to coerce our consciences and judgment, and require us to approve slavery as morally right — a humane and Christian institution. In this you will never succeed. Neither vehement threats of a dissolution of the Union, nor any other mode of coercion, will be likely to change our opinions of either the morality or expediency of slaveholding. The laws of the human mind cannot be changed ; perception, memory, conscience and judgment will continue. Conscience may be stupefied for a time, but it will again rally and assert its right to control the conduct of men. The people of the whole North, almost without a solitary exception, believe- that slavery is in itself wrong, and may be maintained tern- SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. Od porarily only, in consequence of the necessities that may sur- round the parties which sustain this relation to an inferior race. Whenever these necessities cease, they maintain that it will be the duty of each to dissolve the relation. Nobody in the North, however, maintains that this can ever be effect- ed, except by the action of the people of the States where the relation exists. The Republicans maintain that Congress has no power whatever over this subject within their limits. You admonish us, however, that if a gentleman who en- tertains the doctrines originally maintained by Washington, Jefferson, and the other illustrious men who lived during the earlier part of the Republic, from which, as was admitted on yesterday by the honorable Senator from Virginia, (Mr. Mason,) the Democracy has swerved, should be elected President of the United States, in accordance with the Con- stitution and the laws, you will destroy the Government. When analyzed, could a proposition be more insulting to freemen? We must surrender our own reasoning faculties, and our consciences and judgment, and follow your behests ! We must change, because you have changed ! We must re- pudiate, because you have discarded, the opinions of the fathers! When we approach the polls, we must represent your opinions and not our own, by our votes ! That is, we must cease to be freemen, and become your political slaves ! If your political opponents will destroy their platform and dis- solve their organization ; if the free States will destroy their constitutions and repeal their laws on the subject of slavery ; ^f a majority of the freemen of the country will stultify their own judgments, and trample under foot their con- sciences; give up freedom of speech and of the, press, and cease to exercise the right of freemen at. the polls, you will graciously permit the Union to be continued ! Well, sir, this mode of preserving the Union would cost us too much. We have the hearts and heads and hands and will to preserve it in a cheaper manner, let the crisis come when it may. Hon. James Harlan, 1860. THE YANKEE TWANG. My colleague* amused himself with the comic power he possesses in imitating the nasal twang of the Yankees of the Western Reserve in Ohio. It sounded strange to you as it * Mr. Cox. S4 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. did to him ; and so it did to the army of Prince Rupert at Marston Moor, when the ancestors of these men rushed into battle against the mailed chivalry and curled darlings of the* court of Charles I. What happened then ? Something worthy to be noted, and not forgotten. Stout Cromwell and his unconquerable Ironsides, when the day was well nigh lost, charged with resistless fury upon the proud columns of that host of gentlemen, as they were boastfully denominated, and lo ! Prince Rupert and his host were no longer tliere. They were scattered as the dried leaves of autumn are before the storm-blast of the corning winter. That same nasaL twang rang out, on that day, their well known war-cry, "the sword of the Lord and Gideon." These Yankees are a peculiar people; they are an industri- ous, thriving, painstaking race of men. The frailties of these men grow out of their very virtues, those stern virtues which founded liberty in England, and baptized it in their own blood upon Bunker Hill, in America. They will do so again if there is a necessity for it. It is a hard matter to deal with men who do verily believe that God Almighty and his angels encamp round about them. What do they care for earthly things or earthly power ? What do they care for kings, and lords, and presidents ? They fully believe they are heirs of the King of kings. In the hour of battle they seem to themselves to stand, like the great Hebrew leader in the cleft of the rock ; the glory of the niost high God passes by them, and they catch a gleam of its brightness. If you come in conflict with the purposes of such men, they will regard duty as everything, life as nothing. So it appeared in our war of the Revolution. The gentleman from Mississippi said that the North got more revolutionary pensions than the South. I do not know how that is. How did it happen? Gentlemen tell me they would not have pensions in the South. I am glad if it be so. But I am not now, never have been, and never will be willing to violate history and good taste so far as to draw invidious distinctions between this or that State or colony, who, by their combined valor, won the independence of all the States. While I must always venerate the men of New England of that day, I still turn with unabated admiration to those of the South, es- pecially to Virginia — glorious "Old Dominion," illustrious alike for her heroes in war and her sages in peace ; and if it depend on vote or effort of mine, the last land warrant of the last descendant of her revolutionary heroes shall be located on lands, if such can be found, rich as the delta of the Nile ; in a climate if it be possible, healthful as was Eden ere yet SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 55 in had brought death into the home of the first family of man. — Hon. Thomas Corwin, 1860. EFFECTS OF THE DOCTRINE OF NON-INTERVENTION IN THE TERRITORIES. You cannot make laws for Utah because you have denied the power of Congress to make laws for the Territories. What is Utah ? A blot on the fair pages of your history, which all the waters of Lethe can never wash out-;— a foul, incestuous den — a disgrace to a civilized and Christian country. That is what comes of this glorious new doctrine which you have propagated on all sides. That comes of your parting with the wise usages and the wise institutions of your fathers ; and so it will ever be the moment you abandon those well-established, constitutional rules fixed by the found- ers of the Republic. You have abandoned the great high- ways of the past — the good macadamized roads made for you — every milestone of which was red with Revolutionary blood ; you have strayed away from them and wandered after will s-o'-the- wisp into swamps and by-paths. All that the Republican party wish to do, is to stand up and call you back as a mother calls to her lost child, and put you on the safe old road again. They call upon you to come out from the wilderness ; to quit the shedding of each other's blood in fratricidal war for the right to have this or that law ; to let the Congress of the United States, who represent the fathers, the brothers, the sisters of the peaceful emigrants who have gone into the Territories, consider what is best for their children and friends. But abandon, as you have aban- doned, the institutions of your fathers, and there will be neither peace nor progress in the Territories. There will be strife here, and civil war there, and wild confusion will reign supreme. The wise prophet of Israel, after he came down from the mountain with the law in -his hand, and found his brother Aaron worshipping a golden calf which he had made, was so angry that he threw down the tables of the law and' broke them. He determined that that wicked people should never have an opportunity of worshipping any more golden calves ; he made all the women bring in their trinkets and golden ornaments and melted them down into one mass. Let us, in the same spirit, bring in these memorable idols of ours; sacrifice them on the common altar of our country ; shake hands, forget, and forgive. — Hon. Thomas Corwin, 1860. 56 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. DUTY OF THE FUTURE. I hope the observations which. I have made, forced from me without any of that preparation which is usual, may not be entirely worthless. Whether we consider this ever-re- curring question of slavery as resting within our unrestricted discretion, or whether we regard it as fixed and limited by constitutional law — in either aspect, with good sense, guided by true patriotism, there is nothing to be feared. The way through the future is, in my judgment, open, clear, and plain. We cannot be so weak as to give way to childish fears, or sink into lethargy' and despair. On the contrary, let us " gird up our loins" to the work before us ; for upon us this duty is devolved. We cannot escape from it if we would. Let us, above all, preserve our Constitution inviolate, and the Union which it created, unbroken. By the lights they give us, with the aids of an enlightened religion, and an ever-improving Christian philosophy, let us march onward and onward in the great highway of social progress. Let us always keep in the advancing car of that progress — our book of constitutions and our Bible. Like the Jews of old, let the ark of the covenant be advanced to the front in our march. With these to guide us, I feel the proud assurance that our free principles will take their way through all coming time ; and before them I do believe that the cloven footed altars of op- pression, all over the world, will fall down, as Dagon of old fell down, and was shivered to pieces in the presence of the ark of the living God. But if we halt in this great exodus of the nations ; if we are broken into inconsiderable frag- ments, and ultimately dispersed, through our follies of this day, what imagination can conrpass the frightful enormity of our crime! What would the world say of this unpardonable sin ? Rather than this, we should pray the kind Father of all, even his wicked children, to visit us with the last and worst of all the afflictions that fall on sin and sinful man. Better for us would it be that the fruitful earth should be smitten for a season with barrenness and become dry dust and refuse its annual fruits ; better that the heavens for a time should become brass, and the ear of God deaf to our prayers ; better that famine, with her cold and skinny fingers, should lay hold upon the throats of our wives and children; better that God should commission the angel of destruction to go forth over the whole land, scattering pestilence and death from his dusky wing, than that we should prove faith- less to our trust, and by that means our light should be SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 57 quenched, our liberties destroyed, and all our bright hopes die out in that night which knows no coming dawn. Hon. Thomas Gorwin^ 1860. UBIQUITY OF THE YANKEE. As to this question of territorial legislation, touching slavery in the Territories, let gentlemen pause upon that, and consider before they rush to conclusions. I tell gentle- men of the South — and the day will come when they will remember my advice — not to trust Northern people to make laws of their own in the Territories for the exclusion or pro- tection of slavery. I do not care where you go, in any lati- tude under the heavens' where a white man can live and work, the Yankees will go there too. Wherever clocks can be used or sold, there they will be. If they come to learn that it is the law of the Republic that the status of the country is fixed forever by the first inhabitants, instead of settling that status here, among men who are responsible to the country and to history, they will settle the question as they did in Kansas. They will always beat you, if you open the question in that way. Let this calm, deliberative, legislative assert 1 ^y of gentlemen, who legislate for the whole Union of juny millions of people — let them determine whether it is better that slavery should go there or not ; let that question come here, where we look at this great country, and all the Terri- tories we have, and all we may ever acquire, as common patrimony, alike of all the States, and all the people we rep- resent. The population which usually goes into new Territories is generally led by an eager and sometimes wild spirit of adven- ture. The people will keep out the negro, because they have no negroes of their own, no slaves of their own. I care not whether the Territory be at the north pole or near the equator, they will go there, and will keep your negroes out, if you allow them to determine whether slavery shall be there or not. I should think that any man who has looked at the history of Kansas for the last three years, with reference to this matter, will not doubt my conclusions. In consequence of Congress giving up this great conservative power to make laws for an uncongenial heterogeneous people, civil war raged for three years over the beautiful plains of Kansas, where there should have been nothing heard but the jocund whistle of the plowman driving his team to the field, and where nothing 3* 58 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. else or worse would have been heard, if Congress had only made laws to govern that Territory, and sent its governor, and, if necessary, troops, to execute the law. You made an experiment there, and you know the result. lion. Thomas Corwin, 1860. MAN'S NATURAL EIGHT TO THE SOIL. The Government, by its existing land policy, has thus caused to be abstracted from the earnings of its hardy pioneers almost seventeen hundred million dollars for the mere privilege of enjoying one of God's bounties to man. This large amount has been abstracted from the sons of toil without rendering any equivalent, save a permit from the State to occupy a wilderness, to which not a day or hour of man's labor had been applied to change it from the condition in which the God of nature made it. Why should govern- ments seize upon any of the bounties of God to man, and make them a source of revenue? While the earth was created for the whole human family, and was made its abiding place through the pilgrimage of this life, and since the hour of the primal curse, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thoj eat bread," man has been forced to the cultivation of the soil to obtain subsistence for himself and the means of promoting the welfare of the race, why should governments wrest from him the right to apply his labor to such, unoccu- pied portion of the earth's surface as may be necessary for his. support until he has contributed to the revenues of the State, any more than to permit him to breathe the air, enjoy the sunlight, or quaff from the rills and rivers of the earth ? It would be just as rightful, were it possible to be done, to survey the atmosphere off into quarter sections, and transfer it by parchment titles; divide the sun into quantum of rays, and dole it out to groping mortals at a price ; or arch over the water of the earth into vast reservoirs, and sell it to dying men. In the language of remarks heretofore made on this subject, why has this claim of man to monopolize any of the gifts of God to man been confined, by legal codes, to the soil alone ? Is there any other reason than that it is a right which, having its origin in feudal times — under a system that regarded man but as an appendage of the soil that he tilled, and whose life, liberty, and happiness were but means of increasing the pleasures, pampering the passions and appe- tites of his liege lord — and, having once found a place in the SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 59 books, it has been retained by the reverence which man is wont to pay to the past and to time-honored precedents? The human mind is so constituted that it is prone to regard as right what has come down to us approved by long usage, aud hallowed by gray age. It is a claim that had its origin with the kindred idea that royal blood flows only in the veins of an exclusive few, whose souls are more ethereal, because born amid the glitter of courts, and cradled amid the pomp of lords and courtiers ; and, therefore, they are to be installed as rulers and lawgivers of the race. Most of the evils that afflict society have had their origin in violence and wrong enacted into law by the experience of the past, and retained by the prejudices of the present. Is it not time you swept from your statute-book its still lingering relics of feudalism ? blotted out the principles in- grafted upon it by the narrow-minded policy of other times, and adapted the legislation of the country to the spirit of the age, and to the true ideas of man's rights and relations to his Government 1—Hon. G. A. Grow, 1860. FREE HOMES FOR FREE MEN, I would provide in our land policy for securing homesteads to actual settlers ; and whatever bounties the Government should grant to the old soldiers, I would have made in money and not in land warrants, which are bought in most cases by the speculator as an easier and cheaper mode of acquiring the public lands. So they only facilitate land monopoly. The men who go forth at the call of their country to uphold its standard and vindicate its honor, are deserving, it is true, of a more substantial reward than tears to the dead and thanks to the living ; but there are soldiers of peace as well as of war, and though no waving plume beckons them on to glory or to death, their dying scene is oft a crimson one. They fall leading the van of civilization along untrodden paths, and are buried in the dust of its advancing columns. ]STo monument marks the scene of deadly strife ; no stone their resting place ; the winds sighing through the branches of the forest alone sing their requiem. Yet they are the meritorious men of the Republic — the men who give it strength in war and glory in peace. The achievements of your pioneer army, from the day they first drove back the Indian tribes IVom the Atlantic seaboard to the present hour, 60 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. have been the achievements of science and civilization over the elements, the wilderness, and the savage. If rewards or bounties are to be granted for true heroism in the progress of the race, none is more deserving than the pioneer who expels the savage and the wild beast, and opens in the wilderness a home for science and pathway for civili- zation. " Peace hath her victories, No less renowned than war." The paths of glory no longer lead over smoking towns and crimsoned fields, but along the lanes and by-ways of human misery and woe, where the bones and sinews of men are struggling with the elements, with the unrelenting obstacles of nature, and the not less unmerciful obstacles of a false civilization. The noblest achievement in this world's pilgrim- age is to raise the fallen from their degradation ; soothe the broken hearted, dry the tears of woe, and alleviate the suffer- ings of the unfortunate in their pathway to the tomb. " Go say unto the raging sea, Be still ; Bid the wild, lawless winds obey thy will ; Preach to the storm, and reason with despair ; But tell not misery's son that life is fair." If you would lead the erring back from the paths of vice and crime to virtue and to honor, give him a home — give him a hearthstone, and he will surround it with household gods. If you would make men wiser and better, relieve your almshouses, close the doors of your penitentiaries, and break in pieces your gallows; purify the influences of the domestic fireside, for that is the school in which human char- acter is formed, and there its destiny is shaped ; there the soul receives its first impress, and man his first lesson, and they go with him for weal or for woe through life. For puri- fying the sentiments, elevating the thoughts, and developing the noblest i; .pulses of man's nature, the influences of a rural fireside and an agricultural life are the noblest and the best. In the obscurity of the cottage, far removed from the seduc- tive influences of rank and affluence, are nourished the vir- tues that counteract the decay of human institutions, the courage that defends the national independence, and the in- dustry that supports all classes of the state. Son. G. A. Grow, 1860. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. THE HOMESTEAD THE SOUEOE OF NATIONAL GREATNESS. Max, in defence of his hearthstone and fireside, is invinci- ble against a world of mercenaries. Let ns adopt the policy cherished by Jackson, and indic^ ted in his annual message to Congress in 1832, in which he says: " It cannot be doubted that the speedy settlement of these lands constitutes the true interest of the Republic. The wealth and strength of a country are its population, and the best part of the population are the cultivators of the soil." Why should the Government hold the public domain longer as a source of revenue, when it has already more than paid all costs and expenses incurred in its acquisition and management? Even if the Government had a right, based in the nature of things, thus to hold these lands, it would be adverse to a sound national policy to do so ; for the real wealth of a country consists not in the sum of money paid into its treasury, but in its flocks, herds, and cultivated fields. Nor does its real strength consist in fleets and armies, but in the bones and sinews of an independent yeomanry and the comfort of its laboring classes. Its real glory consists not in the splendid palace, lofty spire, or towering dome; but in the intelligence, comfort, and happiness of the fireside of its citizens. " What constitutes a State ? Not high-raised battlement or labored mound, Thick wall or moated gate ; Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned, Not bays and broad-armed ports, Where laughing at the storm, rich navies ride ; Not starred and spangled courts, Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. No ! men, high-minded men. ******* Men who their duties know, But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain ; Prevent the long-aimed blow, And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain : These constitute a State." Had the policy advocated by Gracchus, of distributing the public lands among the landless citizens of the nation, been adopted, the Roman fields would have been cultivated by free men instead of slaves, and there would have been a race of men to stay the ravages of the barbarian. The eternal city would not then have fallen an easy prey to the Goth and 62 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. the Vandal; but the star of her empire might have waved in triumph long after the ivy twined her broken columns. The associations of an independent freehold are eminently calculated to ennoble and elevate the possessor. It is the «fe-spring of a manly national character, and of a generous* atriotism; a patriotism that rushes to the defence of the country and the vindication of its honor, with the same zeal and alacrity that it guards the hearthstone and the fireside. Wherever Freedom has unfurled her banner, the men who have rallied around to sustain and uphold it have come from the workshop and the field, where, inured to heat and to cold, and to all the inclemencies of the season, they have ac- quired the hardihood necessary to endure the trials and pri- vations of the camp. An independent yeomanry, scattered over our vast domain, is the best and surest guarantee for the perpetuity of our liberties ; for their arms are the citadel of a nation's power, their hearts the bulwarks of liberty. Let the public domain, then, be set apart and consecrated as a patrimony to the sons of toil ; close your land office forever against the speculator, and thereby prevent the capital of the country seeking that kind of investment — from absorbing the hard earnings of labor without rendering an equivalent. While the laborer is thus crushed by the system established by the Government, by which so large an amount is abstract- ed from bis earnings for the benefit of the speculator, in ad- dition to all the other disadvantages' that ever beset the une- qual struggle between the bones and sinews of. men and dol- lars and cents, what wonder is it that misery and want so often sit at his fireside, and penury and sorrow surround his death bed ? While the pioneer spirit goes forth into the wilderness, snatching new areas from the wild beast and bequeathing them a legacy to civilized man, let not the Government dampen his ardor and palsy his arm by legislation that places him in the power of soulless capital and grasping speculation; for upon his wild battle field these are the only foes that his own stern heart and right arm cannot vanquish. Hon. G. A. Grow, 1860. JOHN BROWN'S "INVASION." I trust the calmer judgment of the other side of the House will modify their views heretofore expressed, and limit and soften the sweeping judgment which impeached a whole SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 63 political party of conspiracy to promote servile insurrec- tion. I think they will be inclined to take a somewhat different view of* the origin, the character, and the scope of John Brown's crime. It was no invasion of Virginia at all ; still less an invasion of Virginia by or from a free State. It was a conspiracy to free negroes ; arrested in the attempt ; defended with arms; stained with murder, and punished with death. It was a crime to be dealt with by judge and jury and sheriff. The utmost vigilance of two governments has failed to trace a single connection with any body of men in any State. Two of Brown's confederates were arrested in Pennsylvania wi 111 out warrant and carried without a guard to jail in Vir- ginia. His arsenal contained two hundred Sharpe's rifles and something over a thousand pikes, his army consisted of about twenty men, and though rumor promised him succor, no one ever saw a body of men or a single man marching to join him or to rescue him. Not a slave joined him voluntarily; not one lifted his hand against his master; alt were anxious to return to the bosom of their master's families. Atrocious as was the crime, and great as is the cause I have to deplore some of the best blood shed, that crime has revealed a state of fact and of feeling, both among our own population and that of the free States, on which . our eyes ought to rest with satisfaction, in view of the future. It negatives the existence of any conspiracy against our peace in the free States of the confederacy. Neither the plan nor the execution revealed any higher intelligence or greater power behind the crazy enthusiasts who acted in the tragedy. To lay this blood at the door of a great political party of our fellow-citizens, who now control the govern- ments of every free State but tWq, in spite of the indignant denial of all their Representatives here, and without a parti- cle of proof in fact, is not reasonable. It is to call Dirk Hatteraick's defence, in his lair, an invasion of Scotland ! It is to lay the bloody deeds of Balfour of Burleigh on the whole body of the Protestants in -Scotland! But the keenness with which gentlemen feel this crime against the peace of a slave State may well enable them to appreciate how the more aggravated events in Kansas in- flamed the minds of men in the free States, and fired the fanaticism of Brown to the point of bloody revenge. That men and women of like mind, in whom, on one sub- ject, the ideas of right and wrong are sadly disordered, sym- pathized with the convicts; that some papers applauded his 64 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. deed, and some pulpits echoed his eulogy, are certainly symp- toms of no sound state of morals in the actors ; but they are of no. political significance in the populous North. On this floor they have no representative. That bloody type of fanaticism is, of all things, most rare among the Abolition.- ists; and they are a body of enthusiasts who have never, to my knowledge, had ten Representatives in this hall. But, to sympathize with a criminal, to pity a convict, to consider the conviction an expiation, and the execution a martyrdom, is too common at this day to excite surprise in any case: Even with the ministers of religion, the ascent of the scaffold is Jacob's ladder — the gallows is the very gate of Heaven ; and the old formula of pax et rniserioordia is changed for one in the spirit, if not in the words, of Edgeworth, "Son of St. Louis, ascend to Heaven !" I dwell on these matters the more, because they have been made the occasion of exaggerated inferences and the proofs of unfounded fears, which a more thorough or cooler con- templation of the manifestations of thought and feeling in our free American society will dispel. I seek for signs of peace. I will explore every region for ground of returning confidence. I think there is no ground for the excitement which has prevailed. I think the longer gentlemen look at the facts, they will the more surely see that their feelings led them to extremes which they will not be inclined to repeat. Hon, Henry Winter Davis, 1860. POLYGAMY IN UTAH. The existence of such an institution as prevails in Utah, under the protection of the laws of the United States, is an outrage upon the moral feelings of our whole population. It is, as I conceive, an insult to our own wives and our own daughters, and the wives and daughters of our constituents. It is a reflection upon the pure and elevated morality of the United States, that such an institution as this should go un- whipped of justice, and flourish and prosper, and laugh its defiance, under the groundless pretence of constitutional license. While it continues, "the slow, unmoving finger of scorn" will be pointed at us by the civilized world, and we will merit the reproach for winking at and sustaining excesses such as, if equalled, could not have been excelled, in Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of old. I, for one, advocate the enactment of this law in the name SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 65 of the respectable and virtuous women of the United States. Their sex is degraded and disgraced by the practices which prevail in a worse than heathen territory. Every high- minded and honorable woman, who values the purity of the female character, must feel that she is insulted when Utah can be designated as a region of wholesale frailty, or quoted as an evidence of female weakness ; and that the infamous practices which prevail there, if not directly sanctioned, are at least scandalously tolerated by the Government of the United States. In no part of the world is woman, as a gen- eral rule, treated with such universal deference and respect as are extended to her in our own country. She richly deserves it all. And when I say this, I say it in no spirit of unmean- ing compliment. Woman nurses us in infancy ; she is our companion in maturer life ; the gentle echo of her footsteps is heard in the chamber of sickness; the soft pressure of her kind hand is felt upon the brow of pain ; she sheds tears over the dying couch of man and strews flowers upon his grave. She has a noble and generous heart, and her influence is generally exerted for good. And if there is anything under heaven for which we should feel grateful to our Crea- tor, it is for giving us woman as the highest, last, and great- est blessing to man. It was designed that she should give her whole heart in exchange for the undivided affection of man, and become his partner in lawful marriage. Enthroned in the domestic circle, she becomes our refuge amidst the storms and conflicts of life, and sheds a halo of happiness around the joys of home. Among barbarians she is treated as an inferior ; but with her sympathizing and angelic nature, her instinctive love of right, and her wondrous capacity for influence upon the mind of man, the precepts of Christianity have elevated her in the scale of being, until in every civil- ized land she has attained her true position ; and in this free and happy country of ours especially, she wields an influence such as she never exerted before, but not more than is amply her due. Let not that influence be paralyzed by any stigma or reproach which we can remove ; but rather let it be hon- ored, respected and enlarged by every means in our power. Hon. Thomas H. B. Nelson, 1860. LEGISLATIVE CENSURE EEPELLED. Me. Chairman, The Honorable the legislature of Mary- land has decorated me with its censure. It is my purpose to 66~ THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. acknowledge that compliment. It is long, sir, since the party which now controls the legislature of Maryland has been so fortunate as to have a majority in both its branches ; and it has so conducted itself that it is probable it will be long ere again it succeeds in getting that control. If one may judge from the course and conduct of that body, the gentlemen who conxpose it are perhaps more sur- prised at their present power than their opponents. They do not appear to be less bewildered or more to have changed their original nature than Christophero Sly, when waking up, after his debauch, in the nobleman's chamber, dazzled with the unaccustomed elegance which surrounded him, he began to question himself thus : " Am I a lord ? and have I such a lady ? Or do I dream ? or have I dream'd till now ? I do not sleep ; I see, I hear, I speak ; I smell sweet savors, and I feel soft things ; Upon my life, I am a lord, indeed ; And not a tinker, nor Christophero Sly. Well, bring our lady hither to our sight ; And, once again, a pot o' the smallest ale /" Sudden elevation has never changed the character of the person accidentally raised to a position he was never intended by nature to occupy ; and those who imagine it ever can may free themselves from that delusion by looking at the legis- lature of Maryland. That majority, which now presumes to represent the people of Maryland, are as much out of place in her legislative halls as was Christophero in the lordly chamber ; and they retain and reveal their natural instincts and ability as did Christophero his preference for the smallest ale over sack. There is no department of legislation to which, in the brief period of their power, they have not applied their fin- gers ; and it would be doing them injustice to say that there is any they have adorned. Greatly deficient in that first quality which constitutes the legislator — sound practical common sense — they abound in that genius of ignorance which so amazed and delighted Montesquieu's Persian in the , Parisian professors — a genius which enabled them to undertake to practice and teach, with the utmost confidence, arts and sciences of which they knew nothing. I, sir, have no apologies to make for the vote which they see fit to condemn. I have no excuses to render. What I did, I did on my own judgment, and did not look across my SPEECHES OE THE TIMES. 67 shoulder to see what my constituents would think. I told my constituents that I would come here a free man, or not at all ; and they sent me here on that condition. I told them that if they Avanted a slave to represent them, they could get plenty ; hut I was not one. I told them that I had already passed through more than one difficult, complex, dangerous session of Congress; that I had been obliged, again and again, to do that which is least grateful to my feelings, to stand not merely opposed to my honorable political oppo- nents, but to stand alone among my political friends without the strength and support which a public man receives from being buoyed up breast-high by men of like sentiments, elected on like principles, and who, if there be error, would stand as a shield and bulwark between him and his responsi- bility. I foresaw then, exactly as it resulted, that the time would come when I would be obliged again to take that stand ; and I wanted my people to know it, so that if they chose to have another, one who would go contrary to his judgment, and bend like a willow when the storm came, they might pick him out, and choose the material for their work. I know that I have to meet — and I shall meet with all equanimity — all the obloquy that is attached to the course that I have felt it to be my duty to pursue ; and I know that so far as I am worth pursuing — a gentleman in the legisla- ture had difficulties about passing the resolution for fear it should give me too much importance — so far as I am worth pursuing, I do not cloubt that I shall be well hounded. I remember that a great many years ago, not this hall, but the old Hall of Representatives, was the scene of a great strug- gle, which excited the country at that day as much as the one through which we have just passed excited us in our day ; and I remember, sir, that there was an illustrious in- dividual who there found himself bound by his duty to the country to depart from his personal preferences, and, to some extent, from his political friends, and to cast a decisive vote for John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, for President. And from that clay the howl of "bargain and corruption" pursued him — even to his grave! Sir, I have sat at his feet and learned my political principles. I can tread his path of political martyrdom. Before any cry of legislatures or people I will not yield ; they may pass over my prostrate body or my ruined reputation ; but step aside I will not to avoid either fate. — Hon. Henry Winter Davis, 1860. 68 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. THE EIGHT OF FEEE DISCUSSION. Sir, I claim the right of discussing the question of slavery anywhere, on any square foot of American soil over which the stars and stripes float, and to which the privileges and immunities of the Constitution extend. Under the Consti- tution, Avhich guarantees to me free speech, I claim it, and I demand it. The gentleman comes from a slave State, in which they are in the habit of speaking of the laboring classes in the north- ern States as " greasy mechanics," " filthy operatives," "small-fisted farmers," and they jeer at us as worse than the slaves. This insulting language can be, and is, used in the free States without molestation or injury. Yet they say, " If you come here and utter the sentiments which you sin- cerely believe, we will hang you." If a mechanic from a free State goes there 4nd utters what he thinks — that if they had more white laborers, and fewer black ones, labor in the South would be more respectable — what do you do with him ? You denude and scourge him, and, to intensify the indignity, you drive the knotted thong, by the hand of a slave, deep in his quivering flesh ; then tar and feather him ; and then put him on the cars, still naked, to be sent a long distance, and threaten with violence the man who has the compassion to give him a cup of coffee. And finally, after being jeered at every station along the route, this victim of your cruelty, a free citizen, crawls into a stable and begs — stealthily begs — the cast-off clothes of an ostler to hide his nakedness. You drive away young ladies that go to teach school, imprison or exile preachers of the Gospel, and pay your debts by raising the mad-dog cry of abolition against the agents of your creditors. Mr. Chairman, I say I claim the privilege of going any- where and everywhere within the limits of this American Republic, as a free citizen, unmolested, and of uttering, in an orderly and legal way, any sentiment that I choose to utter. Are we, for that, in these United States, to be subjected to violence, outrage, tar and feathers, burning, imprisonment and the gallows ? Answer that question. I know that gen- tlemen say self-preservation is the first law of nature ; but if you cannot keep slavery and allow free discussion, then I say, in God's name, before free discussion and all the rights of free citizens are to, be sacrificed to the Moloch of slavery, that Moloch must be immolated at the shrine of liberty, free speech, free discussion, and all those rights that cluster SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 69 around an American citizen. Why, Mr. Chairman, a citizen of Rome, when the scourge was already upraised, and about to fall upon him, if he uttered the cry, " I am a Roman citi- zen," arrested that scourge. And, sir, is it not a prouder position to be an American, than ^to be a Roman, citizen ? And are we in the nineteenth century, living under this Con- stitution, with our free institutions — are our persons and our rights to be less sacred than they were under the old Roman administration, eighteen centuries ago ? Hon. Owen Lovejoy, 18G0. JOHN BROWN. &c Mr. Chairman, this affair of John Brown brings us to the reality of things. This raid confronts us with slavery, and makes us ask, is slaveholding right? and if so, what rights has it ? You want me to curse this man. I will not curse him. You want me to pour out execrations upon the head of old Ossawattomie. Though all the slaveholding Balaks in the country fill their houses with silver and proffer it, I will not curse John Brown. I do honestly condemn what he did, from my stand-point, and, with my convictions, I disapprove of his action, that is true ; but I believe that his purpose was a good one ; that so far as his own motives be- fore God were concerned, they were honest and truthful ; and no one can deny that he stands head and shoulders above any other character that appeared on the stage in that tragedy from beginning to end ; from the time he entered the armory there to the time when he was strangled by Gov. " Fussation." He was not guilty of murder or treason. He did unquestionably violate the statute against aiding slaves to escape; but no blood was shed, except by the panic- stricken multitude, till Stevens was fired upon while waving a flag of truce. But as I remarked, sir, this brings us to confront slavery, and ask what right this Caliban has upon earth. I say, no right. My honest conviction — and I do not know why gen- tlemen need take offence ; they need not unless they choose — my honest conviction is, that all these slaveholding laws have the same moral power and force that rules among pirates have for the distribution of their booty; that regula- tions among robbers have for the division of their spoils. I want to know by what right you can come and make me a slave? I want to know by what right you can say my child *70 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. shall be your slave ? I want to know by what right you say that the mother shall not have her child, given to her from God through the martyrdom of maternity ?• Hear that ex- quisite warble of a mother's love : " Ere last year's sun had left the sky, A "birdling sought my Indian nest, And folded, ah ! so lovingly, Its tiny wings upon my breast." Now, where is the wretch that would dare to go up and take that fluttering and panting bird from the bosom of its mother, and say, " It is mine ; I will sell it like a calf; I will sell it like a pig?" What right had that mother to her babe ? Was it because she was Fanny Forrester, the gifted authoress; was it because she was the wife of a venerable and venerated missionary ? No, it was because she was its mother ; and every slave mother has just as good a title to her babe as Fanny Forrester had to hers. N"o laws can make it right to rob her. I say, in God's name, my child is mine ; and yet I have no right to mine that a slave father has not to his child. Not a particle. The same argument that proves my right to my personal liberty, proves the right of every human being to his. The argument that proves my right to my children, gives the same title, the same sacred claim to every father. They, as I, get it from their God, and no human enactment can annul the claim. No, sir, never ! Therefore, every slave has a right to his freedom, in spite of your slave laws. Every slave has a right to run away, in spite of your slave laws. I tell you, Mr. Chairman, and I tell you all, that if I were a slave, and had I the power, and were it necessary to achieve my freedom, I would not hesitate to fill up and bridge over the chasm that yawns between the hell of slavery and the heaven of freedom with the carcasses of the slain. Give me freedom. Hands off. TJnthrottle that man. Give him his liberty. He is entitled to it from his God. With these views, I do not think, of course, it is any harm to help away a slave. I told you that a year ago. I need not repeat it. A gentleman says I steal them. Who steals, when a man comes and takes my child from my hearthstone ? Who steals, when he comes and takes the babe, flesh of my flesh, and. bone of my bone ? Who steals ? I tell you that I have no more hesitation in helping a fugi- tive slave than I have in snatching a lamb from the jaws of a wolf, or disengaging an infant from the talons of an eagle. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 11 "Not a bit. Long enough has the nation crouched and cowered in the presence of this stupendous wrong. Here and now I break the spell, and disenchant the Republic from the incantation of this accursed sorceress. It is simply a question whether it will pay to go down into the den where the wolf is. If you would only go into your lair, and crunch the bones and tear the flesh of your victims we might let you alone ; but you will not. You claim the right to go with this flesh in your teeth all over our Territories. We deny it. Hon. Oicen Lovejoy, 1860. SLAVEKY AND THE CON STITUTION. The charge of having spoken against the Constitution was thrown in my face here once before ; and I denied it. It never had the least foundation in truth. I always defended the Constitution, because it was for liberty. It was ordained by the people of the United States — not by a superannuated old mummy of a judge — and a Jesuit at that — but by the people of the United States, to establish justice, secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity, and to secure the natural rights of every human being within its exclusive jurisdiction. Therefore I love it. These men can perceive nothing in the Constitution but slavery. A young man leads a blushing bride to the altar, and takes the marital vow before God and attendant wit- nesses to love, cherish and protect her. There she stands — the divinest thing that God has fashioned and placed upon earth — radiant in the beauty of youth, her cheek glowing with the color of the rose, which expands and fades away into that of the lily ; her eyes sparkling like the stars from the depths of blue, and her tresses falling around her neck like the locks of the morning. Is the mole on that fair, round neck, or the wart on that plump, soft hand, the woman whom the bridegroom swore to love and cherish ? Say, sir, is it ? So there is the Constitution — instinct with freedom, radiant with the principles of universal liberty, seizing the inspired utterances of our Magna Charta, and reducing them to practical and organic realization. Now, Sir, I insist that if the clauses that are deemed to refer to the subject of slav- ery mean all that the wildest enthusiasm claims them to mean, they bear no other relation or proportion to the Constitution which I swear to support than the excrescence on the hand or neck does to the woman whom the bridegroom vowed to 72 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. love and cherish. He loves her not for these things, but in spite of them. So I love the Constitution ; not in consequence of these things which are alleged to be in it, but in spite of them. But you will say, the woman had a right to sport an excres- cence on her hand if she chose. I concede it; and as a Fed- eral law-maker I concede that the States have a right to sport this fungus of slavery, because it is beyond my reach. But time rolls away. This youthful pair have years of middle age upon them. Olive plants have sprung up around the parent stem. The woman has gone mad. She gloats over the ex- crescence which has spread and covers her entire hand. She exclaims, " Husband, this is a dear, sweet darling, a real love of a wart, and I want to engraft it on the hands of all our daughters. I had it when I was married ; you vowed to protect me, and I claim the right to transfer it to all the children. If you do not, I will go to Indiana and get a di- vorce. I will dissolve the union between us." v The husband, calm and firm, replies, "My dear, I have indulged you in this whim about your hand, because I took you for better or for worse, and I thought it one of your individual rights which I was not at liberty to disturb. But if you propose to trans- fer this deformity to the daughters, I say distinctly and de- cidedly it cannot be done. This is my prerogative and I must exercise it." So I say to slavery propagandists who desire to transplant slavery to the Territories, and thus fasten it to the daughters of the Republic, " My dears, it cannot be done." — Hon. Owen Lovejoy, 18&0. THE HELPER BOOK, Mr. Chairman, my time is passing away, and I must haste on. I want to come to a few things .that x have been under discussion during the inchoate condition of the House, whilst this hall was echoing with ululations that would have drowned the lupine chorus of the Alps, of Helper, and John Brown, and incendiarism, the torch of the incendiary and the knife of the assassin. One gentleman from Virginia stood up in his place, and wanted to know where there was a man that would endorse the Helper book. * He wanted such a man, if there was one here, to stand up, that he might look upon the trai- tor. Mr. Chairman, I, for one, signed the paper recommend- ing the circulation of the Helper book. I signed it intelli- gently. I was neither engrossed nor abstracted. I did it SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. Y3 because I wanted to do it ; and now, if the gentleman wants to look upon that kind of a traitor, me, me, adsam qui feci, in me convertite telum; I did it. I will sign a recommenda- tion for the circulation of any book I choose, without asking permission of the gentleman from Missouri, (Mr. Clark,) or of any other gentleman in the House or out of the House. I will sign a paper recommending the circulation of the Bible or the Koran, Young's Night Thoughts or Tom Moore's Anacreon, Jonathan Edwards on the Decrees, or Tom Paine's Age of Reason, just as I please. I claim the privilege, as an American citizen, of writing my name and recommending the circulation of any and every book, without being held amenable to gentlemen upon this floor or anywhere else. That, is my answer in regard to it. I have no more than that to say. I say nothing about some points in the book. I have no doubt that there is considera- ble bombast and fustian and violence of language in it, because the author was educated in a slave State ; and the rhetoric which comes from that quarter is apt to have these char- acteristics. Bat the philosophy — the gist of the book — is what ? It is the address of a citizen of a slave State to his fellow-citizens in regard to the subject of slavery, re- commending in substance the organization of a Republican party in North Carolina and in all the other slave States. I hope to see that done ; and I expect to see it done before very long. You may kill Cassius M. Clay, as you threaten to do ; but " the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." You may shed his blood, as you shed the blood of my brother On the banks of the Mississippi twenty years ago — and what then ? I am here to-day, thank God, to vin- dicate the principles baptized in his blood. You may shed his blood — and what then ? A RejDublican party will spring up in Kentucky and in all the slave States ere long ; and these disunionists and gentlemen whom you see so violent now, will be displaced by more moderate and — if I may say so with- out being offensive — more sensible men. I believe in that doctrine. I do not indorse every expres- sion in the Helper book, for I have not studied every expres- sion ; but the philosophy of the book, the idea of organizing a party in the slave States as against slavery, I am in favor of, and I expect to see it accomplished. What is the objection to the book? The objection is that a citizen of the United States, an American citizen, addressed himself to his fellow- citizens, in a peaceful way, through the press, and for this you find fault with him, and say that he must be hanged, and that any man who signed a recommendation for the circulation 74 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKEE. of his book is a "blighting, blasting, burning, withering curse," and must not occujyy that chair.* Hon. Owen Lovejoy, 1860. SLAVERY MUST DIE, I tell you of the slave States that you must emancipate your slaves. It belongs to you and not to us. You must transform them from slaves into serfs, and give them homes, and protect and guard the sanctity of the family.' We shall not push you. If you say that you want a quarter of century, you can have it; if you want half a century, you can have it. But I insist that this system must ultimately be extinguished. You who advocate the perpetuity of slavery are like a set of madcaps who should place themselves on the top of an ice- berg which had disengaged itself from the frozen regions of the north, and begun to float downward and downward, through the warm climates. The sun shines and melts it ; the soft winds blow on and melt it ; the rains descend and melt it ; the w~ater ripples round it and melts it ; and then these wild visionaries who fancied they could sail an iceberg through the tropics, start up and blaspheme sunshine and rain, and zephyr ; and, mouthing the heavens, tell Jehovah that unless he stops the shining of the sun, and the blowing of the winds, and the falling of the rain, they will crumble his universe " from turret to foundation stone." Do you not think God would feel bad ; and would not the archangels tremble at the chivalry ? You may call this ex- travagant ; but you can no more perpetuate slavery, and will no more dissolve this Union, in order to perpetuate it, than you can stop the shining of the sun, or the ripple of the sea, the descent of rain, or the blowing of the wind ; ay, no more than you can subdue the ocean when it lashes itself into fury and dashes its crested mountain billows against the rocks. It is as preposterous to think of taking slavery down through the civilization of the ages as' it is to think of floating an ice- berg through the tropics. It is the order of things. I am willing to concede that you can do anything that any equal number of men can achieve. I did mean to taunt you about Harper's Ferry, but I believe I will not. I am willing to concede that you are as brave as other men ; although I do * The speech was made during a violent contest for the Speakership of the House of Representatives. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 75 not think you show it by this abusive language ; because brave men are always calm and self-possessed. God feels no anger, for he knows no fear. I say you can do anything that other men can H do. You can preserve and perpetuate this system, if any equal number of men could do it ; but the stars in their courses are fighting against you ; God, in his providence, is fighting against you. The universe was established upon the great principle of jus- tice and truth ; it may be jostled out of its place for a little while, but it will, sooner or later, fall back to its grooves. You must sacrifice slavery for the good of your country. Do this, and you will have the sympathy, the prayers, and the cooperation of the entire nation. Refuse or neglect this — refuse to proclaim liberty through all the land, to all the inhabitants thereof — and the exodus of the slaves will be through the Red Sea. It is a well-known physiological, as well as psychological fact, that ancestral characteristics reappear after a long interval of years, and even of generations, as streams disappear and gush out at a distant point. It is also well known that the Saxon blood is being infiltrated into the veins of the enslaved. By and by some Marion will be found, calling his guerilla troops from the swamps and everglades of South Carolina ; and Patrick Henry will reappear in the Old Dominion, shouting, as of old, "Give us liberty, or give us death!" Then will transpire those scenes which troubled the prophetic vision of Jefferson, and made him tremble for his country, when he remembered that God was just, and that his justice would not sleep for- ever, and that every divine attribute would be arrayed upon the side of the struggling bondmen. And he justified the uprising by saying, the little finger of American slavery was thicker than the loins of British despotism. Sir, Virginia cannot afibrd, the country cannot afford, to continue a practice fraught with so much of peril. It is bet- ter to remove the magazine than to be kept evermore in dread of a lighted match. The future glory and usefulness of this nation cannot be sacrificed to this system of crime. The nations of the earth are to be taught by our example. The American Republic must repose queen among the nations of the earth. Slavery must die. Delenda est Carthago. . Hon. Owen JLovejoy, 1860. 76 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKEE. THE RISE AND PEOGEESS OF WM. LLOYD GAEEISON. It was about the year 1816, that a young man, born in the town of Newburyport, Massachusetts, educated in our north- ern schools, began to teach the doctrine of ultimate emanci- pation, through colonization, to the citizens of Boston. The doors of the most magnificent churches in that city flew open, as upon oiled hinges, at his approach. His eloquence was the theme of every tongue, and his praise sounded throughout the land. He was called upon to aid in an at- tempt by Benjamin Lundy to establish a paper called the " Genius of Emancipation," in Baltimore. He went there as an assistant editor of that paper, at the solicitation of the south. He there became acquainted with the atrocity of the inter-state slave trade. He there saw the workings of slavery for himself. He there saw that this scheme of colonization was Janus-faced ; that at the South it meant new and in- creased guarantees for the perpetuation of slavery, while at the North it was held out to the rich and philanthropic as a means for the ultimate extinction of slavery. I say he ob- served this inter-state slave trade — a trade which was not stigmatized as piracy by law, but which was marked with every atrocious feature that ever distinguished the foreign traffic. More than that, it tears asunder those who have in some degree acquired the principles of civilization, and have been by it taught to feel more keenly the pangs of forced dissolution of family and social ties. Not long after this, a ship owned by a northern merchant, commanded by a northern captain, and manned by northern seamen, was chartered, and shipped a cargo of human beings at Baltimore for the New Orleans market. This man saw the slaves embarked. He had been invited south to edit a colonization paper, and seeing these things himself, he spoke of them as they deserved in his paper. He seized the oppor- tunity of commencing the attack upon a vessel fitted out in his own birth-place, which had engaged in a traffic so harrow- ing to his feelings and sensibilities. He printed an article in his paper, describing the conduct of these northern men in bringing vessels to southern ports to engage in this abomina- ble traffic, by which they could grow rich, while their con- scientious neighbors, who desired to engage only in the legitimate coast-wise trade, could not make a living. And what was the result? Why, sir, although the article was aimed at individuals in the North alone, it did in fact strike SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 11 a blow at the domestic slave trade ; and the result was, that he was prosecuted civilly and criminally ; he was thrown into prison ; he was mulcted in heavy damages in a libel suit ; he went to prison, and there remained until the northern colo- nizationists paid his fine and set this young liberator free. He returned to the North, but the doors of the churches that were open to his teachings before, were rusted and fixed on their hinges when he went back to denounce the cruelty of slavery and the slave trade. He announced his intention to speak on Boston Common, as at least one place under the broad canopy of heaven in which he could give utterance to his conscientious convictions of truth ; but he found that northern sentiment was as unwilling to be disturbed upon this slavery question, nay, more so, than southern opinions. But this man, gentle, loving, peaceable, truthful, just, but in- flexible, was resolved not to be put down, North or South, and the result was the publication of this paper, the first number of which I hold in my hand, and in which he an- nounces his intention to prosecute this war upon slavery to the end. " I am in earnest. I will not equivocate ; I will not excuse ; I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard." That is from the first number of the Liberator, published in 1831, by William Lloyd Garrison. It has sometimes seemed to me that that man was sent from heaven in answer to the poet's prayer, and to meet the time's necessity : " We need, metkinks, the prophet heroes still, Saints true of life, and martyrs strong of will, To tread the land even now, as Xavier trod The streets of Groa, barefoot, with his bell Proclaiming freedom in the name of God, And startling tyrants with the fear of hell." Hon. C. B. Sedgioick, 1860. NOKTHEKN SENTIMENT ON THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. Let me assure gentlemen, that they deceive themselves if they suppose that there is any real difference in sentiment among northern people in relation to this law. All parties wink at its evasion, and all sympathy is with the fugitive who proves, by a successful flight, that there is enough man in him to make an earnest effort for freedom. He who can suppress such sympathy, and on the requisition of the mar- 78 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. shal under the fifth section, attempts to show that he is a good citizen by " aiding and assisting in the prompt and efficient execution of this law, whenever his services are re- quired," ought himself to be a slave. The gentleman from Virginia* tried to frighten Republi- cans from voting for Governor Pennington for Speaker, by saying he was in favor of the law. I presume he is, theoret- ically — that he is a law and order man, and has a general notion that laws should be obeyed. It would have staggered me if I had fully believed the charge ; for I hold that any man who really approves the law of 1850, and believes in it, is only fit to hold some very mean position in the gift of a certain gentleman in sables, whose name should not be mentioned to ears polite. But I remember a conversation one morning in which he had told me of a chained come of twenty-five human beings who, driven by armed and brutal drivers, had passed within sight and hearing of this hall that morning for a southern market. There was but little said between us — language can do no justice to such a subject- but I looked into his eye, and I marked the compressed lip and heaving chest, which gave evidence to me of a human heart within ; and I thought, as I gave him my vote that if one of those purchased slaves should escape the chain, and the rifle, and the blood-hounds, and the hunters, and the mar- shals and commissioners, and, guided by the light which yet emanates from the battle-fields of the revolution, cross the brave little state of New Jersey, and should make his way to that stately and hospitable mansion upon the heights of Newark, and should ask for food and shelter, and recite the story of his wrongs, I did think and believe, and I do still think and believe, that he would interpose the " broad seal" of his humanity between him and the fugitive slave bill. I think I can hear him repeat, as he blesses the stranger at parting, warmed, and fed, and clothed, and having scrip for his journey, the hospitable lines of the poet : " And stranger is a holy name ; Guidance and rest, and food and fire In vain he never must require." I am not, sir, a believer in the doctrine that a bad, infa- mous, and unconstitutional enactment — I cannot call it law — should be obeyed until it is repealed. I have not so learned the true spirit and theory of free and democratic government. No citizen would ever be sustained in any factious resistance * Mr. Garnett. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 79 to just and equal laws upon any light and trivial ground of inconvenience, or even unavoidable and unintentional hard- ships ; but where a real question of personal and civil rights and liberty is involved, or the rights of conscience are in- vaded, it is the duty of the citizen to resist. In a question of right and conscience the individual citizen is the final judge, and not the government or any branch thereof, execu- tive, judicial, or legislative. If the encroachments of the government are generally tyrannous and oppressive, so that they become intolerable, there is the well-established remedy in the people — -the right of revolution. If the tyranny does not reach the whole state, nor call for that last resort of an oppressed people, but only is directed at a sect, a class, or even an individual, there is the equally clear and indisputable right of peaceful resistance short of revolution. So the Friend resists the law compelling him to bear arms, and the Catholic the test oaths. By suffering the penalties of an un- just and wicked law, public attention is called to injustice, and the wholesome truth is taught that " Firm endurance wins at last More than the sword." And so I contend that no citizen in a republic discharges his duty who fails to bring an infamous law into public odium and disgrace, and steadfastly to resist its encroachments. So old Eleazer taught, when he refused to eat the flesh abhorred by his conscience and his religion, or even to seem to eat it ; and rather than submit to the law which demanded it, went manfully to the torment, lest he should bring reproach upon his gray hair, and the excellency of his ancient and honora- ble years ; and so he died, leaving a notable example of courage, not to young men only, but to all generations. This was the teaching of Milton, and Hampden, and Sidney, and in our own age and land, of Otis and Adams, and the patri- ots and martyrs of the revolution. And I regard it as a sign of the degeneracy of the times, that the test of good citizen- ship in a free government has come to be blind and unresist- ing submission to judicial or legislative, any more than to executive tyranny; and "if this be treason, make the most of it." Hon. Charles JB. /SedgioicJc, 1860. 80 . THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKEK. THE NOKTH, NOT THE SOUTH, ASK LEGISLATIVE ALT). The Senator from Ohio says that the non-slaveholding States desire nothing from this Government, but the records of this country sustain precisely the reverse of this statement. If the South has, as he alleges, governed this country, she has served it with unselfish devotion. You may repeal, ob- literate, burn up every law in the whole eleven volumes of your laws, and not a human being in my State would be affected a single farthing in his industrial pursuits, in his ma- terial interests ; and the statement is generally true of every State from this to the Rio Grande. I have for fifteen years been an humble representative of the people of Georgia in your national councils, and no man in Georgia has ever asked me, or petitioned you through me or others, as far as I know, to seek the aid of your laws in his industrial pursuits ; they have sought no protection against competition at home or abroad for their industry of any kind. They have toiled in their fields and workshops ; in the forest and at their firesides ; in their mines and at their forges; in winter and summer, without seeking or desiring at your hands any aid to put their burden on other people's backs. They have sought no exclusive privileges, no protection, no bounties, at your hands. They have paid their taxes, fought the battles of their country, and claim only at your hands the peaceful en- joyment of the fruits of their own honest toil. But this has not been the case with the people of the non- slaveholding States. From 1789 to this day, a continual, in- cessant cry has come up to the Cajritol from them for pro- tection, prohibition, and bounties. Give, give, give, has been the steady cry of New England ; the middle States of the North have been equally urgent. The fisherman has asked for bounties on his fish ; the ship-builder for prohibition against foreign competition ; the ship-owner for navigation laws ; the manufacturer, the artisan, and the worker in mines, has clamored for protection against " the pauper labor of Europe." The Government has listened, and granted their requests. And your statute books are filled with enactments responding to their cries. There has been scarcely a blow struck in any pursuit throughout the non-slaveholding States — in her mines, her forges, her workshops, and her manufactories of all kinds — for the last forty years, which has not been fostered and invigorated by a bounty, a prohibition, or protection of from fifteen to one hundred per cent, on its products. Nineteen twentieths of the whole legislation of Congress is for and on SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 81 account of non-slaveholding States. We have asked none, sought none. My business here, and that of my colleagues from the South, has been chiefly to mitigate your exactions. Day after day are we reminded of the strong declaration of a distinguished representative from South Carolina, that neither he nor his constituents ever felt the Federal Government ex- cept by its exactions. Apart from the protection which the very fact of living in a powerful Government gives us against foreign aggression, our portion of the benefits of the Federal Government are difficult to estimate. We have not generally complained of this inequality ; our pursuits were different ; we were content that the great interests of the country were benefited, though to a large extent at our cost. As country- men, we listened kindly to your petitions to protect you against your foreign competitors. We had none ; we had not been taught to consider ourselves as aliens in your part of a common country. This has changed. The fault lies not at our door. — Hon. R,obert Toombs, 1860. DEED S00TT DECISION. Sir, if there ever was a "holding" on earth that would war- rant a man in saying that he held it in utter contempt, it is what is called the Bred Scott decision ; so manifestly a usurpation of power, so manifestly done in order to give a bias to political action, that no man, though he be a fool, can fail to see it. What was the case ? An old negro, whom age had ren- dered valueless, happens to fall in the way of the politicians at a period when it was thought exceedingly desirable that the question of congressional authority over slavery in the Territories shall be tried, and Dred Scott prosecutes foT his liberty in the Federal courts ; and, by the way, after he had prosecuted his case through, and his liberty was denied him by the, court, I believe, the very next day, the master gave him his liberty. He had served the purposes of the politi- cians, and they ought to have given him a pension for life for having been the John Doe of the transaction. I do not know of what authority the case may be, but its getting-up looks to me exceedingly suspicious. There was a concurrence of cir- cumstances that very rarely happen of themselves. Old Dred Scott sued for his freedom, and a plea was put in that he, being a descendant of an African, and his ancestors slaves, he could not sue in that court ; he had no right to be 82 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. there, and had no standing there. The court go on and argue themselves into the belief that either a man may be so mon- strously low, or the court itself so monstrously high, that he cannot sue in its presence for his rights. I believe this is the first nation on God's earth that ever placed any mortal man, or anybody bearing the human form, on so low a level, or any court on so high a one as that. But let this go. Dred Scott brought his suit. The plea in abatement was demurred to ; the question >arose upon that demurrer, and a majority of the court decided that Dred Scott, being a negro, a de- scendant of an African, and his ancestors having been slaves, he could not maintain a suit in that court, because he was not a citizen under the law. ISTow, sir, I ask every lawyer here, was not there an end of the case ? In the name of Heaven, Judge Taney, what did you, retain it for any longer? You said Dred Scott could not sue ; he could not obtain his lib- erty ; he was out of court ; and what further had you to do with all the questions that you say were involved in that suit? Upon every principle of adjudication, you ought not to have gone further. E"o court has ever held more solemnly than the Federal courts that they will not go on to decide any more than is before the court ; and every lawyer knows that if they do, all they say more is mere talk, and though said by judges in a court house, has just as much operation and effect as if it had been said by a horse-dealer in a bar- room, and no more. And yet we are told that we must follow the dicta of these packed judges — for they were jacked, a majority of them interested too, in the very question to be decided. I do not want to go back to see what Jefferson and others said about it. I know the nature of man. I know, as they know/ that to arm this judiciary with the power, not only to decide questions between private individ- uals, but to affect the legislation of the nation, to affect the action of your President, to affect the coordinate branches of this Government, is a fatal heresy, that, if persisted in by a majority of the people, cannot result in any other than an utter consolidated despotism; and I am amazed tha^fc men who have had their eyes open, and who have held to other doctrines in better days, should, for any temporary purpose, heave overboard, and bury in the deep sea, the sheet-anchor of the liberties of the nation. — Hon. Benjamin Wade, 1860. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 83 EESPQNSE TO THREAT Me. Chairman, it has been declared here, by some of the ablest speakers from the South, that the success of our party — which seeks to do nothing that may not be clearly dune within the protection and under the authority of the Consti- tution which they profess to admire and venerate — will com- pel them to withdraw from this Union of sovereign States. I have no desire to discuss a statement which always when made assumes the attitude of a threat. But do you not see, gentlemen, that to make such a threat is to render certain of success, beyond the peradventure of defeat, the party you threaten? The Republican party proposes to ascertain whether the Union is not strong enough to sustain an admin- istration which will rest upon the theory of our Constitution, and upon the foundation which the fathers laid. You may shatter, if you can, this fair fabric of our free- dom ; you may make desolate the temple, and strike down the statue ; but the terrible responsibility shall rest upon yourselves. In the earlier ages of the world, within one of the old temples of Memnon, a colossal statue had been erected ; and it was said that daily, in the morning, as the rays of the sun fell upon the image, sounds of sweet music went from it to inspirit and to encourage the votaries at the shrine. Bat an Egyptian king caused the statue to be shattered and the music to be hushed, that he might find whence the strains proceed- ed, and whether the priests within the temple had not de- ceived the people. Sir, upon this land our fathers reared their temple, and within it the colossal statue of liberty has stood. Not in the morning alone, but at high noon and at set of sun, day after day, sounds of heavenly harmony have gone from it, calling upon the oppressed and down-trodden to come and to be free. Rude hands have been laid upon that temple ; hard southern blows have fallen upon the statue ; but when, if ever, the power shall come that will shatter the edifice and lay the colossal image low, in order that the mystery may be revealed, it will be found, I believe, in the providence of God, that other hands will rebuild and reconsecrate them both ; but no Washington, nor Jefferson, nor Madison, nor Hamilton, nor such like artificers, will be commissioned for the work, until that institution, which dishonors man and de- bases labor and steals from the stooping brow the sweat which should earn his bread, shall be forever overthrown. Son. Thomas D. Eliot, 1860. 84 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. , THE DEMANDS OF THE PEO-SLAVEEY PAETY. The question recurs: what will satisfy the pro-slavery party ? Simply this ; we must not only let them alone, but we must, somehow, convince them that we do let them alone. This, we know by experience, is no easy task. We have been trying so to convince them, from the very beginning of our organization, but with no success. In all our platforms and speeches, we have constantly protested our purpose to let^.them alone; but this has had no tendency to convince them. Alike unavailing is the fact that they have never de- tected a man of us in any attempt to disturb them. These natural and apparently adequate means all failing, what will convince them ? This, and this only : cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right. And this must be done thoroughly — done in acts as well as in words. Silence will not be tolerated ; we must place ourselves avowedly with them. Douglas's new sedition law must be enacted and enforced, suppressing all declarations that slavery is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pulpits or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our free State Constitutions. The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery, before they will cease to believe that all their troubles proceed from us. Holding as they do that slavery is morally right and socially elevat- ing, they cannot cease to demand a full national recognition of it as a legal right and a social blessing. Nor can we justifiably withhold this, on any ground save our conviction that slavery is wrong. If slavery is right, all words, acts, laws and constitutions against it are themselves wrong, and should be silenced, and swept away. If it is right, we cannot justly object to its nationality — its univer- sality ; if it is wrong they cannot justly insist upon its exten- sion, its enlargement. All they ask we would readily grant if we thought slavery right ; all we ask they could as readily grant, if they thought it wrong. Can we cast our votes with their view, and against our own? In view of our moral, social and political responsibilities, can we do this ? jih Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it llone where it is, because so much is due to the necessity arising from its actual presence in the nation ; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the national Territories, -and to overrun us here, in these free States ? SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 85 If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand- by our duty, fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so indus- triously plied and belabored — contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for one who should be neither a living nor a dead man — contrivances such as a policy of "don't care" on a question about which all true men do care — Union ap- peals, beseeching true Union men to yield to disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling not the sinners but the righteous to repentance — invocations of Washington, im- ploring men to unsay what Washington said and undo what Washington did. Neither let us be frightened from our duty by false accu- sations, nor by menaces of destruction to the government or of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that Right makes might, and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it. Hon. Abraham Lincoln, 1860. A PATENT GOSPEL Me. Chairman, the justification of slavery is sometimes placed on the ground of the inferiority of the enslaved race. jSTow, sir, we may concede, as a matter of fact, that it is in- ferior; but does it follow, therefore, that it is right to en- slave a man, simply because he is inferior? This, to me, is a most abhorrent doctrine. It would place the weak every- where at the mercy of the strong ; it would place the poor at the mercy of the rich ; it would place those that are deficient in intellect at the mercy of those that are gifted in mental endowment. The principle of enslaving human beings be- cause they are inferior is this : If a man is a cripple, trip him up ; if he is old and weak, and bowed with the weight of years, strike him, for he cannot strike back ; if idiotic, take advantage of him ; and if a child, deceive him. This, sir, is the doctrine of devils ; and there is no place in the universe, outside of hell, where the practice' and prevalence of such doctrines would not be a disgrace. If the strong of the earth are to enslave the weak, angels would be justified in enslaving men, because they are superior ; and archangels in turn would be justified in subjugating those who are inferior in intellect and position ; and the principle carried out would transform Jehovah into an infinite Juggernaut, rolling the 86 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. huge wheels of his omnipotence amid the crushed and mangled bodies of human beings, on the plea that he was infinitely superior and that they were an inferior race. Another ground upon which it is attempted to justify slaveholding, is, that it is a mode of imparting Christianity and civilization to the slaves. But the truth is, that the practice of slaveholding has a powerful tendency to drag communities back to barbarism. It is actually having that effect upon the slave States of this Union ; and were it not for the Christian women that have gone from free States and intermarried in the slave States ; and were it not for those noble women in the slave States that preserve womenly purity and Christianity, in spite of the unhappy influences of slaveholding, the slave States to-day would be as far back in barbarism as the State of Mexico. Sir, if you step into the Smithsonian Institute, or into the Patent Office, you will find implements of husbandry imported from Japan and China, showing just about the same devel- opment in civilization as the implements that you find on the plantations. Now, sir, the truth is, that the practice of slave- holding drags slaveholding communities further below the plane of the Christian civilization of the age, than the civili- zation which the slave receives elevates him above the plane of heathenism by being held in these Christian communities. Sir, how do they impart civilization and Christianity ? It is a strange mode of Christianizing a race to turn them over into brutism without any legal marriage. Among the four million slaves in this country, there is not a single husband or wife. There is not legally a single father or child. There is not a single home or hearthstone among these four millions. And you propose to civilize and Christianize a people without giving them homes, without allowing them the conjugal and parental relations, and without having those relations sanc- tioned and protected by law. Mr. Chairman, no community can make one step of pro- gress in civilizing a race till you give them homes ; till you protect the sanctity of the home, as we hold it should be protected in regard to those Mormons on the plains of Utah. How are you going to Christianize men whom you turn out to herd together like the buffaloes that roam upon the Western prairies? Christianizing them, sir? Christianizing them by a new process ! The slave States have a right to an exclusive patent for it. — Hon. Owen Lovejoy, 1860. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 87 THE PEACEFUL REMEDY. Theee is one notable feature in the attitude of the South. The cry of disunion conies, not from those who suffer most from Northern outrage, but from those who suffer least. It comes from South Carolina and Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi, whose slave property is rendered comparatively se- cure by the intervention of other slaveholding States between them and the free States, and not from Delaware, and Mary- land, and Virginia, and Kentucky, and Tennessee, and Missouri, which lose a hundred slaves by abolition thieves where the first-named States lose one. Why are not the States that suffer most, loudest in their cry for disunion? It is /because their position enables them to see more distinctly than you do, at a distance, the fatal and instant effects of such a step. As imperfect as the protection which the Constitution and laws give to their property undoubtedly is, it is better than none. They do not think it wise to place themselves in a position to have the John Browns of the North let loose upon them, with no other restraints than the laws of war between independent nations construed by reckless fanatics. They prefer to fight the abolitionists, if fight they, must, within the Union, where their adversaries are somewhat restrained by constitutional and legal obligations. No, sir; Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia do not intend to become the theatre of desolating wars between the North and South; Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri do not intend that their peaceful channels of commerce shall become rivers of blood to gratify the ambition of South Carolina and Alabama, who at a remote distance from present danger cry out disunion. The South has all along had a peaceful remedy and has it still. What ought to have been the preventive, must now be the remedy. Should Lincoln, in November next, secure a majority of the electors, patriotic men, North and South, without waiting for his inauguration, irrespective of party lines and throwing aside all minor considerations, must band together for the triple purpose of preventing any attempt to break up the Union, checking the Republican party while in the ascendant, and expelling them from power at the next election. Let the toast of General Jackson, " The Federal Union — it must be preserved," become the motto of the party, while strict construction of the Constitution and a jealous regard for the rights of the States shall be its dis- tinguishing principle and unwavering, practice. Let the Con- stitutional principle be adopted of no legislation by Congress 88 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. over the Territories, or throw aside altogether the mischiev- ous issues in relation to them, of no practical utility, gotten up by demagogues and disunionists, as means of accomplishing their own selfish ends. Let them inflexibly refuse to support, for any Federal or State office, any man who talks of dis- union on the one hand or " irrepressible conflict between freedom and slavery" on the other. Throw aside all party leaders except such as " keep step to the music of the Union" and are prepared to battle for State rights under its banner. Be this your " platform ;" let the South rally upon it as one man, and I would pledge all but my life, that at least one-half of the North will join you in driving from power the reckless assailants of your rights and your institutions. How much more hopeful and cheering is a prospect like this than the contemplation of standing armies, grinding taxes, ruined agriculture, prostrate commerce, bloody battles, rav- aged countries, and sacked cities. This continent, like the Eastern world, is destined to have its " Northern hives." Shall its swarms.be repressed by the strong hand of the States united, or are they, by a dissolution of the Union, to be let loose on our South, like the Gcths and Vandals upon Southern Europe? True, their blood might, in that event, fertilize your desolated fields, but your institutions, like those of the Roman Empire, would sink to rise no more. Hon. Amos Kendall, 1860. TRIBUTE TO THE SUPREME COURT. May it please your honors, this may be the last time that this Court will sit in peaceful judgment on a Constitution ac- knowledged and obeyed by all. God, in his providence, and for our sins, may, in his inscrutable wisdom, suffer the folly and wickedness of this generation to destroy the fairest, no- blest fabric of constitutional freedom ever erected by man. Its whole history, fom the first moment of its operation even to the present hour, bears evidence of its unrivalled excellence. Our country, our whole country, has, from the first, pros- pered under it, and because of it, with a rapidity, and in a manner, before or since, unknown to the nations. That pros- perity vindicates the wisdom and patriotism of its good and great founders. Is this prosperity now to cease ? Is it now to be dashed to the earth ? Are the hopes of civilized man the world over, now to be blasted ? Are we to become the jest, the scorn, the detestation of the people of the earth ? SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 89 Are all memory and reverence for the great dead, whom liv- ing we admired and adored, to be now forgotten ? Is all gratitude for the mighty, trying struggles of our fathers now- to end ? Are the warnings, the parting warnings of the peerless man of all this world, now to be disregarded and despised? Is the country of Washington, consecrated by his valor, wisdom, and virtue, to freedom and peace, now to be converted into a wild scene of disorder, fraternal strife, bloodshed, war ? May heaven in its mercy forbid ! May it stay the arm of the madman, arrest it in mid career before it strikes the fatal, parricidal blow. May it give time for reason and patriotism to resume their sway ! May it remove the delusions of the misguided, strengthen the efforts of the pa- triotic, impart heavenly fire to the eloquence of the faithful statesman ; silence, by the universal voice of the good and true men of the nation, the utterances of treason now tainting the air and shocking the ear of patriotism, and the whinings of imbecility now discouraging and sickening the honest pub- he heart! May it, above all, rekindle that fraternal love which bound us together by ties stronger, infinitely stronger, than any which mere government can create, during the whole of our Revolutionary struggle, and has since cheered us on in our pathway to the power and renown which have made us, until now, the wonder and admiration of the worM ! But if all shall fail us, and ruin come; if chaos, worse liiuu chaos, is to be our fate, the spirits of those who have de- parted, and the survivors who have administered justice in this tribunal, in the general wreck and wretchedness that will ensue, will be left this consolation : that their recorded judgments, now, thank God, the rich inheritance of the world, and beyond the spoiler's reach, will, till time shall be no more, testify to the spotless integrity, the unsurpassed wisdom, the ever bright patriotism, of the men who, from the first, have served their country in this temple, sacred to justice and duty, and to the matchless wisdom of our fathers, who bequeathed it and commended it to the perpetual rever- ence and support of their sons, and remain a never dying dis- honor and reproach to the sons who shall have plotted or permitted its destruction. — -Hon. JReverdy Johnson, 1860. THE PRICE OF PEACE What is the use of our discussing on this side the cham- ber, what we would be satisfied with, when nothing has been offered us, and when we do not believe that we will be per- 90 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. mitted to retain even that which we now have ? If the two senators from New York, the senator from Ohio, the two senators from Illinois, the senator from New Hampshire, the senators from Maine, and others, who are regarded as repre- sentative men ; who have denied that, by the constitution of the United States, slaves are recognized as property ; who have urged and advocated those acts which we regard as aggressive on the part of the people ; — if they will rise here and say in their places that they desire to propose amend- ments to the constitution and beg that we will vote for them; that they will, in good faith, go to their respective constitu- encies and urge the ratification ; that they believe, if these Gulf States will suspend their action, that these amendments will be ratified and carried out ; that they will cease preach- ing "the irrepressible conflict ;" and if thef will assure us that abolition societies shall be abolished ; that abolition presses shall be suppressed ; that abolition speeches shall no longer be made ; that we shall have peace and quiet ; that we shall not be called cut-throats, and pirates, and murderers ; that our women shall not be slandered ; these things being said in good faith, the senators begging that we will stay our hand until an honest effort can be made, I believe that there is a prospect of giving them a fair consideration. Unless the newspapers have given a false account of the fact, your President elect, a few months before his nomina- tion, was a kind of abolition lecturer, speaking at one hun- dred dollars a lecture, throughout the country, exciting the people against us. We say to the northern States : You shall not — that is the word I choose to use, and I reflect the feel- ing and determination of the people I represent when I use it — you shall not permit men to excite your citizens to make John Brown raids, or bring fire and strychnine within the limits of the State to which I owe my allegiance. You shall not publish newspapers and pamphlets to excite our slaves to insurrection. You shall not publish newspapers and pamph- lets to excite the non-slaveholders against the slaveholder, or the slaveholders against the non-slaveholders. We will have peace ; and if you do not offer it to us, we will quietly with- draw from the Union and establish a government for our- selves, as we have a right under the constitutional compact to do ; and if you then persist in your aggressions, we will leave it to the sovereign States to settle that question, " Where tlie battle's wreck lies thickest, And death's brief pang is quickest." SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 91 And when you laugh at these impotent threats, as you re- gard them, I tell you that cotton is king ! Hon. Louis T. Wig fall, 1860. THE CORDON OF FEEE STATES. The great ground of complaint has narrowed itself down to this: that, as a people, we desire to surround the slave States with a cordon of free States, and thereby destroy the institution of slavery : to treat it like a scorpion girt by fire. Suppose that circling slavery with a cordon of free States were a cause of separation, and therefore war with us ; is it not just as much so with anybody else ? It is no greater crime for a Massachusetts man or an Oregon man to circle, girdle, and thereby kill slavery, than for a Frenchman, or an Englishman, or a Mexican. It is as much a cause of war against France, or England, or Mexico, as against us. Circle slavery with a cordon of free States ! Why, if I read history and observe geography rightly, it is so girdled now. Which way can slavery extend itself that it does not encroach upon the soil of freedom ? Has the senator thought of that ? It cannot go ISTorth, though it is trying very hard. It cannot go into Kansas, though it made a convulsive effort, mistaking a spasm for strength. It cannot go South, because, amid the degradation and civil war and peonage of Mexico, if there be one thing under heaven they hate worse than an- other, it is African slavery. It cannot reach the islands of the sea, for they are under the shadow of France, that guards their shores against such infectious approach. Nay, more. We of the northern and western States are the only allies you have got in the world. It is to us that, in the hour of your extremest trial, you are to look for sympa- thy, for succor, for support. You have with us what you. call a league ; what you call a compact ; what we call a united government, by which we are bound, in some points of view, to recognize your institution, and to aiford you sup- port in the hour of your danger. Why, sir, if your slaves revolt, if there be among you domestic insurrection — God grant the hour may never come ! — we are called upon by our constitutional obligation to march to your support ; and, though there be nothing worse than to fight in a servile war, unless it be to suffer in one, we of the ISTorth, when that hour shall arrive, will march to sustain you, our brethren, our kindred, the people of our race, with all our power. 92 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Again : we are required by the constitution to protect you against the escape of your slaves through our Territories, to return them, and to return them in violation of common law, and against the principles of international relations acknowl- edged by the whole civilized world. Would France do that ? Would Mexico do that ? Would England do that ? Would the Czar of Russia do that? No, sir. It is to us, and to us alone, that you are to look for whatever of safety, of succor, of sympathy you can find in the whole world, and — I had well nigh said-4n the whole universe. Hon. E. D. Baker, 1861. A FREE PKESS Mr. President : do men propose to us seriously that we shall stop the right of free discussion ; that we shall limit the free press ; that we shall restrain the expression of free opinion everywhere, on all subjects, and at all times? Why, sir, in this land, if there be a man base enough, unreflecting enough, to blaspheme the Maker that made him, or the Sa- viour that died for him, we have no power to stop him. If there be the most bitter, unjust and vehement denunciation upon all the principles of morality and goodness, on which human society is based, and on which it may most securely stand, we have, for great and over-ruling reasons connected with liberty itself, no power to restrain it. Private charac- ter, public service, individual relations — neither these, nor age, nor sex, can be, in the nature of our government, exempt from that liability to attack. And, sir, shall gentlemen com- plain that slavery is not made an exception to that general rule ? I hope they will see at once, that the attempt to re- quire us to do for them what we cannot do for ourselves is unjust and cruel in the highest degree. Sir, the liberty of the press is the highest safeguard to all free government. Ours could not exist without it. It" is like a great, exulting and abounding river. It is fed by the dews of heaven, which distil their sweetest drops to form it. It gushes from the rill, as it breaks from the deep caverns of the earth. It is augmented by a thousand affluents, that dash from the mountain top, to separate again into a thousand bounteous and irrigating streams around. On its broad bosom it bears a thousand barks. There genius spreads its purpling sail. There poetry dips its silver oar. There art, SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 93 invention, discovery, science, morality, religion, may safely and securely float. It wanders through every land. It is a genial, cordial source of thought and inspiration, wherever it touches, whatever it surrounds. Upon its borders, there grows every flower of grace, and every fruit of truth. Sir, I am not here to deny that that river sometimes oversteps its bounds. I am not here to deny that that stream sometimes be- comes a dangerous torrent, and destroys towns and cities upon its bank. But I am here to say that, 7 without it, civilization, humanity, government, all that makes society itself, would disappear, and the world would return to its ancient barbar- ism. Sir, if that were possible, though but for a moment, civilization would roll the wheels of its car backward for two thousand years, and the fine conception of the poet would be realized : " As one by one, in dread Medea's train, Star after star fades off the ethereal plain, Tims at her fell approach and sedret might Art after art goes out, and all is night. Philosophy, that leaned on heaven before, Sinks to her second cause, and is no more. Eeligion, blushing, veils her sacred fires, And, unawares, morality expires." Sir, we will not risk these consequences, even for slavery ; we will not risk these consequences even for union ; we will not risk these consequences to avoid that civil war with which you threaten us ; — that war which you announce as* deadly, and which you declare to be inevitable. Hon. JEJ. D. Baker, 1861. THE GARBIS01T0F SUMTEK. Is there any point of pride which prevents us from with- drawing that garrison ? I have heard it said by a gallant gentleman, to whom I make no special reference, that the great objection was an unwillingness to lower the flag. To lower the flag ! Under what circumstances ? Does any man's courage impel him to stand boldly forth, to take the life of his brethren ? Does any man insist on going to the open field with deadly weapons, to fight his brother on a question of courage ? There is no point of pride. These are your brethren ; and they have shed as much glory upon that flag as any equal number of men in the Union. They are the men, and that is the locality, where the first Union 94 THE PATKIOTIC SPEAKEE. flag was unfurled, and where was fought a gallant battle be- fore our independence was declared — not the flag with thir- teen stripes and thirty-three stars, but a flag with the cross of St. George, and the long stripes running through it. It was when the gallant Moultrie took the British Fort Johnson that the Union flag flew in the air for the first time; and that was in October, 1775. When he threw up a temporary bat- tery with palmetto logs and sand, upon the site called Fort Moultrie, that fort was assailed by the British fleet, and bom- barded until the old logs, clinging with stern tenacity to the enemy that assailed them, were filled with balls. But the flag still floated there, and though many bled, the garrison conquered. Those old logs are gone; the corroding current is even taking away the site where Fort Moultrie stood ; the gallant men who held it now mingle with the earth ; but their memories live in the hearts of a gallant people, and their sons yet live, and are ready to bleed and to die for the cause in which their fathers triumphed. Glorious are the memo- ries clinging around that old fort, which now for the first time has been abandoned — abandoned, not even in the pres- ence of a foe, but under the imaginings that a foe might come ; and guns have been spiked and carriages burned where the band of Moultrie bled, and, with an insufficient arma- ment, repelled the common foe of all the colonies. Her an- cient history compares proudly with the present. Can there, then, be a point of pride upon so sacred a soil as this, where the blood of the fathers cries to Heaven against civil war ? Can there be a point of pride against laying upon that sacred soil to-day the flag for which our fathers died ? My pride, senators, is different. My pride is that that flag shall not be set between contending brothers; and that, when it shall no longer be the common flag of the country, it shall be folded up and hid away like a vesture no longer used ; that it shall be kept as a sacred memento of the past, to which each of us can make a pilgrimage, and remember the glorious days in which we were born. Hon. Jefferson Davis> 1861. THE CAUSES OF SEPAEATIOST . I caee not to read from your platform ; I care not to read from the speeches of your President elect. You know them as I do ; and the man who is regarded by the country as the directing intellect of the party to which he belongs — the SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 95 Senator from New York — has, with less harshness of expres- sion than others, but with more of method, indicated this same purpose of deadly hostility in every form in which it could be portrayed. Did we unite with you in order that the powers of the general government should be used for destroying our domestic institutions ? Do you believe that now, in our increased and increasing commercial and physi- cal power, we will consent to remain united to a Govern- ment exercised for such a purpose as this ? What boots it to tell me that no direct act of aggression will be made ? I prefer direct to indirect hostile measures which will produce the same result, as I prefer an open to a secret foe. Is there a Senator upon the other side who will agree to-day that we shall have equal enjoyment of the Ter- ritories of the United States ? Is there oife who will deny that we have equally paid in their purchase, and equally bled in their acquisition by war ? -Then, is this the observance of your compact ? Whose is the fault, if the Union be dis- solved ? If we are not equals, this is not the Union to which we Avere pledged ; this is not the Constitution you have sworn to maintain, nor this the Government we are bound to support. I have heard with some surprise, for it seemed to me idle, the repetition of the assertion heretofore made, that the cause of the separation was the election of Mr. Lincoln. The man was nothing, save as he was the representative of opinions, of a policy, of purposes, of power, to inflict upon us those wrongs to which freemen never tamely submit. Senators, the time is near at hand when the places' which have known us as colleagues laboring together can know us in that relation no more forever. I have striven unsuccess- fully to avert the catastrophe which now impends over the country; and for the few days which I remain, I am willing to labor in order that the catastrophe shall be as little as pos- sible destructive to public peace and prosperity. If you de- sire at this last moment to avert civil war, so be it ; it is bet- ter so. If you will but allow us to separate from you peaceably, since we cannot live peaceably together — to leave with the rights we had before we were united, since we can- not enjoy them in the Union — then there are many relations which may still subsist between us, drawn from the associa- tions of our struggles from the Revolutionary era to the present day, which may be beneficial to you, as well as to us. If you will not have it thus ; if in the pride of power, if in contempt of reason and reliance upon force, you say w T e shall not go, but shall remain as subjects to you, then, gen- 96 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. tlemen of the North, a war is to be inaugurated, the like of which men have not seen. Sufficiently numerous on both sides, in close contact, with only imaginary lines of division and with many means of approach, both parties, sustained by productive sections, the people of which will give freely, both of money and store, will prolong and multiply conflicts indefinitely ; and masses of men, sacrificed to the demon of civil war, will furnish hecatombs, such as the recent campaign in Italy did not offer. At the end of all this, what will you have effected ? Destruction upon both sides, subjugation upon neither ; a treaty of peace leaving both torn and bleed- ing ; the wail of the w r idow and the cry of the orphan sub- stituted for those peaceful notes of domestic happiness that now prevail throughout the land ; — and then you will agree that each is to pursue his separate course as best he may. This is to be the end of war. Is there wisdom, is there patriotism in the land ? If so, easy must .be the solution of this question. If not, then Mis- sissippi's gallant sons will stand like a wall of fire around their State ; and I go hence, not in hostility to you, but in love and allegiance to her, to take my place among them, be it for good or for evil. — Hon. Jefferson Davis, 1861. THE ATTITUDE OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. Why, I ask, the present dread of disunion ? Is it the election, in a perfectly constitutional mode, of a citizen as President, who is thought to hold principles fatal to Southern rights ? Suppose he does ; will he not be impotent for harm ? His powers for any such purpose are subordinate to those of Congress, and the action of both, if illegal, can be revised and annulled by a patriotic judiciary which has ever shown itself capable and willing to uphold, with even hand, the rights of all the States. But is the President elect so hostile to southern rights ? I do not deem it necessary or advisable, in the present excited state of the South, to hunt up what he may have said, in an electioneering canvass. One thing I know, the South did not always view him as especially dangerous, for certainly they did not pursue the course the best, if not the only one, even promising to defeat his election. A speech in the Senate that became at once a Southern and a Northern campaign docu- ment, used to defeat in the one section Judge Douglas, and in the other to promote the cause of Mr. Lincoln, was made SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 97 by Mr. Benjamin, in May, 1 860, with his specious ability and pleasing eloquence. That gentleman, on that occasion, en- deavored to show that Mr. Lincoln was more conservative and true to the South than Mr. Douglas. Referring to the senatorial contest which they had recently had in Illinois, he said what I read to you : " In that contest the two candidates for the Senate of the United States in the State of Illinois, went before their people. They agreed to discuss the issues ; they put questions to each other for an- swer ; and I must say here, for I must be just to all, that I have been surprised in the examination that I made again, within the last few days, of this discussion between Mr. Lin- coln and Mr. Douglas, to find that Mr. Lincoln is afar more conservative man, unless he has since changed his opinions, than I had supposed him to be." The distinguished Senator evidently did not then think, he certainly did not even intimate, that the opinions of the Pres- ident elect were so unconstitutional and violative of Southern rights as to justify revolution on the contingency of his elec- tion. On the contrary, they were produced and relied upon to satisfy the South that he would be truer to her than Doug- las. Anfl. yet, who supposes that if the latter had been the choice of the people, the present troubles could or would have been produced ? Nor, in truth, is there anything in his opinions so clearly wrong as to cause alarm. They are, in some particulars, in my judgment, unsound and mischievous, but not so mischiev- ous as to warrant serious apprehension, or — before he is even permitted to explain his actual policy — to justify or excuse rev- olution — the destruction of the Government. Singular idea, that because possibly he may advise and be able to carry measures calculated to destroy it, that the safety and duty of the South warrant them in destroying it themselves, in advance. How men, loyal to the Union and anxious for its preservation, can so reason, is incomprehensible. There are, no doubt, in some States, enemies of the Government, life-long enemies, resolved at all hazards to effect its ruin, and who have been plotting it for years. But these are not to be found in Maryland. Here, thank God, such disloyalty never obtained even a foothold. — Hon. Meverdy Johnson, 1861. 98 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. THE PROSPECT OF ADJUSTMENT. We may differ now as to the exact course to' be pursued, but we differ only as to the best means of accomplishing a common purpose — the Union's safety. In this particular I have differed, and still perhaps differ, with friends whose fealty to the Union is as strong and abiding as it can be in any American heart. Let us, therefore, casting aside all prior differences, mere party controversies, unite together as- a band of brothers, and in good faith and with unflinching firmness, rally around our noble State ; noble in her institu- tions ; noble in her Revolutionary history ; noble in the great fame of her illustrious dead; and resolve by all just and hon- orable means, by any fair and equitable adjustment of sec- tional controversies, to assist her in efforts to terminate the sad, the dreadful strife which now imperils all we hold dear. Finally, is all hope lost— all remedy gone ? I think not. Even Massachusetts, so much given of late to sentimental politics and mischievous philanthropy, will be glad to adjust on fair terms. Of this I feel satisfied. A reaction of opinion has evidently begun therje. And who is not desirous to re- tain Massachusetts ? Who can, without pain, meditate her possible loss to the Union? The first blood in our first mighty conflict was shed on her soil, and the first blow there struck for and in defense of the rights of all. In the Senate and in the field, throughout that great period, her sons were among the foremost in stirring eloquence, cheerful sacrifices and matchless daring. Their bones almost literally whitened the soil of every State, and the Stripes and Stars, when in their hands, were ever the certain pledge of victory or death. Who would surrender Concord, Lexington, Bunker Hill ? South Carolina, too. Who is willing to part with her ? Her great names, during the same classic period, won for her and for all an undying fame. Her Moultries, Pinckneys, Rutledges, Haynes, Marions, Lawrences, do not belong to her alone — they are as much ours as hers ; as the fame of Washington is as much the property and pride of the world as of Virginia. She, too, is astray now, as she was once be- fore. She now thinks herself out of the Union. But there is a common tie, however, for a moment imperceptible and in- operative, that still makes us hers and hers ours. The tie of blood, of language, of religion, of love, of constitutional free- dom, of a common ancestry, who in battle and in council were ever a band of brothers— deliberating, fighting, dying, for our joint liberty and happiness. SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 99 Time, time, therefore, that great pacificator, can only be necessary to arouse all to duty — to unite us all — to bring us back to each other "to renewed embraces and increased af- fection." I believe, yes, as firmly as I credit my own existence, tiint such a recommendation as would be made by either of the patriotic committees of Congress who are now laboring to restore peace, or by the border States in council, would be hailed everywhere with approval. That done, the danger is over — peace restored — the Union, the glorious Union pre- served, and all its countless blessings secured forever. Hon. JReverdy Johnson, 1861. PERPETUITY OP THE UNION. It cannot be that such a Union as this should be destroyed. It cannot be that it is not beyond the reach of folly or of crime. If asked when I should be for a dissolution of the Union ? I answer as the patriotic Clay once answered, and as I know you will answer, " Never, never, never." Asked, " when I'd rend the scroll Our fathers' names are written o'er, When I would see our flag unroll Its mingled stars and stripes no more ; When, with worse than felon hand Or felon counsels, I would sever The Union of this glorious land ?" I answer — never, never ' never ! ! Think ye that I could "brook to see The banner I have loved so long Borne piecemeal o'er the distant sea ; Torn, trampled by a frenzied throng ; Tamely surrendered up forever, To gratify a soulless rout Of traitors ? Never, never ! never ! !" But whilst these efforts are being made to preserve it, and citizens on all sides are being brought to a sense of reason and duty, what is to be done ? Is civil war to commence ? Cer- tainly not, unless it be brought on by further outrages on the clearest constitutional rights. South Carolina has violently and most illegally, and as loyalty says, traitorously, seized upon fortresses, the admitted property of the United States, bought and constructed with their money, and for their pro- 100 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKEE. tection, and with her consent, and now threatens to seize the rest. But one other, Fort Sumter is left. It stands protected by the national flag, and its defence, and the honor of the nation, are, thank God, in the keeping of a faithful and gal- lant soldier. The name of Anderson already enjoys an anticipated im- mortality. Is that fortress to be surrendered ? Is he to be. abandoned ? Forbid it, patriotism ! Is that flag that now floats so proudly over him and his command — the pledge of his country's confidence, support, and power, to succumb to the demands of an ungrateful, revolting State, or to be con- quered by its superior accidental power ? I say, no, no — a thousand times no. The fortress must at all hazards be de- fended — the power of the national standard preserved, and the national fame maintained. This has been already sadly neglected, no doubt with good motives, but from misplaced confidence. It recently covered other spots that know it not now. Its place is supplied by one never known to the world, and never to be known. The Stripes and the Stars have long achieved a glorious name. They have been significant of power wherever they have waved, and commanded the respect and wonder of the world. And yet, in a State that owes so much to that flag — whose sons have so nobly and so often fought under it — it has been torn down, and vainly sought to be disgraced and con- quered. Vain thought ! Hear how a native poet speaks of it:— " Dread of the proud and beacon to the free, A hope for other lands — shield of our own, What hand profane has madly dared advance, To your once sacred place, a banner strange, Unknown at Bunker, Monmouth, Cowpens, York, That Moultrie never reared, or Marion saw V If the cannon maintains the honor of our standard, and blood is shed in its defence, it will be because the United States cannot permit its surrender without indelible disgrace and foul abandonment of duty. I have now done, and in con- clusion I ask you to do what I am sure you will cheerfully and devoutly do — fervently unite with me in invoking Heaven, in its mercy to us and our race, to interpose and keep us one people under the glorious Union our fathers gave us till time shall be no more. — Hon. Meverdy Johnson, 1861. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 101 THE ALARUM, The last few weeks, Mr. Chairman, have been pregnant with events, and will furnish a mortifying chapter in our his- tory. Eight Senators, and numerous Representatives, have left their seats, and bid farewell to the Union. ' Our national flag has been insulted upon our own soil ; our vessels fired on and driven from the harbor of Charleston ; our forts have been forcibly seized, and our public officers arrested in South Carolina, imprisoned and threatened with death on a charge of treason against the State, for no other offence than dis- charging their duties under the Government; and yet we stand here debating what shall be done. Done! Go and roll up your banner, as you seem indifferent to its defence and honor, and lay it away as a memorial of your former great- ness. Go cable your ship in the port of "New York, and there let her rot. Go tell your brethren lying in dungeons that a Roman only had to claim to be a citizen of the imperial city to be protected, and that it was once so with Americans ; that they only had to name their country to be guaranteed security ; but alas, how changed and fallen is it now ! It is time, sir, that we should arouse. Men of America, why stand ye still? Arouse! Shake off your lethargy! All considerations of party should be lost with us, when our country is in danger. I am with every man who is for the Union, and against every man who is against it ; and I am ready now to march up to our national altar, and swear, " The Union, by the Eternal, it must and shall be preserved !" If its enemies bring war out of it, it must be so, though none would regret it more than myself. Our national property, our citizens, public officers, and rights, must be protected in all the States, and our men-of-war must be stationed off of southern ports to collect the revenue; and, if necessary, blockade them. This may, and I think would, aided by time and necessity, accomplish all; but, unless we mean to give up our Government, and feed it as carrion to the vultures, we ought not to be standing all the day idle. The enemy is battering at the very doors of the Capitol, and meditate a seizure of our national records, and the appropriation of the army and navy. Shall we wait until our flag is no longer respected, or shall we strike for the Constitution and the Union now? I have but little respect for that patriotism that goes moping about the streets, wringing its hands, and asking, "What is to be done?" It was just that kind of patriotism that Patrick Henry rebuked in the days of the 102 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. Revolution, when, lifted above ordinary mortals by the su- perhuman power of his eloquence, he exclaimed against delay when tbe chains of colonial bondage were clanking upon our shores, and within hearing of the patriots. The cords and sinews of the Government are snapping around us, and men are boasting that it is their hands which sever them. And yet there are no arrests for treason, as there ought to be, and would be, if the laws were "faithfully executed." I have said before, and repeat again, that my hope is not in the President, not in the army or navy, but in the people, who are a power above them all, and who will hold to a fear- ful accountability all who are unfaithful to their country. The blessings of this Union have dropped like the rains from hea- ven upon them, and they will see to its protection. It is of more value than all the population which it now contains. Born of the struggles of the Revolution and baptized in the blood of a noble ancestry, it is committed to them to enjoy and to transmit. My countrymen, you will preserve and guard it as it is. It has safely conducted you thus far, and you should trust it still. Should you ever entertain the thought or purpose of destroying it, you will bitterly curse that clay and moment when your thresholds and firesides are sprinkled with the blood of your wives and children. Hon. Edward Joy Morris^ 1861. AGAINST ALTEEING- THE CONSTITUTION. I desire to get it distinctly before the House, if I can, that whether compromises are, in the nature of things, desirable and necessary or not, still, at the present time, it is wholly improper and utterly perilous to the country, to enter into any compromise whatever. Every nation has some nucleus thought, some central idea, which they enshrine, and around which they cluster and fasten. The old Roman citizen had his Capitol and his Pantheon ; France has her Napoleon and military glory; England has her constitutional monarchy; and the old Jews had their temple and shekinah. The American people, sir, have this one central idea or thought, embalmed and enshrined as a nucleus thought, around which they all cluster, and to which they all adhere with a spirit of superstitious idolatry : the Union, the Constitution, the flag of their country, are a sort ofHrinity, to which the American people pay political homage and worship. And now, I insist, in this time of peril, of agitation and SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 103 rebellion, it is no time to tamper with that holy instrument around which all American hearts cluster, and to which they cling with the tenacity of a semi-religious attachment. Do this, and by and by Pennsylvania, if she cannot have protec- tion for her coal and iron, which is her negro, will dissolve the Union. If New York is denied free trade, she will encir- cle the brow of her mayor with the diadem and place the sceptre in his hand. If Massachusetts fails to obtain her fishing bounties, she will secede. If Maine cannot have pro- tection to her lumber and fishing interests, she will dissolve the Union. Michigan, I believe, wants the St. Clair flats cleared ; and if you do not comply with her wishes in this regard, she will throw herself upon her sovereignty, dissolve the Union, and shed so much blood that the ensanguined tide shall pour over Niagara's rocks, and the fishermen at the mouth of the St. Lawrence will be startled with the reddened ripple around the prows of their boats, as was the mariner on the Mediterranean when the waters of Egypt were turned into blood. Illinois wants protection for her beef; or, what is more likely, she will not consent to pay tribute to Pennsyl- vania every time she shoes a horse or sharpens a plow. Ore- gon demands the payment of her war debt, or she will throw oif her allegiance. California demands the building of a Pa- cific railroad, or she will erect a Pacific republic. And so, sir, this grand fabric of our Government, baptized in our fathers' blood, and handed down to us to be in turn be- queathed to our children, is at the beck and mercy of any State that is disaffected or displeased in regard to some fed- eral legislation, or, more preposterous still, in reference to some State enactments. We are like sea-weed, waifs on the ocean, without anchorage, with no common rallying point around which to cluster, where our hearts can centre, and where we can say, "In life or death, in weal or woe, sun- shine or storm, we are for the flag of our country, our Con- stitution, and our Union." In this the hour of our peril, whatever may be our dissensions, it is unpatriotic and un- statesmanlike to place all the glories of the past, all the im- mense and varied interests of the present, and all the glori- ous hopes of the future, at the mercy and caprice of any one State in this Union. I think it is the highest statesmanship now, here, in this very year of our Lord 1861, to settle this question, without compromise, without concession, without conciliation: Have we a Government that is permanent and fixed, and that will protect and shelter us ? Hon. Oioen Lovejoy, 1861. 104 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. PLEA POE THE UNION. Mr. President, I have designedly dwelt so long on the probable effects of disunion upon the safety of the American people as to leave me little time to consider the other evils which must follow in its train. But, practically, the loss of safety involves every other form of public calamity. When once the guardian angel has taken flight, everything is lost. Dissolution would not only arrest, but extinguish the great- ness of our country. Even if separate confederacies could exist and endure, they could severally preserve no share of the common prestige of the Union. If the constellation is to be broken up, the stars, whether scattered widely apart or grouped in smaller clusters, will thenceforth shed forth feeble, glimmering and lurid lights. 'Nor will great achievements be possible for the new confederacies. Dissolution would signalize its triumph by acts of wantonness which would shock and astound the world. It would provincialize Mount Vernon, and give this Capitol over to desolation at the very moment when the dome is rising over our heads that was to be crowned with the statue of Liberty. After this there would remain for disunion no act of stupendous infamy to be committed. No petty confederacy that shall follow the United States can prolong, or even renew, the majestic drama of national progress. Perhaps it is to be arrested be- cause its sublimity is incapable of continuance. Let it be so, if we have indeed become degenerate. After Washington, and the inflexible Adams, Henry, and the peerless Hamilton, Jefferson, and the majestic Clay, Webster, and the acute Calhoun, Jackson, the modest Taylor, and Scott, who rises in greatness under the burden of years, and Franklin, and Fulton, and Whitney, and Morse, have all performed their parts, let the curtain fall. While listening to these debates, I have sometimes forgot- ten myself in marking their contrasted effects upon the page who customarily stands on the dais before me, and the ven- erable Secretary who sits behind him. The youth exhibits intense but pleased emotion in the excitement, while at every irreverent word that is uttered against the Union the eyes of the aged man are suffused with tears. Let him weep no more. Kather rejoice, for yours has been a lot of rare fe- licity. You have seen and been a part of all the greatness of your country, the towering national greatness of all the world. Weep only you, and weep with all the bitterness of anguish, who are just stepping on the threshold of life ; for SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 105 that greatness perishes prematurely, and exists not for you, nor for me, nor for any that shall come after us. The public prosperity! how could it survive the storm ? Its elements are industry in the culture of -every fruit ; min- ing of all the metals ; commerce at home and on every sea ; material improvement that knows no obstacle and has no end ; invention that ranges throughout the domain of nature ; increase of knowledge as broad as the human mind can ex- plore ; perfection of art as high as human genius can reach ; and social refinement working for the renovation of the world. How could our successors prosecute these noble objects in the midst of brutalizing civil conflict? What guarantee will capital invested for such purposes have, that will outweigh the premium offered by political and military ambition ? What leisure will the citizen find for study or invention, or art, under the reign of conscription ; nay, what interest in them will society feel when fear and hate shall have taken possession of the national mind? Let the miner in California take heed ; for its golden wealth will become the prize of the nation that can command the most iron. Let the borderer take care ; for the Indian will again lurk around his dwelling. Let the pioneer come back into our denser settlements; for the railroad, the post-road, and the telegraph, advance not one furlong farther into the wilder- ness. With standing armies consuming the substance of our people on the land, and our navy and our postal steamers withdrawn from the ocean, who will protect or respect, or who will even know by name our petty confederacies ? The American man-of-war is a noble spectacle. I have seen it enter an ancient port in the Mediterranean. All the world wondered at it, and talked of it. Salvos of artillery, from forts and shipping in the harbor, saluted its flag. Princes and princesses and merchants paid it homage, and all the people blessed it as a harbinger of hope for their own ulti- mate freedom. I imagine now the same noble vessel again entering the same haven. The flag of thirty-three stars and thirteen stripes has been hauled down, and in its place a signal is run up, which flaunts the device of a lone star or a palmetto tree. Men ask, " Who is the stranger that thus steals into our waters ?" The answer contemptuously given is, " She comes from one of the obscure republics of !S r orth America. Let her pass on." Hon. Wm. H. Seward, 1861. 106 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. C0MPE0MISE UNTIMELY, If compromise were desirable, this is not the time to think of it. When the Constitution and laws are openly defied ; when forts and arsenals are seized by rebels ; when the flag of our country is no longer a protection to its citizens, but rather a target for treason, it is no time to compromise, not till treason is punished, our plundered property restored, and the stars and stripes planted again upon every fortress in the land. No people ever yet bought a permanent peace. The hordes of Alaric returned to demand new tribute after they had expended the gold extorted from the fears of Rome. So, compromise now ; and from this vantage-ground of pre- cedent they will demand new and ever-increasing guarantees to slavery. It is full time that we met this subject like men, like legislators acting for the future. We may shade our eyes with our hands, and swear that the sun is blotted from the heavens, yet there it is; we may compromise now, and tell others, and try to believe ourselves, that it is a finality, but who. does not know that the disease is yet left to spread and rankle, and finally to break out with deadly virulence. What a lamentable picture do we now present to the world. Citizens are seized, scourged, murdered ; armed bands of trai- tors capture forts and arsenals ; they fire upon our flag, and flaunt defiance in our very faces ; and yet Government, we are told — and told, too, by Northern men on this floor — Govern- ment is powerless ; we cannot enforce the laws. What to me is singular is, that these very men who now deny the power of Government to vindicate its laws are the men who talk loudest and longest about law and order whenever a fugitive, man or woman, is to be returned to slavery. Then law is a sacred thing, and its enforcement the highest duty ; but when law is invoked to arrest treason and robbery, then we are asked if we intend to resort to coercion. Is not co- ercion the essence of all government ? Not the coercion of unfeeling, intangible State organizations ; but the coercion of men, who are responsible to the law. How long since our Government became so feeble, so averse to force? When Anthony Burns was seized in Bos- ton, Government did not stand and hesitate. The army and navy were proffered at once ; and when, in the gray of the morning, he was marched down to the wharf, to be sent b;ick to slavery, he was escorted by a band of soldiers. There was coercion ; Government was then prompt as thought — a very giant in the presence of that poor, weak SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 107 negro ; to hirn it was, " fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell." The executive of the nation was then a Mars panoplied for fight. But now, when crime is rife and treason rampant, the Executive, instead of using the power intrusted to him, to stay the crime and arrest the treason, looks on aghast, and suffers it to gather head and power til], finally, in utter de- spair, like a Dominican monk, he exclaims, " Ho ! all ye good people of the United States, let us pray !" and men that never thought of prayer before, respond, "Amen, let us pray." I confess, I feel humiliated and disgraced in this humilia- tion of my country. I lament its fallen greatness, and blush for its recreancy and shame. Our nation is now on trial be- fore the nations of the earth and posterity. How it will pass the trying ordeal, impartial history will record. If we dare be true, inlying upon justice, which is ever strong, then all will be well ; the brightest page of our history has yet to be written. But if, for material considerations or for peace, we barter away truth and right, then will history record our downfall and infamy, because we knew our duty and did it not. But whether in war or in peace, whether in the Union or out of the Union, I trust that that which is more than Union, more than Constitution — the rights of man — will come out of this struggle vindicated and unimpaired. Though the clouds hang heavily around us, narrowing our vision, yet I have an abiding faith that beyond the murky cloud, in the calm serene majesty of Omniscience, " standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own." Hon. Sidney Edgerton^ 1861. COMPROMISE REPUDIATED. Me. Speaker, the South, which complains of oppression and wrong, has had the control of this government for twenty years. All its rights have been carefully secured ; and all our obligations to the South we have faithfully observed. You ask protection for your peculiar property. You get all that the Constitution gives — and more. But the North has cause of complaint. We ask, and' ask in vain for protection to our persons in your slave States. Unoffending northern men are scourged, branded, murdered, and they have no pro- tection from your laws. How can men who have encouraged these things, and who now justify the theft, robbery, and treason in the southern States, talk of that fiction of fictions — southern wrongs ? How the South has been oppressed — op- 108 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. pressed with patronage and office ; and whenever it has felt power slipping from its grasp, it has raised the howl of dis- union ! And we are met here again, and asked what we are going to do to save the Union ? Gentlemen, the Union is ot far more importance to you than to us. We do not propose to disturb it ; do you ? We abide by the Constitution and laws, and expect you to do the same. If you will, the Union is safe. We are called upon to compromise with slavery — to give it new guarantees. If guarantees are to be given, I demand them for freedom. Now, when the souls of men are stirred as with the inspiration of liberty ; when Italy — long op- pressed, down-trodden, classic Italy — has risen from her night of enthrallments, and, vindicating her ancient renown, has wrung from the bloody hands of the Hapsburgs her long-lost freedom ; when the autocrat of Russia strikes from the limbs of his serfs the corroded fetters ; when disenthralled millions on the banks of the Oder, the Lena, the Volga, and the Dnie- per, are singing their songs of deliverance, it is no time in this nation, which began by avowing the sublime doctrine of man's inalienable rights — it is no time, I say, to talk of new guarantees to slavery. As we revere the memories of our fathers, we should see that their hopes of freedom are here realized, and that their blood was not shed in vain. The great interests of the present, and the yet greater interests of the future, demand of us that we stay the further aggres- sions of slavery. I will not compromise ; because I have no faith that any compromise we could make would stand one hour longer than it ministered to slavery. The people have not yet for- gotten — and I trust they will not soon forget — the fate of the Missouri Compromise. The treatment of Kansas, baptized in blood, that she might be enslaved, is yet terribly fresh in their remembrance. We have had compromise after com- promise, and each one was a finality. The perturbed spirit of slavery, we were told, was finally put to rest by the ghostly incantation of compromise. But hardly had the shouts of exultation died away, before the black gladiator stalked again into the arena, demanding new compromises. What security, I ask, have we that any compromise we may make will be any better observed ? I will not compromise, because I would not farther strengthen slavery. It is already strong enough to endan- ger, if not to annihilate, this government. In many of the States it has already obliterated every one of the ideas which inaugurated the revolution, and made it memorable in the SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 109 free States. In the free States it has demoralized the senti- ment of onr people, both priest and politician, Church and State. " The trail of the serpent is over them all." With my consent, it shall never curse another foot of God's fair earth. By no vote of mine shall it ever be strengthened or countenanced. You may dissolve this Union, if you can. If its existence depends upon supporting, strengthening, and extending slavery, then the sooner dissolved the better. It was formed for the noble purpose of promoting justice and securing liberty ; and when your Union and Constitution fail to promote these ends, they are no longer the Union and Constitution of our fathers ; they are no longer worthy the support of freemen. But, Mr. Chairman, we are threatened with war, unless we yield to this new demand. Very well ; if war must come, let it come. Peace is not the first interest of a people. Bet- ter encounter war, with all its manifold horrors, than suffer the sense of justice and humanity to die out in the hearts of the people. War — fierce, bloody, and relentless war, is better than the perpetual war of despotism, which slowly but surely drags nations down to ruin. And gentlemen should know that the first blast of war will be the trumpet-signal for emancipation. Son. Sidney Edgerton, 1861. ENFOECING THE LAWS. Gentlemen say that they will not make war; they say that they do not intend to coerce a State, but that they will enforce the law. They propose to send the army, and navy, and militia of the United States — and my colleague from Cincinnati, in his speech yesterday, advised a call for volun- teers — to enforce the law. Xhey propose, with all this power, to invade a State — a State which they know has repudiated our authority, and denied our jurisdiction ; a State which, by the very exigency of the position which it has assumed by secession, is obliged to resist ; which has declared that it will resist ; which has prepared to resist. Now, when these armed bodies come together in hostile collision, is not that battle ? is not that war ? Are we to be told, if I may paraphrase the language used by Mr. Fox on an illustrious occasion, when, on the day after the battle, amid the gore of the dead and the groans of the dying, some stranger should inquire what all this means — are we to be told, Sir, " This is not fighting ; this is not war ; this is not 110 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. coercion; these men have no cause of quarrel with each other ; there is no harm, nor cruelty, nor bloodshed in it whatever ; this is only peaceably enforcing the laws !" Sir, the enforcement of your laws within a seceding State; in op- position to its will, is coercion of that State ; and coercion by armed force is war. These terms " collecting the reve- nue," " enforcing the law," " maintaining the Union," capti- vate our people. They smack of law and order, to which our people are very much attached. They are not unknown in American history. Our fathers heard them used in the same tone and spirit, and for the same purpose, as we hear them now. George III. was not so anxious to collect reve- nue, as he was intent on enforcing the law. He would have been willing at any time to repeal the revenue act, if he could have brought his conscience to the point of conceding to men who resisted the enforcement of the law. For seven years the British resorted to parliamentary expedients. They had their Boston Port Bill ; they had their commissioners of cus- toms ; they had their armed vessels stationed in the harbors to sustain the commissioners, and assist them in performing their duty. All failed. They then prosecuted the enterprise through seven long years of war. They enforced the laws at Lexington and Bunker Hill ; they enforced the laws at Princeton and at Trenton ; they enforced the laws at Eutaw and Cowpens, and King's Mountain and Yorktown ; until King George, wearied with his success, thanked God that He had put it into his heart to forget his ancient differences ■ — with whom? With revolted colonies? With rebellious subjects ? With Yankees, who would not submit to the en- forcement of the laws ? No ; with the United States of America, w T hose independence he acknowledged, and with whom he made a treaty of peace. Pie collected the revenue ; but it was at the expense of a thousand pounds for every dollar. He enforced the law ; but by a breach of every guarantee of freedom contained in the British Constitution. He maintained the Union only in con- summating the loss of the finest colonial empire in the world, and of three million hardy, enterprising and patriotic sub- jects. Hon. Geo. H. Pendleton, 1861. THE DOCTRINE OF SECESSION ABSURD. I have said that I cannot recognize nor countenance the right of secession. Illinois, situated in the interior of the continent, can never acknowledge the right of the States SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. Ill bordering on the seas to withdraw from the Union at pleas- ure, and form alliances among themselves and with other countries, by which we shall be excluded from all access to to the ocean, from all intercourse and commerce with foreign nations. We can never consent to be shut up within the circle of a Chinese Wall, erected and controlled by others without our permission ; or to any other system of isolation by which we shall be deprived of any communication with the rest of the civilized world. Those States which are sit- uated in the interior of the continent can never assent to any such doctrine. Our rights, our interests, our safety, our ex- istence as a free joeople, forbid it ! The northwestern States were ceded to the United States before the Constitution was made, on condition of perpetual union with the other States. The territories were organized, settlers invited, lands pur- chased and homes made, on the pledge of your plighted faith of perpetual union. I do not know that I can find a more striking illustration of this doctrine of secession than was suggested to my mind when reading the President's last annual message. My at- tention was first arrested by the remarkable passage, that the Federal Government had no power to coerce a State back into the Union if she did secede; and my admiration was unbounded when I found, a few lines afterwards, a recom- mendation to appropriate money to purchase the island of Cuba. It occurred to me instantly, what a brilliant achieve- ment it would be to pay Spain $300,000,000 for Cuba, and immediately admit the island into the Union as a State, and let her secede and reannex herself to Spain the next day, when the Spanish Queen would be ready to sell the island again, for half price or double price, according to the gullibi- lity of the purchaser ! During my service in Congress it was one of my pleasant duties to take an active part in the annexation of Texas ; and at a subsequent session to write and introduce the bill which made Texas one of the States of the Union. Out of that annexation grew the war with Mexico, in which we ex- pended $100,000,000; and were left to mourn the loss of .about ten thousand as gallant men as ever died upon a battle- field for the honor and glory of their country. We have since spent millions of money to protect Texas against her own Indians, to establish forts and fortifications to protect her fron- tier settlements, and to defend her against the assaults of all enemies until she became strong enough to protect herself. We are now called upon to acknowledge that Texas has . a moral, just, and constitutional right to rescind the act of ad- 112 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. mission into the Union ; repudiate her ratification of the res- olutions of annexation ; seize the forts and public buildings which were constructed with our money; appropriate the same to her own use, and leave us to pay $100,000,000 and mourn the death of the brave men who sacrificed their lives in defending the integrity of the soil. In the name of Har- din, and Bissell, and Harris, and of the seven thousand gal- lant spirits from Illinois, who fought bravely upon every battle-field of Mexico, I protest against the right of Texas to separate from this Union without our consent. Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, 1861. WAR DEPRECATED. The history of the world does not furnish an instance, where war has raged for a series of years between two classes of States, divided by a geographical line under the same national Government, which has ended in reconciliation and reunion. Extermination, subjugation, or separation, one of the three, must be the result of war between the northern and southern States. Surely you do not expect to extermi- nate or subjugate ten millions of people, the entire population of one section, as a means of preserving amicable relations between the two sections ! I repeat, then, my solemn conviction, that war means dis- union — final, irrevocable separation. I see no alternative, therefore, but a fair compromise, founded on the basis of mutual concessions, alike honorable, just, and beneficial to all parties, or civil war and disunion. Is there anything humil- iating in a fair compromise of conflicting interests, opinions, and theories, for the sake of peace, reunion and safety ? Read the debates of the Federal Convention, which formed our glorious Constitution, and you will find noble examples, worthy of imitation ; instances where sages and patriots were willing to surrender cherished theories and principles of gov- ernment, believed to be essential to the best form of society, for the sake of peace and unity. I never understood that wise and good men ever regarded mutual concessions by such men as Washington, Madison, Franklin, and Hamilton, as evidences of weakness, cowardice, or want of patriotism. On the contrary, this spirit of con- ciliation and compromise has ever been considered, and will in all time be regarded as the highest evidence which their great deeds and immortal services ever furnished of their SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 113 patriotism, wisdom, foresight and devotion to their country and their race. Can we not afford to imitate their example in this momentous crisis ? Are we to be told that we must not do one duty to our country lest we injure the party ; that no compromise can be effected without violating the party plat- form upon which we were elected ? Better that all party plat- forms be scattered to the winds ; better that all political organizations be broken up ; better that every public man and politician in America be consigned to political martyrdom, than that the Union be destroyed and the country plunged into civil war. It seems that party platforms, pride of opinion, personal con- sistency, fear of political martyrdom, are the only obstacles to a satisfactory adjustment. Have we nothing else to live for but political position ? Have we no other inducement, no other incentive to our efforts, our toils, and our sacrifices? Most of us have children, the objects of our tenderest affec- tions and deepest solicitudes, whom we hope to leave behind us to enjoy the rewards of our labors in a happy, prosperous, and united country, under the best Government the wisdom of man ever devised or the sun of heaven ever shone upon. Can we make no concessions, no sacrifices for the sake of our children, that they may have a country to live in, and a Gov- ernment to protect them, when party platforms and political honors shall avail us nothing in the day of final reckoning. Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, 1861. APPEAL FOE THE CONSTITUTION. Me. Speaker, I ask the people and the people's repre- sentatives to maintain the Constitution in its integrity. Let us pass the laws which will enable the Executive to summon the people, the loyal people, not to the conquest of our coun- trymen, but to the defence of our Constitution. Let the Constitution be saved from violence and overthrow ; it is filled with the wisdom and goodness of its great founders ; it is the carved work of their poured-out spirits. Maintain it! maintain it inviolate until it fulfills its sublime mission, until this goodly heritage of ours, slumbering between two great oceans that engirdle the world, shall be filled with free com- mon wealths, in every one of which, without violence to any human being or any human habitation, every unjust fetter shall be broken, and every inherent right maintained. When no State will banish men because they are just, or enslave men because they are weak, or subject men to the perilous I 114 . THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. edge of battle because they are strong, or strangle men like felons on the gallows, because, in obedience to the divine command, they remember those that are in bonds as bound with them. Maintain your Constitution until our temple of civil and religious liberty shall be complete, lifting its head- stone of beauty above the towers of watch and war, until all nations shall flee unto it, and its glory shall fill the whole earth. — Hon. Kinsley /S. JBingham, 1861. MARYLAND POE THE UNION. Maryland is placed in a more embarrassing attitude than any other State in the Confederacy. With a long line of two hundred miles of frontier bordering upon Pennsylvania ; with a line of eighty miles bordering upon Virginia ; with her great railroad — in which she has $30,000,000 — running into Vir- ginia, she is surrounded with the gravest embarrassments; and I can only rely on her wisdom and prudence, and accept her decision as my decision, and her destiny as my destiny. But I pray you to relieve her and her sister States from this perilous embarrassment. You can do it; and if you will act wisely and speedily upon the propositions before the house, you will be able to do it successfully. It would crack the very heart-strings of Maryland to be separated from the Union of the States, the foundation-stones of which are ce- mented with the best blood of her gallant sons, and to which she has always clung with so much loyal devotion and ear- nest reverence. Spare her, I conjure you, the necessity of even debating a proposition so painful. I observe, Mr. Speaker, that my hour is nearly out, and I must close, leaving unsaid some things of which I had wished to speak. I have never been able to regard with any .favor this idea of a southern confederation, even in its merely economic aspects ; and I am not able with any complacency to consider the possibility of my own State being its frontier line. I cannot hope for its permanency, based, as it must be, upon the recognized right of secession, and the consequent ability of any of its component parts at any moment to de- stroy it. ISTor do I desire to see the great mechanical and industrial interests of my State and city subjected to the policy of the cotton States, which are so likely to be its' ele- ment of controlling power. Free trade and direct taxation do not harmonize with the interests nor accord with the temper of Maryland ; and I have little faith in it. Born in SPEECHES 05 THE TIMES. 115 revolt; cradled in passion; nurtured upon excitement; over- riding freedom of opinion; disregarding individual rights; burdened with taxation ; environed by fearful perils in the present, and destined to encounter more terrible troubles in the future ; based, as its foundation-stone, upon the right of any one of its component parts at any moment to secede froin the' structure, and thus break it up, I regard its promises as delusive, and its results as " Dead Sea fruits, that turn to ashes on the lips;" and to me the "gorgeous palaces and cloud-capped towers" that it presents to the gaze of the youthful and the ambitious, are as the sun-lit battlements and lengthening vistas of some treacherous mirage, that flees into airy nothing before the straining gaze and the. advancing step of the desert traveller. Rather give to me, and to my peo- ple, the Government that has been tested by eighty years of successful trial. Let not my ears be greeted with the music of the " Marseillaise," that stirs no pulse of my American blood. Flaunt not before my eyes the flag of a divided na- tionality, that rouses no emotion of my American heart ; but let me and my people, I pray you, go down to our graves with the consecrated melodies of the nation ringing in our ears, and over us the dome of the Union, glorious with all its constellated stars. — Hon. J. 31. Harris, 1861. THE PLAG INSULTED. Sie, the 7th day of January, 1861, is a day long to be re- membered in the annals of the American people. On that day a steamboat, called the Star of the West, was gliding- over the waters of the Atlantic into one of, the ports of the United States. A cannon ball came hissing and skimming across its prow; the stars and stripes sprung out to the breeze — as if startled by an event so unusual — to tell the persons, whoever they might be, that fired that shot, that the vessel aimed at was under the protection of the national flag. In a moment, another ball comes hissing and plunging into its sides — another, and another — and that flag, for the first time since its folds were unfurled to the breeze, turned and flapped ingloriously by the sides of the mast, and the vessel that bore it returned to the place of its departure. 1ST ever before, on the American continent, was that flag insulted. The almanacs that our children will read, among the memo- rabilia of 1861, opposite the 7th day of January, 1861, will have written, " The American flag, for the first time, fired 116 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. upon by American citizens." I do not know how others may feel, but I confess I cannot keep it out of my mind — these balls booming, hissing, disgracing, and defying the flag of the United States, burn and sting to the very quick con- tinually. Mr. Speaker, it is under these circumstances, with the flag of our country disgraced and insulted — never before dis- graced or insulted — that we meet here to-day; and it is proposed to compromise, to concede, to conciliate. Compro- mise with whom ? With traitors who have fired on our flag ! Conciliate whom ? Rebels who have bid your Government defiance ! Sir, whatever I might yield under other circum- stances, whatever arrangements I might make, whatever compromises I might give my vote to support, never, as God lives, will I vote for one. particle of compromise until that insult is atoned, apologized for, or avenged ; never ! Hon. Owen Lovejoy, 1861. MUTUAL ANTIPATHY OF THE NOETH AND THE SOUTH, Those who are intent upon subverting the government, say that the people of the two sections are dissimilar; that they have their peculiarities and prejudices ; that they hate each other. Sir, that may all be true to some extent ; but there may be more hope of another, and, I trust, a better generation. How long have they been hating each other to that extent, which can justify a separation, and that intensi- fied hate which will be sure to follow fraternal war? The people of the North and South do not hate each other one particle more than did the embittered leaders of the old Whig and Democratic parties at the close of those sanguin- ary political conflicts which marked our history a few brief years ago. But will they love each other any more sincerely when they are separated into hostile armies, and encamped in battle array? Or, will the bloody traditions, which will disturb the repose of our children, prepare them for a more cordial embrace ? True, you may separate upon paper, but the Ohio will be a poor memorial of peace between a rival people and contending States. But I will not agree that you hate each other now. Our lineage is the same ; and each should know the other's infirmities by his own. If your con- stituents could sometimes see how frequently and how love- ingly the free-soiler and the southern radical hold kind and familiar council ; how often they almost embrace each other, SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 117 they would not for a moment believe the stale complaint of sectional hate. I will tell you when you most cordially hate each other. It is when the ins are compelled to give place to the outs. When that army of political retainers, by /the reverses of political fortune, has to take up its baggage, and abandon the tempting harvests of the capital ; then it is you hate each other. Sir, if you desire to witness a grand living panorama of the sorrowful faces which were seen when the Jews were led into captivity, you have but to take a position upon one of these adjacent towers on the 4th of March, and behold these martyrs, now so devoted to country, when they are exiled from the places they now know and love so well. Sir, I trust that in a grave public emergency like this, love of our whole country, and every part of it may banish all meaner emotions. In an hoar like this I would scorn to cherish an unkind political feeling toward a human being. I feel that if I could, by immolating myself, add a day to the life of my country, I would freely make the offering ; and I trust that all others will yet be found to yield much to pre- serve that Union with which are mingled the best hopes of mankind. Again I ask you, will you love each other better in that fearful hour of final separation ? You will not. You cannot. But hate, undying hate, will foment and protract feuds and contests more bitter and unrelenting than those of the rival houses of York and Lancaster. Furthermore, let this Government be broken up, and the border slave States dragooned, first into revolution, and then into a southern con- federacy, and ten years will not have elapsed before the slum- bering fires of the present strife will be blazing there, and, perhaps, another revolution will mark our history. If this be not so, then all history is a falsehood, and its philosophy a lie. Hon. Emerson Mtheridge, 1861. THE SECESSION OF FLOEIDA. Me. Speakee, when the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed, when the Constitution was ratified, our western boundary was the Mississippi River. From that day to this, at the instance of southern statesmen, the area of this country has been vastly enlarged. Whatever territory the men of the South have asked Congress to acquire, the same has been ac- quired ; whatever policy her representatives have advocated, whether financial or commercial, has generally prevailed ; an,d in all these protracted struggles growing out of the slavery 118 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. question, the just and reasonable demands and guarantees required by us have been given. The purchase of the Louisiana territory — a slaveholding country — was made at the instance of the people of the South. Three slave and two free States have already been formed within its limits. Its area was great. It now has vast resources, and in a few brief years it will have the wealth and population of a mighty empire. Fifty years hence, it will be more powerful in all that constitutes a state than was France when Napoleon, flushed with victory, first looked upon the " sun of Austerlitz." It was acquired, I repeat, by the negotiations of a southern president — northern represen- tatives generously voting with those of the South, to advise the treaty and to contribute the purchase money. Subse- quently, in 1819, we purchased Florida, in which slavery then and now exists. I mention Florida with somewhat of sorrow, I will not say with shame. But a few years ago the statesmen of this country were clamorous that Florida should he purchased by the Federal Government. For what purpose ? Because, said they, that peninsula belongs to a foreign power. It is part and parcel of this continent ; it is geographically a part of the United States ; it commands the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, and its hostile eye frowns upon our com- merce — it must be ours. And, Sir, it was purchased — pur- chased at a cost of five million dollars. We have expended nearly fifty million in subduing and removing the savages. Millions more have been expended in erecting beacons and fortifications along her reefs, to protect the commerce of the whole country. Yet, after all these large expenditures, Flor- ida, with but little over half the number of the voting popula- tion of the district I represent, secedes — goes out of the Union — carrying with her, not only our public lands, but the forts, arsenals, and fortifications which were placed there by this Fovernment for the benefit of the whole Union. And worse still : she breaks the unity of our Government, and destroys the prestige which has attended her glorious career. I can better pardon South Carolina, for she was one of the glorious " old thirteen ;" but little Florida — which to-day has barely population sufficient to protect herself from the alligators within her borders — is wholly without apology. Florida, like Louisiana, was purchased by the aid of northern repre- sentatives, and paid for by the money of all of our people ; yet, without a single grievance, she is to destroy the Union of these States, to which she owes her very existence. Hon. Emerson Etheridge^ 1861. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 119 TENNESSEE NOT TO BE DRIVEN INTO SECESSION. Mr. Speaker, as it is said that the cause of secession is gaming strength in Tennessee, I wish to say a few words — more, I confess, for the ear of the people of that State, than for this House. I wish to say to the people of Tennessee, that they, in the exercise of their rights as freemen, should survey the ground well, over which disunion asks them to tread. They should look at the origin of this movement, and to the instrumentality which has been used to bring it out. They should remember that in the cotton States — ay, sir, among Democrats who have rejoiced in all time past to magnify and glorify the power of the people — the men who have led this movement have not deigned to consult the peo- ple at all in regard to what they have done. They have not condescended to let them vote for secession, or no secession. I have no doubt that if the great heart of the southern peo- ple could be exhibited here to-day, the result would show that there are hundreds and thousands of men even in South Carolina, who, if they could be permitted to speak, would say they were against civil war, and against disunion. I doubt not that such is the fact in every southern State. But the tyranny of a despotic majority is there — a tyranny more to be dreaded than musketry or batteries. Freemen are so situated that they dare not speak their true thoughts. I would invoke the people of Tennessee also to remember the prophetic language, as it turns out to be, of Mr. Yancey : " We shall fire the southern heart, instruct the southern mind, give courage to each other ; and, at the proper mo- ment, by one organized, concerted action, we can precipitate the cotton States into a revolution" ISTot three years have elapsed since Mr. Yancey thus wrote. How wondrously has the southern heart been fired ! How rapidly have seceding States given courage to each other ! With no time for pop- ular deliberation, the concerted movement long meditateil has precipitated, hurried them headlong into revolution,; and' now they groan under taxation and prostrate credit, and hear " the thunder of the captains and the sliouting." This movement has been carried on to completion in South Carolina, without consultation with the border States as to her secession and hostile acts. She first put herself in the attitude of rebellion against the government ; the other cot- . ton States have followed in their turn; and now, whether right or wrong, willing or unwilling, they desire to drag us into the whirlpool of disunion. As a Tennesseean, I desire 120 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKEK. to raise my voice against being driven into secession. I pro- test against tyranny from any quarter whatever — against the tyranny that is attempted to be practiced upon us in the North, when they would force opinions upon us contrary to our will, and against this fiercer tyranny in the South, that proclaims fidelity to the Union treason, and would drag every Southern State into the vortex of civil war. And, sir, I can say, so far as the people of Tennessee are concerned, unless I greatly misapprehend their sentiments and feelings, they are not a people to be coerced, either by the North or by the South. The men whose fathers fought at King's Mountain ; the men who themselves fought at Talladega, at Ennickfaw, at the Horse-Shoe and upon the plains of New Orleans, and who sent their sons to fight at Monterey; whose blood, sir, was poured out like water at Cerro Gordo and Chapul- tepec ; such men, Mr. Speaker, never will submit to dicta- tion from any quarter under the heavens, be -it North, or be it South. No, sir ; they will not do it. I say to the people of Tennessee that they should resist this attempt to coerce them to do what they are otherwise unwilling to do ; resist it, it' need be, with arms, and unto the death. It is an insult that freemen ought not submit to. If Tennessee chooses to go out of the Union, let it be done by the deliberate and volun- tary act of her own sons, without constraint, and without coercion. Let her go not as a seceder; but in a manner worthy of the volunteer State. Let her, like our revolution- ary sires, have the boldness to go as a rebel, because she thinks the government has oppressed her, and because she has determined to throw off the yoke and risk all consequen- ces. — Hon. Thomas A. R. Nelson, 1861. THE SOUTH WARNED AGAINST MILITARY DESPOTISM. Ie war is to come upon us, if civil discord is to reign where peace so sweetly smiled before, the men who will have to fight the battles will not be your partisan leaders, who desire to be colonels and captains, majors and generals, governors and ministers ; but it will be the farmers, the mechanics, and the laboring men of the country. I ask them — and I would to God that my voice could echo and reecho from one end of my State to the other — are they willing to submit to this in order to build up a pampered aristocracy in the South ? Are they willing to do it in order to establish a military despotism in the South ? For, Mr. Speaker, not the least of all the evils SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 121 which threaten us in the Southern States, is the danger of military domination. We have seen a great political movement, which gentlemen ludicrously call "peaceable secession," suddenly assume all the pomp and circumstance of glorious war, by arming and proposing to arm the whole of the Southern States. How easy for ambition to turn this movement against the liberties of the people ! Peaceable secession ! and yet the whole of the Southern States in arms. This is the manner in which they are attempting to carry out a long premeditated plot ; and now, throughout the Southern States, the despotism of mili- tary power is beginning to be felt. Cockades are in the ascendant, and plowshares may rust. A reign of terror is already beginning to trammel free speech in the South : and I doubt not that in many places the iron heel of military power is felt, and men opposed to rashness and precipitancy dare not speak as freemen should speak and as they would wish to speak, against secession. Let the people of Tennes- see awake. Let them beware of military conquerors — and let the whole land beware of them ; for, sir, if we shall over- throw the peaceful institutions which we have so long en- joyed ; if we shall dissolve the Union of the American States, some Caesar or Napoleon will soon trample down the liberties of the people and destroy the last hope and the last vestige of freedom upon the earth. How will the tyrants and despots of the world, who have delighted to deride free government, "laugh at our calamity, and mock when our fear corneth!" Let our people in Tennessee, and everywhere else, gather around our temple of liberty; — and, determined to oppose taxation, military despotism, a war of the sections, and strife such as earth has never seen — may they, with their own mighty arms, sustain its falling columns. Hon. Thomas A. B. Nelson^ 1861. WHY DESTKOY THIS GOVERNMENT? Me. Speakee, why shall we destroy this Government? Is it because it was an easy matter to establish it ? Go back to the days of the Revolution, and behold your fathers pro- scribed as traitors, abandoning their homes to the desolations of their foes, now flying before them, and then, half armed and almost naked, turning back upon their pursuers, with the blood trickling at every step from their unshod feet upon the frozen ground ; and when you remember these and a thousand 122 THE PATKIOTIC SPEAKEE. other hardships they endured, consider that liberty and union were purchased at too great a cost to be madly thrown away. Ask the old soldiers who fought in the war of 1812, was it for this they slept upon the damp, cold earth, without tents to shield them from the pitiless peltings of the storm ? Was it for this that they suffered hunger and thirst, and perilled their lives in many a battle ? Why shall we destroy our Government? It has given us wise laws ; and no nation has ever prospered like our own. How wondrous has been its growth ! Go back in imagina- tion but twelve short years. Look out upon the broad prai- ries beyond the Mississippi. Far as the eye can reach behold the long procession of emigrants ; and almost before the mind can conceive the thought, California becomes a State, and San Francisco the New York of the Pacific ! Now gaze upon the mighty ocean. See one of our noble ships " careering over the waves." Wherever she goes, whatever port she enters, there is not a despot on earth who Would dare to interfere with crew or cargo. Why is this ? It is because she carries the star-spangled banner ; and that symbol of our union and our strength bears witness to the whole world that we have the will and the power to protect our citizens abroad as well as at home : " 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." Why should we destroy our Government ? The liberty we enjoy is not simply the work of the seven years' war of the Revolution. It is the result o'f 'centuries of contest. Although the great charter of British freedom was granted ages ago, it required the struggle of ages to secure it. The memory of that struggle was handed down to our fathers, and inspired them to the mighty work which they accom- plished. There is not a provision in any of our bills of rights which may not be said to have been purchased with the tears and groans of a thousand years. If it be possible for those who have " shuffled off this mortal coil " to take an interest in the affairs of earth, how earnestly are our departed patriots gazing upon our country now ! Methinks I can almost see their shadowy forms, and hear the rustling of their angel wings. George Washington is looking down upon us, and with solemn earnestness admonishes us to cherish an undying love for the Union, and frown indignantly upon every effort SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 123 to dissolve it. Andrew Jackson speaks to his friends, declar- ing, " the Federal Union, it must be preserved." The gallant Harry of the West is hovering over us, and, in trumpet- tones proclaims, " I am called upon to say when I will con- sent to a dissolution of this Union : my answer is, never ! never! NEVER! My countrymen, let us heed those warning voices. Let us settle all our controversies in the Union. Oh, trust not to that last delusive argument of the secessionists, that this Government, once dissolved, can be reconstructed. The causes which destroy it will forever preclude a reunion. Hate will be intensified, and a war of extermination will en- sue. It is in vain for either section to calculate upon the cowardice of the other. All are of the same race. All are alike brave : and a war once begun between us will have no parallel in the contests which history has described. May A.lmjghty God avert it ! — Hon. Thomas A. JR. Nelson, 1861. VINDICATION OF EEBELLION. We are told that the laws must be enforced ; that the rev- enues must be collected ; that the South is in rebellion with- out cause, and that her citizens are traitors. Rebellion ! the very word is a confession — an avowal of tyranny, outrage and oppression. It is taken from the des- pot's code, and has no terror for other than slavish souls. When, sir, did millions of people, as a single man, rise in or- ganized, deliberate, unimpassioned rebellion against justice, truth and honor ? In the words of a great Englishman on a similar occasion : " you might as well tell me that they re- belled against the light of heaven ; that they rejected the fruits of the earth. Men do not war against their benefac- tors ; they are not mad enough to repel the instincts of self- preservation. I pronounce fearlessly that no intelligent peo- ple ever rose,, or ever will rise against a sincere, rational and benevolent authority." Traitors ! Treason ! Ay, sir, the people of the South imitate and glory in just such treason as glowed in the soul of Hampden ; just such treason as leaped in living flame from the impassioned lips of Henry ; just such treason as encir- oleswith a sacred halo, the undying name of Washington! Since when, sir, has the necessity arisen of recalling to American legislators the lessons of freedom taught in lisping childhood by loving mothers, that pervades the atmosphere 124 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. we have breathed from infancy, so forming part of our very being that in their absence we should lose the consciousness of our own identity? Heaven be praised that all have not forgotten them ; that when we shall have left these familiar halls, and when force bills, blockades, armies, and all the ac- customed coercive appliances of despots shall be proposed and advocated, voices shall" be heard from this side of the chamber, that will make its very roof resound with the indig- nant clamor of outraged freedom. Methinks I still hear ringing in my ears the appeal of the eloquent Representative whose northern home looks down on Kentucky's fertile bor- ders: "Armies, money, blood cannot maintain this Union; justice, reason, peace, may." And now, to you, Mr. President, and to my brother Sena- tors on all sides of this chamber, I bid a respectful farewell. With many of those from whom I have been radically sepa- rated in political sentiment, my personal relations have ]?een kindly, and have inspired me with a respect and esteem that I shall not willingly forget. With those around me from the Southern States, I part as men part from brothers on the eve of a temporary absence, with a cordial pressure of the hand and a smiling assurance of the speedy renewal of sweet intercourse around the family hearth. But to you, noble and generous friends, who, born beneath other skies, possess hearts that beat in sympathy with ours ; to you who, solicited and assailed by motives the most powerful that could appeal to selfish natures, have nobly spurned them all; to you who, in our behalf, have bared your breasts to the fierce beatings of the storm, and made willing sacrifice of life's most glittering prizes in your devotion to constitutional liberty ; to you who have made our cause your cause, and from many of whom I feel I part forever, what shall I, can I, say? Nought, I know and feel, is needful for myself; but this I will say for the people in whose name I speak to-day : whether prosperous or adverse fortunes await yoUj one price- less treasure is yours — the assurance that an entire people honor your mines, and hold them in grateful and affectionate memory. But with still sweeter and more touching return shall your unselfish devotion be rewarded. When, in after days, the story of the present shall be written ; when history shall have passed her stern sentence on the erring men who have driven their unoffending brethren from the shelter of their common home, your names will derive fresh lustre from the contrast ; and when your children shall hear repeated the familiar tale, it will be with glowing cheek and kindling eye : — their very souls will stand a-tiptoe when their sires are SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 125 named, and they will glory in their lineage from men of spirit as generous, and of patriotism as high-hearted, as ever illus- trated or adorned the American Senate. Hon. Judah P. Benjamin, 1861. CONFIDENCE IN THE FUTUEE. If a portion of these States propose to inaugurate a new and great experiment upon this continent, in the establish- ment of two confederacies, lying side by side, the one based upon free labor, and the other upon chattel slavery, to run the race of greatness for a hundred years, I, for my children and children's children, will accept the issue. One of the powers will be dominant, and the other will at last exist, as some of the petty States of Europe exist, more by permission than by any inherent strength. Which this dominant power will be, I care not now to say ; but I am willing to abide the trial. It is safe to say that it will be that one which com- bines most of the elements which in these times go to make up a great nation. It will be that one which rests, not upon one form of industry only, but upon the infinite diversity of pursuits which compose our modern civilization. It will be that one in which shall flourish most, agriculture in its best methods ; manufactures in their endless variety of fabrics ; the mechanic arts in their countless forms ; commerce vexing every sea ; science, literature, inventions superseding human labor ; all the nobler arts ; institutions of learning of every grade ; universal education ; all that sustains and adorns life, all that enters into the structure of that grandest of hu- man creations — if it be not rather a divine work — a mighty State. I, for one, accept the position which the irreparable ordi- nances of nature shall decree for the State in which my for- tunes are cast. If war shall come, as it will come — though I cannot contemplate it with indifference — I abide its result with profound tranquillity. For the world will be taught again the old lesson, that national strength reposes in the homes of free labor ; that it springs up from the farm, and out of the workshop. And they who provoke the trial will find that a great English statesman said most truly, " No sword is sharper than that which is forged from the plow- share ; no spear more deadly than that which is beaten from the pruning-hook." And, sir, the most precious of all earthly possessions, con- 126 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. stitutional republican liberty, is still secure. It will remain committed to the guardianship of a people equal to the sacred trust, and able to defend it against a world in arms. We have already had foreshadowed the erection, upon these shores, of governments " strongly military" in their charac- ter; and, sir, whatever provincial oligarchies, whatever petty or powerful despotisms may arise on our borders, the Re- public of the United States of America will ever be, as it has been, the champion of the liberties of the whole people. Whoever else may prove recreant, we can never give up that precious inheritance which our fathers brought with them to this continent and transmitted to us in yet more abundant measure. Not by our apostacy shall these inestimable rights of the people be betrayed and lost, only to be recovered after other centuries of heroic struggle and endurance, — when other Elliots and Martens have perished in prison ; when other Miltons have grown blind while their studious lamps " outwatched the bear ;" when other Hampdens have fallen on the bloody field; when other Russells have written and pleaded and» suffered ; when other Sydneys have spent the long night in solving the great problems of human liberty, and then when the morning came, have gone calmly out to seal the written page with their blood. This birthright shall never be surrendered by us. It has been won on too many fields of stricken battle ; it has been vindicated in too many triumphant debates. To secure it too many noble victims have bowed their serene brows to the block ; too many martyrs have lifted up unshaking hands in the fire. — Hon. James Humphrey, 1861. THE SUPREME COURT NOT PARAMOUNT. Sir, I desire to speak with great respect of that venerable court. The habits and studies of my life have taught me to defer to the authority of the judges. I recognize the great power which the Constitution has conferred upon them. I yield to their absolute authority over individuals who are rightfully before them for judgment ; but their power, su- preme as it is, is limited to the parties and the case. It can reach no further. The principle involved may be overruled by themselves, or their successors, and it may be reexamined when it touches the meaning of the Constitution by every other department of the Government. It is not of very great importance in itself what political opinions these very learned SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 127 gentlemen may choose to form and express ; but the question as to the power and extent of the authority which these opinions carry with them, has become one of the vital issues of the day. If this wide-reaching jurisdiction over the whole sweep of public affairs shall be acknowledged by the people, as it seems to have been by some statesmen, then the people will have found a master; for the power to change the fun- damental law of a nation at will, is equally supreme and des- potic, whether placed in the hands of a single emperor at Paris, a council of ten in Venice, or a court of nine in Wash- ington. Mr. Speaker, I yield to no one in my respect for that court, when acting in its appropriate sphere. I recognize on that bench judges of great learning and worth. As a citizen, or a litigant, I am obliged to submit to their judgment in all cases to which I am a party, within their jurisdiction. As a lawyer pleading at their bar, I bow to the authority of their adjudged cases; but as a legislator, when the construc- tion of that great charter from which we both alike derive all our power, and which we are . equally bound to maintain, is involved, as a member of a coordinate and at least an equal branch of the common Government, their opinions with me, like those of all others, must stand or fall by their rendered reasons. Sir, I have an abiding faith that the people will never submit, nor allow their representatives to submit, to any such doctrine of final and infallible authority ; that they will never suffer this Constitution of theirs to be overlaid and smothered with legal precedents ; will never permit its fair page to be scribbled over with the glosses of old lawyers, like a palimpsest, in which some grand and simple old classic is obliterated by the black-letter substitutes of a chapter of chattering monks. I conclude, at all events, the principle of res adjudicata does not govern here. We at least can so far sink the tech- nics of the lawyer as to banish from this house the conven- tional notion that the last adjudication is therefore the best. Sir, if we are indeed to accept the opinions of the Supreme Court as absolute authority to control our votes here, I for one should prefer to choose the master by whose words I am to swear. I would go back to other days— to the Thompsons, the Washingtons, the Story s, and above all, to the great Chief Justice. Sir, when I compare the constitu- tional judgments of that illustrious jurist, who for so many years shed upon that tribunal the illuminations of his great mind, with the decisions of some more recent judges, in a late most celebrated case, I am almost tempted to exclaim 128 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. with Cicero, when he compared the sophists and sciolists of his day with his own great master in philosophy, Malo errare, mehercle, cum JPlatone quam cum istis vera sentire. Hon. James Humphrey ', 1861. KEGOlTSTKUCTIOSr IMPOSSIBLE. Mr. Speaker, the fashionable phrase of the day now is reconstruction. Gentlemen speak with a coolness, which ought in these times to be refreshing, of violently breaking up this great Government for the purpose of reconstructing a better out of its shattered fragments. Sir, in my judg- ment there can be no more fatal delusion than this. Once make the separation complete, and you make it final. If the spirit of patriotism is so far extinct, if the ancient fraternal feeling has so utterly died out, that we are ready to overturn this structure, where and when shall we look for such a revi- val of both as shall suffice for its rebuilding ? Sir, if this Union were but an alliance, a league, a partnership, or what- ever other epithet of dishonor you choose to apply to express the lowest form of contract, such a reconstruction would be impossible ; for it could not take place without war, immedi- ate or proximate. When once kindred states have been torn asunder, and their borders have .become battle-fields, and their dissevered and bleeding edges have been cauterized by the fires of war, what skillful surgery, what sweet medica- ments of nature, what healing influences of time, can ever reunite them? But, sir, political institutions are not lifeless masses, to be shaped, and matched, and glued together at will by ingen- ious artisans. Great States are not dead, geometrical forms, to be arranged and rearranged into a hundred curious shapes, like a Chinese puzzle. They are vital organizations, which determine their forms, not by external forces, but by the principle of life within them. This national Government, as I think I have shown, is the growth of more than two cen- turies. It strikes its root far back into the earliest colonial settlements ; and when you can reconstruct the oak which you have hewn limb from limb, you may reunite and revivify the torn and dismembered body of the Republic. But, sir, this is not all. This ideal reconstruction is ren- dered forever impossible by the very act of dismemberment. Once establish the light of secession, and you not only des- troy this Union, but you destroy the living principle itself, SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 129 without which no Umon can exist. Be assured that the States which remain loyal to this Constitution will never be- come parties to a trumpery compact, which can be dissolved in secret session, by a packed convention of a single State. Whatever States shall tear themselves away by revolutionary violence must return, if they return at all, with the recanta- tion of this heresy on their lips, and submissive to the true theory of the Constitution. — Hon. James Humphrey, 1861. THE COENEE STONE, The new Constitution has put at rest, forever, all agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution — African slavery as it exists among us — the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his fore- cast, had anticipated this, as the " rock upon which the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with him is now a realized fact. But whether he fully com- prehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were, that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature ; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It w r as an evil they, knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incor- porated in the Constitution, was the prevailing idea at the time. The Constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly used against the constitutional guar- antees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a government built upon it ; when the " storm came and the wind blew, it fell." Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea ; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man. That slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his nat- ural and normal condition. 6* 130 THE PATBIOTIC SPEAKER. This, our new government, is the firH in the history of the world based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its devel- opment, like all other truths in the various departments of science. It has been so even among us. Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect well that this truth was not gen- erally admitted even within their day. The errors of the past generation still clung to many as late as twenty years ago. Those at the North who still cling to these errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate fanatics. It is upon this principle our social fabric is firmly planted, and I can not permit myself to doubt the ultimate success of its full recognition throughout the civilized and enlightened world. As I have stated, the truth maybe slow in development, as all truths are, and ever have been, in the various branches of science. It was so with the principles announced by. Galileo ; it was so with Adam Smith, and his principles of political economy. It was so with Harvey and his theory of the circulation of the blood. It is said that not a single one of the medical profession, living at the time of the announce- ment of the truths made by him, admitted them. Now, they are universally acknowledged. May we not, therefore, look with confidence to the ultimate universal acknowledg- ment of the truths upon which our system rests ? It is the first government ever instituted upon principles in strict con- formity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, in fur- nishing the materials of human society. Many governments have been founded upon the principle of the enslavement of certain classes ; but the classes thus enslaved were of the same race, and in violation of the laws of nature. Our sys- tem commits no such violation of nature's laws. The negro by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation with proper materials — the granite — then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the mate- rial fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best not only for the superior, but for the inferior race that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the ordinance of the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question them. For His own purposes He has made one race to differ from another, as He has made " one star to differ from another in glory." The great objects of humanity are best attained, when con- formed to His laws and decrees, in the formation of govern- SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 131 ments as well as in all things else. Our Confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws. This stone which was rejected by the first builders, "is be- come the chief stone of the corner" in our new edifice. Hon. A. H. Stephens ■, March, 1861. UNNECESSAKY EXCITEMENT CAUSED BY IREESPONSIBLE MEN. One objection I take to the passage of the resolutions, that it will much increase the excitement and panic already exist- ing through the State, and so existing more by apprehension and the ceaseless efforts of a sensation press, than for any just and sufficient cause. It will alarm unnecessarily the innocent women and the plain yeomanry of the State, who have little time to investigate matters of public concern, and will lead to general disquiet. The adoption of the resolutions will be re- garded as a sort of license to the wicked elements among us. Besides the mass of conscientious and honorable secessionists, there is in this State, as in all others, a class who desire revo- lution because they may be benefitted and cannot be injured by change — that class so well described by the historian Sal- lust as studiosi novamm rerum — desirous of change — because in the general upheaving of society, they might come to the surface, and be bettered in their condition. This class long for collision and blood, because they know well that the first clash between the State and Federal muskets — the first drop of blood that collision spills — will enkindle a flame that will light them on to the accomplishment of their foul, hellish purposes of blood ancl carnage. This class would, in a mere spirit of adventure, fire the very temples of liberty, and dash into fragments that proudest and noblest monument of human wisdom — the Union of these States — the handiwork of Wash- ington, and Franklin, and Madison, and Gerry, and Morris, and comrade conscript fathers — under which we have been the proudest, freest, happiest, greatest nation on the face of the earth. This class does exist in Virginia. It exists all over the civilized earth, and it is no detraction from Virginia to say that it exists within her domain ; she would be an exception to all human society, if she did not hold in her bosom such a class. Now all this class will be stimulated by the passage of these revolutionary, and force-inviting, and lawless resolutions, to deeds of lawlessness, violence and blood. Let this legislature beware how it holds out the se- ductive bait. It may encamp us on a mine which a spark 132 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. may explode, and the explosion of which may " deal damna- tion round the land," and involve the fathers and mothers, and husbands and wives, and sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters, and innocent children of Virginia in miseries and woes unnumbered, the end whereof none of the present generation may live to see. — Joseph /Segar, 1861. SECESSION NO TKUE VIRGINIAN DOCTRINE. Sir, there is nothing in the past political action of Virginia, nor anything in the past or present relations between her and the Federal Government, -to justify the extreme and revolu- tionary movement the secessionists propose for her. In 1798 she fixed her great general rule — that the Federal Government should not be resisted until it had committed some " deliberate palpable and dangerous" infraction of the Constitution. What infraction of this sort has been com- mitted by the Federal Government ? What is it — where is it — when was it committed ? Has the present administra- tion perpetrated any such aggression ? And if the seceding States had remained in the Union, could Congress, with twenty-one majority in one House, and eight in the other, have committed any outrage upon the rights of Virginia, or of the South? Virginia then, on her own established prin- ciples of political action, ought not now to present the spec- tacle she does of extreme excitement, and ought not and can- not, consistently rush upon the violent and unconstitutional measures involved in these Senate resolutions, much less se- cede from 'the Union. She ought — it ^becomes her dignity and her ancient renown — to look calmly, even placidly, around her, and from the stand-point of that dignity and re- nown surveying the whole ground, consider and advise, and remonstrate and forbear, and forbear yet again, until every pacific and constitutional expedient for composition and safety shall have been exhausted. And furthermore, these radical measures of seizing the United States arms and seceding from the Union, are totally unwarranted by the more recent po- litical action of Virginia. In 1850, when the subject of the Wilmot Proviso was up for consideration in her legislature, she took a new position. She declared that if any one of four things should be done by the Federal Government, she would " resist at all hazards and to the last extremity :" first, the application of the Wilmot Proviso to the common territories; secondly, the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia ; SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 133 thirdly, interference with slavery in the States ; and fourthly, interference with the slave trade between the States. Has any one of these things been done? Has the Wilmot Pro- viso been applied to the Territories ? No. On the contrary at the late session of Congress, though it had, by the seces- sion of the Gulf States, a clear majority, that body, Republi- can as it is, passed three territorial bills, from all of which the Wilmot. Proviso was excluded. There was no slavery prohibition whatsoever ; and more than this, a provision was incorporated in each of them that all rights of property and questions of personal freedom should be determined by the principles and proceedings of the common law, with the right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States — pro- visions that open the territories to every citizen of the Union who may choose to carry his slaves thither. Has any. been enacted abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia ? No. Even 3Ir. Lincoln assures us that he will approve no such law, except with the consent of the slaveholders of the Dis- trict, and then not without compensation to the owners. Has any law been passed interfering with slavery in the States? Not at all. Such a doctrine is not even in the Chicago platform, and — what, in my judgment, ought for- ever to quiet Southern apprehension in regard to slavery in the States and even elsewhere — at the late -session of Con- gress — in which by the secession of the Gulf States, as already stated, the Republicans have the majority — a resolu- tion was adopted by the necessary constitutional majority, recommending an amendment to the Constitution, whereby, hereafter, interference with slavery in the States by the Federal Government is to be totally and forever forbidden. Has the proposition to interfere with the slave trade between the States been ever heard of in Congress, or has it been even talked about except by the most extreme abolitionists ? Not one then of the four things has been done for which Virginia said she would withdraw from the Union. Why, then, all this hot excitement and this hot haste to get out of the Union ? Can Virginia on her own principles, proceed- hastily to extreme measures of resistance, or to the adoption of the seizure and appropriation proposed by the resolutions before us ? Verily, if her sons in this hall, who are constituted the special guardians of her honor, regard consistency as one of her jewels, they will make that jewel glow all the brighter by voting down these shameful resolutions, and repudiating secession until, on our own solemnly avowed principles, the hour for resistance and revolution shall have come. Joseph /Segur, 1861. 134 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKEE. CAUSELESS COMPLAINTS OP THE SOUTH. I desire to be informed what wrong has been done to me, or any citizen of the South, or the South at large, by that Federal Government which some regard as accursed, and which they so hurry to destroy. I, for one, am not aware of any. If there be any law on the Federal statute-book im- pairing the rights of one southern man, or impeaching the equality of the southern States with the northern, let it be pointed out. The production of it is defied. No man has ever shown it, and no man ever can, because it is not on the statute-book. If it be there, it is easy to show it. If I am wrong, let my colleagues here, set me right ; and lest perhaps I may be in error, I ask them one and all — I appeal to you, Mr. Speaker, to the gentleman from Madison, Gen. Kemper, to my ardent disunion friend from Stafford, Mr. Seddon, to all the confessed secessionists in this body, and to all such out- side of this body, to put their finger on one Federal law in the least degree infringing the constitutional rights of the South. If it exist, let me see it, that I may recant the error. More than this, there is not only no such statute to be found from 1789 to this moment, but the Federal Government has been to the South the most parental of governments. Why, then, should we of the South desire to part with such a government? Some wrongs we are undoubtedly suffer- ing at the hands of some of the northern States, but these grievances lie not at the door of that parental Federal Gov- erninent, whose blessings drop upon us as gently as the dews of heaven, — nor are they now for the first time existing. They existed and we endured them under the previous administra- tions, but now they have become wrongs so enormous and intolerable, that on account of them we must in an instant shiver this blessed Union into fragments. But here arises the practical inquiry — that which so much concerns the masses of the people — shall we redress these grievances, or make them lighter, or remedy any wrong by disunion ? Most assuredly not. Whatever ills we are suf- fering will be a thousand times aggravated by a separation of the States. The slavery agitation will be intensified ; we shall lose scores of slaves where we now lose one ; because by the abolition of the Fugitive Slave Law, and by reason . of the readier facilities of escape, there will be no effectual impediment to such escape ; the underground railroad will be sped, and its operations vastly extended ; emigrant aid so- cieties will be augmented in number, and means, and em- SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 135 cieney ; and for one active abolitionist we shall have a thou- sand. The alienation which will be left behind disunion, the bitter and deep-seated sectional hate, and incessant border feuds and wars that must and will flow from the source of disruption, will as surely bring about these lamentable results as God's sun will send down his rays upon the earth when his broad disc glories above the horison. Joseph Segar, 1861. CONSEQUENCES OP SECESSION. It Me. Speaker, I shall not argue this doctrine of secession. The simple history of the Constitution ; its simple and yet plainer reading ; the overwhelming authority of our fathers against it, the crushing weight of opinion against it in our own State — her Jefferson declaring that even the old Confed- eration, a government far weaker than the present Federal Union, possessed the power of coercion — her Madison, the very father of the Constitution, solemnly asserting that its framers never for one moment contemplated so disorganizing and ruinous a principle — her great and good Marshall, decree- ing more than once, from the bench of the Supreme Judiciary, that the Federal Constitution did not constitute a mere compact or treaty, but a government of the whole people of the United States, with supreme powers within the sphere of its authority — Judge Spencer Roane, the Ajax Telamon, in his day, of her State-rights republicanism, endorsing the sentiment : " It is treason to secede !" — her Thomas Ritchie, the " Napoleon of the Press," and Jupiter Tonans of the modern democracy, heralding, through the columns of the Richmond Enquirer, the impregnable maxims that "no association of men, no State or set of States has a right to withdraw from the Union of its own accord," and that "the first act of resistance to the law is treason to the United States;" the decisions of some of the most enlightened of the State judiciaries in repudiation of the dangerous dogma ; the concurrent disavowal of it by the Marshalls, and Kents, and Story s, and McLeans, and Waynes, and Catrons, and Reverdy Johnsons, and Guthries, and all the really great jurists of the land ; the brand of absurdity and wickedness which has been stamped upon it by Andrew Jackson, and Webster, and Clay, and Crittenden, and Everett, and Douglas, and Cass, and Holt, and Andrew Johnson, and vYickliffe, and Dickinson, and the great body of our truly eminent statesmen : these considerations and 136 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. authorities present the doctrine of secession to me with one side only. But I do wish to inquire of my colleagues, if they have seriously reflected on the consequences of secession, should it come? Do you expect, (as I heard some of you declare,) that the power and influence of Virginia are such that you will have peaceable secession, through an immediate recognition of the separate independence of the South ? Alas ! you hug a delusion. Peaceable secession — secession without war ! You can no more have it than you can crush in the rack every limb and bone of the human frame without agonizing the mutilated trunk. " Peaceable secession !" said Mr. Webster, " peacea- ble secession! Sir," continued the great expounder, "your eyes and mine are not destined to see that miracle. The dis- memberment of this vast country without convulsion ! The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep without ruf- fling the surface !" No ! secede when you will, you will have war in all its horrors ; there is no escape. The Presi- dent of the United States is sworn to see that the laws be faithfully executed, and he must and will — as Gen. Washing- ton did, and as Gen. Jackson would have done in 1833 — use the army, and the navy, and the militia, to execute the laws, and defend the Government. If he does not, he will be a perjured man. Besides, you cannot bring the people of the South to a perfect union for secession. There are those, — " and their name is legion " — whom no intimidation can drive into the disunion ranks. They love the old Union which their fathers transmitted to them, and under which their country has become great, and under which they and their children have been free and happy. Circumstances may re- press their sentiments for a while, but in their hearts they love the Union ; and the first hour they shall be free to speak and to act, they will gather under the Stars and Stripes, and send up their joyous shouts for the old flag. They will not fight with you against the flag; so that there must be a double war — a Federal war, and a war among ourselves. And it may be that whole States may refuse to join in the secession movement, (which is most probable,) and then we shall witness the revolting spectacle of one Southern State warring against, and in deadly conflict with, another ; and then, alas ! will be over our unhappy country a reign of ter- ror none the less terrific than that which deluged with blood and strewed "with carnage revolutionary France. Joseph SegaV) 1861. SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 137 THE EFFECT OF DISUNION ON SL'AVEET. Supposing the State to have seceded, and war to have opened, what trophies do you look for ? — what are you to gain ? Will you win greater security for the institution of slavery in the States ? You do not want it. The Supreme Court has raised an impregnable bulwark for its defence. And even the Republican party has voluntarily tendered you an amendment of the Constitution forever guaranteeing slavery in the States against even the. touch of Federal legislation. Will you strengthen your claim to the common Territo- ries ? Here too the Supreme Court, by the Dred Scott de- cision, has settled, your rights ; and the administration party in Congress have abandoned the Wilmot proviso. They have passed territorial laws without any restriction whatever — thus leaving every slaveholder in the South free to enter the Terri- tories with his slaves, and even throwing the aegis of judicial protection over that species of property when there. Shall we, by secession and war, lose fewer slaves than by obtaining a better execution of the fugitive slave law ? Why, by secession you annul the fugitive slave law, and forfeit all its benefits. Moreover, you bring Canada, the great asylum for fugitive slaves, to the Virginia border ; so that^ to get his freedom, a slave has but to cross a narrow stream or an imaginary line ; and, by avoiding all obligation to return fu- gitives, and discouraging all willingness to do so, you create other asylums north of us, immediately contiguous to the border slave States — the inevitable consequence of which will be not only that those States will lose a much larger number of slaves than heretofore, but that in a few years slavery will disappear from them altogether. With Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and Indiana, and Illinois, and Iowa made enemies — as enemies, and bitter enemies, se- cession will surely make them — no human power can pre- vent the extinction of slavery in the States of Virginia, Ma- ryland, Kentucky and Missouri. Fire will not more effectu- ally reduce the fagot to cinders, or water extinguish flame, than secession will bring slavery in those States to annihi- lation. In my judgment, there is no safety for this institution save in the Constitution, of the United States. There it is recog- nized and protected. No other property is specially pro- tected. Slaves are represented ; no other property is. This Union of- ours is the great bulwark of slavery. Nowhere 138 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. else has it flourished ; and break up the Union when you will, you knock away its strongest prop. • A southern confederacy will be to it its deadliest blast, if not its grave. The whole civilized world is intensely hostile to slavery; and the mo- ment a new confederacy is formed, based on the single idea of slavery, numerous and malignant antagonisms will be pro- voked which may endanger the institution. But'-under the shield of the Constitution of the United States these antag- onisms, whether foreign or domestic, are, and ever will be, harmless. In that blessed instrument it is a recognized insti- tution — part and parcel of our frame of government, and of our social and industrial system — to the protection f which the entire power of the great Government of the United States stands pledged before the entire world. Thus secure under the wing of the Union, why shall we risk its security by rush- ing on untried experiments? — Joseph Segar, 1861. THE GAINS OF DISUNION. Foe what, then, are we plunging into the dark abyss of disunion? In God's name, tell me. I vow I do not know, nor have I ever heard one sensible or respectable reason as- signed to this harsh resort. We shall lose everything ; gain nothing but war, carnage, famine, social desolation ; wretch- edness in all its aspects, ruin in all its forms. We shall gain a taxation, to be levied by the new government, that will eat out the substance of the people, and " make them poor in- deed." We shall gain alienation and distrust in all the dear relations of life. We shall gain ill blood between father and son, and brother and brother, and neighbor and neighbor. Bereaved widowhood and helpless orphanage we shall gain to our hearts' content. Lamentation, and mourning, and agonized hearts we shall gain in every corner where " wild war's deadly blast" shall blow. We shall gain the prostra- tion of that great system of internal development which the statesmen of Virginia have looked to as the basis of all her future progress and grandeur, and the great hope of her speedy regeneration and redemption. We shall gain repudi- ation ; not that Virginia will ever be reluctant to redeem her engagements, but that she will be disabled by the heavy burdens of secession and war. We shall gain the blockade of our ports, and entire exclusion from the commerce and markets and storehouses of the world. We shall gain the hardest times the people of this once happy country have SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 139 known since the War of Independence. I know not, indeed, of one single interest of Virginia that will not be wrecked by disunion. And, entertaining these views, I do shrink with, horror from the very idea of the secession of the State. I can never assent to the fatal measure. No ! I am for the Union yet. Call me submissionist or traitor, or what else you will, I am for the Union — " while hope's light flickers in the socket." And if I may presume to tender an humble exhortation to my colleagues in this hall, I would say to them, as I said to a number of my respected constituents, who recently called on me for my views of the crisis that besets us : " As Wash- ington advised his countrymen, cling fondly to the Union. Take every chance to save it. Conference with the border States, convention of the slave States, general convention of all the States — try these and all other conceivable means of saving the Union from wreck. And when all conceivable expedients shall have seemingly failed, if there be but one faint ray of hope, let that light you to yet one more effort to save it."— Jbseiih Segiar, 1861. NOT QUESTIONS. Fellow Citizens : we are cast on perilous times. The demon of discord has inaugurated his terrible court, and it becomes us, as a great people, to act in a manner becoming this Government and people. In a somewhat extended ser- vice I have entertained my own views of what each section of this confederacy owed to the other. Through a spirit of forbearance, fraternity and friendship, I had hoped, notwith- standing there might be subjects of irritation, that the heal- ing influence of time and the recollection of the great names and greater memories of the revolution would call back all to their duty, that all might be harmonized, and that we might all march on together like brethren to a great and common destiny. But while we were revelling in these dreams a fortress has been attacked and reduced, or evacu- ated. The flag of the country has been insulted, public property seized, and civil war exists this day by the action of those who should be, and are our sister States — by those who are our brethren. In this great crisis it is no time to inquire for causes remote, and distant; it is no time to in- quire who holds the helm of the ship of state ; it is no time to inquire what interest or section placed him there. The 140 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. only question is, does he steer the ship between the Scylla and Charybdis which threaten our Union, according to the lights of the Constitution ? If he does, he is to be sustained. I shall not pursue this matter in an angry spirit. I would make every effort to bring back every wandering lamb to the fold again. I would not levy war for aggression — I would levy it for defensive peace. I would not do it to despoil others. I would arm, and that in a manner becoming this Government and people, not for aggression, but for defence — for the purpose of retaining our honor and dignity, not only at home, but among the nations of the earth. The most brilliant successes that ever attended the field of battle could afford me no pleasure ; because I cannot but reflect that of every one who falls in this unnatural strife, be it on one side or on the other, we must, in our sober moments, exclaim, — Another sword has laid him low, Another, and another's ; And every hand that dealt a blow — Ah, me ! it was a brother's. But we are called upon to act. There is no time for hesi- tation or indecision — no time for haste and excitement. It is a time when the people should rise in the majesty of their might, stretch forth their strong arm and silence the angry waves of tumult. It is time the people should command peace. It is a question between union and anarchy — between law and disorder. All politics for the time being are and should be committed to the resurrection of the grave. The question should be, " our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country." But while I would prosecute this war in a manner becom- ing a civilized and Christian people, I would do so in no vin- dictive spirit. I would do it as Brutus set the signet to the death-warrant of his son — " Justice is satisfied, and Rome is free." I love my country ; I love -this Union. It was the first vision of my early years; it is the last ambition of my public life. Upon its altar I have surrendered my choicest hopes. I had fondly hoped that in approaching age it was to beguile my solitary hours, and I will stand by it as long as there is a Union to stand by — and when the ship of the Union shall crack and groan, when the skies lower and threaten, when the lightnings flash, the thunders roar, the storms beat, and the waves run mountain high, if the ship of State goes down, and the Union perishes, I would rather perish with it than survive its destruction. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 141 Fellow citizens, let us rally round the flag of our country. I love that flag, with all its stars and stripes — that flag of my fathers — that flag that is known and honored throughout the earth, wherever civilization has travelled. I love it still. Let us maintain our flag in the same noble spirit that anima- ted the gallant Anderson, and never desert it while one star is left. If I could see my bleeding, torn, maddened and dis- tracted country once more restored to quiet and lasting peace under those glorious stars and stripes, I could almost be ready to take he oath of the infatuated leader in Israel — Jephtha — and swear to sacrifice the first living thing that I should meet on my return from victory. Hon. D. S. Dickinson, 1861. WHAT IS OUR COUNTRY. The majesty of the people is here to-day to sustain the majesty of the Constitution — and I come, a wanderer from the far Pacific, to record my oath along with yours of the great Empire State. The hour for conciliation has passed, the gathering for battle is at hand ; and the country requires that every man shall do his duty. Fellow citizens, what is that country ? Is it the' soil on which we tread ? Is it the gathering of familiar faces? Is it our luxury, and pomp, and pride ? Nay, more than these, is it power, and might, and majesty alone ? No, our country is more, far more than all these. The country which demands our love, our cour- age, our devotion, our heart's blood, is more than all these — our country is the history of our fathers — our country is the tradition of our mothers — our country is past renown — our country is present pride and power — our country is future hope and destiny — our country is greatness, glory, truth, con- stitutional liberty — above all, freedom forever! These are the watch-words under which Ave fight; and we will shout them out till the stars appear in the sky, in the stormiest hour of battle. I have said that the hour for conciliation is past. It may return ; but not to-morrow, nor next week. It will return when that tattered flag is avenged. It will return when rebel traitors are taught obedience and submis- sion. It will return when the rebellious confederates are taught that the North, though peaceable, are not cowardly — ■ though forbearing, are not fearful. That hour of concilia- tion will come back when again the ensign of the Republic will stream over every rebellious fort of every Confederate 142 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. State. Then, as of old, the ensign of the pride and power, and dignity and majesty, and the peace of the Republic will return. Hon. K D. JBcdcer, 1861. A CALL TO ARMS. Young men of the United States — you are told this is not to be a war of aggression. In one sense, that is true ; in an- other, not. We have committed aggression upon no man. In all the broad land, in their rebel nest, in their traitors' camp, no truthful man can rise and say that he has ever been disturbed, though it be but for a single moment, in life, lib- erty, estate, character or honor. The day they began this false, unnatural, wicked warfare, their lives were more secure, their property more secure, by us — not by themselves, but by us — guarded far more securely than any people ever have had their lives and property secured from the beginning of the world. We have committed no oppression, have broken no compact, have exercised no unholy power; have been loyal, moderate, constitutional, and just. We are a majority of the Union, and we will govern our own Union, within our own Constitution, in our own way. We are all Demo- crats. We are all Republicans. We acknowledge the sov- ereignty of the people within the rule of the Constitution ; and,^nder that Constitution and beneath that nag, let trai- tors beware. In this sense, then, we are not for a war of aggression. I propose to do now as we did in Mexico — conquer j)eace. I propose to go to Washington and beyond. I do not design to remain silent, supine, inactive — na}?", fearful — until they gather their battalions and advance their host upon our bor- ders or in our midst. I would meet them upon the threshold, and there, in the very State of their power, in the very at- mosphere of their treason, I propose that the people of this Union dictate to these rebels the terms of peace. It may take thirty millions ; it may take three hundred millions. What then ? We 'have it. Loyally, nobly, grandly do the merchants of New York respond to the appeals of the Government. It may cost us seven thousand men. It may cost us seventy-five thousand men in battle; it may cost us seven hundred and fifty thousand men. What then ? We have them. The blood of every loyal citizen of this Gov- ernment is dear to us. My sons, my kinsmen, the young men who have grown up beneath my eye and beneath my SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 143 care, they are all dear to me; but if the country's destiny, glory, tradition, greatness, freedom, government, written constitutional government — the only hope of a free people — demand it, let them all go. I am not here now to speak timorous words of peace, but to kindle the spirit of manly, determined war. I speak in the midst of the Empire State, amid scenes of past suffering and past glory ; the defences of the Hudson above me ; the battle-field of Long Island before me, and the statue of Washington in my very face — the bat- tered and unconquered flag of Sumter waving in his hand, which I can almost imagine now trembles with the excite- ment of battle. And as- 1 speak, I say my mission here to- day is to kindle the heart of New York for Avar — short, sud- den, bold, determined, forward war. The Seventh Regiment has gone. Let seventy and seven more follow. Of old, said a great historian, beneath the banner of the cross, Europe precipitated itself upon Asia. Beneath the banner of the Constitution let the men of the Union precipitate themselves upon disloyal, rebellious confederate States. Son. E. D. Baker, 1861. THE INSULT TO THE FLAG. Let no man underrate the dangers of this controversy. Civil war, for the best of reasons upon the one side, and the worst upon the other, is always dangerous to liberty — aTw%-s fearful, always bloody; but, fellow-citizens, there are yet worse things than fear, than doubt and dread, and danger and blood. Dishonor is worse. Perpetual anarchy is worse. States forever commingling and forever severing are worse. Traitors and secessionists are worse. To have star after star blotted out — to have stripe after stripe obscured — to have glory after glory dimmed — to have our women weep and our men blush for shame throughout generations yet to come — that and these are infinitely worse than blood. Again, once more, when we march, let us not march for revenge. We .have, as yet, something to punish, but nothing or very little to revenge. The President says : " There are wrongs to be redressed, already long enough endured." And we march to battle and to victory because we do not choose to endure this wrong any longer. They are wrongs not merely against us; not against you, Mr. President ; not against me; but against our sons and against our grandsons that surround us. They are wrongs against our ensign ; they are wrongs against 144 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. our Union : they are wrongs against our Constitution ; they are wrongs against human hope and human freedom ; and if it be revenge to right these wrongs, so let it be ; as Burke says, " it is a wild justice at last," and we will revenge them. Even while I speak, the object of your meeting is accom- plished ; upon the wings of the lightning it goes out through- out the world that New York, the very heart of a great city, with her crowded thoroughfares, her merchants, her manu- factures, her artists — that New York, by one hundred thou- sand of her people, declares to the country and to the world, that she will sustain the Government to the last dollar in her treasury — to the last drop of your blood. The national ban- ners leaning from ten thousand windows in your city to-day proclaim your affection and reverence for the Union. You will gather in battalions, Patient of toil, serene amidst alarms, Inflexible in faith, invincible in arms ; and as you gather, every omen of present concord and ulti- mate peace will surround you. The ministers of religion, the priests of literature, the historians of the past, the illus- trators of the present, capital, science, art, invention, discov- eries, the works of genius — all these will attend us in our march, and we will conquer. And if, from the far Pacific, a voice feebler than the feeblest murmur upon its shore may be heard to give you courage and hope in the contest, that voice is spurs to-day ; and if a man whose hair is gray, who is well nigh worn out in the battle and toil of life, may pledge him- self on such an occasion and in such an audience, let me say, as my last word, that when, amid sheeted fire and flame, I saw and led the hosts of New York as they charged in con- test upon a foreign soil for the honor of your flag ; so again, if Providence shall will it, this feeble hand "shall draw a sword, never yet dishonored — not to fight for distant honor in a foreign land, but to fight for country, for home, for law, for government, for constitution, for right, for freedom, for humanity, and in the hope that the banner of my country may advance, and wheresoever that banner waves there glory may pursue aud freedom be established. Hon. M D.JSaJcer, 1861. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 145 ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATING CLASS OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. Young- Gextlemen : — I salute you as trained athletes, just entering upon the strifes of life. If we have at all suc- ceeded with you in our efforts at education, you have learned how to use your faculties. It will now devolve on you to make their use subservient to the highest aims and the largest good. So only shall you prove yourselves worthy of your alma wmter-^-worthy of your glorious country. You put on the garment of manhood, and assiime its obli- gations, in the midst of the most wanton, wicked, unprovoked, and unpardonable rebellion that has been witnessed in the annals of the human race. It has no parallel but in the re- bellion of the fallen angels; and it has the same source — dis- appointed ambition and malignant hate. Against the most beneficent Government, the most equal laws, and a system carrying within itself a recognized and peaceful mode of ad- justing every real or imaginary wrong or hardship, a portion of the people of the United States — the least civilized, the least educated, the least industrious, without a single wrong specified on the part of the national Government — have risen in rebellion, robbing its treasuries, and even its hospitals; firing upon and treading under foot the flag of our country ; menacing its capital with armed hordes, led by the double- dyed traitors, who, educated at the cost of the nation, and sworn to defend its laws, have deserted in the hour of need and turned their arms against their nursing mother; and appealed to all the scoundrels of the world to come and take service under the rebel flag, against the commerce of the United States. Honor, Loyalty, Truth, stood aghast for a while, incredu- lously in the presence of this enormous crime ; but when Sumter fell, the free people of this nation rose — yes ! rose as no like uprising has been witnessed before — and now who shall stay the avenging arm? Who, with traitor lips shall talk of compromise^ or with shaking knees clamor for peace ? Compromise with what ? — peace with whom ? It is no question of this or that system of policy — of free trade or tariff — of slavery or anti-slavery — it is a question of existence. To be or not to be — it is all there. There is no such thing as half being and half not being. Either we are a nation or a band of anarchical outlaws. A grand continen- tal Anglo-Saxon Republic, such as our fathers made, one and indivisible, E Pluribus Uhum, under a Constitution equal for all, and supreme over all — or an accidental assemblage 146 THE PATETOTIC SPEAKEE. of petty, jealous, barbarous, warring tribes, who acknowledge no law but the sword, and from among whom the sword will not depart. My young friends, you enter upon life at the very moment this great question is under the issue of war. Shrink not back from it. We must be decided now and forever. The baleful doctrine of secession must be finally and absolutely renounced. The poor quibble of double allegiance must be disavowed. An American — and not a ISTew Yorker, nor a Virginian — is the noble title by which we are to live, and which you, my young friends, must, in your respective spheres, contribute to make live, whatever it may cost in blood and money. Go- forth, then, my young friends — go forth as citizens of the great continental American Republic — to which your first, your constant, your latest hopes in life should attach — and abating no jot of obedience to municipal or State au- thority within the respective limits of each — bear yourselves always, and every where, as Americans — as fellow-country- men of Adams, and Ellsworth, and Jay, and Jefferson, and Carroll, and Washington, and Pinckney — as heirs of the glories of Bunker Hill, and Saratoga, and Monmouth, and Yorktown, and Eutaw Springs, and New Orleans, and suffer no traitor hordes to despoil you of so rich an inheritance or so grand and glorious a country. Chas. King, Z.Z.D., 1861. SEPARATION AS A MEANS OF PEACE. "Why should we not," it is asked, "admit the claims of the seceding States, acknowledge their independence, ana put an end at once to the war?" "Why should we not?" I answer the question by asking another : " Why should we?" What have we to gain, what to hope from the pursuit of that course ? Peace ? But we were at peace before. Why are we not at peace now ? The North has not waged the war, it has been forced on us in self defence ; and if, while they had the Constitution and the laws, the Executive, Congress and the Courts, all controlled by themselves, the South, dis- satisfied with legal protections and constitutional remedies, has grasped the sword, can North and South hope to live in peace, when the bonds of Union are broken, and amicable means of adjustment are repudiated ? Peace is the very last thing which secession, if recognized, will give us; it will give us nothing but a hollow truce — time to prepare the means / SPEECHES OE THE TIMES. 147 of new outrages. It is in its very nature a perpetual cause of hostility ; an eternal never-cancelled letter of marque and reprisal, an everlasting proclamation of border-war. How can peace exist, when all the causes of dissension shall be in- definitely multiplied ; when unequal revenue laws shall have led to a gigantic system of smuggling ; when a general stam- pede of slaves shall take place along the border, with no thought of rendition, and all the thousand causes of mutual irritation shall be called into action, on a frontier of 1,500 miles not marked by natural Jboundaries and not subject to a common jurisdiction or a mediating power ? We did believe in peace, fondly, credulously, believed that, cemented by the rniid umpirage of the Federal Union, it might dwell forever beneath the folds of the star-spangled banner, and the sacred shield of a common nationality. That was the great arcanum of policy ; that was the state mystery into which men and angels desired to look ; hidden from ages, but revealed to us : " WMch kings and prophets waited for, And sought, but never found :" a family of States independent of each other for local con- cerns, united under one Government for the management of common interests and the prevention of internal feuds. There w^as no limit to the possible extension of such a sys- tem. It had already comprehended half of North America, and it might, in the course of time, have folded the continent in its peaceful, beneficent embrace. We fondly dreamed that, in the lapse of ages, it would have been extended till half the western hemisphere had realized the vision of uni- versal, perpetual peace. From that dream we have been rudely startled by the army of ten thousand armed men in Charleston Harbor, and the glare of eleven batteries bursting on the torn sky of the Union, like the comet which, at this very moment, burns " in the Arctic sky, and from his horrid lair shakes pestilence and war." If, for the frivolous reasons assigned, the seceding States have chosen to plunge into this gulf, while all the peaceful temperaments and constitutional remedies of the Union were w T ithin their reach, and offers of further compromise and ad- ditional guarantees were daily tendered them, what hope, w T hat possibility of peace can there be, when the Union is broken up, when, in addition to all other sources of deadly quarrel, a general exodus of the slave population begins, (as, beyond all question, it will,) and nothing but war remains for the settlement of controversies ? The Vice President of 148 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. the new Confederacy states that it rests on slavery; but from its very nature it must rest equally on war ; eternal war, first between North and South, and then between the smaller fragments into which some of the disintegrated parts may crumble. The work of demons has already begun. Besides the hosts mustered for the capture or destruction of Washington, Eastern Virginia has let loose the dogs of war on the loyal citizens of Western Virginia ; they are straining in the leash in Maryland and Kentucky- Tennessee threatens to set a price on the head of her noble Johnson and his friends ; a civil war rages in Missouri. Why, in the name of heaven, has not Western Virginia, separated from Eastern Virginia by mountain ridges, by climate, by the course of her rivers, by the character of her population, and the nature of her industry, why has she not as good a right to stay in the Union, which she inherited from her Washington, as Eastern Virginia has to abandon it for the mushroom Confed- eracy forced upon her from Montgomery ? Are no rights sacred but those of rebellion ; no oaths binding but those taken by men already forsworn ; are liberty of thought, and speech, and action nowhere to be tolerated except on the part of those by whom laws are trampled under foot, arse- nals and mints plundered, governments warred against, and where their patriotic defenders are assailed by ferocious and murderous mobs ? — Edward Everett. 1861. SECESSION ESTABLISHING- A FOKEIGN POWEK. Consider the monstrous nature and reach of the preten- sions of secession in which we are expected to acquiesce ; nothing less than that the United States should allow a For- eign Power, by surprise, treachery, and violence, to possess itself of one-half of their territory, and all the public prop- erty and public establishments contained in it ; for if the Southern Confederacy is recognized, it becomes a foreign power, established along a curiously dove-tailed frontier of fifteen hundred miles, commanding some of the most impor- tant commercial and military positions and lines of commu- nication for travel and trade ; half the sea coast of the Union; the navigation of our Mediterranean Sea, (the Gulf of Mexico, one-third as large as the Mediterranean of Europe,) and, above all, the great arterial inlet into the heart of the Continent, through which its very life-blood pours its impe- rial tides. I say we are coldly summoned to surrender all SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 149 this to a foreign power. Would we surrender it to England, to France, to Spain? Not an inch of it ; why, then, to the Southern Confederacy ? Would any other government on earth, unless compelled by the direst necessity, make such a surrender ? Does not France keep an army of one hundred thousand men in Algeria to prevent a few wandering tribes of Arabs, a recent conquest, from asserting their indepen- dence ? Did not England strain her resources to the utmost tension, to prevent the native kingdoms of Central India (civilized states two thousand years ago, while painted chieftains ruled the savage clans of ancient Briton) from reestablishing their sovereignty; and shall we be expected, without a struggle, to abandon a great integral part of the United States to a foreign power ? Let it be remembered, too, that in granting to the seced- ing States, jointly and severally, the right to leave the Union, we concede to them the right of resuming, if they please, their former allegiance to England, France and Spain. It rests with them, with any one of them, if the right of seces- sion is admitted, again to plant a European government side by side with that of the United States on the soil of Ameri- ca ; and it is by no means the most improbable upshot of this ill-starred rebellion, if allowed to prosper. Is this the Mon- roe doctrine, for which the United States have been contend- The disunion press in Virginia last year openly encour- aged the idea of a French protectorate, and her legislature has, I believe, sold out the James River canal, the darling enterprise of Washington, to a company in France supposed to enjoy the countenance of the Emperor. The seceding patriots of South Carolina were understood by the corres- pondent of the London " Times" to admit that they would rather be subject to a British prince, than to the Govern- ment of the United States. Whether they desire it or not, 'the moment the seceders lose the protection of the United States, they hold their independence at the mercy of the powerful governments of Europe. If the navy of the ISTorth should withdraw its protection, there is not a southern State on the Atlantic or the Gulf, which might not be recol- onized by Europe, in six months after the outbreak of a for- eign war. — Edward Everett, 1861. 150 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. THE GREAT ISSUE. Stjch, fellow-citizens, as I contemplate them, are the great issues before the country — nothing less, in a word, than whether the work of our noble fathers of the revolutionary and constitutional age shall perish or endure ; whether this great experiment in national polity, which binds a family of free republics in one united government — the most hopeful plan for combining the home-bred blessings of a small state with the stability and power of great empire — shall be treacherously and shamefully stricken down, in the moment of its most successful operation, or whether it shall be bravely, patriotically, triumphantly maintained. We wage no war of conquest and subjugation; we aim at nothing but to protect our loyal fellow-citizens, who, against fearful odds, are fighting the battles of the Union in the disaffected States, and to reestablish, not for ourselves alone, but for our delu- ded fellow-citizens, the mild sway of the Constitution and the laws. The result cannot be doubted. Twenty millions of freemen, forgetting their divisions, are rallying as one man in support of the righteous cause — their willing hearts and their strong hands, their fortunes and their lives, are laid upon the altar of the country. We contend for the great inheritance of constitutional freedom transmitted from our revolutionary fathers. We engage in the struggle forced upon us, with sorrow, as against our misguided brethren, but with high heart and faith, as we war for that Union which our sainted Washington commended to our dearest affections. The sym- pathy of the civilized world is on our side, and will join us in prayers to Heaven for the success of our arms. Edward Everett, 1861. THE SHIP OF STATE. Break up the Union of these States, because there are acknowledged evils in our system ? Is it so easy a matter, then, to make everything in the actual world conform exactly to the ideal pattern we have conceived in our minds of abso- lute right ? Suppose the fatal blow were struck, and the bonds which fasten together these States were severed, would the evils and mischiefs that would be experienced by those who are actually members of this vast republican community be all that would ensue? Certainly not. We are connected with the several nations and races of the world as no other \ SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 151 people has ever been connected. "We have opened our doors and invited emigration to our soil from all lands. Our invi- tation has been accepted. Thousands have come at our bid- ding. Thousands more are on the way. Other thousands still are standing a-tiptoe on the shores of the old world, eager to find a passage to the land where bread may be had for labor, and where man is treated as man. In our political family almost all nations are represented. The several varie- ties of the race are here subjected to a social fusion, out of which Providence designs to form a " new man." We are in this way teaching the world a great lesson — namely, that-men of different languages, habits, manners and creeds, can live together, and vote together, and, if not pray and woi'ship together, yet in near vicinity, and do all in peace, and be, for certain purposes at least, one people. And is not this lesson of some value to the world, especially if we can teach it not by theory merely, but through a successful example ? Has not this lesson, thus conveyed, some connec- tion with the world's progress towards that far-off period to which the human mind looks for the fulfillment of its vision of a perfect social state ? It may safely be asserted that this Union could not be dissolved without disarranging and con- vulsing every part of the globe. lSTot in the indulgence of a vain confidence did our fathers build the ship of State, and launch it upon the waters. We will exclaim, in the noble words of one of our poets : " Thou, too, sail on, ship of State ! Sail on, Union, strong and great ! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging "breathless on thy fate ! We know what master laid thy keel, What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, What anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge and what a heat Were shaped the anchors of thy hope ! Fear not each sudden sound and shock — "lis of the wave and not the rock ; Tis but the flapping of the sail, And not a rent made by the gale ! In spite of rock and tempest roar, - In spite of false lights on the shore, Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! Our hearts, our hopes are all with thee I Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee— are all with thee !" Jiev. Wm. P. Lfimt, 1861. 152 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. TRIBUTE TO THE PEOPLE OP KANSAS, Here let me pause for a brief moment, to pay a merited tribute of respect arid gratitude to my constituency. Brave, devoted, uncompromising, heroic people ! proudly do I bear your honored name in these halls. Sir, theirs is the glory of these eventful days ; to them belongs the credit of having first interposed a barrier to check the progress of despotic rule on this continent. Kansas lost, we should now be hope- lessly, irretrievably subjugated. No such Republican party as we have seen would have been organized, or, if organized, it would have been speedily extinguished. Abraham Lincoln would not now be President; but rather some such slave- holder as Jefferson Davis. We should not now see a mighty host marshalled beyond the Potomac, with the cheering ensign of the Republic full high advanced, and the power of a legit- imate Government and twenty millions of free people behind it ; but we should see, instead of this, our Government trans- formed into a slaveholding despotism, as tyrannical as that of Nero, by means so indirect and insidious as hardly to be seen until the fatal work was finished. The people of Kan- sas took it upon themselves to act as a breakwater, which has had the effect to stay the advancing tide of slavery, and shield the continent from its sway. When I recur to my own intercourse with this gallant people, during the period of their terrible struggle in their attempts to subdue the wilderness — to make homes for them- selves where no home save that of the Indian, the elk, or the buffalo had ever existed before; considering their scanty re- sources, and the severities of life in a new country to which they were exposed ; and remembering their determined pur- pose in behalf of the cause at stake — how men and women alike surrendered with alacrity every personal interest and comfort and aspiration, and, with a sublime self-sacrifice, con- secrated themselves to the great service — the perils they en- countered, the extreme suffering they individually endured, and yet the true martyr spirit, the patience, the constancy, the fortitude they displayed throughout ; when I recall these things, and my own relations with them in those trying scenes — our mutual hopes and fears and efforts — the days when we were together in the council and the camp — the nights when, on the broad unsheltered prairie, or around rude and poor but hospitable firesides, we were consulting, delib- erating, arranging, resolving, and executing; and when I recall, as I never fail to do, the glorious memory of those SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 153 who passed through the shadows of death in this august work — some "by sickness, others by privation, others again on the field of battle bravely fighting for liberty — I am moved with a feeling for which no expression would be appro- priate but the silent eloquence of tears. Sir, history has no brighter page in all her long annals than this. I say it without hesitancy, although I am the rep- resentative of Kansas on this floor. It is recorded of the chivalric but ill-fated people of Poland, that they stood up a shelter and breastwork for Europe against the swelling tide of infidel invaders, who, in the sev- enteenth century, threatened to overwhelm the civilization of that continent. A similar record will be made by the pen of impartial history, to testify to the transcendent heroism of my noble friends and constituency. It shall be said of them that, though few in number, limited in means, surrounded by ene- mies, far away from friends and reinforcements, they yet stood up, like a wall of adamant, against a power which wielded the resources of a nation of thirty millions of people, balked it of its prey, and saved a continent to freedom and civiliza- tion. Such is the inscription which the eternal page will bear in letters of light, regarding the transactions to which I refer ; and traditionary song and story shall celebrate to posterity the worth of their deeds which to-day may find no recognition." — Hon. Martin F. Conway, 1861. NATUEE OF THE UNION. Ouk fathers were, by every circumstance surrounding their homes, by their relations to each other, and by their own ex- pressed assent, oxe people ; separated, it is true, into thir- teen several municipal organizations, having in many res- pects diverse interests, but still not the less in mind, in heart, and in destiny, oa t e. You and I are descendants of that people ; and I ask you if it is not true — if you do not in your hearts knoio it to be true — that when, in the incipient stages of the revolution through which they were called to struggle, they magnani- mously put aside all local differences and jealousies, and with one impulse combined their efforts, their fortunes, their lives, their all, against fearful odds, for the redress of their common grievances at the hands of the mother country, and for the independence which they resolved to achieve, they evoked an already existing feeling of unity, and did, in the very es- > 154 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. sence of the term, form a full, unreserved, and practical Union of the people, intended by themselves to be perpetual? Did they not, as perfectly as any people ever did, constitute and declare themselves a single and undivided nation ? Is there in all history an instance of such a union among a peo- ple who did not feel themselves to be, in every important particular, the same people ? Why, even before the Union was a fact in history, the feeling in the North in reference to it was expressed by James Otis, one of the leading patriots of Massachusetts, in the Convention of 1765, in the hope that a Union would be formed, which should "foiit and work to- gether into the very blood and bones of the original system every region as fast as settled /" and from distant South Carolina, great-hearted Christopher Gadsden answered baek — " There ought to be no New England man, no New Yorker known on the continent, but all of us Americans," And in the very hour of the Union's birth throes, Patrick Henry flashed upon the Congress of 1774, these lightning words : "All America is thrown into one mass. Where are your landmarks — your boundaries of Colonies f They are all thrown down. The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New JEnglanders, are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American." And when, after the Union was a recorded and mighty fact in history, the united people, through their Congress, organ- ized the first form of government for the new-born nation, they solemnly wrote down in the articles of their confedera- tion, " The Union shall be perpetual." C. D. Drake, 1861. INSINCEKITY OF SECESSIONISTS. So far as the doctrine of State Sovereignty is used to sus- tain the right of secession, it is to my mind apparent that its supporters in the South do not themselves believe in it. If there is a reserved right of secession, paramount to the Con- stitution, it must have existed when the Union was formed ; for it has not been acquired or granted since. If it did exist then, the Union was entered into with a tacit understanding that there was such a right. If entered into with such an understanding, then a State seceding would be guilty of no legal wrong -towards the other States ; it would do only what it had a light to do. So doing, it would have no reason to regard itself as an enemy of the remaining States, or the na- SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 155 tional Government as an eigfcy to it ; and would have just cause of complaint against either, for taking a hostile attitude to it for seceding. But what do we find in the seceded States ? Instantly upon passing their ordinances of secession, and in some instances in advance of it, they, by their acts, proclaim themselves the enemies of the United States in every way which could signalize them as -such. They proceed to org-anize a Confederate Government, to raise armies, to pro- vide for their support, to create a navy, and to seize the ar- mories, forts, navy-yards, docks, custom-houses, mints, money, and all other property of the United States within their reach; they overpower and capture the United States troops, wher- ever they find them in detached bodies too small for resistance, and hold them as prisoners of war ; they fire upon a vessel under the national flag, and in the Government service; they beleaguer, and finally bombard, and reduce a national fort, held by a braA^e, half-starVed garrison, one hundredth part as strong as the assailing host ; and all for what reason? They were not assailed by the Government on account of their secession. No troops were marched against them, no navy closed their ports, no mails were stopped within their borders ; they were, for months after their secession, as they asked to be, " let alone y" — let alone to commit every form of aggression upon the nation, without retaliation or resistance : why did they take the attitude of enemies ? If, in seceding, they exercised only a reserved right, they did a lawful act, and had no occasion to wage war upon the Government they had renounced ; nor had the Government occasion, for the act of secession, to attack them. Why, then, did they wage the war ? 'Without the least doubt, because they knew that their claim of a reserved right in a State to dissolve its con- nection with the Union at its will, was a flimsy and false pre- tence, which they themselves had not the slightest faith in ; and because, veil it however they might from their people, under the guise of State sovereignty, the leaders knew that secession was rebellion, and that, sooner or later, rebellion must be met by force. In their own consciousness, therefore, as exhibited in their acts, the pretext of a constitutional right of secession, is a fallacy and a falsehood. As such the onlooking world regards it, and the intelligence of mankind scouts and condemns it. — Charles D. Drake, 1861. 156 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. m NATIONAL AND STATE ALLEGIANCE. I. Every individual of every nation, barbarian or civilized, is bound by allegiance to the supreme authority which pre- sides over that nation, whether it be king, emperor, grand duke, sultan, tycoon, chief or constitutional republican gov- ernment. Society without allegiance is anarchy ; govern- ment without allegiance is a mockery ; people without alle- giance are a mob. He, who looks below the surface has no difficulty in seeing that the doctrine of primary State allegiance, which was pro- mulgated by South Carolina in 1832, and, though exploded by her own Court of Appeals in 1834, has since been dili- gently inculcated through the entire South, and was put forth by the Governor of this State in his recent treasonable proclamation of war against the United States, lies at the bottom, like a subterranean fire, burning out the popular heart, and, with earthquake throes, upheaving the founda- tions of our national institutions. It is no more true that States exist, than that, but for this* shallow heresy, they would not now have been arrayed against the national Gov- ernment. It aj)peals to home attachments, to State pride, to self interest, to local jealousy, to sectional animosity, to every passional feeling hostile to a broad and patriotic nationality ; and, like a mighty lens, it focalizes the whole upon a single petty point, burning to ashes the tie of paramount allegiance to the Government of the nation, loosing the war- ring elements, and bringing in chaos again. With him who takes this doctrine to his soul, true, generous, self-sacrificing love of country is as impossible as for one born blind to de- scribe a rainbow ; his State is his country, and his American citizenship is a bauble compared with his citizenship there. Point him to the flag of his country, and he sees only the one star which typifies his State; and every other is to that, ray- less and cold. Talk to him of the nation, and he replies, " South Carolina." Speak of national prosperity and hap- piness, and he responds " the Old Dominion !" Refer to the honor of the nation, and he shouts "Mississippi!" "Arkan- sas !" " Texas !" Lead his mind where you will, and like a cat he always returns to the particular spot he inhabits, and which he calls his State ! Ever regarding that, he raises not his head to behold the glorious country, which claims his first devotion as an American, his highest love as a freeman. : SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 157 II. Allegiance in its proper sense, can be exacted only by the supreme power, which, in this land, is the Government created by the Constitution of the United States. This al- legiance may not be put on and off, to suit the convenience and whims of the individual, as he may assume or cast off State citizenship. Once due, it is always due, unless the national Government consent to its renunciation. The native- born citizen owes it, from the cradle to the grave; the naturalized foreigner, from the moment he acquires citizen- ship till his death. N"o such obligation exists towards a State. A State's power over any citizer begins only with his entrance upon her territory, and ends with his departure from it. Will it be said that he who was once a citizen of Florida, but removed thence to Missouri, where he has since resided, may now be called back by Florida to fight her bat- tles, because of his former citizenship there ? No sane man will hold such a doctrine ; and yet if Florida may not do that, there' is no allegiance to a State, except in the sense of obedience to its laws and authorities while in it. But the United States have an undoubted and indestructible right to call forth their citizens from every spot of their domain, to defend and uphold in battle the honor and power of the nation ; for no citizen can find a place where the title of al- legiance does not bind him to the Constitution and flag of his country. The citizen owes allegiance in return for protection by his government, and that protection is his lawful right, wherever in the world he may be. It was the certainty and swiftness of Rome's vindication of the rights, of her citizens, that gave such power everywhere to the simple words, " I am a Roman citizen ; and this hour, among all civilized nations, to be known as an American citizen, is a passport and pro- tection. Why? Because the United States are known throughout the world, as able and ready to protect their citizens. But on another continent than this, what would it avail to be known as a citizen of any State of the Union ? Who, in a foreign land? would, in extremity, proclaim him- self a citizen of one of the States, when his State has no power to protect him or to avenge his wrongs, except through the Government of the Union ? And yet men prate of a first allegiance to their State ! In sober verity, there is in this whole dogma of State al- legiance an absurdity so glaring, a perversion of the true principles of constitutional law so flagrant, a delusion so 158 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. pitiful and yet so monstrous, that it is a world's wonder that men of sense could any where be found to inculcate or even countenance a doctrine, that any school boy might refute, and which a jurist or a statesman would regard as worthy only of ridicule and contempt. — Charles D. Drake, 1861. THE EIGHT OF RE VOL TJTI0N. If it be asked, may not a people throw off their allegiance, and make for themselves a new government ? the answer is, of course, they may. The right of revolution is inherent in every people ; but it is ultima ratio — the last resort, and is not a remedy which any people may, without awful crime, needlessly appeal to. If it be not in vain to hold up the words and example of our Revolutionary fathers, let us learn from them when to take the sword ; lest, taking it rashly and without cause, we perish by the sword. Read their Declaration of Independence, and ponder these words : "Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes ; and, accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are suffera- ble, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct object, the establishment of an abso- lute tyranny over these States. To prove this let facts be submitted to a candid world." Now, my friends, upon the principles of that Declaration, and in such an exigency as it portrays, I could be a revolu- tionist; he who would resort to revolution on any other principles is an anarchist, a social Ishmaelite, whose hand is against every man ; and every man's hand ought to be against him. And yet, one of the latent elements of mischief at the present time in this State, is the wide-spread assumption among intelligent men, of the right of forcible revolution, 'S' SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 159 whenever the impulse, well or ill directed, may seize any portion of the people. Against a doctrine so destructive of every form of sound and stable government, I appeal to the wisdom, the con- science, and the hopes of the people. I protest against it, as the unpardonable sin against human liberty, throwing wide open the flood-gates of beastly license, and sweeping away in indiscriminate destruction all that we have ever loved or valued, and all that could make us, or our children after us, good or great, or even decent in the eyes of mankind. Charles D. Drake, 1861. . PUBLIC OPINION THE ARBITER OF GRIEVANCES. As, in a republic, the source of power is the people, the very first principle of every such government is, that public* opixiox, not revolutionary violence, shall be invoked to rec- tify errors and redress grievances. Out whole system rests upon the popular will, and if that be perverted, the remedy is in restoring it to rectitude, not in destroying the system. Every State becomes a part of the Union under a solemn pledge — not, to be sure, written down, but none the less binding because implied — to look to that Constitution, and those laws and tribunals for the redress of every wrong, and the support of every right. Conflicts of interest and opin- ion are inevitable ; but every part of the nation agrees that the will of the majority, constitutionally expressed, shall gov- ern; for an appeal to the people is ever open, and the major- ity of to-day may — as it has done a thousand times — dwindle into a minority to-morrow. The assertion, therefore, of a right of armed revolution against the decision of the major- ity, is a violation so fearful of the vital principle of a repub- lic, and a blow so deadly at the peace of the nation, the integrity of the Constitution, and the perpetuity of popular governments, as almost to crush the heart of the patriot un- der an infinite weight of dismay and despair. ■ When, therefore, within fifteen days after the vote of the electoral colleges were cast for Mr. Lincoln, and two months and a-half before he could be inaugurated, and while he was yet as powerless as a child for harm, even though he had been as full of evil intent as Satan himself, the State of South Carolina raised the war-cry of rebellion, and announced her rejection of the authority of the Constitution, and her sepa- ration from the Union, an offence was registered in heaven's 160 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKEE. chancery, before which all preceding outbreaks of popular wickedness fall into immeasurable insignificance. And when, from time to time, ten other States followed her lead, and raised the standard of revolt against a Government so mild, so paternal, so beneficent, that their people hardly knew where there was such a Government, except by its blessings, the world could only gaze in blank amazement at a sacrilege, which threatened to extinguish the great beacon light of hu- man freedom forever, and to consign America to boundless and hopeless ruin. And the world asks — what justification is pleaded for this incredible outrage against the nation, and, indeed, against the human race? And the world will have the question answered. It is in vain to reply that it is not worth while to inquire who is in the wrong— it is worth while. When a son kills his father, all men inquire the cause ; and they in- quire on until they know it ; for every individual is concerned to understand the motive for such a deed. And so, when a stupendous rebellion arrays itself against the Government, which the world knows to be the least exacting and the least burdensome of all the governments existing on the earth, mankind demands, why? and mankind will be answered. Charles B. Br alee, 1861. FALSE PRETENCES FOR SECESSION. The great count in the indictment is the election of a president by the votes of one section of the Union; and this is true. But how came he to be elected? This question in- stantly forces itself upon the mind. For thirty years the anti-slavery agitation had been in progress, without getting control of the Government ; and only four years before, the Republican party had been defeated in a tremendous strug- gle; how did it secure a triumph in 1860? It is as certain to be recorded in history, as that the history of that year shall ever be written, that the action of the South itself was one of the immediate and prominent causes— -if not the great cause — of that triumph. No fact is more undeniable, than that the Democratic party was the only one to which the country could look for numerical strength to avert that re- sult; except that other fact, known to you all, thai the cotton States broke up that party, and thereby rendered the defeat of Mr. Lincoln impossible. At the very moment when the anti-slavery agitation seemed to be approaching victory, and SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 161 when it was the stern duty of every man in the opposing ranks to forget all minor differences, and stand like a rock against its further progress, those States deliberately aban- doned their former position, proclaimed principles which they had previously denied with emphasis, seceded from the party, and themselves opened the way for the result upon which they intended to base their subsequent secession from the Union. Secession was the great object they had aimed at for nearly a third of a century. The evidence of a deep-laid and long-cherished conspiracy among them to destroy the Union is abundant and conclusive. The " proper moment" to "precipitate the cotton States into a revolution," of which Mr. Yancey wrote, in 1858 — the proper moment to "pull a temple down that has been built three quarters of a century, and clear the rubbish away and reconstruct another," as was proclaimed by a member of the South Carolina convention — - the proper moment to let slip the dogs of war among chil- dren of the same fathers and people of the same nation — the proper moment, in a word, to consummate the treason which had been festering and growing for thirty years — was seen to have arrived ; and the plotters were not slow to seize it. They had already proclaimed that the election of a President by the Republican party would be a sufficient cause for a dissolution of the Union, and they set themselves to the work of making that election certain, by their own disrup- tion of the only party that had the numbers to prevent it. And they succeeded to a miracle. Never was game of du- plicity and treachery better played. They betrayed their previously professed principles, their party, and their coun-, .try, all at once; and at the moment of consummating the crowning act of their sacrilege, they turn to the world, with an air of injured innocence, and appeal to mankind to justify a rebellion based on the success of their own most devilish machinations. But were it otherwise — had they done all that men could do to prevent the election of a sectional President, and such had, nevertheless, been elected, on the principles alleged by South Carolina in her declaration, or even on worse — it was still an ascertained and indisputable fact, before her seces- sion, that in both houses of the present Congress there would be a majority against him, if all the States should stand firm, and retain their representation there. In that case, Mr. Lincoln would have been this day, and' certainly for two years to come, the possessor of a barren power, except as to official patronage, and utterly impotent to impress a single principle of his party on the Government, or to touch 162 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. in a single point the institution of slavery. But what was this to the schemers of treason ? Their work was to destroy the Union, not to defend slavery. If they stopped to do the latter, the former would be left undone ; if they used their constitutional power to protect slavery, or to obtain guaran- tees, the Constitution would be preserved ; so they trampled upon the Constitution, abjured their allegiance, snapped the bond of brotherhood, and seized the sword to redress a grievance which they themselves designedly aided to pro- duce ! I need not ask if history has a parallel to this. It stands out in hideous deformity, the monster iniquity of all the ages, whose dark, deep stain ages cannot wash away. Charles D. Brake, 1861. THE CAUSES OF SECESSION. The review I have taken of the causes I have assigned for secession, reduces them to three only which have foundation in fact — the election of a President by a sectional vote, the personal liberty laws of four States, and the exclusion of the South from the common territory. As to the first, nothing more need be said : it was produced by the act of the South itself; let not the South complain. As to the second, it is too insignificant as a justification of rebellion, to deserve a moment's notice. Concerning the last, it is clear to me as the sunlight around us that it is a shallow subterfuge, and that the. South, in reality, cared nothing about the Territo- ries. If the right to take their slaves there was of such value as, when interfered with, to justify them to their own con- sciences in revolutionary violence, can they tell — can any man tell — why they should take a step which would inevitably exclude slavery from the Territories forever ? Did they be- lieve that an institution could be planted there by war which they could not carry there in time of peace ? Did they hope that, with sword in hand, they could wrest from the Gov- ernment a vast domain, from which the people of the North should be shut out, except upon such terms as the South might, as an independent power, prescribe ? Did they sup- pose that fear would grant what justice and equity refused ? Did they imagine that after seceding from the Union, and thereby renouncing all rights flowing from the Union, they could obtain more easy access to the Territories ? No : they knew that secession from the Union was secession from the common property of the Union, as well as from its Constitu- SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 163 tion. It is therefore manifest, that they did not secede be- cause the Territories were closed, or were threatened to be closed against them ; for, by seceding, they barred and bolted the gates of the Territories against themselves forever. Charles' D. Drake, 1861. THE DUTY OF DEFENDING THE UNION. My countrymen, we are in the midst of an unnatural and consuming civil war. Some four hundred thousand men are under arms, and we know not at what moment the land may tremble under the shock of contending hosts. It is a sight to make the world weep. The cause of humanity, the claims of freedom, the spirit of Christianity, all demand that this terriblejconflict should be stayed. But, from the depths of a troubled spirit, I ask, how can it be f A part of the nation rebels — declares its revolt irreconcilable — announces that it asks no compromise or reconstruction, will consider none, even though permitted to name its own terms — defies the power of the Nation — wages war upon the national Govern- ment, and cries out, " All we ask is to be let alone !" How can they be let alone without destroying the Union and the Constitution ? If any man will tell me that, I will say, Let them alone. With unequalled skill in raising false issues, the secessionists in our midst labor to fan the flame of rebel- lion here, by impressing upon the minds of all within the reach of their influence, that the controversy of the revolting States is with Abraham Lincoln; when those States are in arms against the supreme constitutional authority of the nation. Abraham Lincoln, fulfilling his sworn duty to protect the Constitution, is to them a demon of darkness ; Jeff. Davis, striking deadly blows at that Constitution, which he has time and again sworn to support, is an angel of light. They profess immaculate loyalty with their tongues, but they are in their hearts as traitorous as Bene- dict Arnold. They denounce in unmeasured terms the mili- tary preparations of the Government to meet this rebellion, and exalt the insurgents as patriots, armed to defend their families and their firesides ; when not a soldier would have been added to the regular army, or a regiment marched southward, but for a revolt, aiming at the entire demolition of the Constitution, and the seizure of the Government by armed usurpation. All these are but the artful shifts of trea- son, to sustain its desperate cause. I despise and reject the 164 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. whole brood of them. I stand by the Constitution" op the United States ; and when it is threatened with de- struction, I no more stop to inquire who is President, than, if the police of my city were engaged in quelling a riot, I would higgle about who is chief of police. The question is : Where is constitutional authority? He who arms himself to subvert that authority, is, by the law of God and man, a rebel and a traitor, no matter who holds office; and if any man can find any other way to deal with him than with the weapons he himself has chosen, let him point it out; — I know of none. Before God, I take no pleasure in the necessity which demands such a resort. All my instincts and princi- ples are against bloodshed ; but no rebellion ever was put down without it ; and this can hardly expect to be an excep- tion. Upon its instigators must rest all the awful conse- quences of .their appeal to arms. They have challenged the combat, and it lies not in their mouths, or in those of their aiders or abettors here to complain that the Government de- fends itself by extraordinary, or even by unconstitutional means. Had such an attack been made upon it by a foreign foe without being repelled, the nation would have stood dis- graced before the world forever : if this rebellious assault be not resisted by all the power of the loyal portion of the nation, shall we meet any other fate? It is, then, no spirit of malice or vindictiveness which justifies the Government in self-pro- tection by arms. The simple alternative is, government or anarchy. The latter would destroy our freedom, per- haps forever, and blight us with a perpetual curse. We are lost, if our Constitution is overthrown. Thenceforward we may bid farewell to liberty. Never were truer or greater words uttered by an American statesman, than when Daniel Webster closed his great speech in defence of the Constitution, nearly thirty years ago, with that sublime declaration — " Lib- erty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever." Union gave us liberty ; disunion will take it away. He who strikes at the Union, strikes at the heart of the nation. Shall not the nation defend its life ? And when the children of the Union come to its rescue, shall they be denounced ? And if denounced, will they quail before the mere breath of the Union's foes ? For one, I shrink not from any words of man, save those which would justly impute to me disloyalty to the Union and the Constitution. My country is all to me ; but it is no country without the Constitution which has ex- alted and glorified it. For the preservation of that Union I shall not cease to struggle, and my life-long prayer will be, God save the American Union ! — Charles D. Drake, 1861. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 165 MARTIAL LAW AND GEN, JACKSON, The impression is sought to oe made on the public mind, that this is the first and only case where the power of declar- ing martial law has been exercised. I have shown-'that there is one tenfold more striking that occurred during our struggle for independence. Is this the first time that persons in the United States have been placed under martial law ? In 1815, when New Orleans was about to be sacked, when a foreign foe was upon the soil of Louisiana, New Orleans was put under martial law, and Judge Hall was made a prisoner be- cause he attempted to interpose. Is there a man here, or in the country, who condemns Gen. Jackson for the exercise of the power of proclaiming martial law in 1815 ? Could that city have been saved without placing it under martial law, and making Judge Hall submit to it? I know that Gen; Jackson submitted to be arrested, tried, and fined $1,000; but what did Congress do in that case ? It did just what we are called on to do in this case. By the restoration of his fine — an act passed by an overwhelming majority in the two houses of Congress — the nation said, " We approve what you did." Suppose, Mr. President, (and it may have been the case,) that the existence of the Government depended upon the protection and successful defence of New Orleans ; and sup- pose, too, it was in violation of the strict letter of the Consti- tution for Gen. Jackson to place New Orleans under martial law, but without placing it under martial law the Govern- ment would have been overthrown ; is there any reasonable, any intelligent man, in or out of Congress, who would not indorse and acknowledge the exercise of a power which was indispensable to the existence and maintenance of the Gov- ernment ? The Constitution was likely to be everthrown, the law was about to be violated, and the Government tram- pled under foot ; and when it becomes necessary to prevent this, even by exercising a power that comes in conflict with the Constitution in times of peace, it should and ought to be ex- ercised. If Gen. Jackson had lost the city of New Orleans, and the Government had been overthrown by a refusal on his part to place Judge Hall and the city of New Orleans under martial law, he ought to have lost his head. But he acted as a soldier ; he acted as a patriot ; he acted as a states- man ; as one devoted to the institutions and the preservation and the existence of his Government ; and the grateful hom- age of a nation was his reward. Son. Andrew Johnson, 1861. 166 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKEE. AW APPEAL FOR EAST TENNESSEE. Sie, I come to the Government, and I do not ask it as a suppliant, but I demand it as a constitutional right, that you give to the people of East Tennessee protection, arms and munitions. If they cannot be got there in any other way, then take them there with an invading army, and deliver the people from the oppression to which they are now subjected. We claim to be the State. The other divisions may have seceded and gone off; but if you give us protection we in- tend to stand as a State, as a part of this confederacy, hold- ing to the stars and stripes, the flag of our country. We demand it according to law ; we demand it upon the guar- antees of the Constitution. You are bound to guarantee to us a republican form of government, and we ask it as a con- stitutional right. We do not ask you to interfere as a party, as your feelings or prejudices may be one way or another in reference to the parties of the country ; but we ask you to interfere as a Government, according to the Constitution. The amendments to the Constitution, which constitute the bill of rights, declare that " a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Our people are denied this right secured to them in their own Constitution, and the Constitution of the United States. We ask the Government to interpose to secure us this constitu- tional right. We want the passes in our mountains opened; we want deliverance and protection for a down-trodden and oppressed people, who are struggling for their independence without arms. If we had had ten thousand stand of arms and ammunition when the contest commenced, we should have asked no further assistance. We have not got them. We are a rural people; we have villages and small towns — no large cities. Our population is homogenous, industrious, fru- gal, brave, independent ; but now harmless, and powerless, and oppressed by usurpers. You may be too late in coming to our relief; or you may not come at all, though I do not doubt that you will come ; they may trample us under foot ; they may convert our plains into graveyards, and the caves of our mountains into sepulchres ; but they will never take us out of this Union, or make us a land of slaves — no, never ! We intend to stand as firm as adamant, and as unyielding as our own majestic mountains that surround us. Yes, we will be as fixed and as immovable as are they upon their bases. We will stand as long as we can ; and if we are SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 167 overpowered, and liberty shall be driven from the land, we intend before she departs to take the flag of our country, with a stalwart arm, a patriotic heart, and an honest head, and place it upon the summit of the loftiest and most majes- tic mountain. We intend to plant it there, and leave it, to indicate to the inquirer who may come in after times, the spot where the goddess of liberty lingered and wept for the last time, before she took her flight from a people once pros- perous, free and happy. — Hon. Andreio Johnson^ 1861. PAST AND PRESENT. When the sunlight of the last autumn was supplanted by the premonitions of winter, by drifting clouds, and eddying leaves, and the flight of birds to a milder clime, our land was emphatically blessed. We were at peace with all the pow- ers of the earth, and enjoying undisturbed domestic repose. A beneficient Providence had smiled upon the labors of the husbandman, and our granaries groaned under the burden of their golden treasures. Industry found labor and com- pensation, and the poor man's latch was never raised except in the sacred name of friendship, or by the authority of law. No taxation consumed, no destitution appalled, no sickness wasted, but health and joy beamed from every face. The fruits of toil, from the North and the South, the East and the West, were bringing to our feet contributions of the earth, and trade, which for a time had fallen back to recover breath from previous over-exertion, had resumed her place " where merchants most do congregate." The land was re- plete with gladness, and vocal with thanksgivings, of its sons and daughters, upon the vast prairies of the West, up its sunny hill-slopes, and through its smiling valleys, along its majestic rivers, and down its meandering streamlets, and its institutions of religion, and learning, and charity echoed back the sound : " But bringing up the rear of this bright host, A spirit of a different aspect waved His wings, like thunder clouds above some coast, Whose barren beach with frequent wrecks is paved. His brow was like the deep when tempest-tost ; Fierce and unfathomable thoughts engraved Eternal wrath on his immortal face, And where he gazed, a gloom pervaded space." Yes, in the moment of our country's triumph, in the plen- itude of its pride, in the hey-day of its hope, and in the ful- 168 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. ness of its beauty, the serpent which crawled into Eden, and whispered his glozing story of delusion to the unsuspecting victim of his guile, unable to rise from the original curse which rests upon him, sought to coil his snaky folds around it and sting it to the heart. From the arts and the enjoy- ments of peace we have been plunged deep into the horrors of civil war. Our once happy land resounds with the clangor of rebellious arms, and is polluted with the dead bodies of its children, some seeking to destroy, some struggling to maintain the common beneficent Government of all, as es- tablished by our fathers. This effort to divide the Union, and subvert the Govern- ment, whatever may be the pretence, is, in fact, a daring and dangerous crusade against free institutions. It should be opposed by the whole power of a patriotic people, and crushed beyond the prospect of a resurrection ; and to attain that end, the Government should be sustained in every just and reasonable effort to maintain the authority and integrity of the nation ; to uphold and vindicate the supremacy of the Constitution, and the majesty of the laws by all lawful means ; not grudgingly sustained, with one hesitating, shuf- fling, unwilling step forward to save appearances, and two stealthy ones backward to secure a seasonable retreat; nor with the shallow craft of a mercenary politician, calculating chan- ces, and balancing between expedients, but with the gener- ous alacrity and energy which have a meaning, and prove a loyal, a patriotic, and a willing heart. It is not a question of administration, but of a Government — not of politics, but of patriotism — not of policy, but of principles which uphold us all — a question too great for party — between the Consti- tution and the laws on one hand, and misrule and anarchy on the other. — Hon, D. 8. Dickinson, 1861. SECESSION ILLUSTRATED, Most events of modern times find their parallel in early history, and this attempt to extemporize a government upon the elements of political disquietude, so that, like sets of dol- lar jewelry, every person can have one of his own, does not form an exceptional case. When David swayed the sceptre of Judea, the comely Absalom, a bright star of the morning, whose moral was obscured by his intellectual light, finding such amusements as the slaying of his brother and burning the barley fields of Joab, too tame for his ambition, conceived - SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 169 the patriotic idea of driving his father from the throne, of usurping the regal authority, and relieving the people un- asked from the oppressions under which he had discovered they were groaning. Like modern demagogues he com- menced with disaffection, advised all who came with com- plaints that, from royal inattention, no one was deputed to hear them, and in greeting those who passed the king's gate with a kiss, that he might steal away their hearts, he lamented that he was not a judge in the land, so that any one who had a cause or suit, might come to him, and he would do him justice. Under pretence of going to Hebron, the royal resi- dence in the early reign of David, to pay his vows, (for he was as conscientious as Herod in the matter of vows,) he raised a rebellious army, and sent spies through the land to proclaim him king, and reigning in Hebron, when the trum- pet should sound upon the air. The conspiracy, says sacred history, was strong, and the rebellion was so artfully con- trived, so stealthily inaugurated, that it gave high promise of success. The king, although in obedience to the stern dictates of duty, he sent forth his armies by hundreds and by thousands to assert and maintain his prerogative, exhibited the heart of a good prince and an affectionate father, in be- seeching them to deal gently with the young man, even Ab- salom ; and when the conflict was over, the first inquiry with anxious solicitude was, "Is the young man safe?" And yet this ambitious rebel, in raising a numerous and powerful army, and endeavoring to wrest the government from the rightful monarch, would doubtless have claimed, according to modern acceptation, that he was acting from high convic- tions of duty, from a powerful necessity, and fighting purely in self-defence. And when the great battle was set in array in the wood of Ephraim, where twenty thousand were slaughtered, and the wood devoured that day more than the sword devoured, there was evidently nothing that he so much desired, when he saw exposure and overthrow inevitable, as to be let alone. But that short struggle subdued the aspira- tions, and closed forever the ignoble career of this ambitious leader in Israel — -a warning to those who would become judges before their time, or be made kings upon the sound of a trumpet, blown by their own directions. Let all such remember the wood of Ephraim, the wide-spreading branches of the oak, the painful suspense which came over the author of the rebellion, the darts of Joab, and the dark pit into which this prince of the royal household was cast for his folly, his madness, and treachery. And when those charged with the administration of our 170 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKEE. Government send forth its armies by hundreds and by thou- sands to maintain and vindicate the Constitution and Union of our fathers, may they imitate the example of the wise king of Judea, and beseech the captains of the hosts to deal gently with the young Absaloms of Secession, and by all means inquire for their safety, when their armies have been completely routed and the rebellion put down forever. Hon. D. JS. Dickinson, 1861. A LESSON FROM MEXICO. Secession, either peaceable or violent, if crowned with complete success, can furnish no remedy for sectional griev- ances, real or imaginary. It would be as destructive of southern as of northern interests, for both are alike con- cerned in the maintenance and prosperity of the Union. It would increase every evil, aggravate every cause of dis- turbance, and render every acute complaint hopelessly chronic. Look at miserable, misguided, misgoverned Mexico, and re- ceive a lesson of instruction. She has been seceding, and dividing, and pronouncing, and fighting for her rights, and in the self-defence of aggressive leaders, from the day of her nominal independence, and she has reaped an abundant har- vest of degradation and shame. ~No president of the Repub- lic has ever served the full term for which he was elected, and generally, had his successor had more fitness than him- self, it would have occasioned no detriment. When the population of the United States was three millions that of Mexico was five ; and when that of the United States is thirty, the population of Mexico is only eight ; and while the United States has gained the highest rank among the nations of the earth, by common consent, Mexico has descended to the lowest. Her people have been the dupes, and slaves, and footballs of aspiring leaders, mad with a reckless and mean ambition, inflated with self-importance and conceit, and des- titute of patriotism or statesmanship. But as a clown with a pickaxe can demolish the choicest productions of art, so can the demagogues overthrow the loftiest institutions of wisdom. Thus has poor, despised, dwarfed, and down-trodden Mex- ico been crushed forever, under the iron heel of her own in- sane despoilers ; a memorable but melancholy illustration of a people without a fixed and stable government : the sport of the profligate and designing, the victim of fraud and violence. — Hon. D. S. Dickinson, 1861. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 171 THE CIVIL WAE. This civil intestine war is one of the most fearful and fero- cious that ever desolated earth ; and its authors will be cursed, when the atrocities of Bajazet and Tamerlane, and the khans of Tartary and India, and other despoilers of the earth, shall be forgotten. It is a war between and among brethren. Those whose eyes should have beamed in friend- ship now gleam in war ; those who close in the death-strug- gle upon the battle-field, were children of the same house- hold and nurtured at the same gathering place of affection ; baptized at the same font, and confirmed at the same chancel : " They grew in beauty side by side, They filled one bouse with glee ; ***** Wbose voices mingled as they prayed Round tbe same parent knee." But, while we express deep humiliation for the depravity of our kind, and are shocked and sickened at a spectacle so revolting, we should not abandon the dear old mansion to the flames, even though kindled by brethren, who should have watched over it with us, and guarded it from harm. And, while we should not raise our hand to shed a brother's blood, we may turn aside his insane blow, aimed at the heart of the venerated mother of all. And, if a great power of Europe is disposed to sympathize with rebellion, and believes this Government and this people can be driven by the menace of foreign and ^domestic forces combined, to avoid the curses of war, let her try the experiment. But when they come, to save time and travel, let them bring with them a duly ex- ecuted quit-claim to the Union for such portions of the North American continent as they have not surrendered to it in former conflicts, for they will have occasion for just such an instrument, whenever their impertinent interference is mani- fested practically in our domestic affairs. Hon. D, S. Dickinson, 1861. A WORD TO THE SECEDERS A word to those who would labor to destroy the Union. You have widely mistaken both the temper and the purpose of the great body of people of the free States in the present 172 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. crisis. In this unnatural struggle, which your leaders have forced upon them, they seek only to uphold and maintain, and preserve from destruction, a Government which is a common inheritance, and in the preservation of which you are equally interested. They seek not to despoil your States, nor to disturb your internal relations, but to preserve the Union which shelters and protects all, and vindicate the Con- stitution, which is your only defence from aggression. They war not upon your peculiar system of domestic servitude, but they admonish you in a spirit of kindness that, during this brief struggle, its friends and advocates have been its worst enemies, and have furnished arguments against it, which will weaken its foundations, when the denunciation of its most persistent anti-slavery foes are forgotten forever. You arraign the people of the free States for rallying around the Government of the Union, of which a few months since you were members, and sustained it yourselves, and which, at the time of your alleged secession, had experienced no change beyond one of political administration. You repudi- ate the Constitution with no sufficient cause of revolution, for all the alleged causes of grievance as stated were insuffi- cient to justify it, and proclaimed a dissolution of the Union, defied and dishonored its flag, and menaced the Government by denouncing actual war. You seized by violence its for- tresses, armories, ships, mints, custom-houses, navy-yards, and other property, to which you had not even a pretence of right, and threatened to take possession of the national capi- tal. You bombarded Fort Sumter, a fortress of the United States, garrisoned as a peace establishment only, and in a state of starvation, from batteries which the Government of the United States, in its extreme desire for peace, permitted you to erect for that purpose, under the ,guns of the same fortification, a proceeding unheard of before, and never to be repeated hereafter — bombarded it, too, because the flag of the Union which your fathers and yourselves had fought under with us the battles of the Constitution — a flag which a few days previously you had hailed with pride — because the stars and stripes, the joy of every American heart, full of glowing histories and lofty recollections — floating over it ac- cording to the custom of every nation and people under hea- ven, were hateful in your sight ! The Athenians were tired of hearing their great leader called the Just, and consigned him to banishment. You were annoyed at the sight of the noblest national emblem which floats under the sun, when unfurled where, by your consent, and for a consideration, too, the Government of the United States held exclusive juris- SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 173 diction, and where it properly belonged ; and for this you commenced a war promising to be more ferocious and exter- minating throughout the Republic than was the atrocious decree of Herod in a single village. Hon. I). S. J)ic7ci?ison i 1861. THE WAT OP PEACE. You propose to defend your hearths, your fire-sides, your porches, your altars, your wives, and your children, your household gods, and these resolves sound well indeed, even in the abstract ; but practically, the defence will be in time when they are assailed, or at least threatened. And you may rest with the assurance that when either of these sacred and cherished interests shall be desecrated or placed in danger or in jeopardy from any Vandal spirit upon the globe, you shall not defend them alone ; for an army from the free States mightier thau that which rose up to crush your rebellion, " ay, a great multitude, which no man. can number," will de- fend them for you. But the issue must not be changed nor frittered away. Sumpter was not your hearth, Pickens your fire-side, Harper's Ferry your porch, the navy-yards your al- tars, the custom-houses, and post-offices, and revenue cutters your wives and children, nor the mints your household gods. The Government has no right to desecrate your homes, nor have you the right to seize upon and appropriate to yourselves under any name, however specious, what is not your own, but the property of the whole people of the United States ; not of those in array against it as enemies, defying its laws, but those who acknowledge and defer to its authority. You desire peace! Then lay down your arms and you will have it. It was peace when you took them up, it will be peace when you lay them down. It wall be peace when you abandon war and return to your accustomed pursuits. Honorable, enduring, pacific relations will be found in com- plete obedience to the provisions of the Constitution, and not in its violation or destruction. The Government is sustained by the people, not for the purpose of coercing States in their domestic policy, not for the purpose of crushing members of the confederacy because they fail to conform to a Federal standard, not for the purpose of despoiling their people, nor of interfering with the system of Southern servitude; but for the sole and only purpose of putting down an unholy, armed 174 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKEE. rebellion, which has defied the authority of the Government, and seeks its destruction, and in this their determination is taken with a resolution, compared with which the edicts of the Medes and Persians were yielding- and temporary. When the Government of our fathers shall be again recognized, when the Constitution and the laws to which every citizen owes allegiance shall be observed and obeyed ; then will the armies of the Constitution and the Union disband, by a com- mon impulse, in obedience to a unanimous popular will. And should the present or any succeeding administration attempt to employ the authorities of the Government and people to coerce States, or mould their internal affairs in derogation of the Constitution, the same array of armed forces would again take the field, but it would be to arrest Federal assumption and usurpation, and protect the domestic rights of States. Hon. D. S. Dickinson, 1861. AN APPEAL FO'R THE UNION, Shall we then surrender to turbulence, and faction, and rebellion, and give up the Union with all its elements of good, all its holy memories, all its hallowed associations, all its blood- bought history? Give up the Union ! " this fair and fertile plain to batten on that moor." Give up the Union, with its glorious flag, its stars and stripes, full of proud and pleasing and honorable recollections, for the spurious invention with no antecedents, but the history of a violated Constitution, and of lawless ambition! No! Ask the Christian to ex- change the cross, with the cherished memories of a Saviour's love, for the crescent of the impostor, or to address his prayers to the Juggernaut a Josh, instead of the living and true God ! But sustain the emblem your fathers loved and cherished. Give up the Union ? Its name shall be heard with vene- ration amid the roar of Pacific's waves, away upon the rivers of the North and East, where liberty is divided from mon- archy, and be wafted in gentle breezes upon the Rio Grande. It shall rustle in the harvest, and wave in the standing corn, on the extended prairies of the West, and be heard in the bleating folds and lowing herds upon a thousand hills. It shall be with those who delve in mines, and shall hum in the manufactories of New England, and in the cotton gins of the South. It shall be proclaimed by the stars and stripes in every sea of earth, as the American Union, one and indivisible ; SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 1^5 upon the great thoroughfares, wherever steam drives and en- gines throb and shriek, its greatness and perpetuity shall be hailed with gladness. It shall be lisped in the earliest words, and ring in the merry voices of childhood, and swell to heav- en upon the song of maidens. It shall live in the stern resolve of manhood, and rise to the mercy-seat upon woman's gentle prayer. Holy men shall invoke its perpetuity at the altars of religion, and it shall be whispered in the last accents of ex- piring age. Thus shall survive and be perpetuated the Amer- ican Union, and when it shall be proclaimed that time shall be no more, and the curtain shall fall, and the good shall be gathered to a more perfect union, still may the destiny of our dear land recognize the conception of the poet of her primi- tive days : " Perfumes as of Eden flowed sweetly along, And a voice, as of angels, enchantingly sung, Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, The queen of the world and the child of the skies." Hon. D. S. Dickinson. THE MEANS OF RESISTANCE. Me. Lincoln has increased his call from seventy-five thou- sand to four hundred thousand men. He has increased his demand for money from the five millions first asked for, and asks his Congress, now in session, for four hundred millions of dollars. Whether he will raise his men or his money, I know not. All I have to say about it is, that if he raises his four hundred thousand men, we must raise enough to meet him, and if he raises his four hundred millions of money, we must raise enough to meet it. We have, upon a resonable estimate, at least seven hun- dred thousand fighting men. Whether all these will be re- quired to drive back his armed myrmidons, I know not ; but, if they are, every man must go to the battle field. He may think, and doubtless does, that four hundred thousand men .will intimidate, subjugate, and overrun us. He should recol- lect, however, as we should, and reverently, too, that the u race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong," but it is God that gives the victory. Four hundred thousand may be a formidable army against us, but it is not as formidable as the six hundred thousand led by Darius against the Grecian States ; and we there have the example of much fewer numbers than we are, fighting a 176 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. battle for right, for justice, for independence, and for liberty. We have an example worthy of our imitation. Six hundred thousand Persians invaded Greece. These small States could bring against them but eleven thousand air told. The eleven thousand met the hosts of Persia, not the six hundred thou- saud, but all that could be brought against them on the com- mon plain. The eleven thousand with valorous hearts, fight- ing for home, fighting for country, fighting for every thing dear to freemen, put to flight the hosts of Persia, leaving sixty thousand slain upon the field. Men of the South, there- fore, let this war assume its gigantic proportions, its most threatening prospects, (nerving our hearts with the spirit of our revolutionary fathers, when they were but three millions, and coped with Great Britain, the most powerful nation in the world) — animated by these sentiments, fighting for every thing dear to us, fear not the result, recollecting that " thrice armed is he who hath his quarrel just;" and as our fathers, in the bloody conflict of the Revolutionary War, appealed to the God of battles for success in their cause, so may we, since we have the consciousness, in any event, that this war is not of our seeking. — Hon. A. H. Stephens, 1861. THE PRINCIPLES OF SECESSION IDENTICAL WITH THOSE OP SEVENTY-SIX. This war is not of our seeking. We simply wish to govern ourselves as we please. We simply stand where our revolutionary fathers stood in '76. We stand upon the great fundamental principle announced on the 4th of July, 1776, and incorporated in the Declaration of Independence — that great principle that announces that governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed. In the an- nouncement of this principle, the delegation from Massachu- setts, and from Rhode Island, and from Connecticut, and from all the Northern States, united with the delegates from the Old Dominion, and from the Palmetto State, and from Georgia, the youngest and last of the colonies, then not numbering more than fifty thousand of population — they united in this declaration of the delegates from all the States or colonies, and for the maintenance of it they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor — Massachusetts side by side with Georgia, John Hancock at their head, and strange to say, to-day, the people of Massachusetts and the Northern States are reversing the position of our fathers, SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 177 and are demanding to rule, to govern, to coerce, to subjugate us against our consent. But for one I declare to you to-day, you may think of it as you please, the people of the South may decide it as they please, but for one, I would never surrender this principle, though every valley from here to the Potomac should run with Southern blood, and every hill top be bleached with Southern bones. Home, firesides, life, friends and luxuries are dear, but there is something dearer to a true man than life, than home, and all. It is honor and independence. Let the enemy, therefore, make his calculation as wide and broad as he pleases. I say every true Southern heart is impressed with the magnitude of the responsibility that now rests upon us ; and let every man be nerved to meet that responsibility at any and every cost. Our fathers pledged life, honor and fortune for this principle, and I know we are not the degene- rate sons, nor are we the degenerate daughters of the noble matrons of that day, that would sacrifice, lose or surrender these principles at a less cost. Son. A. H. /Stephens, 1861. THE TKUE CAUSE OF THE EEBELLION , Could one, an entire stranger to our history, now look down upon the Southland see there a hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand men marching in hostile array, threatening the capture of the capital, and the dismemberment of the territory of the Republic; and could he look again and see that this army is marshalled and directed by officers recently occupying distinguished places in the civil and military ser- vice of the country ; and further that the States from which this army has been drawn appear to be one vast, seething cauldron of ferocious passion, he would very naturally con- clude that the Government of the United States had com- mitted some great crime against its people, and that this up- rising was in resistance to wrong and outrages which had been borne until endurance was no longer possible. And yet no conclusion could be further from the truth than this. The Government of the United States has been faithful to all its constitutional obligations. For eighty years it has maintained the national honor at home and abroad, and by its prowess, its wisdom, and its justice, has given to the title of an American citizen an elevation among the nations of the earth which the citizens of no republic have enjoyed 'since 178 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Rome was mistress of the world. Under its administration the national domain has stretched away to the Pacific, and that constellation which announced our birth as a people, has expanded from thirteen to thirty-four stars, all, until recently, moving undisturbed and undimmed in their orbs of light and grandeur. The rights of no States have been invaded ; no man's property has been despoiled, no man's liberty abridged, no man's life oppressively jeoparded by the action of this Government. Under its benign influences the rills of public and private prosperity have swelled into rivulets, and from rivulets into rivers ever brimming in their fulness, and every- where, and at all periods of its history, its ministrations have fallen as gently on the people of the United States, as do the dews of a summer's night on the flowers and grass of the gardens and fields. Whence, then, this revolutionary outbreak ? Whence the secret spring of this gigantic conspiracy, which, like some huge boa, had completely coiled itself round the limbs and body of the. Republic, before a single hand was lifted to re- sist it ? Strange, and indeed startling, as the announcement must appear when it falls on the ears of the next generation, the national tragedy, in whose shadow we stand to-night, has come upon us because, in November last, John C. Breckin- ridge was not elected President of the United States, and Abraham Lincoln was. This is the whole story. And I would pray now to know, on what John C. Breckinridge fed that he has grown so great, that a republic founded by Washington and cemented by the best blood that has ever coursed in human veins, is to be overthrown, because for- sooth, he cannot be its President? Had he been chosen, we well know that we should not have heard of this rebellion, for the lever with which it is being moved would have been wanting to the hands of the conspirators. Even after his de- feat, could it have been guaranteed, beyond all peradventure, that Jeff Davis or some other kindred spirit, would be the successor of Mr. Lincoln, I presume we hazard nothing in assuming that this atrocious movement against the Govern- ment would not have been set on foot. So much for the principle involved in it. This great crime, then, with which we are grappling, sprang from that "sin by which the angels fell" — an unmastered and profligate ambition — an ambition that " would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven" — that would rather rule supremely over a shattered fragment of the Republic than run the chances of sharing with others the honors of the whole. Son. Joseph Solt, 1861. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 179 A MIRROR FOR TRAITORS. Let no man imagine that, because this rebellion has been made by men renowned in our civil and military history, it is the less guilty or the less courageously to be resisted. It is precisely this class of men who have subverted the best governments that have ever existed. The purest spirits that have lived in the tide of times, the noblest institutions that have arisen to bless our race, have found among those in whom they had most confided, and whom they had most honored, men wicked enough, either secretly to betray them unto death, or openly to seek their overthrow by lawless violence. The Republic of England had its Monk ; the Re- public of France had its Bonaparte ; the Republic of Rome had its Caesar and its Cataline, and the Saviour of the world had his Judas Iscariot. It cannot be necessary that I should declare to you, for you know them well, who they are whose parricidal swords are now unsheathed against the Republic of the United States. Their names are inscribed upon a roll of infamy that can never perish. The most distinguished of them were educated by the charity of the Government on which they are now making war. For long years they were fed from its table, and clothed from its wardrobe, and had their brows garlanded by its honors. They are the ungrate- ful sons of a fond mother, who dandled them upon her knee, who lavished upon them the gushing love of her noble and devoted nature, and who nurtured them from the very bosom of her life ; and now, in the frenzied excesses of a licentious and baffled ambition, they are stabbing at that bosom with the ferocity with which the tiger springs upon his prey. The President of the United States is heroically and patriotically struggling to baffle the machinations of these most wicked men. I have unbounded gratification in knowing that he has the courage to look traitors in the face, and that, in discharg- ing the duties of his great office, he takes no counsel of his fears. He is entitled to the zealous support of the whole country, and may I not add without offence, that he will re- ceive the support of all who justly appreciate the boundless blessings of our free institutions. — lion. Joseph Holt, 1861. 180 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. THE PEUITS OF SECESSION. If this rebellion succeeds, it will involve necessarily the destruction of our nationality, the division of our territory, the permanent disruption of the Republic. It must rapidly dry up the sources of our material prosperity, and year by year we shall grow more and more impoverished, more and more revolutionary, enfeebled and debased. Each returning election will bring with it grounds for new civil commotions, and traitors prepared to strike at the country that has reject- ed their claims to power, will spring up on every side. Dis- union once begun, will go on and on indefinitely, and under the influence of the fatal doctrine of secession, not only will States secede from States, but counties will secede from States also, and towns and cities from counties, until universal an- archy will be consummated in each individual who can make good his position by force of arms, claiming" the right to defy the power of the Government. Thus we should have brought back to us the days of the robber barons with their moated castles and marauding retainers. This doctrine when ana- lyzed is simply a declaration that no physical force shall ever be employed in executing the laws or upholding the Gov- ernment—and a government into whose practical administra- tion such a principle has been introduced, could no more con- tinue to exist than a man could live with an angered cobra in his bosom. If you would know what are the legitimate fruits of secession, look at Virginia and Tennessee, which have so lately given themselves up to the embraces of this monster. There the schools are deserted; the courts of jus- tice closed ; public and private credit destroyed ; commerce annihilated ; debts repudiated ; confiscations and spoliations everywhere prevailing ; every cheek blanched with fear, and every heart frozen with despair ; and all over that desolated land the hand of infuriated passion and crime is waving, with a vulture's scream for blood, the sword of civil war. And this is the pandemonium which some would have transferred to Kentucky! — Hon. Joseph Holt, 1861. SOtfTHEKN INDEPENDENCE. The arbitrament of the sword has been defiantly thrust into the face of the Government and country, and there is no honorable escape from it. All guarantees and all attempts at SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 181 adjustment by amendments to the Constitution, are now scornfully rejected, and the leaders of the rebellion openly proclaim that they are fighting for their independence. Fighting for their independence ! Independence of what ? Independence of those laws which they themselves have aided in enacting ; independence of that Constitution which their fathers framed and to which they are parties, and sub- ject by inheritance ; independence of that beneficent Govern- ment on whose treasury and honors they have grown strong and illustrious. When a man commits a robbery on the highway, or a murder in the dark, he thereby declares his independence of the laws under which he lives, and of the society of which he is a member. Should he, when arraigned, avow and justify the offence, he thereby becomes the advo- cate of the independence he has thus declared; and^ if he resists, by force of arms, the officer, when dragging him to the prison, the penitentiary, or the gallows, he is thereby fighting for the independence he has thus declared and advo- cated ; and such is the condition of the conspirators of the South at this moment. It is no longer a question of Southern rights — which have never been violated — nor of the security of Southern institutions, which we know perfectly well have never been interfered with by the general Government, but it is purely with us a question of national existence. In meeting this terrible issue which rebellion has made up with the loyal men of the country, we stand upon ground infinitely above all party lines and party platforms — ground as sublime as that on which our fathers stood when they fought the battles of the Revolution. I wish solemnly to declare before you and the world, that I am for this Union without conditions, one and indivisible, now- and forever. I am for its preservation at any and every cost of blood and treasure against all its assailants. I know no neutrality between my country and its foes, whether they be foreign or domestic ; no neutrality between that glorious flag which now floats over us and the ingrates and traitors who would trample it in the dust. My prayer is for victory, com- plete, enduring, and overwhelming, to the armies of the Re public over all its enemies. But, if in this anticipation we are doomed to disappointment ; if the people of the United States have already become so degenerate — may I not say so craven ? — in the presence of their foes, as to surrender up this Republic to be dismembered and" subverted by the trai- tors who have reared the standard of revolt against it, then, I trust, the volume of American history will be closed and sealed up forever, and that those who shall survive this na- 182 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKEE. tional humiliation will take unto themselves some other name — some name having no relation to the past, no relation to our great ancestors, no relation to those monuments and bat- tle-fields which commemorate alike their heroism, their loy- alty, and their glory. — Hon. Joseph Holt, 1861. SECESSION AND SUBMISSION COMPARED, Ve are told by the disunionists that, in supporting a Re- publican administration in its endeavors to uphold the Con- stitution and the laws, we are " submissionists," and when they have pronounced this word, they suppose they have imputed to us the sum of all human abasement. Well, let it be confessed, we are " submissionists," and weak and spirit- less as it may be deemed by some, we glory in the position we occupy. For example, the law says, " Thou shalt not steal ;" we would submit to this law, and would not for the world's worth rob our neighbor of his forts, his arsenals, his arms, his munitions of war, his hospital stores, or any- thing that is his. Indeed, so impressed are we with the ob- ligations of this law, that we would no more think of plun- dering from our neighbor half a million of dollars because found in his unprotected mints, than we would think of filch- ing a purse from his pocket in a crowded thoroughfare. Write us down, therefore, "submissionists." Again, the law says, " Thou shalt not swear falsely ;" we submit to this law, and while in the civil or military service of the country, with an oath to support the Constitution of the United States resting upon our consciences, we would not for any earthly consideration engage in the formation or execution of a conspiracy to subvert that very Constitution, and with it the Government to which it has given birth. Write us down, therefore, again, " submissionists." Yet again, when a President has been elected in strict accordance with the form and spirit of the Constitution, and has been regularly installed into office, and is honestly striving to discharge his duty by snatching the Republic from the jaws of a gigantic treason which threatens to crush it, we care not what his name may or may not be, or what the designation of his political party, or wjiat the platform on which he stood during the presidential canvass ; we believe we fulfil in the sight of earth and heaven our highest obligations to our country, in giving to him an earnest and loyal support in the struggle in which he is engaged. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 183 Nor are we at all disturbed by the flippant taunt that, in thus submitting to the authority of our Government, we are necessarily cowards. We know whence this taunt comes, and we estimate it at its true value. We hold that there is a higher courage in the performance of duty than in the commission of crime. The tiger of the jungle, and the can- nibal of the South Sea Islands have that courage in which the revolutionists of the day make their especial boast ; the angels of God, and the spirits of just men made perfect have had, and have that courage which submits to the law. Lu- cifer was a non-submissionist, and the first secessionist of whom history has given any account, and the chains which he wears fitly express the fate due to all who openly defy the laws of their Creator and of their country. He rebelled because the Almighty would not yield to him the throne of heaven. The principle of the Southern rebellion is the same. Indeed, in this submission to the laws is found the chief dis- tinction between good men and devils. A good man obeys the laws of truth, of honesty, of morality, and all those laws which have been enacted by competent authority for the government and protection of the country in which he* lives ; a devil obeys only his own ferocious and profligate passions. The principle on which this rebellion proceeds, that laws have in themselves no sanctions, no binding force upon the conscience, and that every man, under the promptings of in- terest, or passion, or caprice, may at will, and honorably too, strike at the Government that shelters him, is one of utter demoralization, and should be trodden out as you would tread out a spark that has fallen on the roof of your dwell- ing. Its unchecked prevalence would resolve society into chaos," and leave you without the slightest guarantee for life, liberty or property. It is true, that in their majesty, the people of the United States should make known to the world that this Government in its dignity and power, is something more than a moot court, and that the citizen who makes war upon it is a traitor, not only in theory but in fact, and should have meted out to him a traitor's doom. The country wants no bloody sacrifice, but it must and will have peace, cost what it may.— Hon. Joseph Holt, 1861. NEUTRALITY OP KENTUCKY, I desire to say a few words on the relations of Kentucky to the pending rebellion ; and as we are all Kentuckians here together to-night,' and as this is purely a family matter, which 184 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. concerns the honor of us all, I hope we may be permitted tc speak to each other upon it with entire freedom. Your leg- islature have determined that daring the present unhappy war the attitude of the State shall be that of strict neutral- ity, and it is upon this determination that I wish respectfully, but frankly, to comment. Strictly and legally speaking, Kentucky must go out of the Union before she can be neu- tral. Within it she is necessarily either faithful to the Gov- ernment of the United States, or she is disloyal to it. If this crutch of neutrality, upon which the well-meaning but ill- judging politicians are halting, can find any middle ground on which to rest, it has escaped my researches, though I have diligently sought it. Neutrality in the sense of those who now use the term, however patriotically designed, is, in effect, but a snake in the grass of rebellion, and those who handle it will sooner or later feel its fangs. Said one who spake as never man spake, " He who is not with us is against us;" and of none of the conflicts which have arisen between men, or between nations, could this be more truthfully said than of that in which we are now involved. Neutrality necessarily implies indifference. Is Kentucky indifferent to the issues of this contest ? Has she, indeed, nothing at stake ? Has she no compact with her sister States to keep, no plighted faith to uphold, no renown to sustain, no glory to win ? Has she no horror of that crime of crimes now being committed against us by that stupendous rebellion which has arisen like a tempest-cloud in the South ? We rejoice to know that she is still a member of this Union, and as such she has the same interest in resisting this rebellion that each limb of the body has in resisting a poignard whose point is aimed at the heart. It is her house that is on fire ; has she no interest in extinguishing the conflagation ? Will she stand aloof and announce herself neutral between the raging flames and the brave men who are perilling their lives to subdue them ? Hundreds of thousands of citizens of other States — -men of culture and character, of thought and of toil — men who have a deep stake in life, and an intense appreciation of its duties and responsibilities, who know the worth of this blessed Government of ours, and do not prize even their own blood above it — I say, hundreds of thousands of such men have left their homes, their workshops, their offices, their counting-houses, and their fields, and are now rallying about our flag, freely offering their all to sustain it. And since the days when crusading Europe threw its hosts upon the embattled plains of Asia, no deeper, no more earn- est, or grander spirit has stirred the souls of men than that SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 185 which now sways those mighty masses whose gleaming ban- ners are destined ere long to make bright again the earth and sky of the distracted South. Can Kentucky look upon this sublime spectacle of patriotism unmoved, and then say to herself: " I will spend neither blood nor treasure, but I will shrink away while the battle rages, and after it has been fought and won, I will return to the camp, well assured that if I cannot claim the laurels, I will at least enjoy the bless- ings of the victory ?" Is this all that remains of her chiv- alry — of the chivalry of the land of the Shelbys, the John- sons, the Aliens, the Clays, the Adairs, and the Davieses ? Is there a Kentuckian within the sound of my voice to-night, who can hear the anguished cry of his country as she wres- tles and writhes in the folds of this gigantic treason, and then lay himself down upon his pillow with this thought of neutrality, without feeling that he has something in his bosom which stings him worse than would an adder ? Have we, within the brief period of eighty years, descended so far from the mountain heights on which our fathers stood, that already, in our degeneracy, we proclaim our blood too pre- cious, our treasure too valuable, to be devoted to the preser- vation of such a Government as this. Hon. Joseph Holt, 1861. AN APPEAL TO KENTUCKIANS. There is not, and there cannot be, any neutral ground for a loyal people between their own government and those who, at the head of armies, are menacing its destruction. Your inaction is not neutrality, though you may delude yourself with the belief that it is so. With this rebellion confronting you, when you refuse to cooperate actively with your Gov- ernment in subduing it, you thereby condemn the Govern- ment, and assume toward it an attitude of antagonism. You may rest well assured that this estimate of your neutrality is entertained by the true men of the country in all the States which are now sustaining the Government. Within the last few weeks how many of those gallant volunteers who have left home and kindred, and all that is dear to them, and are now under a Southern sun, exposing themselves to death from disease and to death from battle, and are accounting their lives as nothing in the effort they are making for the deliver- ance of your Government and theirs ; how many of them have said to me in sadness and in longing, "Will not Kentucky help 186 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. us?" How my soul would have leaped could I have answered promptly, confidently, exultingly, "Yes, she will !" But when I thought of this neutrality my heart sank within me, and I did not and I could not look those brave men. in the face. And yet I could not answer, " No." I could not crush myself to the earth under the self-abasement of such a reply. I therefore said — and may my country sustain me — " I hope, I trust, I pray, nay, I believe, Kentucky will yet do her duty." If this Government is to be destroyed, ask yourselves are you willing it shall be recorded in history that Kentucky stood by in the greatness of her strength and lifted not aThand to stay the catastrophe ? If it is to be saved, as I verily believe it is, are you willing it shall be written that, in the immeasurable glory which must attend the achievement, Kentucky had no part? If Kentucky wishes the waters of her beautiful Ohio to be dyed in blood — if she wishes her harvest fields, now waving in their abundance, to be trampled beneath the feet of hostile soldiery, as a flower-garden is trampled beneath the threshings of the tempest — if she wishes the homes where her loved ones are now gathered in peace, invaded by the proscrip- tive fury of a military despotism, sparing neither life nor prop- erty — if she wishes the streets of her towns and cities grown with grass, and the steamboats of her rivers to lie rotting at her wharves, then let her join the Southern Confederacy ; but if she would have the bright waters of that river flow on in their gladness — if she would have her harvests peacefully gathered to her garners — if she would have the lullabies of her cradles and the songs of her homes uninvaded by the cries and terrors of battle — if she would have the streets of her towns and cities again filled with the hum and throngs of busy trade, and her rivers and her shores once more vocal with the steamer's whistle, — that anthem of a free and prosperous commerce, — then let her stand fast by the stars and stripes, and do her duty, and her whole duty as a member of this Union. Let her brave people say to the President of the United States : You are our Chief Magistrate ; the Govern- ment you have in charge, and are striving to save from dis- honor and dismemberment, is our Government; your cause is indeed our cause ; your battles are our battles ; make room for us, therefore, in the ranks of your armies, that your tri- umph may be our triumph also. Even as with the Father of us all I would plead for salva- tion, so, my countrymen, as upon my very knees, wOuld I plead with you for the life, aye for the life, of our great and beneficent institutions. But if the traitor's knife, now at the throat of the Republic, is to do its work, and this Govern- SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 187 ment is fated to add yet another to that long line of sepul- chres which whiten the highway of the past, then my heart- felt prayer to God is, that it may be written in history, that the blood of its life was not found upon the skirts of Ken- tucky. — Hon. Joseph Holt, 1861. CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEE OF A REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT TO EVERY STATE, Mr. President, in the heat and excitement of this debate, there are one or two ideas that ought not to be lost sight of. The Senator from Kentucky seems to forget, while he speaks of the delegated powers of this Government under the Con- stitution, that one of the powers which is delegated is that we shall guarantee to every State of this Union, a republican form of government ; that when South Carolina seeks to set up a military despotism, the constitutional power with which we are v clothed and the duty which is enjoined upon us is to guarantee to South Carolina a republican form of govern- ment. There is another idea that seems to be lost sight of in the talk about subjugation, and I hope that my friends on this side of the chamber will not also lose sight of it in the excitement of the debate. I undertake to say that it is not the purpose of this war, or of this administration, to subju- gate any State of the Union, or the people of any State of the Union. What is the policy ? It is, as I said the other day, to enable the loyal people of the several States of this Union to reconstruct themselves upon the Constitution of the United States. Virginia has led the way ; Virginia, in her sovereign capacity, by the assembled loyal people of that State in convention, has organized herself upon the Constitu- tion of the United States, and they have taken into their own hands the government of tha£ State. Virginia has her judges, her marshals, her public officers; and to the courts of Virginia, and to the marshals and executive officers of Virginia we can entrust the enforcement of the laws the moment that the state of civil war shall have ceased in the eastern or any other portion of the State. It is not, there- fore, the purpose of this Government to subjugate the people of Virginia and of Tennessee and of North Carolina and of Texas, ay, and of the Gulf States, too, when they are prepared for it; we will rally to the support of the loyal people of these States and enable them to take their government in their own hands, by wresting it out of the hands of those 188 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. military usurpers who now hold it, for they are nothing more and nothing less. That is all that is involved in this contest, and I hope on this side of the chamber we shall never again hear one of our friends talking about subjugating either a State or the people of any State of this Union, but that we shall go on aiding them to do just precisely what the loyal people of Virginia are doing, what the loyal people of Ten- nessee are preparing to do, what the loyal people of North Carolina stand ready to do, and what the loyal people in Georgia and Alabama and Louisiana, and last perhaps of all, the loyal people of South Carolina will do in reconstructing themselves upon the Constitution of the United States. Hon. James B. Doolittle, 1861. MAKING WAR ON REBELS CONSTITUTIONAL. Mr. President, I have heard the Senator from Kentucky to-day, and I have heard him again and again, denounce the President of the United States for the usurpation of uncon- stitutional power. I undertake to say that without any foundation he makes such a charge of usurpation of unconsti- tutional power, unless it be in a mere matter of form. He has not, in substance ; and the case I put to the Senator the other day he has not answered, and I defy him to answer. I undertake to say that, as there are fifty thousand men, per- haps, in arms against the United States, in Virginia, within thirty miles of this capital, I, as an individual, though I am not President, though I am clothed with no official authority, may ask one hundred thousand of my fellow-men to volun- teer to go with me, with arms in our hands, to take every one of them, and, if it be necessary, to take their lives. Why do not some of these gentlemen who talk about usurpation and trampling the Constitution under foot, stand up here and answer ihat position, or forever shut their mouths ? I, as an individual, can do all this, though I am not President, and am clothed with no legal authority whatever, simply be- cause I am a loyal citizen of the United States ; I have a right to ask one hundred thousand men to volunteer to go with me and capture the whole of the rebels, and if it be necessary to their capture to kill half of them while I am doing it. No man can deny the correctness of the propo- sition. Away, then, with all this stuff, and this splitting of hairs and pettifogging here, when we are within the very SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 189 sound of the guns of these traitors and rebels, who threaten to march upon the capital and subjugate the Government. Eon. James R. Doolittle, 1861. COERCION UNCONSTITUTIONAL, Me. President, I have tried on more than one occasion in the Senate, in parliamentary and respectful language, to ex- press my opinions in regard to the character of- our Federal system, the relations of the States to the Federal Govern- ment, to the Constitution, the bond of the Federal political system. They differed utterly from those entertained by the Senator from Oregon. Evidently, by his line of argument, he regards this as an original, not as a delegated Government, and he regards it as clothed with all those powers which belong to an original nation, not only with those powers which are dele- gated by the different political communities that compose it, and limited by the written Constitution that forms the bond of union. I have tried to show that, in the view that I take of our Government, this war is an unconstitutional war. I do not think the Senator from Oregon has answered my argu- ment. He asks, what must we do ? As we progress south- ward, and invade the country, must we not, said he, carry with us all the laws of war ? I would not progress southward and invade the country. The President of the United States, as I again repeat, in my judgment, only has the power to call out the military to assist the civil authority in executing the laws ; and when the question assumes the magnitude, and takes the form of a great political severance, and nearly half the mem- bers of the Confederacy withdraw themselves from it, what then? I have never held that one State, or a number of States, have a right without cause, to break the compact of the Constitution. But what I mean to say is, that you cannot then undertake to make war in the name of the Constitution. In my opinion they are out. You may conquer them; but do not attempt to do it under what I consider false political pretences. However, sir, I w T ill not enlarge upon that. I have developed these ideas again and again, and I do not care to re-argue them. Plence the Senator and I start from entirely different stand-points, and his pretended replies, are no replies at all. The Senator asks me, " What would you have us do ?" I have already intimated what I would have us do. I would have us stop the war. We can do it, I have tried to show that there is none of that inexorable necessity to continue 190 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. this war which the Senator seems to suppose. I do not hold that constitutional liberty on this continent is bound up in this fratricidal, devastating, horrible contest. Upon the con- trary, I fear it will find its grave in it. The Senator is mis- taken in supposing that we can reunite these States by war. He is mistaken in supposing that eighteen or twenty millions upon the one side can subjugate ten or twelve millions upon the other ; or, if they do subjugate them, that you can restore constitutional Government as our fathers made it. You will have to govern them as territories, as suggested by the Sena- tor, if ever -they are reduced to the dominion of the United States, or, as the Senator from Vermont called them, " those rebellious provinces of this Union," in his speech to-day. Sir, I would prefer to see these States all reunited upon true constitutional principles to any other object that could be offered me in life; and to restore, upon the principles of our fathers, the union of these States, to me the sacrifice of one unimportant life would be nothing, nothing, sir. But I infin- itely prefer to see a peaceful separation of these States, than to see endless, aimless, devastating war, at the end of which I see the grave of public liberty and of personal freedom. Hon. J. G. Breckinridge, 1861. S THE RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH. The Senator asked if a senator of Rome had uttered these things in the war between Carthage and that power, how would he have been treated ? Sir, the war between Carthage and Rome, was altogether different from the war now waged between the United States and the Confederate States. I would have said — rather than avow the principle that one or the other must be subjugated, or perhaps both destroyed — let Carthage live and let Rome live, each pursuing its own course of policy and civilization. The Senator says that these opinions which I thus expressed and have heretofore expressed, are but brilliant treason ; and that it is a tribute to the character of our institutions that I am allowed to utter them upon the Senate floor. Mr. President, if I am speaking treason I am not aware of it. I am speaking what I believe to be for the good of my country. If I am speaking treason, I am speaking it in my place in the Senate. By whose indulgence am I speaking ? Not by any man's indulgence. I am speaking by the guarantees of that Constitution which seems to be here now so little respect- ed. And, sir, when he asked what would have been done SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 191 with a Roman senator who had uttered such words, a certain Senator on this floor, whose courage has much risen of late, replies in audible terms : " he would have been hurled from the Tarpeian Rock." Sir, if ever we find an American Tar- peian Rock, and a suitable victim is to be selected, the people will turn not to me, but to that Senator who, according to the measure of his intellect and his heart, has been the chief author of the public misfortunes. He, and men like him, have brought the country to its present condition. Let him remember too, sir, that while in ancient Rome the defenders of the .public liberty were sometimes torn to pieces by the people, yet their memories were cherished in grateful remem- brance, while to be hurled from the Tarpeian Rock was ever the fate of usurpers and tyrants. I reply with the just indig- nation I ought to feel at such an insult oifered on the floor of the Senate chamber, to a Senator who is speaking in his place. Mr. President, I shall not longer detain the Senate. My opinions are my own. They are honestly entertained. I do not believe that I have uttered one opinion here, in regard to this contest, that does not reflect the judgment of the peo- ple I have the honor to represent. If they do, I shall find my reward in the fearless utterance of their opinions ; if they do not, I am not a man to cling to the forms of office and to the emoluments of public life, against my convictions and my principles ; and I repeat what I uttered the other day, that if, indeed, the Common weath of Kentucky, instead of attempt- ing to mediate in this unfortunate struggle, shall throw her energies into the strife, and approve the conduct and sustain the policy of the Federal administration, in what I believe to be a war of subjugation, and which is being proved every day to be a war of subjugation and annihilation, she may take her course. I am her son, and will share her destiny, but she will be represented by some other man on the floor of this Senate* Hon. J. C. Breckinridge, 1861. EVIL PREDICTIONS. The Senator from Kentucky stands up here in a manly way in opposition to what he sees is the overwhelming senti- ment of the Senate, and utters reproof, malediction, and pre- diction combined. Well, sir, it is not every prediction that is prophecy. It is the easiest thing in the world to ' do ; there is nothing easier, except to be mistaken when we have predicted. I confess, Mr. President, that I would not have 192 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. predicted three weeks ago the disasters which have overtaken our arms ; and I do not think (if I were to predict now) that six months hence the Senator will indulge in the same tone of prediction which is his favorite key now. I would ask him, what would you have us do — a Confederate army with- in twenty miles of us, advancing or threatening to advance to overwhelm your Government ; to shake the pillars of the Union; to bring it around your head, if you stay here, in ruins ? Are we to stop and talk about an uprising sentiment in the North against the war ? Are we to predict evil, and retire from what we predict? Is not the manly part to go on as we have begun, to raise money, and levy armies, to or- ganize them, to prepare to advance, to regulate that advance by all the laws and regulations that civilization and humanity will allow in time of battle ? Can we do anything more? To talk to us about stopping is idle ; we will never stop. Will the Senator yield to rebellion ? Will he shrink from armed insurrection? Will his State justify it? Will its better public opinion allow it ? Shall we send a flag of truce ? What would he have? Or would he conduct this war so feebly, that the whole world would smile at us in derision ? What would he have ? These speeches of his, sown broad- cast over the land — what clear, distinct meaning have they? Are they not intended for disorganization in our very midst? Are they not intended to dull our weapons ? Are they not intended to destroy our zeal? Are they not intended to ani- mate our enemies ? Sir, are they not words of brilliant, polished treason, even in the very Capitol of the Confederacy ? What would have been thought if, in another capitol, in another republic, in a yet more martial age, a senator as grave, not more eloquent or dignified than the Senator from Kentucky, yet with the Roman purple flying over his shoul- ders, had risen in his place, surrounded by all the illustrations of Roman glory, and declared that advancing Hannibal was just, and that Carthage ought to be dealt with in terms of peace ? What would have been thought if, after the battle of Cannae, a senator there had risen in his place and de- nounced every levy of the Roman people, every expenditure of its treasury, and every appeal to the old recollections and the old glories ? Sir, a Senator,* learned far more than my- self in such lore, tells me, in a voice that I am glad is audible, that he would have been hurled from the Tarpeian Rock. It is a grand commentary upon the American Constitution that we permit these words to be uttered. I ask the Senator to * Hon. John P. Hale. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 193 recollect, too, what, save to send aid and comfort to the ene- my, do these predictions of his amount to? Every word thus uttered falls as a note of inspiration upon every Confed- erate ear. Every sound thus uttered is a word (and, falling from his lips, a mighty word) of kindling and triumph to a foe that determines to advance. For me, I have no such word as a Senator to utter. For me, amid temporary de- feat, disaster, disgrace, it seems that my duty calls me to utter another word, and that word is bold, sudden, forward, determined war, according to the laws of war, by armies, by military commanders clothed with full power, advancing with all the past glories of the Republic urging them on to con- quest. I do not stop to consider whether it is subjugation or not. It is compulsory obedience — not to my will ; not to yours, sir ; not to the will of any one man ; not to the will of any one State ; but compulsory obedience to the Constitu- tion of the whole country. — Hon. E. D. Baker, 1861. SUBJUGATION OF THE SOUTH. The Senator from Kentucky chose the other day again and again to animadvert on a single expression in a little speech which I delivered before the Senate, in which I took occasion to say that if the people of the rebellious States would not govern themselves as States, they ought to be governed as Territories. The Senator knew fall well then, for I explained it twice — he knows full well now — that on this side of the chamber ; nay, in this whole chamber ; nay, in this whole North and West ; nay, in all the loyal States in all their breadth, there is not a man among us all who dreams of causing any man in the South to submit to any rule, either as to life, liberty or property, that we ourselves do not will- ingly agree to yield to. Did he ever think of that ? Sub- jugation for what? When we subjugate South Carolina what shall we do ? We shall compel its obedience to the Constitution of the United States; that is all. Why play upon words? We do not mean, we have never said, any more. If it be slavery that men should obey the Constitu- tion their fathers fought for, let it be so. If it be freedom, it is freedom equally for them and for us. We propose to subjugate rebellion into loyalty ; we propose to subjugate in- surrection into peace ; we propose to subjugate Confederate anarchy into constitutional Union liberty. The Senator well knows that we propose no more. I ask him, I appeal to his 194 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. better judgment, now, what does he imagine we intend to do, if fortunately we conquer Tennessee or South Carolina — call it " conquer," if you will, sir — what do we propose to do? They will have their courts still, they will have their ballot-boxes still, they will have their elections still, they will have their representatives upon this floor still, they will have taxation and representation still, they will have the writ of habeas corpus still, they will have every privilege they ever had and all we desired. When the Confederate armies are scattered, when their leaders are banished from power, when the people return to a late repentant sense of the wrong they have done to a Government they never felt but in benignancy and blessing, then the Constitution made for all will be felt by all, like the descending rains from heaven which bless all alike. Is that subjugation? To restore what was, as it was, for the benefit of the whole country and of the whole human race, is all we desire and all we can have. Gentlemen talk about the Northeast. I appeal to Senators from the North- east, is there a man in all your States who advances upon the South with any other idea but to restore the Constitution of the United States in its spirit and its unity ? I never heard that one. I believe no man indulges in any dream of inflict- ing there any wrong to public liberty ; and I respectfully tell the Senator from Kentucky that he persistently, earnestly — I will not say wilfully — misrepresents the sentiment of the North and West when he attempts to teach these doctrines to the Confederates of the South. — Son. E. D. Baker, 1861. MEN AND MONEY, Sir, this threat about money and men amounts to nothing. Some of the States which have been named in that connec- tion, I know well. I know, as my friend from Illinois will bear me witness, his own State very well. I am sure that no temporary defeat, no monetary disaster, will swerve that State either from its allegiance to the Union, or from its de- termination to preserve it. It is not with us a question of money or of blood ; it is a question involving considerations higher than these. The great portion of our population are loyal to the core, and in every chord of their hearts. I tell the Senator that his predictions, sometimes for the South, sometimes for the middle States, sometimes for the North- east, and then wandering away in airy visions out to the far Pacific, about the dread of our people of the loss of blood SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 195 and treasure, provoking them to disloyalty, are false in sen- timent and false in fact. The Senator from Kentucky is mis- taken in them all. Five hundred million dollars! What then ? Great Britain gave more than two thousand millions in the great battle for constitutional liberty which she led at one time almost single handed against the world. Five hun- dred thousand men ! What then ? We have them ; they are ours ; they are children of the country. They belong to the whole country; they are our sons; our kinsmen; and there are many of us who will give them all up before we abate one word of our just demand, or will retract one inch from the line which divides right from wrong. Sir, it is not a question of men or money in that sense. All the men, all the money, are, in our judgment, Well bestowed in such a cause. When we give them, we know their value. Know- ing their value well, we give them with the more pride and the more joy. Sir, how can we retreat? Sir, how can we make peace? Who shall treat ? What commissioners ? Who would go ? Upon what terms ? Where is to be your boundary line ? Where the end of the principles we shall have to give up ? What will become of constitutional government ? What will become of public liberty ? What of past glories ? What of future hopes ? Shall we sink into the insignificance of the grave — a degraded, defeated, emasculated people, frightened by the results of one battle, and scared at the visions raised by the imagination of the Senator from Kentucky upon this floor ? ISTo, sir ; a thousand times, no ! We will rally — if, indeed, our words be necessary — we will rally the people, the loyal people, of the whole country. They will pour forth their treasure, their money, their men, without stint, without measure. The most peaceable man in this body may stamp his foot upon this Senate chamber floor, as of old, a warrior and senator did, and from that single tramp there will spring forth armed legions. Shall one battle determine the fate of empire, or a dozen ? the loss of one thousand men or twenty thousand, of one hundred million dollars, or five hundred millions ? In a year's peace, in ten years at most, of peace- ful progress, we can restore them all. There will be some privation ; there will be some loss of luxury ; there will be somewhat more need for labor to procure the necessaries of life. When that is said, all is said. If we have the country, the whole country, the Union, the Constitution — free govern- ment — with these will return all the blessings of well-ordered civilization ; the career of the country will be one of great- ness and of glory such as, in the olden time, our fathers saw 196 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. in the dim visions of years yet to come, and such as would have been ours to-day, if it had not been for the treason for which the Senator too often seeks to apologize. Son. E. D. Baker, 1861. THE PEACE MEN. I. The cry for " peace" comes from the enemies of the Gov- ernment. The leading voices that uplift it have never con- demned the outbreak of the war, the first drill of battalions, the first roar of cannon. The men who shout thus have been, from the first, in sympathy with the war-makers. They gloat over national disasters. They shriek for the assassina- tion of the President. They are branded for Jeff. Davis, on the shameless foreheads of their souls, deeper than Cali- fornia cattle are seared with the owner's mar J:. Martin Luther tells us that he used to be troubled seriously by visits from the devil at night. The devil seemed to take great pleasure in taunting him with being a sinner, and in bringing to his remembrance heinous transgressions that he had committed. Luther at last bethought him of a way ,to rid himself of these homilies. One night the devil came in a very serious mood, to break down the reformer's confi- dence in God, and said : " Luther, you have nearly sinned away your time of grace." "I know it," exclaimed the re- former, " Holy Satan, pray for me !" The devil saw the joke, and left Luther free from disturbance for a month. , A cry for peace from filibusters and bosom friends of Wil- liam Walker ! A cry for the sacredness of human life from men who have plotted to overrun Mexico and Central Amer- ica, in order to lay the black foundations of a slave empire on soil dyed crimson ! A cry for light taxes from men who would have been too happy, six months ago, to pay two hundred millions, or a war with Spain, for Cuba ! A cry of sympathy with laboring classes from men who believe that bondage is the true basis of a State, and who applaud in their hearts the call of their allies in the South to restrict the right of suffrage and found a government of gentlemen ! A cry of economy from men of a. party that once administered the finances -of San Francisco! The hounds on the track of Broderick turned peace men, and affected with hysterics at the sniff of powder ! Wonderful transformation ! What a SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 197 pleasant sight — a hawk looking so innocent, and preaching peace to doves, his talons loosely wound with cotton ! A clump of wolves trying to thicken their ravenous flanks with wool, for this occasion only, and composing their fangs to the work of eating grass ! " Holy Satan, pray for us !" II. We do not stand to receive lectures about peace from the sympathizers with rebellion ; we offer them. It is not for them to call our attention to bloody battle-fields and a groaning treasury, and hearts wrung with anguish, and homes darkened with despair. We press the picture upon them. When I think of what this country was last Novem- ber, — how vast its prosperity ; how rapid its march to greater 0]3ulence; how various the ducts and bands which nature and art had opened and multiplied to sustain a common life ; when I think of the harmonious play of all the physical and commercial forces that knit a nation, and see how, from Eastport to Cape Mendocino, they were in operation as never before on an equal area of the earth, ennobling labor, build- ing up society in the wilderness, promoting education, filling horns of plenty for thousands of homes; when I think of the harvests that were gathered, and the blessings they were to bear to all districts of our land, and to distant shores; of the slight expense of the governing power over the immense area, and the insignificance of the military force that was subor- dinate to it ; when I recall the fact that all this peace, and affluence, and happiness was due to one piece of parchment called the Constitution of the United States, and that all which was necessary to its continuance was loyalty to that, and submission to a popular vote honestly thrown and an- nounced, as northern States had submitted many a time be- fore ; a submission, too, which would still leave ample re- sources in the hands of defeated States against open acts of aggression by the Government upon their rights — simply acknowledgment of the popular will for four short years, and the right of free discussion ; and w 7 hen I think of what the country is now ; the paralysis of commerce^; the devasta- tion of industry; the choking of the channels of intercourse ; the bitterness and hate ; the land groaning with cannon ; ports shut up ; peaceful vessels the prey of pirates ; hundreds of thousands withdrawn from wealth-producing labor and trained to deal slaughter: yes, the battle-fields that have drunk blood from civil strife; the noble men that have been cut off in an instant from a vista of honorable years ; the 198 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. agonies of wounded and dying ; the woe in which thousands of hearts have been steeped ; and when I think that every river might now be sweeping only peaceful burdens, and every port might have been open to cheerful intercourse, and every latitude of the sea been safe for proud barks under the stars and stripes, and not a dollar of private property or national treasure been wasted by confiscation, or diverted from the channels that widen blessings : I can say, with Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, that " we realize — what I think the popular heart, in its forbearance, has never completely comprehended — the unspeakable and hellish atrocity of this rebellion. It is a perfect saturnalia of demoniac passion. From the reddened waters of Bull Run, and from the gory field of Manassas, there is now going up an appeal to God and to millions of exasperated men against those fiends in human shape, who, drunken with the orgies of an infernal ambition, are filling to its brim the cup of a nation's sorrow. Woe, woe to these traitors when this appeal shall be an- swered !" Do you, apologists for these madmen, sympathizers with their guilt, applauders of their success, accomplices in their crime — do you dare to talk to us of peace, dare take that blessed word on your foul lips, remembering what you have done ? Do you dare talk of peace before the guilt of break- ing peace is punished? Dare talk of peace simply that the ruffian desolators may enjoy an unshadowed victory? The effrontery of this clamor is as great as it would have been for tories in the revolution to have denounced Washington and the Congress for desolating the land with blood, appealed for instant terms with Great Britain, and begged to be en- trusted by the loyal men with power ! TJios. Starr King, 1861. THE TRUE PEACE PARTY. We do need a peace party here, a serried, serious, trium- phant one, that shall save the State against the civil gophers that are now undermining its prosperity, and place a man true to the Union in its highest seat. Civil war is our dan- ger. Let the candidate of the Joab party triumph, and set himself against the requisitions of the Government, and seek, in the administration of his office, to extend open aid to Mr. Jefferson Davis, and we shall have civil war, which will wipe out the memory of such trifles as tax bills from Washington. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 199 For the loyal men of California, who owe allegiance first to the Constitution of the country, would bear no such treason. They would arm against it. They would rally. They would sweep the perjurer from his, seat. They would send him where Missourians sent Claiborne Jackson. They would keep the Constitution supreme over the Governor's chair. They would do this in mercy to the State, as their serious Christian duty ; and I know ministers who, if they have not muscle enough to hold a musket, and do not measure enough around the chest to be mustered into service, would be wil- ling to load revolvers for troops, and tear up their Bibles for waddings. If we would have peace in this State, we must show a strong front of Union loyalty. We must turn an ear, stone deaf, to insidious treason. We must look to our pow- der, and not to what it costs. And to have peace in the nation — peace that will endure ; peace that will be noble ; peace that will be cheap — we must send up one chorus, amid reverses and disasters, even though the line of the Potomac be broken and Washington seized and sacked by Vandals. NTo terms with traitors. The Con- stitution again along the whole coast line of the nation, and over all the old acres that have once acknowledged the American rule ! Then we shall make William Cullen Bry ant's words prophetic : " Country, marvel of the Earth ! O realm, to sudden greatness grown ! The age that gloried in thy birth, Shall it behold thee overthrown ? Shall traitors lay that greatness low ? No, Land of hope and blessing, No ! " And we, who wear thy glorious name, Shall we, like cravens, stand apart, When those whom thou hast trusted aim The death-blow at thy generous heart ? Forth goes the battle-cry, and lo ! Hosts rise in harness, shouting, No ! " And they who founded, in our land, The power that rules from sea to sea, Bled they in vain, or vainly planned To leave their country great and free ? Their sleeping ashes, from below, Send up the thrilling murmur, No ! " Our humming marts, our iron ways, Our wind-tossed woods on mountain-crest, The hoarse Atlantic, with his bays, The calm, broad Ocean of the West, And Mississippi's torrent flow, And loud Niagara, answer, No !" Thos. Starr King, 1861. 200 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOLDIER. Soldiers : next to the worship of the Father of us all, the deepest and grandest of human emotions is the love of the land that gave us birth. It is an enlargement and exaltation of all the tenderest and strongest sympathies of kindred and of home. In all centuries and climes it has lived and has de- fied .chains, and dungeons, and racks to crush it. It has strewed the earth with its monuments, and has shed undying "lustre on a thousand fields on which it l^as battled. Through the night of ages, Thermopylae glows like some mountain's peak on which the morning sun has risen, because twenty- three hundred years ago, this hallowing passion touched its mural precipices and its crowning crags. It is easy, however, to be patriotic in piping times of peace, and in the sunny hour of prosperity. It is national sorrow, it is war, with its attendant perils and horrors, that tests this passion, and winnows from the masses those who, with all their love of life, still love their country more. While your present po- sition is a most vivid and impressive illustration of patriotism, it has a glory peculiar and altogether its own. The merce- nary armies which have swept victoriously over the world, and have gathered so many of the laurels that history has .embalmed, were but machines drafted into the service of ambitious spirits whom they obeyed, and little understood or appreciated the problems their blood was poured out to solve. But while you have all the dauntless physical courage which they displayed, you add to it a thorough knowledge of the argument on which this mighty movement proceeds, and a moral heroism which, breaking away from the en- tanglements of kindred, and friends, and State policy, enables you to follow your convictions of duty, even though they should lead you up to the cannon's mouth. It must, how- ever, be added that with this elevation of position come corresponding responsibilities. Soldiers as you are by con- viction, the country looks not to your officers, chivalric and skilful as they may be, but to you and to each of you, for the safety of those vast national interests committed to the fortunes of this war. Your camp life will expose you to many temptations ; you should resist them as you would the advancing squadrons of the enemy. In every hour of peril or incitement to excess, you will say to yourselves, " Our country sees us," and so act as to stand forth soldiers, not only without fear, but also without reproach. Each moment not absorbed by the toils and duties of your military life, SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 201 should, as far as practicable, be devoted to that mental and moral training without which the noblest of volunteers must sink to a level with an army of mercenaries. Alike in the inaction of the camp and amid the fatigues of the march, and the charge and shouts of battle, you will remember that you have in your keeping not only your own personal reputation, but the honor of your native State, and, what is infinitely more inspiring, the honor of that blood-bought and beneficent Republic whose children you are. Any irregularity on your part would sadden the land that loves you ; any faltering in the presence of the foe would cover it with immeasurable humiliation. You will soon mingle in the ranks with the gallant volunteers from the North and the West, and with me you will admire their moderation, their admirable disci- pline, and that deep determination whose earnestness with them has no language of menace, or bluster, or passion. When the men from Bunker Hill and the men from the " dark and bloody ground," unestranged from each other by the low arts of politicians, shall stand side by side on the same national battle-field, the heart of freedom will be glad. Son. Joseph Molt, 1861. EUEAL VOLUNTEEES. Within so brief a period no such gigantic power has ever been placed at the disposal of any government as that which has rallied to the support of this within the last few months, through those volunteers who have poured alike from hill and valley, city and village, throughout the loyal States. All classes and all pursuits have been animated by the same lofty and quenchless enthusiasm. While, however, I would make no invidious distinctions, where all have so nobly done their duty, I cannot refrain from remarking how conspicuous the hard-handed tillers of the soil of the North and the West have made themselves in swelling the ranks of our army. We honor commerce with its busy marts, and the work-shop with its patient toil and exhaustless ingenuity, but still we would be unfaithful to the truth of history did we not confess that the most heroic champions of human freedom and the most illustrious apostles of its principles have come from the broad fields of agriculture. There seems to be something in the scenes of nature, in her wild and beautiful landscapes, in her cascades and cataracts, and waving woodlands, and in the pure and exhilarating airs of her hills and mountains, that 9* 202 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. unbraces the fetters which man would rivet upon his fellow- man. It was at the handles of the plow and amid the breathing odors of its newly-opened furrows that the charac- ter of Cincinnatus was formed, expanded and matured. It was not in the city, but in the deep gorges and upon the snow-clad summits of the Alps, amid the eagles and the thunders, that William Tell laid the foundations of those altars to human liberty, against which the surging tides of European despotism have beaten for centuries, but thank God, have beaten in vain. It was amid the primeval forests and mountains, the lakes and leaping streams of our own land; amid fields of waving grain; amid the songs of the reaper and the tinkling of the shepherd's bell that were nur- tured those rare virtues which clustered star-like in the char- acter of Washington, and lifted him in moral stature a head and shoulders above even the demi-gods of ancient story. Son. Joseph SoU, 1861. DUTY OF THE INVADING ARMY. There is one most striking and distinctive feature of your mission that should never be lost sight of. You are not about to invade the territory of a foreign enemy, nor is your purpose that of conquest and spoliation. Should you occupy the South, you will do so as friends and protectors, and your aim will be not to subjugate that betrayed and distracted country, but to deliver it from the remorseless military des- potism by which it is trodden down. Union men, who are your brethren, throng in those States, and will listen for the coming footsteps of your army as the Scottish maiden of Lucknow listened for the airs of her native land. It is true that amid the terrors and darkness which prevail there, they are silenced and are now unseen, but be assured that by the light of the stars you carry upon your banner you will find them all. It has been constantly asserted by the conspirators throughout the South that this is a war of subjugation on the part of the Government of the United States, waged for the extermination of Southern institutions, and by Yandals and miscreants, who, in the fury of their passions, spare neither age nor sex nor property. It will be the first and the highest duty of the American army, as it advances South, by its moderation and humanity, by its exemption from every excess and irregularity, and by its scrupulous observance of the rights of all, to show how foully both it and the Govern- SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 203 merit it represents have been traduced. When, therefore, you enter the Sonth, press lightly upon her gardens and fields ; guard sacredly her homes ; protect, if need be, at the point of your bayonets her constitutional rights, for you will thereby not only respond fully to the spirit and objects of this war, but you will exert over alike the oppressed and the infatuated portion of her people a power to which the most brilliant of your military successes might not attain. But when you meet in battle array those atrocious conspirators who, at the head of armies and through woes unutterable, are seeking the ruin of our common country, remember that since the sword flamed over the portals of Paradise until now, it has been drawn in no holier cause than that in which you are engaged. Remember, too, the millions whose hearts are breaking under the anguish of this terrible crime, and then strike boldly, strike in the power of truth and duty, strike with a bound and a shout, well assured that your blows will fall upon ingrates and traitors and parricides, whose lust for power would make of this bright land one vast Golgotha, rather than be baulked of their guilty aims — and may the God of your fathers give you the victory ! Hon. Joseph Holt, 1861.' THE BENEFIT OF EEVEESES. SoldiePvS : When Napoleon was about to spur on his le- gions to combat on the sands of an African desert, pointing them to the Egyptian pyramids that loomed up against the far-off horizon, he exclaimed, " From yonder summits forty centuries look down upon you." The thought was sublime and electric ; but you have even more than this. When you shall confront those infuriated hosts, whose battle-cry is, " Down with the Government of the United States," let your answering shout be, " The Government as our fathers made it ;" and when you strike, remember that not only do the good and the great of the past look down upon you from heights infinitely above those of Egyptian pyramids, but that uncounted generations yet to come are looking up to you, and claiming at your hands the unimpaired transmission to them of that priceless heritage which has been committed to our keeping. I say its unimpaired transmission — in all the amplitude of its outlines, in all the symmetry of its match- less proportions, in all the palpitating fulness of its bless- ings ; not a miserably shrivelled and shattered thing, charred 204 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKEE. by the fires and torn by the tempests of revolution, and all over polluted and scarred by the bloody poniards of traitors. Soldiers : you have come up to your present exalted posi- tion over many obstacles and through many chilling discour- agements. One of those chances to which the fortunes of war are ever subject, and against which the most consum- mate generalship cannot at all times provide, has given a momentary advantage to the forces of the rebellion. Grouchy did not pursue the column of Bulow, and thus Waterloo was won for Wellington at the very moment that victory, with her laurelled wreath, seemed stooping over the head of Na- poleon. So Patterson did not pursue Johnston, and the overwhelming concentration of rebel troops that in conse- quence ensued was probably the true cause why the army of the United States was driven back, excellent as was its dis- cipline, and self-sacrificing as had been its feats of valor. Panics, from slight and seemingly insignificant causes, have occurred in the best drilled and bravest of armies, and they prove neither the want of discipline nor of courage on the part of the soldiers. This check has taught us invaluable lessons, which we could not have learned from victory, while the dauntless daring displayed by our volunteers is full of promise for the future. We shall rapidly recover from this discomfiture, which, after all, will serve only to nerve to yet more extraordinary exertions the nineteen millions of people who have sworn that this Republic shall not perish ; and perish it will not, perish it cannot, while this oath remains. When we look away to that scene of carnage, all strewed with the bodies of patriotic men who courted death for them- selves that their country might live, and then look upon the homes which their fall has rendered desolate forever, we realize — what I think the popular heart in its forbearance has never completely comprehended — the unspeakable and hellish atrocity of this rebellion. It is a perfect saturnalia of demo- niac passion. From the reddened waters of Bull Run, and from the gory field of Manassas, there is now going up an appeal to Go i. and to millions of exasperated men against those fiends in human shape, who, drunken with the orgies of an infernal ambition, are filling to its brim the cup of a na- tion's sorrows. Woe, woe, I say, to these traitors, when this appeal shall be answered! — Hon. Joseph Holt, 1861. SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 205 THE PEOBLEM FOE THE UNITED STATES. The Union cannot expire as the snow melts from the rock, or a star disappears from the firmament. % When it falls, the crash will be heard in all lands. Wherever the winds of heaven go, that will go, bearing sorrow and dismay to mil- lions of stricken hearts ; for the subversion of this Govern- ment will render the cause of constitutional liberty hopeless throughout the world. What nation can govern itself, if this nation cannot ? What encouragement will any people have to establish liberal institutions for themselves, if ours fail ? Providence has laid upon us the responsibility and the honor of solving that problem in which all coming genera- tions of men have a profound interest — whether the true ends of government can be secured by a popular representa- tive system. In the munificence of His goodness, He put us in possession of our heritage, by a series of interpositions scarcely less signal than those which conducted the Hebrews to Canaan; and He has, up to this period, withheld from us no immunities or resources which might facilitate an auspi- cious result. Never before was a people so advantageously situated for working out this great problem in favor of human liberty ; and it is important for us to understand that the world so regards it. If, in the frenzy of our base sectional jealousies, we dig the grave of the Union, and thus decide this question in the negative, no tongue may attempt to depict the disappoint- ment and despair which will go along with the announcement as it spreads through distant lands. It will be America, after fifty years' experience, giving in her adhesion to the doctrine that man was not made for self-government. It will be freedom herself proclaiming that freedom is a chimera ; Liberty ringing her own knell, all over the globe. And, when the citizens or subjects of the governments which are to succeed this Union shall visit Europe, and see, in some land now struggling to cast off its fetters, the lacerated and lifeless form of Liberty laid prostrate under the iron heel of Despotism, let them remember that the blow which destroyed her was inflicted by their own country. " So the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain, No more through rolling clouds to soar again, Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart, And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart. Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel ; While the same plumage that had warmed his nest Drank -the last life-drop of his bleeding breast." Rev. Henry A. Board/nan, 1861. 206 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. THE CONSTITUTION EQUAL TO THE OEISIS. I do not know any one who is more interested — no one here, certainly, is so much interested — in the suppression of the rebellion, as I am personally. You see the conflagration from the distance ; it blisters me at my side. You can sur- vive the integrity of the nation ; we, in Maryland, would live on the side of a gulf, perpetually tending to plunge into its depths. It is for us life and liberty ; it is for you greatness, strength and prosperity. If you are interested, still more am I ; if illegal measures are necessary for salvation, I am more tempted than you to resort to them ; and yet I desire to say that there is no cir- cumstance connected with all the difficulties we are called upon to deal with, — nothing, in my sight, so threatening in the future, nothing which I lind myself so unable to contem- plate with satisfaction, as the temper of the public mind in dealing with this great rebellion. Not that I have any ten- derness for the parricidal hands that have lifted weapons against the heart of the nation; — let them perish! but in their grave I do not wish to see American liberty buried. The energy of the nation having now been aroused, her em- battled hosts lining the whole border, flaming with the con- flict by whose light we read that the nation will not die a dog's death, and will not perish of rottenness off the face of the earth, ; — it becomes us now to turn our eyes to the prin- ciples upon which the contest is to be waged, to hold those in authority responsible, not merely for energy, but for legality and constitutionality, — to silence the sneer with which men are met when they recall their rulers to the limits of law and the Constitution. Let them understand that the American Government will not be so degraded in the eyes of history as to be driven to the necessity of inaugurating revolution for the purpose of suppressing insurrection. They who speak about extraordinary methods — of the necessity of usurpation, — of the necessity of neglecting the " technicalities of law," as they politely term them — the necessity of departing from all " red-tap eism," which is the , ordinary phrase to describe now the regular operations of the Government, conducted by wise men — these men must be taught, (and it is for you to teach them,) that it does not prove a man is disloyal because he thinks the Constitution better than they do, because he believes it not only powerful in peace, but powerful in war ; that its asgis is not only so SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 207 broad a^ to protect the people in times of quiet ; but in the midst of civil war, the surest protection ; in the face of na- tional disaster the safest refuge. Hon.H. Winter Davis, 1861. THE DANGER OF EXASPERATING THE REBELS. Ix all ages respect for the dead has been held to be a necessary virtue in a brave and generous character. To in- flict outrage upon a slain enemy, even, has heretofore been confined to dark corners of the earth. Such practices are too vile and mean to be tolerated in the light of civilization. Hence the fiendish spirit of the rebel leaders is painfully ap- parent in the treatment of our heroic dead. They were stripped naked, and left for days unburied. Many were buried in trenches, face downward, as a mark of indignity. Some were boiled, to get the bones for trophies, and heads cut olf, that the skulls might be kept for drinking cups. Many human bones were found scattered through the rebel huts, sawed into rings. By acts of violence and crime like these the rebels signalized their first victory over the army of the Republic. With savage and malignant hate, they tortured, slew, and desecrated. The monstrous treason which was commenced in perjury and theft, was continued in cowardly cruelty and barbarism. Well may I say the cli- max of malignity was early reached. But has it diminished by long months of forbearance ? Let the score of brave offi- cers and men of General Curtis' command, who were slain by the poisoned food left by the retreating rebels, bear wit- ness. Let the fire-ship filled with deadly missiles, sent down upon our vessel, invited by a flag of truce and displaying another, below New Orleans ; the throat-cutting of sick and unarmed men at Shiloh, as they lay in their tents ; the fre- quent murder of parties bearing flags of truce ; the dismal tales of southern prison-houses ; the hanging of Union men ; the disregard of age or sex by the rebels in their unrestrained wrath ; let these and a thousand other barbarities give testi- mony how much danger there is of exasperating the traitors in arms. Talk of exasperating men like these ! As w r ell might Michael have feared to exasperate the rebellious angels whom he hurled from the battlements of heaven at the fiat of the Almighty. As well might the English have feared to exasperate the Sepoys, who slew in cold blood all whom they overpowered. It is only by sharp and sudden blows you 208 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. can put down this rebellion ; not by faint-heartedness ; not by calculations how your mortal enemies will regard your measures. Why, sir, the same advice that now seeks to in- duce us to do nothing that will exasperate rebels, would, if carried to lgitimate conclusions, cause our armies to be dis- banded, surrender this capital to the enemy, and give over the Union men of the South to hopeless ruin. In the same spirit the last Congress were advised not to pass the Force Bill, to make no appropriations for the navy and army, to do nothing to exasperate the men who had commenced to steal public property, organize rebellion, and trample upon the laws. It, will forever remain a blot upon the administration of James .Buchanan, that for months after the great conspir- acy had developed itself by acts of ruthless violence, he wrung his hands in the halls of the White House, and lamented his hard fate, fearing to strike the blow that should save the na- tion, lest he might exasperate the traitors who bearded him even in his privacy, and publicly denounced him as a falsifier. The nation is a year older than it then was, and we are bur- dened with a weighty experience. We see that no act or word of conciliation will avail with the secessionists ; that this contest must be fought out to the bitter end by every means in our power consistent with the laws of war. The event has proved that it would have been better for the coun- try had this fact been realized in July last. Then we would have had less talk about conciliation — which has been in vain ; utterly idle — and more effective blows upon the front of the horrid "monster Secession. — Son. Aaron /Sargent, 1862. ABOLITION AND ANTI-SL A VERY. Ladies and Gentlemen : No public speaker, on rising to address an assembly, has a right to presume that, because at the outset he receives a courteous and even warm approval, therefore they are prepared to indorse all his views and utter- ances. Doubtless there are some points, at least, about which we very widely differ ; and yet, I must frankly confess, I know of no other reason for your kind approval this evening, than that I am an original, uncompromising, irrepressible, out- and-out, unmistakable, Garrisonian abolitionist. By that designation I do not mean one whose brain is crazed, whose spirit is fanatical, whose purpose is wild and dangerous, but one wdiose patriotic creed is the Declaration of American In- dependence, whose moral line of measurement is the Golden SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 209 Rule, whose gospel of humanity is the Sermon on the Mount, and whose language is that of Ireland's liberator, O'Connell — " I care not what caste, creed or color slavery may as- sume, whether it be personal or political, mental or corporal, intellectual or spiritual, I am for its instant, its total aboli- tion. I am for justice in the name of humanity, and accord- ing to the law of the living God." I know that to be an abolitionist is not to be with the multitude — on the side of the majority — in a popular and respectable position ; and yet I think I have a right to ask of you, and of ah who are living on the soil of the Empire State, and of the people of the North at large, why it is that you and they shrink from the name of abolitionist ? Why is " it that, while you profess to be opposed to slavery, you nev- ertheless desire the whole world to understand that you are not radical abolitionists? What is the meaning of this? Why are you not all abolitionists? Your principles are mine. What you have taught me, I adopt. What you have taken a solemn oath to support, as essential to a free govern- ment, I recognize as right and just. The people of this State profess to believe in the Declaration of Independence. That is my abolitionism. Every man, therefore, who disclaims abolitionism, repudiates the Declaration of Independence. Does he not ? " All men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with an inalienable right to liberty." Gentle- men, that is my fanaticism — that is all my fanaticism. All I ask is, that this declaration may be carried out everywhere in our country and throughout the world. It belongs to man- kind. Your Constitution is an abolition Constitution. Your laws are abolition laws. Your institutions are abolition in- stitutions. Your free schools are abolition schools. I be- believe in them all ; and all that I ask is, that institutions so good, so free, so noble, may be everywhere propagated, eve- rywhere accepted. And thus it is that I desire, not to curse the South, or any portion of her people, but to bless her abundantly, by abolishing her infamous and demoralizing slave institution, and erecting the temple of liberty on the ruins thereof. I believe in democracy ; but it is the democracy which recognizes man as man, the world over. It is that democracy which spurns the fetter and the yoke for itself, and for all wearing the human form. And therefore I say, that any man who pretends to be a democrat, and yet defends the act of making man the property of his fellow-man, is a dissembler and a hypocrite, and I unmask him before the universe. We profess to be Christians. Christianity — its object is 210 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. to redeem, not to enslave men ! Christ is-our Redeemer. I believe in Him. He leads the anti-slavery cause, and always has led it. The Gospel is the Gospel of freedom ; and any man claiming to be a Christian, and to have within him the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, and yet dares to hold his fellow-man in bondage, as a mere piece of perishable property, is recreant to' all the principles and obligations of Christianity. It is a shame that we of the North should any longer stand apart. What are all your paltry distinctions worth ? You are not abolitionists. Oh, no. You are only anti-slavery! Dare you trust yourself in Carolina, except, perhaps, at Port Royal ? You are not an ultra anti-slavery man ; there is nothing ultra about you. You are only a Republican ! Dare you go to New Orleans ? Why, the President of the United States, chosen by the will of the people, and duly inaugurated by solemn oath, is an outlaw in nearly every slave State in this Union ! He cannot show himself there, except at the peril of his life. And so of his Cabinet. I think it is time, uncler these circumstances, that we should all hang together, or, as one said of old, "we shall be pretty sure, if caught, to hang separately." The South cares nothing for these nice distinctions among us. If we avow that we "are at all opposed to slavery, it is enough, in the judgment of the South, to condemn us to a coat of tar and feathers, and to general out- lawry. — William Lloyd Garrison, 1862. WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE? Who are responsible for this war ? If I should go out into the streets for a popular reply, it would be, " The aboli- tionists; it is all owing to the abolitionists. If they had not meddled with the subject of slavery* everything would have gone on well ; we should have lived in peace all the days of our lives. But they insisted upon meddling with what doesn't concern them ; they indulged in censorious and harsh language against the slaveholders, and the result is, our na- tion is upturned, we have immense armies looking each other fiercely in the face, and our glorious Union is violently broken asunder." But, in the language of your chairman, in a brief letter which he sent to the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, a few weeks ago, "*My opinion is this : There is war because there was a Republican party. There , SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 211 was a Rejmblican party because there was an Abolition party. There was an Abolition party because there was slavery. Now, to charge the war upon republicanism is merely to blame the lamb that stood in the brook. To charge it upon abolitionism is merely to blame the sheep for being the lamb's mother. But to charge it upon slavery is to lay the crime flat at the door of the wolf where it belongs. To end the trouble, kill the wolf. I belong to the party of wolf-killers." And let all the people say Amen ! But consider the absurdity of this charge. Who are the avowed abolitionists of our country? I have told you they occupy a very unpopular position in society — and certainly very few men have yet had the moral courage to glory in the name of abolitionist. They are comparatively a mere hand- full. And yet they have overturned the Government ! They have been stronger than all the parties and all the religious bodies of the country— stronger than the Church, and strong- er than the State. Indeed ! Then it must be because with them is the power of God, and it is the truth which has worked out this marvellous result. How many abolition presses do you suppose exist in this country? We have, I believe, three or four thousand jour- nals printed in the United States ; and how many abolition journals do you suppose there are ? You can count them all by the fingers upon your hand ; yet, it seems, they are more than a match for all the rest put together. This is very ex- traordinary ; but, our enemies being judges, it is certainly true. " But the abolitionists have used very hard language." Well, it is certain that a very remarkable change, in regard to this, has taken place within a short time. They who have complained of our hard language, as applied to the .slave- holders, are now for throwing cannon-balls and bomb-shells at them ! They have no objection to blowing out their brains, but you must not use hard language ! Now, I would much rather a man would hurl a hard epithet at my head than the softest cannon-ball or shell that can be found in the army of the North. As a people, however, we are coming to the conclusion that, "after all, the great body of the slaveholders are not exactly the honest, honorable and Christian men that we mistook them to be. It is astonishing, when any wrong is done to us, how easily we can see its true nature. What an eye-salve it is ! If any one picks our pocket, of course he is a thief; if any one breaks into our house, he is a burglar; if any one undertakes to outrage us, he is a scoundrel. And now that these slaveholders are in rebellion against the Gov- 212 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. eminent, committing piracy upon our commerce, confiscating Northern property to the amount of hundreds of millions of dollars, and plunging the country into all the horrors of civil war, why, of course, they are pirates — they are swindlers — they are traitors of the deepest dye ! Let me tell you one thing, and that is, they are just as good as they ever were. They are just as honest, just as honorable, and just as Chris- tian as they ever were. Circumstances alter cases, you know. While they were robbing four millions of God's despised children of a different complexion from our own, stripping them of all their rights, selling them in lots to suit purcha- sers, and trafficking in their blood, they were upright, patri- otic, Christian gentlemen ! Now that they have interfered with us and our rights, have confiscated our property, and are treasonably seeking to establish a rival confederacy, they are downright villains and traitors, who ought to be hanged by the neck until they are dead. No, my friends, no stain of blood rests on the garments of the abolitionists. They have endeavored to prevent the awful calamity which has come upon the nation, and they may wash their hands ininnocency, and thank God that in the evil day they were able to stand. This fearful state of things is not of men ; it is of Heaven. As we have sowed, we are reaping. The whole cause of it is declared in the memorable verse of the prophet : " Ye have not hearkened unto me in proclaiming liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine." That is the whole story. This is the settlement day of God Almighty for the unparal- leled guilt of our nation ; and if we desire to be saved, we must see to it that we put away our sins, " break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free," and thus save our land from ruin. — William Lloyd Garrison, 1862. THE SOUTH MUST BE ANNIHILATED. We are accustomed to use the words North and South familiarly in times like these. They once meant the land "toward the pole and the land toward the sun. They have a deeper significance at present. By the North I. mean the civilization of the nineteenth century; I mean that equal and recognized manhood up to which the race has struggled by the toils and battles of nineteen centuries ; I mean free speech, free types, open Bibles — the welcome rule of the majority • SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 213 I mean the Declaration of Independence ! And by the South, I mean likewise a principle, and not a locality ; an element of civil life in fourteen rebellious States. I mean an element which, like the days of Queen Mary and the Inquisition, cannot tolerate free speech, and puuishes it with the stake. I mean the aristocracy of the skin, that considers the Decla- ration of Independence a delusion, and democracy a snare— - that one-third of the race are born booted and spurred, and the other two-thirds ready saddled for that third to ride. I mean a civilization which prohibits the Bible by statute to every sixth man of its community, and puts a matron in a felon's cell for teaching a black sister to read. I mean the intellectual, social, aristocratic South — the thing that mani- fests itself by barbarism and the bowie-knife, by bullying and L} T nch-law, by ignorance and idleness, by the claim of one man to own his brother, by statutes making it penal for the State of Massachusetts to bring an action in her courts, by statutes, standing on the books of Georgia to-day, offering five thousand dollars foi* the head of William Lloyd Garrison. That South is to be annihilated. This country will never know peace nor Union until the South, (using the word in the sense I have described) is annihilated, and the North is spread over it ! It is a conflict which will never have an end until one or the other elements subdues its rival. Therefore we should be, like the South, penetrated with an idea, and ready with fortitude and courage to sacrifice everything to that idea. Why, no man can fight Stonewall Jackson, an honest fanatic on the side of slavery, but John Brown, an equally honest fanatic on the other. They are only chemical equals, and will neutralize each other. You cannot neutral- ize nitric acid with cologne water. You cannot hurl William H. Seward at Jeff. Davis. When England conquered the Highlands, she held them — held them until she could educate them ; and it took a gene- ration. That is just what we have to do with the South ; annihilate the old South, and put a new one there. You do not annihilate a thing by abolishing it. You must supply the vacancy. In the Gospel, when the chambers were swept and garnished, the devils came back, because there were no angels there. And if we should sweep Virginia clean, Jeff. Davis would come back with seven other devils worse than himself, if he could find them, and occupy it, unless you put free institutions there. Some men say, begin it by exporting the blacks. If you do, you export the very fulcrum of the lever ; you export the very best material to begin with. The nation that should 214 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKEE. shovel down the Alleghanies, and then build them up again, would be a wise nation, compared with the one that should export four million blacks, and then import four million of Chinese to take their places. To dig a hole, and then fill it up again, to build a wall for the purpose of beating out your brains against it, would be Shakesperian wisdom compared with such an undertaking. Colonize the blacks ! A man might as well colonize his hands ; or, when the robber enters his house, he might as well colonize his revolver. What we want is systematic national action. Never until we welcome the negro, the foreigner, all races as equals, and, melted to- gether in a common nationality, hurl them all at despotism, will the North deserve triumph, or earn it at the hands of a just God. But the North will triumph. I hear it. Do you remem- ber that disastrous siege in India, when the Scotch girl raised her head from the pallet of the hospital, and said to the sick- ening .hearts of the English, "I hear the bagpipes; the Campbells are coming !" And they said, " Jessie, it is deli- rium." " No, I know it ; I heard it far off." And in an hour the pibroch burst upon their glad ears, and the banner of England floated in triumph over their heads. So I hear in the dim distance the first notes of the jubilee rising from the hearts of the millions. Soon, very soon, you shall hear it at the gates of the citadel, and the stars and stripes shall guarantee liberty forever, from the lakes to the gulf! Wendell Phillips, 1863. EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE NATIONAL COURAaE. I. The nation needed a reinvigoration of its courage, and the war has brought it. The privations of camp life, the hard- ships and fatigues of transportation, the perils of exposure, hunger, pestilence, the terrors of the battle-field, and the more gloomy probabilities of capture by a ruthless and vin- dictive foe — all these must be faced, and with the necessity came the spirit and the men to meet it ; and the stern but profitable trial which at first was limited to the ready and the forward — the bravest and most generous of us all — the exigencies of an impending draft have brought home to every household and to every bosom. And what must be the result ? Where there were tens at the beginning of the SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 215 war, I presume there are hundreds now — and I trust there will be tens of thousands ere its close — who would not hesi- tate, at the call of God, to take their lives in their hands, and go forth to the post of danger; who, for a righteous cause, could look death itself in the eye with an unmoved nerve$ retaining coolness to direct and strength to strike the needed blow. It remains to be seen whether, in this baptism of blood, the moral courage of the nation shall also get renewed — whether, as a people, we shall gain strength at last to face the tremendous moral issues which underlie this outward agitation ; questions from which Ave have shrunk too long, and with a pitiable timidity — dodging behind compromises and party traditions, hushing up discussion,, ever striving to shift our responsibility to other shoulders — but from which it seems now the purpose of God that we, the people, shall escape no longer. Slavery — slavery — slavery — O do not tremble and turn pale at the word ! it is one with which we must grow fa- miliar. American slavery — why should all the .world but Americans be free to utter the word, and fearless to discuss the thing ? Slaver v — the stalking-horse (I grant) of radi- cals and agitators — the bugbear of timid conservatives — the "little joker" of political tricksters and demagogues; but still, slavery, the question of the generation — the touch- stone of our political Avisdom and virtue — the crime hitherto aud the curse of the republic — the hinge, therefore, on Avhich God will make its future destiny to turn — have Ave courage at last to look it calmly in the face ? have we moral strength enough to work out and adopt a policy concerning it, Avhich shall be at once right and safe, humane and wise, dutiful to God and just to all men ? The question is upon you, my countrymen. It is a ques- tion for the men of this generation to decide ; and all the signs of these terrible times summon you to a brave dis- charge of the duty. Either before this war is ended or as soon as it is ended, you must act ; and what tongue can tell the magnitude of the issues which Avill then turn on this sin- gle pivot, whether you dare to do right ! Have you the moral courage to obey the inspirations of reason and the Word of God, regardless of what you know to be unworthy and base? HaA r e you the courage to go away from the counting-house, aAvay from the. committee-room — to go forth from the pestilential atmosphere of a corrupt artificial so- ciety, and to decide upon the nation's duty, and your OAvn, under the pure face of heaven and in the light of God's eter- 216 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. nities? Will you dare to forget commercial and political expediency, and all material interests, in settling a question of honor and right? Will you be bold enough to ignore old party issues, to break the bonds of party fealty, to disregard and (if needs be) discard your party leaders, who — many of them spoiled by a bad political education, and all of them at their wits' end in this appalling crisis — must now be in- structed and newly inspired by you? And, having thought the honest thought, will you dare to speak the manly word, no matter who may tremble or who may frown at your te- merity — speak it kindly and in the love of all men, but speak it frankly and firmly and fully, with a fixed determination (God helping you) to do wrong to none, even the wickedest, and to withhold right from none, even the weakest of man- kind! II. The problem now in process of solution among us — the problem of American slavery — is a strangely complicated one, involving the conflicting interests of many different States, different races, different orders of men and classes in community. All are sensitive and jealous, and clamorous to be heard. But I am persuaded that the most important party in the controversy — the only party of any great account in the sight of God — is he who in the esteem of men is the meanest and the least of all, he who is most silent in the assertion of his own claims, and whose claims all others are most disposed to ignore — I mean the negro, the object of universal odium and contempt, yet possessed of every essential human attribute, and every essential human right, and therefore fittest of all to be Selected by God as the test of our faith in Him, and in the great principles of impartial justice, of which we claim to be the especial champions among men. Tried by this test, how much or how little of moral cour- age shall we be found to possess ? Dare we, in the adjust- ment of this question — Oh ! dare we treat the negro practi- cally as what we in theory acknowledge him to be, a man and a brother ? as, in all essential respects, our equal before God and our own laws ? The poor negro — the mean, the ignorant, the low, lazy, lying negro — the heir of an inferior organiza- tion, (I do. not question it,) the degraded victim of the lust and tyranny of a more powerful race — do we dare to ac- knowledge that we discern in him the image of the eternal God, sharing with us in the moral ruins of the fall, and em- braced on the same terms with us in the glorious sweep of SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 217 redemption? And when the proper time has come, will we dare to proclaim him a man ? and, standing by the shrines of freedom which our fathers reared, to swear by our fathers' God that, to the full extent of our power, he shall be pro- tected, like other men, in the enjoyment of all God-given rights — protected alike from the haughty rapacity of southern oppressors, and from the meaner and more cruel prejudice and jealousy of his fellow-laborers at the North ? As God himself is true and noble and great, the vindicator of the op- pressed and the refuge of the poor, so truly do I believe that on this question hangs the fate of the nation. If we cannot muster strength to meet it — I was about to say, God help us ! But God will not help those who thus refuse his instructions and trample on his law of love. If we can, and do, then I be- lieve the victory already won. When the heart of this people is right toicards the negro , — rather let me say, towards God in the negro — his great controversy with America will be at an end ; and thenceforth the track of her future will be like the fa- bled road along which, in the Oriental mythology, the perfected Gaudama journeyed through chaos to the celestial seats of wisdom and repose. Mountains of difficulty will subside into smooth and level plains ; golden bridges will shoot across the yawning chasms of peril ; wild beasts and savage men who seek her ill, will glare along the track, spell-bound and impo- tent ; all things "will conspire to greet and assist her pro- gress : while from the whirling axles of her triumphant cha- riot new stars shall sparkle forth with ceaseless iteration, and plant themselves serenely in the heaven of a glorious and en- during prosperity. — J. H. Raymond^ 1863. THE POWER OF HEROIC EXAMPLE. We must not forget the specific and invaluable influence exerted on the spirit of a people by those examples of signal heroism and chivalrous self-devotion for which a magnanimous war gives occasion, and which it exalts, as peace cannot, be- fore men's minds. Almost five centuries ago, under the tumbling w T alls of Sempnch, where Leopold stood with 4,000 Austrians to crush the 1400 Swiss who dared to confront him, wdien again and again each rush of the mountaineers had failed to break the line of pikemen, and the liberties of the cantons seemed reeling into hopeless ruin, with sublimest self-sacrifice, one, springing 218 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKEK. upon the foe with wide-spread arms, gathered into his breast a sheaf of spears, and made a way above his body for that triumphant valor which pierced and broke the horrid ranks, and set a new and bloody seal to the rightful autonomy of the mountain republics. And till Mont Blanc ceases to greet with earliest smiles the purpling dawn, and till the Rhone runs back to flood its glacial source — the hardy Switzer will not forget the daring deed and magic name of Arnold Win- kelried ! More than half way from our day to the flood, — before Herodotus read his history, before ISTehemiah rebuilt Jeru- salem, before Cincinnatus was dictator at Rome, — under the shadow of Mount (Eta, upon the road from Thessaly south towards Athens and towards Argos, a .thousand men, Spar- tans and Thespians, fell, to a man, unwilling to retreat before the invader. The stone lion that afterwards stood there was not only the emblem, of what they were, but of what they made all Greece to be. - Of that stern valor the stranger did " tell," according to the inscriptions, not alone the "Lacedemonians," but all the world, that they " lay there obeying their laws." Springs of salt and iron remain to mark the sf)ot, welling around the steps of the traveller, as if they had sprung from that hot steel so fiercely wielded ; as if they would symbolize the thought that has flown from that centre of heroism through the history of mankind. It is not even irreverent to say, that save one cross, beneath which earth herself did shiver, no other hath lifted its head so high, or flung its arms so wide abroad to scatter inspiring influence, as did that cross on which the Persian nailed in fury the dead Leonidas. So it has been in all time since. There is a contagion in such exam- ples that smites the souls of generous men. Conscience and reason, and every sympathy accepts their lesson. The veil is lifted a new height, where time no more is its narrow domain ; the earth no more its only area ; where moral greatness is more than wealth, and the supreme glory of personal sacrifice attracts, rewards the great endeavor. The cavalry charge at Balaklava — it may have been in its origin a mistake; but the impetuous rush to death of those six hundred across the flood of sheeted flame that Russian batteries poured upon them, will not pass, in its great influence, from English history, till the fast-anchored isle has been scuttled and sunk. The pal- ace is richer, and the cottage is comelier in the light of the fact. Such examples as these become great powers in civilization. History hurries from the drier details, and is touched with SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 219 enthusiasm as she draws near to them. Eloquence delights to rehearse and impress them. The songs of a nation repeat their story, and make their triumph sound again through the silver cymbals of speech. Legends prolong and art commemorates them. Language itself takes new images from them ; and words that are themselves " half-battles," are suddenly born at their recital. The very household life is exalted ; and the humblest man feels his position higher, and expresses his sense of it in a more dauntless bearing, as he sees that heroism still lives in the world ; that men of his own race and stuff, perhaps of his own neighborhood even, have faced so calmly such vast perils. And by and by we shall see more clearly than now we can, the great influence thus exerted on our own national career. When at last from the thunder and flame on the top of the mount the nation comes, as come it will, with its very face shining from the heat and the splendor which it there has encountered, then shall it appear as it cannot before, that no life hath been more productive than that which closed before its prime, sprinkling with blood the stony steeps of this as- cent! Then shall it appear that the delicate hands which have changed silk gloves for iron gauntlets have swept there- by the chords which vibrate into answers that distant ages still shall hear ! Yea, then shall it appear that never yet was forum reared, or senate chamber builded to be the fit and equal theatre for eloquence so thrilling and so majestic as that impe- rial eloquence of great deeds which shook the soul of the whole people from the thundering bluffs this side of Leesburg ! Better than new Californias every year are such examples to. a nation that would be noble ! Its very language and life must be lost before their force shall have ceased to inspire it, B. S. Storrs, Jr., 1863. THE KDT& OF DAHOMEY AND JEFFERSON DAVIS. There is a country called Dahomey in Africa. The gov- ernment is a despotism, pure and simple — hell-born, God-de- fying — without disguises or pretensions to be other than it is. The king has founded his commercial prosperity upon the slave-trade. He makes war upon the neighboring tribes, thus procuring slaves for exportation. His people manufac- ture spears, swords, daggers, clubs ; but his chief staple is men, women, children," and. young girls. -The royal bed- chamber is paved with skulls ; the roof is adorned with jaw- bones of chiefs he has slain in battle. A few years ago he 220 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. caused to be built a reservoir, and collected human beings for sacrifice — enough to fill it with blood — so that he could appear on those gory waves in a boat, and his admiring sub- jects behold him in all the greatness of his power and the beauty of his glory. Ladies and gentlemen, I stand here to defend the king of Dahomey. When this dark ruler shall be asked at the bar of his Maker, " Why hast thou done this ?" I believe he will answer, " I had no light — I had no Christ. Father, for- give me !" And will not the Infinite Mercy cover him with its mantle? Ladies and gentlemen, there is another land, where the word of God flows in streams broader than the greatest river. Yet in that land, almost on the estate of Washington, by order and under the very eye of Jefferson Davis, ten thousand prisoners of war, who have given their lives for Christian liberty and for the right of free labor, whose only crime is defending their legitimate government, are held in Libby Prison in Richmond by a usurped, vindic- tive, tottering, poverty-stricken authority, so that many of them are starving to death ! I have placed the king of Dahomey and Mr. Davis to- gether, because they belong together. The two gentlemen are associates in business. They do the same work, deal in the same article, and in the same spirit — the spirit of savage despotism, and the lowest pecuniary speculation. The king of Dahomey sweeps the adjoining territories with his armies, in order to procure a supply of the glorious staple, while Mr. Davis has organized this rebellion for the purpose of creating a large demand. The firm consists of three parties : the king of Dahomey is the resident agent in Africa ; Mr. Davis, the head partner, resides, for the present, in Richmond; the third partner, of inferior rank, but equal utility and merit, is the slave-trader — the ferocious pirate who carries the human cargo from Africa to Cuba, and whom the success of the re- bellion would admit into the ports of New Orleans, Charles- ton, New York and Boston. Both empires have the same ob- ject, and are built on the same corner-stone. If Mr. Davis suc- ceeds, it will consolidate and extend the empire of Dahomey. If the king of Dahomey and his compeers be suppressed, the whole enterprise of Mr. Davis must fail for want of supply. It is true the bed-chamber of Mr. Davis is not paved with human skulls ; but has not his gigantic crime laid a hundred thousand — yes, three or four hundred thousand — heads in the dust, and carried anguish into almost every family of the country? It is true he has not filled a cistern at Richmond with blood, and thus outwardly revealed himself to his ad- SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 221 miring followers in a boat ; but the waves of blood upon which he has attempted to float his barque into power — are they not far greater in quantity than was ever shed by his royal partner ? They are marked by the Christians of the earth ; and God has doubtless noted them in that great book out of which, we are told, " the dead shall be judged accord- ing to their works."— Hon. Theo. S. Fay, 1863. OUR TERRITORY A TRUST. The religious-minded among our people feel that in the territory committed to us there is a high and solemn trust — a national trust. We are taught that in some sense the world itself is a field, and every Christian nation acknowl- edges a certain responsibility for the moral condition of the globe. But how much nearer does it come when it is one's country ! And the Church of America is coming to feel more and more that God gave us this country, not merely for material aggrandizement, but for a glorious triumph for the Church of Christ. Therefore we undertook to rid the territory of slavery. Since slavery has divested itself of its municipal protection, and has become a declared public enemy, it is our duty to prevent it from blighting this far western territory. When I stand and look out upon that immense territory as an individual man, as a citizen, as a Christian minister, I feel myself asked, " Will you permit that country to be darkened by this cloudy storm — will you permit the cries of bondmen to issue from that fair territory, and do nothing for their liberty ?" What are we doing ? Sending our ships round the globe, carrying missionaries to the Sand- wich Islands, to the islands of the Pacific, to Asia, to all Africa. And yet when this work of redeeming our conti- nent from the heathendom of slavery lies before us, there are men who counsel us to give it up to the devil, 'and not try to do a thing. Ah! independently of pounds and pence, independently of national honor, independently of all merely material considerations, there is pressing on every conscien- tious Northerner's mind this highest of all considerations — ■ our duty to God to save that continent from the blast and blight of slavery. Yet how many are there who up, down, and over all England are saying, " Let slavery go — let slavery go?" It is recorded, I think, in the biography of that most noble of your own countrymen, Sir. H. Fowell Buxton — that on 222 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. one occasion a huge favorite dog was seized with hydropho- bia, and was dashing hither and thither. With wonderful courage he seized the creature by the neck and collar, and against the animal's mightiest efforts, rushing here and there, against wall and fence, and up the street, held him until help could be got. If there had been Englishmen there, of the stripe of the Times, they would have said to Fowell Bux- ton, " Let him go ;" but is there one here who does not feel the moral nobleness of that man, who rather than let the mad animal go down the street biting children, and women, and men, risked his life and prevented the animal from doing evil? And shall we allow that hell-hound of slavery, mad as it is, go biting millions in the future ? We will peril life and limb and all we have first. These truths are not exaggerated — they are minified rather than magnified in my statement ; and you cannot tell how powerfully they are influencing us unless you were standing in our midst in America ; you cannot understand how firm that national feeling is which God has bred in the North on this subject. It is deeper than the sea ; it is firmer than the hills ; it is serene as the sky over our head, where God dwells. — Henry Ward JBeecher, London, 1863. ( THE PEINOIPLE INVOLVED I¥ THE WAE. The sober American regards the war as part of that awful yet glorious struggle which has been going on for hundreds of years in every nation between right and wrong, between virtue and vice, between liberty and despotism, between free- dom and bondage. It carries with it the whole future con- dition of our vast continent — its laws, its policy, its fate. And standing in view of these tremendous realities we have consecrated all that we have — our children, our wealth, our national strength — and we lay them all on the altar and say, "It is better that they should all perish than that the North should falter and' betray this trust of God, this hope of the oppressed, this Western civilization." If we say this of ourselves, shall we say less of the slave-holders ? If we are willing to do these things, shall we say, " Stop the war for their sakes ?" If we say this of ourselves, shall we have more pity for the rebellion, for slavery seeking to blacken a continent with its awful evil, desecrating the social phase of national independence by seeking only an independence that shall enable them to oppress four millions of humanity ? SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 223 Shall we do for them what we won't do for ourselves? Standing by my cradle, standing by my "hearth, standing by the altar of the church, standing by all the places that mark the name and memory of heroic men who poured their blood and lives for principle, I declare that in ten or twenty years of war we will sacrifice everything we have for prin- ciple. If the love of popular liberty is dead in Great Britain you will not understand us ; but if the love of liberty lives as it once lived, and has worthy successors of those renowned men that were our ancestors as much as yours, and whose example and principles we inherit to make fruitful as so much seed corn in a new and fertile land — -then you will un- derstand our firm, invincible determination — deep as the sea, firm as mountains, but calm as the heavens above us — to fight this war through at all hazards and at every cost. Against this statement of facts and principles no public man and no party could stand up for one moment in England if it were permitted to stand upon its own merits. It is, therefore, sought to darken the light of these truths and to falsify facts. It is declared that the North has no sincerity. It is declared that the North treats the blacks worse than the South does. A monstrous lie from beo-innin^ to end. Itisde- Glared that emancipation is a mere political trick — not a moral sentiment. It is declared that this is a cruel, unphilanthropic squabble of men gone mad with national vanity. Oh, what a pity that a man should "fall nine times the space that measures day and night" to make an apostasy which dishon- ors his closing days, and to wipe out the testimony for liberty that he gave in his youth !* But even if all this monstrous lie about the North — this needless slander — were true, still it would not alter the fact that Northern success will carry liberty — Southern success, slavery. For when society dashes against society, the results are not what the individual mo- tives of the members of society would make them — the re- sults are what the institutions of society make them. When your army stood at Waterloo, they did not know what were the tremendous moral consequences that depended on that .battle. It was not what the individual soldiers meant nor thought, but what the English empire — the national life be- hind, and the genius of that renowned kingdom which sent that army to victory — meant and thought. And even if the President were false — if every Northern man were a juggling hypocrite — that does not change the Constitution; and it * Allusion is here made to Lord Brougham. 224 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. does not change the fact that if the North prevails she car- ries Northern ideas and Northern institutions with her. Henry Ward JBeecher, London, 1863. ENGLAND AGAINST WAE, I hear a loud protest against war. Ladies and gentle- men, Mr. Chairman, — there is a small band in our country and in yours — I wish their number were quadrupled — who have borne a solemn and painful testimony against all wars, under all circumstances ; and although I differ with them on the subject of defensive warfare, yet when men that rebuked their own land, and all lands, now rebuke us, though I can- not accept their judgment, I bow with profound respect to their consistency. But excepting them I regard this British horror of the American war as something wonderful. Why, it is a phenomenon in itself! On what shore has not the prow of your ships dashed ? What land is there with a name and a people where your banner has not led your sold- iers ? And when the great resurrection reveille shall sound it will muster British soldiers from every clime and people under the whole heaven. Ah ! but it is said this is a war against your own blood. How long is it since you poured soldiers into Canada, and let all your yards work night and day to avenge the taking of two men out of the Trent ? Old England shocked at a war of principle! She gained her glories in such a war. Old England ashamed of a war of principle ! Her national ensign symbolizes her history — the cross in a field of blood. And will you tell us — who inherit your blood, your ideas, and your pluck — that we must not fight? The child must heed the parents until the parents get old and tell the child not to do the thing that in early life they whipped him for not doing. And then the child says, father and mother are getting too old ; they had better be taken away from their present home and come to live with us. Perhaps you think that the old island will do a little longer. Perhaps you think there is coal enough. Perhaps you think the stock is not quite run out yet ; but whenever England comes to that state that she does not go to war for principle, she had better emigrate, and we will get room for her. — Henry Ward Leecher, London, 1863. SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 225 THE MEASURES 01* THE WAR. In the beginning of this contest we were peculiarly Eng- lish. If I have observed aright, England goes into wars to make blunders — in the first part of them always — but you will notice that in the end it is not England that has blundered. I have, noticed, in studying the Peninsular War under Wel- lington, that at the beginning, for months, indeed for the first whole year, it was a series of horrid blunders, no sym- pathy coming from home, and money being squandered by the frauds of contractors ; but, if I recollect aright, at last that same Wellington drove every Frenchman out of the Peninsula — and did not stop his course until he swept the face of Europe. And so it is with us. We have so much English blood in our Yankee veins that when we began this war we blundered and blundered ; but we are doing better and better every step. There has been time enough for mere enthusiasm to cool in the North. Enthusiasm is like the vapor, just enough condensed to let the sun striking upon it fill it with gorgeous colors ; but when still further it con- denses, and falls in drops for the thirsty man to drink, or carries the river to the cataract, then it has become useful and substantial. Enthusiasm at first is that airy cloud ; but when it has become a principle in the hearts of the people, then it becomes substantial; and such is the case in the North. Enthusiasm has changed its form, and is now based on substantial moral principle. The loss of our sons in battle has been grievous ; but we accept it as God's will, and we are determined that every martyred son shall have a repre- sentative in one hundred liberated slaves. Never was such a unity of Christian men in the North as there is to-day. The only platform in America, on which this subject can be dis- cussed is this — that the war must be carried on till the Union is re-established. The Americans are a practical people. They know their own business. No one so well as they are able to judge of what they want ; and when they have de- liberately arrived at a firm resolve, they surely are to be re- garded, at least with respect, if not with sympathy. We are told that we are breaking our Constitutional obligations by the measures we have taken ; but we were forced to adopt those measures, and the reasons are abundant and plain. How ? When a fire first breaks out, the engineer goes down and plays upon the fire, thinking that he will be able to save the furniture and the neighboring houses ; but, as the de- vouring element increases, and thre'atens destruction to all 226 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. around, the engineer says, " Bring me powder," and he blowa np the neighboring house, then the next, and then the next, until a sufficient gap is made to prevent the spread of the conflagration. When he began he did not think that he would require to sacrifice so much, and so it is with us. When this rebellion commenced we thought to put it down, and to .maintain, at the same time, the rights of the States ; but, when the war assumed such proportions as seemed to threaten destruction to the whole Government, at last the President issued a proclamation, declaring that the rebellion had assumed such proportions that, for ',the sake of saving the country, he intended to exercise the power he possessed, and to confiscate the total property of the South for the sake of saving the Union and the Constitution. Henry Ward JBeecher, Edinburgh, 1863. THE HONOEED DEAD. Let us pause upon the threshold of our discourse to pay a tribute to our heroes. On either side has been manifested the noblest courage, and patience, and endurance. Ten thou- sand youth have dropped the blossom of their lives. Alas ! that for so many it should be a deaths utterly dead ! More and more will years reveal that young Southern heroes died for an evil cause. Would that so much bravery had had a better cause. Time will bring no venerableness and no af- fection to defeated tyranny. Men's enthusiasms never go backward to search for the deeds of oppressors, to garland them with evergreen honor. They die indeed, who die for slavery. And lapse of years, and growing justice, and nobler humanities, will only make the mistake more dreadful, and their oblivion more certain. It is indeed a sad future for those who mourn for sons slain under the dark banner of slavery. No future historian will feel sacred enthusiasm in recovering their names. N"o rejoicing millions will teach their children to lisp their names with gladness. The best that can be done for them by patriotism, is to draw a vail over their life, and to let them be forgotten. Over their burial-ground the hand of charity can write only this : Let their names and their mistakes be forgotten. But how bright are the honors which await those who with sacred fortitude and patriotic patience have endured all things that they might save their native land from division and from the power of corruption! The honored dead! SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 227 They that die for a good cause are redeemed from death. Their names are gathered and garnered. Their memory is pre- cious. Each place grows proud for them who were born there. There is to be, ere long, in every village and in every neighbor- hood, a glowing pride in its martyred heroes. Tablets shall pre- serve their names. Pious love shall renew their inscriptions as time and the unfeeling elements decay them. And the national festivals shall give multitudes of precious names to the orator's lips. Children shall grow up under more sacred inspirations whose elder brothers, dying nobly for their country, left a name that honored and inspired all who bore it. Orphan children shall find thousands of fathers and mothers to love and help those whom dying heroes left as a legacy to the gratitude of the public. Oh, tell me not that they are dead— that generous host, that airy army of invisible heroes! They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this nation. Are they dead that yet speak louder than we can speak, and a more universal lan- guage ? Are they dead that yet act ? Are they dead that yet move upon society, and inspire the people with nobler motives and more heroic patriotism ? Ye that mourn, let gladness mingle with your tears. He loas your son ; but now he is the nation's. He made your household bright; now his example inspires a thousand households. Dear to his brothers and sisters, he is now brother to every generous youth in the land. Before, he was narrowed, appropriated, shut up to you. Now he is augmented, set free, and given to all. He has died from the family, that he might live to the nation. Not one name shall be forgotten or neglected ; and it shall, by-and-by be con- fessed, as of an ancient hero, that he did more for his country by his death than' by his whole life. Neither are they less honored who shall bear through life the marks of wounds and sufferings. Neither epaulette nor badge is so honorable as wounds received in a good cause. Many a man shall *envy him who henceforth limps. So strange is the transforming power of patriotic ardor, that men shall almost covet disfigurement. Crowds will give way to hobbling cripples, and uncover in the presence of feebleness and helplessness. And buoyant children shall pause in their noisy games, and with loving reverence honor them whose hands can work no more, and whose feet are" no longer able to march except upon that journey which brings good men to honor and immortality. Oh, mother of lost children ! set not in darkness nor sorrow whom a nation honors. Oh, mourners of the early dead! they shall live 228 THE PATETOTIC SPEAKEE. again, and live forever. Your sorrows are our gladness. The nation lives, because you gave it men that loved it better than their own lives. And when a few more days shall have cleared the perils from around the nation's brow, and she shall sit in unsullied garments of liberty, with justice upon her forehead, love in her eyes, and truth upon her lips, she shall not forget those whose blood gave vital currents to her 1 heart, and whose life, given to her, shall live with her life till time shall be no more. Every mountain and hill shall have its treasured name, every river shall keep some solemn title, every valley and every lake shall cherish its honored register; and till the mountains are worn out, and the rivers forget to flow, till the clouds are weary of replenishing springs, and the springs forget to gush, and the rills to sing, shall their names be kept fresh with reverent honors which are inscribed upon the book of National Remembrance ! Henry Ward JBeecher, 1863. CONDUCT OF THE 00L0KED PEOPLE. Let us not forget those that cannot remember themselves, or make sign in our midst. I desire to express in the presence of God's people, and before Almighty God, my profound gratitude for that eminent and evident interpo- sition of divine providence which has been manifested in the good conduct of the people of African descent among us. I thank God for that wonderful wisdom which they that are yet enchained and within the lines of bondage have mani- fested. It was in their power to have done' themselves and us much mischief, by giving way to intemperate desires or feelings. They have been held as in the hollow of God's hand. Nor can any remember in any newspaper, or in any man's mouth, one word of complaint, for three years, to have been uttered against — one word of fault to have been found with— the great mass of millions of men that have heard the war for liberty thundering within their reach, and yet have maintained quiet, patiently waiting for the revelation of God's mercy toward them. I thank God for the endurance, for the patience, for the conscientious good conduct of those men whom it has been our wont to hear represented as mon- sters who only wanted a chance to carry riot and rapine and devastation through the world. There never has been a people so many and so tempted that behaved so well as the SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 229 slaves of the South. And they that have become freedmen — how have they helped us ! I mean not by shovel and spade, though they have helped us much by these. I mean not by their labor, but by manifesting the truth which we have witnessed, and which we have believed in — though it has been much disputed, — that a man brought suddenly out of slavery into liberty is not dangerous — that it is safe to emancipate. There are some men that are still, by force of old legendary lore, talking about the dangers of emancipa- tion. Around from the delta of the Mississippi, for fifteen hundred miles, till you touch the coast of North Carolina, there has been one wide belt of emancipation ; and point me to a mischief or an irregularity arising from it. I bring the testimony of our officers, Southern born and Northern, that the colored people are behaving worthy of their liberty. It is safe to emancipate. I thank God that while we were striving for the right of manhood in colored men, He by His providence, that is so much wiser than the wisdom of the wisest, has led them to demonstrate what we are trying to prove — and to demon- strate it so as to meet just that apprehension which needs to be met. The colored soldiers that have been regimented and taken to the field, by their courage, by their docility, by their good conduct in the most fiery trials, have shown that they were men. I am sorry that so large a part of human society yet lives so low that the capacity of a man to show the cour- age of an animal is the best test that he is a man ; but so it is ! There is nothing that will m^ke the common people so sympathize with the black man as io know that he fights well. He does fight well, and he is a man because he fights well ! War is not thought to be a civilizer, yet men may have been held so low that even war is elevation— and so it has been with the colored people. They go up a great way before they have a right to touch the sword ; and when they have taken their lives in their hands, and, with enthusiasm inspiring their hearts, have hewn their way on the rocky path to man- hood ; when this war has ceased, and a hundred thousand colored men can show wounds received in heroic service, or give other evidence that they have bravely fought for our country, I will put these men before the nation, and say, "They have given their blood to your blood; will you let them or their kind be trampled under foot any more ?" Henry Ward Beech er, 1863. 230 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKEE. THE STRENGTH OF THE AMERICAN GO VEEN MEN T. The enemies of popular right and power have been point- ing to the dreadful proof which is afforded in America, that an extended suffrage is a thing to be shunned as the most calamitous thing possible to a country. I will not refer to the speeches that have dealt with this question in this man- ner, or to the newspapers which have so treated it. I believe now that a great many people in this country are beginning to see that those who have been misleading them for the last two or three years have been profoundly dishonest or pro- foundly ignorant. If I am to give my opinion upon it, I should say that that which has taken place in America with- in the last three years affords the most triumphant answer to charges of this kind. Let us see the Government of the United States. I might say a good deal in favor of it in the South even, but we will speak of the free States. In the North they have a suffrage which is almost what here would be called a manhood suffrage. There are frequent elections, vote by ballot, and ten thousand, twenty thousand, and one hundred thousand persons vote at an election. Will any- body deny that the Government at Washington, as regards its own people, is the strongest Government in the world at this hour ? And for this simple reason : because it is based on the will, and the good will, of an instructed people. Look at its power ! I am not now discussing why it is, or the cause which is developing this power ; but power is the thing which men regard in these old countries, and which they ascribe mainly to European institutions ; but look at the power which the Ilnited States have developed ! They have brought more men into the field, they have built more ships for their navy, they have shown greater resources than any nation in Europe at this moment is capable of. Look at the order which has prevailed at their elections, at which, as you see by the papers, fifty thousand, or one hundred thousand, or two hundred and fifty thousand persons voting in a given State, with less disorder than you have seen lately in three of the smallest boroughs in England. Look at their indus- try. Notwithstanding this terrific struggle, their agriculture, their manufactures and commerce proceed with an uninter- rupted success. They are ruled by a President, chosen, it is true, not from some worn-out royal or noble blood, but from the people, and the one whose truthfulness and spotless honor have claimed him universal praise ; and now the country that has been vilified through half the organs of the press in Eng SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 231 land during the last three years, and was pointed out, too, as an example to be shunned by many of your statesmen — that country, now in mortal strife, affords a haven and a home for multitudes flying from the burdens and the neglect of the old governments of Europe ; and, when this mortal strife is over — when peace is restored, when slavery is destroyed, when the Union is cemented afresh — for I would say, in the lan- guage of one of our own poets addressing his country, " The grave's not dug where traitor hands shall lay, In fearful haste, thy murdered corse away" — then Europe and England may learn that an instructed dem- ocracy is the surest foundation of government, and that edu- cation and freedom are th& only sources of true greatness and true happiness among any people. John Bright, of England, 1863. THE CAUSE OF THE UNION SURE TO SUCCEED. I tell you candidly that if it were not for one cause, I should regard as hopeless and useless the attempt to subju- gate the Southern States. - It is the object and purpose with which the war was begun, that in my opinion renders success to the secessionists impossible. We were told in the House of Commons, by one who was once the great champion of democracy, and of the rights and privileges of the unsophis- ticated millions, that this civil war- was originated because the South wished to establish free trade principles, and that the North would not allow it. I travelled in the United States in 1859, the year before the fatal shot was fired at Fort Sumter, which has had such terrible reverberations ever since. I visited Washington during the session of Congress. Now I carry a flag; and wherever I go, whenever I travel abroad, whether it be in France or America, Austria or Russia, I at once become the centre of all those who have strong convictions and purposes in reference to free trade principles. Well, I confess to you, what I confessed to my friends when I re- turned, that I was disappointed when at Washington in 1859, because there was so little interest felt on the free trade ques- tion. There was no party formed, no public agitation ; there was no discussion whatever upon the subject of free trade and protection. The political field was wholly occupied by one question, and that question was slavery. I will mention an illustrative fact which I have not seen cited ; to my mind 232 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. it is conclusive on this subject. In December, 1860, while Congress was sitting, and when the country was in an agony of suspense, fearing the impending rupture, Congress ap- pointed a committee of their body, comprising thirty-three members, being one representative for every State then in the Union. That committee, called the Committee of Thirty- three, sat from December 11th, 1860, to January 14th, 1861. They were instructed by Congress to inquire into the peril- ous state of the Union, and try to devise some means by which the catastrophe of a secession could be averted. Here is a report of the proceedings of that committee ; there are forty pages. I have read every line. The representatives of the slave States were invited by the representatives of the free States to state candidly and frankly what were the terms required in order that they might continue peaceably in the Union. In every page you see their propositions brought for- ward, but from beginning to end there is not one syllable said about tariff or taxation ; from beginning to end there is not a grievance alleged but that which was connected with the maintenance of slavery. There are propositions calling on the North to give increased security for the maintenance of that institution. They are invited to extend the area of sla- very, to make laws by which fugitive slaves should be given up ; they are pressed to make treaties with foreign powers by which foreign powers are required to give/ up fugitive slaves ; but from beginning to end no grievance is mentioned except the one connected with slavery. It is slavery, slavery, slavery, from the first page to the last. Is it not astonishing ' that, in the face of facts like these, any one should have the temerity, with any regard to decency or any sense of self- respect, to get up in the House of Commons and say seces- sion has been upon a question of free trade and protection ? This is a war to perpetuate and extend human slavery. It is a war not to defend slavery as it, was left by their ances- tors — I mean a thing to be retained and apologized for — it is a war to establish a slave empire, in which slavery shall be made the corner-stone of the social system, and shall be de- fended and justified on scriptural and ethnological grounds. Well, I say, God pardon the man who, in this year of grace, 1863, should think that such a project as that could be crowned with success. — Richard Cobden, of England, 1863. SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 233 CONDITION'OF THE ENGLISH PEASANTRY. It has been a fashion of late to talk of an extension of the franchise as something not to be tolerated, because it is as- sumed that the mass of the people are not fitted to take a part in government, and they point to America, and France, and other places, and draw comparisons between this country and other countries. Now, I hope I shall not be considered revolutionary, because at my age I don't want any revolutions. They won't serve me, I am sure, or anybody that belongs to me. England may compare very favorably with most other countries if you draw the line in society tolerably high, and if yon compare the condition of the rich and the upper classes of this country, or a considerable portion of the middle classes with the same classes abroad. I don't think a rich man, barring the climate, which is not very good, could be very much happier any where else than in England; but when my opponents treat this question of the franchise as one that is likely to bring the masses of the people down from their present state to the level of other countries, I say that I have travelled in most civilized countries, and that the masses of the people of this country do not compare as favor- ably with the masses of other countries as I could wish. I find in other countries a greater number of people with prop- erty than there are in England. I don't know a Protestant country in the world where the masses of the people are so illiterate as in England. These are not bad tests of the con- dition of a people. It is no use talking of your army and navy, your exports and your imports ; it is no use telling me you have a small portion of your people exceedingly well off. I want to bring the test to a comparison of the majority of the people with a majority of the people in other countries. Now, I say with regard to some things in foreign countries we don't compare favorably. The condition of the English peasantry has no parallel on the face of the earth. You have no other peasantry but that of England which is entirely divorced from the land. There is no other country in the world where you will not find men holding the plough and turning up the furrow upon their own freehold. I don't want any agrarian outrages by which we should change all this ; but this I find, and it is quite consistent with human nature, that wherever I go, the condition of the people is generally pretty good, in comparison with the power they have to take care of themselves ; and if you have a class en- tirely divorced from political powur, while in another country 234 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. they possess it, they will be treated there with more consid- eration, they will have greater advantages, they will be bet- ter educated, and have a better chance of having property, than in a country where they are deprived of the advantage of political power. It is more than thirty years since our Reform Bill was passed, and we must remember that during that time great changes have taken place in other countries ; nearly all your colonies in that time have received represen- tative institutions; they are much freer in Australia, New Zealand and Canada ; much freer in their representative sys- tem than we are in England, and thirty years ago they were entirely under the tutelage of our Colonial Office. Go on the continent and you find there wide extensions of political franchise. Italy is more free, Austria, even, is stirring its dry bones ; you have all Germany now more or less invested with popular sovereignty, and I say that, with all our boasted maxims of superiority as a self-governing people, we don't maintain our relative rank in the world, for we are all obliged to acknowledge that we dare not interest a considerable part of the population of this country with political power, for fear they should make a revolutionary and dangerous use of it. Besides, bear in mind that both our political parties, both our aristocratic parties have already pledged themselves to an ex- tension of the franchise; the Queen has been made to recom- mend from her throne the extension of the franchise. You have placed the governing classes in this country in the wrong for all future time, if they do not fulfil those prom- ises and adopt those recommendations, and some day or other they will be obliged to yield to violence and cla- mor what I think you ought, in sound statesmanship, to do tranquilly and voluntarily, and in proper season. If you exclude to the present extent the masses of the people from the franchise, you are always running the risk of that which a very sagacious old Conservative statesman once spoke of in the House of Commons, when he said, "I am afraid we shall have an ugly rush, some day." Well, now, I want to avoid that " ugly rush." I would rather do the work tranquilly and do it gradually ; but all this will be done by people out of doors and not by Parliament, and it would be folly for you to expect in the House of Commons to take a single step in the direction of a reform, until a great desire and disposition are manifested for it out of doors. When that day comes, you will not want your champions in the House of Commons. — Richard Cobden, of jfihfgiand, 1863. SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 235 THE WAR FOE FEEE LABOR IN AMERICA, You know that I have from the first never believed it pos- sible that the South would succeed, and I have not founded that faith upon moral instincts, which teach us to repudiate the very idea that anything so infernal should succeed- No ; it is because in this world the virtues and the forces go to- gether, and the vices and the weaknesses are inseparable. It was therefore I felt certain that this project never could suc- ceed, for how is it ? There is a community with nearly half of its population slaves, and they are attempting to fight an- other community where every working man is a free man. It is as though Yorkshire and Lancashire were to enter into conflict, and it was understood that in the case of one all the laborers who did the muscular work of the country, whether in the field or in the factory, whether on the roads or in the domestic establishments, should be not only eliminated from the fighting population, but ready to take advantage of the war either to run away or fight against their own country. .How could a community so circumstanced fight against a ^lieighboring county where every laboring man was fighting for his own home ? What chance of success would it have, even if left to physical force, without speaking of the moral considerations to which I have referred ? That is the posi- tion of the two sections of the United States at the present moment. In the one case you have honor given to industry ; labor is held to be honorable. What are we told ? Have we not heard it used as a reproach by some people who fancy themselves in alliance with the aristocracy, some of our writ- ers, who would lead us to suppose that they are of the aris- tocratic order, that Mr. Lincoln was once a " rail splitter." Why was a rail splitter raised to be President of the United States ? Because labor is held in honor in that country. With, sucli a conflict going on, and with such a result as I feel no doubt will follow, I fear to speak of such a contest as that as a struggle for empire on one side, and for indepen- dence on the other. I say it is an aristrocratic rebellion against a democratic government. That is the title I would give to it, and in all history, when you have had the aristoc- racy pitted against the people in a physical contest, the aris- tocracy have always gone down under the heavy blows of the democracy. Let it not be said that I am indifferent to the process of misery and destitution, ruin and bloodshed now going on in America. No ; my indignation against the South is, that they fired the first shot, and made them- 236 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. selves responsible for this war. I take probably a stronger view than most people in this country, and certainly a stronger view than anybody in America, of the vast sacrifices of life and of economical comfort and resources which must follow to the North from this struggle. They are mistaken if they think they can carry on a civil war like this, drawing a mil- lion men froni productive industry to be engaged merely in a process of destruction, and spending £200,000,000 or £300,000, 0001 sterling without a terrible collapse, sooner or later, and a great prostration in every part of the community ; but that makes me still more indignant and intolerant of the cause, while of the result I have no more doubt than I have on any subject that lies in the future. Richard Oobden, of England, 1863. CONGRESSIONAL SINS OF OMISSION AND COMMISSION. Gold at 175, and Congress, with tax bills, tariff bills, bank bills, every financial measure, lifeless and shapeless, engaged in putting down freedom of debate in the national Capitol !* In the name of loyal people we protest. We tell these men at Washington that passion is making them mad. It is an absolute infatuation that has seized them. Their words strike upon the ears of the people like the gib- berish of Bedlam. Where have the senses of Congressmen gone that they don't realize the terrible burdens that rest upon the people, and the fearful clangers that confront the Government? Do they call themselves loyal men, and yet play these fantastic tricks? By their default, the prices of everything that sustains life are rapidly mounting. The cur- rency is gradually turning into worthless rags. Inch by inch, foot by foot, the Government moves on, straight before the eyes of its guardians, toward the bottomless pit of bank- ruptcy — yet distant, but, unless they act, inevitable. Not an arm do they yet raise to save it. It is astonishing, it is astounding, that the House, after this long and flagrant neglect of duty, should turn upon one of its members in this fierce fashion, for encouraging the enemy by words — by words which were made of air, and which, if they bad been let alone, would have straightway vanished into air. It is the wildness of the fireman who stands motionless while the flames are gathering headway, and falls foul of the man who declares that the fire will not be subdued. It is the inaction of these so-called loyal servants of the people that is SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 237 aiding the rebellion ten thousand times more than the so- called disloyal speeches of the malcontents of the House. Not content with the fatal neglect of indispensable action, this body must superadd an equally fatal positive act. Un- satisfied with helping on the Southern rebels by depriving our Government of the sound credit which is its life, they must put into the hands of the Northern Copperheads a weapon of more deadly potency than they have ever yet handled or hoped for. How is it possible for true men so to misunderstand the American people, as to suppose they will submit quietly to this destruction of free debate in the council halls of the nation? What hellebore have they been drink- ing in Washington that has drugged their old perceptions ? Are we to be told that American liberty is of the bastard type these men would make it ? Has it, indeed, so degene- rated since it was transported from its native land ? Is our national Capitol so much below Parliament House, that men may only talk in it "by the card," and with bated breath ? For the last hundred years who has heard of a parliamentary expulsion in England for words spoken in debate ? If the House of Representatives expel Mr. Long, as attempted, it will prove- beyond all possibility of question or cavil that the freedom of debate, under our boasted republicanism, is not even what it was under the British monarchy, against the tyranny of which we revolted. Every American school-boy knows that the language used in Parliament against the Gov- ernment in favor of the American rebels, was a hundred times stronger than any that has been used in Congress against our Government in favor of the Southern rebels, and that it was used with perfect impunity in the very face of overwhelming Government majorities. Said Lord Chatham, in the House of Commons, in 1777, "If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms — never, never, never !" Has anything like that been heard in Congress from the sympathizers with our rebellion ? Said Fox, " There is not an American but must reject and resist the principle and the right." The worst that Mr. Long said falls far short of that. We are as sure as of the sun at mid-day that the peo- ple are not satisfied with either the past inaction, or the pres- ent action of their Representatives in Congress; that among great numbers of those most earnest in their loyalty, there is a discontent verging closely upon disgust. This discontent we do not deplore. It comes from the very highest and best qualities of the American nature. Were it absent, we should despair of the cause. A people that could be unmindful of 238. THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. such neglect in their public servants as these Representatives have displayed during the four months they have been in ses- sion, at such a critical period for the Government, and that could be insensible to the violation of parliamentary freedom, the most sacred principle in every representative government, would be a people alike unworthy and unable to maintain a conflict like this for the salvation of human freedom. Thank heaven, it is not so. There is discontent — for the most part silent, as yet, but, for all that, profound and intense. The so-called servants of the people in the Capitol of the nation are the source of it, and the object of it. It behooves them to give it heed. — JSfeio York Times, 1864. THE DEMAND Mr. Speaker, the voice of the people of the United States cannot be mistaken. They demand of us, their Representa- tives, that the institution of human slavery, which has from the beginning been our national reproach, the fruitful source of sectional enmity and strife, the obstacle to the develop- ment of one-half of our territory, the secret enemy which has for seventy years sown our vineyard with tares and brambles, which has alienated brethren of the same blood, which has proscribed education, fomented discord, encouraged opposi- tion to our republican system, weakened the ties of national allegiance, and at last arrayed itself in bloody war against the Government, shall be forever blotted out ^n the Rebel States, and that upon its ruins shall be written a legend like that which indignant France wrote over the gateway of re- bellious Lyons, " Slavery made war upon the Republic; slavery is no more !" They demand this as the right of war against the public enemy. They demand it in the name of that very Constitution which is sought here to be made its shelter and its shield. They demand it as the only adequate compensation for the sacrifices which they have made and the sufferings which they have endured. They demand it in the name of liberty and of humanity. They demand it as the only pledge of future union and tranquillity. They demand it for their own peace and safety, and for the repose and security of their children. Already, its grim and terrible form, weakened by its wounds, begrimed with the dust of battle, and covered with the blood of brave men which has been shed in this sanguinary war, cowers and reels before the banners of the Republic. As it falls, let it hear ringing SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 239 in its ears the decree for its extermination pronounced here by the Representatives of the people. Hon. JSL E. Thayer, May, 1864. HOW TO EESTOEE THE UNION, My heart's desire and prayer to God is for peace and union to this distracted land. While urging undiminished and in- creased exertions by our army and navy to secure union, I have been ever ready to heal the wounds and check the rav- ages of war by all rational methods used among civilized na- tions. To those who can entertain but one idea at a time, this position has seemed inconsistent ; but to those who have read history it will appear that to check strife and restore harmony in civil or international conflict, negotiation and friendliness are indispensable. There is one hope left. If the bayonet shall be unfixed at our polls, if no persuasive appliances of money shall attaint an honest election, I do not despair of a verdict in favor of that party whose principles I have loved for their national history and unsectional spirit. Fond as I am of historic re- search, I cannot follow my friend in mourning over the dust of departed empire. I read in the decline and fall of repub- lican governments lessons of wisdom and hope for our own guidance. In the remarks which I shall submit I propose to show from history how statesmanship has saved the falling columns of constitutional" liberty, how the victories of war have been crowned by the more renowned, important and difficult victories of peace, and how allegiance has been re- kindled by the sweet breath of kindness fanning the almost dying embers of patriotism. This may seem like a thankless and useless task, in view of the convulsions and prejudices of the hour ; but the issue to be presented next November demands such an exposition. That issue is, shall freedom, peace and union be restored by a change of rulers and policy, or shall we set aside the teachings of the past, and permit the work of disintegration and ruin to go on ? I propose to apply the lessons of history, by inquiring whether, even admitting all these plans of reconstruction to be legal, and even if decided to be so, some wiser, better and more practicable plan may not be adopted. Is there no am- nesty — no accommodation possible? There is. I believe that the restoration of the Union is possible, if we pursue a proper policy. The restoration of the Union as it was is only 240 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. impossible to those who, for other objects, do not desire it, The reconciliation of all the States is possible — nay, probable — with the restoration of the doctrine of local selt-govern- ment and State sovereignty on matters not delegated to the Federal Government. I know no other hope. If this fail, all is dark and chaotic. Diversity of interests and systems find their unity alone in this system of laissez faire to the States. How then is it possible to restore local and State sovereignty, and thus unite our hapless and lacerated coun- try ? History never presented so grand a problem for states- manship. I approach it with something of that awe which solemnizes the soul when we enter within some vast and con- secrated fabric — vistas and aisles of thought opening on every side — pillars and niches, and cells within cells, mixing in seeming confusion, but all really in harmony and rich with a light streaming through the dim forms of the past, and blessed with an effluence from God, though dimmed and half lost in the contaminated reason and passion of man. Con- scious of the magnitude of this rebellion, and oppressed with the feebleness of the policy directed against it, I still believe in the restoration of the old Union. Hence, whatever method I should advocate for the conduct of the war, or the celebra- tion of peace, I am forever concluded against one conclusion, the independence of the South. I believe the principle of unity to be absolutely superior to the right of sectional nationality. The destiny of these United States is to continue united, and, perhaps, to add other States, until the whole continent is in alliance. Our fate is to expand, and not to contract our influence or our limits. All other notions are but transitory and evanescent. To restore allegiance and inspire nationality, let the indi- vidual rebel in arms against us be reached by the arms of our soldier, and, when a non-combatant, by the moderation and paternal care of the Government. Let the military pow- er of the Confederates be broken. Use those and only those severities of war which civilization warrants, and which will make the military power of the South feel the power of the nation ; but do not place any longer in their hands the arma- ment of despair. They have had that weapon for over two years. Let our rulers forego their ostracism of the misguided citizen. Let an amnesty be tendered which has hope in its voice. Give forgiveness to the erring, hope to the despond- ing, protection to the halting, and allay even fancied appre- hensions of evil by the measures of moderation. Thus, by confiscating confiscation, abolishing abolition, and cancelling proclamations, by respecting private property and State SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 241 rights, prepare that friendliness which will beget confidence in the individual citizen. Thus will minorities be transferred to majorities South, and the States discarding the rebel au- thorities betake themselves to their normal and proper sphere under the old order. If this cannot be done by the present rulers, let other rulers be selected. History teaches in vain if it does not contain lessons of moderation in civil wars. How were the feuds of the Grecian federation accommo- dated ? How were the civil wars of Rome ended ? How were the intestine troubles of England assuaged ? How was La Vendee pacified by the generous Hocne? How is it ever that unity of empire and consentaneity of thought are induced? How, except by the practice of that mildness which cares for and does not curse the people ? Hon. 8. jS. Cox, 1864. THOROUGH WORK TEE BEST. ~EsQi speaker that has risen on this platform to-night has declared his hatred of slavery. Why do you hate it? and, hating it, what will you do when you have abolished it ? Why do you hate it? Do you hate it because it has been the cause of discord and contention between you and your brethren at the South ? You do well to hate it for that rea- son. Do you hate it because it has often menaced the integ- rity of the States, and, at last, has rent those States in twain ? You do well to hate it for that reason. Do you hate it be- cause you believe that no solid peace, or future union, or any great and durable nationality can.ibe yours while slavery re- mains ? You do well to hate it for that reason. But do you not hate it for other reasons ? and when it shall be abolished, will you not prove that you hate it for other reasons? Will you not prove that you did not put it down simply to restore the Union ; that you did not put it down simply that there- after you might be a united, and prosperous, and strong, and great nation ? I trust that you mean to do more than to put down slavery; and I trust that you hate it not simply be- cause it has rent your Union asunder, and has filled your land with the harsh sounds of the alarms of war, but because, during your history as a nation, it has made merchandise of the bodies and the souls of men. Oh, what an evil has slavery been to this country ! Methinks that, if the fathers of your Revolution, the men who framed your Declaration of Inde- pendence, and who established that Constitution which has 11 242 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. been the bond of your Union ever since its construction, could look down from heaven upon us to-night, and make their thoughts audible, and give you their counsel, they would counsel you to avoid in your future history the great error into which they fell. We have been told, to-night, of the crocodile that the Hindoos took to their bosom, and of the results which followed. Little did your fathers think, when they tolerated slavery, when they made provision for it in the Constitution, or when they granted to it by the Consti- tion certain privileges, and a certain protection, that in the life of a man such consequences would follow as those which we witness to-night. They thought it but a little thing to grant what they deemed would be a brief life to slavery. They thought it was no great harm to form a Union with States that held amongst them some five hundred thousand of human beings in chattel bondage. They said, " What is this compared with the establishment of this nation ? What is this compared with that glorious career which we shall pursue when we have become a united people?" And so they spared the life of slavery. They spared it in th^fcope and in the belief that it would die. And they gavSR six States to live in and to die in. And what followed ? The six States became fifteen ; and the five hundred thousand slaves became more than four millions ; and the two hundred thou- sand square miles of territory that then belonged to slavery became nearly eight hundred thousand square miles of terri- tory ; and the moneyed value of slaves in this country rose from two hundred millions of dollars to two thousand five hundred millions of dollars. And slavery lived — lived to grow ; lived to expand ; lived to become a governor of your country ; and lived to be old enough, and strong enough, and wicked enough, to aim at the overthrow of the glorious in- stitutions of this magnificent Republic. Now it is within your grasp. Now slavery totters to its fall. Already Avounded, maimed, dislocated, prostrate, and helpless,' it is at your feet. Put your heel upon its neck. Condemn it ut- terly. Then go on, my friends, to finish the good work, to lift the man who was enslaved into that liberty, that higher and better liberty, to which, I trust, his personal enfranchise- ment will be but the prelude. George, Thompson, of Mi gland, 1864. SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 243 HEROES AND MAETYES. Heroes and martyrs ! they are the men of the hour. They are identified with the names that live upon the lips of millions. It is of these, more than all others, that the peo- ple talk, around their firesides and in their assemblies. It is of these that we may freely speak, even in the sanctuary. Out heroes and martyrs ! a cloud of witnesses for the spirit and worth of the nation. Our heroes ! named in the homes of all who have left home and occupation, comfort and kindred, and stood in the midst of the battle ; — presented to us in glorious clusters on many a deck and field. An entire di^ourse might be made up of instances. Our. memories run backward and forward through this war, collecting files of illustrious deeds. We remember the man who covered the threatened powder with his body — the gunner w 7 ho, ' bleeding to death, seized the lanyard, fired his cannon, and fell back dead — the gallant captain, w T ho, when his artillery- men were killed and himself left alone, sat calmly down upon his piece, and, with revolver in hand, refusing to fly, fought to the end, and died the last man at his gun — the old Massachusetts 2nd at Gettysburg, who, in the fierce fighting on the right, on the morning of the third of July, had their commanding officer killed at the head of the regiment, and five standard-bearers shot down in succession ; but the colors dropped by one were grasped by another, and never touched the ground. These are instances, hastily gathered from glorious sheaves — not exceptional, but representative in- stances. These are the men of the hour, who illustrate the value of our country by the richest crop that has ever sprung from her soil. But where the hero stands, there also the martyr dies. With the chorus of victory blends the dirge — mournful and yet majestic, too. The burden of that dirge, as it falls from the lips of wives and mothers, of fathers and children, is sad and tender like the strain of David w T eeping for those who fell upon Gilboa. That burden is still mournful but as passes on and it reissues from a nation's lips, it swells also into exultation and honor — that same burden — " How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle !" Some of us perhaps have read of that company whom their brave officer had so often conducted to victory, and who would never part with their dead hero's name. Still day by day, at the head of the regimental roll, it is called 244 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. aloud ; the generation that loved him have passed away ; but their sons and their sons' sons, will ever and always love the honored name. 'Cornet Latour DjAuvergne ' still first of the brave band, is summoned ; and ever and always a brave soldier steps from the ranks to reply : " Dead on the field of honor !' " "Dead on the field of honor !" This, too, is the record 6 of thousands of unnamed men, whose influence upon other generations is associated with no personal distinction, but whose sacrifice will lend undying lustre to the nation's archives and richer capacity to the nation's life. And yet these martyrs are remembered by name. Go visit the mourning homes of the land ; homes of wealth and plenty, some of them, but richer now by the consecration of sacri- fice. Many are homes of toil and obscurity, from which^ie right hand of support has been taken, or the youthful prop. Poor and obscure ; — but these the unknown fallen have names, and riches of solemn, tender memory. And what heralding on palatial wall more glorious than the torn cap and soiled uniforms that hang in those homes where the dead soldier comes no more ? What aristocratic legend refers to a prouder fact than that which shall often be recited in the still summer field where he labored, and by the winter fire- side where his place is vacant : — " He fell in the great war for Union and for Freedom !" Sleep, sleep, in quiet grassy graves, where the symbols that ye loved so well shall cover and spread over you — by day the flowers of red, white and blue, and by night the constellated stars — while out of those graves there grows the better harvest of the nation and of times to come ! Rev. M H. Chapiriy 1864. THE DEESS EEPOEM. Our question is one of ways and means : — not whether we shall do this or that, but how wisely and effectively it shall be undertaken and accomplished. It is a question of helping the Cause by a self-denial so paltry that I will not insult any American woman by calling it a sacrifice. Women of America ! there is a heavy and increasing balance against us on the score of importations. This nation is exporting millions in specie to pay for the costly luxuries of the Old World. The question is, will you destroy, will you extin- guish this balance against us ? Will you stop this drain on SPEECHES OF THE TIMES. 245 the muscles of the nation ? It can be done with perfect ease. Every one must see that at least seventy-five millions must be taken off our expenses, and not a particle of com- fort less would be enjoyed by any woman on the continent. The thing can be done if it; be only made fashionable to do it. We ask for no linsey woolsey dress ; but we ask every woman in her loyalty, in her simpleness, in her shrewdness, in her common sense, to reduce her own personal expenses in dress and jewels, to do everything she fairly and easily can do to reduce our gold account. And this without making it tell on her substantial comforts, upon the health or happiness of herself or family. The thing is perfectly feasible and within our reach. Now will it be done ? Of course this work must have its beginning. Certain ladies here who can afford to spend money, pledge themselves that they will not encourage the importation of foreign luxuries. They will, as far as convenient, abstaiu from the purchase of those imported luxuries ; and if their example be copied, this fashion, set in the streets of New York, will be imitated all over the country, and those sixty millions now against us will be an- hilated within six months. It is perfectly easy to do it ; and what will be the effect of this ? Go into Wall street — into the gold ring — after the matter is fairly inaugurated, or, if you think this too perilous a venture, open one of the morn- ing papers next day and you will see the result — gold tum- bling down with the crash, and the credit of the country going up. Now, we want good Uncle Sam to be able to hold up his head in Wall street and Lombard street, and everywhere else, in the strength of his credit," so that his greenbacks will be as good as gold, dollar for dollar. What woman that de- serves the name is willing to sweep the streets with Lyons silk and costly velvet, and go flashing up and down Broad- way with expensive jewels, when these streets echo so often to the funeral tread, and when so many faces we meet are sad- dened with the grief of the hour. It is indecent, it is unbe- fitting, it is unsympathetic — it is a shame. I do not ask for crape in any form when the hand of God himself has not smitten with ills ; I do not ask for sackcloth and ashes or these outward signs and circumstances of *sorrow ; but I ask a decent, sober and a blameless demeanor, which becomes people who feel that they are walking amid the shadows of great events. I honestly believe that there never has been in history a more faithful, a more heroic, a more godly army than the Army of the Potomac, not to say all the armies of the Union. And I know no keener grief, no more acute sor- row, no deeper sense of shame, visiting those men than the 246 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. knowledge of the extravagant and frightful vanity which is flourishing behind them. They look from their tents, back from the weary march, at all our flaunting pride, and they weep in shame for us. They do not curse us, but they weep for us in shame, and exclaim, " Cannot you be sober, in God's name, looking on to see us die ?" This is the ques- tion. I will add no more. It lies with the American wo- men most materially to assist the credit of the country in the exigency now upon it, and which is to be a protracted exi- gency. And, above all, it is in their power to cheer the army by the spirit they shall exhibit, so that they, as the bugles sound from the Rapidan to Spottsylvania, from Spott- sylvania to Gordonsville, from Gordonsville to Richmond — ■ from Richmond to annihilation-^ so that when the bugles sound from march to jnarch, from battle to battle, your brave boys may say the nation — the nation — is behind us. I JRoswell D. Hitchcock, 1864. EULOGY ON OWEN LOVEJOT. I know not, my friends, what form this project to erect a monument to the memory of Owen Lovejoy may take, in what material it may be wrought, or how its design may be fashioned. But let me express the hope that the contribu- tions will be large enough and liberal enough to allow you to erect in this beautiful neighborhood — where Owen Lovejoy settled long ago, and where he labored so long and so effectually to form and purify public opinion — a suitable monument in ever-during bronze, a material so indestruct- ible that an image formed by Tubal Cain himself, the world's earliest artificer in brass and iron, might have lasted midecayed to the present time. In this durable material I would hope that sculpture might exert the utmost efforts in representing his features and impressing upon them their grand expression of high resolution, undaunted courage, and unflinching perseverance. And then, my friends, an inhabi- tant of Princeton^ standing near it, and pointing it out to a stranger, might say to him, " That monument was erected to the memory of one who was a champion of the cause of universal liberty in that time past when the cause of univer- sal liberty was feeble, and despised. Behold how the hand that framed him stamped upon his manly brow the seal of a vigorous mind, an undaunted heart, and unshaken constancy. He saw his brother, a nrevious champion in that noble cause, SPEECHES OP THE TIMES. 247 struck down and murdered before his eyes, and at that very moment, on that very spot, he devoted himself to the cause of universal freedom ; to that cause he gave the labors of his life, to that the labors of his life were devoted, and to it his life was at last sacrificed. He knew that he should encoun- ter scorn, obloquy, opposition. He feared them not. He met them ; he defied them ; he overcame them. He outlived the scorn ; he lived down the obloquy ; he fought down the opposition. He saw the great cause in which he wa^s engaged on the eve of a glorious triumph. Before he died he saw it — not as Moses saw the promised land, at a distance — he saw it at his very feet. He saw it as Joshua saw the land of Palestine when he crossed the river Jordan, from the thirsty regions of Moab, and planted his steps on a soil fresh with the dews and rlow r ersof heaven." Then if the person whom I imagine to speak were in the habit of drawing broad conclusions from particular instances, and deducing solemn and sublime moralities from the prac- tical aspect of things, he might go on to say : "Let no man who looks at this monument ever be dis- couraged in a good cause. Let him first satisfy his conscience as to the merits of his cause, its truth, its righteousness, its humanity. Let him satisfy himself that he is in the line of his duty, and then let him enter upon it fearlessly with a heart assured that he is approved of his God, that his labor will be crowned with success, that his cause will finally tri- umph. For evil is temporary ; evil is mortal ; it is doomed by a necessity of its nature to yield to dissolution. But good is permanent,- deathless, eternal, destined to prevail over all oppression, and sure of a glorious triumph ; for God is with it." There is a portion of the liturgy of the Episcopal church which has always seemed to me exceedingly beautiful and affecting. It is that in which the worshippers give thanks to Almighty God for the lives of those who have labored or suffered for the truth, and have passed away, leaving worthy and shining examples of self-sacrifice and of goodness for the imitation of mankind. A monument like the one of which I have spoken erected in the neighborhood, in some conspicuous place, would be a standing, visible, perpetual acknowledgment of public gratitude to the Author of all Good that such a man as Owen Lovejoy lived, that such a citizen was given to this country. William Cullen Bryant, 1864. II. MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. SPEECH OF MAECELLUS TO THE EOMAN MOB. Wherefore rejoice ? That Caesar comes in triumph ? What conquests brings he home ? what tributaries follow him to Rome, to grace, in captive bonds, his chariot wheels ? You blocks ! you stones ! you worse than senseless things ! O you hard hearts ! you cruel men of Rome ! Knew you not Pompey ? Many a time and oft have you climbed up to walls and battlements, to towers and windows, yea, to chim- ney-tops, your infants in your arms ; and there have sat the livelong day, with patient expectation, to see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome. And when you saw his chariot but appear have you not made a universal shout, that Tiber trembled underneath her banks, to hear the replication of your sounds made in her concave shores ? And do you now put on your best attire ? and do you now cull out a holiday ? And do you now strew flowers in his way that comes in triumph over Pompey's blood ? Begone ! Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, pray to the gods to intermit the plagues that needs must light on this ingratitude. Shakespeare. THE CUESE OF EEGULUS. The palaces and domes of Carthage were burning with the splendors of noon, and the blue waves of her harbor were rolling and gleaming in the gorgeous sunlight. An attentive ear could catch a low murmur, sounding from the centre of the city, which seemed like the moaning of the wind before a tempest. And well it might. The whole people of Carthage, startled, astounded by the report that Regulus had returned, were pouring, a mighty tide, into the great square before the Senate House. There were mothers MISCELLANEOUS EXTEACTS. 249 in that throng, whose captive sons were groaning in Roman fetters ; maidens, whose lovers were dying in the distant dungeons of Rome ; gray-haired men and matrons, whom Roman steel had made childless ; men, who were seeing their country's life crushed out -by Roman power; and with wild voices, cursing and groaning, the vast throng gave vent to the rage, the hate, the anguish of long years. Calm and unmoved as the marble walls around him, stood Regulus, the Roman ! He stretched his arm over the surg- ing crowd with a gesture as proudly imperious, as though he stood at the head of his own gleaming cohorts. Before that silent command the tumult ceased — the half-uttered execra- tion died upon the lip — so intense was the silence that the clank of the captive's brazen manacles smote sharp on every ear, as he thus addressed them : " Ye doubtless thought, judging of Roman virtue by your own, that I would break my plighted faith, rather than by returning, and leaving your sons and brothers to rot in Roman dungeons, to meet your vengeance. Well, I could give reasons for this return, foolish and inexplicable as it seems to you ; I could speak of yearnings after immortality — of those eternal principles in whose pure light a patriot's death is glorious, a thing to be desired ; but by great Jove ! I should debase myself to dwell on such high themes to you. If the bright blood Avhich feeds my heart were, like the slimy ooze that stagnates in your veins, I should have re- mained at Rome, saved my life and broken my oath. If, then, you ask, why I have come back, to let you work your will on this poor body which I esteem but as the rags that cover it, — enough reply for you, it is because I am a Ro- man! As such, here in your very capital I defy you! What I have done, ye never can undo y what ye may do, I care not. Since first my young arm knew how to wield a Roman sword, have I not routed your armies, burned your towns, and dragged your generals at my chariot wheels? And do ye now expect to see me cower and whine with dread of Carthaginian vengeance ? Compared to that fierce mental strife which my heart has just passed through at Rome, the piercing of this flesh, the rending of these sinews, would be but sport to me. "Venerable senators, with trembling voices and outstretched hands, besought me to return no more to Carthage. The generous people, with loud wailing, and wildly-tossing ges- tures, bade me stay. The voice of a beloved mother,— her withered hands beating her breast, her gray hairs streaming in the wind, tears flowing down her furrowed cheeks — 11* 250 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. praying me not to leave her in her lonely and helpless old age, is still sounding in my ears. Compared to anguish like this, the paltry torments you have in store is as the murmur of the meadow brook to the wild tumult of the mountain storm. Go ! bring your threatened tortures ! The woes I see impending over this fated city will be enough to sweeten death, though every nerve should tingle with its agony. I die — but mine shall be the triumph ; yours the untold deso- lation. For every drop of blood that falls from my veins, your OAvn shall pour in torrents ! Wo, unto thee, O Car- thage ! I see thy homes and temples all in flames, thy citi- zens in terror, thy women wailing for the dead. Proud city ! thou art doomed ! the curse of Jove, a living, lasting curse is on thee ! The hungry waves shall lick the golden gates of thy rich palaces, and every brook run crimson to the sea. Rome, with bloody hand, shall sweep thy heart-strings, and all thy homes shall howl in wild response of anguish to her touch. Proud mistress of the sea, disrobed, uncrowned and scourged — thus again do I devote thee to the infernal gods! Now, bring forth your tortures ! Slaves ! while ye tear this quivering flesh, remember how often Pegulus has beaten your armies and humbled your pride. Cut as he would have carved you ! Burn deep as his curse ! METAMOEA TO HIS WARRIOES. Sachems, chiefs, and warriors ! Metamora has told his brothers of the many aggressions and insults of the pale-faces, and the outrage upon his family. Metamora cannot lie. He has told his brothers that the heart of the pale-face is like his skin, white and without blood, — that good sap of the tree, that makes its branches spread afar, and give shelter and fruit to all. Metamora Cannot lie. He has told his brothers that the Great Spirit, who provides for all his creatures, made a land for the white man as well as for his red chil- dren. That land made by the Good Spirit must be good; and if these pale-faces were good in their hearts, they would live in their own land that their Father gave them. If they are not good, the red man should treat them as the panther, that comes to his wigwam to steal the deer that he has hunted, or the bird that he has shot with his arrow. Meta- mora cannot lie. When a red man makes a visit of peace to a brother's wigwam, he feeds at his fire, drinks of his bowl, MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 251 smokes of the prophet-plant, and departs in peace. We re- ceived the white man as we receive a brother ; he fed at our fire, smoked of the friendly pipe, and danced with our squaws ; but he never departs. He still stays, eats of our meat, warms by our fires, craves more and more' from us, measures the very ground that we loaned him to sport on, and claims it as his own. Was he not afraid to track even the deer of the hills, or the bear of the forest, for a meal ? Did not the red man hunt the buffalo, the buck, the otter, and slay them to feed and keep him warm ? And when the Great Spirit, angry at their stay, talked louder than the roar of their mighty rifles, and shook their big canoes in his wrath, did we not dive into the mad waters around them, and' save them from going down to the water-spirit in their splintered barks ? Did not the red men dry them by their fires, give them the soft fur of the otter to lie on, and shelter and pro- tect them, till our prophets soothed the Great Spirit's anger, and he talked no more in thunder? And now they stay long, and want more — more — more. Like the wolf-dog, feed him, and he'll come again ; give him our beds, and he bites us ; fatten him, and he'll drive us from our wigwam. They show us books, which they say will tell us of the Great Spirit, We know the Great Spirit without books. He whispers to us in the breeze ; he sings to us in the wind-cloud and the waterfall ; he talks to us in thunder, and our hearts answer ; we see his frown in the storm-cloud, his smile in the warm face of the eternal sun ; the great blue tent above is his wigwam, and the stars are his watch-fires ! The red men need no books to tell them this, for this is all truth. Yv r hite men make books, and white men lie ! They take from us, while they tell us that they come to give ; but the red man wants no gifts, save the gifts of Him who owns all, and who can give without taking from another. When the red man makes war upon his brother, he comes to him as his foe, and shows the tomahawk, the bow and arrow, and the plume of the eagle; but these pale-faces come with peace upon their lips, with their hands empty, but wear the little rifle and the knife, like a snake hid within their bosoms, to plunge into the heart of the red man. In this do they not lie ? They are as false as the snow-bank in the spring ; if we rest upon it it sinks with us. The white man talks of peace; but Metamora tells his brothers that their big canoes are still landing from over the salt lake, filled with rifles, thunder- guns, and their long knives of war. Metamora cannot lie. When we ask the white man what allthese are for, he tells us they are for hunting, and destroying the wolf, the panther, 252 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. and the crocodile ; but Metamora again tells his brothers 'tis a lie! They are to drive the red man from his lands, shoot him down like the deer herd, and fire his wigwam with their thunder-guns. Then let the red man rouse and scream like the eagle when the snake seeks his nest, — join with his tribe, and dart upon his foe, — protect the lands of his fathers, the gift of the Great Spirit ; let the keen axe of vengeance defend their wives and the doves of their wigwams from the fire-hail of the white skin. Bury not the hatchet, nor sling the rifle, while the track of the high moccasin insults the graves of our fathers ! White man, beware ! Th,e wrath of the wronged Indian shall come upon you like the roaring cataract that dashes the uprooted oak down into the mighty chasm ; the war-whoop shall rouse you from your dreams at night, and the red tomahawk glare in the blaze of your burning dwellings ! Tremble! from the east to the west, in the north and in the south, shall be heard the loud cry of vengeance, till the lands you have stolen groan under your feet no more. Snakes of the pale-face, ye may slay the chief of the Warn- panoags, but the soul of Metamora shall still live, and talk in the red sons of Manito. His blood shall be their war-paint of vengeance. They shall kill man for man and race for race. From the king of hills to the mighty vales and caverns, they shall betray you as you have the wronged red man, till your hot fire-water blood shall burn in millions of fires and light their dance of freedom. DESPAIE A man overboard ! What matters it ! the ship does not stop. The* wind is blowing, that dark ship must keep on her destined course. She passes away. The man disappears, then reappears; he plunges and rises again to the surface, he calls, he stretches out his hands, they hear him not; the ship, staggering under the gale, is strain- ing every rope ;" the sailors and the passengers see the drown- ing man no longer ; his miserable head is but a point in the vastness of the billows. . He hurls cries of despair into the depths. What a spectacle is that disappearing sail ! He looks upon it, he looks upon it with frenzy. It moves away ; it grows dim; it diminishes. He was there but just now; he was one of the crew, he went and came upon the deck with the rest, he had his share of the air and of the sunlight, MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 253 he was a living man. Now, what has become of him ? He slipped, he fell — and it is finished. He is in the monstrous deep. He has nothing under his feet but the yielding, fleeing element. The waves, torn and scattered by the wind, close round him hideously; the roll- ing of the abyss bears him along ; shreds of water are flying about his head ; a populace of waves spit upon him ; confused openings half swallow him ; when he sinks he catches glimpses of yawning precipices full of darkness ; fearful unknown vege- tations seize upon him, bind his feet, and draw him to them- selves ; he feels that he is becoming the great deep ; he makes part of the foam ; the billows toss him from one to the other ; he tastes the bitterness ; the greedy ocean is eager to devour him ; the monster plays with his agony. It seems as if all this were liquid hate. He tries to defend himself; he tries to sustain himself; he struggles, he swims. He — that poor strength that fails so soon — he combats the unfailing. Where now is the ship ? Far away yonder. Hardly visi- ble in the pallid gloom of the horizon. The wind blows in gusts ; the billows overwhelm him. He raises his eyes, but sees only the livid clouds. He, in his dying agony, makes part of this immense insanity of the sea. He is tortured to death by its immeasurable madness. He hears sounds which are strange to man, sounds which seem to come, not from the earth, but from some frightful realm beyond. There are birds in the clouds, even as there are angels above human distresses, but what can they do for him. They fly, sing and float, while he is gasping. He feels that he is buried at once by those two infinities, the ocean and the sky ; the one is a tomb, the other a pall. Night descends ; he has been swimming f^r hours, his strength is almost exhausted ; that ship, that far-off thing where there were men, is gone ; he is alone in the terrible gloom of the abyss ; he sinks, he strains, he struggles, he feels beneath him the shadowy monsters of the unseen ; he shouts. Men are no more. Where is God ? He shouts. Help ! help ! he shouts incessantly. Nothing in the horizon, nothing in the sky. He implores the blue vault, the waves, the rocks ; all are deaf. He supplicates the tempest : the imperturbable tempest obeys only the Infinite. Around him are darkness, storm, solitude, wild and uncon- scious tumult, the ceaseless tumbling of the fierce waters ; within him, horror and exhaustion ; beneath him, the engulf- ing abyss. No resting-place. He thinks of the shadowy ad- ventures of his lifeless body in the limitless gloom. The bit- 254 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. ing cold paralyzes Mm. His hands clutch spasmodically, and grasp at nothing. Winds, clouds, whirlwinds, blasts, stars — all useless ! What shall he do? He yields to despair ; worn out, he seeks death ; he no longer resists ; he gives himself up ; he abandons the contest, and he is rolled away into the dismal depths of the abyss forever. — Victor Hugo, 1862. HYMN BEFORE SUNRISE IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI. Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star in his steep course ? — so long he seems to pause on thy bald, awful head, O, sovereign Blanc ! The Arve and Arveiron at thy base rave ceaselessly : but thou, most awful form ! risest from forth the silent sea of pines, how silently ! Around thee and above, deep as the air and dark, substantial black, an ebon mass : methinks thou piercest it as with a wedge ! But when I look again, it is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine, thy hab- itation from eternity ! — O dread and silent mount ! I gazed upon thee till thou, still present to the bodily sense, didst van- ish from my thought : entranced in prayer, I worshipped the Invisible alone. Yet, like some sweet, beguiling melody, so sweet we know not we are listening to it, thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my thought, yea, with my life and life's own secret joy, till the dilating soul, enwrapt, transfused into the mighty vis- ion passing — there, as in her natural form, swelled vast to heaven. Awake, my soul ! not only passive praise thou owest ! not alone these swelling tears, mute thanks, and secret ecstasy! Awake, voice of sweet song ! Awake, my heart, awake ! green vales and icy cliffs, all join my hymn! Thou first and chief, sole sovereign of the vale ! O, strug- gling with the darkness all the night, and visited all night by troops of stars, or when they climb the sky, or when they sink ! Companion of the morning star at dawn, thyself come down to earth and utter praise ! Who sank thy sunless pil- lars deep in earth ? Who filled thy countenance with rosy light ? Who made thee parent of perpetual streams ? And you, ye five wild torrents, fiercely glad! who called you forth from night and utter death ; from dark and icy cav- erns called you forth, down those precipitous, black, jagged rocks, forever shattered, and the same for ever ? Who gave you your invulnerable life, your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy ; unceasing thunder and eternal foam ? MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 255 And who commanded, (and the silence came,) " Here let the billows stiffen and have rest?" Ye ice-falls ! ye that from the mountain's brow adown enor- mous ravines slope amain — torrents, methinks, that heard a mio-hty voice and stopped at once amid their maddest plunge ! Motionless torrents ! silent cataracts ! — who made you glori- ous as the gates of heaven, beneath the keen, fall moon ? "Who bade the sun clothe you with rainbows ? Who, with living flowers of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet ? God ! Let the torrents like a shout of nations, answer ! and let the ice-plains echo — God ! God ! Sing, ye meadow- streams, with gladsome voice ! ye pine groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds ! And they, too, have a voice, yon piles of suow, and in their perilous fall shall thunder, God ! Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost ! Ye wild goats, sporting round the eagle's nest ! Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain storm ! Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds ! Ye signs and wonders of the element ! Utter forth God, and fill the hills with praise ! Once more, hoar mount, with thy sky-pointing peaks, oft from whose feet the avalanche, unheard, shoots downward, glittering through the pure serene in the depth of clouds that veil thy breast, thou, too, again, stupendous mountain ! thou that, as I raise my head, awhile bowed low in adoration, up- ward from thy base slow travelling, with dim eyes suffused with tears, solemnly seemest like a vapory cloud, to rise before me, — rise, O, ever rise ! rise like a cloud of incense from the earth ! Thou kingly spirit thrown among the hills, thou dread ambassador from earth to heaven ; great hierarch ! tell thou the silent sky, and tell the stars and tell yon rising sun, earth, with her thousand voices, praises God ! & T. Coleridge. EULOGY ON JEAN PAUL. A stae has gone down, and the eye of this century will be closed before it again arises ; for blazing genius moyes in far orbits, and only the children's children may greet again with gladness that to which the fathers bade farewell with tears. And a crown is fallen from the head of a king, and a sword is broken in the hand of a leader, and a high priest is dead ! Well may we weep for him who was compensation for our losses, and for whose loss there is no compensation ! To every land is given, for its doleful deprivations, some kindly recompense. The north, without a heart, has its iron 256 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. strength ; the effeminate south its golden sun ; gloomy Spain its faith ; the needy French are refreshed with a prodigal wit; and freedom lights up the misty air of England. We had Jean Paul, and we have him no more; and in him we lost what in him only we possessed — strength and gentleness and fait!) and cheerful mirth and unfettered speech. This is the star gone down — the heavenly faith that shone for us in him whose light is now extinguished. This is the crown downfallen — the crown of love that ruled him who wore it, as likewise all who were his subjects. This is the broken sword — satire in a bold hand, before which kings tremble and bloodless courtiers blush. And this is the high priest, who prayed for us in the temple of nature ; he is gone, and our devotion has no longer an interpreter ! We will mourn for him whom we have lost, and for those others who did not lose him. Not for all has he lived ! But there will cornea time when lie shall be born for all, and all will weep for him. And he stands patiently at the gate of the twentieth century, and waits with a smile, until his creeping nation shall come after him. Centuries march by ; the seasons roll away ; changeful is the weather of fortune; the gradations of age ascend and descend. Nothing is perpetual but change, nothing constant but death. Every heart-beat strikes us with a wound ; and life would be an endless bleeding, were it not for poetry. She grants us what nature denies — a golden age that does not corrode, a spring that does not fade, cloudless fortune and eternal youth. The poet is the consoler of humanity, if only Heaven itself has authorized him, if God has pressed his seal upon his forehead, if he brings not the celestial mes- sage for the vulgar reward of a carrier. Such was Jean Paul. He sang not in the palaces of the great; he made no sport with his lyre at the tables of the rich. He was the poet of the /lowly-born ; he was the minstrel of the poor ; and where the sorrowful wept were heard the sweet tones of his harp. He Avas no flatterer of the crowd, no servant of custom. Through narrow, hidden paths he sought out the neglected village. He counted, in the nation, the men ; in towns, the roofs ; and, under each roof, every heart. All the seasons blossomed for him; for him they all bore' fruit. For the freedom of thought he struggled with others ; in the bat- tle for the freedom of feeling he stands alone. Such was Jean Paul ! Do you ask where he was born, where he lived, where his ashes rest ? He came from Hea- ven, he lived on the earth, our heart is his grave. No hero, no poet has drawn so true a picture of his life in his works MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. * 25 7 as Jean Paul. The spirit is departed, the words only are left. He has gone hence; and in whatever heaven he wanders, in whatever star he dwells, he will not forget in his transfigura- tion the earth he knew so well, nor his own fellow-men, who played and wept with him, and like him loved and endured. From the German of Imdwig Boerne, 1825. DEATH OP PRESIDENT TAYLOR. If I were to speak of that single characteristic of Zachary Taylor which has always impressed my own mind with most force, I should say that he realized more perfectly than any other person the pure ideal of a republican citizen. Equal to the highest, not seeming superior to the humblest, accessi- ble alike to all, modest, resolved, courteous, firm, benevolent, just, loyal to his government, " true to himself," and there- fore "false to no man" — of what other great character of our time can all this be said so truly? But, fellow-citizens, while I thus speak of this event as an irreparable loss — even as a great public calamity — I do not partake the fears of those who view in it a reason for agita- tion and alarm — who draw from it fatal auguries to the safety of the Republic. I do not believe that Divine Providence has chosen to suspend the fate of this people upon the life of any one man. God's purposes in respect to this nation of ours are not to be thus accomplished. It was not for a des- tiny which we have yet fulfilled that for four thousand years he kept this half of the globe concealed behind the curtain which shut down upon the western horizon of the Old World. It was not for this early fruit which we have yet gathered that he then planted it with that " winnowed seed." Not for this short national life did he teach us how to frame this organized living body politic, vital in every part. Surely, surely, this new career of the world's progress, so full of ra- diant promise, is not to be suddenly arrested ! How admirably indeed has this mournful event itself illus- trated the strength and beauty of our political system ! How fully is its whole philosophy vindicated by one simple almost unnoticed event. A gentleman from a Southern State has arisen to address the Senate of the United States upon an agitating question of internal policy. While he is speaking, a Senator from Massachusetts arises, and, in a voice weak with emotion, announces that the executive head of the Re- public is rapidly drawing near the end of life. The speech 258 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. is suspended, and the Senate adjourns. In six days it again assembles. In that short interval the executive government of the country has been silently but totally changed. The sceptre of power has fallen from the hand of one man touched with the finger of death — and has been instantly taken up and borne without challenge by another. Changes have taken place which would have convulsed some of the self-styled strong governments of the Old World to their centres, and behold ! the Senate calmly resumes the order of its business — and the Senator arises to proceed with the un- finished speech ! But, my friends, though we do not yield to melancholy forebodings for ourselves, we do not the less cherish the pre- cious memory of the departed. Fellow-citizens, it is not often we are called to mourn for such a loss. Soldiers, statesmen, orators, scholars, daily pass away from amongst us, and others daily arise to fill their places. But when a great heart — upon which a nation, in its hour of peril, has rested the burthen of its hopes and fears— ceases to beat, it is a time to pause in awe and sorrow. Ah ! my countrymen, this recent grave has indeed opened at the feet of truth, and honor, of private worth and public station, of highest power united to purest virtue — " the cord that is loosed was indeed of silver, the bowl that is broken was of gold beyond all price !" Hon. James Humphrey \ 1860. THE GRAVE Oh, the grave ! the grave ! It buries every error ; covers every defect; extinguishes every resentment. From its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recol- lections. Who can look down upon the grave even of an enemy, and not feel a compunctious throb, that ever he should have warred with the poor handful of earth that lies mouldering before him ? But the grave of those he loved, what a place for meditation! Then it is we call up, in long review, the whole history of virtue and gentleness, and the thousand en- dearments lavished upon us, almost unheeded, in the daily intercourse of intimacy ; then it is, we dwell upon the ten- derness, the solemn and awful tenderness of the parting scene; the bed of death, with all the stifled grief; its noise- less attendants, its mute, watchful assiduities; the last testi- monies of expiring love; the feeble, fluttering, thrilling — MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 259 Oh! how thrilling the pressure of the hand; the last, fond look of the glazed eye, turning upon us, even from the threshold of existence ; the feint, faltering accents struggling in death to give one more assurance of affection ! Aye, go to the grave of buried love and meditate ! There settle the account with thy conscience, for every past endearment, un- regarded, of that departed being, who never, never, never can return, to be soothed by contrition ! If thou art a child, and hast ever added a sorrow to the soul, or a furrow to the silvered brow of an affectionate parent ; if thou art a husband, and hast ever "caused the fond bosom that ventured its whole happiness in thy arms, to doubt one moment of thy kindness or thy truth; if thou art a friend, and hast ever wronged in thought, or word, or deed, the spirit that generously confided in thee; if thou art a lover and hast ever given an unmerited pang to the true heart that now lies cold and still beneath thy feet ; then be sure that every unkind look, every ungracious word, every ungenteel action, will come thronging back upon thy memo- ry, and knocking dolefully at thy soul; then be sure thou wilt be down, sorrowing and repentant on the grave, and utter the unheard groan, and pour the unavailing tear, more deep, more bitter, because unheard and unavailing. Washington Irving. THE SEVEN AGES All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time, plays many parts ; his acts being — Seven Ages. At first, the Infant, mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. And then the whining School-boy with his satchel and shining morning face; creeping like a snail un- willingly to school. And- then the Lover, sighing like fur- nace, with a woful ballad made to his mistress's eye-brow. Then a Soldier, full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard ; jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel; seeking the bubble, reputation, even in the cannon's mouth. And then, the Justice, in fair round belly with good capon lined, with eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of w T ise saws and modern instances ; and so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts into the lean and slippered Pantaloon, with specta- cles on nose, and pouch on side; his youthful hose well saved, a world too wide for his shrunk shank; and his big, manly 260 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. voice, turning again to childish treble, pipes and whistles in the sound. Last scene of all, that ends this strange, eventful history, is — second childishness and mere oblivion ; sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, — sans everything ! Shakespeare. THE COMMON LOT, Once, in the flight of ages past, there lived a man ; and who was he ! Mortal ! howe'er thy lot be cast, that man resembled thee. Unknown the region of his birth ; the land in which he died, unknown; his name has perished from the earth ; this truth survives alone — that joy, and grief, and hope, and fear, alternate triumphed in his breast ; his bliss, and woe — a smile, a tear; oblivion hides the rest. The bounding pulse, the languid limb, the changing spirit's rise and fall ; we know that these were felt by him, for these are felt by all. He suffered — but his pangs are o'er; enjoyed— but his delights are fled ; had friends — his friends are now no more ; had foes — his foes are dead. He loved — but whom he loved, the grave hath lost in its unconscious womb: O, she was fair! but nought could save her beauty from the tomb. He saw — whatever thou hast seen ; encountered all that troubles thee ; he was — whatever thou hast been ; he is — what thou shalt be ! The rolling seasons, day and night, sun, moon, and stars, the earth and main — erewhile his por- tion — life and light ; to him exist in vain. The clouds and sunbeams, o'er his eye that once their shades and glory threw, have left, in yonder silent sky, no vestige where they flew. The annals of the human race, their ruins since the world began, of him afford no other trace than this, — There lived a man ! — James Montgomery. SPEECH OF SATAN TO HIS LEGION. Princes, potentates, warriors ! the flower of heaven, once yours ; now lost, if such astonishment as this can seize eter- nal spirits; or have ye chosen this place after the toil of battle to repose your wearied virtue, for the ease you find to slumber here as in the vales of heaven ? Or, in this abject posture, have ye sworn to adore the conqueror? who now beholds cherub and seraph rolling in the flood, with scattered MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 261 arms and ensigns ; till anon his swift pursuers from heaven- gates discern the advantage, and, descending, tread us down thus drooping ; or, with linked thunderbolts, transfix us to the bottom of this gulf. Awake ! arise ! or be forever fallen ! Milton. TREASURES OF THE DEEP. What had'st thou in thy treasure-caves arid cells, thou hollow sounding and mysterious Main? — pale, -glistening pearls, and rainbow-colored shells, bright things which gleam unrecked of, and in vain. Keep, keep thy riches, melancholy sea ! we ask not such from thee. Yet more, the depths have more! What wealth untold, far down and shining through their stillness lies ! Thou hast the starry gems, the burning gold, won from ten thousand royal argosies. Sweep o'er thy spoils, thou wild and wrathful Main ; earth claims not these again ! Yet more, the depths have more ! Thy waves have rolled above the cities of a world gone by ! Sand hath filled up the palaces of old, sea-weed o'ergrown the halls of revelry ! Dash o'er them, ocean ! in thy scornful play ; man yields them to decay ! Yet more ! the billows and the depths have more ! High hearts and brave are gathered to thy breast ! They hear not now the booming waters roar, the battle thunders will not break their rest ; keep thy red gold and gems, thou stormy grave — give back the true and brave ! — Give back the lost and lovely ! those for whom the place was kept at board and hearth so long: the prayer went up through midnight's breathless gloom, and the vain yearning woke 'mid festal t song! Hold fast thy buried isles, thy towers o'erthrown, — but all is not thine own ! To thee the love of woman hath gone down ; dark flow thy tides o'er manhood's noble head, o'er youth's bright locks and beauty's flowery crown ; yet must thou hear a voice — " Restore the dead." Earth shall reclaim her precious things from thee : "Restore the dead, thou sea !" — Mrs. Hemans. EASTER MORNING-, Not another day of the year comes upon the earth with such universal acceptance as this. Although every sabbath day is now changed to be a day of rejoicing for the resurrec- 262 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. tion of the Son of God, yet this is the annual and all-inclusive day, and is the Sunday of Sundays, which proclaims the res- surrection of Christ from the dead with the sounding joy and sympathy of the whole Christian world. Christ is risen ! There is life, therefore, after death ! His resurrection is the symbol and pledge of universal resurrection! It was almost nineteen hundred years ago. The world had not then just begun. It had passed four thosand trou- bled years. Well might holy men deem the old ended and the new begun, when with Simeon, they were prepared to say, " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace !" Well might the hopeful expect, from the very hour of Christ's resurrection, new scenes, new power, and new life of men and nations. Yet how blindly did they expect ! How utter- ly unlike expectation have been the results. If we could go back to the time of the resurrection of Christ, and learn what was the expectation of the most intelligent and the most instructed of the early Christian men respecting the future, we should doubtless see that every single element of it, so far as it related to the outward progress of Christ's kingdom in this world, was mistaken. Where is Jerusalem, that to the early Christian was to be glorified under Christ ? Where are the Jews to-day, that were to be God's favored people in a more illustrious reign and kingdom ? They are dispersed through all the earth, with indigestible nationality, yet immiscible and ungathered. Jerusalem is a stage for antiquarians and devout pilgrims. The temple is gone, the light of true faith is quenched, and a decaying superstition kindles its lurid fire in the place of it. From the day that the hand of the government was stretched out against Christ, it seems to have been paralyzed, and the fabled Wandering Jew is a symbol of the nation itself, vaga- bond, restless and wretched — a nation without a land ; a peo- ple without a goverement ; a parasitic people, growing upon the boughs of other nations, as the mistletoe upon the oak. On this morning, of old, the Greek people, broken in poli- tical power, were yet the repositories of literature, of philos- ophy, of art. They Avere the world's school-masters. . The rude Romans first subdued them, and then became their scholars, and sat at the feet of those on whose necks they had put their own feet. But now the torch that kindled the whole world's litera- ture has itself gone out. The name and the place of Greece remains, but Greece is but a remembrance ; and missionaries from distant lands are carrying scanty coals and embers from modern altars to kindle again the fires long quenched upon MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 263 those renowned places of antiquity that gave to the world its light. The Roman at that time stood supreme ; but the empire is dead, ages ago. Rome was the centre of power then. It is now the centre of decrepitude. It then commanded the world. Now it subsists by the permission of foreign armies. Its armies were in the East, in Gaul, in Britain. Europe was its realm. Now Rome mutters anathemas with the permis- sion of a usurping French Emperor, and is saved from the indignation of the Italian people by a mercenary army. So long ago did the Jewish national life cease, and the Grecian and the Roman, that there has been time since for vast intermediate formations. The complex and transitional nations of the middle ages have had time for growth and for decay, and they, have passed away, and still another growth, with modern civilization, is developed — and all since the first incoming of this morning of the resurrection, that seemed to promise immediate victory to the world. And now, a little more than eighteen hundred years after the resurrection, the day illustrious above all others, the day that brought to light and life the longed-for truths of immor- tality, the day that glows with the light of the natural sun, not only, but through morning portal pours the efful- gence of the great spirit world beyond, the light of the land of God — how strangely has it come every year again, shining upon all the earth! It came annually for a hundred years, and not a Christian temple did it see, and only hidden and dispersed Christians. It came for two hundred years more, and yet no fanes had been built. The root of Chris- tianity had spread, and some leaves had crept along the ground like a hidden vine, but no tree of life spread its branches, a covert and a shade, for full three hundred years after the first shining of this day. It came year by year to see Christianity recognized and corrupted almost at the same time ; to see the world con- vulsed with wars and revolutions .; to see the earth groan and travail in pain until now. But now, in these later years, the whole Christian world celebrates this day again. Five hours ago our fatherland be- gan its hymns and chants ; but even before that the solemn sounding joy had spread through all the Russian land. Across the sea the light brought joy to many a ship ; and glancing on the shore, ten thousand spires flash the glad illumination, and tremble to the rolling organ beneath, that sounds forth the Christian's exultation. It is the Lord's day, and the annual day of resurrection. 264 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Oh, day of God ! comest thou to declare the soul's life ? As thy light increases, do we read the dim intimations of na- ture more plainly, and, deciphering them, learn the glorious doctrine of immortality ? Shall the dead live again ? Shall love light again its quenched fire where storms cannot extin- guish it ? Shall we find in the future that glorious treasure- house into which has been gathered all that is good and best of earthly life ? Is there a kingdom where God is King, and the King is Father ? Oh, land without tears ! how shall we understand thee — we who cannot look but through tears ? Oh, land of truth, and purity, and love! art thou real, and near, for all who will? — Henry Ward Beeeher, 1864. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. The first French Revolution was an experiment on popu- lar institutions which, in its objects and the causes from which it sprang, combined all the elements of a great and success- ful reform ; and the cause of its direful miscarriage stands out therefore conspicuous and undoubted for a lesson to all nations. The French peoplefpegan their reform by renouncing allegiance to God and to the laws. They proceeded through- out upon the principle that Christianity and republicanism could not subsist together. This frightful doctrine they wrought everywhere into the national mind — expecting to hold its terrible volcanic power in check, and control it to their purpose, by such devices as a representative convention, skilful operations of finance, a political establishment on the theory of natural right, and, more absurd than all, a national oath, to be renewed by all Frenchmen every fourth year of the new calendar, " to live free or die." Infatuated men ! Illustrious dupes of impiety and folly! What virtue do you expect from your " national oath" after you have thus extir- pated every sentiment and every principle that can give it solemnity or sanction? What barrier will you raise against the tides of popular fury, when they have ceased to obey the attraction of the skies ? But, that nothing might be wanting to make this experi- ment complete and final, or to show that it was made by the whole nation in its corporate capacity, the government, by a solemn public act, renounced its allegiance to Heaven and established impiety by law. It decreed that all religious signs, whether in public or private places, which might serve to remind the people of their ancient faith, should be annihi- MISCELLANEOUS EXTKACTS. 265 lated. It voted death an eternal sleep. It abolished fune- rals, and decreed that all deceased persons should be buried like the carcasses of brutes, without ceremony or religious service. It abolished the Sabbath, and gave up all churches and places of worship to plunder. It ordered the Bible to be publicly burnt by the common hangman ; and, as if to ex- tirpate the very memory of Scripture history, it instituted a new calendar, in which the divisions of time should be marked by no reference to the Christian era or to Christian institutions. The world stood aghast at such a bold and shameless dese- cration of everything pure and venerable and holy. Men's hearts failed them for fear ,• and they waited for the event in fixed astonishment, as they wait for the avalanche or the earthquake. Those who managed the vessel of State had thrown chart and compass overboard, and madly put out on the sea of revolution. They had hailed the rising sun of lib- erty with joy; but now that the ocean swelled, and the air darkened, with what terror did they behold his broad blood- red disk climb a sky black with tempests, and sounding with loud thunders from side to side ! It has not been left to us to record the horrors and crimes of that eventful period, when Paris, the seat of art and elegance and fashion, became a great slaughter-house, and the throne and the altar floated in blood away from their foundations. When one execution- er tired Avith his horrid work of chopping off human heads, another was called to stand in his place — and another — and another. No love was left. Every man was an assassin ; and the murderer of to-day, while his hand was yet upon the axe, was marked the victim for to-morrow. And thus the Republic, drunk with blood, staggered on under her load of misery and crime, towards the gulf of military despotism — an abyss dreadful and profound as hell! Anarchy is always impatient for a tyrant ; and in a State so fruitful of monsters as France had been, he could not long be waited for. There was a brief and fearful pause; when lo ! girt about with darkness and clad in complete steel, a stern and solitary fig- ure, bred out of the seething mass of national corruption — the offspring and very image of the times — rose on the high- est wave of revolution, with the imperial eagle in his hand! The Tribunate hailed him as the supreme head of the nation. The Senate entreated him to accept the purple. The army followed, and laid the glory of a thousand victories at his feet. The people shouted, " Vive JO Empereur Napoleon /" and — the French Republic was no more. Samuel Edls, 1839. 266 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. THE PATIENCE OF POLAND. To my brethren in misfortune, the Polish exiles, I have a word of thanks to speak. It is eighty-one years since Poland first was quartered by a nefarious act of combined royalty, which the Swiss Tacitus, Johannes Miiller, well characterized by saying that " God permitted the act to show forth the morality of kings." And it is twenty-four years since down- trodden Poland made the greatest (not the last) manifesta- tion of her imperishable vitality, which the cabinets of Europe were too narrow-minded to understand, or too corrupt to appreciate, — eighty-one years of still unretributed crime, and twenty-four years of misery in exile ! It is a long time to suffer and not to despair. And all along this time, you pro- scribed patriots of Poland, you were suffering and did not despair. You stood up before God and the world, a living statue, with the unquenchable life-flame of patriotism stream- ing through its petrified limbs. You stood up, a protest of eternal right against the sway of impious might, a Me?ie, Tekel, Upharsin, written in letters of burning blood on the walls of despotism. Time, misery and sorrow thinned the ranks of your scattered Israel. You have carried your dead to the grave, and those who survived went to suffer and to hope. Wherever oppressed Freedom reared a banner, you rallied around ; — the living statue changed to a fighting hero. Many of you fell; but when might triumphed once more over virtue and right, the living resumed the wandering exile's walking-stick and did not despair. Many among you who were young Avhen last they saw the sun rise over Po- land's mountains and plains, have their hair whitened and their strength broken with age, with anguish and with mis- ery; but the patriot heart keeps the freshness of its youth. It is young in love of Poland, young in aspirations for her freedom, young in hope, and youthfully fresh in determina- tion to break Poland's chains. What a rich source of noble deeds patriotism must be, to give you strength so much to suffer and never to despair. You have given to all of us, your younger brethren in the family of exiles, a noble exam- ple, which will be fruitful in good time. When the battle of Cannae was lost, and Hannibal was measuring by bushels the rings of the fallen Roman squires, the Senate of Rome voted thanks to Consul Terentius Varro, "for not having despaired of the commonwealth." Pro- scribed patriots of Poland ! I thank you, and history will MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 267 thank you, that you have not despaired of resurrection and liberty ! It is not in vain that nature — and nature is God — made Hungary a neighbor to Poland and Poland a neighbor to Hungary. Our enemies are the same, and our cause is iden- tical. The much I feel, the little T may know, and all I can — my heart, my brain, my arm — shall be with Poland. I may be nothing, but Hungary is much. And it is the^enius of 'Hungary which assures you through my lips, that Hun- gary will stand by reviving Poland. — Louis JTossuth. RIENZI'S LAST APPEAL TO THE EOMAUS. Ye come, then, once again ! Come ye as slaves or free- men ? A handful of armed men are in your walls ! will ye, who chased from your gates the haughtiest knights — the most practiced battle-men of Rome, succumb now to one hundred and fifty hirelings and strangers? Will you arm for your tribune ? you are silent ! be it so ! "Will you arm (or your own liberties — your own. Rome? silent still! By the saints that reign on the throne of the heathen gods, are ye thus fallen from your birthright? Have you no arms for your own defence ? Romans, hear me ! Have I wronged you? if so, by your hands let me die ; and then, with knives yet reeking with my blood, go forward against the robber who is but the herald of your slavery; and I die honored, grateful, and avenged. You weep ! Aye, and I could weep, too — that I should live to speak of liberty in vain to Ro- mans. Weep! is this an hour for tears? Weep now, and your tears shall ripen harvests of crime, and license, and des- potism, to come! Romans, arm; follow me, at once, to the Place of the Colonna : expel this ruffian Minorbino, expel your enemy; (no matter what afterwards you do to me,) — or, I abandon you to your fate. What! and is it ye who forsake me, for whose cause alone man dares to hurl against me the thunders of his God, in this act of excommunication? Is it not for you that I am declared heretic and rebel? What are my imputed crimes ? That I have made Rome, and asserted Italy to be free ! that I have subdued the proud magnates, who were the scourge both of pope and people ! And you — you upbraid me with what I have dared and done for you ! Men, with you I would have fought, for you I would have perished. You forsake yourselves in forsaking me ; and, since I no longer rule over brave men, I 268 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. power to the tyrants you prefer. Seven months I have ruled over you, prosperous in commerce, stainless in justice, victo- rious in the field: I have shown you what Rome could be ; and since I abdicate the government ye gave me, when I am gone, strike for your own freedom ! It matters nothing who is the chief of a brave and great people. Prove that Rome hath many a Rienzi, but of brighter fortunes. Heed me: I ride with these faithful few through the quarter of the Co- lonna, before the fortress of your foe. Three times before that fortress shall my trumpet sound ; if at the third blast ye come not, armed as befits you, I say not all, but three, but two, but one hundred of ye, I break up my wand of office, and the world shall say one hundred and fifty robbers quelled the soul of Rome, and crushed her magistrate and her laws. Sir E. JBulwer Lytton. KIFG HAROLD'S SPEECH TO HIS ARMY BEFORE THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS. This day, O friends and Englishmen, sons of our common land, — this day, ye fight for liberty. The count of the Nor- mans hath, I know, a mighty army; I disguise not its strength. That army he hath collected together by promis- ing to each man a share in the spoils of England. Already, in his court and his camp, he hath parcelled out the lands of this kingdom ; and fierce are the robbers that fight for the hope of plunder! But he can not offer to his greatest chief boons nobler than those I offer to my meanest freeman — lib- erty, and right, and law, on the soil of his fathers! Ye have heard of the miseries endured, in the old time, under the Dane ; but they were slight indeed to those which ye may expect from the Norman. The Dane was kindred to us in language and in law, and who now can tell Saxon from Dane ? But yon men would rule ye in a language ye know not; by a h. v that claims the crown as the right of the sword, and divides the land among the hirelings of an army. We baptized the Dane, and the church tamed his N fierce end into peace; but yon men make the church itself their ally, and march to carnage under the banner profaned to the foul- est of human wrongs ! Offscourings of all nations, they come against you ; ye fight as brothers under the eyes of your fathers and chosen chiefs ; ye fight for the women we would save ; ye fight for the children ye would guard from eternal bondage ; ye fight for the altars which yon banner MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 269 now darkens! Foreign priest is a tyrant as ruthless and stern as ye shall find foreign baron and king ! Let no man dream of retreat; every inch of ground that ye yield is the soil of your native land. For me, on this field I peril all. Think that mine eye is upon you, wherever ye are. If a line waver or shrink, ye shall hear in the midst the voice of your king. Hold fast to your ranks. Remember, such among you as fought with me against Hardrada — remember that it was not till the Norsemen lost, by rash sallies, their serried array, that our arms prevailed against them. Be warned by their fatal error, break not the form of the battle ; arid I tell you, on the faith of a soldier, who never yet hath left field without victory, that ye can not be beaten. While I ^peak, the winds swell the sails of the Norse ships, bearing home the corpse of Hardrada. Accomplish, this day, the last triumph of England ; add to these hills a new mount of the conquered dead ! And when in far times and strange lands, scald and scop shall praise the brave man for some val- iant deed, wrought in some holy cause, they shall say, " He was brave as those who fought by the side of Harold, and swept from the sward of England the hosts of the haughty Norman." — Sir M Bulwer Lytton. CONSOLATIONS OF EELIGION. What is it, O child of sorrow, what is it that now wrings thy heart, and bends thee in sadness to the ground ? What- ever it be, if thou knowest the truth, the truth shall give thee relief. Have the terrors of guilt taken hold of thee ? Dost thou go all the day long, mourning for thy iniquities, refusing to be comforted? And, in thy bed at night, do visions of remorse disturb thy rest, and haunt thee with the fears of a judgment to come? Behold, the Redeemer hath borne thy sins in his own body on the tree ; and if thou art willing to forsake them, thou knowest, with certainty, that they shall not be remembered in the judgment against thee. Hast thou, with weeping eyes, committed to the grave the child of thy affections, the virtuous friend of thy youth, or the tender partner whose pious attachment lightened thy load of life? Behold, they are not dead! Thou knowest that they live in a better region, with their Saviour and their God ; that still thou holdest thy place in their remembrance ; and that thou shalt soon meet them again, to part no more. Dost thou look forward with trembling to the days of 270 THE PATKIOTIC SPEAKER. darkness — when thou shalt lie on the bed of sickness — when thy pulse shall have become low — ^vvhen the cold damps have gathered on thy brow — when the mournful looks of thy at- tendants have told thee that the hour of thy departure has come? To the mere natural man, this scene is awful and alarming. But, if thou art a Christian, if thou knowest and obeyest the truth, thou shalt fear no evil. The shadows which hang over the Valley of Death, shall retire at thy ap- proach; and thou shalt see beyond it the spirits of the just, and an innumerable company of angels — the future com- panions of thy bliss — bending from their thrones to cheer thy departing soul, and to welcome thee into everlasting habitations. — Flnlayson. MAN AN UNPROFITABLE SERVANT. What merit can there be in human works? If you give much alms, whose is the money ? " The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts." If you mortify the body, whose are the macerated limbs ? If you put sack- cloth on the soul, whose is the chastened spirit ? If you be moral, and honest, and friendly, and generous, and patriotic, whose are the dispositions which you exercise — whose the powers, to which you give culture and scope ? And if you use only God's gifts, can that be meritorious ? You may say, " Yes — it is meritorious to use them aright, whilst others abuse them." But, is it wickedness to abuse ? Then, it can only be duty to use aright ; and duty will be merit when debt is donation. You may bestow a fortune in charity, but the wealth is already the Lord's. You may cultivate the virtues which adorn and sweeten human life ; but the em- ployed powers are the Lord's. You may give time and strength to the enterprises of philanthropy ; each moment is ^fi\Q Lord's, each sinew is- the Lord's. You may be upright in every dealing of trade, scrupulously honorable in all the intercourses of life; but, "a just weight and balance are the Lord's, all the weights of the bag are His work." And where, then, is the merit of works? Oh, throw into one heap each power of the mind, each energy of the body; use, in God's service, each grain of your substance, each second of your time, give to-the Almighty, every throb of the pulse, every drawing of the breath ; labor, and strive, and be in- . stant in season and out of season ; and let the steepness of the mountain daunt you not, and the swellings of the ocean MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 271 deter you not, and the ruggedness of the desert appal you not; bat, on! still on, in toiling for your Maker! and dream, and talk, and boast of merit, when you can find that particle in the heap, or that shred in the exploit, which you may ex- clude from the confession — "All things come of Thee, and of thine own, O God, have I given Thee." — Melville, PEEACEISTG CHEIST IN THE METROPOLIS. All the causes which conspired to build up cities in the day of St. Paul, to make them powerful as the ' agents of civilization, or splendid as its exponents, are now operating, remember, with greater energy, celerity, and extensiveness ; and are coming to their result in towns more brilliant, and more influential, and hardly less vicious, than those in which his ministry was performed. Take this . metropolis in illus- tration of the truth. Where the narrow Mediterranean spread forth before Antioch, there stretches before us the expanse of an ocean, to the men of that century terrible and unsearchable, but which, in all its coasts and islands, in the coral reefs that rise through it, in even the sunken rocks which it enfolds, is now known to navigation. And not this only: there spreads forth also, connected with this, that other mightier and less turbulent sea which heaves its tides across three-sevenths of the circumference of the globe, and washes the shores to which the arms of Antigonus or Anti- ochus, of Augustus himself, had never sent a single rumor. All the world is thus opened to that out-running enterprise which here has its seat. Every fourth day through the year there come to us voices from the whole area of the inhabited earth. ' The political, commercial, and social influences which here are established, send abroad in reply their powerful im- pression. We have the most marvellous apparatus of instruments with which to assist and to consummate these tendencies. Instead of the few and timorous boats which tardily de- scended from Antioch by the Orontes, till they tremulously tossed on the Mediterranean, there go from us with every morning those statelier ships that shall wrestle with seas and wildest winds, and from the contest come out unharmed; there go those almost animated ships, more tireless and swift than the old triumphal chariots of the games, within which pants that swarthy giant who rears so much of all that is proudest, and moves so ceaselessly all that is swiftest, in our 272 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKEE. civilization. And instead of the solitary pass of the Taurus, along whose narrow and rocky defiles the caravans descended to bear to Antioch their scanty burdens, there now to us through liquid channels, hollowed by man or framed by God, there rush upon us, over ways made level and smooth as floors, in caravan-trains whose tread thunders equal and steady as a star's, from all the expanded districts and States that make the interior, their exuberant wealth. And then remember that behind these instruments and vehicles of thought there stands a people, the majority of it — unlike the mixed and sensual mass of Greeks, Romans, Syri- ans, Jews, who made the majority of the population of Anti- och — united in the sentiment of the authority of justice as between man and man, in the sentiment of reverence for liberty as man's birthright, and of reverence for Christianity as God's revelation, and eager to inform and to transform the world through these ideas ; and you see again what an emi- nent pulpit this metropolis is, in which and from which to preach Christ to mankind. He who preaches Him here, preaches to India, China, Japan, to Kamtschatka and Labra-* dor, to the Society Islands, to Borneo and Siam. He sweeps not merely that " many-nationed sea" the Mediterranean ; but round the world, on every coast, is felt the far vibration of bis influence. " Not an axe falls in the American forest," said an English statesman long ago, " but it sets in motion a shuttle in Manchester." Not a voice speaks for Christ, we may say as well, in these central American cities, but its echo is heard, sometime or other, wherever the shuttle sends its fabric, wherever the traveller pierces the jungle, wherever the dawn of a Christian civilization begins to disperse the heathen night. — R*. S. Storrs, Jr. THE TEACHER THE HOPE OF AMERICA. Look abroad over this country; mark her extent, her wealth, her fertility, her boundless resources, the giant en- ergies which every day developes, and which she seems al- ready bending on that fatal race — tempting, yet always fatal to republics — the race for physical greatness and aggrandize- ment. Behold, too, that continuous and mighty tide of pop- ulation, native and foreign, which is forever rushing through this great valley towards the setting sun; sweeping away the wilderness before it like grass before the mower ; waking up industry and civilization in its progress ; studding the sol- MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 2*73 itary rivers of the West with marts and cities ; dotting its boundless prairies with human habitations ; penetrating every green nook and vale ; climbing every fertile ridge ; and still gathering and pouring onward, to form new States in those vast and yet unpeopled solitudes, where the Oregon rolls his majestic flood and " Hears no sound save his own dashing." Mark all this, and then say : by what bonds will you hold together so mighty a people and so immense an empire ? What safeguard will you give us against the dangers which must inevitably grow out of so vast and complicate an or- ganization? In the swelling tide of our prosperity, what a field will open for political corruption ! What a world of evil passions to control, and jarring interests to reconcile ! What temptations will there be to luxury and extravagance ! What motives to private and official cupidity ! What prizes will hang glittering at a thousand goals, to dazzle and tempt ambition ! Do we expect to find our security against these dangers in railroads and canals ; in our circumvallations and ships of war? Alas ! when shall we learn wisdom from the lessons of history ? Our most dangerous enemies will grow up from our own bosom. We may erect bulwarks against foreign invasion ; but what power shall we find in walls and armies to protect the people against themselves ? There is but one sort of " internal improvement" — more thoroughly internal than that which is cried up by politicians — that is able to save this country. I mean the improvement of the minds and souls of her people. If this improvement shall be neglected, and shall fail to keep pace with the increase of our population and our physical advancement, one of two alternatives is certain : either the nation must dissolve in an- archy under the rulers of its own choice, or, if held together at all, it must be by a government so strong and rigorous as to be utterly inconsistent with constitutional liberty. Let the one hundred millions which, at no very distant day, will swarm our cities, and fill up our great interior, remain sunk in ignorance, and nothing short of an iron despotism will suffice to govern the nation — to reconcile its vast and con- flicting interests, control its elements of agitation, and hold back its fiery and headlong energies from dismemberment and ruin. How then is this improvement to be effected ? Who are the agents of it? Who are they who shall stand perpetually as priests at the altar of freedom, and feed its sacred fires, by 274 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. dispensing that knowledge and cultivation on which hangs our political salvation ? I repeat, they are our teachers, the masters of our schools, the instructors in our academies and colleges, and in all those institutions of whatever name which have for their object the intellectual and moral culture of our youth, and the diffusion of knowledge among our people. Theirs is the moral dignity of stamping the great features of our national character ; and, in the moral worth and intelli- gence which they give it, to erect a bulwark which shall prove impregnable in that hour of trial, when armies and fleets and fortifications shall be vain. And when those mighty and all-absorbing questions shall be heard, which are even now sending their bold demands into the ear of rulers and lawgivers, which are momentarily pressing forward to a solemn decision in the sight of God and of all nations, and which, when the hour of their decision shall come, will shake this country — the Union, the Constitution— as with the shaking of an earthquake, — it is they who in that fearful hour will gather around the structure of our political organization, and, with uplifted hands, stay the reeling fabric till the storm and the convulsion be overpast. " The sensual and the dark rebel in vain, Slaves by their own compulsion. In mad game They burst their manacles, and wear the name Of Freedom, graven on a heavier chain." Samuel Eells. 1837. THE TEACHER'S OLD AGE. Mark yonder feeble and decrepit old man, as, panting with fatigue, and grasping his staff with both his hands, he slowly makes his way along one of your public streets. He is a veteran teacher. He commenced his employment in early life, and the first scene of his labors was on a bleak and rocky hillside, in the interior of his own New England. When the call of his country rung among his native mountains, he left his peaceful charge, to meet her enemies on the tented field, and to bring back her eagles in triumph from the scene of battle. After the achievement of our independence, he re- turned to his favorite employment, and became one of a small band who, with the axe and the rifie, plunged into the West- ern forests, and, amidst toil and danger and suffering, laid the foundations of a great and prosperous people. With his own hands he helped to pile the logs of the first school-house MISCELLANEOUS EXTEACTS. 275 that was erected on the spot where now stands your "beauti- ful and prosperous city ; and, having reared, he entered it, and with the devotion of an apostle, officiated as the in- structor of many whose sons and whose daughters we may now recognize around us as the founders of families and the pillars and ornaments of society. Thousands of youth, in his day and generation, has he taken from the paternal roof, and given back to their parents and their country, with a discipline and a cultivation worthy of both. They have gone out into the four quarters of the world ; they may be found scattered through all the ranks of society, in all the arts and occupations of life, and in all the liberal professions, which they live to dignify and adorn. Better than the most suc- cessful candidate for popular favor — better than he for whom we erect triumphal arches, and whose path we strew with garlands — has he merited the proud title of benefactor Of his country ! But what is his reward ? Throughout life he has struggled with embarrassment and want; and, forced at last, by the infirmities of three-score and ten years, from his pro- fession, he lingers out, in an obscure part of your city, a stinted and companionless old age, with no consolation for a life of unrequited toil but the reflection that it has been a useful life, devoted, with fidelity and singleness of pur- pose, to the well-being of his country and his fellow-men. Mark, now, the generosity, the justice, of a grateful and dis- criminating public. This palsied. and infirm old man— this man who, more than statesmen or politicians, deserves to be honored with monumental marble, and days of public festivity and rejoicing — has come out to feel the warm light of the sun, and to gaze once more upon those new scenes which have arisen around him, and which so mournfully remind him that he is becoming "a stranger in the midst of a new succession of men." (The young, the gay and the fashiona- ble throng pass him, but ungreeted, unnoticed, he totters on. The men of business rush by him, and jostle him as they go. Presently he hears a confusion of mingled voices, and then cries and shouts rend the air. Planting his staff" before him, he stops ; and, as he raises his dimmed eyes, he discovers a hurrying and gathering crowd. He inquires the meaning from some passer-by, and learns that it is the gala-clay tri- umph of some political adventurer, some heartless dema- gogue, who has obtained his supremacy by feeding the pas- sions and flattering the vanity of the people. -" The statesman of the day— A pompous and slow-moving pageant comes. Some shout him, and some hang upon his oar 276 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. To gaze in his eyes and "bless him. Maidens wave Their kerchiefs, and old women weep for joy ; While others, not so satisfied, unhorse The gilded equipage, and turning loose His steeds, usurp a place they well deserve. Why ? What hath charmed them ? Hath he saved the State ? No ! Doth he purpose its salvation ? - No. Thus idly do we waste the breath of praise, * And dedicate a tribute, in its use And just direction sacred, to a thing Doomed to the dust, or lodged already there." Samuel Mils, 1837. AMEEICAN LITERATURE. Thirty years ago, it was asked, " Who reads an American book ?" It may now be asked, what intelligent man in all Europe does not read an American book ? Who is there ? Sam Rogers reads them, Henry Hallam reads them, McCul- loch reads them, Lord Mahon reads them, and sometimes finds himself answered when he comments on them. And there is not an intelligent man in all Europe who does not read our American authors, and especially our legal and his- torical works. And in France, Thiers and Guizot read them ; and throughout the vast population of France there is no doubt that there is a greater devotion paid to the study of our popular institutions — to the principles which have raised us to the point at which we now stand — than there is paid to the monarchical institutions and principles of government of every other part of Europe. America is no longer undistin- guished for letters — for literature. I will not mention those authors of our own day, now living, who have so much at- tracted the attention of the world by their literary produc- tions. Gentlemen, a circumstance occurred in the city of Madrid, which I ought not to forget. There it was that an event took place which raised me to eminence in the literary world, of my position in which I was not previously aware. Under the eye of the ministry, an article appeared in the Madrid Ga- zette, which was intended to be rather complimentary to the Secretary of State of the United States, and which said that he was the most distinguished man of letters in bis country ; and that he was the immortal author of the celebrated dic- tionary of the English language. I the author of • an En- glish dictionary ! Shade of Noah Webster ! what do you think of such»an intrusion on your rights and your property ? MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 277 Is it said that the Secretary of State was the author of N"oali Webster's dictionary of the English language? Why, he could not write the first spelling-book that JSToah Webster produced ; and that is true. I am no man of letters, in the literary acceptation of that term. But it has sometimes hap- pened in the course of my official duties, that I have been called upon to write a letter, and that duty I fulfil. Webster, 1852. REPUDIATION What can be the debt of a State like Pennsylvania, that she should not be able to pay it — that she cannot pay it, if she will but take from her pocket the money that she has in it ? England's debt is engrafted upon her very soil ; she is bound down to the very earth by it ; and it will affect England and the Englishmen to the fiftieth generation. But the debt of Pennsylvania — the debt of Illinois: — the debt of any State in the Union, amounts not to a sixpence in comparison. Let us be Americans — but let us avoid, as we despise, the charac- ter of an acknowledged insolvent community. What importance is it what other nations say to us, or what they think of us — if they can nevertheless say, " You don't pay your debts ?" jESTow, gentlemen, I belong to Mas- sachusetts ; but if I belonged to a deeply indebted State, I'd work these ten fingers to their stumps ; I'd hold plough, I'd drive plough, I'd do both, before it should be said of the State to which I belonged, that she did not pay her debts. That's the true principle, — let us act upon it, let us " go it," to its full extent ! If it costs us our comforts, let us sacrifice our comforts; if it costs us our farms, let us mortgage our farms. But don't let it be said by the proud capitalists of England, " You don't pay your debts." " You Republican Governments don't pay your debts." Let us say to them, "We will pay them," — "We will pay them to the utter- most farthing." That's my firm conviction of what we ought to do. That's my opinion, and water can't drown — fire can'.t burn it out of .me. If America owes a debt, let her pay it, let her pay it. What I have is ready for the sacrifice. What you have I know would be ready for the sacrifice. At any rate, and at any sacrifice, don't let it be said on the exchanges of London or Paris, — don't let it be said in any one of the proud monarchies of Europe, "America owes, and can't, or won't pay." God forbid ! Let us pay — let us pa¥. Webster, 1843. 278 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. COERCION For what purpose is the unlimited control of the purse and of the sword to be placed at the disposition of the exec- utive ? To make war against one of the free and sovereign members of this confederation, which the bill proposes to deal with, not as a State, but as a collection of banditti or outlaws ; thus exhibiting the impious spectacle of this Gov- ernment, the creature of the States, making war against the power to which it owes its own existence. - Do I say that the bill declares war against South Carolina? No ! it decrees a massacre of her citizens ! War has some- thing ennobling about it, and with all its horrors, brings into action the highest qualities, intellectual and moral. It was, perhaps, in the order of Providence, that it should be per- mitted for that very purpose. But this bill declares no war, except, indeed, it be that which savages wage ; a war, not against the community, but the citizens of whom that commu- nity is composed. But I regard it as worse than savage warfare — as an attempt to take away life, under the color of law, without the trial by jury, or any other safeguard which the Constitution has thrown around the life of a citizen ! It authorizes the President, or even his deputies, when they may consider the law to be violated, without the intervention of a court or jury, to kill without mercy or discrimination. It has been said, by the Senator from Tennessee, to be a measure of peace ! Yes, such peace as the wolf gives to the lamb, the kite to the dove ! Such peace as Russia gives to Poland, or death to its victim! A peace by extinguishing the political existence of a State, by awing her into an aban- donment of the exercise of every power which constitutes her a sovereign community ! It is to South Carolina a ques- tion of self-preservation ; and I proclaim it, that, should this bill pass, and an attempt be made to enforce it, it will be re- sisted at every hazard — even that of death itself! Death is not the greatest calamity ; there are others still more terrible to the free and brave, and among them may be placed the loss of liberty and honor. There are thousands of her brave sons, who, if need be, are prepared cheerfully to lay down their lives in defense of the State, and the great principles of constitutional liberty for which she is contend- ing. God forbid that this should become necessary ! It never can be, unless this Government is resolved to bring the ques- tion to extremity ; when her gallant sons will stand prepared to perform the last duty — to die nobly! — Calhoun. MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 279 CHILDEEN OF DECEASED OFFIOEES. I differ, Mr. Chairman, from the honorable gentleman from Massachusetts, who denies that sympathy ought to be felt for the children of deceased officers, who may be in want. Those child ren have not served us, it is true ; but their fathers who did, are beyond the reach of our gratitude, and the transfer of the feeling is natural and just. Public benefits bestowed on the children of the deceased father en- courage him who is alive in the discharge of his duty, by the purest of all motives — paternal affection ; and that legis- lation must be unwise, indeed, that fails to enlist, in support of the State, all the best impulses of humanity. Let that republic get on as it can, where the veteran, blind, maimed, and poor, like Belisarius, is forced to apply to public charity for support ! Let that republic get on as it can, where contracts are broken, and public beneficence refused ; where nothing is given but what is in the bond — and that is frequently refused ! Let that republic get on as it can ! It will never produce anything great ; its career will be short and inglorious ; its fall certain and unpitied ; its history remembered as a warning, not as an example ; and the names of its legislators and statesmen buried in oblivion to which their false economy tends to consign the memory of those who have established its freedom, or defended it from aggression. May our republic show, by its decision on this bill, that it has a higher destiny, and that it is guarded as well by liberality and honor, as by justice ! Hon. Edward Livingston, 1827. NEW ENGLANDEES IN NEW OELEANS. While we devote this day to the remembrance of our native land, we forget not that in which our happy lot is cast. We exult in the reflection, that, though we count by thousands the miles which separate us from our birthplace, still our country is the same. We are no exiles, meeting upon the banks of a foreign river, to swell its waters with our home-sick tears. Here floats the same banner which rustled over our boyish heads, except that its mighty folds are wider, and its glittering stars increased in number. The sons of Kew England are found in every State of the broad -Republic. In the East, the South, and the unbounded 280 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. West, their blood mingles freely with every kindred current. We have but changed our chamber in the paternal mansion ; in all its rooms we are at home, and all who inhabit it are our brothers. To us, the Union has but one domestic hearth ; its sacred household gods are all the same. Upon Us, then, peculiarly devolves the duty of feeding the fires upon that kindly hearth ; of guarding, with pious care, those sacred household gods. We can not do with less than the whole Union ; to us it admits of no division. In the veins of our children flows Northern and Southern blood. How shall it be separated ? Who shall put asunder the best affections of the heart, the noblest instincts of our nature ? We love the land of our adoption ; so do we that of our birth. Let us ever be true to both ; and always exert ourselves in maintaining the unity of our country, the integrity of the republic. Accursed, then, be the hand put forth to loosen the golden cord of Union ; thrice accursed the traitorous lips, whether of Northern fanatic or Southern demagogue, which shall propose its severance ! But no ! the Union cannot be dis- solved ; its fortunes are too briliant to be marred — its des- tinies too powerful to be resisted. Here will be their greatest triumph, their most mighty developement. And when, a century hence, this Crescent City shall have filled her golden horns ; when within her broad-armed port shall be gathered the products of a hundred millions of free- men ; when galleries of art and halls of learning shall have made classic this mart of trade ; then may the sons of the Pilgrims, still wandering from the bleak hills of the North, stand upon the banks of the Great River, and exclaim, with mingled pride and wonder, — Lo ! this is our country. When did the world ever witness so rich and magnificent a city, — so great and glorious a republic ? S. 8. Prentiss, 1845. TREE DISCUSSION, Sir, admit — for we must admit — that free discussion has ever been odious to the tyrant, and to all the minions of licen- tious power ; but can we ever forget how eloquent, how en- chanting the voice of that same freedom of speech has, in all ages, been, wherever its tones have fallen on the ear of free- men? Free discussion, and liberty itself, eloquence and free- dom of speech, are contemporaneous fires, and brighten and MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 281 blaze, or languish and go out, together. Athenian liberty was, for years, protracted by that free discussion, which was sustained and continued in Athens. Freedom was prolonged by eloquence. Liberty paused and lingered, that she might listen to the divine intonations of her voice. Free discussion^ the eloquence of one man, rolled back the tide of Macedo- nian power, and long preserved his country from the over- whelming deluge. When the light of free discussion had, throughout all the Grecian cities, been extinguished in the blood of those statesmen by whose eloquence it had been sustained, young Tully, breathing the spirit of Roman lib- erty on the expiring embers, relumed and transmitted, from the banks of the Ilissus to those of the Tiber, this glorious light of freedom. This mighty master of the forum, by his free discussions, both from the rostrum and in the senate- house, gave new vigor, and a longer duration of existence, to the liberty of his country. Who more than Marcus Tul- lius Cicero, was loved and cherished by the friends of that country ? Who more feared and hated by traitors and tyrants? Freedom of speech, Roman eloquence, and Ro- man liberty, expired together, when under the proscription of the second triumvirate, the hired bravo of Mark Antony placed in the lap of one of his profligate minions the head and the hands of Tully, the statesman, the orator, the illus- trious father of his country. After amusing herself some hours by plunging her bodkin through that tongue which had so long delighted the senate and the rostrum, and made An- tony himself tremble in the midst of his legions, she ordered that head, and those hands, then the trophies of a savage despotism, to be set up in the forum. "Her last good man, dejected Rome adored ; Wept for her patriot slain, and cursed the tyrant's sword." English statesmen and orators, in the free discussion of the English parliament, have been formed on those illustrious models of Greek and Roman policy and eloquence. Multi- plied by the teeming labors of the press, the works of the master and the disciple have come to our hands ; and the eloquence of Chatham, of Burke, of Fox, and of the younger Pitt, reaches us, not in the feeble and evanescent voice of tradition, but preserved and placed before the eye on the more imperishable page. Neither these great originals, nor their improved transcripts, have been lost to our country. The American political school of free discussion has enriched the nation with some distinguished scholars; and Dexter, 282 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. and Morris, and Pinckney will not soon be forgotten by our country, or by the literary world. Some men who now live may hereafter be found deserving of that life in the menory of posterity, which very great men have thought no un- worthy object of a glorious ambition. Who can censure this anxious wish to live in human memory ? When we feel ourselves borne along the current of time ; when we see our- selves hourly approach that cloud, impenetrable to the human eye, which terminates the last visible portion of this moving estuary; who of us, although he may hope, when he reaches it, to shoot through that dark barren into a more bright and peaceful region, yet who, I say, can feel himself receding swiftly from the eye of all human sympathy, leaving the vis- ion of all human monuments, and not wish, as he passes by, to place on those monuments some little memorial of himself — some volume of a book — or, perhaps, but a single page, that it may be remembered, " When we are not, that we have been ?" Sir, these models of ancient and modern policy and elo- quence, formed in the great schools of free discussion, both in earlier and later times, are in the hands of thousands of those youths who are now, in all parts of our country, form- ing themselves for the public service. This hall is the bright goal of their generous, patriotic, and glorious ambition. Sir, they look hither with a feeling not unlike that devotion felt by the pilgrim as he looks towards some venerated shrine. Do not — I implore you, Sir, do not — by your decision this day, abolish the rites of liberty, consecrated in this place. Extinguish not those fires on her altar, which should here be eternal. Suffer not, suffer not the rude hand of this more than Vandal violence to demolish, " from turret to foundation- stone," this last sanctuary of freedom. — Tristram Burges. NATIONAL INJUSTICE. Do you know how empires find their end ? Yes, the great states eat up the little ; as with fish, so with nations. Aye, but how do the great states come to an end ? By their own injustice, and no other cause. Come with me, my friends, come with me into the Inferno of the nations, with such poor guidance as my lamp can lend. Let us disquiet and bring up the awful shadows of empires buried long ago, and learn MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 283 a lesson from the tomb. Jjjgjjufa o\A Assyria, with the Nine- vitish dove upoi tMi^ emeMdP^rown. What laid thee low ? " I fell by my owrPmjustice. Thereby Nineveh and Baby- lon came with me to the ground." Oh! queenly Persia, flame of the nations, wherefore art thou so fallen, who trod- dest the people under thee, bridgedst the Hellespont with ships, and pouredst thy temple-wasting millions on the western world ? " Because I trod thej|people under me, and bridged the Hellespont with ships, anfi poured my temple- wasting millions on the western wonjd. I fell by my own misdeeds !" Thou, muse-like GreciJk queen, fairest of all thy classic sisterhood of states, enqjuanting yet the world with thy sweet witchery, speaking in^t, and most seductive song, why liest thou there with the beauteous yet dishonored brow, reposing on thy broken harp ?jf. " I scorned the law of God ; banished and prisoned wisest, justest men ; I loved the loveliness of flesh embalmed in Parian stone ; I loved the loveliness of thought, and treasured that in more than Pa- rian speech. But the beauty of justice, the loveliness of love, I trod them down to earth. Lo, therefore, have I be- come as those barbarian states — as one of them !" Oh, manly majestic Rome, thy seven-fold mural crown all broken at thy feet, why art thou here ? 'Twas not injustice brought thee low ; for thy Great Book of Law is prefaced with these words, " Justice is the unchanging, everlasting will to give each man his Right !" " It was not the saint's ideal, it was the hypocrite's pretense! I made iniquity my law, I trod the nations under me. Their wealth gilded my palaces, — where thou mayest see the fox and hear the owl, — it fed my cour- tiers and my courtezans. Wicked men were my cabinet counsellors — the flatterer breathed his poison in my ear. Millions of bondmen wet the soil with tears and blood. Do you not hear it crying yet to God ? Lo, here have. I my recompense, tormented with such downfalls as you see ! Go back, and tell the new-born child, who sitteth on the Alle- ghanies, laying his either hand upon a tributary sea, a crown of thirty stars upon his youthful brow — tell him there are rights which states must keep, or they shall suffer wrongs. Tell him there is a God who keeps the black man and the white, and hurls to earth the loftiest realm that breaks his just, eternal law ! Warn the young empire that he come not down dim and dishonored to my shameful tomb ! Tell him that Justice is the unchanging, everlasting will to grve each man his Right. I knew it, broke it, I am lost. Bid him keep it and be safe !" — Theodore Parker. 1 284. THE PATRIOTIC JSPEAKER, inHPhraSfttT A FAREWELL TO DE^P^TJG^^tJNTEERS. Go forth, defenders of your country, accompanied with every auspicious omen; advance with alacrity into the field, where God himself musters the hosts to war. Religion is too much interested in »ur success not to lend you her aid. She will shed over M>ur enterprise her selectest influence. While you are engag«J in the field, many will repair to the closet, many to the s»ptuary ; the faithful of every name will employ that prayer i«ch has power with God ; the feeble hands which are unecKl to any other weapon, will grasp the sword of the spirit ;^Bd, from myriads of humble, contrite hearts, the voice of intercession, supplication and weeping, will mingle, in its asceA to heaven, with the shouts of battle and the shock of arms.™ While you have everything to fear from the success of the enemy, you have every means of preventing that success ; so that it is next to impossible for victory not to crown your exertions. The extent of your resources, under God, is equal to the justice of your cause. But, should Providence determine otherwise, — should you fall in this struggle, should the nation fall, — you will have the satisfaction (the purest al- lotted to man) of having performed your part ; your names will be enrolled with the most illustrious dead, w 7 hile pos- terity, to the end of time, as often as they revolve the events of this period (and they will incessantly revolve them), will turn to you a reverential eye, while they mourn over the freedom which is entombed in your sepulchre. I cannot but imagine the virtuous heroes, legislators, and patriots of every age and country, are bending from their elevated seats to witness this contest, as if they were incapa- ble, till it be brought to a favorable issue, of enjoying their eternal repose. Enjoy that repose, illustrious mortals! Your mantle fell when you ascended; and thousands, inflamed with your spirit, and impatient to tread in your steps, are ready to svwar, by Him that sitteth on the throne, and liveth for ever and ever, that they will protect freedom in her last asylum, and never desert her cause, which you sustained by your labors, and cemented with your blood ! Rev. Robert Hall, 1803. Li MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 285 .♦. + A GENEBAL. Sir, we all know the military studies of this military gen- tleman before he was promoted. I take it to be beyond a reasonable doubt that he had perused with great care the title-page of " Baron Steuben." Nay, I go further ; I ven- ture to assert, without vouching in me least from personal knowledge, that he has prosecuted lwresearches so far as to be able to know that the rear rank ftands right behind the front. This, I think, is fairly inferable from what I under- stood him to say of the two lines oj? encampment at Tippe- canoe. We all, in fancy, now seethe gentleman in that most dangerous and glorious evemf in the life of a militia general on the peace establishment^a parade day ! that day, for which all the other days of W§ life seem to have been made. We can see the troops in motion — umbrellas, hoes and axe-handles, and other deadly implements of war, over- shadowing all the field — when, lo! the leader of the host ap- proaches ! " Far off his coming shines." His plume, which, after the fashion of the great Bourbon, is of awful length, reads its doleful history in the bereaved necks and bosoms of forty neighboring hen-roosts. Like the great SuwarofF, he seems somewhat careless in forms or points of dress ; hence his epaulette may be on his shoulders, back, or sides, but still gleaming, gloriously gleaming, in the sun. Mounted he is, too, let it not be forgotten. Need I describe to the colonels and generals of this honorable House the steed which heroes bestride on these occasions ? No ! I see the memory of other days is with you. You see before you the military gentleman mounted on his crop-eared, bushy-tailed mare, for height just fourteen hands, " all told." Yes, sir, there you see his " steed that laughs at the shaking of the spear," that is his war-horse, " whose neck is clothed with thunder." Mr. Speaker, we have glowing descriptions in history of Alexander the Great and his war-horse Bucephalus, at the head of the invin- cible Macedonian phalanx; but, sir, such are the improvements of modern times, that every one must see that our militia gene- ral, with his crop-eared mare, with bushy tail, would totally frighten off a battle-field a hundred Alexanders. The gene- ral, thus mounted and equipped, is in the field, and ready for action. On the eve of some desperate enterprise, such as giving order to shoulder arms, it may be, there occurs a crises or one of those accidents in war which no sagacity could foresee nor prevent. A cloud rises and passes over the sun. Here is an occasion for the display of that greatest of all 286 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. traits in the history of a conmiawler — the,tapt which enables him to seize upon and turn to good ac£ffi|nt unlooked-for, agents as they arise. Nov/ for the cautron wherewith the Roman Fabius foiled the skill and courage of Hannibal. A retreat is ordered, and troops and general, in a twinkling are found safely bivouacked in a neighboring grocery. But even here, the general still has room for the execution of heroic deeds. Hot from the field, and chafed with the heroic events of the day, your general unsheathes his trenchant blade, eighteen inches in length, as you will remember, and with energy and remorseless fury he slices the water-melons that lie in heaps around him, and shares them with his surviving friends. Others of the sinews of war are not wanting here. Whisky, Mr. Speaker, that great leveller of modern times, is here also, and the shellsi-of the water-melons are filled to the brim. Here again, Mr. Speaker, is shown how the extremes of barbarism and civilization meet. As the Scandinavian heroes of old, after the fatigues of war, drank wine from the skulls of their slaughtered enemies, in Odin's halls, so now our militia general, and his forces, from the skulls of the melons thus vanquished, in copious draughts of whisky as- suage the heroic fires of their souls, after a parade day. Hon. TJiomas Corwin. Off REDUCING THE ARMY. Sir, we have heard a great deal about parliamentary armies, and about an army continued from year to year. I always have been, Sir, and always shall be, against a stand- ing army of any kind. To me it is a terrible thing. Whether under that of a parliamentary or any other designation, a standing army is still a standing army, whatever name it be called by. They are a body of men distinct from the body of the people. They are governed by different laws ; and blind obedience and an entire submission to the orders of their commanding officer is their only principle. It is, in- deed, impossible, that the liberties of the people can be pre- served in any country where a standing army is kept up. By the military law, the administration of justice is so quick, and the punishment so severe, that neither officer nor soldier dares offer to dispute the orders of his supreme commander. If an officer were commanded to pull his own father out of this House, he must do it. Immediate death would be the sure consequence of the least grumbling. And if an officer MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 287 were sent into the Court of Request, accompanied by a body of musketeers with screwed bayonets, and with orders to tell us what we ought to do, and how we were to vote, I know what would be the duty of this House ; I know it would be our duty to order the officer to be taken and hanged up at the door of our lobby ; but, sir, I doubt much if such a spirit could be found in this House, or in any House of Commons that will ever be in England. Sir,- 1 talk not of imaginary things; I talk of what has hap- pened to an English House of Commons, and from an English army ; not only from an English army, but an army that was raised by that, very House of Commons, an army that was paid by them, and an army that was commanded by generals appointed by them. Therefore, do not let us vainly imagine that an army, raised and maintained by authority of Parlia- ment, will always be submissive to them. If any army be so numerous as to have it in their power to overawe the Parlia- ment, they will be submissive as long as the Parliament does nothing to disoblige their favorite general; but, when that case happens, I am afraid that, in place of the Parliament's dismissing the army, the army will dismiss the Parliament, as they have done heretofore. We are come to the Rubicon. Our army is now to be reduced, or it never will be ; and this nation, already overburdened with debts and taxes, must be loaded with the heavy charge of perpetually supporting a numerous standing army, and remain forever exposed to the danger of having its liberties trampled upon by any future king or ministry who shall take it in their heads to do so, and shall take a proper care to model the army for that purpose. Hon. William Fulteney. LAST WOEDS. [The following extracts are taken from a speech made by Elijah P. Lovejoy to^ a meeting of citizens in Alton, 111., a day or two be- fore lie was' killed by a mob, while defending- his printing-press from violence. The latter event occurred Nov. 7, 1837.] I. I feel, Mr. Chairman, that this is the most solemn moment of my life. I feel, I trust, in some measure the responsibili- ties which at this hour I sustain to these my fellow- citizens, to the church of which I am a minister, to my country, and to God. And let me beg of you, before I proceed further, to 288 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. construe nothing I shall say as being disrespectful to this assembly. I have no such feeling: far from it. And if I do not act or speak according to their wishes at all times, it is because I cannot conscientiously do it. Mr. Chairman, I do not admit that it is the business of this assembly to decide whether I shall or shall not publish a newspaper in this city. I have the right to do it. I know that I have the right freely to speak and publish my senti- ments, subject only to the laws of the land for the abuse of that right. That right was given me by my Maker, and is solemnly guaranteed to me by the Constitution of these United States and of this State. What I wish to know of you is, whether you will protect me in the exercise of that right, or whether, as heretofore, I am to be subjected to per- sonal indignity and outrage. These resolutions, and the measures proposed by them, are spoken of as a compromise — a compromise between two parties. Mr. Chairman, this is not so. There is but one party here. It is simply a question whether the law shall be enforced, or whether the mob shall be allowed to continue to trample it under their feet, as they now do, by violating with impunity the rights of an inno- cent man. Mr. Chairman, what have I to compromise ? If freely to forgive those who have so greatly injured me, if to pray for their temporal and eternal happiness, if still to wish for the prosperity of your city and State, notwithstanding all the in- dignities I have suffered in it ; — if this be the compromise intended, then do I willingly make it. But if by a compromise is meant that I should cease from doing that which duty requires of me, I cannot make it. And the reason is, that I fear God more than I fear man. Think not that I would lightly go contrary to public senti- ment around me. The good opinion of my fellow men is dear to me, and I would sacrifice anything but principle to obtain their good wishes ; but when they ask me to surrender this, they ask for more than I can — than I dare give. It is a very different question, whether I shall voluntarily, or at the request of friends, yield up my post, or whether I shall forsake it at the demand of a mob. The former I am at all times ready to do, when circumstances occur to require it, as I will never put my personal wishes or interests in competition with the cause of that Master whose minister I am. But the latter, be assured, I never will do. God in His providence — so say all my brethren, and so I think — has devolved upon me the responsibility af maintaining my MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 289 ground here, and, Mr. Chairman, I am determined to do it ! A voice comes to me from Maine, from Massachusetts, from Connecticut, from New York, from Pennsylvania; yea, from Kentucky, from Mississippi, from Missouri, calling upon me in the name of all that is dear in heaven or earth, to stand fast ; and by the help of God, I loill stand. I know I am but one, and you are many. My strength would avail but little against you all. You can crush me, if you will ; but I shall die at my post, for I cannot and will not forsake it ! II. Why should I flee from Alton ? Is not this a free State ? When assailed by a mob at St. Louis, I came hither, as to the home of freedom and of the laws. The mob has pur- sued me here, and why should I retreat again ? Where can I be safe, if not here ? Have not I a right to claim the pro- tection of the laws ? What more can I have in any other place ? Sir, the very act of retreating will embolden the mob to follow me wherever I go. No, sir, there is no way to escape the mob, but to abandon the path of duty; and that, God helping me, I will never do. It has been said here, that my hand is against every man, and every man's hand against me. The last part of the de- claration is too painfully true. I do indeed find almost every hand lifted against me ; but against whom in this place has my hand been raised ? I appeal to every individual present; whom of you have I injured ? Whose character have I traduced ? Whose family have I molested ? Whose busi- ness have I meddled with ? If any, let him rise here and testify against me. — No one answers. Do not your resolutions say that you find nothing against my private or personal character ? And does any one believe that if there were anything to be found, it would not be found and brought forth ? If in anything I have offended against the law, I am not so popular in this community as that it would be difficult to convict me. You have judges, courts, and juries; they find nothing against me. And now you come together for the purpose _of driving out a confessedly innocent man, for no cause but that he dares to think and speak as his conscience and his God dictate. Will conduct like this stand the scrutiny of your country, of posterity, — ■ above all, of the judgment-day? For remember, the Judge of that day is no respecter of persons. Pause, I be- seech you, and reflect. The present excitement will soon be over ; the voice of conscience will at last be heard. And in 290 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. some season of honest thought, even in this world, as you re- view the scenes of this hour, you will be compelled to say, " He was right, he was right.'* But you have been exhorted to be lenient and compassionate, and in driving me away, to affix no unnecessary disgrace upon me. Sir, I reject all such compassion. You cannot disgrace me. Scandal and falsehood and calumny have already done their worst. My shoulders have borne the burthen till it sits easy upon them. You may hang me up as the mob hung up the martyrs of Vicksburg ! you may burn me at the stake, as they did Mcintosh at St. Louis ; or you may tar and feather me, or throw me into the Mississippi, as you have often threatened to do ; but you cannot disgrace me. I, and I only, can disgrace myself; and the deepest of all disgrace would be, at a time like this, to deny my Master, by forsak- ing His cause. Again, you have been told that I have a family, who are dependent on me ; and this has been given as a reason why I should be driven off as gently as possible. It is true, Mr. Chairman, I am a husband and a fiither ; and this it is that adds the bitterest ingredient to the cup of sorrow I am called to drink. Yet I am not unhappy. I have counted the cost, and stand prepared freely to offer up my all in the service of God. I am commanded to forsake father and mother and wife and children for Jesus' sake ; and as his professed dis- ciple I stand prepared to do it. The time for fulfilling this pledge, in my case, it seems to me has come. Sir, I dare not flee away from Alton. Should I attempt it, I should feel that the angel of the Lord with his flaming' sword was pur- suing me wherever I went. It is because I fear God that I am not afraid of all who oppose me in this city. No, sir, the contest has commenced here, and here it must be fin- ished. Before God and you all, I here pledge myself to con- tinue it, if need be, till death. If I fall, my grave shall be made in Alton. Elijah P. Lovejoy, 1837. ON THE MOBBING AND MUBDER OF L0VEJ0Y. I. An American citizen murdered, a home desolated, a wife widowed, a child made fatherless — these, citizens of Alton, are recollections which will not fade with the fading excite- ments of the hour. From these you can never flee j no bars MISCELLANEOUS EXTEACTS. 291 can protect, no concealments hide you from them, no flight can leave them behind ; they are become a part of your own souls. The dreadful truth that you are murderers will fol- low you through all your future existence : in whatever scenes you may mingle, beneath whatever sky you may re- pose, the grisly accuser will dog you. Though you essay to drown its voice in the madness of intoxication, or in the ex- citements of deeper and still deeper crime, — vain will be the attempt ; it will await you in the grave. Yea, in the last great congregation the gory phantom will start forth, and arraign you at the bar of eternal justice. Much do I mis- judge if the hours do not frequently come, when you would gladly hide yourselves in the grave, were it not that secret " dread of something after death," which God has left as his witness and prophet in the souls of the guiltiest, will warn you that the tortures you experience are but the faint and shadowy earnest of a immortal remorse. And what have you gained by all this dreadful and guilty self-sacrifice ? Whatever may have been the faults of your victim, you have embalmed and canonized them. Whatever may have been the defects of his cause or of his advocacy of it, you have done much, by your mad act, to identify that cause with that of freedom of speech and American liberty, and you have given its advocate rank among the apostles of humanity and martyrs to the rights of man ; among the Vanes and Sydneys of other times you have ensured his name a record.while the traducer and the murderer are forgot- ten in the grave. Instead of checking the cause for which he labored, you have made the sympathies of this whole na- tion react upon you like an earthquake. You have virtually surrendered the field of argument, by a resort to force ; you have made the name of the object of your hate worth more to him and his cause than a hundred years of life. You cannot bury his shed blood in the earth : — it will have voice — it will plead louder than a thousand presses. From its every drop will spring an army of living antagonists. Did you dream that in this age you could muzzle free discussion? You might as well attempt to muzzle Etna. Did you hope to chain liberty of speech ? You might as well lay grasp upon Niagara. Did you think to oppose yourselves to the progress of free opinion ? You might as well throw your- selves across the path of the lightning or the whirlwind. The nation or conspiracy of nations that opposes itself to the course of free inquiry opposes itself to the Providence of God and the destiny of the race, and might as well think to suspend the laws of nature, or stay the earth in her orbit. 292 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. Bnt that yon, at the head of a drunken and swinish mob, with the force of an ignorant and brutish rabble, should hope to withstand the onward march of opinion, would pro- voke only contempt, did not the atrociousness of the at- tempt entitle it to indignation. It emulates only the saga- city of the animal that sometimes takes its stand upon the railroad track, and challenges battle with the locomotive. 8 In reflecting upon your infamous course, you have not even the poor satisfaction of successful villany. Unhappy, infatuated men ! whose only safety lies in the dissolution of social order, the corruption of public sentiment, and the ruin of your country ; or who, should the promptings of reviving virtue and patriotism be ever again felt, must find your highest duty, and the sole act of magnanimity and patriotism left you— an ignominious death. Nevertheless, to that duty and that act, I must commend you. Surrender yourselves to the justice of your country. Atone for your great ■wickedness by furnishing to your country the sole use of which you are Jonger susceptible, a practical and fearful warning. Commending you to this, and to deep repentance before that Power which can pardon the penitent and still maintain the majesty of law, I take my leave of you in com- miseration and sorrow. II. Citizens of Alton ! If in any respect I may seem to have put myself in the unamiable and most undesirable atti- tude of a public accuser, it is that I may stimulate to sober inquiry into the causes of past outrages, and the means of future prevention. This means, melancholy experience de- monstrates, is to be found only in the firm, fearless, impar- tial and universal maintenance of law. Abolition is not the last of unpopular doctrines ; nor do we know who or what next may become obnoxious to popular odium. Nothing less than the stern enforcement of the law, irrespective of persons, or opinions, or circumstances, will prevent persecution, proscrip- tion and murder without end. Its enforcement implies in- fliction of penalties, as well as promulgation of commands, and involves in your case a melancholy duty with reference to the past. The laws have been repeatedly, openly and flagrantly violated among you ; a public, premeditated, atro- cious murder has been perpetrated. The course you may take with the offenders will settle the question in the eye of mankind, whether you have moral energy and political virtue enough remaining, to retrieve your disgrace, and recover MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 293 your lost position. God forbid that I should cherish to- wards the unhappy wretches implicated, any other than feelings of Christian kindness and a desire for their repent- ance. God forbid that revenge should claim a bloody obla- tion for the shade of the murdered Lovejoy. Vengeance belongs to another hour, and a mightier hand. But the spirit of slain justice does walk your streets, aoji clamor for expiation. Until that be given, no charm can lay her un- quiet shade. She will wander up and down your city, she will whisper you in the darkness of the night, her sorrowing tones will steal upon the solitude of your repose and her gory apparition will affright your slumbers. Ages to come, her moan will resound among your .cliffs, and rise upon the roar of the Mississippi. Unless atonement be made to vio- lated law, order and security can- never be restored among you : — not, at least, until a generation unstained by this trans- action have taken your places, and the offenders are beyond the reach of human justice. Anonymous Letter to the Citizens of Alton, 1837. THE DEATH OF O'CONNELL. There is sad news from Genoa. An aged and weary pil- grim, who can travel no further, passes beneath the gate of one of her ancient palaces, saying with pious resignation as he enters its silent chambers, " Well, it is God's will that I shall never see Rome. I am disappointed. But I am ready to die. It is all right." The superb though fading queen of the Mediterranean holds anxious watch, through ten long days, over that majestic stranger's wasting frame. And now death is there — the Liberator of Ireland has sunk to rest in the cradle of Columbus. Coincidence beautiful and most sublime ! It was the very day set apart by the elder daughter of the Church for prayer and sacrifice throughout the world, for the children of the sacred island, perishing by famine and pestilence, in their home^ and in their native fields, and on their crowded paths of exile, on the sea and in the havens, and on the lakes, and along the rivers of this far distant land. The chimes rung out by pity for his coun- trymen were O'Connell's. fitting knell; his soul went forth on clouds of incense that rose from altars of Christian charity ; and the mournful anthems which recited the faith, and the virtue, and the endurance of Ireland, were his be- coming requiem. It is a holy sight to see the obsequies of 294. THE PATKIOTTC SPEAKER. a soldier, not only of civil liberty, but of the liberty of con- science — of a soldier, not only of freedom, but of the Cross of Christ — of a benefactor, not merely of a race of people, but of mankind. The vault lighted by suspended worlds is the temple within which the great solemnities are celebrated. The nations of the earth are mourners ; and the spirits of the just mad^Derfect, descending from their golden thrones on high, break forth into songs. Behold now a nation which needed not to speak its melancholy precedence. The lament of Ireland comes forth from palaces deserted, and from shrines restored ; from Boyne's dark water, witness of the desolation, and from Tara's lofty hill, ever echoing her renown. But louder and deeper yet that wailing comes from the lonely huts on mountain and on moor, where the people of the greenest islands of the seas are expiring: in the midst of insufficient though world-wide charities. Well in- deed may they deplore O'Connell, for they were his children; and he bore them " A love so vehement, so strong, so pnre, That neither age conld change nor art could cure !" William H. Seward. DEFENCE OP SMITH O'BRIEN. Mr. Smith O'Brien, my client, now stands at the bar of his country to answer for having meant to subvert the con- stitution which in heart he adores. His true offence is, that he courted for you what is England's glory, and blessing, and pride. Deeply he may have erred in pursuit of this daring object ; will you avenge his misdirected patriotism by a dreadful death ? You may do so ; and no earthly induce- ment will tempt me to say, if you pronounce the awful sen- tence of guilty, that you have not given the verdict con- science commanded. If his countrymen condemn him, he will be ready to meet his fate with the faith of a Christian, and with the firmness of a man. The last accents of his lips will breathe a prayer for Ireland's happiness, Ireland's constitutional freedom. The dread moment that shall pre- cede his mortal agonies will be consoled, if through his suf- ferings and his sacrifice some system of government shall arise — which I aver has never existed — just, comprehensive, impartial, and, above all, consistent, which may conduct to MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 295 wealth, prosperity, and greatness the country he has loved, not wisely, perhaps, but too well. In no pitiful strains do I seek compassion for my client, even in a case of blood. I ask it solemnly, in the spirit of our free constitution, in ac- cordance with the rooted principles of our common law. This is a cause between the subject and the crown, wherein these great principles might shine out in glorious perfection. A verdict of acquittal, in accordance with this divine doc- trine, will not be a triumph over the law. When the sover- eign seals, by her coronation oath, the great compact be- tween the people and the crown, she swears to execute, in all her judgments, justice in mercy. That same justice you administer ; no rigorous, remorseless, sanguinary code, but justice in mercy. In nothing, though at an immeasurable distance still, do men on earth so nearly approach the attri- bute of the Almighty as in the administrations of justice tempered with mercy, or dismal would be our fate. As you hope for mercy from the Great Judge, grant it this clay ! The awful issues of life and death are in your hands ; do justice in mercy ! The last faint murmur on your quivering lips will be for mercy, ere the immortal spirit shall wing its flight to, I trust, a better and brighter world ! Whiteside. VINDICATION FEOM TREASON. My Lords, — It is my intention to say a few words only. I desire that the last act of a proceeding which has occu- pied so much of the public time should be of short duration. Nor have I the indelicate wish to close the dreary ceremony of a state prosecution with a vain display of words. Did I fear that hereafter, when I shall be no more, the country I have tried to serve would think ill of me, I might indeed avail myself of this solemn moment to vindicate my senti- ments and my conduct. But I have no such fear. In speak- ing thus, accuse me not, my lords, of an indecorous pre- sumption. To the efforts I have made in a just and a noble cause, I ascribe no vain importance ; nor do I claim for those efforts any high reward. But it so happens, and it will ever happen so, that they who have tried to serve their country, no matter how weak the effort may have been, are sure to receive the thanks and blessings of its people. With my country, then, I leave my memory, my sentiments, my acts — proudly feeling that they require no vindication 296 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. from me this day. A jury of my countrymen, it is true, have found me guilty of the crime of which I stood indicted. For this I entertain not the slightest feeling of resentment towards them ; influenced by the charge of the Lord Chief Justice they could have found no other verdict. What of the charge ? Any strong observation on it, T feel sincerely, would ill befit the solemnity of this scene ; but I would ear- nestly beseech of you, my lord, you who preside on that bench, when the passions and the prejudices of this hour have passed away, to appeal to your own conscience; and ask of it : Was your charge as it ought to be — impartial and indif- ferent between the subject and the crown ? My lords, you may deem this language unbecoming in me, and perhaps it may seal my fate ; but I am here to speak the truth, what- ever it may cost. I am here to regret nothing I have ever done, — to retract nothing I have ever said. I am here to crave with no lying lip the life I consecrate to the liberty of my country. Far from it. Even here; here where the thief, the libertine, the murderer, have left their foot-prints in the dust ; here, on this spot, where the shadows of death surround me, and from which I see my early grave, in an unanointed soil, opened to receive me ; even here, encircled by these terrors, the hope which has beckoned me to the perilous sea upon which I liave been wrecked, still consoles, animates, enraptures me. II. 'No ; I do not despair of my poor old country, her peace, her liberty, her glory. For that country I can do no more than bid her hope. To lift this island up ; to make her a benefactor, instead of being the meanest beggar in the world ; to restore to her her native powers and her ancient constitu- tion ; this has been my ambition, and this ambition has been my crime. Judged by the law of England, I know this crime entails the penalty of death, but the history of Ireland explains this crime, and justifies it. Judged by that history I am no criminal ; you are no criminal ; I deserve no punish- ment ; we deserve no punishment. Judged by that history, the treason of which I stand convicted loses all its guilt ; is sanctified as a duty ; will be ennobled as a sacrifice. With these sentiments, my lord, I await the sentence of the court; having done what I felt to be my duty ; having spoken what I felt to be the truth, as I have done on every other occasion of my short career. I now bid farewell to the country of my birth, my passion and my death ; the country whose mis- MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. , 297 fortunes have invoked my sympathies, whose factions I have sought to still ; whose intellect I have prompted to a lofty aim ; whose freedom has been my fatal dream. I offer to that country, as a proof of the love I bear her, and the sin- cerity with which I thought and spoke and struggled for her freedom, the life cf a young heart ; and with that life all the hopes, the honors, the endearments of an honorable home. Pronounce then, my lords, the sentence which the law directs, and I will be prepared to hear it. I trust I shall be prepared to meet its execution. I hope to be able, with a pure heart and a perfect composure, to appear before a higher tribunal — a tribunal where a judge of infinite goodness, as well as of justice, will preside, and where, my lords, many, many of the judgments of this world will be reversed. — T. F. Meagher. THE MISERIES OF WAR. The stoutest heart in this assembly would recoil were he, who owns it, to behold the destruction of a single individual by some deed of violence. Were the man who, at this mo- ment, stands before you, in the full play and energy of health, to be, in another moment, laid, by some deadly aim, a lifeless corpse at your feet, there is not one of you who would not prove how strong are the relen tings of nature at a spectacle so hideous as death. There are some of you who would be haunted for whole days by the image of horror you had wit- nessed ; who would feel the weight of a most oppressive sensation upon your heart, which nothing but time could wear away ; who would be so pursued by it as to be unfit for business or for enjoyment ; who would think of it through the day, and it would spread a gloomy disquietude over your waking moments ; who would dream of it at night, and it would turn that bed, which you courted as a retreat from the torments of an. ever-meddling memory, into a scene of restlessness. Oh, tell me, if .there be any relentings of pity in your bosom, how could you endure it. to behold the agonies of the (lying man, as, goaded by pain, he grasps the cold ground in convulsive energy; or, faint with the loss of blood, his pulse ebbs low, and the gathering paleness spreads itself over his countenance ; or, wrapping himself round in despair, he can only mark, by a few feeble quiverings, that life still lurks and lingers in his lacerated body ; or, lifting up a faded eye he casts on you a look of imploring helpless- ness for that succor which no sympathy can yield him ? It 298 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. may be painful to dwell thus, in imagination, on the dis- tressing picture of one individual, but multiply it ten thou- sand times ; say how much of all this distress has been heaped together on a single field ; give us the arithmetic of this accumulated wretchedness, and lay it before us, with all the accuracy of an official computation, and, strange to tell, not one sigh is lifted up among the crowd of eager listeners, as they stand on tiptoe, and catch every syllable of utterance which is read to them out of the registers of death. Oh ! say, what mystic spell is that which so blinds us to the suf- fering of our brethren ; which deafens to our ear the voice of bleeding humanity when it is aggravated by the shriek of dying thousands ; which makes the very magnitude of the slaughter throw a softening disguise over its cruelties and its horrors ; which causes us to eye, with indifference, the field that is crowded with the most revolting abominations, and arrests that sigh which each individual would, singly, have drawn from us by the report of the many who have fallen and breathed their last in agony along with him. Chalmers. FALSE COLORING LENT TO WAR. On every side of me I see causes at work which go to spread a most delusive coloring over war, and to remove its shocking barbarities to the background of our contemplations altogether. I see it in the history which tells me of the superb appearance of the troops, and the brilliancy of their successive charges. I see it in the poetry which lends the magic of its numbers to the narrative of blood, and trans- ports its many admirers, as by its images, and its figures, and its nodding plumes of chivalry, it throws its treacherous em- bellishments over a scene of legalized slaughter. I see it in the music which represents the progress of the battle ; and when, after being inspired by the trumpet-notes of prepara- tion, the whole beauty and tenderness of a drawing-room are seen to bend over the sentimental entertainment; nor do I hear the utterance of a single sigh to interrupt the death- tones of the thickening contest, and the moans of the wounded men, as they fade away upon the ear, and sink into lifeless silence. All, all goes to prove what strange and half-sighted crea- tures we are. Were it not so, war could never have been seen in any other aspect than that of unmingled hatefulness ; MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 299 and I can look to nothing but to the progress of Christian sentiment upon earth to arrest the strong current of the pop- ular and prevailing partiality for war. Then only will an imperious sense of duty lay the check of severe principle on all the subordinate tastes and faculties of our nature. Then will glory be reduced to its right estimate, and the wakeful benevolence of the Gospel, chasing away every spell, will be turned by the treachery of no delusion whatever from its simple but sublime enterprises for the good of the species. ^Then the reign of truth and quietness will be ushered into the world, and war — cruel, atrocious, unrelenting war — will be stripped of its many and its bewildering fascinations. Chalmers. SECTARIAN LEGISLATION. I feel far less anger than I feel sorrow at the coarse in- vectives directed against the Catholic religion, and entertain emotions not unallied to pity towards those who are suffi- ciently fanatical to indulge in them ; let me be permitted to add that the man who denounces the Catholic religion as an idolatry, incurs the frightful hazard of teaching other men to inquire whether the Christian religion itself is not a fable. But, even supposing the Catholic religion to be a tissue of errors, it is clear that you cannot convert us by abusing us. The Catholic church in Ireland is "an accomplished fact ;" you cannot get rid of it. 3*ou cannot uproot it ; but you may give a useful direction to its branches ; and, if I may so say, by training them along the legalized institutions of the country, make it productive of what you yourselves would be disposed to acknowledge to be useful fruit. You must take Ireland as it is, and you must adapt your policy to the condition of the people, and not to your own peculiar relig- ious feelings. A statesman 1 has no right to found his legis- lation upon his theology ; and the policy by which Ireland should be governed is entirely different from that which the antagonists of Maynooth* recommend to the adoption of the first minister of the crown. What is the policy worthy of the man by whom the great office of prime minister is held, in this the greatest country in the world ? In the very posi- tion which he occupies an answer to that question is to be found. How great is the height to which the chief minister * The Catholic college of Maynooth. 300 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. of England is exalted! From that height nothing little should be discernible. Everything diminutive should vanish. Nothing but the large, the lofty, and the noble should be seen. — When from that surpassing elevation, whence the British empire is disclosed to him, he turns his eyes to the island which is immediately contiguous to your own, what should he behold ? Not, most assuredly, the church or the chapel, or the conventicle — not a miserable arena for scho- lastic controversy— -not an appropriate field in which the. Protestant and the Catholic, and the Calvinist should engage in a theological conflict, and trample upon every precept of the Gospel, in their fierce and anti-Christian encounter. Shall I venture to tell you what he should behold — what Bacon, — what Spenser and Bacon beheld more than two centuries be- fore him — what Pitt, and Burke, and Fox beheld in later times — one of the finest islands in the ocean, peopled by mil- lions of men, bold and brave and chivalrous — whose very imperfections are akin to virtue, and who are capable of the noblest amelioration — an island blessed with a fortunate cli- mate, a soil inexhaustibly fertile, a point of contact between the Old World and the New — an island to which Providence has been lavish in its bounty, and from the development of whose incalculable resources an incalculable benefit might be conferred upon the empire ; and by the statesmen by whom that great work shall be accomplished an imperishable fame shall be obtained. And if such be the spectacle which Ire- land presents to his contemplation — in the contemplation of such a spectacle, what emotions should he experience, what desires should he derive from ft, and with what aspirations should his heart be lifted up ? Should he think — should he for one moment give himself leave to think — of making such a country subservient to the indulgence of any sectarian pre- judice, or of any religious predilection ? To assert the pur- poses of Providence, — to carry out the designs of which, wherever we turn our eyes, we behold the magnificent mani- festations — to repair the mistake of centuries — to pour balm into a nation".-; heart — to efface pernicious recollections — to awaken salubrious hopes — to banish a splendid phantom — to substitute a glorious and attainable reality — to induce Eng- land to do justice to Ireland, and to make Ireland appreciate the justice of England, and thus to give an everlasting stabil- ity to this great and majestic empire — these are the oljects to which a man should direct his whole heart and his entire soul, who feels conscious of the sacred trust reposed in him by his sovereign, and that God has given him the high capa- city to fulfil it. — Richard L. 8/ieil, 1 845. MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 301 POST-OFFICE ESPIONAGE.* I have risen in order to move the resolution of which I gave notice before the Easter recess. I submit it in the fol- lowing terms : " JResolved, That this house has learned with regret, that with a view to the prevention of a "political movement in Italy, and more especially in the Papal States, the letters of a foreigner, which had no relation to the maintenance of the internal tranquillity of the United Kingdom, should have been opened under a warrant, bearing date the 1st of March, and cancelled on the 3d of June, 1844, and that the informa- tion obtained by such means should have been communicated to a foreign power." The Secretary for the Home Department signed a warrant on the 1st of March for the opening of Mazzini's letters. We are told that the information deduced from the letters was communicated to a foreign power, but did not implicate any person within the reach of that foreign power. But be this as it may, there are two facts beyond doubt ; first, that the Italian newspapers boasted that Mazzini was under the peculiar surveillance of the English police ; and, secondly, that six weeks after the letters were opened six men were put to death for political offences at Bologna. At any rate, it is certain, that for three months Mazzini's letters were opened, and folded again, and re-sealed, and delivered to him just as if nothing at all had happened. I ask, what is the palliation for this proceeding ? I will give it from the answer given by the prime minister to a question put by the member for Pontefract. Your extenua- tion is this : not that the inhabitants of Romagna have not monstrous grievances to complain of — no such thing; but this — if there be an outbreak in Romagna, the Austrian army will march into the Papal States ; it" the Austrian army march into the Papal States the French will send troops to Ancona ; if the French send troops to Ancona there may be a collision ; if there be a collision there may be a war between Austria and France ; if there be a war between Austria and* France there may b,e a general continental war ; if there be a continental war England may be involved in it ; and, there- fore, but not at the desire of Lord Aberdeen, you opened * Speech in the House of Commons, April 1, 1845, on moving- a resolution regarding the letters of Joseph Mazzini, which had been opened by the warrant of Sir James Graham, one of her Majesty's Secretaries of State. 302 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. Mazzini's letters, and acted on the most approved principles of continental espionage. The word is strong ; is it inap- propriate ? If you had employed a spy in the house of Maz-' zini, and had every word uttered in his convivial hours; at, his table, or even at his bed-side, reported to you, that would be espionage. Between that case of hypothetical debasement and what has actually befallen, the best casuist in an Italian university could never distinguish. Are we, in order to avoid the hazards of war, to do that which is in the last degree discreditable? You would not, in order to avoid the cer- tainty of war, submit to dishonor. When an Englishman was wronged in a remote island in the Pacific, you announced that the insult should be repaired, or else ; and if you were prepared, in that instance, to incur the certainty of war, and to rush into an encounter, the shock of which would have shaken the world, should you, to avoid the hazards of war, founded on a series of suppositions, perpetuate an act of self-degradation ? There are incidents to this case which afford a warrant for that strong expression. If you had sent for Mazzini ; if you had told him that you knew what he was about ; if you had informed him that you were reading his letters, the offence would not have been s6 grievous ; but his letters were closed again, with an ignominious dex- terity they were re-folded, and they were re-sealed, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the honor of this country was tarnished by every drop of that molten wax with which an untruth was impressed upon them. I have not entered, and I will not enter, into any legal dis- quisitions ; it is to the policy, the dignity, the truthfulness of this transaction that my resolution is directed. It will, no doubt, be said that the committee — men of great worth and high integrity, and singular discrimination — have reported in favor of the government. I admit their worth, their in- tegrity and their discrimination, but I deny that they have reported in your favor. They avoid, cautiously avoid, find- ing a justification, giving an approval of your conduct. They say that they see no reason to doubt the goodness of your motives. Your motives ! There is an aphorism touching good intentions to which it were a deviation from good breeding too distinctly to refer ; but it is not for your good intentions that you were made a minister by the Queen, or that you are retained as a minister by the House of Com- mons. The question is not whether your intentions are good or bad, but whether you have acted as became the great position of an English minister, named by an English sove- reign, and administering a great trust for the high-minded MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 303 English people. I think that yon have not ; and it is because I think so that I propose a resolution, in which I have set down facts beyond doubt and beyond dispute, and with facts beyond doubt and beyond dispute I have associated an expression of sorrow in which I trust this House will partici- pate. — Richard L. Shell, 1845. THE VOTE BY BALLOT. When the ballot is in question certain gentlemen exclaim, " Good heavens ! shall we introduce into England a system of voting, by which duplicity and dissimulation, and all the base results that follow from them, shall be propagated amongst us ?" I acknowledge the ballot has its evils, but great as these evils may be, they are more than countervailed by the abuses which are incident to our existing system. Turn to the mournful realities which are offered to you in the land from which I come, and look at the £10 voter, who has had the misfortune to pass through the registration court, and who receives from his landlord a summons to attend the hustings, and, in a contest between a Liberal and a Tory candidate,^to give his vote. On one side, all his feel- ings, (feelings like your own,) all his national predilections, all his religious emotions, all his personal affections are en- listed. Perhaps, on one side, he sees a man whom he has long been accustomed to regard as the deliverer of his country ; whom he looks upon as the champion of his creed and of his priesthood ; of the land in which he was born, and for which, if there were need, he w^ould be prompt to die ; his eye fills and his heart grows big, and prayers break from his lips as he beholds him. On the other side — the side on which he is called upon to vote — he beholds some champion of that stern ascendency, by wdiich his country had long been trodden under foot ; by whom his religion had long been vilified ; its ministers had long been covered with opprobrium, and the class to which he belongs treated with contumely and disdain. For such a man he is called upon, under a pen- alty the most fearful, with impending ruin, to give his false and miserable suffrage. Trembling, shrinking, cowering, afraid to look his friends and kinsmen in the face, he ascends the hustings as if it w T as the scaffold of his conscience, and, with a voice almost inarticulate with emotion, stammers out, when asked for whom he votes — not the name of him who he loves and prizes, and honors — but of the man whom he 304 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. detests, loathes, abhors. For him it is, it is in his favor,, that he exercises the great trust, the sanctity of which requires that it should be exercised in the face of the world ; for him it is, it is in his favor, that he gives utterance to that which, to all intents and purposes, is a rank and odious falsehood. But perhaps he resists; perhaps, under the influence of some sentiment, half religious, half heroic, looking martydom in the face, he revolts against the. horrible tyranny that you' would rivet on him, and he votes, wretch that he is, in con- formity with the dictates of his conscience, and what he be- lieves to be the ordinance of his religion. Alas, for him ! a month or two go by, and all that he has in the world is seized ; the beast that gives him milk, the horse that drags his plough, the table of his scanty meal, the bed where an- guish and poverty and oppression were sometimes forgotten ; all, all are taken from him, and with Providence for his guide, but with God, I hope, for his avenger, he goes forth, with his wife and children, upon the world. And this, this is the system which you are prepared to maintain ! This is the system under which what is called a great trust is performed, in the eyes of the country. This is the system under which, by the exercise of the great preroga- tive of freemen, open and undisguised, every British citizen invested with the franchise should feel himself exalted ! Oh, fie upon this mockery! — JR. L. Shield 1843: AGAINST THE EXTENSION OF THE INCOME TAX TO IEELAND, Sir, my honorable friend is determined to give us, in the form of an income tax, the benefit of British institutions — a benefit analogous to that which we derive from the English church. I warn him not to attempt to extort from Ireland a revenue which she cannot afford, and which we ought not to be compelled to pay. No minister by whom an income tax has yet been proposed ever thought it possible to extend it to Ireland. The imposition of such a tax upon Ireland would be unjust ; and what is unfortunately of still more importance in the estimate of public men, would be in the last degree impolitic and unsafe. Before the Union Ireland had a surplus revenue expended in Ireland, and the country flourished. You induced us to enter with you into a ruinous co-partnership, of which you have had all the profits, while we have deeply participated in the loss. The impolicy of England plunged her into MISCELLANEOUS EXTKACTS. 305 debt, of whose load we are compelled to bear a part ; had we remained in the enjoyment of our legislative independence, of your ruinous expenditure we should not be .the victims. It is most unfair thai you should now call on us, after all the detriment which we have already suffered, to bear a portion of the vast cost incidental to this experiment. You drain us through the absentee system — an inevitable attendant on the Union — of millions of money, which, instead of circulating through Ireland, swell the overflowings of the deep and broad Pactolus of British opulence. You have transferred all our public establishments to this single point of imperial centrali- zation ; the revenue which Ireland yields is expended, not in Ireland, but here. Do not then, for the sake of a small ac- cession to the revenue, do us an injustice, and a signal detri- ment to yourselves. There are other means of obtaining a revenue from Ireland besides an income tax. There is an al- chemy in good government. By doing perfect justice you can largely save, and saving is equivalent to gain. Justice is a good housewife. My honorable and frugal friend, the member for Montrose, has often told you that you can, by adopting a sound policy in Ireland, effect a great reduction, and reduce your army to a force comparatively small. He has often said, that as in Scotland 2,000 men are quite suf- ficient, the army of Ireland might be reduced in the same proportion. If you will but endeavor to adapt your institu- tions to Ireland, instead of laboring to adapt Ireland to your institutions, if, instead of inflicting a temporary tranquillity, you confer a perpetual peace, you will obtain from Ireland a revenue far exceeding anything which, by the torture of this inquisitorial imposition, it would be possible for you to ob- tain. Peace, true peace — peace founded upon justice, and equality and national contentment, has an enriching, as well as a civilizing and ameliorating, attribute. Peace will pay you large import duties — peace will consume in abundance sugar, and coffee, and tea, and every article on which a charge will remain — peace will draw from the earth twice its ordinary return, and while it shall give you more food, will take more of your manufactures in return — peace will enlarge and give security to that market which is already the best you possess — peace will open a wider field to your laborious industry and your commercial enterprise; and for every ben- efit you confer upon us, for every indulgence you shall show us, for every gift you bestow, with an usury incalculably profitable, by peace you will be repaid. — R. L. Shell, 1845. 306 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. IEISH INSURRECTION. Sir, these topics are perilous ; but I do not fear to touch them. It is my thorough conviction, that England would be able to put down any insurrectionary movement, with her gigantic force, even although maddened and frantic Ireland might be aided by calculating France. But at what a terri- ble cost of treasure and of life would treason be subdued ! Well might the Duke of Wellington, although familiar with fields of death, express his horror at the contemplation of civil war. War in Ireland would be worse than civil. A demon would take possession of the nation's heart — every feeling of humanity would be extinguished — neither to sex nor to age would mercy be given. The country would be deluged with blood, and when that deluge had subsided, it would be a sorry consolation to a British statesman, when he gazed upon the spectacle of desolation which Ireland would then present to him, that he beheld the spires of your Es- tablished Church still standing secure amidst the desert with which they would be encompassed. You have adjured us, in the name of the oath which we have sworn on the gospel of God — I adjure you, in the name of every precept contained in that holy book— in the name of that religion which is the perfection of humanity — in the name of every obligation, divine and human, as you are men and Christians, to save my country from those evils to which I point, and to remember, that if you shall be the means of precipitating that country into perdition, posterity will deliver its great finding against you, and that you will not only be answerable to posterity, but responsible to that Judge, in whose presence, clothed with the blood of civil warfare, it will be more than dreadful to appear. But God forbid that these evils should ever have any other ex- istence, except in my own affrighted imaginiugs, and that those visions of disaster should be embodied in reality. God grant that the men to whom the destinies of England are confided by their sovereign, may have the virtue and the wisdom to save her from those fearful ills that so darkly and so densely lower upon her. For my own part, I do not de- spair of my country ; I do not despair of witnessing the time when Ireland will cease to be the battle-field of faction ; when our mutual acrimonies will be laid aside ; when our fatal an- tipathies will be sacrificed to the good genius of our country ; and, so far from wishing for a dismemberment of this majestic empire, I would offer up a prayer, as fervent as ever passed MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 307 from the heart to the lips of any one of you, that the great- ness of that empire maybe imperishable, and that the power, and the affluence, and the glory, and above all, the liberties of England may endure forever. — M. JL. She'd, 1844. AMENDING THE LAWS, After a long interval of various fortune, and filled with vast events, we are again called to the grand labor of sur- veying and amending our laws. For this task, it well be- comes us to begird ourselves, as the honest representatives of the people. Dispatch and vigor are imperiously demand- ed ; but that deliberation, too, must not be lost sight of, which so mighty an enterprise requires. When we shall have done the work, we may fairly challenge the utmost ap- proval of our constituents ; for in none other have they so deep a stake. In pursuing the course which I now invite you to enter upon, I avow that I look for the co-operation of the King's Government ; and on what are my hopes founded ? Men gather not grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles ; but that the vine should no longer yield its wonted fruit — that the fig-tree should refuse its natural increase — required a miracle to strike it with barrenness. But, whether I have the sup- port of the ministers or no, to the House I look, with confi- dent expectation, that it will control them, and assist me ; if I go too fir, checking my progress ; if I go too fast, abating my speed ; but heartily and honestly helping me, in the best and greatest work which the hands of the law-giver can un- dertake. The course is clear before us ; the race is glorious to run. You have the power of sending your name down through all times, illustrated by deeds of higher fame and more useful import than ever were done within these walls. You saw the greatest warrior of the age — conqueror of Italy — humbler of Germany — terror of the North — you saw him ac- count ail his matchless victories poor, compared with the tri- umph which you are now in a condition to win ! — saw him contemn the fickleness of Fortune, while, in despite of her, he could pronounce his memorable boast — " I shall go down to posterity with my code in my hand !" You have vanquished him in the field ; strive now to rival him in the sacred arts of peace ! Outstrip him as a law-giver, whom, in arms, you overcame ! The lustre of the Regency will be eclipsed by the more solid and enduring splendor of the Reign. The 308 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. praise which false courtiers feigned for our Edwards and Harrys — the Justinians of their day — will be the just tribute of the wise and the good, to that monarch under whose sway so mighty an undertaking shall be accomplished. Of a truth, sceptres are chiefly to be envied for that they bestow the power of thus conquering and ruling. It was the boast of Augustus — it formed part of the glare, in which the perfidies* of his earlier years were lost — that he found Rome of brick, and left it of marble ; a praise not unworthy a great prince, and to which the present reign has its claims also. But how much nobler will be our sovereign's boast, when he shall have it to say, that he found law dear, and left it cheap ; found it a sealed b.ook — left it an open letter ; found it the patrimony of the rich — left it the inheritance of the poor ; found it the two-edged sword of craft and oppression — left it the staff of honesty, and the shield of innocence ! To me, much reflect- ing on these things, it has always seemed a worthier honor to be the instrument of making you bestir yourselves in this high matter, than to enjoy all that office can bestow — office, of which the patronage would be irksome incumbrance, the emoluments superfluous, to one content with the rest of his industrious fellow citizens, that his own hands minister to his wants ; and as for the power supposed to follow it — I have lived nearly half a century, and I have learned that power and place may be severed. But one power I do prize — that of being the advocate of my countrymen here, and their fel- low-laborers elsewhere, in those things which concern the best interests of mankind. That power, I know full well, no government can give — no change take away ! Lord Brougham. III. POETICAL EXTRACTS SOOTT AND THE VETERAN. An old and crippled veteran to the War Department came, He sought the chief who led him on many a field of fame — The chief who shouted " Forward !" where'er his banner rose, And bore its stars in triumph behind the flying foes. " Have you forgotten, General," the battered soldier cried, " The days of Eighteen Hundred Twelve, when I was at your side? Have you forgotten Johnson, that fought at Lundy's Lane ? 'Tis true I'm old and pensioned, but I want to fight again." " Have I forgotten ?" said the chief; "my brave old soldier, ¥o! And here's the hand I gave you then, and let it tell you so ; But you have done your share, my friend ; you're crippled, old, and gray, And we have need of younger arms and fresher blood to : day." " But, General," cried the veteran, a flush upon his brow, " The very men who fought with us, they say, are traitors now; They've torn the flag of Lundy's Lane — our old red, white, and blue ; And while a drop of blood is left, I'll show that drop is true. " I'm not so weak but I can strike, and I've a good old gun To get the range of traitors' hearts, and pick them, one by one. Your Minie rifles, and such arms, it ain't worth while to try ; I couldn't get the hang of them, but I'll keep my powder dry !" 310 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. " God bless you, comrade!" said the chief; "God bless your loyal heart ! But younger men are in the field, and claim to have their part ; They'll plant our sacred banner in each rebellious town, And woe, henceforth, to any hand that dares to pull it down !" "But, General," — still persisting, the weeping veteran cried, "I'm young enough to follow, so long as you're my guide; And some, you know, must bite the dust, and that, at least, can I; So give the young ones place to fight, but me a place to die ! " If they should fire on Pickens, let the Colonel in command, Put me upon the rampart, with the flag-staff in my hand; No odds how hot the cannon smoke, or how the shells may I'll hold the Stars and Stripes aloft, and hold them till I die ! " I'm ready, General, so you let a post to me be given, Where Washington can see me, as he looks from highest heaven, And say to Putnam at his side, or, may be, General Wayne, 'There stands old Billy Johnson, that fought at Lundy's Lane !' "And when the fight is hottest, before the traitors fly, When shell and ball are screeching, and bursting in the sky, If any shot should hit me, and lay me on my face, My soul would go to Washington's and not to Arnold's place !" Bayard Taylor. DTTLCE PEO PATEIA MOBI. Oh ! it is great for our country to die, when ranks are con- tending ; Bright is the wreath of our fame ; glory awaits us for aye — Glory that never is dim, shining on with light never ending — Glory that never shall fade, never, O never, away ! Oh ! it is sweet for our country to die ! How softly reposes Warrior youth on his bier, wet by the tears of his love, POETICAL EXTRACTS. 311 "Wet by a mother's warm tears ; they crown him with gar- lands of roses, Weep, and then joyously turn, bright where he triumphs above. Not to the shades shall the youth descend who for country hath perished ; Hebe awaits him in heaven, welcomes him there with her smile ; There, at the banquet divine, the patriot spirit is cherished ; Gods love the young who ascend pure from the funeral pile. Not to Elysian fields, by the still, oblivious river ; Not to the isles of the blest, over the blue, rolling sea; But on Olympian heights shall dwell the devoted forever ; There shall assemble the good, there the wise, valiant, and free. Oh ! then how great for our country to die— in the front rank to perish, Firm with our breast to the foe, victory's shout in our ear ! Long they our statues shall crown, in songs our memory cherish ; We shall look forth from our heaven, pleased the sweet music to hear. — jPercival. VERY DARK. Our hoys died game. One was ordered to fall in rank. He answered quietly, " I will if I can." His arm hung shattered by his side, and he was bleeding to death. His last words brought tears to the eyes of all around. He murmured, "It grows very dark, mother — very dark." Poor fellow, his thoughts were far away at his peaceful home in Ohio. Cincinnati Gazette. The crimson tide was ebbing, and the pulse grew weak and faint, But the lips of that brave soldier scorned e'en now to make complaint ; " Fall in rank !" a voice called to him, — calm and low was his reply : " Yes, if I can, I'll do it— I will do it, though I die." And he murmured, when the life-light had died out to just a spark, " It is growing very dark, mother — growing very dark." 312 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. There were tears in manly eyes, then, and manly heads were bowed, Though the balls flew thick around them, and the cannons thundered loud ; They gathered round the spot where the dying soldier lay, To catch the broken accents he was struggling then to say ; And a change came o'er the features where death had set his marks, " It is growing very dark, mother — very, very dark." Far away his mind had wandered, to Ohio's hills and vales, Where the loved ones watched and waited with that love that never fails ; He was with them as in childhood, seated in the cottage door, Where he watched the evening shadows slowly creeping on the floor ; Bend down closely, comrades, closely, he is speaking now, and hark ! — " It is growing very dark, mother — very, very dark." He was dreaming of his mother, that her loving hand was pressed On his brow for one short moment, ere he sank away to rest ; That her lips were now imprinting a kiss upon his cheek, And a voice he well remembered spoke so soft, and low, and meek. Her gentle form was near him, her footstep he could mark, " But 'tis growing very dark, mother — mother, very dark." And the eye that once had kindled, flashing forth with pa- triot light, Slowly gazing, vainly strove to pierce the gathering gloom of night, Ah ! poor soldier ! ah ! fond mother ! you are severed now for aye, Cold and pulseless, there he lies now, where he breathed his life away. Through this heavy cloud of sorrow shines there not one hea- venly spark? Ah ! it has grown dark, mother — very, very dark. Gather round him, soldiers, gather, fold his hands and close his eyes, Near another one is dying, "Rally round our flag!" he cries j POETICAL EXTRACTS. 313 " Heaven protect it — fight on, comrades, speedily avenge our death!" Then his voice grew low and faltering, slowly came each painful breath. Two brave forms lay side by side there ; death had loved a shining mark, And two sad mothers say, " It has grown dark, ah ! very dark."— Z. R. THE BLACK HORSE aUABD. A TALE OF THE BATTLE OP BULL EUN. We waited for their coming beside that craggy " run," And gaily shone their trappings, and glistened in the sun ; "We saw the " well-kept" horses, and marked the stalwart men, And each Zouave his rifle took, and tried the charge again. On, on they came in close-set ranks. O, 'twas a goodly sight ! Their horses shone like ebony, their arms were burnished bright ; A breathless silence ; then there came a ringing down the van, "Lie low! Remember Ellsworth! let each one pick his man." A thousand rifle-flashes ; then shrieks and groans of pain, And clouds of dust uprising over the fatal plain, 'Mid which the gleaming bayonets seemed like the lightning's flash, The cry, "Remember Ellsworth," and the deadly forward dash! A silence ; — horses riderless, and scouring from the fray, While here and there a trooper spurs his worn steed away. The smoke dispels — the dust blows off — subsides the fatal stir; Virginia's Black Horse Cavalry is with the things that were. A wailing on the sunny slopes along the Shenandoah, A weeping where the York and James' deep-rolling torrents pour; 314 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Where Rappahannock peaceful glides, on many a fertile plain, A cry of anguish for the loved who ne'er may come again. The widow clasps the fatherless in silent, speechless grief, Or weeps as if in floods of tears the soul could find relief; The Old Dominion weeps, and mourns full many a gallant son, Who sleeps upon that fatal field beside that craggy run. Oh, matrons of Virginia ! with you has been the blame; It was for you to bend the twig before its ripeness came ; For you a patriot love to form, a loyal mind to nurse ; But ye have left your task undone, and now ye feel the curse. Edward Sprague Hand, Jr. NOT TET. Oh, country, marvel of the earth! Oh, realm to sudden greatness grown ! The age that gloried in thy birth, Shall it behold thee overthrown? Shall traitors lay that greatness low ? No ! Land of Hope and Blessing, No ! And we who wear thy glorious name, Shall we, like cravens, stand apart, When those whom thou hast trusted, aim The death-blow at thy generous heart? Forth goes the battle-cry, and lo ! Hosts rise in harness, shouting, No ! And they who founded, in our land, The power that rules from sea to sea, Bled they in vain, or vainly planned To leave their country great and free? Their sleeping ashes, from below, Send up the thrilling murmur, No ! Knit they the gentle ties which long These sister States were proud to wear, And forged the kindly links so strong, For idle hands in sport to tear — For scornful hands aside to throw ? No ! by our fathers' memory, No ! POETICAL EXTRACTS. ' 315 Our humming marts, our iron ways, Our wind-tossed woods on mountain crest, The hoarse Atlantic, with his bays, The calm, broad ocean of the West, And Mississippi's torrent flow, And loud Niagara, answer, No ! Not yet the hour is nigh, when they Who deep in Eld's dim twilight sit, Earth's ancient kings, shall rise and say, "Proud country, welcome to the pit! So soon art thou, like us, brought low ?" No ! sullen group of shadows, No ! For now, behold, the Arm that gave The victory in our fathers' day, Strong, as of old, to guard and save — That mighty Arm which none can stay — On clouds above, and fields below, Writes, in men's sight, the answer, No ! William' Cullen Bryant. THE EOMAU TWINS. 'Twas told by Roman soothsayers, What time they read the stars, That Romulus and Remus Sprang from the loins of Mars : That Romulus and Remus Were twin-born on the earth, And in the lap of a she- wolf Were suckled from their birth. By Jove ! I think this legend — This ancient Roman myth — For mine own time, and mine own clime, Is full of pregnant pith. Romulus stood with Remus, And plowed the Latian loam, And traced, by yellow Tiber, The nascent walls of Rome; Then laughed the dark twin, Remus, And scoffed his brother's toil, 316 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. And over the bounds of Romulus He leaped upon his soil. By Jove! I think that Remus And Romulus at bay, Of Slavery's strife and Liberty's life, Were antetypes that day ! The sucklings of the she-wolf Stood face to face in wrath, And Romulus swept Remus Like stubble from his path ; Then crested he with temples The seven hills of his home, And builded there, by Tiber, The eternal walls of Rome ! By Jove ! I think this legend Hath store of pregnant pith ; For mine own time and mine own clime ; 'Tis more than Roman myth ! Like Romulus and Remus, Out of the loins of Mars, Our Slavery and our Liberty Were born from cruel wars. To both the Albic she-wolf Her bloody suck did give, And one must slay the other, Ere one in peace can live. By Jove ! this brave old legend Straight to our hearts comes home — When Slavery dies, shall grandly rise Freedom's Eternal Rome ! A. J] IT. Duganne* THE WATCHERS, Beside a stricken field I stood ; On the torn turf, on grass, on wood, Hung heavily the dew of blood. Still in their fresh mounds lay the slain ; But all the air was quick with pain, And gusty sighs and tearful rain. POETICAL EXTEACTS. 317 Two angels, each with drooping head, And folded wings, and noiseless tread, "Watched by that valley of the dead. The one, with forehead saintly bland, And lips of blessing, not command, Leaned, weeping, on her olive wand. The other's brows were scarred and knit ; His restless eyes were watch-fires lit, His hands for battle-gauntlets fit. " How long !" — I know the voice of Peace — " Is there no respite ? — no release ? — When shall the hopeless quarrel cease ? " O Lord, how long ! — One human soul Is more than any parchment scroll, Or any flag the winds unroll. " What price was Ellsworth's, young and brave ? How weigh the gift that Lyon gave ? Or count the cost of Winthrop's grave ? " Oh, brother ! if thine eye can see, Tell how, and when the end shall be — What hope remains for thee or me." Then Freedom sternly said : " I shun No strife, nor pang, beneath the sun, When human rights are staked and won. " I knelt with Ziska's hunted flock ; I watched in Toussaint's cell of rock ; I walked with Sydney to the block. " The moor of Marston felt my tread ; Through Jersey snows the march I led; My voice Magenta's charges sped. " But now, through weary day and night, I watch a vague and aimless fight For leave to strike one blow aright. " On either side my foe they own ; One guards throuoh love his ghastly throne, And one through fear to reverence grown. 318 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. « "Why wait we longer, mocked, betrayed By open foes, or those afraid To speed thy coming through my aid ? " Why watch to see who win or fall ? — I shake the dust against them all; I leave them to their senseless brawl." " Nay," Peace implored ; "yet longer wait; The doom is near, the stake is great : God knoweth if it be too late. " Still wait and watch ; the way prepare, Where I, with folded wings of prayer, May follow, weaponless and bare." " Too late!" the stern, sad voice replied ; " Too late !" its mournful echo sighed; In low lament the answer died. A rustling as of wings in flight, An upward gleam of lessening white, So passed the vision, sound and sight. But round me, like a silver bell, Hung down the listening sky to tell Of holy help, a sweet voice fell. " Still hope and trust," it sang ; " the rod Must fall, the wine-press must be trod ; But all is possible with God !" John G. Whittier. I GIVE MY SOLDIEK BOY A BLADE, I give my soldier boy a blade, In fair Damascus fashioned well ; Who first the glittering falchion swayed, Who first beneath its fury fell, I know not, but I hope to know That for no mean or hireling trade, To guard no feeling base or low, I give my soldier boy v a blade. POETICAL EXTRACTS. 319 Cool, calm, and clear, the lucid flood, In which its tempering work was done, As calm, as clear, as cool of mood, Be thou whene'er it sees the sun ; For country's claim, at honor's call, For outraged friend, insulted maid, At mercy's voice to bid it fall, I give my soldier boy a blade. The eye which marked its peerless edge, The hand that weighed its balanced poise, Anvil and pincers, forge and wedge, Are gone with all their flame and noise — And still the gleaming sword remains ; So, when in dust I low am laid, Remember by these heart-felt strains, I gave my soldier boy a blade. — Maginn* LANDEE. A warrior to his boyhood's home Is coming back to-day — Ring out the merry joy-bells wide, Bring flowers to grace his way ! Let the cannon's throat and the martial note Send forth a glad acclaim, And the loyal chieftain's welcome home Be worthy of his fame ! Hang out the dear old banner, where 'Twill meet his flashing eye — Whose very breast had sheltered it, When rang the battle-cry ; Whose valiant sword, and stout right arm, With many a timely blow, Have wrought new glory for its stars, And crushed the haughty foe ! Alas ! alas ! the warrior comes, But not on prancing steed — He nevermore the cannon's roar, ISTor bugle-blast will heed : 320 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. No glow lights up his marble cheek, No smile his soulless eye, That stout right arm is nerveless now, His good sword sheathed must lie ! No shouts of welcome rend the air, No sound the breezes swell, But the minute-gun and the muffled drum, And the mournful tolling bell. The warrior to his boyhood home Comes back in state to-day — But they who gloried in his name Can only weep and pray. Nor rose nor laurel wreath bring now, But pale flowers for his bed, The hero has been vanquished once ! The lion-heart lies dead ! The soldier's warfare all is done — Life's wandering marches o'er, God give him rest, among the blest, In Heaven for evermore ! High on the world's heroic list Shall Lander's name be seen, And Time, among " the cherished dead," Shall keep his memory green ! The patriot's heart shall warmer glow, When standing by his grave, And dearer still shall be the flag That Lander died to save. — Anon. UNION SONG OP THE CELT. Hail ! brightest banner that floats on the gale ! Flag of the country of Washington, hail! Red are thy stripes with the blood of the brave, Bright are thy stars as the sun on the wave ; Wrapt in thy folds are the hopes of the free. Banner of Washington ! blessings on thee ! Mountain-tops mingle the sky with their snow ; Prairies lie smiling in sunshine below; Rivers, as broad as the sea, in their pride, Border thine empires, but do not divide ; POETICAL EXTRACTS. 321 Niagara's voice far out-anthems the sea ; Land of sublimity! blessings on thee! Hope of the world ! on thy mission sublime, When thou didst burst on the pathway of time, Millions from darkness and bondage awoke ; Music was born when liberty spoke ; Millions to come shall yet join in the glee ; Land of the pilgrim's hope ! blessings on thee ! Traitors shall perish, and treason shall fail ; Kingdoms and thrones in thy glory grow pale ! Thou shalt live on, and thy people shall own Loyalty's sweet, when each heart is thy throne; Union and freedom thine heritage be. Country of Washington ! blessings on thee ! Wm. E. Robinson, THE BOY OF THE CUMBEKLAND. Bold Morris of the Cumberland Called to a negro boy on board, And put into his faithful hand His own unsullied, shining sword. " Take this," he said, " and keep it well ; Just now 'tis but a useless toy ; But soon, — how soon I cannot tell, — I'll call for it again, my boy !" Useless, indeed, were sword and ball To pierce the iron Merrirhac ; Like summer hail the broadsides fall Upon the monster's armed back. Short was the fight. Our frigate fair, Crushed by a single, deadly blow, Went down, her flag still high in air, Her guns yet booming at the foe. The remnant of our gallant men Had landed from the little boat, When, looking o'er the tide again, They saw, afar, a swimmer float. 322 the Patriotic speaker* It was the negro cabin boy ; He rose and fell with every wave. They called to him — " Shipmate, ahoy !" No answer to their call he gave. And, gazing still, they saw at length, The captain's sword was in his teeth ; A weight beyond his feeble strength, That dragged him to the gulf beneath ! They shouted to him once again, — " Ho, shipmate ! never mind the cost ! " You are too weak ; you strive in vain ; " Let go that sword, or you are lost !" He heard them not, or would not hear, And hastily they manned the boat, And rowed for him. As they drew near He lost the strength to keep afloat. He sank ! Thank God, he rose once more ! They caught him, drew him safe on board ; They brought him senseless to the shore, And by his side the captain's sword ! They watched him long ; he woke at last ; The pale lips parted for a word ; On Morris a bright glance he cast, With, " Captain, I have kept Your sword !" R. W.R. DEATH, THE PEACE-MAKEB. A waste of land, a sodden plain, A lurid sunset sky, With clouds that fled and faded fast In ghostly phantasy ; A field upturned by trampling feet, A field up-piled with slain, With horse and rider blent in death, Upon the battle-plain. POETICAL EXTRACTS. 323 The dying and the dead lie low ; For them no more shall rise The evening moon, nor midnight stars, Nor daylight's soft surprise. They will not wake to tenderest call, Nor see again each home, Where waiting hearts shall throb and break, When this day's tidings come. Two soldiers, lying as they fell Upon the reddened clay — In daytime, foes ; at night, in peace, Breathing their lives away. Brave hearts had stirred each manly breast ; Fate only made them foes, And lying, dying, side by side, A softened feeling rose. " Our time is short," one faint voice said ; " To-day we've done our best On different sides. What matters now ? To-morrow we're at rest. Life lies behind. I might not care ■ For only my own sake, But far away are other hearts That this day's work will break. " Among New-Hampshire's snowy hills There pray for me to-night A women, and a little girl — With hair like golden light" — And at the thought broke forth, at last, The cry of anguish wild That would no longer be repressed — " O God ! my wife and child !" " And," said the other dying man, " Across the Georgia plain There watch and wait for me loved ones I'll never see again. A little girl, with dark, bright eyes, Each day waits at the door ; The father's step, the father's kiss, Will never meet her more. 324 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. " To-day we sought each other's lives ; Death levels all that now, For soon before God's mercy-seat Together we shall bow. Forgive each other while we may, Life's but a weary game, And right or wrong, the morning sun Will find us, dead, the same." The dying lips the pardon breathe, The dying hands entwine ; The last ray dies, and over all The stars from heaven shine ; And the little girl with golden hair And one with dark eyes bright, On Hampshire's hills and Georgia plain, Were fatherless that night. Ellen H. Flagg. NO SLAVE BENEATH THE PLAG. No slave beneath that starry flag, The emblem of the free ! No fettered hand shall wield the brand That smites for Liberty ! No tramp of servile armies Shall shame Columbia's shore, For he who fights for Freedom's rights Is free forever more ! No slaves beneath those glorious folds That o'er our fathers flew, When every breath was dark with death, But every heart was true ! No serfs of earth's old empires Knelt 'neath its shadow then ; And they who now beneath it bow, Foreveimore are men ! Go tell the ashes of the braves Who at Port Hudson fell ; Go tell the dust whose holy trust Stern Wagner guards so well : POETICAL EXTRACTS. 325 Go breathe it softly — slowly — Wherever the patriot slave For right has bled, and tell the dead He tills a freeman 's grave/ Go tell Kentucky's bondsmen true, That he who fights is free ! And let the tale fill every gale That floats o'er Tennessee ! Let all our mighty rivers The story southward pour, And every wave tell every slave To be a slave no more ! Go tell the brave of every land, Where e'er that flag has flown — The tyrant's fear, the patriot's cheer, Through every clime and zone — That now no more forever Its stripes are slavery scars ; No tear-drops stain its azure plain, Nor dim its golden stars ! No slave beneath that grand old flag ! Forever let it fly ! With lightning rolled in every fold. And flashing victory ! God's blessing breathe around it ; And when all strife is done, May freedom's light, that knows no night, Make every star a sun ! George Lansing Taylor. CIVIL WAR. " Rifleman, shoot me a fancy shot Straight at the heart of yon prowling vidette; Ring me a ball in the glittering spot That shines on his breast like an amulet !" " Ah captain ! here goes for a fine-drawn bead, There's music around when my barrel's in tune !" Crack! went the rifle, the messenger sped, And dead from his horse fell the ringing dragoon. 326 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. " Now, rifleman, steal through the bushes, and snatch From your victim some trinket to handsel first blood; A button, a loop, or that luminous patch That gleams in the moon like a diamond stud !" " O ! captain, I staggered, and sunk on my track, When I gazed on the face of that fallen vidette, For he looked so like you, as he lay on his back, That my heart rose upon me, and masters me yet. " But I snatched off the trinket — this locket of gold — An inch from the centre my lead broke its way, Scarce grazing the picture, so fair to behold, Of a beautiful lady in bridal array." " Ha ! rifleman, fling me the locket ! — 'tis she, My brother's young bride — and the fallen dragoon Was her husband — Hush ! soldier, 'twas Heaven's decree, We must bury him there, by the light of the moon ! " But, hark ! the far bugles their warnings unite ; War is a virtue — weakness a sin ; There's a lurking and loping around us to-night ; Load again, rifleman, keep your hand in !" Once a Week. THE FOUE ERAS. The lark has sung his carol in the sky ; The bees have hummed their noontide harmony ; Still in the vale the village bells ring round, Still in Lewellyn-hall the jests resound: For now the candle-cup is circling there, Now glad at heart, the gossips breathe their prayer, And crowding, stop the cradle to admire The babe, the sleeping image of his sire. A few short years — and then these sounds shall hail The day again, and gladness fill the vale; So soon the child a youth, the youth a man, Eager to run the race his fathers ran. Then the huge ox shall yield the broad sirloin ; The ale, now brewed, in floods of amber shine; POETICAL EXTRACTS. 327 And basking in the chimney's ample blaze, Mid many a tale told of his childish days, The nurse shall cry, of all her ills beguiled, M 'Twas on these knees he sate so oft and smiled." And soon again shall music swell the breeze; Soon, issuing forth, shall glitter through the trees Vestures of nuptial white ; and hymns be sung, And violets scattered round ; and old and young, In every cottage-porch, with garlands green, Stand still to gaze, and gazing, bless the scene ; While, her dark eyes declining, by his side Moves in her virgin-veil the gentle bride. And once, alas ! nor in a distant hour, Another voice shall come from yonder tower ; When in dim chambers long black weeds are seen, And weepings heard where only joy has been; When by his children borne, and from his door Slowly departing to return no more, He rests in holy earth with them that went before. Rogers. COLUMBIA Harp of Columbia ! there is still A theme to waken thee ; Thou canst again the bosom thrill As when, of old, from hill to hill, Thy echoes roused the yeoman's will, And taught him to be free ! Hast thou forgot the songs of yore Amid the scenes of peace ? And shall thy music nevermore Aw T ake the land from shore to shore, As when from tyrant's hateful power, Our fathers sought release? Who calls America a land Degenerate and base ? 'Tis false ! 'tis false ! that noble band Who sought their freedom, sword in hand, Shall see their sons forever stand A free, a loyal race. 328 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. How base the heart that could forget The blood the fathers spilt ! How heartless he who leaves the debt Of gratitude to go unmet, And he, how tenfold baser yet, "Who glories in the guilt ! Ah, yes ! Columbia is true, Her sons are firm and brave ; Let traitors come with fierce ado, We'll break their columns through and through, A traitor's death we'll give them, too, And each a traitor's grave. Then sweep, ye winds, across the plain ! Ye rivers, to the sea ! Proclaim the word o'er earth and main, The blood of yore is young again, Its loyalty without a stain, Columbia still is free ! Dyer, THIRTY-POUR, Fling out the banner on the breeze ; Shake out each starry fold ; Summon the stalwart soldiers forth, The mighty, and the bold — The bell of freedom from its tower Its solemn call has tolled. The sound sweeps wildly o'er the land, Sweeps o'er the bounding sea ; It echoes from each mountain-top, The anthem of the free ; It snaps the chain .which sin has forged, It sings for liberty. Marshal the legions for the fight, The youthful and the brave ; Stand for the noble and the right, The glorious Union save ; Stand for the cause for which their blood Our patriot fathers gave. POETICAL EXTRACTS. 329 Dread not the angry foeman's rage ; Dread not the tempest's crash ; Dread not the billows, though the cliffs Along the shore they lash ; Dread not the awful thunder's roar, Nor lightning's piercing flash. Above the cloud the brilliant sky Shines in immortal blue ; And light, like Heaven's approving smile, Streams, in its glory, through ; Be patient, till the strife is o'er ; Have faith to dare and do. With willing heart Heaven's high behest Fulfil without alarm ; The foe has planted for our hand, And nursed the conqueror's balm; And He that bade the sea " Be still," The stormy waves will calm. Then fling the banner to the wind — The emblem of the free ; Strike the sweet harp-tones that proclaim The reign of Liberty ; And bid the melody rebound From every trembling key. And count each star that studs the blue, Whate'er the past has been, A wayward wanderer, welcomed back, To fill its place again ;^— A loving band of sister-lights, Just like the Old Thirteen. Strike not one jewel from the crest The loving mother wore ; Re-set the gems upon her breast, Each where it stood before. Clasp in the glorious cynosure, The whole dear Thirty-Four.— & F. Smith. 330 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. THE BATTLE OF POET ROYAL. Fair glanced the clay along Port Royal's tide, Glanced o'er embattled forts on either side, Where Hilton Head and Low Bay Point defied The armada of the free ; A martial show, that vast, invading fleet! When rose their flag, when mustering-drums were beat; When rang the cheer that all the shores repeat, Re-echoing o'er the sea ! Then came the conflict. From Fort Walker's wall Glanced the red fires, fast sped the hissing ball ; Thick smokes, volcanic, hover'd like a pall, A dim sulphureous veil ; The Bay Point batteries, like a furnace, cast Their iron tempest in incessant blast ; How might survive the crew, the spar, the mast, Before that fearful hail ! Yet all in vain ! The star-flag still arose, Nailed to each mast, a target for its foes ; The rough tars cheer, and on each frigate goes In undismay'd career ; Stern Dupont leads his Wabash to the goal, And Pawnee, Susquehanna, Seminole, And stout Bienville* their dread thunders roll, 'Mid shout and battle-cheer. Thick flew the shell witlun each rampart's breath ; High rose the brown sana in that storm of death ; So o'er the desert doth Sirocco's breath The caravan betray ; For three long hours that hurricane of gore Through stony embrasure and rampart tore; Guns were dismantled, men in many a score Were withering swept away. In vain their toil ! In vain the rebel strife ; ]STo human courage might withstand, with life, That storm, when every moment was so rife With desolating scourge ! * Pronounced Be-dn-veal. POETICAL EXTRACTS. 331 They fled, they flew, their arms aside were thrown ; No guns were spiked, no standards were pluck' d down, But wild with terror, o'er the country strewn, Their frantic race they urge ! So ends the strife. The victor's guns are mute ; The shouting squadron their brave flag salute ; The veteran sailor and the raw recruit Their deafening cheerings pour ; Prone drops the flag from yonder rebel mast — Soon to the breeze the Union Stars are cast; Avenged is Sumter's humbled flag at last, On Carolina's shore ! Flag of our hearts, our symbol and our trust, Though treason trample thy bright folds in dust, Though dark rebellion, vile ambition's lust, Conspire to tear thee down ; Millions of loyal lips will thee caress ; Millions of loyal hearts thy stars will bless, Millions of loyal arms will round thee press, To guard thy old renown! — McOlellan. NEVEE ! "I may be asked, as I have been asked, when I am for the dissolution of the Union. I answer, Never — never — never I" — Henry Clay. You ask me when I'd rend the scroll Our fathers' names are written o'er, When I would see our flag unroll Its mingled stars and stripes no more— When, with a worse than felon's hand, Or felon's counsels, I would sever The Union of this glorious land ? I answ T er, never ! never ! never ! Think ye that I could brook to* see The emblem I have loved so long, Borne peaceful o'er the distant sea, Torn, trampled by a frenzied throng? Divided, measured, parcelled out, Tamely surrendered up forever, To gratify a lawless rout Of traitors ? never ! never ! never ! 332 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. • On yonder lone and lovely steep The sculptor's art, the builder's power, The landmark o'er the soldier's sleep, Have reared a lofty funeral tower ; There it shall stand until the river That rolls beneath shall cease to flow ; Aye, till the hill itself shall quiver With nature's last convulsive throe. Upon that column's marble base, Its shafts that soar into the sky, There still is room enough to trace The list of millions yet to die. And I would cover all its h eighth And breadth, before the hour of shame, Till space should even fail to write Even the initials of a name. Nay, I would haste to swell the ranks, Direct the fire, or lead the way, While battle swept the rifted ranks, And bore the serried lines away ; Fall, bleeding, in the doubtful strife, Beneath the motto of my sires, And draw the latest breath of life Before that Union flag expires. 1 THE EXECUTION. The clock strikes Four ! Round the debtors' door Are gathered a couple of thousand or more ; As many await At the press-yard gate, Till slowly its folding-doors open ; and straight The mob divides ; and between their ranks A wagon comes loaded with posts and planks. The clock strikes Five ! The sherhTs arrive, And the crowd is so great that the street seems alive. * * % * * Sweetly, oh! sweetly, the morning breaks With roseate streaks, Like the first faint blush on a maiden's cheeks ; POETICAL EXTRACTS. 3, Seemed as that mild and clear blue sky- Smiled upon all things far and nigh, — All, save the wretch condemned to die ! Alack ! that ever so fair a sun As that which its course has now begun, Should rise on such scenes of misery. Should gild with rays so light and free That dismal, dark-frowning gallows-tree ! And hark ! a sound comes big with fate, The clock from St. Sepulchre's tower strikes — Eight I List to that low funeral bell ; It is tolling, alas ! a living man's knell ! And see ! from forth that opening door They come ; he steps the threshold o'er Who never shall tread upon threshold more. God ! 'tis a fearsome thing to see That pale man's mute agony ; The glare of that wild despairing eye, Now bent on the crowd, now turned to the sky, As though 'twere scanning, in doubt and in fear, The path of the spirit's unknown career; Those pinioned arms, those hands that ne'er Shall be lifted again — not even in prayer ; That heaving chest ! — Enough, 'tis done ! — The bolt has fallen ! — The spirit is gone — For weal or for woe is known but to One ! Oh ! 'twas a fearsome sight ! Ah, me ! A deed to shudder at, — not to see. Richard Harris JBarham. i THE CHARGE AT WATERLOO. On came the whirlwind — like the last But fiercest sweep of tempest blast ; On came the whirlwind — steel-gleams broke Like lightning through the rolling smoke ; The war was waked anew. Three hundred cannon-mouths roared loud, And from their throats, with flash and cloud, Their showers of iron threw. Beneath their fire, in full career, Rushed on the ponderous cuirassier, The lancer couched his ruthless spear, And, hurrying as to havoc near, The cohorts' eagles flew. 334 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. In one dark torrent, broad and strong, The advancing onset rolled along, Forth harbingered by fierce acclaim, That from the shroud of smoke and flame, Pealed wildly the imperial name. But on the British heart were lost The terrors of the charging host ; For not an eye the storm that viewed Changed its proud glance of fortitude ; Nor was one forward footstep stayed, As dropped the dying and the dead." Fast as their ranks the thunder tear, Fast they renewed each serried square ! And on the .wounded and the slain Closed their diminished files again; Till from their lines scarce spears' lengths three, Emerging from the smoke they see Helmet and plume, and panoply — Then waked their fire at once ! Each musketeer's revolving knell As fast, as regularly fell, As when they practise to display Their discipline on festal day. Then down went helm and lance, Down went the eagle-banners sent, Down reeling steeds and riders went, Corselets were pierced and pennons rent; And, to augment the fray, Wheeled full against their staggering flanks, The English horsemen's foaming ranks Forced their resistless way. Then to the musket-knell succeeds The clash of swords, the neigh of steeds ; As plies the smith his clanging trade, Against the cuirass rang the blade ; And while amid their close array The well-served cannon rent their way, And while amid their scattered band Raged the fierce rider's bloody brand, Recoiled in common rout and fear Lancer and guard and cuirassier, Horsemen and foot — a mingled host — Their leaders fallen, their standards lost. Sir Walter Scott. POETICAL EXTRACTS. 335 THE LORD OF BUTRAGO. " Your horse is faint, my King — my Lord ! your gallant horse is sick — His limbs are torn, his breast is gored, on his eye the film is thick ; Mount, mount on mine, oh, mount apace, I pray thee, mount and fly ! Or in my arms I'll lift your grace — their trampling hoofs are nigh! " My King — my King ! you're wounded sore — the blood runs from your feet ; But only lay a hand before, and I'll lift you to your seat ; Mount, Juan, for they gather fast ! — I hear their coming cry — Mount, mount, and ride for jeopardy — I'll save you though I die! " Stand, noble steed ! this hour of need — be gentle as a lamb ; I'll kiss the foam from off thy mouth — thy master dear I am — Mount, Juan, mount ; whate'er betide, away the bridle fling, And plunge the rowels in his side. — My horse shall save my King! " Nay, never speak ; my sires, Lord King, received their land from yours, And joyfully their blood shall spring, so be it thine secures : If I should fly, and thou, my King, be found among the dead, How could I stand 'mong gentlemen, such scorn on my gray head? u Castile's proud dames shall never point the finger of disdain, And say there's one that ran away when our good lords were slain ! I leave Diego in your care — you'll fill his father's place ; Strike, strike the spur, and never spare — God's blessing on your grace !" So spake the brave Montanez, Butrago's lord was he ; And turned him to the coming host in steadfastness and glee ; He flung himself among them, as they came down the hill — He died, God wot ! but not before his sword had drunk its fill. J. G. Loclchart. 336 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. HERMINIUS AND MAMILIUS. Right glad were all the Romans Who, in that hour of dread, Against great odds bare up the war Around Valerius dead, When from the south the cheering Rose with a mighty swell ; " Herminius comes, Herminius, Who kept the bridge so well !" Mamilius spied Herminius, And dashed across the way. "Herminius! -I have sought thee Through many a bloody day. One of us two, Herminius, Shall never more go home, I will lay on for Tusi-ulum, And lay thou on for Rome !" All round them paused the battle, While met in mortal fray , . The Roman and the Tusculan, The horses black and gray. Herminius smote Mamilius Through breast-plate and through breast; And fast flowed out the purple blood Over the purple vest. Mamilius smote Herminius Through head-piece and through head; And side by side those chiefs of pride Together fell down dead. Down fell they dead together In a great lake of i>ore ; And still stood all who saw them fall While men might count a score. Macaulay. BARBAEA FEIETCHIE. Up from the meadows rich with corn, Clear in the cool September morn, POETIGAL EXTRACTS. 337 The clustered spires of Frederick stand Green- walled by the hills of Maryland. Round about them orchards sweep, Apple and peach-tree fruited deep. Fair as a garden of the Lord To the eyes of the famished rebel horde, On that pleasant morn of the early fall When Lee marched over the mountain wall, — Over the mountains winding down, Horse and foot, into Frederick town. Forty flags with their silver stars, Forty flags with their crimson bars, Flapped in the morning wind; the sun Of noon looked down, and saw not one. Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then, Bowed with her fourscore years and ten ; Bravest of all in Frederick town, She took up the flag the men hauled down ; In her attic- window the staff" she set, To show that one heart was loyal yet. Up the street came the rebel tread, Stonewall Jackson riding ahead. Under his slouched hat left and right. He glanced ; the old flag met his sight. " Halt !" — -the dust-brown ranks stood fast. " Fire !"— out blazed the rifle-blast. It shivered the window, pane and sash ; It rent the banner with seam and gash. Quick as it fell from the broken staff Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf; She leined far out on the window-si'll, And shook it forth with a royal will. 338 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. " Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country's flag," she said. A shade of sadness, a blush of shame Over the face of the leader came ; The nobler nature within him stirred To life at that woman's deed and word : " Who touches a hair of yon gray head Dies like a dog ! March on !" he said. All day long, through Frederick street, Sounded the tread of marching feet : All day long that free flag tossed Over the heads of the rebel host. Ever its torn folds rose and fell On the loyal winds that loved it well ; And through the hill-gaps sunset light Shone over it with a -warm good-night. Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er, And the rebel rides on his raids no more. Honor to her ! and let a tear Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier. Over Barbara Frietchie's grave Flag of Freedom and Union, wave ! Peace, and order, and beauty draw Round thy symbol of light and law ; And ever the*stars above look down On thy stars below in Frederick town ! J. #. WhiMer. [ POETICAL EXTRACTS. 339 THE DOOM OF MAO GEEGOB. " Mac Gregor ! Mac Gregor ! remember the foeman ! The morn rises proud on the brow of Ben Lomond; The clans are impatient, and chide this delay; Arise ! let us haste to Glen Allan away !" Stern scowled the Mac Gregor, then silent and sullen, He turned his red eye to the braes of Strath Fillan: " Go, Malcolm, to sleep ; let the clans be dismissed ! The Campbell, this night, for Mac Gregor may rest." 11 Mac Gregor ! Mac Gregor ! our scouts have been flying, Three days, round the hills of Mac Nab and Glen Lyon ; Of riding and running such tidings they bear, We must meet them at home, else they'll quickly be here." "The Campbell may come, as his promises bind him; And haughty Mac Nab, with his giants behind him, But Pra pledged, this night, to relinquish the fray, And do — what it freezes my vitals to say. I have sworn, by the cross, by my God, by my all, An oath which I cannot and dare not recall : Ere the shadows of midnight fall east from the pile, To meet with a spirit, this night, in Glen Gyle. Last eve, in my chamber, all thoughtful and lone, I was calling to mind a dark deed I had done, When entered a lady, with visage so wan ! And looks such as never were fastened on man ! I knew her — O brother ! I knew her too well ! Of that lady so fair, such a tale I could tell ! Despairing and mad, to futurity blind, The present to shun, and some respite to find, I swore, ere the shadow fell east from the pile, To meet her alone, this night, in Gl en Gyle. She told me, aud turned my chilled heart into stone, That the name and renown of Mac Gregor are gone; That the pine which for ages has shed its bright halo Afar on the mountains of Highland Glen Falo, Should wither and fall, ere the turn of yon moon Smit through by the canker of hated Colhoun. That a feast on Mac Gregor each day should be common, For years, to the eagles of Lenox and Lomond. A parting embrace in one moment she gave — Her breath was a furnace, her bosom* the grave! Then, flitting elusive, she said, with a frow, The mighty Mac Gregor shall yet be my own." 340 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. " Mac Gregor ! thy fancies are wild as the wind ; The dreams of the night have disordered thy mind ! Come, gird thy bright claymore on ! march to the field! Show mm, and not spirits, thy buckler and shield ! Thy fantasies frightful shall quickly take wing When loud with thy bugle Glen Allan shall ring !" Like a glimpse of the moon through the storm of the night, Mac Gregor's red eye shed one sparkle of light! It faded — it darkened ! He shuddered ; he sighed: "No! not for the universe!" low he replied. Away went Mac Gregor, but went not alone ; To watch the dread rendezvous, Malcolm is gone. They oared the broad Lomond, so still and serene, And deep in its bosom, how awful the scene ! O'er mountains inverted the blue .waters curled, And rocked them on skies of a far nether world. Not a foot was abroad on forest or hill, No sound, save the lullaby sung by the rill. All silent they went, for the time was approaching, The moon the blue zenith already was touching. Mute nature was roused in the bounds of the glen The wild-deer of Gairtney abandoned his den, Fled panting away over river and isle, Nor once turned his eye to the brook of Glen Gyle. The fox fled in terror. The eagle awoke, Where high he had dozed on the shelf of the rock; Astonished, to hide, in the moonbeam he flew And pierced the far heavens till lost in their blue. Young Malcolm, at distance, crouched trembling, the while Mac Gregor stood lone by the brook of Glen Gyle. Ten minutes had passed, ere he spied on the stream A skiff gliding light, where a lady did seem. Her sail was the web of a gossamer's loom, The glow-worm her wake-light, the rainbow her boom, A dim, rayless beam was her prow, and her mast Like wold-lire, at midnight, that glares on the waste. Young Malcolm beheld the pale lady approach. The chieftain salute her — and shrink from her touch! He saw the Mac Gregor kneel down on the plain, As begging for something he could not obtain. She raised him indignant, derided his stay, Then bore him on board, set her sail, and away. Though fast the red bark down the river did glide, Yet faster ran Malcolm adown by its side. " Mac Gregor ! Mac Gregor !" he bitterly cried ; "Mac Gregor! Mac Gregor!" the echoes replied. POETICAL EXTRACTS. 341 He struck at the lady — but, strange though it seem, His sword only fell on the rocks of the stream, While the groans from the boat that ascended amain Were the groans of a bosom in horror and pain. Then it reached the dark lake, and bore lightly away — Mac Gregor had vanished forever and aye. THE MEN OF MAEBLEHEAD. It was the middle of the night, And deep was slumber's spell ; The sexton from the steeple's height Tolled loud the old church bell ; — And quickly crowded young and old Before the echoes fell, To hear the thrilling story told They knew before so well ! "What ho ! ye men of Marblehead, That fought so well of yore ! Are all your fathers' virtues dead, And will they wake no more ? The traitor's hand has dared to stain The starry flag ye bore ; — Will ye not draw the swords again So bravely drawn before ?" 'Twas midnight when the summons came. The sun his rising sped, And glancing with an eye of flame Across the ocean-bed, Saw bright the well-known colors play, — The blue and white and red, — And steel gleam through the morning gray, Where grimly trod the Southern way The men of Marblehead ! Up with the banner of the stars ! Long may its colors fly ! They led our fathers to the wars, We will not cast them by ! No I let the earth grow crimson red, And lurid flash the sky ; 342 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. "With these fair folds above us spread, Like the brave men of Marblehead, We conquer, or we die ! JR. W. JR. STARS IN MY COUNTRY'S SKY. Are ye all there ? Are ye all there, Stars of my country's sky ? Are ye all there ? Are ye all there, In your shining homes on high ? " Count us ! Count us," was their answer, As they dazzled on my view, In glorious perihelion, Amid their field of blue. I cannot count ye rightly ; There's a cloud with sable rim ; I cannot make your number out, For my eyes with tears are dim. Oh ! bright and blessed angel, On white wing floating by, Help me to count, and not to miss One star in my country's sky ! Then the angel touched mine eyelids, And touched the frowning cloud ; And its sable rim departed, And it fled with murky shroud. There was no missing Pleiad, 'Mid all that sister race ; The Southern Cross gleamed radiant forth, And the Pole-Star kept its place. Then I knew it was the angel Who woke the hymning strain That at our Redeemer's birth Peal'd out o'er Bethlehem's plain ; And still its heavenly key tone My listening country held, For all her constellated stars The diapason swelled. Z. H. $. POETICAL EXTRACTS. 343 \ TO THE MEN OF THE NOETH AND WEST. Men of the North and West, Wake in your might, Prepare, as the rebels have done, For the fight ; You cannot shrink from the test, Rise ! men of the North and West ! They have torn down your banner of stars ; They have trampled the laws ; They have stifled the freedom they hate, For no cause ! Do you love it or slavery best ? Speak! men of the North and West. They strike at the life of the State — Shall the murder be done ? They cry, " We are two !" and you ? " We are one/" You must meet them then, breast to breast, On ! men of the North and West ! * Not with words ; they laugh them to scorn, And tears they despise ; But with swords in your hands, and death In your eyes ! Strike home ! leave to God all the rest ; — Strike ! men of the North and West ! B. R. Stoddard, THE POWDEE BOY OF THE CAYUGA. The twenty-fourth of April was slowly coming on, And in the East were shining the red gleams of the dawn; As the good ship Cayuoa the vanguard bravely led : — She was the Admiral's flag-ship, of the " Column of the Red." She was a wooden gun-boat ; and, looming far away, We saw where all the rebel rams in iron armor lay. Out spake the gallant captain, as we sailed swiftly in, " It isn't the iron ships, boys, but the iron hearts that win." 344 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Eleven bore down upon us ; we fought them one by one ; — Ah ! heavily they felt, that day, our heavy Dahlgren gun ! They swept our decks with broadsides — but the gunners still held on, And ceaselessly we answered, with the heavy Dahlgren gun. Three of their ships were sinking,— but still the rest drew near ; When Boggs, in the Varuna, attacked them with a cheer ; With answering cheers we filled the air above the battle's din : — w It isn't the iron ships, boys, but the iron hearts that win." A shell from the Varuna came screaming through the sky, And struck upon the spar-deck, the Dahlgren's powder-boy ; 'Twas little Gustav Fincke, the bravest of us all ; It made the sternest weep to see our little hero fall. He turned to the forts and the city, and gave a cry of pain: " My God," he said, " I can never fight for my country again !" We heard it — and fought the harder, to think that he could not; And through their iron armor we drove our iron shot. Shall I tell the end of the battle? You know from Fame's own lips ; The spirit of our Yankee tars was stronger than their ships, — The spirit of Gustav Fincke, the boy of the Dahlgren gun; And it wasn't the iron ships, boys, but the iron hearts that won! B. W. R. THE WELL OF BETHLEHEM. King David, from Adullam's cave, looked down all stern and pale Where the host of the Philistines -lay encamped in Judah's vale ; And beyond their flaunting banners, mid groves of palm-shade dim, He saw his childhood's early home — the town of Bethlehem ! POETICAL EXTRACTS. 345 He sank upon the hillside — forgot the cares of kings ;. His heart went back to childish days and thought on childish things ; " King David longed," the Scripture saith — Ah ! through that simple word, What deep-toned woe in every age the suffering heart hath heard ! IJe longed once more in the orchard to taste the fig and date, And to drink the crystal water of the well hard by the gate : And as he spake, the weary eye belied the diadem, " Ah ! who will bring me water from the well of Bethlehem !" The listening warriors stood appalled. The trumpet's loud defiance Came wafted on the morning air, up from the host of giants; When lo ! three mighty captains, King David's wish that heard, Went striding down the hill-side, without a single word ! No rampart to defend them, no narrow pass to keep, They marched to meet an army, as streamlets to the deep ! Great shouts of scorn and laughter broke from the waiting foe, While Israel breathed in silent prayer, or groaned in speech- less woe. On went the dauntless heroes, nor stayed for friend or foe, Until they passed the rocky ground, and reached the vale below ; Then, like a mighty iron wedge, they cleft that army wide — Bold Jasobeara in the van, and one on either side ! The armed heads before them stood thick as bearded grain, Bat fell beneath their flashing blades — and never rose again ! Behind, for many a cubit, they left a bloody swath, Where lay the dead and dying sons of Askelon and Gath. At length the war-cloud lifted, and the war-cry ceased to swell, And the Hebrews saw their champions statid by the sacred well. All round lay weltering corpses, and the heathen stood afar, Watching in fear the captains, red with the hues of war. 346 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Alas ! ^from helm and breastplate the drops that slowly fell, As the worn and weary heroes filled a chalice at the well ; — They were no drops from Pagan dead that strewed the earth around, But of the bravest Jewish blood that e'er wet Jewish ground ! Oh, God, who saved our fathers ! have mercy now and here ! See, Jasobeam fainting stands, and leans upon his spear ; Shamma and Eleazar still bravely take their places, ^ And hold him up on either side with pale but steadfast faces. The captains turned once more their eyes to where their brethren prayed, Then raised the war cry of the Lord, and bared each crimson blade ; But he who led the onset now walked feebly up the dell, And only bore a chalice, with the water from the well. All Israel gazed with curdling blood, and counted them as lost ; How could the wounded, feeble three, again o'ercome a host? But lo ! they walked unharmed the path cut out before with sword, For round about them brightly shone the glory of the Lord ! Mid tears of joy and shoutings, they mounted to the hold, Bearing in pride the water, more precious now than gold, — And, placing at their sovereign's feet the pledge of love and power, Returned in silence, every man where he had stood before . King David smiled through falling tears, as, on the moun- tain sod, He poured the costly liquid out, an offering to God, " Far be it from my lips," he said, " to taste the price of slaughter ; God hath rebuked my foolish wish, and given me blood for water ! B. W. B. POETICAL EXTRACTS. 347 THE BATTLE. Heavy and solemn, A cloudy column, Through the green plain they marching came ! Measureless spread, like a table dread, For the wild grim dice of the iron game. Looks are bent on the shaking ground, Hearts beat low with a knelling sound ; Swift by the breast that must bear the brunt, Gallops the major along the front ; — « Halt !" And fettered they stand at the stark command, And the warriors, silent, halt ! See the smoke, how the lightning is cleaving asunder ! Hark ! the guns, peal on peal, how they boom in their thun- der ! From host to host, with kindling sound, The shouting signal circles round ; Ay, shout it forth to life or death, Freer already breathes the breath ! The war is waging, slaughter is raging, And heavy through the reeking pall The iron death-dice fall ! Nearer they close — foes upon foes ; "Ready !" — from square to square it goes. The dead meAMie bathed in the weltering blood ; And the living are blent in the slippery flood, And the feet as they reeling and sliding go, Stumble still ojp the corses that sleep below. " What ! Francis !"— " Give Charlotte my last farewell." As the dying man murmurs, the thunders swell, " I'll give — O God ! are their guns so near ? Ho ! comrades ! — yon volley ! — Look sharp to the rear ! I'll give thy Charlotte thy last farewell ; Sleep soft ! where death thickest descendeth in rain, The friend thou forsakest thy siole may regain !" Hither ward, thitherward reels the fight ; Dark and more darkly day glooms into night, Brothers, God grant when this life is o'er, In the life to come, that we meet once more ! Hark to the hoofs that galloping go ! The adjutants flying — < 348 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. The horsemen press hard on the panting foe, Their thunder booms, in dying — Victory ! Terror has seized on the dastards all, And their colors fall ! Victory ! Closed is the brunt of the glorious fight ! And the day, like a conqueror, burets on the night. Trumpet and fife swelling choral along, The triumph already sweeps marching in song, Farewell, fallen brothers ; though this life be o'er, Therms another, in which ice shall meet you once more ! Translated from Schiller by Bulwer. THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. It was a starry night in June, the air was soft and still, When the minute men from Cambridge came, and gathered on the hill ; Beneath us lay the sleeping town, around us frowned the fleet; But the pulse of freemen, not of slaves, within our bosoms beat; And every heart rose high with hope, as fearlessly we said, " We will be numbered with the free, or numbered with the dead !" " Bring out the line to mark the trench, and stretch it on the sward !" The trench is marked, the tools are brought, we utter not a word, But stack our guns, then fall to work with mattock and with spade, — A thousand men with sinewy arms, and not a sound was made. So still were we, the stars beneath, that scarce a whisper fell ; We heard the red-coat's musket click, and heard him cry, "All's v.- oil!" And here and there a twinkling port, reflected on the deep, In many a wavy shadow showed their sullen guns asleep. Sleep on, ye bloody, hireling crew ! In careless slumber lie ! The trench is growing broad and deep, the breastwork broad* and high. ~No striplings we, but bear the arms that held the French in check, The drum that beat at Louisburg, and thundered in Quebec ! POETICAL EXTRACTS. 349 See how the morn is breaking ! the red is in the sky ; The mist is creeping from the stream that floats in silence by ; The Lively' 's hull looms through the fog, and they our works have spied, For the ruddy flash and round shot part in thunder from her side ; And the Falcon and the Cerberus make every bosom thrill, With gun and shell, and drum and bell, and boatswain's whistle shrill ; But deep and wider grows the trench as spade and mattock ply, For we have to cope with fearful odds, and the time is draw- ing nigh, Up with the pine-tree banner ! Our gallant Prescott stands Amid the plunging shell and shot, and plants it with his hands ; Up with the shout ! for Putnam comes, upon his reeking bay, With bloody spur and foaming bit, in haste to join the fray ; And Pomeroy, with his snow-white hairs, and face all flush and sweat, Unscathed by French and Indian, wears a youthful glory yet. Hark ! from the town a trumpet ! the barges at the wharf Are crowded with the living freight, and now they're- push- ing off; With clash and glitter, trump and drum, in all its bright array, Behold the splendid sacrifice move slowly o'er the bay! And still and still the barges fill, and still across the deep, Like thunder-clouds along the sky, the hostile transports sweep ; And now they're forming at the Point, and now the lines ad- vance ; We see beneath the sultry sun their polished bayonets glance ; We hear a-near the throbbing drum, the bugle challenge ring : — Quick bursts, and loud, the flashing cloud, and rolls from wing to wing. But on the height our bulwark stands, tremendous in its gloom, As sullen as a tropic sky, and silent as a tomb ! And so we waited till we saw, at scarce ten rifles' length, The old vindictive Saxon spite in all its stubborn strength; — When sudden, flash on flash, around the jagged ra-mpan s burst From every gun the livid light, upon the toe accursed ! 350 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. , Then quailed a monarch's might before a free-born people's ire ; — Then drank the sword the veteran's life, where swept the yeoman's fire ; Then, staggered by the shot, we saw their serried columns reel, And fall, as falls the bearded grain beneath the reaper's steel ! And then arose a mighty shout, that might have waked the dead, " Hurrah ! they rdn — the field is won ! Hurrah ! the foe is fled !" And every man has dropped his gun to clutch a neighbor's hand, As his heart kept praying all the time for home and native land. t& Thrice on that day we stood the shock of thrice ten thousand foes, And thrice that day within our lines the shout of victory rose ; And though our swift fire slackened then, and, reddening in the skies, We saw from Charlestown's roofs and walls the flaming col- umns rise, Yet while we had a cartridge left, we still maintained the fight, Nor gained the foe one foot of ground upon that blood-stained height. ., What though for us no laurels bloom, nor o'er the nameless brave No sculptured trophy, scroll, nor hatch, records a warrior's grave ? What though the day to us was lost ? Upon the deathless page The everlasting charter stands, for every land and age ! For man hath broke his felon bonds and cast them in the dust, And claimed his heritage divine, and justified his trust; While through his rifted prison-bars the hues of freedom pour, O'er every nation, race, and clime, on every sea and shore, Such glories as the patriarch viewed, when, 'mid the darkest skies, He saw above the ruined world the bow of promise rise ! Frederick JS. Gozzens. POETICAL EXTRACTS. 351 THE KNIGHT'S TOAST. The feast is o'er ! Now brimming wine In lordly cup is seen to shine Before each eager guest ; And silence fills the crowded hall, As deep as when the herald's call Thrills in the loyal breast. Then up arose the noble host, And smiling cried : " A toast ! a toast ! To all our ladies fair ! Here before all, I pledge the name . Of Staunton's proud and beauteous dame,- The Ladye Gundamere !" Then to his feet each gallant sprung And joyous was the shout that rung, As Stanley gave the word ; And every cup was raised on high, Nor ceased the loud and gladsome cry, Till Stanley's voice was heard. " Enough, enough," he smiling said, And lowly bent his haughty head ; " That all may have their due, Now each in turn, must play his part, And pledge the lady of his heart, Like gallant knight and true !" Then one by one, each guest sprang up, And drained in turn the brimming cup, And named the loved one's name ; And each, as hand on high he raised, His lady's grace or beauty praised, Her constancy and fame. "'Tis now St. Leon's turn to rise ; On him are fixed those countless eyes ; — A gallant knight is he ; Envied by some,jdmired by all, Far famed in lady's bower, and hall, — The flower of chivalry. 352 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. St. Leon raised his kindling eye, And lifts the sparkling cup on high : " I drink to one" he said, " Whose image never may depart, Deep graven on this grateful heart, Till memory be dead. " To one, whose love for me shall last, When lighter passions long have past,— So holy 'tis and true ; To one, whose love hath longer dwelt, More deeply fixed, more keenly felt, Thau any pledged by you." Each guest upstarted, at the word, And laid a hand upon his sword, With fury-flashing eye ; And Stanley said: "We crave the name, Proud knight, of this most peerless dame, Whose love you count so high." St. Leon paused, as if he would Not breathe her name in careless mood, Thus lightly to another; Then bent his noble head, as though To give that word the reverence due, And gently said : " My Mother !" THE LION'S BRIDE. In - myrtle, and bridliiobes, arrayed, The keeper's daughter, a lovely maid, Enters the lion's cage, and he Crouches before her lovingly. So wild and fierce before, he lies And looks up into his mistress' eyes ; The maiden, so gentle and full of grace, Strokes him softly with tearful face. "In the days gone by, my comrade wild, We were true playmates, %jjild and child; We loved each other, and loved to play; — ■ Alas! our childhood has passed away ! POETICAL EXTRACTS. 353 " Before we thought it, thy royal head Was maned and stately and full of dread ; And I, thou seest, have grown apart, No longer a child with a childish heart ! " Ah !. were I a child, and still by thee, Thou playmate strong, and true, and free ! Now I must follow — it is my doom ! — Out among strangers a strange bridegroom. "He saw me once, and thought me fair, And now they have made us a wedded pair! A wreath on the head, old comrade, see ! And eyes that are weeping bitterly ! " Art thou grimly frowning that this should be ? Nay, I am calm ; be calm like me ! Yonder he comes, who my master is : — Old friend, I give thee a farewell kiss !" As from his head her lips she took, The iron bars with his passion shook. He saw the youth on the other side : — Now horror seizes the hapless bride ! For the lion stands sentry at the door, And lashes his sides with terrible roar ; — In vain she will threaten, command or pray, Wrathful and watchful he stops the way ! Without, there are shrieks of confusion and fear; The youth cries " Bring me a weapon here ! I will shoot him down where he stands in the cage!" Loud roars the lion, afoam with rage. One step the maiden nearer brings, Transformed with fury, the Hon springs! — And the form so fair beneath him lies, Bleeding and torn a ghastly prize ! And when he saw the dear blood flow He lay down by the corse in gloomy woe ; From the dead bride he would not part, Till the bridegroom's bullet pierced his heart ! A. Chamisso, translated by B. W. It. 354 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. THE FELON. Oh ! mark hi8 wan and hollow cheeks, and mark his eye-balls glare, And mark his teeth in anguish clenched — the anguish of despair ! Know, three days since, his penance o'er, yon culprit left a jail; And since three days, no food has passed his lips, so parched and pale.. " Where shall I turn ?" the wretch exclaims ; " where hide my shameful head? How fly from scorn, or how contrive to earn my honest bread ? This branded hand would gladly toil ; but when for work I pray, Who views this mark, ' A felon !' cries, and loathing turns away. My heart has greatly erred — but now would fain return to good! My hand has deeply sinned — but yet has ne'er been stained with blood ! For alms, or work, in vain I sue — the scorners both deny ; I starve ! I starve ! Then what remains ? this choice — to sin, or die ! Here, Virtue spurns me with disdain, — there, Pleasure spreads her snare ; Strong habit drives me back to vice ; and, urged by fierce despair, I strive, while hunger gnaws my heart, to fly from shame — in vain ! World! 'tis thy cruel will! — I yield, and plunge in guilt again ! There's mercy in each ray of light that mortal eyes e'er saw; There's mercy in each breath of air that mortal lips e'er draw; There's mercy both for bird and beast in Heaven's indulgent plan ; There's mercy in each creeping thing ; but man has none for man ! POETICAL EXTRACTS. 355 Ye proudly honest ! when you heard my wounded conscience groan, Had generous hand, or feeling heart, one glimpse of mercy shown That act had made, from burning eyes, sweet tears of virtue roll, Had fixed my heart, assured my faith — and heaven had gained a soul !" M. G. Lewis, THE GIFT OF TEITEMITJS. Tritemius of Herbipolis one day, While kneeling at the altar's foot to pray, Alone with God, as was his pious choice, Heard from beneath a miserable voice — A sound that seemed of all sad things to tell, As of a lost soul crying out of hell. Thereat the abbot rose, the chain whereby His thoughts went upward broken by that cry, And, looking from the casement, saw below A wretched woman, with gray hair allow, And withered hands stretched up to him, who cried For alms as one who might not be denied. She cried : " For the dear love of Him who gave His life for ours, my child from bondage save ; — My beautiful, brave first-born chained with slaves In the Moor's galley, where the sun-smit waves Lap the white walls of Tunis !" " What I can I give," Tritemius said — " my prayers." " O man Of God J" she cried, for grief had made her bold, " Mock me not so ; I ask not prayers, but gold ; Words cannot serve me, alms alone suffice ; Even while I plead, perchance my first born dies." " Woman !" Tritemius answered, " from our door None go Unfed ; hence are we always poor. A single soldo is our only store — Thou hast our prayers, what can we give thee more ?" " Give me," she said, " the silver candlesticks On either side of the great crucifix; God well may spare them on His errand sped, Or he can give you golden ones instead." 356 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Then said Tritemius, " Even as thy word, Woman, so be it ; and our gracious Lord, Who loveth mercy more than sacrifice, Pardon me if a human soul I prize Above the gifts upon his altar piled ! Take what thou askest, and redeem thy child." ^ But his hand trembled as the holy alms He laid within the beggar's palms ; And as she vanished down the linden shade, He bowed his head and for forgiveness prayed. So the day passed ; and when the twilight came He rose to find the chapel all aflame, And dumb with grateful wonder to behold Upon the altar candlesticks of gold ! "THEY'RE DEAE FISH TO ME." The farmer's wife sat at the door, A pleasant sight to see ; And blithesome were the wee, wee bairns That played around her knee. When, bending 'neath her heavy creel, A poor fish-wife came by, And, turning from the toilsome road, Unto the door drew nigh. She laid her burden on the green, And spread its scaly store, With trembling hands and pleading words, She told them o'er and o'er. But lightly laughed the young guidwife, " We're no sae scarce o' cheer ; Tak' up your creel, and gang your ways— I'll buy nae fish sae dear." Bending beneath her load again, A weary sight to see ; Right sorely sighed the poor fish-wife, " They're dear fish to me ! POETICAL EXTRACTS. 35? " Our boat was oot ae fearfu' night, And when the storm blew o'er, My husband, and my three brave sons, Lay corpses on the shore. " I've been a wife for thirty years, A childless widow three ; I maun buy them now to sell again — They're dear fish to me !" The farmer's wife turned to the door — What was't upon her cheek ? What was there rising in her breast, That then she scarce could speak ? She thought upon her ain guidman, Her lightsome laddies three ; The woman's words had pierced her heart — "They're dear fish to me!" " Come back," she cried, with quivering voice, And pity's gathering tear ; " Come in, come in, my poor woman, Ye're kindly welcome here. " I kentna o' your aching heart, Your weary lot to dree ; I'll ne'er forget your sad, sad words: " They're dear fish to me !" Ay, let the happy-hearted learn To pause ere they deny The meed of honest toil, and think How much their gold may buy — How much of manhood's wasted strength, What woman's misery — What breaking hearts might swell the cry : " They're dear fish to me !" THE GRASP OF THE DEAD. 'Twas the battle-field, and the cold pale moon Looked down on the dead and dying; And the wind passed o'er with a dirge and a wail, Where the young and brave were lying. 358 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. With his father's sword in his red, right hand, And the hostile dead around him, Lay a youthful chief; but his bed was the ground, And the grave's icy sleep had bound him. Drawn by the shine of the warrior's sword, A soldier paused beside it ; He wrenched the hand with a giant's strength, But the grasp of the dead defied it. He loosed his hold, and his swelling heart Took part with the dead before him ; And he honored the brave who died sword in hand, As with softened brow he leaned o'er him. "A soldier's death thou hast boldly died, A soldier's grave won by it ; Before I would take that sword from thine hand, My own life's blood should dye it. " Thou shalt not be left for the carrion crow, Or the wolf, to batten o'er thee ; Or the coward insult the gallant dead, Who in life had trembled before thee." Then dug he a grave in the crimson earth, Where his warrior-foe was sleeping ; And he laid him there in honor and rest, With his sword in his own brave keeping ! Z, JE. L. {Mrs. Maclean) THE SLAVE'S PETITION. It was an aged man, who stood beside the blue Atlantic sea; They cast his fetters by the flood, and hailed the time-worn captive free ; From his indignant eye there flashed a gleam his better na- ture gave ; And while his tyrants shrank abashed, thus spoke the spirit- stricken slave : "Bring back the chain, whose weight so long these tortured limbs have vainly borne ; The word of freedom from your tongue, my weary ear rejects with scorn ! POETICAL EXTRACTS. 359 'Tis true, there was — there was a time, I sighed, I panted to be free, And pining for my Southern clime, bowed down my stubborn knee. " There I have stretched my yearning arms, and shook in wrath my galley chain, — There, when the magic word had charms, I groaned for lib- erty, in vain ! That freedom ye at length bestow, and bid me bless my envied fate ; Ye tell me I am free to go — where ? I am desolate ! " The boundless hope — the spring of joy, felt when the spirit's strength is young ; "Which slavery only can alloy — the mockeries to which I clung ; The eyes, whose fond and sunny ray made life's dull lamp less dimly burn, The tones I pined for day by day — can ye bid them return ? " Bring back the chain ! — its clanking sound hath now a power beyond your own ; It brings young visions smiling round, too fondly loved — too early flown ! It brings me days when these dim eyes gazed o'er the wild and swelling sea, Counting how many suns must rise ere one might hail me free ! " Bring back the chain ! that I may think 'tis that which weighs my spirit so ; And, gazing on each galling link, dream— as I dreamt — of bitter woe ! My days are gone ; — of hope, of youth, these traces now alone remain — (Hoarded with sorrow's sacred truth) — tears, and my iron chain ! Freedom ! — though doomed in pain to live, the freedom of the soul is mine ; But all of slavery you could give, around my steps must ever twine. ' Raise up the head which age hath bent, renew the hopes that childhood gave, Bid all return kind heaven once lent ; — till then — I am a slave ! Mrs. Norton, 560 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKEE. ORESOENTIUS. I looked upon his brow ; — no sign Of guilt or fear was there ; He stood as proud by that death-shrine, As even o'er despair He had a power; in his eye There was a quenchless energy — A spirit that could dare The deadliest form that death could take, And dare it for the daring's sake. He stood, the fetters on his hand — He raised them haughtily ; And had that grasp been on the brand, It could not wave on high With freer pride than it waved now : Around he looked, with changeless brow, On many a torture nigh — The rack, the chain, the axe, the wheel, And, worst of all, his own red steel! I saw him once before ; he rode Upon a coal-black steed, And tens of thousands thronged the road, And bade their warrior speed. His helm, his breast-plate, were of gold, And graved with many a dent, that told Of many a soldier's deed ; The sun shone on his sparkling mail, And danced his snow-plume in the gale. But now he stood, chained and alone ; The headsman by his side ; The plume, the helm, the charger gone ; The sword that had defied The mightiest, lay broken near ; And yet no sign or sound of fear Came from that lip of pride; And never king or conqueror's brow More higher look, than his did now. He bent beneath the head-man's stroke With an uncovered eye ; POETICAL EXTRACTS. 361 A wild shout from the numbers broke, That thronged to see him die. It was a people's loud acclaim, The voice of anger and of shame — A nation's funeral cry ; — Rome's wail above her only son, Her patriot — and her latest one ! L. E. L. (Mrs. Maclean.) HARMOSAN. Now the third and fatal conflict for the Persian throne was done, And the Moslem's fiery valor had the crowning victory won: Harmosan, the last of foemen, and the boldest to defy, Captive, overborne by numbers, they were bringing forth to die. Then exclaimed that noble Satrap, "Lo, I perish in my thirst ; Give me but one drink of water, and let then arrive the worst." — In his hand he took the goblet, but awhile the draught for- bore, Seeming doubtfully the purpose of the victors to explore. " But what fear'st thou ?" cried the Caliph : " dost thou dread a secret blow? Fear it not ; our gallant Moslems no such treacherous deal- ings know. Thou mayst quench thy thirst securely ; for thou shalt not die before Thou hast drunk that cup of water : this reprieve is thine — no more." Quick the Satrap dashed the goblet down to earth with ready- hand, And the liquid sunk, — forever lost, amid the burning sand : " Thou hast said that mine my life is, till the water of that cup I have drained : — then bid thy servants that spilled water gather up ! 362 THE PATKIOTIC SPEAKER. For a moment stood the Caliph, as by doubtful passions stirred : Then exclaimed, " For ever sacred must remain a Monarch's word. Bring forth another cup and straightway to the noble Persian give : — Drink, I said before, and perish ; — now, I bid thee drink and live !" WAR SONG OF THE GREEK. Awake ! 'tis the terror of war ! The crescent is tossed on the wind ; But our flag flies on high, like the perilous star Of the battle, before and behind, Wherever it glitters, it darts Bright death into tyrannous hearts. Who are they that now bid us be slaves ? They are foes to the good and the free ; Go, bid them first fetter the might of the waves ! The sea may be conquered ; but we Have spirits untameable still And the strength to be free, — and the will ! The Helots are come : In their eyes Proud hate and fierce massacre burn ; They hate us, — but shall they despise ? They are come; shall they ever return? O God of the Greeks ! from thy throne Look down, and we'll conquer alone ! Our fathers, — each man was a god, His will was a law, and the sound Of his voice, like a spirit's, was worshipped : he trod, And thousands fell worshippers round : From the gates of the West to the Sun He bade, and his bidding was done. And we — shall we die in our chains, Who once were as free as the wind ? Who is it that threatens, — who is it arraigns ? Are they princes of Europe or Ind ? Are they kings to the uttermost pole ? They are dogs, with a taint on their soul ! Barry Cornwall* POETICAL EXTRACTS. 863 THE FALL OF D'ASSAS. Alone through gloomy forest shades, a soldier went by night, No moon-beam pierced the dusky glades, no star shed guid- ing light. Yet, on his vigil's midnight round, the youth all cheerly passed ; Unchecked by aught of boding sound, that muttered in the blast. Where were his thoughts that lonely hour ? — In his far home, perchance — His father's hall — his mother's bower, 'midst the gay vines of France. Hush ! hark ! did stealing steps go by ? came not faint whis- pers near ? No ! — the wild wind hath many a sigh, amidst the foliage sere. Hark ! yet again ! — and from his hand, what grasp hath wrenched the blade ? O, single, 'midst a hostile band, young soldier, thou'rt be- trayed ! "Silence!" in under-tones they cry; "No whisper — not a breath ! The sound that warns thy comrades nigh shall sentence thee to death !" Still at the bayonet's point he stood, and strong to meet the blow ; And shouted, 'midst his rushing blood, " Arm ! — arm ! — Au- vergne — the foe !" The stir — the tramp — the bugle-call — he heard their tumults grow; _ And sent his dying voice through all — "Auvergne! Au- vergne ! the foe !" Mrs. Hemans. 364 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. THE DYING SOLDIER. The tumult of battle had ceased — high in air The standard of Britain triumphantly waved; And the remnant of foes had all fled in despair, Whom, nigftt intervening, from slaughter had saved ; When a veteran was seen, by the light of his lamp, Slow-pacing the bounds of the carcass-strown plain, Not base his intent, — for he quitted his camp To comfort the dying, not plunder the slain. Though dauntless in war, at a story of woe Down his age-furrowed cheeks the warm tears often ran; Alike proud to conquer, or spare a brave foe, He fought like a hero ! — but felt like a man ! As he counted the slain, — "Ah, conquest!" he cried, "Thou art glorious, indeed, but how dearly thou'rt won !" " Too dearly, alas !" a voice faintly replied — It thrilled through his heart ! — 'twas the voice of his son ! He listened aghast ! — all was silent again ; He searched by the beams which his lamp feebly shed, And found his brave son amid hundreds of slain, The corse of a comrade supporting his head. " My Henry !" the sorrowful parent exclaimed, " Has fate rudely withered thy laurels so soon ?" The youth oped his eyes, as he heard himself named, And awoke for awhile from his death-boding swoon. He gazed on his father, who knelt by his side, And, seizing his hand, pressed it close to his heart ; "Thank heaven ! thou art here, my dear father !" he cried; "For scon, ah, too soon, we forever must part! "Though death early calls me from all that I love, From glory, from thee, yet perhaps 'twill be given To meet thee again in yon regions above !" His eyes beamed with hope, as he fixed them on heaven. "Then let not thy bosom with vain sorrow swell; Ah ! check, ere it rises, the heart-rending sigh ! I fought for my king — for my country ! — I fell In defence of their rights : and I glory to die !" POETICAL EXTKACTS. 365 ODE FOE INDEPENDENCE. When Freedom, 'midst the battle storm, Her weary head reclined, And round her' fair, majestic form, Oppression fain had 'twined, Amid the din beneath the cloud, Great Washington appeared, With daring hand rolled back the shroud, And thus the sufferer cheered : " Spurn, spurn despair ! be great, be free ! With giant strength arise ; Stretch, stretch thy pinions, Liberty, Thy flag plant in the skies ! Clothe, clothe thyself in Glory's robe, Let stars thy banner gem ; Rule, rule the sea — possess the globe — Wear Victory's diadem ! Go and proclaim a world is born, Another orb gives light ; Another sun illumes the morn, Another star the night ; Be just, be brave ! and let thy name Henceforth Columbia be ; And wear the oaken weath of fame, The wreath of Liberty." He said — and lo ! the stars of night Forth to her banner flew ; And morn, with pencil dipp'd in light, Her blushes on it drew ; Columbia's eagle seized the prize, And, gloriously unfurled, Soared with it to his native skies, And waved it o'er the world. BOADIOEA, When the British warrior-queen, Bleeding from the Roman rods, Sought, with an indignant mien, Counsel of her country's gods, 366 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Sage, beneath a spreading oak, Sat the Druid, hoary chief, Ev'ry burning word he spoke, Full of rage, and full of grief. " Princess, if our aged eyes "Weep upon thy matchless wrongs, 'Tis because resentment ties All the terrors of our tongues. " Rome shall perish ! write that word In the blood that she has spilt ; Perish, hopeless and abhorred, Deep in ruin, as in guilt ! " Rome, for empire far renowned, Tramples on a thousand states ; Soon her pride shall kiss the ground — Hark ! the Gaul is at her gates ! " Other Romans shall arise, Heedless of a soldier's name ; Sounds, not arms, shall win the prize, Harmony the path to fame ! " Then, the progeny that springs From the forests of our land, Arm'd with thunder, clad with wings, Shall a wider world command. " Regions Caesar never knew, Thy posterity shall sway ; Where his eagles never flew, None invincible as they!" Such the bard's prophetic words, Pregnant with celestial fire, Bending as he swept the chords Of his sweet but awful lyre. She, with all a monarch's pride, Felt them in her bosom glow ; Rush'd to battle, fought, and died, — Dying, hurled them on the foe! POETICAL EXTRACTS. 367 " Ruffians ! pitiless as proud, Heav'n awards the vengeance due, Empire is on us bestowed, Shame and ruin wait for you !" Cowper. THE DYING ARCHER. The day has near ended, the light quivers through The leaves of the forest, which bend with the dew ; The flowers bow in beauty, the smooth flowing stream, Its gliding as softly as thoughts in a dream ; The low room is darkened, there breathes not a sound, While friends in their sadness are gathering around ; Now out speaks the Archer, his course well nigh done, " Throw, throw back the lattice, and let in the sun !" The lattice is opened ; and now the blue sky Brings joy to his bosom, and fire to his eye ; There stretches the greenwood, where, year after year, He " chased the wild roe-buck and followed the deer." He gazed upon mountain, and forest, and dell, Then bowed he in sorrow, a silent farewell : " And when we are parted, and when thou art dead, Oh where shall we lay thee ?" his followers said. Then up rose the Archer, and gazed once again On far-reaching mountain, and river, and plain ; " Now bring me my quiver, and tighten my bow, And let the winged arrow my sepulchre show !" Out, out through the lattice, the arrow has passed, And in the far forest has lighted at last, And there shall the hunter in slumber be laid, Where wild-deer are bounding beneath the green shade. His last words are finished ; his spirit has fled, And now lies in silence the form of the dead ; The lamps in the chamber are flickering dim, And sadly the mourners are chaunting their hymn ; And now to the greenwood, and now on the sod, Where lighted the arrow, the mourners have trod ; And thus by the river, where dark forests wave, That noble old Archer hath found him a grave ! B. C. Waterston. 368 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. THE WORLD POR SALE. The world for sale ! Hang out the sign ; Call every traveller here to me : Who'll buy this brave estate of mine, And set this weary spirit free ? 'Tis going ! yes, I mean to fling . The bauble from my soul away ; I'll sell it, whatsoe'er it bring ; The world at auction here to-day ! It is a glorious sight to see, But, ah ! it has deceived me sore ; It is not what it seems to be, For sale ! it shall be mine no more. Come, turn it o'er, and view it well ; I would not have you purchase dear ; 'Tis going ! going ! I must sell ! Who bids ? who'll buy the splendid tear Here's wealth in glittering heaps of gold; Who bids ? But let me tell you fair, A baser lot was never sold ! Who'll buy the heavy heaps of care? And here, spread out in broad domain, A goodly landscape all may trace, Hall, cottage, tree, field, hill and plain ; — Who'll buy himself a burying-place ? Here's love, the dreamy potent spell That beauty flings around the heart ; I know its power, alas ! too well ; 'Tis going ! Love and I must part ! Must part ? What can I more with love ? All over's the enchanter's reign. Who'll buy the plumeless, dying dove, — A breath of bliss, a storm of pain ? And, friendship, rarest gem of earth; Who e'er has found the jewel his? Frail, fickle, false and little worth, Who bids for friendship — as it is? 'Tis going ! going ! hear the call ; Once, twice, and thrice, 'tis very low! 'Twas once my hope, my stay, my all, But now the broken staff must go ! POETICAL EXTRACTS. ' 369 Fame ! hold the brilliant meteor high ; How dazzling every gilded name ! Ye millions ! now's the time to buy, How much for fame? how much for fame? Hear how it thunders ! would you stand On high Olympus, far renowned, Now purchase, and a world command — And be with a world's curses crowned! Sweet star of hope !" with ray to shine In every sad foreboding breast, Save this desponding one of mine, — Who bids for man's last friend and best ? Ah ! were not mine a bankrupt life, This treasure should my soul sustain ! But hope and care are now at strife, Nor ever may unite again. Ambition ! fashion, show and pride, I part from all forever now ; Grief, in an overwhelming tide, Has taught my haughty heart to bow. By death, stern sheriff! all bereft, I weep, yet humbly kiss the rod ; The best of all I still have left, — My faith, my Bible and my God ! O Rev. Ralph Hoyt. [ THE VAGABONDS. We are two travellers, Roger and I, Roger's my dog. — Come here you scamp ! Jump for the gentleman, — mind your eye ! Over the table, — look out for the lamp ! — The rogue is growing a little old ; Five years we've tramped through wind and weather, And slept out doors when nights were cold, And ate and drank — and starved — together. We've learned what comfort is, I tell you ! A bed on the floor, a bit of rosin, A fire to thaw our thumbs, (poor fellow ! The paw he holds up there's been frozen;) Plenty of catgut for my fiddle, (This out-door business is bad for strings,) Then a few nice buckwheats hot from the griddle, And Roger and I set up for kings ! 370 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. No, thank ye, sir, — I never drink ; Roger and I are exceedingly moral, — Are'nt we, Roger ? — See him wink ! — Well, something hot, then, — we won't quarrel. He's thirsty, too, — see him nod his head ? What a pity, sir, that dogs can't talk ! He understands every word that's said, — And he knows good milk from water-and-chalk ! The truth is, sir, now I reflect, I've been so sadly given to grog, I wonder I've not lost the respect, (Here's to you, sir !) even of my dog. But he sticks by, through thick and thin; And this old coat, with its empty pockets, And rags that smell of tobacco and gin, He'll follow while he has eyes in his sockets. There isn't another creature living Would do it, and prove, through every disaster, So fond, so faithful, and so forgiving, To such a miserable, thankless master ! No, sir !— see him wag his tail and grin ! By George ! it makes my old eyes water ! That is, there's something in this gin That chokes a fellow. But no matter! \ f We'll have some music, if you're willing, And Roger here (what a plague a cough is, sir) Shall march a little — Start, you villain ! . Paws up! Eyes front! Salute your officer ! 'Bout face ! Attention ! Take your rifle ! (Some dogs have arms, you see !) Now hold your Cap while the gentlemen give a trifle, To aid a poor old patriot soldier ! March ! Halt ! Now show how the rebel shakes When he stands up to hear his sentence. Now tell us how many drams it takes To honor a jolly new acquaintance ! Five yelps — that's five; he's mighty knowing! The night's before us, fill the glasses! — Quick, sir ! I'm ill, — my brain is going ! — Some brandy, — thank you, — there ! — it passes ! POETICAL EXTRACTS. 371 Why not reform ? That's easily said ; But I've gone through such wretched treatment, Sometimes forgetting the taste of bread, And scarce remembering what meat meant, That my poor stomach's past reform ; And there are times when, mad with thinking, I'd sell out heaven for something warm To prop a horrible inward sinking. Is there a way to forget to think? At your age, sir, home, fortune, friends, A dear girl's love, — but I took to drink ; The same old story; you know how it ends. If you could have seen these classic features, — You needn't laugh, sir ; they were not then Such a burning libel on God's creatures; I was one of your handsome men ! If you had seen her, so fair and young, Whose head was happy on this breast ! If you could have heard the songs I sung When the wine went round, you wouldn't have guessed That ever I, sir, should be straying From door to door with fiddle and dog, Ragged, and penniless, and playing To you to-night for a glass of grog! She's married since, — a parson's wife ; 'Twas better for her that we should part ; — Better the soberest, prosiest life Than a basted home and a broken heart. I have seen her? Once: I was weak and spent On the dusty road : a carriage stopped ; But little she dreamed, as on she went, Who kissed the coin that her fingers dropped ! You've set me talking, sir; I'm sorry; It makes me wild to think of the change ! What do you care for a beggar's story ? Is it amusing? you find it strange? I had a mother so proud of me ! 'Twas well she died before — Do you know If the happy spirits in heaven can see The ruin and wretchedness here below ? 372 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Another glass, and strong, to deaden This pain ; then Roger and I will start. I wonder has he such a lumpish, leaden, Aching thing, in place of a heart? He is sad sometimes, and would weep, if he could, ISTo doubt remembering things that were, — A virtuous kennel, with plenty of food, And himself a sober respectable cur. I'm better now, that glass was warming. — You rascal ! limber your lazy feet ! We must be fiddling and performing For supper and bed, or starve in the street. — Not a very gay life to lead, you think? But soon we shall go where lodgings are. free, And the sleepers need neither victuals nor drink; — The sooner the better for Roger and me. J. T, Trowbridge* THE CUMBEBLAND. At anchor in Hampton Roads we lay, On board of the Cumberland, sloop-of- war; And at times from the fortress across the bay The alarum of drums swept past, Or a bugle blast From the camp on the shore. Then far away to the south uprose A little feather of snow-white smoke, And we knew that the iron ship of our foes Was steadily steering its course, To try the force, Of our ribs of oak. Down upon us heavily runs, Silent and sullen, the floating fort ; Then comes a puff of smoke from her guns, And leaps the terrible death, With fiery breath, From each open port. POETICAL EXTRACTS. We are not idle, but send her straight Defiance back in a full broadside { As hail rebounds from a roof of slate, Rebounds our heavier hail From each iron scale Of the monster's hide. " Strike your flag !" the rebel cries, In his arrogant old plantation strain. " Never !" pur. gallant Morris replies ; " It is better to sink than to yield !" And the whole air pealed With the cheers of the men. Then, like a kraken huge and black, She crushed our ribs in her iron grasp ! Down went the Cumberland all a wrack, With a sudden shudder of death, And the cannon's breath For her dying gasp Next morn, as the sun rose over the bay, Still floated our flag at the mainmast-head. Lord, how beautiful was thy day! Every waft of the air Was a whisper of prayer, Or a dirge for the dead. Ho ! brave hearts that went down in the seas ! Ye are at peace in the troubled stream, Ho ! brave land ! with hearts like these, Thy flag, that is rent in twain, Shall be one again, And without a seam ! — H. W. Longfellow, hout* 1st Horn. Down with Tarquin ! 2d Horn. Well have no Tarquins ! 3d Horn. We will have a Brutus ! 1st Horn. Let's to the Capitol, and shout for Brutus ! Bru. I your king ? Brutus your king ? — No, fellow-citizens ! If mad ambition in this guilty frame Had strung one kingly fibre, — yea, but one — By all the gods, this dagger which I hold Should rip it out, though it entwined my heart. Vol. Then I am with thee, noble, noble Brutus ! Brutus, the new restored ! Brutus, by Sibyl, By Pythian prophetess foretold, shall lead us ! Bru. Now take the body up. Bear it before us To Tarquin's palace ; there we'll light our torches, And, in the blazing conflagration, rear A pile for these chaste relics, that shall send Her soul amongst the stars. On ! Romans, on ! The fool shall set you free ! [Mceunt — the mob shouting.'] 458 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. THE ROMAN FATHEE. - From the Tragedy of Brutus, by J. Howard Payne. Characters : — Brutus, Collatinus, Valerius, Centurion, soldiers AND FOLLOWERS. Scene I. — A street in Borne. Enter Brutus and Collatinus.* the Consuls, with Lictors, Valerius, and numerous followers^ l. JBru. You judge me rightly, friends. The purpled robe, The curule chair, the lictor's keen-edged axe, Rejoice not Brutus ; 'tis his country's freedom ! When once that freedom shall be firmly rooted, Then with redoubled pleasure, will your consul Exchange the splendid miseries of power For the calm comforts of a happy home. Enter a Centurion, r. Cent. Health to Brutus ! Shame and confusion to the foes of Rome ! JBru. Now, without preface, to your business. Cent. As I kept watch at the Quirinal gate, Ere break of day an armed company Burst on the sudden through the barrier guard, Pushing their course for Ardea. Straight alarmed, I wheeled my cohort round, and charged 'em home : Sharp was the conflict for a while, and doubtful, Till, on the seizure of Tarquinia's person, A young Patrician — JBru. Ha ! Patrician ? Cent. Such His dress bespoke him, though to me unknown. JBru. Proceed ! — What more ? Cent. The lady being taken, This youth, the life and leader of the band, His sword high waving in the act to strike, Dropped his uplifted weapon, and at once Yielded himself my prisoner. Oh, Valerius, What have I said, that thus the consul changes ? JBru. Why do you pause ? Go on. Cent. Their leader seized, The- rest surrendered. Him, a settled gloom DIALOGUES, OEIGTNAL AND SELECTED. 459 Possesses wholly, nor, as I believe, Hath a word passed his lips to all my questions Still obstinately shut. Bru. Bring him before us. [Exit Centurion, E. Veil. Oh,my brave friend, horror invades my heart. Bru. Silence — be calm. Veil. I know thy soul A compound of all excellence, and pray The mighty gods to put thee to no trial Beyond a mortal's bearing. Bru. No, they will not — Nay, be secure — they cannot. Pr'ythee, friend, Look out, and if the worst that can befall me Be verified, turn back, and give some sign What thou hast seen. — Thou canst excuse this weakness, Being thyself a father. [ Valerius gives the signJ] Ha ! enough ! I understand thee : — Since it must be so, Do your great pleasure, gods ! Now, now it comes ! Titus brought in, e., gueirded. Tit. My father ! — Give me present death, ye powers ! Gent. What have I done ! — Art thou the son of Brutus ? Tit. No, Brutus scorns to father such a son ! Oh, venerable judge, wilt thou not speak? Turn not away ; hither direct thine eyes, And look upon this sorrow-stricken form, Then to thine own great heart remit my plea, And doom as nature dictates. Veil. Peace, — you'll anger him — Be silent, and await ! Oh, suffering mercy, Plead in a father's heart, and speak for nature ! [Brutus turns away from his son, waves his hand to the Centurion to remove him to ei farther distance, and then wedks forweird emd calls Collatinus down to him, l. Bru. Come hither, Collatinus. The deep wound You suffered in the loss of your Lucretia, Demanded more than fortitude to bear ; I saw your agony — I felt your woe — Col. You more than felt it — you revenged it, too. Bru. But, ah ! my brother consul, your Lucretia Fell nobly, as a Roman spirit should — She fell, a model of transcendent virtue. Col. My mind misgives. What dost thou aim at, Brutus ? 460 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Bru. [Almost overpowered.] That youth — my Titus — was my age's hope — I loved him more than language can express — I thought him born to dignify the world. Col. My heart bleeds for you. — He may yet be saved — Bru. [Firmly.] Consul, — for Rome I live — not for myself: I dare not trust my firmness in this crisis, Warring 'gainst everything my soul holds dear ! Therefore return without me to the Senate — Haply my presence might restrain their justice. Look that these traitors meet their trial straight, — And then despatch a messenger to tell me How the wise fathers have disposed of — Go ! [Exit Collatings. Tit. A word, for pity's sake. Before thy feet, [ To Brutus, Humbled in soul, thy son and prisoner kneels — Love is my plea : a father is my judge ; Nature my advocate ! — I can no more : If these will not appease a parent's heart, Strike through them all, and lodge thy vengeance here ! Bru. Break off! I will not, cannot hear thee further! The affliction nature hath imposed on Brutus, Brutus will suffer as he may. — Enough That we enlarge Tarquinia. Go, be free ! Centurion, give her conduct out of Rome ! Lictors, secure your prisoner. Point your axes. To the Senate — On ! [Exeunt Titus and Guards, l. Bru. [Alone.] Like a lost, guilty wretch I look around And start at every footstep, lest it bring The fatal news of my poor son's conviction ! Oh ! Rome, thou little know'st — No more — It comes ! Enter Valerius, l. Val. My friend, the Senate have to thee transferred The right of judgment on thy son's offence. Bru. To the! Val. To thee alone. Bru. What of the rest ? Val. Their sentence is already passed. E'en now, perhaps, the lictor's dreaded hand Cuts off their forfeit lives. Bru. Say'st thou, that the Senate have to me referred The fate of Titus? Val. Such is their sovereign will. They think you merit this distinguished honor. DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 461 A father's grief deserves to be revered : Rome will approve whatever you decree. Bru. And is his guilt established beyond doubt ? Val. Too clearly. Bru. [ With a burst of tears.] Oh, ye gods ! ye gods ! [ Collecting himself.] Valerius ! Val. What would'st thou, noble Roman ? Bru. 'Tis said thou hast pulled down thine house, Valerius, The stately pile that with such cost was reared. Val. I have ; but what doth Brutus then infer ? Bru. It was a goodly structure : I remember How fondly you surveyed its rising grandeur. — With what a— fatherly — delight you summoned Each grace and ornament, that might enrich The — child — of your creation, — till it swelled To an imperial size, and overpeered The petty citizens, that humbly dwelt Under its lofty walls, in huts and hovels, Like emmets at the foot of tow'ring -ZEtna : Then, noble Roman, then with patriot zeal, Dear as it was, and valued, you condemned And levelled the proud pile ; and, in return, Were by your grateful countrymen surnamed And shall to all posterity descend, — Poplicola. Val. Yes, Brutus, I conceive The awful aim and drift of thy discourse — But I conjure thee, pause ! Thou art a father. Bru. I am a Roman consul ! — What, my friend, Shall no one but Valerius love his country Dearer than house, or property, or children ? Now, follow rae ; — and, in the face of Heaven, I'll mount the judgment seat : there, see if Brutus Feel not for Rome as warmly as Poplicola. \JEheunt, r. Scene II. — Exterior of the Temple of Mars. — Senators, Citizens, Collatinus and Lucretius, discovered. At l. of Stage, a Tribunal, with a Consular Chair upon it. Brutus enters, r., followed by Valerius — he bows as he passes, and ascends the Tribunal. Bru. Romans, the blood which hath been shed this day Hath been shed wisely. Traitors, who conspire Against mature societies, may urge Their acts as bold and daring ; and though villains, Yet they are manly villains — But to stab 462 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. The cradled innocent, as these have done, — To strike their country in the mother-pangs Of struggling child-birth, and direct the dagger To freedom's infant throat, — is a deed so black, That my foiled tongue refuses it a name. There is one criminal still left for judgment — Let him approach. [Titus is brought in by the lictors, with their axes turned edgewise towards him. Pris-on-er. — [The voice of Urutus falters, and is choked, and he exclaims, with violent emotion,] Romans, forgive this agony of grief — My heart is bursting! — nature must have way — I will perform all that a Roman should ; — I cannot feel less than a father ought ! [He becomes more calm, gives a signal to the lictors to fall bach, and advances from the judgment-seat to the front of the stage, on a line vrith his son. Well, Titus, speak — how is it with thee now ? Tell me, my son, art thou prepared to die ? Tit. Father, I call the powers of heaven to witness ^ Titus dares die, if so you have decreed. The gods will have it so ? JBru. They will, my Titus : Nor heaven, nor earth, can have it otherwise. It seems as if thy fate were pre-ordained To fix the reeling spirits of the people, And settle the loose liberties of Rome. 'Tis fixed ; — oh, therefore, let not fancy cheat thee ! So fixed thy death that 'tis not in the power Of mortal man to save thee from the axe. Tit, The axe !— O Heaven !— Then must I fall so basely? What, shall I perish like a common felon ? JBru. How else do traitors suffer ? — Nay, Titus, more — I must myself ascend yon sad tribunal, And there behold thee meet this shame of death, With all thy hopes, and all thy youth upon thee, — See thy head taken by the common axe, — All, — if the gods can hold me to my purpose, — Without one groan, without one pitying tear. [Turns, as if in agony. Tit. Die like a felon ? — Ha ! a common felon ! — But I deserve it all : — yet here I fail : — This ignominy quite unmans me ! Oh, Brutus, Brutus ! Must I call you father, [Kneels. DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 463 Yet have no token of your tenderness, !N"o sign of mercy ? ISTot even leave to fall As noble Romans fall, by my own sword ? Father, why should you make my heart suspect That all your late compassion was dissembled ? How can I think that you did ever love me ? Bru. Think that I love thee by my present passion, By these unmanly tears, these earthquakes here, These sighs that strain the very strings of life, — Let these convince you that no other cause Could force a father thus to wrong his nature. Tit. Oh, hold, thou violated majesty ; [JRises. I now submit with calmness to my fate. Come forth, ye executioners of justice — • Come, take my life, — and give it to my country ! Bru. Embrace thy wretched father. May the gods Arm thee with patience in this awful hour. The sovereign magistrate of injured Rome Condemns A crime, thy father's bleeding heart forgives. Go — meet thy death with a more manly courage Than grief now suffers me to show in parting; And, while she punishes, let Rome admire thee ! Farewell ! Eternally farewell ! — Tit. Oh, Brutus I Oh, my father ! — Bru. What would'st thou say, my son ? Tit. Farewell, forever ! Bru. Forever ! \Re-ascends the Tribunal. Lictors, attend ! — conduct your pris'ner forth ! Vol. [Bap idly and anxiously.] Whither ? \^ill the characters bend forward in great anxiety. Bru. To death ! — [ All start.] When you do reach the spot, My hand shall wave your signal for the act, Then let the trumpet's sound proclaim it done ! [Titus is conducted out by the lictors, e. — A dead march, — which gradually dies away as it becomes ( more distant. Brutus remains seated in a. melan- choly posture on the Tribunal. Poor youth, thy pilgrimage is at an end ! A few sad steps have brought thee to the brink Of that tremendous precipice, whose depth No thought of man can fathom. Justice now Demands her victim ! A little moment And I am childless. — One effort, and 'tis past ! 464 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. [He rises, in agitation, and waves his hand, then drops into his seat, and shrouds his face with his toga. Three sounds of the trumpet are heard, all the charac- ters assume attitudes of deep misery. Brutus starts up wildly, comes forward in extreme agitation, looks out for an instant on the side by which Titus de- parted, and then, with a hysterical burst, exclaims,] Justice is satisfied, and Rome is free ! [Brutus falls. The characters group around him."] BEFORE AND AFTER THE BATTLE OF SHEEP'S RUN.* Characters :— Maj.-Gen. Fogey, Colonel Feathers, Capt. Punkin, Lieut. Wait, Corporal Blunt, Private Gore. Col. F. Little did I think, when I accepted the office of Colonel in the militia, that I should ever be called into action. Who'd ever a thought that this ere confounded rebellion would* broke out, after all we've done in Puddletown to- wards compromisin' and soothin' our Southern brethren? And who'd a thought that the regiment in our county would 'a up and offered their service to the government, right away- after my great speech on the Dangers of Abolishun and the Blessings of Peace ? Well, I was obleeged to ''bout face, and go into it — and here I am camped out on the upper waters of the Squabosh, and expecting every day to be attacked by the Arkansas chivalry, who are the born lords of creation, and will whip us as a matter of course. I wish I was well out of this scrape, and safe at home among my cabbages. Fortunately my men haven't any suspicion yet of the state of my nerves.' They think I'm as brave as Julius Caesar. Let me see if I'm perfect in my speech to 'em ; it '11 never do to break down on that ! [Takes out a manuscript and recites from it.] " Fellow-sojers ! descendants of the Revolution and the Mexikin war ! The foot of the invaded is on our sile ! Or our foot is on the invader's sile, which amounts to pretty much the same. Our glorious Kedentry has been split into * Founded on two dialogues in Mr. Epes Sargent's excellent volume " Original Dialogues." \ DIALOGUES, OKIGINAL AND SELECTED. 465 fcw.enfy thousand fragments, and the American eagle calls on all her young, in tones of pathos, to take up arms, 'and pre- ventuate the dangers that threatens it. The perfiduous foe has already crossed the Squawbosset creek on a spontoon saw-log, and will ye quail ? I don't see it ! Sojers ! the eyes of the world are on you ; the bar-stangled flag-staff waves over you ; forward, then, to battle — to victory — and to lib- erty !" There ! that's not so bad, I take it. I must despatch it, this very day, to my old friend of the Puddletown Clarion of Freedom. A good sojer allays looks out afTer " a fire in the rear," — and we mustn't forgit the fountings of public opinion to hum. And re'ly, I don't know but I might venter to tight just a little ; I don't believe the danger is so awful much ; if I could onlj^ ■ Ah ! here comes that ere pusillanimous Captain Punkin .! He's wuss than I am. He's in a chronic shiver every minute, that chap ! It's enough to give a feller the ager, to look at him ! [Miter Captain" Punkin.] Capt. P. I say, Colonel, d-do you think there's any danger of their comin' ? Col. F Danger ? Of course, there's danger ! What do you s'pose we come for ? Are the scouts in yet ? Capt. P. Not yet. We're expectin' 'em every minute. Colonel, I believe you've never been in action ? Col. F. jSTo, sir ; but my grandfather was one of our coun- try's brave defenders ; — he was in the great Whisky Rebel- lion. Capt. P. Ah — yes ! But if I don't disremember, he didn't serve under government. Col. F. Ahem ! a — well, to be sure, he — rather — served under Shay ; but then it showed he had the spirit in him — and it is to this great ancestral fact, sir, that I probably owe my present exalted position, and equivocal prospects — ahem ! [ With importance.] Capt. P. {Approaching doubtfully.'] Colonel, I — a — be- lieve it isn't expected of the officers in a battle, to — to expose themselves like the common soldiers ; is it ? Col. F. Well, Captain, as everything depends on the safety of the commanding officer, it is customary for the Colonel to keep out of danger as fur as he kin ; but captains always hev to lead an attack, at the head of "their companies. Capt. P. Is th-th-that always expected ? Col. F. That's the invariable rule, Captain Punkin. You must keep in advance of your men, drawin' your sword and 4G6 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. wavin' it on high, and encouragin' on 'em all you kin, by hol- lerin', " Foller your Capting to glory or the grave," and sich things. Gapt. P. Oh yes, — I see — of course ; but — Colonel, I'm not a proud man. There are several tall fellows in my company I would be willin' to resign my place to. There are other positions to which I think my talents better adapted — such now, for instance, as bearer of despatches home, after the victory I Col. F. I'm perfectly satisfied with you, Captain Punkin, and couldn't think of dispensing with your valuable services. All that you've got to do, as I tell you, is to be constantly in advance, keep your sword waving, and, when you're shot down, cry out : " Victory ! On ! on ! don't mind me, my brave fellows !" • Gapt. P. Oh ! that's all, is it ? [A sharp roll of the drum is heard. The Colonel and Captain both start, and tremblingly take hold of each other.'] Col. F. Eh ? What's that ? I wish they wouldn't make that thing go in that sudden, unexpected sort of way ! Gapt. P. That's the d-diddy-drum, I guess. Col. F. It sounded like a drum. Gapt. P. I wonder wh-what 'twas for ! [Enter Corporal Blunt.] Corp. The scouts are in, Colonel, and report that a body of the enemy, one thousand strong, are advancing, and must now be within a mile and a half of our outposts. Col. F. So near ? I think we'd better retreat. Corp. Retreat, Colonel ? What for ?. We are one to two, and that's about fair odds, seeing we're Yankees ! Gapt. P. The Colonel knows b-b-best what ought to be done. Corp. Why, Captain, you look kind of pale. Col. F. The Captain's always pale when he's excited. [Taking the Corporal aside.'] An awful fellow in a fight, that Captain Punkin ! The bloodiest-minded man-slayer I ever led into action. Corp. He doesn't shoio it. His teeth chatter as if he was scared. Col. F. Nothing but nervous excitement ! Jest wait till he gits a smell of the enemy. Then the raal tiger grit will bust out, and you'll find you can't hold him in. [Another sudden roll of the drum.] DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 467 Capt. P. [Starting.'] Good gracious ! what's all that for ? Col. F Corporal, I wish that drummer wouldn't do it quite so sudden ; it kind o' starts a feller. [Miter Private Gore.] Gore. The enemy are not a mile off! We want to be at 'em, Colonel. Any objection to our taking post on the next hill ? The boys say they can't hold in any longer. They'll jump out of their boots, if you don't give the word soon. Col. F. They can't hold in, eh ? Here's insubordination ! Tell 'em I'll have 'em all court-martialled and shot, if they don't obey my orders. They're to wait till I give the word. D'ye hear ? Gore. Ay, ay, Colonel. [Aside to Corporal.] I see how it is ! The old butcher wants to manage it so that not one of them bloody rebels shall escape to tell the tale. Corp. Yes, that's it. He means to retreat a little, and draw 'em further on, and then surround 'em and cut 'em to pieces. Oh ! he's a terrible feller ! Gore. Just like him ! [Exeunt Corp. and Gore. Col. F. Now, Cap ting, rouse up ! You're in for it, and there's no escape. The sojers have orders to shoot any one that runs from the field. It would be awk'ard for them to make the first example of you. Capt. P. But, Colonel, my knees are so shaky that I can hardly put one leg before the other. I'm not fit for my post. I own it. I'm willing to resign. Col. F. It can't be, Captain Punkin ! You must make the best of it now. Ef there's one thing I lot on, and toill hev in the officers, it is bravery. Take this speech and read it to the men. I'm rather hoarse, or I'd deliver it myself. But there's nuthin' mean about me ; and I'm willin' you should have the honor. Now, cheer up, Captain ! Only think of ' the glory of fallin' in your country's cause ! Think of the splendid funeral we shall give you ! There's no end to the rounds we shall fire over your grave. Capt. P. You're very good, Colouel Feathers, but I'm not ambitious. If I'm sh-sh-shot, I shan't care much about the glory. Col. F. Now, remember my orders, Capting. You're to place yourself at the head of your men ; and, the minute the inimy are within rifle-shot, you're to give the order to fire. You then re-load, and make a dash at 'em with bayonets and loaded pieces. • Capt. P. But what if I should 4 want to order a retreat, Colonel ? 468 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Col. F. Well, if you find you're likely to be overpowered, and that a retreat is the next best thing, you must draw off your men in an orderly manner. Lead them through that ere cow-pasture, into the ten-acre lot yonder [pointing] ; and then on to the dike over the marsh that leads into old Secesh Grumbleberry's pine woods. Kin ye remember ? Capt. P. No fear of my forgitting that part of your in- ■ structions, Colonel. Col. F. Well, then, everything depends on you. I'll take my spy-glass onto the top of that mounting, wljere I can superintend the battle. Good-bye, Capting ! " Go where glory waits ye !" [Exit, in haste. C'apt. P. [ Calling after him.] Colonel ! Colonel Feathers ! One word more ! Gone ? And all the responsibility left to me ! What on earth shall I do ? [Drum.] There it goes again ! O dear ! I feel powerful faint already ; what shall I be when the enemy comes in sight. What's this thing he's given me to spout to the sojers ? Perhaps it will give me a little heart. [Looks at manuscript, and begins to read to himself, gesticulating. ] Enter Corporal Blunt and Private Gore. Corp. [to Gore.] Yes, I was in the wrong. I see he's game to the back-bone. Who'd 'a thought it ? Amusin' him- self in that way, just on the brink of a battle! Wa'al, it's a pity we aint a-goin' to hev any fight after all. Capt. P. [Aside and without turning.] What is that I hear ? Gore. Yes, the Colonel will be awfully disappointed to find it turned out to be a false alarm. Capt. P. [Aside.] A false alarm ? Corp. I don't believe there's a rebel within twenty miles. Capt. P. Upon my word, how much better I feel ! Core. The boys mustered well, though. Capt. P. [Drawing his sword, flourishing it, and wholly changing his manner^] Now, my lads, it's time to be at them I [Goes to the side,shouting.] " Feller-sojers ! Descendants of the Revolution and the Mexikin War ! — Corp. It's no use, Captain, our fun is all spoiled. Capt. P. What's the matter ? Corp. It's all a false alarm. There are no rebels any where near us. Capt. P. [Indignantly.] No rebels ? No enemy ? Do th§ miscreants dare to trifle with us ! Thunder and light- ning ! sir, there must be an enemy ! Blood must flow some- where ; is there nobody we can fight ? DIALOGUES, OEIGINAL AND SELECTED. 469 Corp. The men are quite as mad as you are, Captain ; but there's no help for it. Enter Col. Feathers hastily. Col. F. Captain Punkin, dismiss your men. Captain, your hand. [Grasps his hand and shakes it heartily^] Your eagerness and courage, in answering your country's call, are worthy of the highest praise. Corporal, your good conduct shall be reported. Private Gore, the men have acted nobly. [Exit Goee, Capt. P. [Shouting .] Silence in the ranks-! Forward — Drum beats violently; he staggers bade. Col. F. Confound that drummer ! Enter Goee, rushing in. Gore. Colonel, the enemy are upon us ! The pickets are driven in, and a force one thousand strong are just in sight on the south road. Col. F. Captain Punkin, form your men in order of battle ! Every man to his post ! I shall repair to mine, without a moment's delay. Capt. P. [Who has bee?i standing petrified!] M-m-march! [Retiring drum.] Scene II. — After the Battle. Enter Capt. Punkin and Lieut. Wait meeting. Capt. P. My dear Wait, how are you ? Never was face of friend more welcome. [Shakes ha?ids.] Have you any idea what they are going to do with me ? Wait. Why, Punkin, my boy, what's the matter with you ? Tour hand trembles like an aspen leaf. Capt. P. Why, don't you know, Major-General Fogy, the Commander-in-Chief of the Department, has sent for me? What do you think will come of it ? I am prepared — no, unprepared — for the worst. Wait. Well, probably it has some reference to the battle of yesterday, at which you are said to have behaved so well Perhaps the General wants to thank you for your gallantry. Capt. P. My gallantry ! Oh come, now ! Stop that ! But tell me frankly, my dear fellow ; will it be a hanging or a shootin? matter, eh ? [Anxiously!] Wait. Why, what under heaven are you talking about ? What " matter," man? Capt. P. Why, my — a — indisposition; my — ahem — my 470 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. sudden absquatulation at the beginning of the action. Couldn't I get my punishment commuted to something or other " for life ?" Wait. I haven't heard the first word against your conduct ; but, on the contrary, everything in your praise. What was it ? Explain. Capt. P. Oh dear ! oh dear ! What a fool I was to volunteer ! I might have known I was a — hem ! I hadn't been a week down here among these confounded woods and marshes, with seceshers popping off pickets every few nights and daily prospects of a muss, before I found out I was a — well, I may as well out with it — a coward, there ! Wait. Why didn't you resign ? At best, soldiering is a poor business. Look at me, a graduate of West Point and ten years in the service — years spent amidst privations in the wilderness and fights with the Indians and nothing but a poor lieutenant yet. Capt. P. Well now, my good fellow, don't interrupt me with that nonsense. I couldn't resign ; I was going to run for the legislature in the spring ; don't you see I could not resign ? Well, when the battle was sprung on us all of a sudden, yesterday, and I found myself at the head of the troops, in a very exposed situation, and the balls began to rattle round me, I just resolved to — to — to run away, you know. But the enemy began immediately to retreat, and I took heart again. We followed on at a double-quick, for about a half-a-mile, when they turned and made a stand, and commence*d pouring in the bullets among us like hail. I was just well-nigh scared out of my wits ; but I did not dare to run, for fear of my own men. But presently a chap was knocked over, right at my side, and that started me. I broke for a belt of trees on a little knoll not far from the road, which promised shelter — yelling with terror, as I went. A party of fellows sprang after me, with bayonets at full charge, howling like so many wolves, trying to run me down. Driven to desperation,! glared at 'em over my shoulder, and screamed frantically " Follow me, and I'll be the death of you !" and then rushed on, up the knoll, waving my sword and bellow- ing like a madman. We had almost reached the copse, when three or four cannon shot blazed out of it — passing clear over the heads of the party. But it was too late to stop, and I leaped wildly over the mound which had been hidden by the underbrush and found myself among a parcel of chaps not uniformed like our folks, (who looked as much scared as I did,) and sank fainting to the ground. When I came to my senses, I found myself in comfortable DIALOGUES, OKIGINAL AND SELECTED. 471 quarters with the surgeon at my side. Some fellow — I don't know whether one of our folks or a rebel — had given me a bayonet thrust in the shoulder ; but it don't amount to much. And I don't care much either, that the whole regiment wit- nessed my flight and chased me — but oh, this court-martial business ! That makes my blood run cold again ! Wait. Hark ! I hear the General coming. Capt. P. Oh good gracious ! Now for it. Stand by me, Wait ! I say — if he gives me my choice between being hung and being shot, which would you take ? Wait. Well, shooting is the most military. Capt. P. Then I'll choose hanging. > Wait. Hush ! the General is here. Enter Maj.-Gen. Fogy and Staff. Gen. Fogy. Captain Punkin, your hand ! [Shakes ha?ids.] Gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you the hero of Sheep's Run ! [The officers boio.] Yes, gentlemen, I do not hesitate to declare that, but for the amazing gallantry of Captain Punkin, in carrying the masked battery, into range of which our men had been led by the stratagem of the enemy — but for the desperate valor which led him up that hill into the very teeth of their cannon, cheering on his troops by the most inspiring shouts, and performing prodigies with his sin- gle arm — but for that brilliant and sagacious achievement, undertaken on his own responsibility, and carried out by his own individual daring and exposure — the Battle of Sheep's Run would have been to us an occasion of disaster and de- feat, instead of triumph. [Applause from Wait and the officers.'] Capt. P. I say, Wait; what does it all mean? Is he gassing me ? [Aside to Wait.] Wait. Certainly not. Old Fogy never " gasses." You're a mighty lucky fellow. Say something in reply. Capt. P. [To the General.'] Old Fogy — excuse me — that is, I mean General Fogy — I — you — he — we — that is — Gen. F. Captain Punkin, I see your embarrassment ; and it is as becoming, sir, as your valor. Modesty is ever the companion of true merit. Capt. P. Really, old Fo — I mean General, General Fogy, I —upon my word, — I — in short — the American eagle — the American eagle I say — long may she wave. — [Gesticulates without speaking.] Gen. F Captain Punkin, it is not every man who can talk as well as act. We excuse, nay, admire your diffidence. And yet, at the proper time, you do not fail, even in speech. 472 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Gentlemen, what do you suppose were the immortal words with which he kindled the enthusiasm of his soldiers at the decisive moment ? " Follow me," said he ; "follow me and I will be the death of you !" Capt. P. Oh, good gracious ! stand by me, Wait, or I shall sink. Gen. F Sublime, heroic exclamation ! " Follow me, and I will be the death of you !" An exclamation, gentlemen, which placed death — death in the cause of our country — fore- most, as the impelling motive to a brave action. Nobly did our gallant troops respond to the intrepid call. Nobly did they follow their devoted leader up that ascent, and against that terrible battery, till, faint and wounded, he sank on the ground in the very embrace of victory. [All applaud by dapping their hands.] Capt. P. I can't stand it any longer, "Wait ; I'm in a cold sweat all over ! Gen. F. I see it pains you, Captain Punkin, to have your own praises sounded. Your grateful country, sir, will com- pel you to hear far more than I can offer. It is now my unspeakable pleasure to inform you that the President of the United States, as the organ of your country, with that keen- sighted discrimination which has ever so eminently distin- guished him, both in the making and unmaking — the appoint- ment and removal of officers, has directed me, by telegraph, to promote you to the rank of Brigadier General. Your wound entitles you to a furlough of six months ; you will proceed immediately to Washington, and there receive your commission as bearer of dispatches. I have the honor, Gene- ral Punkin, to wish you a very good day. [Shakes hands with P., as also do the officers of his staffs who bow pro- foundly, and go out.] Gen. P. [Looking comically at Wait.] I say, Wait, what do you think of that ? Wait. [Bursts out laughing^] Ha ! ha ! ha ! this is one of the fortunes of war, sure enough ! You expected eleva- tion, but not exactly of this kind, eh ? Gen. P. Certainly not ; — rather more after this fashion. [Making a sign with his finger to his neck, to indicate hang- ing.] But I say, that legislature business is rather a sure thing, is'nt it ! Wait. Sure as the crack of doom ! And upon my word, Punkin, I think you deserve your laurels as well as half of the Brigadiers. Long may you live to wear them ! Gen. P. Oh, trust me for that ! And, Wait, my boy, you DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 473 shan't be neglected any longer. I shall place you, with the rank of Colonel, on my staff. Wait. Thank you, my dear fellow ! I couldn't have a safer place. You won't think of going into action again ? Gen. P. Not I. Trust me for that ! I'll soon manage to pick a political quarrel with the administration, and then they'll lay me on the shelf with a few score of others, and forget all about me. Wait. Well, General, you may succeed, but it takes a pretty smart man to get laid on the shelf! [They go out as they tailed] HUSH! OE, THE GRAND MASTEE OF THE K. G. 0. Characters. — Doddlewobble, a conservative, non-committal old bachelor ; Dingbatter, his patriotic partner ; Caesar, an " intelli- gent contraband ;" Walter, nephew and clerk to Doddlewobble ; Blimber, Fudgit, Racket, comrades and accomplices of Walter. Scene I. [An apartment in Mr. Doddlewobble' s house. Side doors r. and l. Two hi back. Mr. D. discovered reading the paper at a table set out for breakfast. Dodd. Was ever a man in such a terrible stew as I ? A quiet bachelor for fifty-five years, with nothing to move me from the even tenor of my way, and at this late day to be so fearfully shaken up and disarranged by this " cruel war." It is'nt so much that the house of Doddlewobble & Dingbat- ter lost fifty thousand dollars by their Southern connections, though that is bad enough, but the confusion and doubt and difficulty that still exists about every body and every thing, is enough to drive one crazy. There's my nephew, Walter, a poor clerk in my store, has gone and enlisted in the 14th Volunteers, and now wants to marry my rich ward, Clara, before he is off to the war ; and Clara wants to marry him ; and my old partner, Dingbatter, who has gone stark, staring mad, with what he calls patriotism, wants him to have her. It seems to me everybody is standing on his head. And gold at 157, and exchange according — and radicalism rampant, and the whole country swimming on a sea of greenbacks — good Heavens ! what will come of it all ; and which way shall a man turn for a quiet life ? The very newspapers conspire to increase this confusion. 'Now, just see here ! Dispatch in the Herald : "The enemy 474 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. fled before our advancing troops without firing a gun." Now that's well enough. I've not the slightest objection to any number of enemies flying any number of times before any quantity of guns are fired. If that's their peculiar way of enjoying themselves, let them enjoy themselves in their pecu- liar way in Heaven's name. But what do you think of this? Dispatch in the Times : " Our troops fled before the advan- cing enemy without firing a gun !" Hang it, it can't be both, you know. It's perfectly distracting ! But only look at this ft-om the columns of a single paper. [Takes up Tribune.'] Urn ! N. Y. Tribune. [Reads.] " General Banks is advancing." " Gen. Banks is retreating." " Gen. Banks will not advance." " Gen. Banks has ad- vanced." " Gen. Banks was killed in a skirmish last Mon- day." " Gen. Banks dined with the Commander-in-Chief on Tuesday." " Gen. Banks' body will be sent heme on Wednes- day." Gen. Banks made a reconnoissance of the enemy's lines on Thursday." [Throwing down the paper, and rising angrily^] It's too much ! I cannot survive it. If I should drop down this minute, the coroner's verdict would be, "Died of our War Correspondent ;'' and I do believe they would charitably add, " We further think the deceased was of an unsound mind, as he was known to be in the habit of reading the daily papers." Oh ! my poor head ; my poor head ! [Enter C^eSxYr 2 e., r.] Ccesar. Ready for your breakfast, sah ? Dodd. [Mimicking I\ Ready for my breakfast, sah ? No, sah ; I shall never be ready for my breakfast, again, you black rascal ! Ccesar. Hi ! hi ! take care dar ! take care ! musn't do dat ! Times is changed, sah ; and niggers is ris. You musn't treat 'em ondisspectful. Massa Doddlewobble, did you ebber hear of de impendin' crisis ? Dodd. Impending crisis ! I've heard of nothing else for the last thirty years. Ccesar. Well, den, it am finally impended ; and de niggers is de crisis. Well, dey is. Dis chile's one o' de crisises. Yah ! yah ! [Laughs.] Lor ! Massa Doddlewobble, dis yer war aint 'bout none o' yer white trash ; it's 'bout de niggers. De niggers am de war and de crisis bofe. Dodd. How dare you stand there and talk in that way ! Ccesar. [Grinning.] Kase niggers is de war. Dodd. I say, how dare you talk in that manner to me, you imp of darkness ? DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 4*75 Ccesar. [Grinning.'] Kase niggers is de crisis. Dodd. Don't you know that I never permit myself to ex- press an opinion, nor even to have an opinion on politics? What do you mean by talking politics to me f Ccesar. [Drawing himself tip consequentially^ Tell you what 'tis, Massa Doddlewobble, de time am 'proaching, and am pretty much 'proached, when de 'portant political hypote- cation of de colored population, must 'tract de consideration of the people o' dis yer nation — and dere aint no use tearin' your shirt 'bout it. Massa Phillips says dey's on'y jes' two indiwids dat can settle dis mus, one's de Lord, and tudder's de nigger. Dat's me; Ise de tudder. And when dis yer cruel war is over, and de fat offices is handed ronn' in dese United States, dis chile is ready to surfer fur his country. Dodd. United States! You'd better wait till they are united ! Ccesar. Well, dey's a-gwine to be ; you kin bet high on pat ! And den dis nig' goes in far de sufferin's of de people. Oh ! Ise sound on de goose. Ise a Democrat Radical Re- publican Union Unconditional Contraban', dat's jist what I is ; and you needn't be s'prised if you see a pretty brack nigger in de White House, some day. , Dodd. Well, if this isn't the very climax of impudence ! Get out, you son of midnight, and bring up the breakfast; and hark you, if you ever speak a word of politics to me again, I'll break every bone in your ngly skin ! Ccesar. Well, I guess not, Massa. We aint 'mong de seceshers now, you know. Aint I a man and a bother? Yah ! yah ! yah ! [Exit, grinning. Dodd. A man and a bother! Yes, indeed; the impudent rascal ! There's another of the blessings of this revolutionary era. Nothing now, anywhere, but niggers. Niggers in the kitchen, niggers in the parlor ; niggers in the car, niggers in the pew; niggers in the army, niggers in the navy; free niggers, runaway niggers, contraband niggers; big niggers, little niggers, and niggers in the transition state, tadpole niggers ! Go where you will, you stumble over some sort of nigger. And then all our comfortable little prejudices must be given up — one man as good as another, forsooth ! Yes, a confounded sight better, I think. But here comes another of my plagues, that patriotic old numskull, Dingbatter. Enter Me. Dingbatter, l. * Ding. Ah ! good morning Mr. Doddlewobble, at your usual morning recreation — reading and cursing the news- papers — I see. What is the news to-day? 476 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Dodd. All sorts of news, Mr. Dingbatter. You pay your money, and you take your choice. What will you have, a victory or a defeat ? There's the " Morning Blower, only two cents. Total annihilation of the Federal army by a hose- pipe." If that don't please you, turn to another column, and you have the complete destruction of the Secession forces by a proclamation of Gen. Butler, or a leading article of the New York Tribune. Whew! {Excitedly ^\ .On to Rich- mond ! On to Atlanta ! On to Charleston ! Hurra ! On to anywhere and anybody ! All for two cents ! Ding. Good gracious, Doddle wobble ! how can you treat serious subjects with such levity? Dodd. Serious, sir ! Serious be hanged ! I don't believe in it, sir. It's a humbug, sir ! Blow me if I believe there is any war, any army, any navy — any anything but fanaticism, shoddy factories, and an inflated currency. By George! it wouldn't surprise me if the whole thing was got up — got up, sir, for purposes of stock-jobbing and speculation in gold ! Ding. Ah, sir ! you may be sure that we are living in very serious, but in very glorious times. The whole country is undergoing revolution, and, I doubt not, for the better. For my own part, I only wish that I was a little younger — or that rheumatism and asthma were a little less tyrannical, and even as I am, I would go forth to the field, strike one hearty blow at my country's enemies, and bring back my old soul full of glory. Dodd. TJgh! You'd bring back your old carcass full of holes, more likely. Ding. Well, I suppose you have heard that that noble young man, your nephew, is off to the war? Dodd. Yes, indeed, Mr. Dingbatter, and I'm glad of it. For once I am unaffectedly charmed with a warlike spirit. The youth is a hero ; I admire him unspeakably ; and — I hope he'll never come back ! Ding. Why, my dear sir, how can you say such a thing ? Dodd. Because, my dear sir, if he gets a bullet fairly de- posited in his empty noddle, there is some slight probability that he will cease to annoy me about my ward Clara, whom I am determined he shall never marry. There, sir, now I hope you are answered. Ding. But why this unreasoning, this violent obstinacy on a question involving the happiness of two worthy young people ? Everybody feels that it would be a most excellent match. Dodd. Ebenezer Dingbatter! Don't force upon me the conviction that you are a lunatic. It is barely possible that I DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 477 may have grave and weighty reasons for my obstinacy, as you politely term it. My ward is wealthy in her own right, and my vagabond nephew hasn't a penny he can call his own. He is simply a fortune-hunter, and my duty to her dead father forbids my consent to so rash a union. Ding. And there are some ill-natured enough to say that your eye is vastly more turned to the fortune of the daughter, than the memory of the father ; and that money might tempt you, as love never did, to change your oion condition. Dodd. [Pulling at his shirt collar indignantly?^ Mr. Dingbatter, sir! Do I look like a man capable of such things? How can you gaze into my mild and benevolent countenance, and tax me with such monstrous purposes, without blushing ? Sir, the Doddlewobblean name never yet was tarnished with dishonor. Ding. Then why don't you give your consent ? The lad, you very well know, has all the qualities that would make her happy, and the girl is fretting her very heart out about him. Dodd. Bah! don't talk rubbish, sir. It's a physiological impossibility for her to do any such thing. Now just sup- pose for a moment, Ebenezer Dingbatter, that you were an old woman — and it isn't such a very violent supposition, either — and that I was a gentleman coming to pay my ad- dresses to you. Do you imagine it possible, or even likely, that you could fret your heart out about me f Ding. Not in the least, I assure you. Dodd. [Disconcerted.] Ah — well — ahem ! I didn't mean that exactly. Suppose we drop the subject. [Enter Walter, l.] Wcdter. Ah ! my dear uncle Dodd. Well, what the deuce do you want ? Walter. I have enlisted, uncle ; and I have come to say good-bye. Dodd. Not the slightest necessity, sir. Besides, it isn't good to stir too deeply the sacred feelings of the soul. How- ever, say it quick, and go about your business. Walter. But that isn't all, uncle Dodd. [Mocking.'] Oh, that isn't all, uncle. Isn't it ? Well, what more is there ? Walter. You know, sir, how fondly and devotedly I love your ward Clara. Dodd. Yes, sir, I do. And you know how fondly and de- votedly I have refused to listen to your overtures for her hand. Wcdter. Alas ! yes, sir ; and yet, notwithstanding all that 478 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. has passed, I have determined to make one last attempt on your generosity. Dodd. -No, sir! You mean you have come to make one last attempt on her fortune. It won't do ! I'll not listen to it ! Young man, forbear ! Walter. I may not come back alive. Dodd. Don't be absurd. You don't^proppse to come back dead, do you ? Walter. I mean, I may never see her again. Dodd. Very likely; I can imagine worse catastrophies. Good-morning, sir. JBy-by, sojer ; run along ; double quick ! Walter. Oh, sir ! you will not be so cruel as to refuse me a last interview with her ? Dodd. No; I don't refuse you a last interview with her Walter. Ah ! generous uncle ! Dodd. I refuse you a first interview with her. So please to get out ! [Sits down doggedly, ivith his back to Walter, and takes up the paper.'] Walter. [Aside to Di?igbatter.] You see he is inexorable ; I must fall back on our little plot. Ding. All right. I'll see to Caesar, and the boys. [Exit. Walter. [Approaching Doddleioobble, mysteriously!] Sir ! sir ! sh — sh ! Dodd. [Looking around, startled^] What do you mean by that, sir ? Walter. Now that the prying old fanatic is out of the way, I may venture to throw off my disguise. Dodd. [Loudly!] What the dickens are you talking about now? Walter. Sh — sh ■! ■ Are you sure nobody listens ? Dodd. How do I know ? What do I care ? Walter. Sh— sh ! It's all right. Dodd. What's all right? Walter. Sh — sh ! I'm a friend ; I'm on your side. Dodd. On my side ? [Rising alarmed.] Oh ! I see' how it is ! He's a lunatic ! He's been reading the daily papers ! [To Walter, who is approaching^] Keep off, you dog! Keep off, or I shall do you an injury. Walter. They are here. The plot is ripe. In a day or two, all will be ours. « Dodd. Ours? Walter. I have made your plans known to our friends ; and I have joined the army of the tyrant, the better to serve our purposes. Dodd. My plans ? Tyrant ? Our purposes ? Will you DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 479 have the goodness to explain all this confounded nonsense you are talking ? Walter. Well then, if you will compel me to be explicit, I received your letter, and our friends in the South are grate- ful to you for your kind suggestions. Dodd. [Aghast] Friends in the South ! Walter. To be sure; you understand; the Secesh. Dodd. The Secesh!. my friends! Will you, if you don't want to be strangled on the spot, condescend to explain what all this infernal mystery is about ? Walter. Oh yes! you carry it out very well, uncle; but it won't do ! Dodd. But I say, sir, it will do ; it must do ! Walter. Well, bat what's the use now f There's nobody here but us two ; and we both belong to the same party. Your sympathies are with the South ; so are mine. Dodd. Monster ! a vaunt ! Walter. Nonsense, uncle ; you should not — between friends, you know. Well — if I must — [shows an open letter] there, is this letter yours ? Dodd. Yes : certainly it is. Walter. Well then, do you mean to deny what you have written in it ? Listen. [Reads :] " Nephew, I have grave and weighty objections to the Union. Your ridiculous letter about Sympathy has been received. I emphatically decline to acknowledge the right you claim; and inform you for the last time, my sympathies are the other way." Did you write that ? Dodd. Certainly, I did. Walter. Ah ! you admit that. Your " sympathies are the other way," eh ? Wait a bit. [Heads :] " The conduct you extol is mean and pitiful, every way; and I consider the course you complain of perfectly justifiable." Eh ? Perfectly justifiable ? Dodd. Of course, I do. Walter. You admit it then ? Dodd. Certainly ; and I repeat it. Perfectly justifiable. Walter. Very well, sir ; I am glad you do. [Reads :] " You ^ speak of yielding at length. I say, sir, never ! Your loving uncle, D. Doddlewobble." Grave and weighty objections* to the Union — sympathies the other way — perfectly justifiable — never yield. Do you mean to say now that you don't know what I mean ? Dodd. Certainly not, sir. It is all perfectly clear. [Loudly \\ I meant 480 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Walter. Sh — sh ! speak lower. You don't know who may- overhear us. Dodd. What do I care who overhears us ? That is ray reply to your last letter, asking for my ward. You asked me to give my consent to your union ; I said I had grave and weighty objections to it. You wrote that I should sym- pathise with your feelings ; I answered, as you have just read, that my sympathies were the other way. You said that my conduct was not justifiable ; I wrote you that I con- sidered it perfectly justifiable. You wrote to me that I would eventually yield ; and I replied that I never would. Where is the necessity for all this mystery ? Walter. [Shaking his head.] Ah ! uncle ! uncle ! That's very ingenious ; but you'd never make it go down with a court-martial. The whole thing is too clear — too obvious. You meant to say you had objections to the union of the States ; you plainly imply that, in your judgment, the con- duct of the South is perfectly justifiable. Dodd. [Aghast.'] Eh? Walter. That your sympathies are not with the North, but the other way. Dodd. [ Overwhelmed.] Murder ! Walter. And that you hope they will never yield. Dodd. Why, you bare-faced rascal, you knoio better. Walter. Nonsense, uncle ! It was on the strength of that belief that I proposed you as Grand Master of the K. G. C, a chapter of which illustrious order has just been started in this city. Dodd. Me ? K. G. C. ? Walter. Yes, sh — sh ! You know — Knights of the Golden Circle ; and I rejoice to inform you that you are unanimously elected. Dodd. Me: — I — Grand Ma unanimous — Gracious Pow- ers ! what horrible nightmare is this ? [Sinks into a chair.] Walter. [Laughing aside.] Poor old fellow ! This has completely upset him. — Well, uncle, what do you say ? Dodd. What do I say ? Why, I say that it is one of the most unprincipled plots against a man's peace of mind that I ever heard of. Walter. Bravo ; you carry it off well. Oh ! you'll make a capital Grand Master ! It's all right. Dodd. No, sir, it's all wrong, infernally wrong, diaboli- cally wrong ! Walter. Well, I wouldn't advise you to talk that way in the hearing of any member of the Order ! Your life wouldn't be worth a minute's purchase. DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 481 Dodd. Horrible ! Walter. There will be a meeting here, this evening. Dodd. What, here, Monster ! Walter. Yes, here, [crosses l.,] uncle, prepare for it. Get all spies out of the way ; we look to you for that. Dodd. We ? Look to me for that ? Walter. Yes. I must go now. Be careful what you say ; you can't be too prudent, you know. If any thing should leak out you would be denounced to the authorities as the ringleader, and you would at once become the victim of popu- lar violence. But before I go I must give you the signs and passwords. A brother of the order approaching you, will thrust his thumb under the fourth rib, thus — and say, " This to the hilt /" upon which you will respond, " Yankee bones,'' and place the forefinger of your left hand on the left side of your nose, niaking a gyratory motion with the right hand closed— in this manner. [Suiting the action to the word.] It means grind, you understand. Now, farewell, noble Grand Master, and re — mem — ber. [Exiti] Dodd. Well, upon my word, this is pleasant ! Positively delightful! I quite enjoy it ! Ha! ha! ha! Grand Master of the K. G. G. ! [Starts wildly. 1 Good gracious ! it's posi- tively horrible ! Me — a man of quiet and irreproachable life ? Me — a staunch, loyal, non-committal, conservative merchant ? " This to the hilt !" I can feel already a bowie- knife under my fourth rib ! "Yankee bones !" [Makes the motion^ O lord ! there's tar and feathers, ropes and lamp- posts, in the very sound ! Can I be awake ! [Bites his finger. 1 O yes ! it's too true ; I'm a Grand Master, and there's a meeting here to-night, and I'm ruined forever ! But I know what I'll do. I'll run away. I'll go to Canada. There's time yet. [Going towards the door, r., is met by Gcesar, who has been peeping during the last conversation, and now enters, with breakfast on a tray.~\ Caesar. [Smging.1 " John Brown's bones hang a danglin' in the air, — John Brown's bones hang a danglin' in de air, — John Brown's bones hang a danglin' in de air, in de yearob Jubilo !" Dare's de breakfast, sah. Dodd. How dare you come into my parlor, singing in that manner ? Goesar. Kase niggers is de war ! [Sings.] John Brown's bones— Dodd. Get out, you black rascal ! Gmsa?\ Well don't tear your trowsis ! Dodd. [Advancing threateningly^ Will you leave the room, sir, or shall I have you put out, neck and heels? 21 482 THE PATEIOTIO SPEAKER. Ccesar. Oh ! dat is to say, dat you has de condescension to spres de opinion dat you prefers dat yer nigger would leave dis yer department. Dodd. Yes, you insolent menial ! that's just what I mean. Ccesar. What ! go out o' dat door ? Dodd. Yes, any door. Ccesar. And turn to de left ? Dodd. I don't care which way you turn? Ccesar. And down dem stairs ? Dodd. Yes, sir ; down dem stairs. Ccesar. And turn to de right ? Dodd. I shall burst with rage ! Ccesar. And down tudder stairs ? Dodd. Get out ! get out ! Ccesar. And into de kitchen? Dodd. Yes ! yes ! you exasperating subordinate ! or into the black hole, for aught I care ! Ccesar. Well, I is'nt a gwine. Dodd. Insignificant, but contumacious reptile ! I've borne your insolence long enough. Pack up your limited supply of wearing apparel, and leave the mansion of Doddlewobble, forthwith ! I refuse to harbor you ! Depart ! ere I annihi- late you with the explosion of my suppressed indignation. Ccesar. Well, dat's pretty talk for a gentleman, dat is ; swearin' in dat awful way. But what else kin you expect from an old secesh ? Dodd. [Alarmed^] Old secesh? What can he mean by that ? Ccesar. Oh ! I know you kin be sassy^ Massa Doddlewob- ble ; but I doesn't exactly see what it is that makes you feel so grands Massa Doddlewobble. [Significantly.] Dodd. [Aside.'] Grand Master Doddlewobble ! Bless my soul ! Can he have heard ? Ccesar. Tell you what 'tis — dis nigger knows some things from de pint to de hilt. [Thrusting his thumb into his rihs.~\ I didn't learn to play on de bones for nufim. I knows a hoe- cake from a coffee-mill, you kin bet. [Making the motion.] Yah ! yah ! yah ! Dodd. [Aside.] I am undone forever! [Aloud.] Ah, then, my good Csesar, you know all. You have heard this vile conspiracy to ruin an innocent man. Ccesar. Don't see it in dat light, no how, Massa Doddle- wobble. I always knew you was mean and sassy, but I never 'spected you was such a hard old cuss as 'pears you is. But now you's found out, I'se bound as a first class crisis and con- traband, to put you froo. DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 483 Dodd. Put me through ! Good heavens ! what do you mean? Ccesar. 'Port you to de Fort Lafayette, o' course ! what a ignorant old ramus you is ! Golly ! guess dey won't be much laughy-yet in you when you cool yer old nose on dem iron bars! Yah! yah!- Dodd. Cold-blooded man of ebony ! Would you betray and ruin me? See, here is gold. [Producing a bill.'] Ccesar. ISTot much gold, dat ain't ! One dollar on de Duck River Bank. Well, we isn't takin' dat sort's much as we was. We goes in for de green kind. Dodd. Mercenary but mighty Caesar, permit me, then, to substitute one of the green variety. [Fumbles for an- other^ Ccesar. [Approaching him, and rolling his eyes.] Why, you disgustin' ole fly-blown secheser ! do you link"' you kin bribe dis yer cullud pussun to forgit his duty to de country, and kiver his family scutchum all ober wid eberkstin' disgrace? No, siree ! I won't take a cent less dan five dollars on de Bank of Massa Chase. Dodd, Serpent on my hearth-stone ! Ccesar. Hi! hi! swearin' agin! Ef you break out dat Dodd. Vindictive and fearfully exorbitant tormentor! enough! Behold the stipulated sum. [Gives money.] Oh that an innocent man and an average patriot should be thus exposed to the exactions of a corrupt and heartless domestic ! Will that satisfy you ? Ccesar. Well — yes ; I guess dat will do, fur de present. But I shall keep an eye onto you, Massa Doddlewobble, and see how you behaves. [Going, returns.'] And I must give you warning Massa Doddlewobble, dat I isn't a gwine to no corner-grocery for no lager no more ; and you must 'pint anoclder gentleman to 'tend to de boots. [Fxit, singing, " John Brown's bones," &c. Dodd. Well, I'm sure I ought to be thankful that he didn't bind me to bring his beer and black his boots. Wretched man that I am, what will become of me ? The whole world is leagued against me. What shall I do ? I'll fly ! Yes, there is still a chance ! [Goes toward l.] Enter Fudgit (l.) mysteriously. Fudg. Sh— sh! Dodd. Hallo ! who can this be ? Fudg. Sh— sh! Dodd. It's confoundedly annoying that a man should be 484 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKEE. perpetually shooed at, in this manner, in his own house. Well, sir, what's your business ?'' Fudg. [Looking cautiously around^] Sh — sh! It's all right. You're Doddle wobble. Dodd. Well, what of it? Fudg. I'm here ! Dodd. Incomprehensible mortal, do you think I'm blind ? I see you're here. The fact that you are here is exceedingly gratifying, or no doubt ought to be ; though really I can't quite see it. And now, sir, you have given me two remark- able pieces of information, first, that I'm Doddwobble, and second, that you are here. And I assure you the third will be that Doddwobble has pitched you out of that window, unless you speedily inform me why you are here. Fudg. Sh— sh ! You know ! Dodd. Do I. Fudg. I'mFudgit! Dodd. Are you ? Fudg. Sworn to secresy ! Dodd. Qh ! I'm glad of that. What secresy ? Fudg. It!— it! Dodd. It !— it ! What the old Harry is it f Fudg. Hush! some one comes! conceal me! By our sa- cred'bond of brotherhood I command you! [Grosses e,] Dodd. Brotherhood ! It ! This must be a lunatic of the first water ! What do you mean ? Fudg. Hah ! the sign ! the watchword ! [Pokes his thumb into D.'s ribs.] This to the hilt ! [Looks expectingly at D.] Dodd. Eh ? What ? Why, it can't be ! Yes ! Fudg. Hah ! no response ! Am I betrayed ? [Drawing a huge butcher-knifed] This, then, to thy heart ! Dodd. Oh ! good gracious ! I forgot ! " Y — yankee bones.'' [Makes the motion^] Fudg. Noble Grand Master ! Ah ! they are here. [Exit hastily l. c] Dodd. Grand Master ! It ! I see it all. It is one of the bloodthirsty members of that bloodthirsty order of which I am the unconscious and innocent presiding officer. I am lost ! [Sinks into a chair, overiohelmed.] If he is found here and his purpose is known — I don't know whether I have most to fear from the vengeance of the government or the wrath of the populace. I'll not wait to pack up. I'll be off at once. [Going, e.] Enter JB limber, 2 e. e. Blimber. Sh — sh! DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 485 Dodcl Another husher ! Good gracious ! It seems as if my house was full of adders. Blimber. [Ifystei'iously.] You don't know me. Dodd. Mysterious being ! You are right ; I do not. Blimber. 'it's all right. Dodd. Oh! \tis? Blimber. I'm a detective. Dodd. O Lordy! [Tumbles faintly against him. ~\ Blimber. Why, what's the matter ? Dodd. Nothing. He isn't here ; I assure you he isn't. Blimber. He? Who? Ah! Dodd. Nobody. I nearly let it out. [Aside.] Blimber. Oh ! Well, then, you must know that I have re- ceived information Ah ! somebody comes ! Don't be- tray me, as you value your safety. [Exit, r. c] Dodd. No, I won't. [ Groans despairingly '.] Isn't this a beautiful situation for a quiet, conservative man ? Talk about a man's house being his castle — rubbish ! it's his prison. Look at me ! Here have I got a bloodthirsty Southerner in one room, and a detective officer, equally unwelcome, in the other. If I betray the Southerner I shall become the victim of the assassin ; if I don't, and he is found concealed here, I shall be arrested as an accomplice. I am lost, unless one more effort to escape [Going r , l.] Enter Rackett, l. Bach. Sh— sh! . Dodd. [ Wildly.] Oh ! it's of no use. I resign myself to my fate. Yes, I know you. Sh — sh ! It's all right ! I'm here! Don't mind me! Grand Master! It! All right! Some one is coming ! Yankee bones to the hilt ! [Punch- ing Backett, then making the mill-motion fantastically^] Ha! ha! ha! Back. Hold ! sh — sh ! Silence, for your life ! [Seizing D's arm and taking him to extreme r.] Are we alone ? Dodd. [Baicling.'] Y— e — s ! Confound it ! can't you see we are ? Blimber. [Putting his head out of the door, r.] Sh — sh ! [Mat. Back. What's that ? Dodd. There's the detective ! I'm lost ! Doddlewobble ! prepare yourself for tar. Back. [Hurrying him to extreme l.] We are brothers. Fudgit. [From door, l.] Sh — sh ! [Exit. Back. Again, that sound! Dodd. Oh, it's nothing ! Nothing but the cockroaches 486 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. coughing ! [Aside.] It's the bloodthirsty rascal ; what shall I do ? I can feel the feathers cropping out all over me ? Mack. [ Crosses p.] Sh — sh ! Take this and prepare. [Places a large bowie knife in JD^s hand.] This evening, all will be settled. You have been chosen as the boldest of our band. Behold a list of the proscribed! [Gives a paper.] Dodd. [Takes it nervously and reads.] Mayor Wood — A. A. Low — S. B. Chittenden — M. F. Odell ! Gracious heavens ! these are our very first citizens ! Hack. [Solemnly.] Ere yonder sun shall rise once more, those " very first citizens" must welter in their gore ! Strike home ! Strike deep ! sh — sh ! we must be cautious. [Going to door, r. c] Dodd. [Running after him.] No, no ; not there ! Here ! [ Takes him by the collar and thrusts him into door, l. c, with Fudgit ; kicking him as he goes.] Now, what is to prevent my committing a justifiable homicide on the persons of these miscreants ? I am growing desperate. This has got to end somewhere ; it can't go on forever ! Ha ! ha ! ha ! It's rather funny: capital joke. It's gratifying to have one's life in perpetual danger. I rather like it. I didn't know that cold perspiration running down the middle of your back was so delightful a sensation. Ha! ha! A sanguinary Grand Master of a sanguinary K. G. C, with the most sanguinary of bowie knives in his red right hand ! [Faintly.] Oh ! I can't stand it much longer ; I feel I can't. War-correspon- dence is a fool to this ! I'd rather be the Secretary of the Navy, with all the newspapers in the country pitching into me. Oh ! Oh ! [Putting his hand to his head.] Enter Caesar, r. Gwsar. Oh Massa Hobblegobble ! sh — sh ! Dodd. You villain, if you make that sound again I'll mur- der you. [ Catching him by the collar and shaking him.] Cwsar. Oh Massa ! dey's come ! dey's come ! Dodd. Oh ! they are ! Well, send 'em away again. Cmsar. Oh, but dey won't go, sah ; and dey's armed up to de berry roots ob dey har. Dodd. Armed? Cmsar. Yes, sah, dey's got bowie knives down de back o' dey necks, and blunderbusses in dey shirt bosoms. Fnter Dingbatter, l. Ding. Oh Doddle wobble, Doddle wobble ! this is a sad af- fair. I never supposed you would carry your reprehensible principles to such an extent ! Fly, fly for your life ! The J DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 487 police have received intelligence of your connection with the rebels, and the whole city is in a state of excitement at the discovery. Enter Walter, l. Walter. They are all here, uncle ! Dodd. [Catching him by the throat.'] Monster! I'll squeeze the life out of you ! Get me out of this infernal scrape you've got me into, or I'll assassinate you on the spot ! Walter. But, sir, consider — Dodd. I swear I wonH consider. You get — me — out or your life ! Walter. This to the hilt, then ! [Punching him with his thwnb.] Dodd. [Staggering back.'] Merciful powers ! I'm a mur- dered man ! Walter. ISTot a bit of ij, uunkey ; only a little shock to "Yankee bones." [Laughing.'] But seriously, if there's been a misunderstanding here, I'm willing to expose myself in order to rescue you. But it will be at no little peril to my safety, I assure you, and I must be permitted to encumber my consent with certain conditions. Dodd. N"ame your price at once, sir. Walter. Well, then, the hand of Clara. Dodd. [Furiously.] You be — [Sere Blimber, Fudgit, &c, <£c, and all the characters interrupt with " sh — -sh/" ivhich is echoed from all quarters behind the scenes^] Good gracious ! Yes ! I consent to anything. Dingbatter. [ Comes forward with a paper.] Sign that. Dodd. sits down hurriedly, and signs without reading. Walter. [Going to door, r.] Come along, Blimber! It's all right, I don't want you any more. Blimber. [ Coming out and going, r.] All right, I'll see you at the camp. Dodd. I'll be hanged if he hasn't suborned the detective ! Can such things be ? Blimber. Sh — sh ! [Ifysteriously to Dodd.] Dodd. Get out ! [Betreating.] Walter. I'll see you again, old fellow. Go now. Fxit B., r. Dodd. Well, sir, what next ? Walter. [Going to door, l. c] Come along, boys ! Follow 488 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. , Blimber, and meet me at the camp. It's all right ! The prize is won. [Miter Fudgit and Racket. Dodd. What's all this ? Have I been deceived ? Fadg. and Rack. [Mysteriously.'] All right ! Sh — sh ! Dodd. [Starting back.] Ah ! you miscreants ! Get out ! [Mceunt.] Who, then, are the wretches, you young vaga- bond ? [To Walter.] ■ Walter. Oh ! they are some very good fellows of ours, uncle, who have volunteered to assist me in winning by a little stratagem, what you so obdurately refused me, the dearest object of my life. In a few days, I must depart with my regiment, to serve my country amidst scenes of blood and peril, and the dearest wish of my heart was to marry Clara before my departure. Trust me, I will not prove unworthy of her, or of you ; and, if I should be so fortunate as to re- turn, you shall not find me ungrateful for all your kindness. May I not hope, after all that has passed, that you will give me Clara, with your blessing ? Dodd. [In a rage.] Take her^and be Ding. [ Clasps his hand over D.'s mouth, and all say : " Sh-sh !"] Dodd. [Disengaging his mouth.] blessed ! Enter Caesar, r. Cwsar. Hooray ! Here's de extry Herald ! Dodd. Ah ! give it to me ; I turn with pleasure to my much-abused war-correspondent ! I've learned to-day that there is something worse than the newspaper. Let's see — let's see ! [ Opening the paper.] What's this ? [Reads.] " One, P. M. We are informed on the best authority, that the Gov- ernment has received positive evidence of the death of Jeff. Davis." Well, come ! That's good, at least ! I'm glad that somebody's dead; it soothes my exasperated nerves amaz- ingly. [Reads again.] Hallo ! hallo ! what's this ? " Two o'clock, P. M. Jeff. Davis alive and well, at the last accounts." [Drops the paper, and clutches his hair with both hands.] The demon again ! Carry me out, and bury me decently ! [Sinks into a chair.] Curtain falls. DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 489 DAMON AND PYTHIAS. Adapted from the play of that name by John Banim. Characters: — Dionysitts, Damocles, Procles, Philistius, Damon, Pythias, Senators, Officers, Soldiers, &c. Scene I.— A street in Syracuse. Diontsius and Procles discovered, as expecting tidings. Dion., l. Ere this, the senate should have closed its coun- cils, And chosen the new year's president. I pant To know their meeting's issue. Proc, r. Good, my lord, There's but light doubt, a great majority Of easy-purchased voices will be found For your fast friend, Philistius. Dion. On his choice 'Hangs the long chain of complicated purpose Has ta'en such time in linking. Plague upon The law, that from the senate-house excludes All soldiers, like ourselves, or we should soon Outvote all difficulty ! [Senators cross the stage from r. to l.] Ha ! methinks The assembly hath dissolved. By Jupiter, Philistius' self doth hasten to us here, And with him Damocles ! How now, my friend ? Enter Philistius and Damocles, r. Art thou the president ? Phil., l. I am, my lord. Chosen by a large majority to take The honorable office in the which I may, at least, requite the benefits Which you have heaped upon me. Dam. Yes, my lord, "We have at last attained the 'vantage ground, Whence your broad view may take a boundless prospect. Dion. 'Tis a bold step upon the mountain-path, Wherein I have been toiling. I no longer Doubt of the senate's inclination. 490 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKEE. [To Socles.] What say the soldiers? Thou hast hinted to them That we confided to thee ? Proc, e. Yes, my lord ; And they are ready for it. Dion. Go thou hence, [ Crosses to Procles. And speak to them again ; disperse more gold ; 'Twill give a relish to thine eloquence. [Exit Peocles. Philistius, give me your hand. I thank you. Things look in smiles upon me. It was otherwise But a year since, when I impeached the magistrates For treasonable dealing with the foe. And the senate hurled me from my topmost height Of popularity. Dam. Degraded you From power and office ! Dion. Ay ! at the appeal Of that state pedant, the Pythagorean, Who hangs out his austerity for sale, In frowns, closed lips, and pithy sentences. Dam. Thou speakest of Damon ? Dion. Ay ! mine enemy, The patriot and philosophic knave, Who hath been busy with my purposes, And one day shall not smile at it. He came Into the senate-house, with a fierce crew Of his associates in philosophy, Silent and frowning, at his back; he railed, And had his triumph. — Times have altered since ! [Shouts, B, Phil My lords, The soldiers shout for you. Dion. Procles, I see, Is at his work. — Good Damocles, Philistius, As you are senators, retire you hence : It were not meet that you should look to have been Parties to any act, which afterwards May grow into discussion. — And, Philistius, One effort more among our city friends : I will forewarn ih.ee of the time to call The senators together. — Yet, I mean not Exclusively to trust them, good Philistius ; — Sure means, sure ends. — I'll have a friend or two Within my call, to help them. — If their councils Become too knotty for unravelling, A sharp sword may be useful. — Fare you well. [Exeunt ; Dionysius l., Philistius and Damocles, e.] DIALOGUES, OEIGINAL AND SELECTED. 491 Sce'ne IT. — The Senate-House of Syracuse. Senators assembled — Philistitjs at their head. — Dion- ysius stands e, in the front of the stage. — Damocles is seated^ e. Dam. So soon warned back again ! Dion. So soon, good fathers. My last despatches here set forth, that scarce I had amassed and formed our gallant legions, When, as by magic, word of the precaution Was spirited to their camp — and on the word, These Carthaginians took their second thought, And so fell back. Phil. I do submit to you, That out of this so happy consequence Of Dionysius' movement on the citadel, Not only is his pardon for the act Freely drawn forth, but we are called upon Our thanks most manifestly to express For such a noble service. Dion. Good Philistius, I am a soldier ; yours and the state's servant ; And claim no notice for my duty done Beyond the doing it — and the best thanks I merit or can have, lie in the issue Which has most happily resulted. Dam. [Pises.~] Nay, It rests in us to say so. Phil. Dionysius, The work which of this enterprise thou hast made, [Damocles sits. Proves that our citadel and its resources Have been misused ; and never so controlled And ordered for our good, as by thyself; Therefore retain it, govern and direct it. — Would the whole state were like the citadel ! In hot and angry times like these, we want Even such a man. Dam. [Pises.] I, from my heart, assent to And second this proposal. Dion. Most reverend fathers — Dam. We pray thee, silence,, noble Dionysius ! All here do kuow what your great modesty Will urge you to submit ; but I will raise This envious veil wherein you shroud yourself. 492 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. It is the time to speak ; our country's danger Calls loudly for some measure at our hands, Prompt and decisive. Damon. [Without, l.] Thou most lowly minion! I'll have thee whipped for it, and by the head Made less even than thou art ! [Senators rise* Enter Damon, l. Phil. Who breaks so rude and clamorously in To scare our grave deliberations ? Damon. A senator ! — First let me ask you why, Upon my way here to sit down with you, I have encountered in the open streets, Nay, at the very threshold of your doors, Soldiers and satellites arrayed and marshalled With their swords out ? Why have I been obstructed By an armed bandit in my peaceful walk here, To take my rightful seat in the senate-house ? Why has a ruffian soldier privilege To hold his weapon to my throat ? A tainted, Disgraced, and abject traitor, Procles ! Who Dared place the soldiers round the senate-house ? Phil. I pray you, fathers, let not this rash man Disturb the grave and full consideration Of the important matter, touching which We spoke ere he rushed in. [Senators sit. Dam. [To the senators.'] I did require To know from you, without a hand or head, Such as to us hath been our Dionysius, What now were our most likely fate ? Damon. The fate Of freemen ; in the full free exercise Of all the noble rights that freemen love ! Free in our streets to walk; free in our councils To speak and act — Phil. I do entreat you, senators, Protect me from this scolding demagogue ! Damon. Demagogue, Philistius ! Who was. the demagogue, when at my challenge He was denounced and silenced by the senate, And your scant oratory spent itself In fume and vapour ? Dam. Silence, Damon, silence ! And let the council use its privilege. Damon. Who bids me silence ? Damocles, the soft And pliant willow, Damocles ! But come, DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 493 What do you dare propose ? Come, I'll be silent- Go on. [Sits. Phil. Resolve you, then, is Dionysius This head indeed to us ? Acting for us — Yea, governing, that long have proved we cannot, Although we feign it, govern for ourselves ! Dam. Then who so fit, in such extremity, To be the single pillar, on whose strength All power should rest ? Phil. Ay, and what needs the state Our crowded and contentious councils here ? And therefore, senators — countrymen, rather, That we may be wiser and better ruled Than by ourselves we are ; that the state's danger May be confronted boldly, and that he May have but his just meed, I do submit That forthwith we dissolve ourselves, and choose A king in Dionysius. Damon. [Grosses to senators.] King! A King? 1st Sen. I do approve it. 2d Sen. Ay, and I. [All the senators on r. rise. Dam. And all ! All are content ! ' Damon. And all ! are all content ? A nation's right betrayed, And all content ! [-Senators sit.] Oh, slaves ! oh, parricides ! Oh, by the brightest hope a just man has, I blush to look around and call you men ! What ! with your own free willing hands yield up The ancient fabric of your constitution, To be a garrison, a common barrack, And common guard-house, and for common cut-throats ! What, will ye all combine to tie a stone Each to each other's neck, and drown like dogs Within the tide of time, arid never float To after ages, or at best, but float A buoyant pestilence ? Can ye but dig Your own dark graves, creep into them, and die ? 3d Sen. I have not sanctioned it. ) 4th Sen. Nor I. J- [Senators l. rise. 5th Sen. Nor I. ) Damon. Oh ! thanks for these few voices ! but, alas ! How lonely do they sound ! [Senators sit.] Do you not all Start up at once, and cry out liberty ? Are you so bound in fetters of the mind, That there you sit, as if you were yourselves Incorporate with the marble ? Syracusans ! — 494 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. But no ! I will not rail, nor chide, nor curse ye ! I will implore you, fellow-countrymen, With blinded eyes, and weak and broken speech, I will implore you — Oh ! I am weak in words, But I could bring such advocates before you ! Your fathers' sacred images ; old men, That have been grandsires ; women with their children, Caught up in fear and hurry, in their arms — And those old men should lift their shivering voices And palsied hands — and those affrighted mothers Should hold their innocent infants forth, and ask, Could you make slaves of them ? Phil. I dissolve the senate At its own vote and instance. [Leaves his seat — all the sen- ators, r., that have voted, rise. Dam. And all hail.! Hail, Dionysius, King of Syracuse ! Dion. Is this the vote ? Damon. There is no vote ! Philistius, Hold you your seat : keep in your places, senators. Dion. I ask, is this the vote ? Phil. It is the vote, My gracious liege and sovereign- ! Damon. I say, nay ? You have not voted, Naxillus, nor Petus — Nor you, nor you, nor you — Phil. In my capacity As head and organ of the city council, I do asseverate it is the vote ! All hail, then, Dionysius ! [They all kneel to Dionysius except Damon and the sen- ators who have voted in the negative. Dion. I thank you, friends and countrymen, I thank ye! [ Goes tip to the chair which Philistius has left. Damon. Oh ! all the gods, my country, oh, my country! Dion, (c.) And that we may have leisure to put on With fitting dignity our garb of power, We do now, first assuming our own right, Command from this, that was the senate-house, Those rash, tumultuous men, who still would tempt The city's peace with wild vociferation, And vain contentious rivalry. [Comes down opposite Da~ mon, r. c.,] Away ! Damon. I stand, A senator, within the senate-house. Dion. Traitor ! and dost thou dare me to my face ? DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 495 Damon. Traitor ! to whom ? to thee ! — Oh ! Syracuse, Is this thy registered doom ? To have no meaning For the proud names of liberty and virtue But as some regal braggart sets it down In his vocabulary ? And the sense, The broad, bright sense that Nature hath assigned them. In her infallible volume, interdicted Forever from thy knowledge ; or if seen, And known, and put in use, denounced as treasonable, And treated thus ? — No, Dionysius, no ! I am no traitor ! But in mine allegiance To my lost country, I proclaim thee one ! Dion. My guards, there ! Ho ! [ Crosses to e. corner. Damon. What ! hast thou, then, invoked Thy satellites already ? Miter Peocles and Soldiees, l. Dion. Seize him ! Damon. [Hushes on Dionysius and attempts to stab him.'] First, Receive a freeman's legacy ! \IIe is intercepted by guards and JPr odes.] Dionysius, Thy genius is triumphant, and old Syracuse Bows her to the dust at last ! — 'Tis done ; 'tis o'er, And we are slaves forever ! [ Crosses, L. Dion. We reserve This proud assassinating demagogue, Who whets his dagger on philosophy, For — an example to his cut-throat school I— « The axe, and not the sword. Out of his blood We'll mix a cement to our monarchy : Here do we doom him to a public death ! Damon. Death's the best gift to one that never yet Wished to survive his country. Here are men Fit for the life a tyrant can bestow ! Let such as these live on. Dion. Hold thou there ! Lest, having stirred our vengeance into wrath, It reach unto those dearer than thyself — Thy wife and child. Ha ! have I touched thee, Damon ? Is there a way To level thee unto the feebleness Of universal nature ? What, no word ? Come, use thy time, my brave philosopher ! Thou hast few moments left ! Damon. I know thee well — 496 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Thou art wont to use thy tortures on the heart, Watching* its agonizing throbs, and making A science of that fell anatomy ! These are thy bloody metaphysics — this Thy barbarous philosophy ! I own Thou hast struck thy venomed sting into my soul, But while I'm wounded, I despise thee still ! My wife ! my child ! Oh, Dionysius, Thou should'st have spared me that ! — Prbcles, lead on. [Procles precedes Damon, who goes out, l. — the guards follow. — Dionysius goes up to chair, c. — the senators surround him — and distant shouts heard, as the scene closes. [Note. — At this point is a natural division. Each of the parts of the dialogue can be used separately, or both together. — R. R. R.] Scene III. — A Street. Enter four guards, l. s. e., then Procles with Damon in chains, followed by four more guards. Damon. A moment's pause here, Procles. [Procles motions the guards to halt. We discoursed together Of an old friend of mine, who in all likelihood Would question thee concerning my last thoughts, While leaving this vain world ; I do entreat thee, When thou shalt see that man, commend me to him, And say, a certainty of how true a friend And father he will be unto my wife And child — Pyth. [ Without, l.] Hold back ! it is impossible That ye can butcher him, till we speak together ! Enter Pythias, preceded by soldiers, who obstruct his way, l. I am his nearest friend ! I should receive His dying words — hold back ! [Breaks through them. Oh, Damon ! Damon ! Damon, (c.) I wished for this, but feared it, Pythias ! Tush ! — we are men, my Pythias ; we are men, And tears do not become us. Pyth. Doom and death In the game moment ! Is there no hope, Damon ? Is everything impossible ? Damon. For me, DIALOGUES, OEIGINAL AND SELECTED. 497 With Dionysius, everything — I craved But six hours' respite, that my wife may come, And see me — Pyth. And he would not ? Damon. Not an hour — Yet to have kissed her, and my little boy — Just to have kissed her — Pyth. The cold villain! Damon. Well, All that is o'er now, and this talk superfluous. • Ere you came up, my friend, I was about To leave a greeting for you with the officer :' I bade him say, too — for, despite of rules Well conned and understood, in such a time As this — so sudden, hopeless, and unlooked for, — The eye will water, and the heart grow cowardly, At thoughts of home, and things we love at home ; And something like a sorrow, or a fear. For what may happen them, will stick in the throat, To choke our words, and make them weak and womanish Pyth. Tears have a quality of manhood in them, When shed for what we love. Damon. I bade him say, That half my fear for her, and my young boy, As to their future fate, was banished, In the full certainty I felt of all The care and kindness thou' wilt have of them. Pyth. That was a true thought, Damon. Damon. Pythias, I know it. And when the shock of this hath passed away, And thou art happy with thy sweet Calanthe — Pyth. Damon ! Damon. Well, Pythias ? Pyth. Did'st thou not say It was thy last desire to look upon Thy wife and child, before — Damon. I would give up,— Were my life meted out by destiny Into a thousand years of happiness, — All that long measure of felicity, But for a single moment, in the which I might compress them to my heart. Pyth. Good Procles, [ Crosses, e. Lead me at once to Dionysius — I mean, unto the king — that's his new name — Lead me unto the king— {Trumpet, e.] Ha ! here he comes! 498 THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER. Enter Dionysius and Damocles, r. Behold me, Dionysius, at thy feet ! [Kneels. As thou dost love thy wife, and thy sweet children ; As thou'rt a husband and a father, hear me ! Let Damon go and see his wife and child Before he dies — for four hours respite him — Put me in chains : plunge me into his dungeon, As pledge for his return ; do this — but this — And may the gods themselves build up thy greatness As high as their own heaven. [Rises. Dion. What wonder's this ? Is he thy brother ? Pyth. No, not quite my brother ! Not — yes, he is — he is my brother ! Dion. Damon — is this a quibble of thy school ? , Damon. No quibble, for he is not so in kin, Not in the fashion that the word puts on, But brother in the heart ! Dion. [To Damon.'] Did'st urge him on To this ? Pyth. By the gods, no ! Dion. And should I grant • [ Grosses, c. Thy friend's request, leaving thee free to go, Unwatched, unguarded, thou mak'st naught of it, Quite sure that thou wilt Come and ransom him, At the imminent time? Damon. Sure of it ? Hearest thou Heaven ? The emptiest things reverberate most sound, And hollow hearts have words of boisterous promise. I can say only — I am sure ! Dion. 'Tis granted. [Two officers take the chains off Damon, and place them on Pythias. How far abides thy wife from here ? Damon. Four leagues. Dion. For six hours we defer thy death. 'Tis now The noon exactly ; and at the sixth hour See that thou stand'st not far from him ; away ! Conduct that man to prison. Damon. Farewell, Pythias ! Pyth. And farewell, Damon ! Not a word upon it ! Speed thee. What, tears ? — Forbear. Damon. I did not think To shed one tear; but friendship like to thine — Pyth. Farewell ! Come officer. DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 499 Damon. I pray thee, Procles ! — Pythias, thy hand again : Pythias, farewell ! [Exeunt Pythias, Procles and guards, e. Dionysius and Damocles retire to the back of the stage: Enter LuCULLUS. Luc. Oh, my dear lord, my master and my friend, The sight of you thus safe — Damon. Safe ! Jjiic. For at least A respite, my kind lord Damon, No more, Lucullus. Bring to your porch my horse ; the gallant grey I lately bought of Anaxagoras. [Exeunt Lucullus and Damon in different directions. Dionysius and Damocles come forward. Dion. Oh, by the wide world, Damocles, I did not think the heart of man was moulded To such a purpose. Damon. It is wondrous. Dion. Wondrous ! , Sir, it doth win from the old imaginers Their wit and novelty ! — I'll visit Pythias in his dungeon : get me A deep disguise. We'll use such artifice As the time, and our own counsel, may suggest. — If they should triumph, crowns are nothingness — Glory is soun d — and grandeur, poverty ! [Exeunt^ b. Scene IV.— A portal on one side ; on the other side, the dungeo?i-door of Pythias, barred and chained. Enter Dionysius, disguised in a cloak, e. s. e., preceded by Peocles, who points to the dungeon. . Dion. Is this the dungeon ? — Unbar the door.— [Procles undraws the bolts and lets fall the chains. I'll probe him deeply. — Now observe well the orders that I gave thee ! [Motio?is him away and opens the door. Exit Procles, l. s. e. My lord Pythias ! Pyth. [ Within.'] How now ! who calls me ? Dion. A friend, Pythias : — the time is precious ; haste, And follow me. Enter Pythias, from dungeon, l. u. e. Pyth. [l.] Where do you lead me ? Dion, [e.] I come To serve and succour thee. 500 THE PATEIOTIC SPEAKER. Pyth. And who art thou ? And how canst succour me? Dion. I dwell beneath The tyrant's roof, and learned by accident This fell determination — he hath resolved — Pyth. My life!— Dion. Thy life ! Ere this, he hath despatched some twenty men To intercept thy friend, on his approach To meet and ransom thee. Pyth. Almighty Heaven ! Dion. He not arriving at the appointed hour, Thy life is forfeited. Pyth. We try the depth together ; I had hoped That one or other of us could have lived ' For his poor Hermion's, or Calanthe's sake — No matter. Dion. Pythias, I came to save thee. Pyth. What dost thou mean ? Dion. Urged by my pity for such noble friends, So trusting and betrayed — anxious, besides, To leave the tyrant's court, Hither I bribed my way. — Thy fair Calanthe Shall be the partner of thy flight. — Thy father — Pyth. Sir!— Dion. Yes, thy father, too — thy time-struck father, Who, till this day, for many circling years Hath not held human intercourse, Was visited by me — he hath upraised him From his lonely bed. Pyth. Thou speak'st of miracles ! Dion. And ere I came, with all despatch and seeresy I have provided in the port of Syracuse A good quick-sailing ship — yonder she lies, Her sails already spread before the breeze, And thou and thy Calanthe — Pyth. Oh, Calanthe ! If mothers love the babe upon the breast, When it looks up with laughter in its eyes, Making them' weep for joy — if they can love, I loved, and do love thee, my own Calanthe : — But wert thou magnified above thyself As much in fascination as thou art Above all creatures else — by all the gods, In awful reverence sworn, I would not cheat My honor! DIALOGUES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 501 Dion. Madman, what dost thou intend ? Pyth. Dost thou not know the tyrant spared his life On the security I gave for him ? Stand I not here his pledge ? Dion. [Aside.] Tis wonderful ! His brow is fixed ; his eye is resolute. — But The tyrant doth break faith with thee ! Pytli. 'Tis said so. Dion. And Damon cannot come to be thy ransom. Pyth. I have heard it. Dion. And thou — must die when he comes not ! Pyth. And that I know, too. Dion. If thou knowest it, What is thy heart, that it can still be obstinate ? Pyth. I should not have heard it; oiy having heard it, I still may hold it false. This busy world Is but made up of slight contingencies — There are a thousand that may alter this, Or leave it where it was ; there is not one, Should push us a mere point from any pledge Of manliness and honor ! Yet would I live ! Death looks but grimly, And the deep grave is cheerless — Yet I do — * I do prefer the certainty of death Unto the possibility of "dishonor ! Dion. Behold.! Behold! [Pointing off the side of the stage, i» The good ship hath her streaming signal out ! The canvas swells up to the wooing wind ! The boat puts off — now, now,

* .0" c° ♦CJ^* °o \V , * « _ *% *V * ♦ • * v- «* .^ ' • * « >°-V ■v <° ; ** v \ ^^ • »■» > ^ •i°* WERT^ . BOOKBINDING II , 5 ^ * * -'GranMlle.Pa Mar, — Apr.,1 190 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 021 100 628 6