fS. 
 
THE WASHINGTON DESPOTISM 
 
 X)ISSEOTEnD 
 
 m 
 
 AETICLES 
 
 ' FEOM 
 
 €\t "^tixaplxim Jltc0rlif. 
 
 NEW YOEK: 
 
 OFFICE OF THE METROPOLITAN RECORD, 
 
 No. 419 Broadway, 
 
 1863. 
 

TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 Lt consequence of the great demand for the num- 
 bers of the Kecoed containing the articles enumerated 
 in the index, the supply was soon exhausted. As the 
 papers are still called for, the publication of this pam- 
 phlet is intended to obviate the difficulty. 
 
 It can be had of all newsdealers throughout the 
 country 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 FAOB 
 
 The United States Converted into a Militaiy Despotism 7 
 
 Can a Disunion Administration Restore the Union ? 17 
 
 A Great Statesman Speaking to the People 26 
 
 Grounds of Impeachment of the President 29 
 
 The Effects of Abolitionism 33 
 
 "What is a Loyal Leaguer ? : 36 
 
 Grand Patriotic Demonstration 39 
 
 Some Plain Talk ' 54 
 
 " Nobody's Hurt." 58 
 
 Peace ! 61 
 
 Model Resolutions for the Loyal Leaguers 68 
 
 What the War is carried on for 71 
 
 A New Joke — Is it the President's ? '72 
 
 The Abolition Policy of the Administration, and what it has Accom- 
 plished 74 
 
 The Statesman of the Revolution on the Right of Coercion 80 
 
 The Sovereignty of the States 87 
 
 The Northern Plague 92 
 
 The Letter of Governor Seymour 95 
 
 A Poland in the United States 100 
 
 The Future 102 
 
 Which is the most Humiliating— Peace or War ? 113 
 
 The Conscription 118 
 
 The AdministratioD Telegraph ; or. How it is Done. 121 
 
ARTICLES 
 
 FKOM THE 
 
 METROPOLITAN RECORD. 
 
 THE UNITED STATES CONVERTED INTO A MILI- 
 TARY DESPOTISxM. 
 
 THE CONSCRIPTION ACT THE LAST DEADLY BLOW AIMED AT 
 POPULAR LIBERTY. 
 
 {From the Metropolitan Record, March 14, 1863.) 
 
 The Congress -which has so fatally misrepresented the 
 Republic during the last two years has at length adjourned. 
 It expired on the 4th instant, leaving behind it a memory 
 that time can never effiice, and fastening indelibly upon 
 the history of the nation the blackest record the world 
 has ever seen. It found the United States a free country, 
 and it has left it a land of slaves. It was elected to do 
 the behests of the people, and it has converted our ser- 
 vants into our masters, and our President into an autocrat, 
 with power as great over the liberties of the people as 
 that which the Czar of all the Russias possesses over his 
 subjects. All this it has done, and more. It has rendered 
 a union of fraternity an impossibility; it has again and 
 again passed enactments violating the supreme law of the 
 •land; it has persistently refused to permit any inquiry to 
 be made into the arbitrary arrests of loyal citizens ; it has 
 broken down State limits, and admitted bogus members as 
 representatives who pretend to have been constitutionally 
 elected, and in its last measure, the Conscription Act, it 
 has put the liberties of the people in the hands of a man 
 whose presidential career has proved that he never wanted 
 the will to become the arbitrary master of this so-called 
 Republic. With a persistence that the dread crisis through 
 which the nation is passing could not affect nor alter, it has 
 
• ARTICLES • FROM THE 
 
 devoted all its energies to the destruction of an institution 
 guaranteed by the Constitution itself; it has made the 
 hberty of the white man only of secondary importance to 
 that of the negro ; it has lent its aid to the suppression of 
 the liberty of the j)ress by silently sanctioning the action 
 of its subordinates in suspending the publication of several 
 of the newspapers throughout the country. It has quietly 
 looked on while our citizens have been dragged from their 
 homes at the dead hour of night and flung into govern- 
 ment bastiles ; it has preferred the permanent disruption 
 of the Union to its perpetuity with the institution of 
 slavery preserved; it has knowingly and willfully set at 
 naught the desires and intentions of the great conservative 
 majority of the North, and in the passage of the Conscrip- 
 tion Act it has been guilty of a most criminal violation of 
 the sovereignty of the people as involved in the rights of 
 the States. 
 
 This is the record left to us by a Congress which has 
 done more to render the restoration of the Union impos- 
 sible than all the acts of the most bitter and determined 
 secessionists. 
 
 When the country could have been saved by tb>3 adop- 
 tion in the Border State Convention of the Crittenden 
 compromise — a compromise intended to secure to the South 
 nothing but what it was justly entitled to — the leading 
 members of both the Senate and House of Representatives 
 employed all the force of their official character and po- 
 sition to secure the defeat of the measure. In its almost 
 every act it proved to the South that it would be satisfied 
 with nothing less than its unconditional submission and 
 the extinction of slavery. It falsified its pledges made at 
 the commencement of the war, that the immense military 
 and naval resources of the country should be employed 
 only in the restoration of the Union, and the re-establish- 
 ment of the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. 
 
 But, as we have intimated, the crov/ning act of despot- 
 ism, the most atrocious piece of legislation which it has 
 perpetrated, is the Conscription Law, which is hardly less 
 intolerable than that which has driven Poland into wide- 
 spread insurrection. In this measure the radical and fanat- 
 ical policy of Congress has reached its climax. That body, 
 
METROPOLITAN EECOED. 9 
 
 iu its last days, attained the " bad eminence" to which it 
 was so long aspiring ; and its last act is the most deadly 
 blow that has yet been aimed at the liberties of the fjeople ; 
 it is the most envenomed shaft that has yet been hurled at 
 the heart of the Republic, and if the people are untrue to 
 themselves in this dire emergency, the freedom of the 
 nation will be buried in the same grave in which Congress 
 has interred all that remained of the Union. 
 
 One of the most remarkable features of this last effort 
 to convert the Republic into a military despotism, is the 
 entire abnegation of State sovereignty in the process^ by 
 which the conscription is to be carried into operation. 
 State limits and State sovereignty are ridden over rough- 
 shod, and our Governors, the freely chosen magistrates of 
 a free people, are to be treated as mere ciphers by the 
 General Government. 
 
 In a word, all the citizens of New York liable to mili- 
 tary duty under this law can be called upon by the Presi- 
 dent whenever he shall deem it necessary, and on the 
 refusal of any one of these to obey the call, he " shall be 
 deemed a deserter, be arrested by the Provost Marshal, 
 and sent to the nearest military post for court-martial." 
 If this is not the .establishment of a military despotism, 
 then we should hke to know the true meaning of the 
 words. We have no hesitation whatever in saying that 
 this law is unconstitutional, and, of course, not binding 
 tipon any citizen of the United States ; and since the mis- 
 called National Legislature has so far exceeded its powers, 
 the jjeople must, under such circumstances, look for pro- 
 tection to the only authorities that can grant it, the Gov- 
 ernors of their respective States. We owe allegiance as 
 citizens of the State of New York to the constitution of 
 that State, and in the exercise of his kwful authority we 
 are solemnly bound by that obligation to sustain and sup- 
 port its Chief Magistrate, whom that constitution declares 
 is the Commander-in-Chief of the miUtary and naval forces 
 of the State. If allegiance belongs to that regularly-con- 
 stituted power which, in the general community, affords 
 protection to Hfe and property, then we say our loyalty is 
 pre-eminently due to the State government. As to the 
 Constitution of the United States, that instrument no 
 
 1* 
 
10 • KTICLES FEOM THE 
 
 longer affords protection to its citizens, and the only bar- 
 rier which now interposes between the liberties of the 
 people and the consolidating power of a centralized des- 
 potism at Washington is the sovereignty of the State. 
 
 Let not the wilhng tools of the recently initiated tyranny 
 in this country imagine that the Press is to be deterred by 
 the threats contained in this unconstitutional law against 
 all who interfere with its operation. We have too much 
 faith in the Executive of the Empire State to suppose that 
 he will ever allow an Administration which is sapping the 
 very foundations of constitutional freedom to seize upon 
 his fellow-citizens as the Russian autocrat has attempted 
 to do with the ill-fated victims of his fiendish rule in Po- 
 land. The moment such an assault is made upon citizen 
 rights, the last hnks that bind the States together will be 
 rent asunder like so many cobwebs. The Administration 
 will then find, when it is too late, that it is the States 
 which constitute the Republic, that they are sovereign, 
 that it is the powers which they have delegated that 
 make up what is called the General Government, that they 
 are as the pillars which support a, grand dome, and that 
 the moment their support is withdrawn, that part of the 
 edifice must fall to the ground. 
 
 Of course the enforcement of such an act, with all the 
 rigors of the despotic power for the furtherance of whose 
 policy it was concocted, could not be accomplished with- 
 out providing for the j)unishment of all offending against 
 its provisions. This was fully understood by the men who 
 framed this most tyrannical of all the tyrannical acts of 
 that notoriously tyrannical body — the last Congress ; and 
 so they inserted the following impotent threat : 
 
 Sec. 25. And be it further enacted. That if any person shall resist any 
 draft of men enrolled tinder this act into the service of the United 
 States, or shall counsel or aid any peisuii to resist any such draft ; or 
 shall assault or obstruct any oflicer in making such draft, or in the 
 performance of any service in relation thereto ; or shall counsel any 
 person to assault or obstruct any such officer, or shall counsel any 
 drafted men not to appear at the place of rendezvous, or willfully dis- 
 suade tfiemfro7n the performance of military duly as required by law, such person 
 shall be subject to summary arrest by the provost marshal, and shall beforlhuith 
 delivered to the civil authorities^ and, upon conviction iliereof, be punished by a 
 fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding two 
 years, or by both of said punishments. 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 11 
 
 If this were really a war for the Constitution and the 
 Union, and not for the military subjugation of a portion 
 of our fellow-countrymen, there would be no occasion for 
 a conscription ; but we tell the Chief Executive at Wash- 
 ington that the conscription will fail, miserably faU, and 
 that its failure will be produced by the very influences 
 evoked by his emancipation policy, and his other uncon- 
 stitutional acts. 
 
 We do not think so meanly of the American people, 
 despite of their long patience and forbearance, as to ima- 
 gine that they are yet ready to tolerate a military despot- 
 ism ; neither do we believe that they are in favor of the 
 still further prosecution of this war, to carry out the 
 designs of a radical Abolition minority. For our own part, 
 we never could conviuce ourselves that the Union would 
 ever be restored through such an ordeal. We always re- 
 garded it as a union of free-will and not of force ; and we 
 have never entertained any other belief than that which 
 we now express, when we say that the sword wiU inevi- 
 tably prove the cause of its disintegration. 
 
 That the Conscription Act is unconstitutional is evident 
 from a perusal of its provisions ; but the manner of its 
 passage is no less unconstitutional. If the reports of the 
 closing hours of Congress be correct, it was carried in the 
 Senate by a trick, a vile fraud upon the people. This is 
 apparent in the following extract which we make from the 
 report : 
 
 Mr. Powell spoke until half-past three o'clock in the morning, when 
 he moved that the Senate adjourn. 
 
 Motion rejected by yeas 4, nays 32. 
 
 Mr. Bayard commenced speaking against the bill, and spoke until 
 half-past four o'clock, when he yielded t/ie floor to Mr. Powell, who again 
 moved that the House adjourn. 
 
 Motion rejected by yeas 4, nays 33. 
 
 The question then recurred on agreeing to the report of the Conference 
 Committee. 
 
 The vote was called, and the Chairman, Mr. Pomeroy, declared the 
 rejjort agreed to. 
 
 Mr. Trumbull moved to take up the act relative to the validity of 
 the deeds of public squares to the city of Washington. 
 
 Motio-n agreed to. 
 
 Mr. Powell — I hope that the Senate will proceed with tlie consideration 
 of the report of tlie Conference Committee. 
 
 Mr. Q-rimes — That bill is passkd. 
 
1? 
 
 AETICLES FEOM THE 
 
 Mr. Powell— Oh, no ! The Senator from Delaware (Bayard) is en- 
 titled to the floor. 
 
 Mr. Trumbull—/ call the SencUar from Kentucky (Powell) to order. I 
 am on thejioor, and I moved to take up another bill, and that motion has been 
 carried. 
 
 Mr. Bayard — Neither the manner nor the language of the Senator 
 from Iliiaois (Trumbull) will cause me to yield my right to the floor, io 
 which I am entitled. 
 
 Mr. Powell — Do I understand the Chairman (Pomeroy) to say that 
 the bill is passed ? 
 
 The Chair — Tiie bill is passed. 
 
 Mr. Powell— By what kind of jockeying ? 
 
 Mr. Trumbull— I call the Senator from Kentucky to order. ■ 
 
 Mr. Bayard — Does the Chair decide the report of the Conference 
 Copamittee to have been adopted by any vote of the Senate ? 
 
 The Chair — I understand that the report has been adopted. 
 
 Mr. Powell— Did I not most distinctly state that the Senator from 
 Delaware (Bayard) only yielded the floor to a motion to adjourn ? 
 
 The Chair — / did not hear the Senator from Kentucky say that the Senator 
 from Delaware yielded thefl^orfor any particular purpose. 
 
 Mr. Trumbull — I believe that I am entitled to the floor. 
 
 The Chair — The Senator from Illinois (Trumbull) is eniUled to the floor un- 
 less he yields it. 
 
 Mr. Powell — 1 desire to ask the Chair 
 
 Mr. Trumbull — I do not yield io the Senator from Kentucky io ask any 
 question. 
 
 Mr. Bayard ~i desire to appeal from the decision of the Chair. I 
 desire to ascertain whether the minority have any rights remaining here. 
 
 Mr. Howard moved that the Senate adjourn. 
 
 Mr. Kichardson moved to reconsider the motion by which the bill 
 was claimed to be passed by the Senate. 
 
 Mr. Grimes— Did the Senator from Illinois (Kichardson) vote with 
 the majority ? If he did not, he could not move for a reconsideration. 
 
 At a quarter to five a.m. the Senate adjourned. 
 
 It appears from the foregoing that Mr. Bayard, after 
 speaking at some length against the bill, yielded the floor 
 to a motion of adjournment made by Mr. Powell, as such 
 motions are always in order. In the event of the rejection 
 of the motion, the right to the floor reverted to Mr. Bay- 
 ard according to the rales of debate. But before Mr. 
 Bayard could resume the right which he had only tempo- 
 rarily yielded, a vote was taken on the bill as reported by 
 the Conference Committee, and the Chairman declared its 
 adoption. Such a nefarious transaction was never perpe- 
 trated upon the liberties of a people, if we except that by 
 which the nationality of Ireland was filched away by a 
 corrupt legislature, acting under the direction of a man 
 
METROPOLITAN EECOKD. 13 
 
 whose name will be infamous throughout all coming time, 
 and whose death was a fitting termination to a life of the 
 blackest crime. 
 
 Never had a legislative body such a glorious opportunity 
 of saving the life of a nation and the hberties of a people, 
 as that which the last Congress was presented ; but instead 
 of using its power and its influence in the form of mild 
 and conciliatory measures to win back the love of the 
 Southern people to the Union, it did all in its power to 
 render the very name of Union hateful to them by the 
 adoption of a policy which has resulted in uniting the 
 whole South in one compact confederacy, with a thoroughly 
 organized Government, with an army whose bravery and 
 heroism can not be doubted, and with statesmen at its 
 head to whom the petty politicians at Washington are pig- 
 mies in comparison. The people do not forget that it was 
 through the compulsory influence exercised by this Con- 
 gress upon the Administration, that General McClellan was 
 removed, and it was also through its sectional and aboUtion 
 legislation that a wide-spread discontent has been created 
 in the Union army. They know, also, that it was in com- 
 pliance with its demands the President issued his last 
 proclamation, and we think they are by this time convinced 
 that they will be satisfied with no other submission on the 
 j^art of the South than that which would lay her prostrate 
 and bleeding at the feet of the newly-created American 
 despot. If this is the union in which this war is to termi- 
 nate, then farewell to the liberty of the people. The once 
 free, happy, and prosperous nation known as the United 
 States will pass away as did the republics of ancient Greece 
 — flashing like a meteor across the sky of time, and light- 
 ing up with a dazzhng brilliancy the surrounding nations 
 that gazed with wonder on the startling phenomenon. Is 
 this really to be the fate of the great Republic? The 
 peojjle alone can answer that question, and upon their 
 answer depends the future destiny of the ISTew World. 
 
 We know there are men in our midst, for we lately had 
 disgraceful evidence of the fact, who would aid the newly 
 constituted tyranny at Washmgton in riveting its fetters 
 upon the people. Such men assume to be the mouthpieces 
 of the conservative masses, but they will find, when too 
 
14r ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 late, that the trickery of the demagogue to which they 
 have resorted will not save them from the judgment of an 
 incensed and outraged people. Such men may imagine 
 that the liberty of a nation is a thing of trifling value ; but 
 as long as the great heart of the people is right, their in- 
 trigues in the interest of American autocracy will prove a 
 wretched failure. These are the energies against which 
 the great statesmen of the Republic have warned us again 
 and again ; it is they who are ready to assist in undoing 
 the work of the patriots of the E evolution by ignoring the 
 Constitution, and handing over the rights of the people to 
 a military dictator to put under bolt and bar. Such men 
 can see no harm in the suspension of the habeas corpus, in 
 the suppression of the liberty of the press, in the over- 
 throw of State sovereignty, in the arbitrary arrest and 
 incarceration in government dungeons of loyal citizens, in 
 proclamations placing loyal and sovereign States under 
 martial law, and in investing the so-called President of the 
 United States with supreme power above the Constitution, 
 above State rights, above all law, over the personal liberty 
 of the citizen. Such things, in their estimation, are a mere 
 bagatelle. The liberty for which the infant Republic 
 waged a seven-years' war against Great Britain is to be 
 bartered away, and for what ? A military desjootism — not 
 even such a despotism as they have in some parts of 
 Europe — but a despotism directed by men who have 
 proved themselves weak in everything else but the will to 
 destroy. They are ready to carry out the conscription ; 
 but so long as they are the owners of three hundred dol- 
 lars, not one of them, we venture to say, will take the field. 
 They will leave that for the poor man, whose family is de- 
 pendent upon him for support. They are the heroes of 
 the rostrum, and not of the battle-field, whose dangers 
 they are satisfied to view at a safe distance. They are 
 the men who will " look into Catholicity when slavery is 
 disposed of," for to them religious freedom is of still less 
 importance than civil rights. 
 
 But they must be blind to the evidence, which is grow- 
 ing stronger day by day, that the people are opposed to a 
 war waged for emancipation — to a war which, if success- 
 ful i^ that object, will flood the labor markets of the North 
 
METEOPOLTTAN RECOED. 15 
 
 witli black competitors against the interests of the white 
 industrial classes, or dot our Northern land with poor- 
 houses for the support of an indigent negro population 
 either unwilling or unable to work. 
 
 Despite of all this, however, their voice is still for war, 
 but while they talk of the carnage of the battle they act 
 peace. They urge others into the field, but tlie\j are con- 
 tent to stay at home that they may add new force to the 
 blow that is aimed at the liberty of the people. They 
 accuse the advocates of peace with treason, while they act 
 treason by declining to fight. They can see no danger to 
 popular liberty by intrusting the President with supreme 
 control over the sword and purse of the nation. They 
 approve the act of Congress by which nearly two billion 
 tliree hundred milUons of dollars are put at the disposal 
 of the Chief Executive — a sum more than half the national 
 debt of England. Do they expect to he paid a portion of 
 it for their 8upp)ort of a centralized despotism? 
 
 In this State, however, we need have no fear of the re- 
 sult, so far as the rights of the citizen are concerned, for 
 we ha^^e a Chief Magistrate who has pledged himself to 
 their defense and support, and whose inaugural message 
 contains the following solemn guarantee against the en- 
 croachments of arbitrary power : 
 
 While our soldiers (says he) are periling their lives to uphold the 
 Constitution and to restore the Union, we owe to them who have 
 shown an endurance and patriotism unsurpassed in the history of the 
 world, that we emulate their devotion in our field of duty. We are 
 to take care, when they come back, that their home rights are-^not im- 
 paired, that they shall not find when they return to the duties of civil 
 life that the security of their persons, the sanctity of tueir homes, 
 OR THE PROTECTION OF THEIR PROPERTY iiavc becu lost by US while they 
 were battling for the national interest in a distant field of duty. 
 
 The following extracts from the same important docu- 
 ment are particularly applicable at the present time, and 
 in view of the unconstitutional course of Congress, and 
 the violation of the supreme law of the land by the so- 
 called President, we submit them to the consideration of 
 our readers : 
 
 The rights of States were reserved, and the powers of the General 
 Government were limited to pi-oted the people in their persoris, property, and 
 consciences in times of danger and civil commotion. There is little to fear in 
 
16 ARTICLES FKOM THE 
 
 periods of peace and prosperity. If we are not protected when there 
 are popular excitements and convulsions, oiir government is a failure. If 
 presidential proclamations are above the decisions of the courts and the restraints 
 of the Constitution, then that Constitution is a mockery. If it has not tfie author- 
 ity to keep the Executive within its restraints, then it can not retain States within 
 the Union. Those tvho hold thai there is no sanctity in the Constitution must 
 equally hold that there is no guilt in the rebellion. 
 
 We can not be silent and allow these practices to become precede?its. Tliey are 
 as much in violation of our Constitution as the rebellion itself, and more dangerous 
 io our liberties. They hold out to the Executive every temptation of ambition to 
 make and prolong war. They offer despotic power as a pirice for preventing peace. 
 They 'are inducements io each administration to procure discord and incite armed 
 resistance to law, by declaring that the conditio7i of war removes all constitviional 
 restraints. They call about the national capital hordes of unprincipled men, loJio 
 find in the wreck of their country the opportunity to gratify avarice and am- 
 bition, or personal or political resentments. This theory m,akes the passion and 
 ambition of an administration antagonistic to the interest and happiness of the 
 people. It makes the restoration of peace the abdication of more than regal art- 
 tharity in the hands of those to tvhom is confided the government of the country. 
 
 After perusing the foregoing, our readers will, we think, 
 agree with us that liberty of speech and of the press are 
 secure under a Governor who appreciates his position and 
 is determined to maintain the sovereignty of the great 
 State at the head of which he has been placed, not hy a 
 minority., but by a majority of its citizens. We believe 
 that our right as a journalist to utter, and print, and cir- 
 culate freely and without danger of arbitrary arrest and 
 incarceration, whatever we find to criticise in the acts of 
 the Administration — we believe that our right to do this 
 will be maintained by the Chief Executive of the Empire 
 State, and it is in this belief that we now exercise that 
 Constitutional rights despite of the threats of a military 
 despotism, and its base and venal adherents. 
 
 If the people -are not fully aroused to the dangers by 
 which their liberties, not to speak of their sovereignty, 
 are beset, they may soon lose both the opportunity and the 
 power to preserve those priceless boons for which such 
 great sacrifices were made. 
 
METROPOLITAN EECORD. 17 
 
 CAN A DISUNION ADMINISTRATION RESTORE 
 THE UNION? 
 
 FACTS THAT CAX NOT BE CONTROVERTED, AND THAT EVERY 
 AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW ANI> UNDERSTAND. 
 
 (^From the Mbtropolttan Kecord of March 28, 1863.) 
 
 We believe that all unbiased and candid minds will 
 agree with us, that the Union might and could have been 
 restored by any other Administration than that whose term 
 of service will unfortunately not expire for two years lon- 
 ger, but whose exit from office would be the greatest ben- 
 efit that could be conferred upon the country. We are 
 aware that this assertion will be combated most vigor- 
 ously by those who sustain and advocate the policy of the 
 so-called national Administration ; but we shall appeal to 
 their sense of impartiality and justice while we present for 
 their consideration a few facts and observations on the 
 course which it has pursued since the commencement of 
 our present fratricidal, unnecessary, inhuman, and aboli- 
 tion war. 
 
 Our jocular and anecdotal Chief Magistrate., in that ex- 
 traordinary advance of his from Springfield to Washington 
 two years ago, made quite a number of humorous httle 
 speeches, in one of which he pleasantly informed the pubUc 
 that " nobody was hurt." 
 
 His entree into Washington, it will be remembered, was 
 made in disguise — a Scotch cap and military cloak being 
 used on the occasion for the better concealment of the 
 newly-elected magistrate of the great Republic. It was a 
 mean disguise, unworthy of the Executive of a free peo- 
 ple ; it was like the manner in which Kossuth left this 
 country, under a false exterior. 
 
 This was a bad beginning ; shght as the incident may 
 appear, it wore a bad aspect. Why should the President 
 of thirty millions of freemen slink into the capital of the 
 country in a manner that was calculated only to excite 
 contempt and ridicule ? Why did he not boldly and fear- 
 lessly proceed on liis journey as if he hdd nothing to dread 
 from his feUow-citizens — as if he had a fuU reliance on their 
 
18 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 sense of right and justice ? If he intended to act in ac- 
 cordance with the Constitution — if he intended to deal im- 
 partially between the North and the South — if he did not 
 design to force upon the country the peculiar policy of the 
 minority by which he w^as elected, why did he not boldly, 
 and frankly, and manfully enter the capital of the nation ? 
 
 Ah ! that beginning, without signihcance as it may ap- 
 pear in the eyes of some, was painfully suggestive to all 
 who desired the future hajipiness, prosperity, and freedom 
 of the country. 
 
 Such was the advent of Mr. Lincoln into Washington — 
 a city where his illustrious predecessors in office were in 
 the habit of appearieg in public unattended except by ad- 
 miring friends, but where he the latest (and we hope not 
 the last) President seldom makes his appearance in public 
 except under the protection of an armed guard. 
 
 His inaugural informed the country that he would con- 
 duct the affairs of the Government on national principles 
 — that he would not interfere with the peculiar institu- 
 tion of the South. " Apprehension," said he, " seems to 
 exist among the people in the Southern States that, by the 
 accession of a Repubhcan Administration, their property 
 and their peace and personal security are to be endan- 
 gered. * * * * I do but quote from one of my 
 speeches when I declare that I have no purpose, directly 
 or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in 
 the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful 
 right to do so, and I have wo inclination to do so." 
 
 This is pretty plain; there is no misunderstanding its 
 meaning, that is it' words have not changed their significa- 
 tion. Mr. Lincoln then said that he had no intention to 
 interfere with the institution of Slavery ; but how have 
 his subsequent acts redeemed his promise to the people ? 
 Did he give any encouragement to the objects of the Bor- 
 der State Convention? Did not the party by w^hich he 
 was supported and placed in office refuse to agree to any 
 terms of concihation or compromise with the South ? Did 
 they not treat with scorn and contempt the policy of the 
 greatest statesmen of the country who knew and who 
 stated again and again that the KepubUc could never be 
 held together except governed by the spirit of mutual con- 
 
J(IETROPOLITAN KEOOKD. 19 
 
 cession and forbearance ? Were they not aware that the 
 Constitution itself was a compromise ? and were they so 
 bhnd as not to see that a President elected on the princi 
 pie of geographical distinctions and sectional considera- 
 tions must pursue a thoroughly constitutional and national 
 course if he would preserve the integrity of the nation ? 
 All this was patent to the most superficial observer, and yet 
 with all this knowledge in their possession — with all these 
 self-evident facts before them — they have pursued a course 
 at once subversive of the Constitution under which they 
 have pretended to act, and ruinous to the interests of the 
 great nation which they so falsely claim to represent. It 
 was through their machinations that the objects of the 
 Border State Convention Were defeated. They were such 
 firm and fast adherents to abolition principles, that they 
 would not compromise with slavery, although no men knew 
 better than they that the immortal Washington himself was 
 a slaveholder. With a pharisaical assumption of superior 
 moral excellence, they haughtily declined to make any 
 compromise with their Southern fellow-citizens ; and in 
 their acts, if not in their Avords, they scouted the memory 
 and the truly national policy of the great man who had in 
 his day saved the country through such concihatory mea- 
 sures. What more did the leaders at the South require 
 than this — than the proof thus afibrded — that the party 
 which supported the Administration was inimical to every- 
 thing that looked to a friendly adjustment of the great 
 questions in controversy? What, let us ask, could the 
 Korth lose by compromising with the South ? Was she 
 asked to give up any of her rights ? Was any material 
 injury to be inflicted thereby upon Northern interests ? 
 Certainly not. In giving to the South all that section de- 
 manded, we should only yield that to which she was justly 
 entitled. What, then, was the great obstacle in the Way 
 of compromise ? " Principle V The Northern repre- 
 sentatives at the Border State Convention were actuated 
 solely by their adherence to princii^le ! If it were not for 
 the terrible tragedy which has formed the historical sequel 
 to that Convention, this pretension to principle might be 
 laughed at as farcical. But there is blood on their hands, 
 and the dread and horrible picture of tens of thousands 
 
20 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 slain upon the gory battle-field, and of the myriads of sad, 
 weeping mourners in Northern and Southern homes, who 
 shall look in vain for the beloved ones that will never 
 more return— all those should haunt th-eir imaginations, if 
 they have heads to think and hearts to feel. They had a 
 glorious and noble opportunity to save their ^^ountry ; but 
 hke an inhuman and unnatural parricide who flings his 
 father into the foaming torrent, they made no effort to 
 escue it from destruction. 
 
 The Border State Convention was '' a mockery, a delu- 
 sion, and a snare," and the majority of the men who Avent 
 there from the ISTorthern States did so with the deter- 
 mination to oppose every measure that was calculated to 
 re-establish friendly relations between the two great sec- 
 tions of the country. It might have saved the Republic, 
 but it failed, miserably, ignominiously failed. 
 
 What was their next step ? The war having com- 
 menced with the attack on Fort Sumter — which was noth- 
 ing more nor less than the culmination of Northern aboli- 
 tionism and John Brownism — a requisition was made upon 
 the country for seventy-five thousand men with which to 
 put down about one third of the population, and to accom- 
 plish this in the remarkably brief period of three months. 
 The Government issued a political promissory note pay- 
 able in ninety days, in the shape of a submissive and re- 
 pentant South, and one of its cabinet offic-ers indorsed the 
 paper to render it acceptable to the shrewd money-lenders 
 of the country. Unfortunately, however, the promise to 
 pay was not redeemed. The end of the three months be- 
 held the South more defiant and less submissive than at 
 the commencement, and so a further extension of time 
 was required. Three months more were necessary, and 
 the country, again deluded, once more yielded. The six 
 mouths flew by — the seventy-five thousand men were in- 
 creased to five hundred thousand, and the Congress which 
 has so fearfully misrepresented the people voted five hun- 
 dred millions of dollars — for what ? The abolition of 
 slavery and the overthrow of State rights. The five hun- 
 dred thousand men and the five hundred millions of dol- 
 lars " have gone in the wind." The country is more dt« 
 vided than ever. The South has assumed the form of 
 
METROrOLTTAN EECOKD. 21 
 
 a compact nationality, and the confidence of the loyal 
 peoi:)le of the North has been -so fiir betrayed and im- 
 posed npon by the men who have ruled only to ruin, that 
 they have lost all trust in, and have long since learned to 
 look upon, the authorities at Washington only with con- 
 tempt and distrust. What followed the immense out- 
 pouring of the people into the ranks of the volunteer 
 army ? Nothing but defeat and disaster. That grand 
 army was broken up and scattered in detachments along 
 the Hne of the war ; it was defeated at several points ; but 
 the greatest disaster of all befell it close by the capital of 
 Virginia, and subsequently in the near vicinity of Wash- 
 ington. The South was a unit in its opposition to the ill- 
 judged invasion from the North. Its people had been 
 forced into a unanimity of feehng by the abolition legis- 
 lation of a sectional Congress. That Congress, with an 
 inhmnan disregard to the lives of the brave men who be- 
 lieved they were fighting for the whole country and not 
 for the success of the principles of a party, was engaged 
 meanwhile in the enactment of laws inimical to the inter- 
 eats of the South, and calculated only to provoke the most 
 embittered feelings of sectional animosity and hatred. It 
 passed a bill for the emancipation of slaves in the District 
 of Columbia, although there were not more than two 
 .thousand of them in that section. This, we do not hesi- 
 tate to say, was, considering its result, the most atrocious 
 and the most ruinous legislative act that could have been 
 adopted in the then condition of the country. It revealed 
 the animus of the men who had got into pOwer ; it cre- 
 ated dismay in the ranks of the conservative men who sin- 
 cerely loved their country and who had been flattered by 
 the vain hope that Congress would not push its sectional 
 policy to an extreme degree. 
 
 But what was the course of the Administration durmg 
 this period ? What return did it make to the loyal North 
 for the immense army and vast sums of money which had 
 been placed at its disposal ? What return did it make for 
 all this ? Let us enumerate : Freedom of speech and of 
 the Press placed mider censorship; the arbitrary arrest 
 and incarceration of loyal citizens; the conversion of 
 forts, which were intended for defense against invasion by 
 
32 ARTICLES FEOM THE 
 
 a foreign foe, into bastiles for the imprisonment of free- 
 men ; the overthrow of State rights, and the breaking 
 down of State boundaries ; the flagrant and unnecessary 
 violation of constitutional guarantees ; the fiendish frauds 
 practiced upon men who volunteered for the defense of 
 the Union and the Constitution, but who had been sacri- 
 ficed to Abolition designs. These are some of the returns 
 which have been made by the Administration to the 
 people for the trust and confidence which was so freely 
 given, but which has been so vilely abused. 
 
 Having failed, even through the aid of a draft which in- 
 creased our army to eight or nine hundred thousand men, 
 to bring back the South, the President resorted, in the 
 last extremity, to his Emancipation Proclamation, threat- 
 ening the seceded States with all the horrors of a negro 
 insurrection in th.e event of their continued obstinacy. It 
 was a desperate expedient, and could have its conception 
 only in the brains or the perverted imagination of an 
 Abolition fanatic. 
 
 It declared the slaves of all the States in rebellion free 
 after a hundred days ; but his declaration of freedom has 
 had no more effect on them than that mythical " bull 
 against the comet," which, with the jocularity that charac- 
 terizes even his most serious moments, he compared it with. 
 
 But this was not all ; for that " bull" which he issued 
 against the South has only returned to gore its owner. It 
 was not enough, however, that he should increase the 
 bitter feeling in the South, he must also insult the loyal 
 ¥orth by placing it under martial law, and annulhng, 
 thereby, the supreme law of the land. We* say that this 
 was not only an insult, but it was worse ; it was the 
 subjection of ISTorthern citizens to military authority ; it 
 was the overthrow of State rights, and the beginning of a 
 system of consolidation which, if permitted by the people, 
 must inevitably result in the establishment of a permanent 
 military despotism. 
 
 We ask any candid reader if, in the foregoing review, 
 wo have not presented a truthful statement of the policy 
 of the Administration and its ruinous efifects upon the 
 present condition and future prospects of the country. Is 
 it possible, after the sad experience of the past two years, 
 
METKOPOLITAN EEOOKD. 23 
 
 that any man can believe tile present war will result in the 
 restoration of the Union ? Are we not farther from this 
 cons-iimmation than we were two years ago ? Have we 
 not in the Administration the same tools to work with 
 that' we have been rising so ineffectually during that pe- 
 riod ? Has not that Administration been furnished at 
 various times with armies amomiting in the aggregate to 
 fifteen hundred thousand men, and with the sinews of war 
 to the amount of one thousand milHons of dollars ? What 
 proof have we that another thousand millions of dollars 
 Avill not be as recklessly squandered, and another fifteen 
 hundred thousand men as fruitlessly employed in binding 
 together with the sword the severed members of a broken 
 Union? Has the Administration not furnished us with 
 sufiicient evidence of its own incompetency, and the utter 
 impracticability of the desperate undertaking in which it 
 haa so recklessly engaged ? For we insist that the loork 
 of subjugating the South is an ionpossihility ^ and when 
 the Administration called in the aid of negro slaves by a 
 vile and infamous proclamation, a proclamation that should 
 make the blood of every freeman tingle in his veins, that 
 should mantle the temple of every American citizen with 
 ^he crimson blush of shame — when the Admmistration did 
 this, it afforded to the world an admission of its impossi- 
 bility. What a disgraceful avowal was contained in the 
 bill presented in Congress for the enlistment of three hun- 
 dred thousand negroes ! What a fiendish expedient with 
 which to make war upon the defenseless women and chil- 
 dren of the South, and to rouse against the Repubhc the 
 indignation of civilized humanity ! Did those recreants 
 to their own race think of their wives and children as they 
 sat brooding in demoniac council over the fiendish plot 
 that was to bring massacre, and rapine, and outrage into 
 the homes on Southern plantations, sprinkhng their hearths 
 with the blood of gentle women, helpless age, and inno- 
 cent childhood ? Never was a blacker crime sought to be 
 committed against nature, against humanity, against the 
 holy precepts of Christianity, and against all principles of 
 rnanly and civihzed warfare. There is no language suffi- 
 ciently strong to brand this diabohcal measure as it de- 
 serves. But it will fail, as it has failed already m the first 
 
24 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 instance, and as we trust for the honor of the country, for 
 the honor of the American name, for the honor of our com- 
 mon humanity which has been outraged in its best in- 
 stincts, we trust such measures will always and ever fail. 
 
 This may be construed as treason ; but we are utterly 
 indifferent to the charge. We have not yet learned to 
 speak of the powers that be with bated breath and whis- 
 pering humbleness. We are, as we have ever been, op- 
 posed to this war. We are for peace, and to secure this 
 end we are in favor of an armistice. We have had two 
 years of war without any result, so far as the restoration 
 of the Union is concerned. Let us try peace, and a Con- 
 vention of the States. We have had enough of blood, and 
 only the cormorants that surround the White House, and 
 that are to be found in the purlieus of the Capitol fatten- 
 ing on the public treasury, growing rich as the country 
 grows poor, heaping up their ill-gotten gains which aug- 
 ment with the increase of taxes that are already crushing 
 down the industrial classes of the country ; only such as 
 these will oppose the demand. The man who insists upon 
 the prolongation of this war should do that ichich he wants 
 others to do ; he should not wait for the conscription ; he 
 should shoulder his musket and march to the battle-field, 
 where the deadly rifle-ball is the only argument with which 
 he will have to deal. 
 
 Yes, this work of blood has gone on long enough, and it 
 is time to understand the lesson which we have been taught 
 by the last two, years — that the military suhjugatlon of the 
 South is an impossibility. We are told that anything is 
 preferable to a divided country, but a Union under a mil- 
 itary despotism would be still worse. Besides^ how is it 
 possible that the representatives of a p>arty which has been 
 actuated and governed by the spirit of division and dis- 
 unionfrom its very inception can restore the Union ? 
 
 Are fig^of thistles, 
 
 Or grapes of thorns ? 
 Has not the Abolition party been the "party of disunion, 
 and has not the President adopted their policy in his 
 Emancipation Proclamation ? The Abolitionists are to 
 this country what the Orangemen are to Ireland. They 
 feed and live upon dissension. For our own part, we have 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 25 
 
 no hope of union from the present Administration, and the 
 sooner, therefore, this war stops, the better it will be for 
 the people and the preservation of their liberties. Let us 
 be warned in time; let us be no longer deceived. We 
 must depend for our protection upon the Sovereign States ; 
 they are the breakwater upon which the encroaching waves 
 of Federal usurpation will break in vain. Let us not 
 abandon the principle of freedom for a Union which would 
 be unprofitable without it. There is a union between 
 England and Ireland. There is a union between Russia 
 and Poland. In both instcmces the xtnion has been ac- 
 coynplished and maintained by the sword. Is that the 
 union we &eek ? Is the South to be a dependency held by 
 the military power of the North, which, to secure the con- 
 nection, must give up its liberties and merge its State sov- 
 ereignties into a consolidated despotism. 
 
 Let us, then, have peace. Let the people tell the Ad- 
 ministration there has been enough of blood-letting, and 
 that its creatures have had enough of plunder from the 
 pubhc treasury. Let the attempt to enforce the Conscrip- 
 tion Act be met with the demand for peace — a demand 
 which, swelling up in thunder tones from the great heart 
 of the people, will warn the Administration that its dis- 
 union policy is at an end, that the war must cease, and 
 that, through the instrumentality of a ^NTational Conven- 
 tion, to be called by the Sovereign States, they will meet 
 their brethren of the South, as freemen should meet free- 
 men, in the spirit of compromise and conciliation. If the 
 Union is ever to be restored, it wiU be through such' 
 means, and such means alone ; but if the policy of the Ad- 
 ministration has rendered reunion impossible, then let us 
 preserve our liberty, and let us see to it that the precious 
 gift bequeathed to us by the freemen of the Revolution is 
 not lost through the supineness and indifierence of their 
 unworthy descendants, who, in grasping at the shadow, 
 have lost the substance. 
 
26 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 A GREAT STATESMAN SPEAKING TO THE PEOPLE. 
 
 ALEXANDER HAMILT02^ ON COERCION AND CIYIL WAR. 
 
 {From the IVIetropolitan Record, April 4, 1863.) 
 
 The following is an extract from a speech, delivered in 
 1T88, of thatgreat statesman and true p-atriot, Alexander 
 Hamilton, in the Convention that was held in the State 
 of New York for the ratification of the Constitution of 
 the United States. It will be remembered that Hamilton 
 was also, a member of the Convention which framed the 
 Constitution : 
 
 "THE STATES CAN NEVER LOSE THEIR POWERS TILL THE 
 WHOLE PEOPLE OF AMERICA ARE ROBBED OF THEIR LIB- 
 ERTIES. THESE MUST GO TOGETHER. THEY MUST SUPPORT 
 EACH OTHER OR MEET A COMMON FATE. I WISH THE COM- 
 MITTEE TO REMEMBER THAT THE CONSTITUTION UNDER 
 EXAMINATION IS FRAMED UPON TRULY REPUBLICAN PRIN- 
 CIPLES, AND THAT, AS IT IS EXPRESSLY DESIGNED FOR A 
 COMMON PROTECTION AND THE GENERAL WELFARE OF THE 
 UNITED STATES, IT MUST BE UTl^ERLY REPUGNANT TO THIS 
 CONSTITUTION TO SUBVERT THE STATE GOVERN]\IENTS OR 
 OPPRESS THE PEOPLE. THE COERCION OF STATES IS ONE OP 
 THE MADDEST PROJECTS THAT WAS EVER DEVJSED. A FAIL- 
 URE OF COMPLIANCE WILL NEVER BE CONFINED TO A SINGLE 
 STATE. THIS BEING THE CASE, CAN WE SUPPOSE IT WISE 
 TO HAZARD A CIVIL WAR ? IT WOULD BE A NATION AT WAR 
 WITH ITSELF. CAN ANY REASONABLE MAN BE WELL DIS- 
 POSED TOWARD A GOVERNMENT THAT MAKES WAR AND CAR- 
 NAGE THE ONLY I^IEANS OF SUPPORTING ITSELF— A GOVERN- 
 IVIENT THAT CAN EXIST ONLY BY THE SWORD ? EVERY SUCH 
 WAR MUST INVOLVE THE INNOCENT WITH THE GUILTY. 
 THIS SINGLE CONSIDERATION SHOULD NOT BE INEFFICIENT 
 TO DISPOSE EVERY PEACEABLE CTTIZEN AGAINST SUCH A 
 GOVERNMENT." 
 
 We have given more than usual prominence to this 
 extract from the patriotic speech of one of the greatest 
 statesmen of the Revolution — a man who was justly re- 
 garded by Washington with the highest esteem, and who 
 was considered by some writers as one of the first among 
 the patriots of that period. Never was such a warning 
 more needed than at the present time, when the people are 
 apparently so indifierent to the daily encroachments of a 
 sectional administration upon their rights and liberties 
 Our present troubles are mainly owing to the frequent 
 
METROPOLITAN KECOED. 27 
 
 departures which have been witnessed in these days from 
 the principles of the Revohition, and we shall never 
 restore the integrity of the country until we return to the 
 position maintained through every emergency by the 
 fathe-rs of the Republic. 
 
 Hamilton said that the Constitution was expressly de- 
 signed for the common protection and the general welfare 
 of the United States ; but what j^rotection has it afforded 
 to the citizen against arbitrary arrest — against the sup- 
 pression of freedom of speech and of the press, against 
 the overthrow of State sovereignty, against the suspen- 
 sion of the habeas corpus, against the seizure of the very 
 judge upon the bench ? — what protection has it afforded 
 under all these circumstances ? Absolutely none. Abra- 
 ham Lincoln — a man who is as immeasurably below Alex- 
 ander Hamilton as the black race is below the white — has 
 found in his sectional policy a pretext for setting aside that 
 Constitution which Hamilton told us is expressly designed 
 for the common protection and the general welfare of the 
 United States. He has not found it " repugnant" thereto 
 to subvert the State governments, or oppress the people ; 
 and he evidently does not consider that " the coercion of 
 States is one of the maddest of projects that was ever de- 
 vised." Neither does he regard it as unwise to liazard a 
 civil war ; and as for the tact of it being " a nation at war 
 with itself," what matters it so long as the wretched crea- 
 tures who are waxing fat upon the miseries of the people 
 can heap up their ill-gotten wealth. 
 
 Let those who would prolong this war, and who would 
 denounce us for our opposition to the course of the Ad- 
 ministration, read the startling words of Alexander Ham- 
 ilton. Our reply to their denunciation will be found in 
 the following sentence, which is particularly appropriate, 
 and possesses a peculiar significance at the pi^sent time : 
 
 " Cax any reasonable man be well disposed toward 
 A Government that makes war and carnage the only 
 
 MEANS OF SUPPORTING ITSELF A GOVERNMENT THAT CAN 
 
 EXIST ONLY BY THE SWORD ?" 
 
 Let us ask if t^iis so-called national Administration does 
 not make " war and carnage the only means of supporting 
 itself?" Does not it and its creatures threaten every man 
 
28 AETICLE8 FEOM THE 
 
 that dares to advocate a discontinuance of the war ? and 
 has not Congress placed the purse and sword of the nation 
 under its complete control ? The single consideration al- 
 luded to by Hamilton has disposed ourselves as well as 
 " every peaceable citizen against such a Government." 
 
 But we have other reasons equally powsrful in favor of 
 a discontinuance of the war. We entertain serious fears 
 for the perpetuation of popular liberty. We behold grow- 
 ing up day by day a constantly increasing class, Avho find 
 their interest in the present fratricidal conflict. We see 
 springing up a so-called Loyal League, which, if not 
 crushed out by public opinion, may be employed as a gar- 
 rison in every city and town and village in the land, to 
 tyrannize over the people, and to keep them down, as the 
 Poles have been kept down by Russia, by the strong arm 
 of despotic force. When we reaUze the immense moneyed 
 power and influence in the control of the President, we 
 fear for the future freedom of the people — that is, if the 
 people are untrue to themselves. We fear that political 
 corruption, through the ever-ready bribe of place or profit, 
 may undermine the oflicial integrity of our representatives 
 in Congress, and render them the ready and wiUing tools 
 of a debased and demoralized Administration. Let the 
 people be warned in time. Let them assemble in mass 
 meetings all over the country, and convey, through such 
 mediums, their desires and their demands to their repre- 
 sentatives. It is true that we will have a conservative 
 majority in the next Congress; but let us take care that 
 our representatives are not bought, as it is said was done 
 with one of the members of our State Legislature. A 
 shrewd but corrupt statesman once said that every man 
 had his price. If this be so, let us ascertain how much it 
 would cost the Administration to secure the vote of any 
 purchasable member for the support of its Abolition pol- 
 icy. If by the expenditure of four or five millions of its 
 eight millions secret fund it could buy a suflicient number 
 of votes to give it a majority in Congress, what security 
 would the people have against the establishment of a per- 
 manent military despotism — what security save through a 
 successful and bloody revolution ? 
 
 If the people are indiflerent to their future rights and 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 29 
 
 Kberties — if they are ready to yield the precious inherit- 
 ance bequeathed to them by the patriots of the Revohition 
 —then, indeed, it is a matter of utter indifference how 
 their representatives may act in the next vital and import- 
 ant session of Congress. But if they would preserve their 
 freedom and independence intact, they will, as we have 
 said, assemble in mass meetings throughout the country, 
 and instruct their representatives in such a manner as to 
 leave no doubt whatever in regard to the course they are 
 to pursue. \ 
 
 We sincerely trust that the next Congress will not ad- 
 journ until it shall have presented a bill of impeachment 
 against the President, for his repeated and flagrant viola- 
 tions of the Constitution. 
 
 We punish the burglar who- enters our house at the 
 dead hour of night and carries away our property. Why, 
 then, should we allow the highest public official in the 
 land, the chief servant of the people, who has stolen our 
 liberties, or attempted to do so — why should we allow 
 him to escape ? We inflict the severest penalty known to 
 the law upon him who takes the hfe of his fellow-man. 
 Shall the man whose policy has aimed a deadly blow at 
 the national life escape the penalties imposed by the Con- 
 stitution ? 
 
 GROUNDS OF IMPEACHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 {From the Metropolitan Record, April 11, 1863.) 
 
 That there are grounds for impeachment no one who 
 has watched the course of the Executive can doubt. If 
 the Constitution were so much waste paper, it could not 
 have been more contemptuously thrown aside. Every 
 provision which tended to secure individual liberty has 
 been set at naught ; the barriers which it erected against 
 Federal usurpation have been trampled under foot; and 
 the President of the United States possesses at the pres- 
 ent moment as much power as the Autocrat of all the 
 Russias. JPossesses / but will hardly dare to use ; for men 
 
80 ARTICLES FEOM THE 
 
 born to freedom and brought up in the exercise of citizen 
 rights, can not with impunity be treated as serfs or even 
 as subjects. The pHant Congress that manufactured a 
 Dictator out of a^Rej^ubhcan President made but sorry- 
 work of it when it omitted to transform citizens into 
 slaves. The edifice of despotism, like every other edifice, 
 is subject to architectural laws, and must be built up^ not> 
 doion. To be successful, they should have begun with the 
 people, not the President. The people are still true to 
 Kepubhcan principles, they love the Government which 
 their fathers founded, they cling to the Constitution even 
 as the shipwrecked mariner chngs to his last chance of 
 safety, and they glory in that majestic aggregate of free 
 federated rej^ublics which we call the Union. The great 
 heart of the people is sound at the core, as evidenced in 
 the overwhelming conservative majorities returned against 
 the Administration candidates in New York, Ohio, Illinois, 
 Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The men thus 
 returned are a living protest against the Administration — ■ 
 they are the embodied rebuke of six sovereign States 
 against the policy which has thus far governed the Chief 
 Executive. These political victories prove the radical 
 change that has taken place in public opinion since the 
 previous elections ; they indicate that the tide is on the 
 turn whose refluent waves will sweep away the knaves and 
 fools and fanatics who have brought disgrace upon pur 
 proud Republic. These victories are the death-kneU of 
 the Abolition party, and they must strike upon the Presi- 
 dential ear like an alarm-bell in the night. 
 
 Men returned upon this express issue of opposition to 
 the Administration will not shrink from impeaching the 
 President whenever it is deemed expedient to do so. Let 
 us enumerate some of the grounds on which he is open to 
 impeachment. The Constitution says : 
 
 Article 4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, 
 houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, 
 shall not be violated. And no warrant shall issue but upon probable 
 causes, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing 
 the place to be searched, and the person or thing to be seized. 
 
 We will not insult our readers by proving that this ar 
 tide has been violated. 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 31 
 
 The Constitution says : 
 
 Art. 5. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise 
 infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand 
 jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the mili 
 
 tia, when in act-ual service in time of war or danger ; nor 
 
 be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. 
 
 And this article has been violated. 
 The Constitution says : 
 
 Art. 1, sec. 2. "When vacancies happen in the representation fr®m 
 any State, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election 
 to fill such vacancies. 
 
 And this has been violated. 
 The Constitution says : 
 
 Art. 1, sec. 9. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not 
 be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public 
 safety may require it. 
 
 And this has been again and again outrageously and 
 flagrantly violated. 
 
 The Constitution says : 
 
 Art, 3, sec. 3. Treason against the United States shall consist only 
 in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving 
 them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless 
 on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confes- 
 sion in open court. 
 
 The very walls of the Government bastiles could testify 
 to the violation of this article. 
 
 Under the same article and section we find that Con- 
 gress has power to declare the punishment of treason ; but 
 mark what follows : 
 
 No attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, 
 except during the life of the person attainted. 
 
 Call to mind the emancipation proclamation, declaring 
 negroes henceforth and forever free ; and also the Confis- 
 cation Act, which is a gross violation of the Constitution. 
 
 The Constitution says : 
 
 _ Art. 4, sec. 3. No new State shall be formed or erected within the 
 jurisdiction of any other State .... without the consent of 
 the Legislature of the State concerned as well as of the Congress. 
 
 Is not Kanawha an ever-present proof of a violated 
 Constitution ? 
 
33 ARTICLES FROM 'HIE 
 
 We come now to other articles of the Constitution, and 
 we find the express declaration : 
 
 Congress shall make no law .... al)riclging the freedom of 
 speech or of the press. 
 
 The suspension of conservative papers and the incarcer- 
 ation of outspoken men testifies, trumpet-tongued, to the 
 violation of this fundamental right of freemen. 
 
 The Constitution says : 
 
 Art. 2. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be 
 infringed. 
 
 Tliis has also been violated. 
 
 Here, then, is matter for impeachment — here are express 
 violations of the Constitution. But there are others not 
 less serious, concerning which the Constitution is silent, 
 and which are in direct opposition to the essence and spirit 
 of that immortal document. The Constitution does not 
 say exjircssly there must be no espionage exercised by 
 Government over the citizens of the Republic. Military 
 governors must not be appointed, test oaths, illegal and 
 arbitrary, must not be prescribed, martial law must not be 
 proclaimed over States not in rebellion, white men must 
 not be taxed to purchase freedom for the negro ; but these 
 things were not forbidden, simply because they were not 
 foreseen. Who doubts that they are in direct op2)osition 
 to the spirit of the Constitution? If violations of the 
 letter and spirit of the Constitution can be compassed with 
 impunity, and that, too, by men bound by solemn obliga- 
 tions to support it — men who owe their continuance in 
 ofiice to the very instrument they violate — if such crimi- 
 nals 'scape "unwhipt of justice," then adieu to Liberty, 
 and " farewell, a long farewell to all 'our greatness." 
 
 The impeachment of Abraham Lincoln would vindicate 
 the majesty of the Constitution, and to the next Congress 
 we look for that vindication. We shall conclude by giving 
 the solenni oath which he took on the day of his inaugura- 
 tion : 
 
 / do solemnhj sivcar {or aj)irm) that I will faithfully execute the office of 
 Preside/it of the Uniicd Stalci^, and will, to the /xwi of my ability, preserve^ pro* 
 ted, and defend the Constituiion of tJie United States. 
 
 How has this oath been kept ? 
 
METEOPOIJTAN EECORD. 33 
 
 THE EFFECTS OF ABOLITIONISM. 
 
 {Frem the Metropolitan Record, Ap-il 4, 18G3.) 
 
 The American people, with nil their shrewdness, with 
 all their business tact, with all their so-called Yankee 
 'cnteness, which is said always to get the best in a bar- 
 s^ain, are the most easily humbugged in the world. They 
 have not only tolerated, but, to a great extent, nurtured 
 and sustained a party that has caused a division of the 
 country, and that, if longer sustained and tolerated, will 
 plunge it into irremediable anarchy and ruin. 
 
 Never was a nation so afflicted, so cursed by a miserable 
 faction in its midst, a faction which has lived upon discord, 
 and the triumph of which has been the knell of the Re- 
 public. It has been the unswerving ally of a foreign foe, 
 and it has worked with a zeal that knew no ceasing to 
 overthrow the liberties of a nation which was based upon 
 the principles of self-government. Claiming to Avork in 
 the interests of humanity, it has plunged the land in a civil 
 war, that has rocked it to and fro as if convulsed by the 
 waters of a mighty deluge. 
 
 It has -succeeded in estranging the North from the 
 South, and in the election of a President whose adminis- 
 tration will be infamous through all time for its subversion 
 of popular rights ; it has succeeded in the overthrow of 
 that Constitution and Union which it has stigmatized as 
 "a league with death and a covenant with hell;" and its 
 triumph can be seen in the ravages of this melancholy 
 war, in the bloody battle-fields that mark the dividing line 
 between the North and the South, in the thousands of 
 homes which have been made desolate throughout the 
 country, and in the wretched, miserable attempt which is 
 now being made by an incompetent, imbecile Administra- 
 tion to fasten a military despotism upon the country. It 
 has been the faction of dissension and destruction, the 
 party of discord and disunion ; and yet its principles have 
 been adopted in the White House, and its policy has en- 
 tered largely into the- management of this war. The so- 
 called national Administration, almost from the beginning, 
 showed a predilection for Abolitionism, and it now no 
 
 2* 
 
84: ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 longer represents tlie great majority of the people in its 
 management of national affairs. 
 
 We say only what is patent when we assert that the 
 President has violated again and again his oath of office, 
 and that the evidence of this is to be found in the efforts 
 of Congress to indemnify him against the consequences 
 of his unwarrantable and unconstitutional acts. 
 
 It will hardly be denied that the President has not only 
 acted in utter defiance of his official obligations, but that 
 his course has been in direct antagonism with the feelings 
 of the great conservative majority of the North. He has 
 stamped himself for all coming time as thi Abolition 
 President, as the man who, misled by the designing coun- 
 cils of Northern disunionists, falsified his pledges to the 
 people, and abandoning the only moderate, conservative 
 policy which could save the country, flung himself into the 
 hands of its enemies, and rendered useless the expenditure 
 of the vast amount of blood and of treasure which had 
 been poured out for the supposed salvation of the Re- 
 public. 
 
 Let us see if we can find any justification for his course 
 in the sincerity of the party to whose principles and policy 
 he yielded such a willing acquiescence. What is that 
 party? It is known by the singularly expressive and 
 truthful title of " abolition," and its leaders are notorious 
 for their efibrts to bring the supreme law of the land into 
 disrepute, and to overthrow a Union established by States, 
 the majority of which were slaveholding. After more 
 than three quarters of a century of unexampled prosperity, 
 and the enjoyment of popular liberty to a degree that was 
 never before realized in this world, these men have dis- 
 covered that the whole system was wrong, and that the 
 ii^egrity of the Republic must be set aside for the further- 
 ance of an impracticable theory. By the most persistent 
 endeavors they have enlisted an influential portion of the 
 press in their cause, impregnating the very literature of 
 the North with their disorganizing influences ; and yet it 
 seems almost incredible that so far as the practical working 
 of this principle is regarded, we can hardly, with the 
 single exception of John Brown and his hair-brained asso- 
 ciates, find a case of self-sacrifice among them. 
 
METROPOLITAN- KECOED. 35 
 
 Here we have been at war with the South for nearly 
 two years, and yet no part has been taken, nor is it likely 
 that any part will be taken, by Wendell Phillips, Lloyd 
 Garrison, Wilson, and Sumner, of Massachusetts, Hale, of 
 iSTew Plampshire, and other leading Abolitionists, in a war 
 which is now professedly waged for the emancipation of 
 the negro. Nay, we venture to say that the real simon- 
 pure Abolitionists do not bear the proportion of one to 
 every hundred in the Union army. They have not even 
 succeeded in organizing an anti-slavery force in the whole 
 North of two thousand. While others have been impor- 
 tuning for months for the ranks of colonel and brigadier- 
 general, not one of them has ever applied for such a posi- 
 tion, although doubtless our Abohtion President would 
 most willingly have granted their applications. True, they 
 can point to such men as Fremont and Jim Lane; but 
 where are the Sumners, and Giddings, and Gerrit Smiths, 
 and Wades, and Lovejoys, and Beechers, and Cheevers, 
 not to speak of Fred Douglass himself, the very personifi- 
 cation and embodiment of Abolitionism ? 
 
 Do we not know that Wilson organized a regiment 
 which he never took into the field? and that both Fre- 
 mont and Jim Lane have proved the most lamentable fail- 
 ures in the military hue that ever afflicted the War 
 Department of any country ? Beecher, during the Kansas 
 troubles, was content to call upon the people to contribute 
 for Sharp's rifles, but he never used one. And since the 
 fighting has commenced, we have not even heard that any 
 regiment was called after the well-known authoress of 
 " Uncle Tom's Cabin." 
 
 But this is not all; for we have been looking in vain for 
 any movement on the part of the Abohtionists toward 
 collecting money for the famihes of the brave fellows who 
 have perished in a war which was brought upon the coun- 
 try by their wretched and ruinous policy. While they 
 call upon others to sacrifice themselves, they refuse even 
 to extend the hand of charity to the poor victims of their 
 fiendish machinations to undermine the foundations of the 
 Republic and the principles of self-government. 
 
 Never was a greater curse inflicted upon a country than 
 that of a faction which, like the Abolitionists here and the 
 
36 ARTICLES FEOM THE 
 
 Orangemen in Ireland, seeks in the ascendancy of its sec- 
 tional, disorganizing, and anarchical policy and measures 
 the destruction of national unity. 
 
 The mistake of our so-called national Administration 
 was in not making war upon this party instead of upon 
 the South,; for it is in it that our national troubles found 
 tht-lr origin, as it is in the Abolition policy of the Admin- 
 istration that the leaders of the South find their jusUfica- 
 tion and their strength. So long, therefore, as this party 
 continues dominant in the North — so long as its principles 
 find expression through the policy and acts of the Admin- 
 istration — no opportunity should be lost in denouncing 
 through the press and through the assemblies of the peo- 
 ple its insidious designs, and in warning the Administra- 
 tion against a compliance with its demands. If we want 
 to get back the South, let us put down Abolitionism in the 
 North ; for so long as its councils prevail in the Cabinet, 
 and direct the management of the war, so long will we 
 fail in our efibrts to restore peace and union to our dis- 
 tracted country. 
 
 WHAT IS A LOYAL LEAGUER? 
 
 {From the Metbopoltan Kecord, April 11, 1863.) 
 
 • 
 
 A MA^q- whose patriotism is measured by his official 
 position under the Government, or by the amounts of 
 money received for Government contracts. 
 
 A man who desires that every one else should go to the 
 war, but who is unwilling to risk his own precious body 
 within reach of either cannon or rifle ball. 
 
 A man who insists that Ave should support the President 
 as much when he is wrong as when he is right, and who 
 asserts that the Emancipation Proclamation is a capital 
 war measure. 
 
 The man who regards the Conscription Bill as the 7ie 
 plus ultra of Congressional legislation, but who would 
 rather pay three hundred dollars any time than shoulder a 
 musket. 
 
AEETEOPOLITAN EECORD. 37 
 
 The man who, to subdue the South and hold it in mili- 
 tary subjection, would burden the laboring classes of the 
 North with a system of taxation even more oppressive 
 than that of any European country. 
 
 The man who scoffs at sucli a thing as freedom of dis- 
 cussion when employed against the policy of the Adminis- 
 tration, and who would hang every citizen that was in 
 favor of peace. 
 
 The tax collector, the Custom House official, the Post- 
 Office clerk, et hoc genus omne^ who sustain the Adminis- 
 tration because it sustains them. 
 
 The man who contends that the conservative majority 
 are in the wrong, and the radical minority are in the 
 right. 
 
 The man who is callous-hearted with regard to the deso- 
 lation brought upon thousands of Northern homes by this 
 cruel, unnecessary, fratricidal, and Abolition war. 
 
 The man who disregards the lessons of the past and the 
 hopes of the future ; upon whose ear the warnings of the 
 great statesmen of the country have fallen unheeded, and 
 who cares not how soon the Republic may be converted 
 into a despotism. 
 
 The man who would subvert the liberties of white men 
 or the emancipation of a race who are unfit for any other 
 state than that of dependence. 
 
 This is a tolerably accurate sketch of the Loyal Leaguer. 
 He is naturally such a character as constitutes the ready 
 and willing tool of tyranny. He is acquiescent in every- 
 thing which the powers that be may deem necessary 
 toward the suppression of popular freedom. He may 
 have taken an oath to support the Constitution, but he has 
 not a word to say in reprobation of the usurpation of its 
 most solemn obhgations. He believes that all those rights 
 which make the Union precious and valuable in the eyes 
 of freemen should be held in abeyance till the Administra- 
 tion can wreak its wicked will in the furtherance of its 
 Abolition and fanatical designs. What cares he for the 
 Union as it was ? What cares he for the principles of the 
 great Revolution ? He is a Government contractor, mak- 
 ing his thousands a year by the prolongation of this war. 
 He assumes the name of " loyal," because it agrees with 
 
38 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 his instincts, for loyalty to him has a pleasant sound. It 
 is not allegiance to the Constitution about which he talks, 
 but an unquestioning, slavish obedience to the behests of 
 the Administration. He is perhaps a candidate for official 
 promotion, and would not venture to criticise the official 
 acts of the authorities. He" is nominally an American 
 citize;i ; but as for the assertion of his rights in the face 
 of despotic power, he would not dream of such disloyalty. 
 He can see no difference between the Government and the 
 Administration., and would put down free speech with the 
 strong arm of force ; and, with the aid of Provost Mar- 
 shals and the terrors of Government bastiles, would stamp 
 out the very life and soul of American citizenship. 
 
 He has either the feelmgs of a despot or the cringing 
 servility of a slave. Ask him to do his share of the fight- 
 ing, and he seeks immediate refuge in the three-hundred- 
 dollar clause of the Conscription Act. Tell him that this 
 is a war of Emancipation and Confiscation — a war for the 
 black man and not for the white — and he calls you a 
 traitor. Tell him that those only are traitors who have 
 violated the Constitution, who have broken their oath of 
 office, and who seek refuge in a worthless indemnity bill, 
 the very evidence of their criminaUty ; tell him this, and 
 he will doom you, if he have the power, to some one of 
 those forts which were built for the protection of the 
 country, and not for the suppression of the liberties of the 
 citizen. 
 
 He is an Abolitionist in the true sense of the word, for 
 he would not only abolish Slavery, but he would abolish 
 State sovereignty, and every right guaranteed by the su- 
 preme law of the land. 
 
 We know there are men who have joined this League 
 to whom this analysis of the character of its members will 
 not apply, and who have been led into it from a sincere 
 belief in its integrity of purpose; but Ave perceive that 
 many have already withdrawn, having discovered its true 
 object and designs. In fact, it has already broken up into 
 factions, as it was found that such men and the Abolition- 
 ists could not coalesce. This is a consummation such as 
 every good citizen should desire, and we trust that here- 
 after they will not be deceived by any societies that put 
 
METBOPOLITAN RECORD. 
 
 39 
 
 forth as their motto, " Unconditional Loyalty to the 
 Administration." The phrase has an unpleasant sound in 
 the ears of a freeman, for here allegiance is dae to the 
 people by their piibhc servants : outside of the people and 
 the Constitution there should be no allegiance, so far as 
 American citizenship is concerned. 
 
 GRAND PATRIOTIC DEMONSTRATION. 
 
 THE LOYAL LEAGUE OF SPOUTEES AND MUTUAL PUFFERS 
 IN COUNCIL. 
 
 MAGNIFICENT DISPLAY OF BANNERS, BANDS, AND BATHOS. 
 
 THE VIGOROUS PROSECUTION OF THE WAR UNANIMOUSLY 
 DEMANDED. 
 
 EXPLOSION OF A TERRIFIC BOMB-SHELL IN THE MEETING, 
 AND UNIVERSAL SKEDADDLE OF THE PATRIOTS.. 
 
 A3f ANACONDA FOR THE SOUTH AND BOA-CONTRACTORS 
 FOR THE NORTH. 
 
 [reported exolttsively foe the. recoed.] 
 {From the Metropolitan Kecord, >4pri7 4, 1863.) 
 
 Peddlers' Hall, Bunkum Square, was crowded a few 
 weeks ago by one of the most enthusiastic gatherings 
 which it has ever been our lot to behold. 
 
 Every man was furnished with an exact portrait of John 
 Brown, the first invader of the Souths while in the secret 
 recesses of his portemonnaie lay concealed, carefully folded, 
 a representation of the immortal Abe, printed in the high- 
 est style of art on the front of a greenback. 
 
 It is needless to say that they were all membe-rs of the 
 Loyal Leagi'ie of^Spouters, and strenuous upholders of the 
 Mutual Puffing Society. Each one of these was in favor 
 of the prolongation of the war until every slave in the 
 South was set free and permitted to enjoy that highest 
 privilege possessed by their colored brethren in the North, 
 of doing nothuig and of livin-g uj)on something. They 
 were also strenuous and uncompromising advocates of the 
 
4:0 AKTIOLES FROM THE 
 
 right of the Government to send every poor white man to 
 the war and to exempt every rich man therefrom on the 
 payment of three hundred dollars. These praiseworthy 
 objects of the Loyal League of Spouters and members of 
 the Mutual Puffing Society ought to be sufficient to recom- 
 mend them to the esteem and respect of their fellow-cit- 
 izens. But there is one other feature of the organization 
 which reflects no less creditably on its founders and its 
 members. It is the wonderful self-abnegation which they 
 exhibit in leaving the honors of the battle-field to be 
 reaped by others. While they are satisfied to do the 
 talking, the self-sacrifice which they display in allowing 
 others to reap the laurels of military fame is beyond all 
 praise. The Loyal League of Union Spouters are, as their 
 name indicates, in favor of the Union to a man, and are 
 determined to save the Repubhc by the most scathing and 
 withering phihppics against Jeff Davis and his rebel asso- 
 ciates. As long as there is a greenback to be spent for 
 contracts ; as long as there is a white man to fight for the 
 negro ; as long as there is a Constitution to be ignored 
 by the powers that be, so long will they continue their 
 patriotic exertions. 
 
 Each man of them, at the time of his initiation into the 
 League, took no less than ninety-nine oaths to support the 
 President and to 23ut down the South, and some of the 
 leading members are earnestly engaged in sustaining the 
 Government by their official connection with the Post- 
 Office, the Custom-House, and other Government depart- 
 ments. They have been accused by their enemies of too 
 strong a desire to remain at home ; but are their accusers 
 so blind as not to see t^at somebody must remain at home ? 
 And do they not recognize the beauty of that peculiar 
 pohcy which forces aU those to fight who are opposed to 
 the war, leaving behind the men who are in favor of its 
 vigorous prosecution to assist in collecting taxes and in 
 electing men to office who are bound to sustain the Gov- 
 ernment despite the Constitution. What dolts, then, 
 must the people be not to see the benefits to be derived 
 from such a truly patriotic body as the newly-organized 
 Loyal League of Spouters and Mutual Puffing Society. 
 
 If the readers of the Record are not fully acquainted 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 41 
 
 with the laudable object of those noble-minded and disin- 
 terested men, then they know not the meaning of true pa- 
 triotism. 
 
 The meeting was one of the most enthusiastic ever as- 
 sembled within the aqueous boundaries of our island city ; 
 and the massive walls of Peddlers' Hall resounded again 
 and again to the plaudits of the multitude, as some crush- 
 ing sentence was hurled at the Southern Confederacy, 
 threatening to knock both it and its leaders into the mid- 
 dle of next week, or some " undiscovered bourne whence 
 no traveler returns." — ^hakspeare. 
 
 The stage was crowded with the orators of the occasion, 
 conspicuous among whom we observed the brilliant lights 
 of the American bar, Counselor Van Gabble and Coun- 
 selor O'PuiF, who were accompanied by Major-General 
 Fleece, Honorable John Ketch, and several distinguished 
 members of the learned professions. In front of the stage 
 were displayed a large number of transparencies, bearing 
 patriotic devices and inscriptions, among which the fol- 
 lowing were particularly deserving of notice : 
 
 *' No compromise with IVaitors." 
 
 " Conciliation is a Humbug !" 
 
 ** "We must sustain the President !" 
 
 " The Constitution be blowed !" 
 
 *' The Three Hundred Dollar Conscription Bill forever !" 
 
 One of the branch societies of the Loyal League of 
 Spouters exhibited a new and ingenious device on the 
 American flag, which attracted the admiring gaze of the 
 spectators. Instead of the square blue field on which we 
 see emblazoned the Stars of the Union, was painted a per- 
 fect /ac simile of a United States treasury note; while on 
 another flag, borne by the standard-bearer of .a similar so- 
 ciety, the Goddess of Liberty was represented in a stoop- 
 ing posture, with the last illustrious successor of Washing- 
 ton perched upon her back. 
 
 There was one transparency on which was represented 
 
^g ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 a full-length portrait of a negro, with the following words 
 inscribed beneath : 
 
 *' Am I not a man and a bother ?" 
 
 It will be observed that the r in the last word of the in- 
 scription is omitted ; but this is accounted for by the fact 
 that the sentence was painted by a designing sesesh, who 
 had neither the fear of the President nor martial law be- 
 fore his eyes, and its retention was owing to the other fact, 
 that the early education of the secretary of the society 
 had been sadly selected, and his fellow-members had for- 
 gotten to furnish him with a copy of Webster's School 
 Dictionary. This, however, was not the only bad spell 
 with which he was occasionally afflicted ; for, unlike the 
 majority of creditors in these hard tunes, he was often ob- 
 served to be in a state of liquidation. 
 
 A full band, expressly engaged for the occasion, dis- 
 coursed most eloquent music, and informed the audience 
 in melodious strains that John Brown's peripatetic soul had 
 not yet completed its extraordinary march, and that his 
 body as yet was in no hurry to effect a union w4th it. 
 
 We should have stated that the band was a brass one, 
 a material which, w^e might say, was almost as abundant 
 in the meeting as the greenbacks. But we will not 
 detain our readers any longer from the intellectual treat 
 in store for them, and shall proceed at once, therefore, 
 to lay before them the " feast of reason and the flow of 
 soul." . 
 
 Never before had we such an opj^ortunity of realizing 
 the amount of spirit there is in the New York bar ; but 
 we shall not anticipate the treat. 
 
 The meeting was called to order by Hopeful Dryenuf, 
 who expressed himself highly delighted with the scene be- 
 fore him, and who informed the audience that he had now 
 no doubt whatever of the suppression of the rebellion 
 when he witnessed the grand outpouring of men who were 
 determined to support the Government under any and 
 every circumstance. It w^as a hopeful sign of the times 
 to behold such an enthusiastic demonstration, and to know 
 that the respectable portion of his fellow-citizens whom he 
 had now the pleasure of addressing was in favor of sus- 
 
I^EETEOPOLITAN RECOED. 43 
 
 taming the Administration, and of setting aside the Con- 
 stitution whenever it conflicted with the policy of that 
 Administration . 
 
 A Voice: The Constitution be blowed. (Enthusiastic 
 cheers.) 
 
 Mr. Dryenuf, resuming : That's a patriotic sentiment, 
 and as long as we can find men willing to sacrifice every- 
 thing for the Union, there is no danger of the — 
 
 Another Voice : The Administration. 
 
 Mr. Dryenuf : Yes, sir, the Administration, I say the 
 Administration, and when I say the Administration I mean 
 the Administration. [Here Counselor Van Gabble whis- 
 pered something in the ear of the speaker.] It has just 
 been suggested to me by a distinguished member of the 
 New York bar that there are traitors in this assembly — 
 that there is a secesh among us. 
 
 Loud cries of " Put him out," " Put him out." 
 
 Here the voice of the secesh was heard exclaiming in 
 thunder tones that he was not in the least put out. 
 
 [Great excitement, uproar, and conflision, which was 
 only calmed by two or three enthusiastic committeemen 
 seizing the greenback banner, and waving it in utter defi- 
 ance of the rebellious secesh.] 
 
 Peace having been restored, the Honorable Mr. Dry- 
 enuf expressed the supreme felicity he had in introducing 
 Mr. Musing, of the Daily Abolition Sticky whose verses to 
 a barn-yard fowl are considered by critics to be superior to 
 that celc»brated ode on an expiring frog immortaUzed in 
 the doings of the Pickwick Club. 
 
 After stating that he was rejoiced to see so many 
 Loyal Leaguers and mutual pufiers present, he pleasantly 
 and facetiously informed them that as brevity was the 
 soul of wit, he would not afiulict them with a long speech, 
 preferring to leave that task to others who were more ca- 
 pable. He was, he informed them, unaccustomed to pub- 
 lic speaking, and he hoped, therefore, that they would not 
 expect a speech from him. He was no orator Hke some of 
 those he saw around him. 
 
 A Voice : Louder. 
 
 Here Counselor Van Gabble whispered a few words in 
 the ear of the poic. 
 
'44 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 Mr. Musing : It has been suggested to me by 'a member 
 of the bar, who is distinguished — 
 
 A Voice : Extinguished, you mean. (Vociferous cries 
 from all sides of Peddlers' Hall of " Put that man out ! he's 
 a traitor." More uproar, which was only calmed by the 
 renewed waving of the greenback banner.) 
 
 Mr. Musing, resuming : I said distinguished. 
 
 Two or three voices : You said that before. 
 
 Mr. Musing : Yes, and I'll say it again. I repeat, a 
 distinguished member of the bar has just suggested that 
 the Government must be sustained at every sacrifice. 
 But, gentlemen, as I informed you before, I am not a pub- 
 lic speaker. I can handle the i:>en with more dexterity 
 than the tongue, and you know the pen is mightier than 
 the sword. (Great applause from the speakers and invited 
 guests on the stage.) Yes, gentlemen, I say the pen is 
 mightier than the sword. (Renewed enthusiastic demon- 
 strations from the stage.) - 
 
 A Voice : That's the reason, I suppose, none of you fel- 
 lows take the sword.. (Terrific demonstrations were here 
 made against the invisible voice, and one gallant indi- 
 vidual on the stage informed the Loyal Leaguers and 
 Mutual Pufi'ers that if the owner of that voice could be 
 found, he should be hung without judge or jury, or the 
 benefit of habeas corpus.) 
 
 Mr. Musing, when peace was restored, again told the 
 audience that he was unaccustomed to public speaking, 
 and would have continued to enlighten them on the same 
 subject, were it not for the impatience of the next speaker 
 on the programme, who pulled him so violently by the 
 coat-tails as to seriously eedanger the pole's perpendicu- 
 lar. After informing his audience, therefore, that his 
 feelings were too deep for utterance, and that under the 
 circumstances he felt imable to address them at farther 
 length, he took his seat, and was more vehemently ap- 
 plauded for this act than at any time during his remarks. 
 
 His place was taken by the gentleman who had made 
 such dangerous demonstrations on his coat-tails as to cause 
 serious fears in the mind of the speaker that his caudal ex- 
 tremity would be dislocated. In consequence of this gen- 
 tleman's extreme modesty, we have concluded, out of re- 
 
METROPOLITAN KECOED. 45 
 
 spect to his feelings, not to publish his name, and,- for the 
 same cogent reason, we regret to say we are obliged to 
 omit his speech. However, it may be interesting to know 
 that this gentleman informed an inquisitive Irishman that 
 the people of this country were descended from England, 
 but that there were some Germans who fought " mit 
 Sigel." We may say that a friend of this gentleman fur- 
 nished us with the manuscript of his speech, but our lim- 
 ited space obliges us, however, reluctantly to forego the 
 gratification of presenting it in f^iU to our readers. 
 
 At this part of the proceedings a distinguished Govern- 
 ment official arrived, and informed the President that the 
 Administration was about J,o give out more contracts, and 
 that the patriotic gentlemen to whom those contracts were 
 awarded would be paid without delay. That they might 
 not be kept waiting, it had been concluded by the Admin- 
 istration to retain the pay of the soldiers for this laudable 
 purpose. He further informed the President that the 
 Government currency mills were kept in operation day and 
 night, so that there should be no lack of the great and glo- 
 rious greenbacks. The Government, he further said, had 
 withheld the pay from the soldiers lest, out of disgust for 
 the abolition proclamation, they should incontinently ske- 
 daddle. The President said nothing, but, shutting his 
 sinister eye, gave a wink that expressed volumes. 
 
 One of the Vice-Presidents was heard to say in an under 
 tone that they would stand by the President as long as he 
 had a greenback in the Treasury. 
 
 This pleasant little interlude having terminated, the 
 Honorable Counselor O'PufF, who was said to be a sort 
 of cousin-german in the political line to his professional 
 associate. Honorable Counselor Van Gabble, and who also 
 never forgets to commend himself to the consideration of 
 his audience by humorously informing them that he is a 
 native of the Sixth Ward, and that he can trace his descent 
 from Celtic ancestors, took the floor. 
 
 A Voice : Yes, begorra, and a mighty great descent, too. 
 
 Counselor Van Gabble here came over and whispered 
 something in the legal ear of his brother. 
 
 Counselor O'Puif; It has been suggested to me by my 
 learned friend that L should take no notice of these vulsrar 
 
'46 ARTICLES FEpM THE 
 
 interruptions ; but I must say I will not allow my name to 
 be trifled with, since the Mutual Puffers have done me the 
 honor to use it as the title of their society. 
 
 A Voice : Bah ! what's in a name ? 
 
 (Loud cries of " Put him out," " Hoist him," " Hang 
 him," etc.) 
 
 Counselor O'Puff, deprecatingly, with his right hand 
 waving in magnificent style, and his left feeling about the 
 region of his stomach for his heart, said: Allow me to 
 answer that man. I tell you, sir, there's a great deal in a 
 name, and I, sir, am a hving exemplification of that fact. 
 I have been accused of making too much of my name, and 
 some base enemies of mine have insisted that I am too 
 fond of talking about it ; but I have nothing for them but 
 the language of contempt and of scorn. I know there is 
 some doubt as to the place of my nativity ; but, sir, un- 
 like most other men, I have had two birthplaces, for I 
 have had the good fortune to be a native of Ireland and 
 America at the same time. But, gentlemen, as I can not 
 get rid of yny name^ I must tell you that, imder the cir- 
 cumstances, I think it is a very good one ; and, like Mrs. 
 Micawber, I shall never — no, never — desert the family of 
 the O'Puffs. (Immense cheering.) The South, gentle- 
 men of the Loyal League and Puffing Society, has called 
 us Yankees ; but let me say that I am deadly opposed to 
 the manufacture of wooden hams and nutmegs ; for, how- 
 ever much they may be relished by others, I must say that 
 they don't suit my taste. (This joke of the facetious and 
 witty speaker set the audience in a roar, and afifected the 
 President so much as to bring tears to his eyes. An ob- 
 streperous son of Connecticut who was j^resent took ex- 
 ception to the joke, and insisted that such reflections were 
 highly invidious, and reflected injuriously on two of the 
 most essential articles of commerce from his native State.) 
 The honorable counselor proceeded, and assured the gen- 
 tleman that he was a friend of Connecticut ; that he was 
 an ardent admirer of P. T. Barnum ; that if that State had 
 done nothing else than to give to the world those wonder- 
 ful specimens of the human race, General Tom Thumb and 
 his Liliputian bride, it had laid the world under a debt of 
 gratitude which it could never repay, (This mollified the 
 
METROPOLITAN EECOKD. '47 
 
 native of the Nutmeg State ; and having stated that the 
 apology was satisfactory, and that there would be no oc- 
 casion for either coffee or pistols, he resumed his seat and 
 his temper at the same time.) 
 
 Mr. O'Puff resumed by informing the audience that he 
 was a bachelor himself, and, to use the language of that 
 great creation of Dickens, Saiiy Gamp, "he was not 
 likely." Yet, he must say that no man had a greater re- 
 gard for the fair sex than he ; but his single-blessedness 
 was owing to the difficulty he had in making a choice, for 
 invidious distinctions were a thing that he despised. He 
 had never yet responded to a toast npon " woman," that 
 he had not felt in his heart of hearts that the subject was 
 too much for him. This, however, he must say was a fail- 
 ing of the O'Puff family, for woman was a subject to which 
 he could never do justice. He regretted greatly that he 
 could not agree with the women of the South, and it was 
 a sad thing for him to reflect that they were not in favor 
 of union — to a man. He would say, however, that if the 
 Northern women came out a little stronger in fivor of the 
 Administration, that there would be more Northern men 
 in the field. 
 
 A Voice : Why ain't you in the field ? 
 
 Because, said Mr. O'Puff — 
 
 (Great confusion. • Cries of, " Toss him out I traitor ! 
 secesh !") 
 
 Mr. O'Puff resuming : Gentlemen, let me answer that 
 man. (Loud cries of, *' Go in, O'Puff! Give it to him !") 
 That individual wants to know why I am not in the 
 field. Let me tell him that the reason I am not in the 
 field is because I am here. (" Hurra, hurra, hurra ! 
 O'Puff forever.") 
 
 Having effectually squelched this double dyed traitor, 
 the learned gentleman resumed his seat amid vociferous 
 cheers, in the midst of which his cousin-german, Coun- 
 selor Van Gabble, came over and shook him most affec- 
 tionately by the hand. Whereupon the cheers broke out 
 afresh, and one gentleman on tlie stage clapped his hands 
 BO energetically as to destroy a new pair of kid gloves 
 which he had that morning bought on credit. Another 
 individual was so overcome by his enthusiasm that he 
 
^8 ARTICLES FEOM THE 
 
 pounded a new table, which the proprietor of Peddlers' 
 Hall had purchased the day before, in such a violent man- 
 ner as to arouse the fears of the owner in regard to its 
 safety. The aforesaid proprietor mildly informed him that 
 that very necessary article of domestic furniture had cost 
 him the sum of five dollars, and he further informed him 
 that five dollars were not to be had every day. After 
 furnishing this interesting piece of intelligence, he retired 
 with the most amiable expression of countenance. 
 
 Mr. Mudley Hill followed the last-named speaker, and 
 succeeded in impressing uj^on his audience that he was in 
 favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war. Our rej^orter 
 would have taken full notes of his remarks were it not for 
 the annoyance to which he was subjected by two small 
 boys in his vicinity, one of whom would insist in sticking 
 pins into the other, under the threat that" he would punch 
 him in the head if he would not submit to this innocent 
 and pleasant little means of torture. A red-nosed gentle- 
 man sitting near became seriously perturbed the moment 
 he heard the sound of punchy and mentally resolved that 
 as soon as the meeting was over he would pay the first 
 liquor-dealer he met on his way home to give him 2, punch 
 in the mouth. 
 
 According to the programme, as prepared by a com- 
 mittee of contractors, resolutions of a most patriotic char- 
 acter were read by a large gentleman with a weak voice, 
 who was frequently interrupted by demands of the most 
 unreasonable nature. He was invited to " speak louder," 
 to " raise his voice," to " go it stronger," and to " talk 
 up," all of which invitations, for reasons sufficient to him- 
 self, he was obliged to decline. However, our indefati- 
 gable corps of reporters succeeded in getting a copy from 
 the gentleman on condition that they would print his 
 name ; but we are exceedingly mortified at not being able 
 to perform our part of the contract, in consequence of the 
 treacherous memory of the aforesaid corps of reporters. 
 But here are the resolutions, and they will speak for 
 themselves : 
 
 Whereas, This war has been waged for two years without any pros- 
 pect of conquering the South ; and 
 
 Whereas, Armies numbering in the aggregate fifteen hundred thou- 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 49 
 
 sand men, and money to the amount of nearly fifteen hundred mill- 
 ions of dollars have been freely given by the people ; and 
 
 Whereas, What the people did before, they will most probably do 
 again ; and 
 
 Whereas, It is essential to the policy of the Administration that the 
 Constitution should not be allowed to hamper its movements, and that 
 the liberty of the citizen should be held in abeyance ; and 
 
 Whereas, The war is a very profitable speculation to contractors and 
 officeholders generally ; and 
 
 Whereas, The doctrine of State Rights is an exploded humbug, and 
 Constitutional rights tolerably good things for the age of the Revolu 
 tion, but particularly inappropriate to the present times ; and 
 
 Whereas, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison 
 were all very well for their time but not for our time ; and 
 
 Whereas, We find this war pays splendidly, and is likely to pay as long 
 as it lasts ; and 
 
 Whereas, A minority President should not regard the will of the 
 majority when it coniiicts with administrative patriotism ; and 
 
 Whereas, We have no objection to pay any amount of taxes so long as 
 it comes out of the pockets of the laboring classes ; and 
 
 Whereas, There is a certain class of people in our midst who are oppos- 
 ed to the war for the foolish reason that it can not restore the Union ; and 
 
 Whe7-eas, AVe are bound to support the Administration through thick 
 and thin, against the Constitution, against State Rights, against ha- 
 beas corpus, against the liberty of the press, against the conservative 
 majority of the people, and against popular freedom ; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That this war be continued as long as there is a dollar to 
 be made by contractors and railroad corporations, which do the carry- 
 ing business of the West formerly done on the Mississippi, and that all 
 who are opposed to its vigorous prosecution are traitors, who should 
 be hung on the first lamp-post. 
 
 Resolved, That the conduct of so-called citizens of these United 
 States, in talking of such nonsense as fraternity of feeling with the 
 South, brotherly love, or any such stuff as that, should be judged 
 guilty of disloyalty and high treason, and be forthwith sent to Fort 
 Lafayette, or any of the numerous bastiles throughout the country. 
 
 Resolved, That we, the people of New York, now assembled in Ped- 
 dlers' Hall, hereby figuratively and metaphorically pledge our for- 
 tunes, and also pledge so much as we have left of our influence and 
 honor, to support the Administration in its vigorous and determined 
 efiorts to do something, and especially in its vigorous prosecution of the 
 war and Northern citizens. 
 
 Resolved, That every man injtlie army and navy of the United States 
 must be re-sworn to the support of the Constitution if he should grum- 
 ble about not receiving his pay. 
 
 Resolved, That as the great Lord Castlereagh, so well known to Irish- 
 men, thanked Heaven that he had a country to sell, so we also return 
 thanks that we have a Constitution to violate. 
 
 Resolved, That every citizen owes allegiance to Abraham Lincoln, 
 President of the United States ; and he who denies his authority to do 
 what he pleases, should suffer the penalty due to his crime. 
 
 3 
 
50 
 
 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 Resolved, That the man whose terai of service is about to expire 
 should be compelled to remain until they receive their pay. 
 
 Resolved, That this meeting, having a firm reliance on the Pres- 
 ident and his Secretary of War, hereby resolves itself into a Loyal 
 League of Spouters and Mutual Puffing Society, pledged to an indefinite 
 prolongation of the war, and to the prosecution of all who insist that 
 this Union can be preserved by any other means than the sword and 
 the unlimited issue of greenbacks. 
 
 These resolutions were received with the most un- 
 bounded applause and unanimously adopted, with the ex- 
 ception of four or five obstreperous individuals who would 
 persist, like the President of the United States, in op- 
 posing the will of the majority. The vocal band of the 
 Loyal League of Spouters and Mutual Puffing Society 
 here came forward to the front of the stage, and, silence 
 having been restored, sang the following beautiful and 
 highly expressive song : 
 
 SONG OF TEGE LOYAL LEAGUERS.. 
 
 AiB — " TJie Wedding of Ballyporeen.^^ 
 
 What nonsense to prate about Freedom and Right ; 
 He has freedom enough who has freedom to fight ; 
 So, shoulder your muskets and muzzle your clack. 
 And a war-charger make of each old party hack. 
 
 Then, hurrah for strong, vigorous measures ! 
 
 Hurrah for strong, vigorous measures ! 
 
 Hurrah for strong, vigorous measures ! 
 
 Some good, healthy hanging for me ! 
 
 Down, down with the traitors who clamor for peace ; 
 Make war upon them and our troubles will cease ; 
 Or give them an office and peace they'll forego, 
 For no placemen are peacemen, I'd have you to know ; 
 
 For they go for strong, vigorous measures ! 
 
 They go for strong, vigorous measures ! 
 
 They go for strong, vigorous measures ! 
 
 No peacemen or traitors are they. 
 
 Our Government's strong and our Government's wise, 
 And, mark me ! 'twill soon take the world by surprise ; 
 For I've telegrams got, and this way they run : 
 *' Look out ! something somewhere will shortly be. done !" 
 
 Then, hurrah for strong, vigorous measures ! 
 
 Hurrah for strong, vigorous measures ! 
 
 Hurrah for strong, vigorous measures ! 
 
 Some healthy blood-letting for me ! 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 
 
 51 
 
 At the chorus the whole meeting joined in, and it was 
 mutually resolved that the author of the song should get 
 a place in the Custom-House. When the feelings which 
 had been aroused by this truly patriotic eflfusion of the 
 muse were calmed, the Honorable Codnselor Van Gabble 
 arose and confronted the audience. He said he was a 
 Loyal Leaguer, for loyalty to him had a pleasant sound 
 ever since that happy and festive evening when he tripped 
 on the light fantastic toe with the present incumbent of 
 the English throne. 
 
 In every sense of the word, then, he was a loyal man. 
 (Cries of " Louder !") Mr. Van Gabble : If I am alloined 
 to proceed, my voice will get louder. I know the full 
 compass of my voice, and I know it will reach every part 
 and corner of this building. But before I proceed fur- 
 ther, let me inform you that I am a friend of General 
 Scott, and have dined at the same club-table with him, and 
 if you should have any doubts of this I will send his next 
 letter to me for publication in the Daily Abolition Stick. 
 I approve of everything my friend Mr. O'Puff has uttered, 
 and as you have doubtless observed, I have made sug- 
 gestions to the different speakers in the course of their re- 
 marks — suggestions of a highly patriotic and loyal nature. 
 (Tremendous cheering.) I want you to stand by the Pres- 
 ident in everything ; for, although he has issued his Eman- 
 cipation Proclamation, take my word for it, he is not an 
 abolitionist. In the language of the race-course, let me 
 inform you that he is a cross of Kentucky upon IlUnois. 
 (Applause.) The only question in my judgment worth 
 considering is, how are we to carry on the war ? and this 
 is a question of serious moment, for this is a war not only 
 against the South, but against the Constitution. (Cheers, 
 and cries of " That's it.") I t^ld you some'months ago that 
 I was in favor of liberty of speech — and now I am in favor 
 of liberty of speech for all who support the Administra- 
 tion. I am in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war ; 
 I am in favor of capturing Vicksburg, and if it don't stay 
 captured, I am in favor of capturing it till it does. I 
 know that the Administration has published dispatches 
 driving them out of that fortification, but they wouldn't 
 stay out, and I trust that they will be dispatched at last. 
 
52 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 I am down on peace, and opposed to everybody that is in 
 favor of peace. 
 
 A Voice : Hotv about the " Wayward Sisters ?" (Great 
 laughter.) 
 
 Let me answer that man. I have thought better of 
 that, and I am determined that the Sisters shall do a little 
 more fighting. I was opposed to the last two proclama- 
 tions of the President ; but as he issued them before I had 
 a chance to oppose them, I must say that I am decidedly 
 in favor of them now. I can pick out any number of flaws 
 in the Conscription Law, but I am in favor of every line 
 of it. I don't object to the suspension of the writ of ha- 
 beas corpus ; and although it was not suspended in the 
 war of the Revolution nor in the war of 1812, yet both 
 those wars were successful. So far as the President's 
 proclamation is concerned, I see nothing wrong in it. It 
 is a very good proclamation, and every way Avorthy of the 
 author of that sublime saying, " It is easier to do nothing 
 than it is to do something." 
 
 Here the President whispered something in the speak- 
 er's ear. 
 
 Mr. Van Gabble : It has been suggested to me by our 
 worthy President that such papers as the Metropolitan 
 Pecord, or any other journal that is in favor of such trea- 
 son as the liberty of speech, should be immediately sup- 
 pressed, and its editor sent to Fort Lafayette. (Great 
 applause, and cries of, *' Give it to him. Van Gabble." 
 " Hit him again.") It is gratifying to know that Russia 
 is fivor able tons. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, we can not be 
 too thankful to that nation. Let us trust that the Empe- 
 ror will put down the Poles as we are trying to do with 
 the South, and . that when he gets them down he'll keep 
 them down. In this re.speat there is a common bond of 
 S3aTipathy between us, for if he is opposed to the liberty 
 of the people, so are we. (Cheers.) We are getting 
 nearer to his style of government every day, and it will 
 not be the fault of our worthy President and his statesman- 
 like cabinet if we do not succeed in finally establishing 
 among ourseb es the principles of absolutism. Now, gen- 
 tlemen, I have been accused of being on every side of the 
 question, but let me teU you that it is only by getting on 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 
 
 63 
 
 every side of it that you can tell exactly how it looks. I 
 have now taken my last stand until the next time^ and I 
 shall never disgrace the great name I have inherited from 
 my worthy paternal progenitor. I shall now conclude, 
 gentlemen, and sJiould I receive any more letters, you may 
 depend upon their publication in the Daily Abolition Stick. 
 The learned gentleman here took his seat amid the most 
 uproarious enthusiasm. 
 
 At this stage of the proceedings considerable commo- 
 tion was visible on the stage in consequence of the appear- 
 ance of a committee of gentlemen in favor of a vigorous 
 prosecution of the war. The Chairman desired to address 
 a few words to the meeting, which permission was gen- 
 erously granted by the President. He then came forward 
 and spoke as follows : 
 
 Gentlemen of the Loyal League of Spouters and Mutual 
 Pu%ig Society — In conne-ction with the gentlemen who 
 have accompanied me, I have been deputed by a number 
 of the loyal citizens of this metropolis to make a proposi- 
 tion to this meeting which, I have no doubt, will prove 
 highly acceptable. (Cries of, "Hear him — hear him !") 
 
 Gentlemen, this is a large meeting ; there must at least 
 be three thousand persons present. 
 
 A Voice : More than that. 
 
 Well, gentlemen, are you all in favor of a vigorous 
 prosecution of the war ? (Loud cries of, " We are — we 
 •are.") Will you go for the President right or wrong ? 
 (Loud cries of, " We will — we will.") That, gentlemen, 
 is what I call true patriotism. (Cheers.) Now, then, gen- 
 tlemen, I am commissioned to say, that as you are in lavor of 
 a vigorous prosecution of the war, and of sustaining the Pres- 
 ident right or wrong, the patriotic gentlemen by whom we 
 are commissioned have pledged themselves to provide every 
 man of you with a uniform and a musket, and to pay your 
 expensed all the way down to the army of the Potomac. 
 
 Great consternation was caused by this announcement 
 among the audience, in the midst of which a large portion 
 of it, finding the place inconveniently warm, succeeded in 
 getting into the fresh air with extraordinary rapidity. 
 Mr. Van Gabble, Mr. O'Puff, Mr. Mudley Hill, and sev- 
 eral other prominent supporters of the Government, with 
 
fy ARTICLES FEOM THE 
 
 astonishing unanimity sprang to their feet and moved for 
 an immediate adjournment, which the President put to the 
 meeting without further delay; and having taken the ayes, 
 conduded, without regard to the nays, that the meeting 
 was adjourned. 
 
 Thus ended the great mass meeting at Peddlers' Hall, 
 Bunkum Square ; and thus may all who are in favor of a 
 vigorous prosecution of the war escape the designs of 
 deep-dyed traitors, who imagine that a man can not sus- 
 tain the Administration as well in the Post-Office or Cus- 
 tom-House as on the field of battle. None but a secesh 
 can understand that if an anaconda is necessary to squeeze 
 the life out of the South, it is not equally necessary that 
 the life of the North should be squeezed out by boa-con- 
 
 TKACTOES. 
 
 [Note by Eeporter. — It is only a tribute to true merit and patriot- 
 ism to state that the conduct of Counselors O'PufF and Van Gamble is 
 beyond all praise, particularly when it is known that to serve the Ad- 
 ministration they have not hesitated to forego all prospects of po- 
 litical promotion hereafter.] 
 
 SOME PLAIN TALK. 
 
 (From the IMetropolitan Kecord of April 18, 18G3.) 
 
 It is now two years since the war commenced, and we 
 are to-day further than ever from the attainment of the 
 object which the Administration is said to have in view — 
 the restoration of the Union. Armies, numbering in the 
 aggregate fourteen or fifteen hundred thousand men, and 
 money to the amount of about fifteen hundred millions of 
 dollars, have been' placed at the disposal of the President ; 
 and yet, with all our boasted superiority in population and 
 material resources, we have less chance to-day of reducing 
 the South to submission than we had when the first gun 
 was fired at Fort Sumter. 
 
 We ask any candid man if this is not a fair, though brief 
 statement of the relative positions occupied at present by 
 the North and the South ? Still we are told, " this war 
 must go on ; we are in for it now, and we can not, if we 
 would, make peace short of national disgrace and humilia- 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 65 
 
 tion." " What !" says an enthusiastic Loyal Leaguer, 
 " shall we submit to Jeff D-avis ? Shall we sue to the 
 rebel South for peace ? No, sir ; this war must go on, 
 even if Ave were to shed the last drop of our blood and 
 spend our last dollar." Now, let us remark that the man 
 who talks in this inflated strain is the very last to think 
 of shedding the first drop of his own blood, or to spend 
 the first dollar of his own money, unless, indeed, he be 
 compelled to do so by the unlucky chances of the conscrip- 
 tion lottery. In fact, we are inclined to think that if he 
 could save the expense through the favoritism of the War 
 Department, he would be most happy to place himself 
 upon the list of exempts. 
 
 So much, then, for the sincerity of those who clamor for 
 the continuance of this melancholy, this fratricidal war — a 
 war, not for the restoration of the country, but for the 
 continued power and domination of a faction. But how is 
 it with the great body of the people ? Are they still in 
 favor of a perpetuation of a conflict which threatens the 
 establishment of a permanent military despotism, and 
 which is ah-eady pressing with terrible weight upon the 
 laboring classes of the country ? We sincerely believe 
 that they are not, and that if they were presented with 
 the opportunity of giving their decision, it would be in 
 favor of an armistice with a view to a peaceful settlement 
 of the armed controversy now waging between the two 
 sections. We beheve, moreover, that they have lost all 
 confidence in the Administration, and that the last hope 
 of a restoration of the Union through war has departed 
 from the great popular heart. 
 
 It is true that the so-called leaders of the people are op- 
 posed to the suspension of hostilities ; but let us ask, do 
 they really speak for the people ? Have they been com- 
 missioned as their mouthpieces to give expression to such 
 views ? For our own part we must say, that they do not 
 express the feelings of the great majority of the Northern 
 masses in regard to the prolongation of the war. Many 
 of them have not the manliness nor the courage to say 
 what they really believe, that the longer continuance of 
 this war will render the restoration of the Union here- 
 after an impossibility, This is no time for mincing tho 
 
56' ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 matter. We have had enough of temporizing and polit- 
 ical hypocrisy, and it is full time to look the question 
 squarely in the face without flinching, no matter what the 
 timid or nervous may say. 
 
 This is no longer war. It is slaughter ; it is rapine, and 
 the acts that have come to light lately show a vandalism 
 that reflects the deepest disgrace on a nation which pro- 
 fesses to he Christian. We have had enough of expe- 
 diency, enough of time-serving, enough of hypocritical 
 professions of loyalty, and we must at last deal with the 
 hard facts of the case. In the first jDlace, the past two 
 years should satisfy us of two things — that the military 
 subjugation of the South *s an impossibility ; and in the 
 second, that the present disunion Administration can not 
 restore the Union. These are the two leading facts pre- 
 sented by a consideration of the case ; but there are some 
 others which we propose to review before dismissing the 
 subject for the present, and we shall submit them in the 
 following brief, but, we trust, sufficiently comprehensive 
 and intelligible manner. 
 
 The people of the South are at the present time more 
 hostile to the old Union than they were two years, or even 
 one year ago. This result has been brought about by the 
 Abolition and sectional policy of the Administration. 
 
 The restoration of" the Union by war was a departure 
 from the well-known policy of conciliation and compro- 
 mise, and was calculated to render division permanent. 
 
 The invasion of the South was the maddest project eter 
 devised by .men professing to be statesmen, inevitably 
 leading, as it has done, to the consolidation of the South- 
 ern States into a unit for the purpose of determined and 
 aggressive resistance. 
 
 The people of the North have lost all trust and confi- 
 dence in the Administration — a fact which is attributable 
 to its unconstitutional course and its utter incompetency. 
 
 The upopuiarity of an unjust, a one-sided, and oppress- 
 ive Conscription Act which discriminates between the rich 
 and the poor, in favor of the former and against the 
 latter. 
 
 ' The repulse sustained at Fredericksburg, at Port Hud- 
 son, at Vicksburg, Charleston, and other places. 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 57 
 
 The mad' and wicked policy of supposing that Ameri- 
 cans could conquer Americans, or that the freemen of the 
 South could be subdued by an Abolition faction, or ^vould 
 ever submit to an Administration which set at defiance nU. 
 constitutional restraints, and obstinately refused to oifer 
 any terms of conciliation or compromise. 
 
 The Confiscation Act, which placed the property of our 
 Southern fellow-citizens at the disposal of courts which 
 had no constitutional existence, and at the mercy of such 
 men as he w^ho brought disgrace npon the national char- 
 acter and a stain npon the national flag by his inhuman 
 course as military governor of JSTew' Orleans. 
 
 The burning of cities, the wanton destruction of private 
 property, as in the case of Jacksonville. 
 
 The emancipation of slaves, and the overthrow of State 
 limits. 
 
 In these facts are to be found some of the prominent 
 causes which are daily widening the chasm between the 
 Korth and the South, and which will render union, even 
 in the far-distant future, almost an impossibility. 
 
 Now, we say, in consideration of all these facts, the 
 feelings of the people should not be disguised. If their 
 so-called leaders are prevented by expediency, or by polit- 
 ical hypocrisy, from a fixir and candid exposition of their 
 views and opinions, and if the Administration should be 
 deceived (w^hich we think is not at all probable) by them 
 as to the real sentiments of the masses, they may be made 
 aware of it by the most terrific popular revolution that 
 ever convulsed a country. Let us not be misunderstood in 
 this matter. We deprecate anything like an armed up- 
 rising of the people so long as they are left the freedom 
 of discussion in public meetings, and the right of deciding 
 on public questions through the ballot-box. But have we 
 not been made painfully aw^are already that even the 
 ballot-box is not sacred from the invasion and encroach- 
 ments of the faction in power ? It is but a few days since 
 the democratic voters in Indianapolis were driven from 
 the poUs by soldiers who it is said w^ere sent there for that 
 very purpose ; while in Connecticut it is insisted that the 
 volunteers of the Union army, whose political principles 
 were previouslv subjected to a test, were employed by the 
 
 3* 
 
58 AETICLES FEOM THE 
 
 Administration in voting down a political opponent whoso 
 peace principles had rendered him obnoxious to the war 
 party. 
 
 Well may we fear for social order in the Northern 
 States. Well may the voice of warning be raised against 
 a policy that, if persisted in, will, it is justly feared, bring 
 civil war and anarchy into the North. If we would avert 
 such a calamity, we must have peace — hot a humiliating 
 peace, but a peace between two belUgerent powers, who, 
 after having tried in vain to end the controversy by the 
 sword, might justly resort to an armistice as a much more 
 reasonable course of settling the question. To this wo 
 must come at last. The sword will never solve the diffi- 
 culty. Let us then have peace. Surely the faction that 
 rules at Washington has had enough of blood-letting. 
 Surely the pohtical cormorants have had enough of public 
 plunder. 
 
 The prolongation of this war will inevitably lead to 
 despotism. Which do we prefer — to let the South go, or 
 to lose our own liberties in an attempt to force it un- 
 willingly into a union with us; and when to keep it in 
 such a imion Ave would require an army of occupation in 
 every Southern State numbering at least a million of men ? 
 For our own part we must say that we prefer liberty to 
 Union on such terms, and if that be treason, make the 
 most of it. 
 
 "NOBODY'S HURT." 
 
 {From the Metropoltan EECOiiD,^j?nZ 18, 1863.) 
 
 Two years ago the United States were at the summit 
 of earthly prosperity. Kingdoms gray with centuries 
 sought its alliance ; nations whose record was the history 
 of civilization gazfed with wonder on the new star that 
 appeared in the political firmament ; the oppressor looked 
 to it with wondering dread, and the oppressed with yearn- 
 ing love and reverence. In every tongue it was a syno- 
 nym for freedom, and its example fired the heart and 
 nerved the arm of struggling patriots in every land. 
 
 \ 
 
METEOPOLITAN KEOOED. 59 
 
 America ! the very name suggested images of smiling 
 peace and plenty — a land flowing with milk and honey — 
 a people prosperous and contented — honored abroad and 
 happy at home. No citizen of Rome, in Rome's palmiest 
 days, bore a prouder title than he who hailed from the 
 Republic of the West. Then an American citizen meant 
 a freeman^— one who owned no lord, " saving the Lord on 
 high," who held his rights at the option of no petty des- 
 pot, Avho owed allegiance only to his country and fealty 
 only to his God. From Maine to Texas, from the Atlan- 
 tic to the Pacific seaboard, resounded the hum of thriving 
 industry, for peace was within our borders, and we were 
 at peace with the world without. Two short years ago 
 we might have defied the world in arms ; now we tremble 
 at the thought of intervention. Two short years ago the 
 complications in European politics were of no account to 
 us, save when our sympathies were aroused by the gallant 
 struggle of some oppressed nationality ; now, we look to 
 these uprisings as a providential diversion in our favor, 
 and calculate the eflect they will have on the duration and 
 ultimate result of our war of the sections. Why is this ? 
 and why is there sorrow in our dwellings and wailing 
 throughout the land ? " JVbbodt/^s hurtP 
 
 " Nobody's hurt !" Yet, on the plains and in the val- 
 leys of Virginia fell thousands upon thousands of Ameri- 
 can citizens, whose death left a gap in many a fireside 
 circle, an aching void in many a desolate heart, who died 
 without religious consolation or medical aid — without the 
 soothing ministrations of friends or the loving care of kin- 
 dred — amid the horrors of battle, with the sound of car- 
 nage, or the rush of charging squadrons, or the groans 
 of wounded comrades in their ears, with the earth for a 
 pillow and the wind for a requiem. 
 
 "Nobody's hurt!" Yet, from the waters of the ]VIis- 
 sissippi, from the harbor of Charleston, and from the 
 waves of the ocean and the Gulf comes up a gurghng cry, 
 heard faintly and at intervals amid the iron storm that 
 lashes the waters into frenzy, and this cry gives the lie 
 direct to the axiomatized untruth. 
 
 " Nobody's hurt !" Yet, every day our forces dwindle 
 and our Army of the Dead increases ; for Death has is- 
 
60 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 sued a Gonscription Bill^ and he draios his quota chiefly 
 fro')n our great 'military centers. 
 
 " Nob-ody's hurt !" Yet, there is grief in wooden 
 shanties and brown-stone mansions, in town and country, 
 at home and abroad. Our troubles have paralyzed the 
 manufactures of England, they have discouraged the com- 
 mcice of France, they have violently changed the course 
 of European emigration. But what of that ? " Nobody's 
 hurt !" North and South are bleeding at every pore ; the 
 hfe-blood of the nation is oozing out drop by drop, im- 
 mense tracts are laid waste, fertile districts are depopu- 
 lated, the national prestige is lost, the national wealth dissi- 
 pated, the national credit destroyed, the national honor tar- 
 nished, but — nobody'' s hurt. That glorious anti-climax reas- 
 sures us, "Nobody's hurt !" Hark, how the echoing chorus 
 swells from Manassas and Fredericksburg, from Shiloh and 
 Antietam, from Vicksburg and New Orleans, from the Po- 
 tomac and the Mississippi. " NOBODY^S HURT ! !" 
 
 Tell it to that miserable woman, with her helpless, 
 starving family ; tell it to those orphans thrown upon the 
 cold charity of an unfeeling world, or to that old man 
 trembling on the brink of the grave, or to those troops of 
 maimed and wounded soldiers who are thrown back upon 
 their State like so much damaged goods — tell them, if you 
 dare, that " nobody's hurt." Tha't woman's husband went 
 down in the ill-fated Cumberland ; those children's father 
 fell at Edward's Ferry ; that old man's sole support was 
 trampled under the hoofs of Stuart's cavalry; that wounded 
 soldier lost his arm where many a gallant comrade lost his 
 life, on the banks of the bloody Rappahannock. Tell them 
 " nobody's hurt." 
 
 And when you have had the moral hardihood to do 
 that, then turn to the Administration, every member of 
 which, from the President down to the lowest officer, has 
 lost character and reputation, the respect of the civilized 
 world, and the regard of their fellow-citizens ; lost not 
 only political capital, but political life; and tell them 
 " nobody's hurt." It is probable they could understand 
 the force of the saying better to-day than two short years 
 ago. Then they were starting on their four-years' cruise, 
 elate and sanguine ; now they lie stranded on the break- 
 
IkEETROPOLITAN RECOED. 61 
 
 ers, the good ship Constitution battered on all sides, the 
 crew fearfully diminished, the supplies gone, the reckoning 
 lost. Now ring in their ears the mocking cry with which 
 they started — " JSTobody's hurt." 
 
 PEACE ! 
 
 {From the Metropolitan Record, April 25, 1863.) 
 
 The country is sick of this aimless, brutal slaughter, and 
 yearns for peace. From every desolate homestead, where 
 widowed mothers and fatherless children dwell in the des- 
 titution of uncared-for, unthought-of penury ; from every 
 battle-field in whose festering trenches lie the tens of thou- 
 sands drawn from the peaceful army of labor by the C07i- 
 scription of death ; from an over-taxed, despot-ridden 
 population ; from the ranks of industry, for which the 
 Conscript Act was exclusively designed ; from the pros- 
 trate commerce of our Atlantic sea-board, and the profit- 
 less agriculture of the teeming West, arises the imperative 
 demand for peace. The people are now aware that the 
 war can never restore the Union ; that they have been 
 cruelly deceived ; that the men whom they raised to the 
 highest official positions have abused the confidence re- 
 posed in them ; that their money is squandered to swell 
 the wealth of political harpies ; that the brave men who 
 went forth to fight for the Union have been sacrificed to 
 the fell spirit of Abolitionism ; and that after a two years' 
 war we are no nearer the restoration of the Union than we 
 were at its commencement. It is, we believe, no exagge- 
 ration to say that nearly half a million of men have been 
 killed outright upon the battle-field, have died of their 
 wounds, and of diseases incident to camp fife, or have been 
 flung, maimed for life, dependents on their friends or the 
 benevolence of the public. All this they know ; and they 
 know, moreover, from the painful experience of the past, 
 that the j^ame incompetency, the same imbecility, the same 
 official corruption, the same fanaticism, the same disregard 
 of popular opinion, the same reckless expenditure of blood 
 
62 AKTICLES mOM THE 
 
 and money, the same heartless indifference for their bleed- 
 ing country, prevails at this moment among the authori- 
 ties in Washington. From those they have nothing to 
 hope, and they must, therefore, look to themselves for the 
 remedy. They have learned, as their first political lesson, 
 that this is a Government of the people ; that they are the 
 source of all power, and that their officials are their ser- 
 vants, bound by the most solemn obligations to do their 
 will, as contained and expressed in the Constitution and 
 laws of the land. Knowing this, and knowing also that 
 the Constitution has been put aside, has been set at defi- 
 ance, they should rouse themselves to meet the emergency ; 
 they should assemble in rhass meetings all over the coun- 
 try, until the j:>opular voice, increasing in volume as the 
 great movement goes on, should reverberate in thunder 
 tones throughout the land, so that even official deafness 
 should hear, and hearken to the demand for peace. 
 
 We know there are some who have grown supine and 
 hopeless ; who say that the war can not be stayed ; that it 
 will be carried on during the whole term of the present 
 Administration. 
 
 It is true that we have become reckless in the waste of 
 human life, that we who shrank from the very idea of civil 
 war have come to regard it as a matter of course, that it 
 has become, as it w^ere, a fixed subject in our daily habits 
 of thought, and it is also true that, if we don't take care, 
 the new interests which have sprung up — which have in- 
 creased, and which now depend upon the continuance of 
 the war for their very existence — will render the re-estab- 
 lishment of peace a work of serious difficulty. But, after 
 all, there is a bright side to the subject. The election re- 
 turns which reach us week by week- give unmistakable 
 evidence in their conservative course of the change that is 
 taking place in the public mind. Despite the efforts of 
 Government officials, despite the intermeddling of the Ad- 
 ministration with State elections, despite the operations 
 and infiueuce of shoddy and other contractors who dis- 
 charge the honest workman that dares to vote as his con- 
 science dictates, despite the threats of a General-in-Chief 
 who tells the peace men of the JsTorth that he will crush 
 them out with military force — despite, we say, of all this, 
 
METKOPOLITAN RECORD. 63 
 
 the people are resolved that they will be heard at the Cap- 
 ital of the Nation, aiid that a war which is now carried on 
 mainly for the benefit of political partisans and Abolition- 
 ists must soon come to an end. No matter what desperate 
 efforts may be made through official machinery to revive 
 the war enthusiasm which two years ago swept over the 
 land like a plague, no matter what scheming and chicanery 
 may be re^rted to in the way of Loyal Leagues and so- 
 called Union Meetings, the people have had enough of war, 
 and are now thoroughly convinced that blood-letting is no 
 panacea for the ills of the Nation. 
 
 We tell the Administration that the game of war can not 
 be played any longer ; that, like every other species of 
 gambling, it requires capital, and that the great public 
 credit upon which they have drawn so largely will shortly 
 refuse to honor their drafts. The ingenious scheme of 
 tliree-montlis-political promissory notes has been tried too 
 often and has been found not to pay. In fact, the balance 
 of interest is on the wrong side of the account. A de- 
 pleted population, a bankrupted credit, an imbecile Ad- 
 ministration, incompetent generals, a dissatisfied army, an 
 over-taxed and discontented j^eople — all of these form ra- 
 ther unreliable supports in the further prosecution of the 
 war. We would, therefore, advise the President and his 
 Cabinet seriously to reflect upon the circumstances in \^•hich 
 they are placed, and to make up their mind before it is too 
 late — before the failure of the Conscription Act — to take 
 such preliminary measures as are necessary to bring about 
 peace. There is no disguising the fact that the attempt to 
 abolitionize the war has created a wide-spread feeling of 
 discontent throughout the army, while Vicksburg, Port 
 Hudson, and, lastly, the terrible disaster at Charleston, 
 have satisfied the North that the men of 'the South have 
 inherited from their revolutionary sires that unconquerable 
 spirit, that indomitable w^ill that knows no yielding. 
 
 Let us ask ourselves would we not fight to the last gasp 
 against an invading army, and would not the sight of ruined 
 homes, burning cities, and desecrated churches arouse in 
 our breasts the same feelings which have thus far rendered, 
 and which will continue to render, the military conquest 
 of the South an impossibiUty. No man who possesses a 
 
^ 
 
 64 ARTICLES FKOM THE 
 
 heart can refuse his admiration to the spectacle of a gallant 
 people engaged in a struggle for what they regard as the 
 cause of national independence, and the right to live under 
 that form of government which they are resolved to main- 
 tain at every sacrifice. Seven or eight millions of a popu- 
 lation successfully contending against a section of the con- 
 tinent numbering at least twenty-two millions, is some- 
 thing of a disproportion ; but then it must be/emembered 
 that they are united, and that they are fighting against an 
 Administration which had its origin in the spirit of dis- 
 union. Let us at once admit that we can never conquer 
 such a people, and accept the inevitable consequence which 
 must follow from the admission — Peace. To this it will 
 be objected that peace is recognition y' but that is not the 
 view we take of it. We desire to have peace as the only 
 'ineans left of develo2nng a Union se7itinient in the South. 
 And here let us say that the invasion of that section of our 
 country not only overwdielmed that element, but brought 
 about a union of the whole South against the Union. Any 
 policy leading to such a result should have been rejected 
 by the Administration. Invasion of sovereign States, even 
 under the provocation of the attack on Fort Sumter, should 
 wever have been determined upon. The Southern leaders 
 knew well that the appearance of an invading army upon 
 the soil of the South would arouse a feeling of indignation 
 that would unite their whole people against the Xorth. 
 What, then, it may be asked, should have been the course 
 of the President under the circumstances ? Recognizing 
 the pecuHar character of our Government, and the fact 
 that it is the representative of aggregate Sovereignties, 
 his course should have been that of conciliation and com- 
 promise. The idea of the dignity of the country being at 
 stake, and having been insulted by an assault upon the na- 
 tional flag, is nothing more or less than nonsense, and the 
 time that has been made about it is simply political clap- 
 trap. It was not insulted by a foreign power ; but v/e 
 should never forget that we have been subjected to more 
 humiliation and disgrace by the men at Washington, whom, 
 unfortunately in an evil hour, w^e intrusted with the desti- 
 nies of the Republic. If we are in search of insults, let 
 us not look for them among our own countrymen of the 
 
METROPOLITAN KECOED. 65 
 
 South, but ratlier amoug those who were the allies and 
 basoiii friends of the Abolitionists, the British enemies of 
 the llepubUc, who are now building privateers to prey 
 upon our commerce, and who find in the fanatics who rule 
 at the National Capital the strongest adherents of their 
 " divide-and-ruin" policy. Insult ! Who could insult 
 freemen more than those who have prostrated our blood- 
 bought rights ? who fling scorn and contempt on the mar- 
 tyred heroes of the Revolution by telling us that the Con- 
 stitution which they gave their lives to establish is " a 
 leage with Death and a covenant with Hell ?" Away, then, 
 with this cant about insult, and our iSTational honor having 
 been trampled in the dust. If the men of the North have 
 been beaten again and again upon Southern battle-fields, it 
 has been done by Americans and not by a foreign power, 
 and let it be remembered that they have been beaten, too, 
 while' fighting under an Abolition Administration. It is 
 not because the men of the South are more brave than 
 those of the North, but because of the difierence in the 
 characters of the leaders of both sections. 
 
 We know with what success this trick about the insult 
 to our flag was practiced upon the too sensitive credulity 
 of the North, leading it astray from tlie only wise and pol- 
 itic course, which was that of patience and forbearance. 
 We now say what we have always believed from the very 
 beginning, that if the South had been appealed to by the 
 memories of the Revolution to sustain the Union which 
 had been formed by Northern and- Southern men, there 
 would have been aroused such a feeling of love and devo- 
 tion to it throughout the whole South as would have over- 
 borne all op2)osition. 
 
 But if the men at, Washington have proved false to the 
 country and to their solenm pledges, we must at least do 
 them the credit to say that they were true to their own in- 
 stincts. Some of the very members of the present Ad- 
 ministration were in favor of disunion. . They were not 
 only in favor of disunion, but the present Secretary of 
 State, in a speech which he delivered a few months previ- 
 ous to the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, drew a glowing 
 picture of the progress and destiny of the two Republics. 
 The North was to extend its dominions to a point some- 
 
66 AKTICLES FROM THE 
 
 where near the region of the IsTorth Pole ; while the South, 
 in its progress of annexation, was to absorb Mexico, and, 
 if we mistake not, its extreme southern boundary was to be 
 only Hmited by the land of fire — the Terra del Fuego of 
 the Western Hemisphere. We wonder if that is really 
 the end that both he and the President have in view by 
 the prosecution of this Abolition war. 
 
 Stephen A. Douglas, in the great anti-war speech wliich 
 he delivered in the United States Senate on the 15th of 
 March, 1861, the last official act of his life, made use of 
 the following language : 
 
 War is disunion. War is final, eternal separation. * * * * j have 
 too much respect for any man that has standing enough to he elected 
 a Senator, to believe that he is for war, as a means for preserving the 
 Union. I have too much respect for his intellect to believe, for one 
 moment, that there is a man for war who is not a disunionist per se. Hence 
 I do not mean, if I can prevent it, that the-enemies of the Union — men 
 plotting to destroy it — shall drag this country into ivar under the pretext of protect- 
 ing the public property, and enforcing the laws, and collecting revenue, when their 
 object is disunion and war the means of accomplishing a cherished purpose. * * * 
 Peace is the only policy that can save the country. Let peace be proclaimed 
 as the policy, and you will find that a thrill of joy will animate the 
 heart of every patriot in the land ; confidence will be restored ; busi- 
 ness will be revived ; joy will gladden every heart ; bonfires will blaze 
 upon the hill-tops and in the valleys, and the church bells will pro- 
 claim the glad tidings in every city, town, and village in America, and 
 the applause of a grateful people will greet you everywhere. Proclaim 
 the policy of ivar, a?}d there will be gloom and sadness and despair pictured upon 
 the face of every patriot in the land. A tear of kindred, family, and friends ; 
 father against son, mother against daugliter, brother against brother, to subjugate 
 one half of this country into obedience to the other half ; if you do not mean this, 
 if you mean peace, let th>s be adopted, and give the President the opportunity, 
 through the Secretary of War, to speak the word ' ' peace ;' ' and thirty million 
 of .people ivill bless him with their prayers and honor him with their shouts of joy. 
 
 But the late Mr: Douglas did not stand alone in his opin- 
 ion with regard to the eflects and consequences of a civil 
 war, for we find that exactly five days before he delivered 
 this speech in the Senate, the present Secretary of State, 
 William H. Seward — he, whose higher law and irrepressi- 
 ble-conflict doctrines have aided in bringing such untold 
 woes upon the country — he, the chief adviser of the Pres- 
 ident — addressed a letter to Mr. Adams, United States 
 Minister to England, from which we take the following 
 extract : 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 6T 
 
 For these reasons he (the President) could not be disposed to reject 
 A CARDINAL DOGMA OF THEIRS (^the seccding States)— namely, that the 
 Federal Government could not reduce the seceding States to obe- 
 dience BY conquest, even ALTHOUGH HE WAS DISPOSED TO QUESTION THE 
 
 PROPOSITION. BUT IN FACT THE • PRESIDENT WILLINGLY AC- 
 CEPTS IT AS TRUE. ONLY AN IMPERIAL OR DESPOTIC GOV- 
 ERNMENT COULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO SUBJUGATE DISAF- 
 FECTED AND INSURRECTIONARY STATES. THIS FEDERAL 
 REPUBLICAN SYSTEM OF OURS IS, OF ALL FORMS OF GOV- 
 ERNMENT, THE VERY ONE WHICH IS MOST UNFITTED FOR 
 SUCH A LABOR. 
 
 Nqw, when it is understood that the letter from which 
 we make this extract was written one day before the 
 BOMBARDMENT OF FORT ^MTEE, it bccomes at once a mat- 
 ter of surprise how the country was ever pUmged into the 
 present disastrous and melancholy conflict. With a Secre- 
 tary of State Avho insisted that the President " could not 
 be disposed to reject a cardinal dogma of theirs (the seced- 
 ing -States), that the Federal Government could not re- 
 duce the seceding States to obedience by conquest" — with 
 this admission from the chief official adviser of the Presi- 
 dent, is it not extraordinary how we ever plunged, or were 
 plunged, into this inhuman, this fratricidal war ? However, 
 the Administration itself will have to answer one of these 
 days to the. people for the manner in which it has' dis- 
 charged its trust. 
 
 For our own part, we have always regarded the Union 
 as a Union of free-will^ and not of force^ and we never 
 entertained any other thought but that the attempt to weld 
 together its broken fragments with the sword Avould ren- 
 der its restoration impossible. Nay, more, we never be- 
 lieved, and we defy any one to prove to us^ either from tJie 
 Constitution or from the writings of the great statesmen 
 of the Revolution^ that there is any authority for bringing 
 back by military force any seceding States. To be sure, there 
 is a power inherent in the Government for the suppression of 
 insurrection ; but as Alexander Hamilton said in the con- 
 vention held in New York for the ratification of the Con- 
 stitution of the United States : " It must be utterly repug- 
 nant to this Constitution to subvert the State Governments 
 or oppress the people. The coercion of States is one of 
 the maddest projects that was ever devised. This being 
 the case, can we suppose it wise to hazard a civil vvai* ? It 
 would be a nation at war with itself." 
 
 I 
 
(So ARTICLES T-'ROM THE 
 
 This was the language of a man who loved his countiT'. 
 Such a thing as coercion he regarded with abhorrence, for 
 " it would be a nation at war with itself" What a fearful 
 departure has taken place from the principles that governed 
 the nation in his time ! We have indeed fallen on gloomy 
 days. We have no statesman to whom the country can 
 look in this its day of peril and disaster. 
 
 But, courage ! Let us not forget the lessons of the past ; 
 let us not ignore the political teachings of the men of the 
 Kevolution ; and if Abolitionism has destroyed the old 
 Union, let us resolve at least to live at peace on the same 
 continent with the brave men of^he South whom we were 
 once proud to call our fellow-citizens ; for between them 
 and us, despite the memories of this melancholy war, there 
 should be none but that fraternity of feehng which has its 
 origin in a common ancestry, a common language, and a 
 common destiny. 
 
 The return of peace Avill bring with it the return of bet- 
 ter feehngs, and even if we should not have the old Union 
 restored, the natural instincts which bind even the lower 
 order of animals together in defense against a conniion 
 enemy, will in time bring about an alliance between the 
 IS'orth and South against the intrigues and encroachments 
 of foreign powers upon this continent, that will, let us 
 trust, eventually lead to a more permanent Union than that 
 which the Abolitionists have destroyed. 
 
 MODEL RESOLUTIONS FOR THE LOYAL LEAGUERS. 
 
 {From the Metkopolitan Kecord, April 25, 1863.) 
 
 As these patriots are now manifesting their courage in 
 behalf of the Union, not on the battle-held, but on the 
 bloodless rostrum, they should receive all the assistance 
 possible to enable' them to carry on their arduous labors. 
 We have endeavored to give them some in preparing the 
 following resolutions, which we humbly present for their 
 acceptance, with the simple request that they be read at 
 the next mass meeting held in the city of New York ; 
 
METEOPOLTTAN RECORD. 69 
 
 Wheref;is, It is impossible to end this war in two years ■with the com- 
 paratively insignificant force which we have had at different times of 
 fifteen hundred thousand men and the fifteen hundred millions already 
 spent ; and 
 
 Whereas, There is a militia force of nearly four million of men in 
 the free States yet to be sacrificed to Abolition designs and i)olicy ; and 
 
 Whereas, If we can carry out the Conscription Bill without 'opposi- 
 tion, we may finally succeed in establishing a military despotism ; and 
 
 Whereas, Finding it impossible to subjugate the South, we must try 
 how far we can succeed in our efforts to subjugate the North ; and 
 
 Whe7-eas, Republicanism is played out, the people having shown a 
 willingness to submit to every species of tyranny ; and 
 
 Whereas, The soldiers got the better of tlie citizens in Connecticut, 
 succeeded in driving them away from the polls in Indianapolis, and 
 have destroyed several newspi}{)er oflices throughout the country ; and 
 
 Whereas, If the principles of the Constitution are ever permitted to 
 prevail, our future prospects are particularly gloomy ; and , 
 
 Whereas, If the worst comes to the worst, we have made enough out 
 of war speculations to live magnificently in foreign lands ; and 
 
 Whereas, We don't care a straw for a union with slaveholders ; and 
 
 Whe/eas, The irrepressible conflict and higher-law doctrines form the 
 only political creed worth supporting ; and 
 
 Whereas, We must play upon the feelings of the Irish people, and 
 take advantage of their national animosity toward England by threat- 
 ening a war with that country which we never intend to go into ; and 
 
 Whereas, Consulting the interests of our faithful friends, the shoddy 
 contractors, and the numerous other classes who are maldng money by 
 this war, we must carry it on as long as we can ; and 
 
 Whereas, We are determined to do all we can to prevent a reunion 
 by burning down towns, sacking churches, inciting negroes to insur- 
 rection, violating the most sacred guarantees of the Constitution, 
 ignoring the memories of the past, confiscating the property of South- 
 ern born men, threatening to overthroAV every right dear to American 
 citizens, making slaves of those who have gloried in the proud title of 
 freemen, forcing the negroes from the slavery of the South into the 
 Northern atmosphere of social prejudice, driving the Western States 
 into a position of antagonism with the Union, converting the forts 
 built for the defense of the country into prisons for the incarceration 
 of American citizens, making the Republic a mockery in the eyes of 
 the world, flinging discredit on, and creating distrust in, the principle 
 of self-government : therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That we shall require the whole four millions of men who 
 compose the militia of the Free States to be conscripted for the over- 
 throw of slavery, and it may be " the twin evil of Popery," the sup- 
 pression of the freedom of the Press, the establishment of military 
 plantations in the South — when we conquer it — the subjugation of the 
 North, ichen the proper time comes, the establishment of a monarchy on 
 the ruins of the Republic, and the consolidation of the sovereign States 
 after the overthrow cf State Rights. 
 
 Resolved, That we must, by hook or by crook, carry out the Conscrip- 
 tion, by either wheedling or bribing the Governors of those States who 
 
70 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 are supposed to be opposed to it ; and to secure this end, that no money- 
 shall be spared, no Constitutional rights regarded, and no conscientious 
 scruples observed. * 
 
 Resolved, That as the South can not be subdued by our policy, t he 
 North must ; and that to save ourselves from the penalty which will 
 KV.reJy fall upon us, if we don't succeed in this conspiracy against a 
 free people, we must establish a permanent military despotism. 
 
 Mei^olved, That as the people submitted with some degree of tame- 
 n'ess to the invasion of their rights and privileges, by portions of the 
 soldiery Avhom v.-e selected for the work, they will most probably yield 
 upon the application of a due amount of force to the conversion of the 
 Eepublic into a monarchy. 
 
 Resolved, That as the hrst law of Nature is the law of self-preserva- 
 tion, and as every one of the members of the Administration, and the 
 ofl^ials who have acted as our tools, most probably will be seized as 
 political criminals for having violated the rights of citizenship, we 
 must prevent such a catastrophe by continuing to hold the power in 
 our own hands. 
 
 Resolved, That the " irrepressible conflict' ' shall continue between the 
 Administration and the People, and that the " higher law" is our own 
 will, from which there must be no appeal. 
 
 Resolved, That we shall induce, by our usual duplicity and scheming, 
 our Irish fellow-citizens to enlist, under the idea that we intend to have 
 a war with England, and that when they shall have been victimized to 
 Abolitionism, we shall refuse their orphans any assistance whatever, 
 even a roof to shelter them from the winter's cold or the summer's 
 heat ; and finally 
 
 Resolved, That we shall never be satisfied till we spend all the money 
 we have got, that we know no North, no South, no East, no West — 
 nothing: but ourselves — that it is all nonsense to complain about sack- 
 ing churches, burning down towns, or persuading negroes to massacre 
 white people including women and children ; that we shall continue 
 the same policy to the end ; that we will, if we can, let the army loose 
 upon Northern cities and Northern homes ; that we shall create anarchy, 
 if possible, the better, to secure the permanency of a military despotism, 
 and that we shall leave no effort untried, no power with which we 
 have been invested unemployed, no portion of the vast military and 
 pecuniary means with which we have been intrusted unexpended, to 
 break down that vital element of American liberty called State sover- 
 eignty, and which is the only "lion in the path" to our absolute 
 dominion. 
 
 These resolutions we make over to the Loyal League 
 for then- special use and benefit on the simple condition 
 that they be read at their next mass meeting in the city of 
 New York, and also that they be published in the so-called 
 loyal papers of the country. 
 
METROPOLITAN EECOED. 71 
 
 WHAT THE WAR IS CARRIED ON FOR. 
 
 {From the Metropolitan Record, May 2, 1863.) 
 
 For the furtherance of Abolition designs. 
 
 For the permanent disruption of the Union, and the 
 perpetuation of sectional hatred between the North and 
 the South. 
 
 For the special benefit of the shoddy aristocracy, army 
 and navy contractors, and all that class that wax fat and 
 wealthy as the country grows poor, and that count their 
 gains by the prolongation of the war. 
 
 For the establishment of a national debt equal to, if not 
 greater than, that of England, and on which the people 
 will have to pay a much heavier rate of interest. It may 
 be parenthetically remarked that serious doubts are enter- 
 tained whether this debt will ever be paid, as it is believed 
 by some that the nation will eventually become bankrupt. 
 
 For the particular advantage of the New England 
 States, whose manufacturing profits multiply as the agri- 
 cultural profits of the "West diminish. 
 
 For the overthrow of the State sovereignty, and the 
 consolidation and conversion of the Republic into a mili- 
 tary empire. 
 
 For the abrogation of constitutional rights and privi- 
 leges, and for the final overthrow of liberty in the New 
 World. 
 
 For the criminal purpose of emancipating over three 
 millions of slaves and placing them in a social condition, 
 which experience has shown must lead to the eventual 
 extinction of the colored population in some localities, and 
 their reduction to a state of vagrancy in others. 
 
 For the impoverishment of the laboring classes, and the 
 final overthrow of universal suftrage by military force, of 
 which we have already had a foretaste in the case of the 
 late election at Indianapolis, when bands of soldiers drove 
 the citizens from the polls. 
 
 For the destruction of towns and villages and the pil- 
 laging of sacred edifices, a la Jacksonville and Fernandina, 
 Florida, and Winchester, Virginia. 
 
72 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 For the degradation of the principle of self-government 
 in the eyes of the world, and to render Republicanism a 
 mockery and a scorn among monarchists. 
 
 For the utter annihilation of the Constitution, which 
 has been stigmatized as " a league with Death and a cove- 
 nant with Hell." 
 
 For the complete prostration of the country, so as to 
 render it an easy prey to the diplomacy and intrigue of 
 European statesmen. 
 
 For the retention of dictatorial power in the hands of 
 the present Government, under th^ plea of military neces- 
 sity afforded by the prolongation of the war. 
 
 To avert those penalties which the return of peace may 
 be the means of inflicting upon all who have violated the 
 great charter of American liberties. 
 
 For the purpose of showing with what success the 
 monarchical principle of coercion can be applied to inde- 
 pendent and sovereign States, and that the easiest way to 
 destroy the Federal Union, which was established hy the 
 free consent of its constituent parts, is by the application 
 ■of military force. 
 
 To prove to the world (what required no proof) that an 
 Administration which had its origin in the spirit of dis- 
 union can never restore the Union. 
 
 A NEW JOKE.-IS IT THE PRESIDENT'S t 
 
 {Frmn the Metropolitan Record, May 2, 1863.) 
 
 Our readers are, of course, aware that the telegraph is 
 under complete Government control, and nothing in the 
 form of news can be sent by it without first passing under 
 official inspection. Now it is also a fact thart this other- 
 wise harmless means of communication has, since it passed 
 into new hands, become considerably corrupted by evil 
 communicaiio7is. Thus^ it was made to inform the public 
 at various times that the North had gained a number of 
 decisive victories, but it almost invariably turned out that 
 victory in these cases was but another name for defeat. 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 73 
 
 We are of the opinion that not only Mr. Lincohi's sub- 
 ordinates have had to do with the telegraph, but that he 
 has absolutely been manipulating the instrument himself; 
 for we have noticed a sort of Presidential jocularity in 
 some of the dispatches, the paternity of which can hardly 
 be doubted. We know — the world knows — how the 
 Chief Magistrate contrives to keep up his spirits in the 
 midst of difficulties that would have overwhelmed the 
 jocund nature of Mark Tapley himself — and we recollect 
 a story that wms told of his having called upon one of the 
 officers during a visit to the bloody field of Antietam to 
 sing for him "Jim along Josey," or some other spirit- 
 stirring negro melody. We are not certain whether the 
 officer did this, but if he did not, it was not the fault of 
 our lively and loquacious Executive. 
 
 In olden times it was customary for the monarch to wile 
 away his tedious hours by the droll antics and the witti- 
 cisms of a court fool. The ever-flowing humor and inex- 
 haustible fund of jokes possessed by the sixteenth magis- 
 trate of the United States renders what was an indispensable 
 adjunct to the court of olden times entirely unnecessary 
 at the White House, for the principal occupant of the 
 Presidential mansion is a sort of dual character, and so 
 saves the Nation the expense of supporting a jester. 
 
 But we are forgetting the telegraphic joke; and as our 
 readers may be somewhat impatient to see it, here it is as 
 it comes over the wires : 
 
 The rebel pickets informed ours that they had a new general on 
 their side who treats the army with great severity. On inquiring his 
 name, they replied — General Starvation. 
 
 What do our readers think of that ? If that is not in 
 every way worthy of the last successor of Washington, 
 we are no judge of a Presidential hit. 
 
 Is there no publisher sufficiently enterprising to collect 
 all the witticisms, all the puns, and all the anecdotes of 
 the Executive, and give them to the world in an imperish- 
 able form ? It strikes us that Barnum is just the man to 
 undertake the task ; or the incumbent of the Presidential 
 chair himself, when he gets through with the cares of 
 Government, and descends to the ranks of private life, 
 might profitably devote his leisure hours to the agreeable 
 
 4 
 
T4 ARTICLES FEOM THE 
 
 work. Such a book, issued under the title of Lincohiiana^ 
 would, Ave have no doubt, have an immense run, almost as 
 great a run as that made by the President himself into 
 Washington some two years ago, under cover of a Scotch 
 cap and military cloak. 
 
 THE ABOLITION POLICY OF THE ADMINISRATION, 
 AND WHAT IT HAS ACCOMPLISHED. 
 
 {From the Metropolitan Eecord, May 2, 1863.) 
 
 That Abolitionism has been the cause of the present 
 condition of the country is a fact which we think no 
 rational man will deny. There are many, however, who 
 insist, in the very face of history itself, and in utter defi- 
 ance of the most solemn and repeated asseverations of the 
 greatest statesmen of the country, that to Slavery is 
 attributable all the calamities with which the nation is 
 now afflicted. There might be some ground for this 
 assertion were the pecuUar institution a thing of recent 
 origin — were it introduced into the country after, instead 
 of before the Revolution. But when we find that the 
 very men who framed the Declaration of Lidependence, 
 and who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their 
 sacred honor to the support and maintenance of American 
 freedom, were themselves slaveholders, holding slaves to 
 the hour of their death, and then, at that dread hour, 
 transmitting their proprietary interest in them to their 
 natural heirs — there is not even a shadow of foundation 
 on which such an assertion could rest. It is clearly, then, 
 a fabrication — an invention ; and upon this invention has, 
 strange to say, been built up a party that has shaken the 
 Republic to its very foundations, leaving to the world 
 nothing but the melancholy ruins of its former greatness. 
 While the Constitution guaranteed the peculiar institution 
 against the assaults of this factious sectional party — while 
 conservative Congresses passed laws which were consid- 
 ered necessary to fortify, as it were, the provisions of the 
 Constitution — this party, acting through its various cliques, 
 either denounced that instrument as " a league with death 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 75 
 
 and a covenant with hell," or sought its nullification 
 through the advocacy and enforcement of the "irrepres- 
 sible conflict" and " higher-law" doctrines. Urged on, in 
 its mad, fanatical career, by a hatred as bitter against the 
 people of the South as against Slavery, it omitted no 
 opportunity through the press, the pulpit, the rostrum, 
 and through the various influences of social life, to stig- 
 matize our Southern fellow-countrymen as criminals botli 
 in the eyes of God and man. It held them up to the 
 odium of the civilized world as men who were unworthy 
 of Christian fellowship. It violated the compact by which 
 the States were held together by securing the passage of 
 Personal Liberty Bills in the Legislatures of Northern 
 States ; it organized " underground railroads" for the pur- 
 pose of stealing away Southern property; it concocted 
 the raid of John Brown and his fellow-murderers into the 
 first State of the Union, the glorious old commonwealth 
 of Virginia ; it leagued itself with the English enemies of 
 the Republic, and accepted the ever-ready donations of 
 British gold to strengthen the blows which it aimed at the 
 life of the country. 
 
 What cared the men of which this party is composed 
 for the sacrifices that were made by the patriots of the 
 Revolution to build up the Union ? what cared they for 
 the freedom of white men so long as their perverted sym- 
 pathy could find an object for its exercise in an inferior 
 race? What cared they for the physical sufl*erings and 
 destitution of thousands of their o'\\ii color at home and 
 within easy reach, so long as the sable sons of xVfrica were 
 to be elevated to a state of freedom for which they v*ere 
 never designed by nature, and to which, Avith a rare excep- 
 tion, they had no aspirations? What cared they for all 
 this ? They were bent upon the overthrow of Slavery, 
 although the warning voice of the great statesmen of the 
 RepubHc was raised in deprecation of their fiendish de- 
 signs. How fiir they have succeeded in their fell purpose 
 let the Abolition Administration at Washington answer. 
 But it is said that the President and his Cabinet do not 
 repi-esent the extreme section of the AboHtion party ; that 
 they are constitutional and law-abiding men; that their 
 chief aim has been to administer the aflairs of the country 
 
76 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 on a national, and not on a partisan or sectional basis. 
 Now, we venture to say, and we shall sustain our state- 
 ments with irrefragable testimony, that there is not a par- 
 ticle of truth in any portion of this defense ; that it is false 
 in its inception, false in its utterance, and false in every 
 word and line — in a word, that it is as false to truth as the 
 hearts in which it was conceived are false to the spirit of 
 the Union. 
 
 ISTo sooner was their candidate duly installed in the 
 Presidential chair than he revealed his policy by the ap- 
 pointment of Abolitionists as his Cabinet councilors. 
 The first was his present Secretary of State, whose oppo- 
 sition to Slavery was notorious, while acting as a Senator 
 of the Union. In a sj^eech which he made in the Senate, 
 March 11, 1850, Mr. Seward absolutelyv threatened the 
 Southern States with civil war in the event of their con 
 tinned opposition to emancipation. He said : 
 
 "When this answer shall be given, it will appear that the question 
 of dissolving the Union is a complex question ; that it embraces the 
 fearful issue whether the Union shall stand, and Slavery, under the 
 steady, peaceful action of moral, social, and political causes, be re- 
 moved by gradual, voluntary efforts, and with compensation, or 
 whether the Union shall be dissolved, and civil wars ensue, bring- 
 ing ON VIOLENT BUT COMPLETE AND IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. We are 
 
 now arrived at that stage when that crisis can be foreseen, when we 
 must foresee it. It is directly before us. Its shadow is upon us." 
 
 So much for the Secretary of State, and let us add that 
 we could fill column after column with proofs of as strong 
 a character in regard to his Abolition tendencies and j^ol- 
 icy. But we shall give another extract, and this we take 
 from a speech delivered also in the Senate, but six years 
 later, April 9th, 1856. On this occasion he made use of 
 the following remarkable language : 
 
 " The solemnity of the occasion draws over our heads that cloud of 
 disunion which must always arise whenever the subject of Slavery is 
 agitated. Still the debate goes on, more ardently, earnestly, and 
 angrily than ever before. It employs now not merely logic, reproach, 
 menace, retort, and defiance, but sabers, rifles, and cannon. * "* 
 Then the Free States and Slave States of the Atlantic, divided and 
 warring with each other, would disgust the Free States of the Pacific, 
 
 and THEY WOULD have abundant cause and JUSTIFICATION FOR WITH- 
 DRAWING FROM A UNION PRODUCTIVE NO LONGER OF PEACE, SAFETY, AND 
 
 LIBERTY TO THEMSELVES, and DO longer holding up the cherished hopes 
 of mankind." 
 
METKOPOLITAN EECOKD. 77 
 
 Did ,it never occur to the present Secretary of State 
 that he and his fellow- Abolitionists were giving to the 
 South " abundant cause and justification for loithdraw- 
 ing from a Union 2^^'oductive no longer of peace^ safety^ 
 and liberty to themselves .^" 
 
 It is unnecessary to furnish any evidence in regard to 
 the Abolition character of the otlier members of the pres- 
 ent Administration. Their course since their installment 
 in office should, we think, set at rest whatever doubts 
 might have been entertained on this point. If their views 
 and opinions do not run altogether in harmonious accord, 
 there is certainly a wonderful unanimity of action betv/een 
 them. As for tlie President himself, it is but justice to 
 him to say that he lias been wonderfully consistent in his 
 efforts to give practical eifect to the folloAving remarkable 
 expression of his political fliith in the future destiny of 
 the Republic: "I BELIEVE THIS GOVERNMENT 
 CAN NOT ENDURE PERMANENTLY HALF 
 SLAVE AND HALF FREE." 
 
 Impi-essed with this belief, he took a solemn oath to 
 faithfully execute the duties of his office, and to preserve, 
 protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. 
 Strange contradiction; although there are some who 
 would call it by a harsher term, and who would perhaps 
 insist that he has made use of the power intrusted to him 
 to fulfill his assertion, that " this Government can not en- 
 dure permanently half shive and half free." Without stop- 
 ping at this point to argue the matter with those who 
 entertain such a belief as to the designs of the Chief 
 Magistrate, we propose to present a brief review of the 
 principal acts of his Administration during the two years 
 that have elapsed since his inauguration. In the first 
 place, then, his selection of leading Abolitionists as his 
 Cabinet councilors was, to our mind, a striking indication 
 of the course which he intended to pursue. 
 
 He has been in their hands from tlie very first, and he 
 has been their instrument in the indorsement of every 
 legislative act aimed by the last Congress at the perpetuity 
 of the " peculiar institution." Not a single measure orig- 
 inated with him, or received his encouragement, looking 
 toward conciliation and compromise with the South. They 
 
78 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 were offered no terms but those contained in a Constitution 
 whose guarantees had been violated again and again, and 
 whose obligations exercised no restraining force upon the 
 very men who claimed to act under its authority. Then, 
 too, with what indecent haste his fellow -Abohtionists in 
 Congress passed the bill abolishing Slavery in the District of 
 Columbia. A Congress which did not represent even two 
 thirds of the Union ; and with what uncomplaining resig- 
 nation he took up his Presidential pen, and, placing his sig- 
 nature thereto, gave it all the form and character of a law. 
 
 But the President did not stop here ; he must needs go 
 further to add fuel to the flames that were fast enveloping 
 the nation. He must insult and worry the Border Slave 
 States that still remained in the Union, with propositions 
 for compensated emancipation, and that, toO, before he 
 ever consulted the wishes of the country on the subject, 
 before he ever took means to ascertain whether the people 
 of the free States were willing to be taxed to secure the 
 freedom of a race which is unfitted by nature for its exer- 
 cise in the same community with white men. ^ow came 
 the Confiscation Bill, which was another blow aimed by 
 the dominant Abolition faction against the constitutional 
 securities that had been wisely thrown around the " pecu- 
 liar institution" in a spirit of patriotic legislation. That 
 bill was designed to deprive Southern men of their slave 
 property, and was as unjustifiable and unconstitutional as 
 the arbitrary acts of the Administration in suppressing 
 freedom of speech and the liberty of the press, in the 
 incarceration of Northern citizens, and in the conduct of 
 authorized official burglars in the invasion of the home 
 sanctuary, and the plunder, for the so-called use of the 
 Government, of the letters and private documents of the 
 free citizens of this RepubUc. 
 
 The record of Administrative acts also tells us how the 
 boundaries of a sovereign State were broken down, and 
 how a new State was established therein, without regard 
 to the sovereignty of the people, or an effort being made 
 to get their concurrence in the act. We need hardly say, 
 however, that the admission of Kanawha into the Union 
 is a farce ; that it has no binding force, and that the out- 
 rage perpetrated upon the Constitution, upon State sever- 
 
METROPOLITAN EECOED. 79 
 
 eig»ntj, and upon popular rights, will one day recoil with 
 fearful effect upon the heads of the men by whom the vile 
 deed was perpetrated. 
 
 But the crowning act of an Abolition des})()tism was 
 that set forth in the Emancipation Proclamation, by which, 
 with the stroke of a pen, the President attempted to de- 
 stroy the j^roperty of a portion of the country, amounting 
 to between two and three thousand millions of dollars. 
 This was called a military measure, and it is reiuarkabl 
 to what extent the military power has taken the place of 
 the civil in this Republican government of ours. Over 
 three milhons of slaves were, by this act, to be forced 
 from the possession of their masters into a new condition 
 of life, for which their previous habits and pursuits, as 
 well as their own nature, disqualified them,. Over three 
 millions of this class of beings wqre to be flung in a help- 
 less state upon the country, having been previously divorced 
 from the only state in which their labor could be made 
 productive and of value to tens of millions of the superior 
 race ah over the world. What, let us ask, has become of 
 those who have been emancipated ? Have they not been 
 supported at the expense of the Government, or rather at 
 the expense of the people ? and wlien this Administration 
 shall have passed out of office, who can prevent these 
 emancipated negroes from lapsing into a state of vagrancy ? 
 There are many other facts to which we could refer in 
 proof of the Abolition course and policy of the authorities 
 at Washington, but those we have given will, we think, 
 sufiice for the present. And now, is any man so stupid or 
 so wanting in common intelligence as not to see that it is 
 impossible for such an Administration to restore the Union ? 
 Does any man believe that the further prosecution of the 
 war under such auspices, or, in fact, under any auspices, 
 could bring back the South ? On the contrary, is it not 
 evident that the restoration of the Union through such an 
 agency is a hopeless prospect ? No Conscription Bill can 
 over accomplish such a result. The thing has gone too 
 far ; the Administration has lost its power, and Ave ven- 
 ture to say that it is at the present time in a state of 
 trepidation and nervousness that shows the weakness to 
 which it has been reduced bv its own acts. At this mo- 
 
80 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 ment the Governor of New York occupies a stronger posi- 
 tion than that of the President of the United States. He 
 can call out the militia of the Empire State — can the 
 President of the United States do that without his per- 
 mission ? He represents a majority of the citizens of this 
 great State — what portion of the people, outside of the 
 Abolition faction, and contractors and office-holders, does 
 President Lincoln represent? Can he even say that he 
 is now carrying on the war at the desire of a majority of 
 the people ? Let the recent State elections answer. What, 
 then, is this war carried on for ? Why are hundreds of 
 thousands more called for? Has the human holocaust 
 offered at the shrine of fanaticism not satisfied the Aboli- 
 tion cry for " more blood," and must the conscription be 
 enforced to add to the number of victims ? The country 
 is weary and sick of this work of slaughter — -this aimless 
 butchery of its people. It must come to an end some 
 time, and that time should be now. We can not afford to 
 have the industrial ranks of the country further decimated 
 by this Abolition crusade, to have the great army of wid- 
 ows and orphans still further increased by new accessions, 
 to have the trade and commerce of the country depressed 
 still more by war's paralyzing influence, and to have the 
 great laboring classes ground down to the earth by exces- 
 sive taxation. 
 
 THE STATESMEN OF THE REVOLUTION ON THE 
 RIGHT OF COERCION. 
 
 {Frcm the Metropolitan Eecord, 3Iay 9, 1863.) 
 
 We have all along contended that the Constitution cou' 
 ferred no right or authority for the coercion of States, and 
 we now insist that the great statesmen b}^ whom that in- 
 strument was framed deprecated the employment of mili- 
 tary force against refractory States. This great and im- 
 portant fact has, however, been completely lost siglit of in 
 the terrible controversy by which the country is at present 
 convulsed. The people appear to have forgotten the les- 
 
METKOPOLITAN RECOKD. 81 
 
 Bons of the Revolution ; they have been carried away by 
 the material prosperity to which the country has attained, 
 and in their pursuit of worldly gain have neglected the 
 study of those principles which gave birth to the Union. 
 Despite our common-school education, and the opporfini- 
 ties afforded for the acquisition of knowledge by the vast 
 multiplication of books of all kinds, we are, as a people, 
 wofully ignorant of the Constitution, the circumstances 
 mider which it was adopted, and the biographies of the 
 great men with whom it originated. But for this igno- 
 rance, for which there is no excuse, the Abolitionists would 
 never have succeeded in destroying the Union ; and but 
 for this ignorance, also, there could be no alienation of 
 feeUng between the North and the South. It is, however, 
 nrged that if all this could have been prevented by a bet- 
 ter knowledge of constitutional jDrinciples, that it is now 
 too late to discuss the question as to which of the two 
 great sections of the country is right — the North or the 
 South. We understand fully the spirit which would dispose 
 of the matter in this way. It is that spirit which blindly in- 
 sists upon a continuance in wrong-doing, even with a full 
 acknowledgment of the offense. It is that obstinate per- 
 sistence in error which has destroyed nations as well as 
 individuals, and which can have but one, and that a fatal, 
 termination. We shall never willingly yield an acquies- 
 cence in the ruinous policy which springs from such a 
 principle. We do not beheve in giving way to it in the 
 first instance, or in the second instance, or in the last in- 
 stance ; and we shall continue, therefore, to protest against 
 it to the end. 
 
 Let us, then, repeat that we find no authority either in 
 the Constitution or in the writings of its authors for the 
 employment of coercion in the case of a State seceding 
 from the Union. On the contrary, whatever we find upon 
 the subject in these writings is directly in conflict even 
 with the assumption of such a right on the part of the 
 General Government. There could not be anything 
 clearer or more forcible than their statements on this 
 point. How tlie authorities at Washington could have 
 fallen into any error regarding the power with wliich they 
 are invested is something extraordinary. The Secretai-y 
 
82 ARTICLES FEOM THE 
 
 of State can not certainly lay claim to exemption in the 
 matter, for, as we .proved in the Record of April 25, he 
 expressed the belief that the United States GoA^ernment 
 had no authority to coerce States which had arrayed 
 themselves in opposition thereto. Writing to Mr. Adams 
 almost on the eve of the attack on Fort Sumter, he said : 
 * ' Only an imperial or despotic Government could have the right 
 
 TO SUBJUGATE DISAFFECTED AND INSURRECTIONARY StATES. ThIS FEDERAL 
 
 Republican system of ours is the very one which is most unfitted fob 
 
 SUCH A labor." 
 
 It is evident from this that the Secretary of State is 
 fully conversant with the opinions of the Fathers of the 
 Republic on this much-vexed but clearly defined question. 
 We referred on a former occasion to the remarkably forci- 
 ble manner in which Alexander Hamilton expressed him- 
 self upon this vital matter, and we shall take tlie liberty 
 of reproducing his language at this time. It will be re- 
 membered that the occasion on which it was elicited was 
 during a debate held in the liew York Convention for the 
 ratification of the Constitution of the United States : 
 
 " The coercion of States," said Hamilton, *'is one of the maddest 
 projects that was ever devised, a failure of coiiPLiANCE will 
 
 NEVER BE CONFINED TO A SINGLE StATE. ThiS BEIJv'G THE CASE, CAN WE 
 SUPPOSE IT WISE TO HAZARD A CIVIL WAR ? It WOULD BE A NATION AT 
 WAR WITH ITSELF. CaN ANY REASONABLE MAN BE WELL DISPOSED TOWARD 
 
 a goveri^ment that makes war and carnage the only means of sup- 
 porting itself — a government that can exist only by the sword ? 
 Every such war must involve the innocent with the guilty. This 
 
 SINGLE consideration SHOULD NOT BE INEFFICIENT TO DISPOSE EVERY 
 peaceable CITIZEN AGAINST SUCH A GOVERNMENT." 
 
 Such was the belief entertained and expressed by a 
 statesman who certainly could not be accused of too strong 
 a leaning toward political latitudinarianism. He shrank 
 fi'om the very contemplation of coercion " as repugnant to 
 the Constitution," " as one of the maddest projects that 
 was ever devised," and added, that " as every such war 
 must involve the innocent with the guilty, this siiigle. con- 
 sider atio7i should dispose every peaceable citizen agairist 
 such a government.''^ 
 
 We now turn from Alexander Hamilton to James Mad- 
 ison, another prominent member of the Convention that 
 framed the Constitution, and we may add, one of the great 
 
METKOrOLITAN KECOKD. -,'83 
 
 Statesmen with whom that important document originated. 
 It is hardly to be supposed that he did not thoroughly un- 
 derstand its character, and the authority and powers with 
 which it invested the Government in its relations toward 
 the States. And yet no man could be more emphatic in 
 his denunciation of the mere idea that the Federal Gov- 
 ernment had a right to coerce a State by military force. 
 Let all who have insisted on the invasion and subjugation 
 of the South, and the vigorous prosecution of the war, 
 read what Madison said at the Convention which gave the 
 present Constitution to the States for adoption : 
 
 "THE MORE I Ri^FLECT ON THE USE OF FORCE, THE MORE 
 I DOUBT THE PRACTICABn^ITY AND EFFICIENCY OF IT WHEN 
 APPLIED TO A PEOPLE COLLECTIVELY. THE USE OF AN 
 ARMED FORCE AGAINST A DISOBEDIENT STATE, OR STATES, 
 WOULD LOOK MORE LIKE A DECLARATION OF WAR THAN AN 
 INFLICTION OF PUNISHMENT, AND WOULD BE RIGHTLY CON- 
 SIDERED A DISSOLUTION OP THE PREVIOUS COMPACTS BY 
 WHICH IT MIGHT BE BOUND. THE MOST JARRING ELE- 
 MENTS, FIRE AND WATER, ARE NOT MORE INCOMPATIBLE 
 THAN SUCH A STRANGE MIXTURE OF CIVIL LIBERTY AND 
 MILITARY EXECUTION. WILL THE MILITIA MARCH FROM 
 ONE STATE TO ANOTHER FOR THE PURPOSE OF COERCION ? 
 IF THEY DO, WILL NOT THE CITIZENS OF INVADED STATES 
 ASSIST ONE ANOTHER UNTIL THEY RISE AS ONE MAN, AND 
 SHAKE OFF WHAT THEY WILL DENOUNCE AS THE HATED 
 UNION ALTOGETHER ? IF YOU SUBJUGATE THEM, HOW ARE 
 YOU TO HOLD THEM UNDER A CONSTITUTION THAT IS TO 
 BE IMPOSED TO INSURE DOMESTIC TRANQUILLITY AND. PRO- 
 MOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE?" 
 
 When we reflect on the character and the high position 
 held by Madison in the confidence of the people, and his 
 great ability as a statesman, we can hardly suppose that 
 he gave utterance to these opinions on the subject of coer- 
 cion without serious reflection and consideration. Then it 
 must be borne in mind that he was, so to speak, a member 
 of the Government himself, and, in his official capacity, 
 pledged to its support and maintenance. Such being the 
 case, it will not do to treat his statements lightly, or as of 
 little moment. But let us analyze his language and see if 
 there can be any misconception in regard to the meaning 
 which he intended to convey. 
 
 In the first place, then, he speaks of the use of force, as 
 applied to a people in their collective capacity, that is, in 
 
8^ ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 the organized form of a State or States. Upon that point 
 we think there can be no doubt whatever. Next, it is 
 essential to understand the circumstances under which he 
 doubts the 25racticabihty and eihciency of this force. But 
 there can be no conjecture on this point either ; it is of a 
 DISOBEDIENT State OK States he spcaks. And then he 
 goes on to say that ttie employment of an armed force in 
 this case " would look more like a declaration of war than 
 an infliction of punishment ;" and what follows — mark 
 this emphatic declaration from one of the authors of the 
 Constitution—" WOULD BE RIGHTLY CONSID- 
 ERED A DISSOLUTION OF THE PREVIOUS 
 COMPACTS BY WHICH IT MIGHT BE BOUND." 
 Here, then, is James Madison insisting, as Stephen A. 
 Douglas in his last speech in the United States Senate as- 
 serted, that civil war is disunion — nay, not only insisting 
 that it is disunion, but that the employment of armed force 
 against a disobedient State " would be rightly considered 
 a dissolution of the previous compacts by which it might 
 be bound." After this declaration, he puts the case still 
 stronger by this remarkably expressive illustration: "The 
 most jarring elements, fire and water, are not more incom- 
 patible than such a strange mixture of civil liberty and 
 military execution." Is the English language capable of 
 stronger expression than this ? Could the subject be put 
 more clearly or more forcibly ? We should like to hear 
 what construction the Loyal Leaguers, and those who are 
 in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war, would put 
 upon the language of James Madison. If it is capable of 
 another interpretation, then we should like to see it. 
 After giving his views on the right of coercion, Madison 
 then proceeds to set forth the result of such a policy ; and 
 it is really remarkable to see how far his predictions have 
 been fulfilled by the present war. He asks : " Will the 
 militia march from one State to another for the purpose of 
 coercion?" and then adds, "if they do, will not the 
 
 CITIZENS OF INVADED StATES ASSIST ONE ANOTHER, UNTIL 
 THEY RISE AS ONE MAN AND SHAKE OFF WHAT THEY WILL 
 DENOUNCE AS THE HATED UNION ALTOGETHER." 
 
 With the clear perception of a great statesman, Madison 
 foresaw the results of the policy of coercion, and warned 
 
METROPOLITAN RECOKD. 85 
 
 his countrymen against employing it as a means of pre- 
 serving the Union. His foresight in this case is go re- 
 markable, that one would imagine he was writing subse- 
 quent to the events instead of prophesying in regard to 
 them three quarters of a century before their occurrence. 
 
 How comes it that we have gone so far astray from the 
 landmarks of the Revolution ? How comes it that we 
 have forgotten the teachings of the fathers of the Repub- 
 lic ? What ignis fatuus has liired us from the straight 
 path which they marked out ? The country has been se- 
 duced from its political fiith and principles by the foul 
 spirit of discord in the form of Abolitionism. We have 
 given up George Washington, James Madison, Alexander 
 Hamilton, and their compatriots of the Revolution, for 
 such men as Abraham Lincoln, John C. Fremont, Charles 
 Sumner, and their fellow-Abolitionists, who have told us 
 that the Union could not exist half slave half free. We 
 have abandoned the traditionary policy of the country, 
 which was that of compromise, for the law of force and 
 coercion. ^Ye have made loar upon State Governments, 
 and the Administration, in doing so, has been guilty of 
 
 THE MOST FLAGRANT OUTRAGE UPON THAT VERY PRINCIPLE 
 OF AUTHORITY BY WHICH IT IS SUSTAINED. ItS wholc 
 
 spirit in the present crisis has been in direct conflict with 
 the interests of the country. Its policy in the prosecution 
 of the war has been more calculated to widen the chasm 
 that now divides the North and the South, than to heal 
 the wounds of our bleeding country. Its policy is the 
 policy of rapine, plunder, and devastation. Abundant 
 proofs of this have been furnished by the reports of recent 
 raids in Southern States, when private property was de- 
 stroyed with the most ruthless vandalism ; the homes of 
 planters were burned to the ground ; towns and villages 
 were given over to the brand, and even sacred edifices 
 w^ere not exempted from the general destruction ; and aU 
 this was done in sovereign and independent States, and by 
 men who boasted their inheritance of the principles of 
 civil and religious liberty. The v.^ork of confiscation and 
 emancipation has only been stayed by the bravery of a 
 people who firmly beliieved in the righteousness of their 
 cause, and who now stand upon the same ground with re- 
 
86 ARTICLES FKOM THE 
 
 gard to State rights that was occupied by James Madison, 
 Alexander Hamilton, and the other patriots of the Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 There is no disguising the fact, that this is an Abolition 
 war ; that it is carried on by men who have worked all 
 their lives for the dissolution of the Union. They may 
 fry to conceal their policy, but the facts are on record 
 against them, and they can not escape the crushing evi- 
 dence of their own words and deeds. They have a fearful 
 account to answer for. They have sacrificed a nation to a 
 sentiment ; they have plunged the land in a sea of blood ; 
 they have brought desolation and mourning into tens of 
 thousands of once happy homes ; tl^y have combined with 
 the British Abolitionists for the overthrow of the Repub- 
 lic ; hundreds of thousands of our people have been vic- 
 timized to their fiendish designs, and they have struck a 
 blow at popular liberty from which it may never recover. 
 Must we plunge irretrievably in the abyss which has been 
 opened by the fell spirit of Abolitio?iism f Must we con- 
 tinue this shedding of brothers' blood, this work of Cain 
 in a more extended and fearful form ? Are the votaries 
 of Moloch not yet satisfied, and must they have more 
 blood ? Forbid it every sense of right, every sense of 
 justice, every sense of humanity. Let us then have 
 peace, that the wounds of the country may be healed. 
 Let us have peace, that the tears of the widows and or- 
 phans may cease to flow Let us have peace, that an end 
 may be put to the mihtary despotism under which the 
 people are now groaning. Let us have peace, that the 
 country may not be overburdened with excessive taxation. 
 Let us have peace, as the only means of averting the reign 
 of anarchy which will surely attend the prolongation of 
 this war. And let us have peace if we would not have 
 American freedom crushed out by the heel of an armed 
 despotism. 
 
METEOPOLITAN EECOKD. 87 
 
 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE STATES. 
 
 {From the Metropolitan Record, May 16, 1863.) 
 
 The desperate effort that is being made by the Admin- 
 istration to overthrow the sovereignty of the States and to 
 establish a consohdated despotism on its ruins has been 
 practically illustrated by the establishment of the boi>-us 
 State of Kanawha. If the Administration had placed no 
 other fact on record but this, it would have been sufficient 
 to have consigned it to everlasting infamy. Tliat act was 
 not only an insult to the sovereignty of every State, but it 
 was a deadly blow aimed at the liberty of the whole coun- 
 try. The miserable and mendacious tricksters at Wash- 
 ington, in all their despotic policy, have not committed a 
 more despotic act than that by which a new State was 
 carved out of Virginia without the consent of the only 
 parties by whom it could be constitutionally accomplished 
 — its people. It was, however, only a natural sequence of 
 the policy of the Abolition party, whose hostility to the 
 perpetuity of the Union has been so forcibly illustrated by 
 ''■ the powers that be." 
 
 The division of the State of Virginia is only an example 
 on a small scale of the dissolution of the Union. It was a 
 violation of the very principle of unity, as well as a great 
 outrage upon the independence of a sovereign State. 
 Nothing is more clearly set forth in the Constitution, and 
 the writings of the statesmen of the Revolution, than this 
 great priuciple of the inviolability of a State. Yet the 
 Administration, although relying upon the support which 
 it has received from some of the States for the subjuga- 
 tion OF THE OTHEES, havc been steadily and persistently 
 engaged in undermining the very foundation upon which 
 they rest. They have carried their Abolition policy not 
 only into Southern States, but into Northern States. 
 They have imprisoned not only Southern citizens, but 
 Northern citizens ; and they have established military law 
 not only in the South, but in the North. The Govern- 
 ment, THEREFORE, ilAY PROPERLY BE SAID TO BE AT WAR 
 
 WITH BOTH SECTIONS, for our fellow-citizcns of this and 
 
ISS ARTICLES FEOM THE 
 
 Other States have felt the power of its tyranny. In the 
 State of Ohio, which has co-ntribated over a hundred 
 thousand vohmteers, the military has superseded the civil 
 power, and at the dead hour of night its sovereignty sus- 
 tained a most serious wound by the forcible, the unconsti- 
 tutional arrest of one of its most prominent citizens. It 
 remains with the people of that State to vindicate its sov- 
 ereignty and their own rights as freemen. But if they 
 fail to do this, now that the Administration has set them 
 at defiance, then they are unworthy of the name of 
 Americans. 
 
 The statesmen of the Kevolution were particularly em- 
 phatic in regard to State sovereignty. Indeed, so em- 
 phatic were they that they even regarded the sovereignty 
 of a State as of more vital importance than the Union 
 itself 
 
 Evidences of this are to be found throughout their 
 speeches and their w^ritings. Alexander Hamilton, to 
 whose writings we have on several occasions referred, 
 made one of his most powerful speeches on this subject in 
 the New York Convention for the ratification of the Con- 
 stitntion of the United States. From this speech we make 
 the following timely and appropriate extract : 
 
 "IF THE ST AITS GOVERNMENTS WERE TO BE ABOLISHED, 
 THE QUESTION WOULD WEAR A DIFFERENT FACE. BUT THIS 
 IDEA IS INADMISSIBLE. THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY 
 TO THE SYSTEM. THEIR EXISTENCE MUST FORM A LEADING 
 PRINCIPLE IN THE MOST PERFECT CONSTITUTION WE COULD 
 FORM. I INSIST TIL^T IT NEVER CAN BE THE INTEREST OR 
 DESIRE OF THE NATION.YL LEGISLATURE TO DESTROY THE 
 STATE GOVERNMENTS. IT CAN DERIVE NO ADVANTAGE 
 FROM SUCH AN EVENT; BUT, ON THE CONTRARY, WOULD 
 LOSE AN INDISPENSABLE SUPPORT, A NECESSARY AID IN 
 EXECUTING THE LAWS, AND CONVEYING THE INFLUENCE 
 OF GOVERNMENT TO THE DOORS OF THE PEOPLE. THE 
 UNION IS DEPENDENT ON THE WILL OF THE STATE GOVERN- 
 MENTS FOR ITS CHIEF MAGISTRATE AND FOR ITS SEMATE. 
 THE BLOW AIMED AT THE MEMBERS MUST GIVE A FATAL 
 WOUND TO THE HEAD ; AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE 
 STATES MUST BE AT ONCE A POLIITCAL SUICIDE. CAN THE 
 NATIONAL GOVERNMENT BE GUILTY OF THIS MADNESS? 
 WHAT INDUCEMENTS, WHAT TEMPTATIONS CAN THEY 
 HAVE ? WILL THEY ATTACH NEW HONORS TO THEIR STA- 
 TION ? WILL THEY INCREASE THE NATIONAL STRENGTH ? 
 
METROPOLITAN RECOKD. 89 
 
 WILL THEY MULTIPLY THE NATIONAL EESOURCES ? WILL 
 THEY MAKE THEMSELVES MORE RESPECTABLE IN THE VIEW 
 OF FOREIGN NATIONS OR OF THEIR FELLOW-CITIZENS BY 
 ROBBING THE STATES OF THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL PRIVI- 
 LEGES ? BUT IMAGINE FOR A MOMENT THAT A POLITICAL 
 FRENZY SHOULD SEIZE THE GOVERNMENT— SUPPOSE THEY 
 SHOULD MAKE THE A1TEMPT. CERTAINLY, SIR, IT WOULD 
 BE FOREVER IMPRACTICABLE. THIS HAS BEEN SUFFI- 
 CIENTLY DEMONSTRATED BY REASON AND EXPERIENCE." 
 
 This great statesman tells us that the State governments 
 are absolutely necessary to the system, from which follows 
 the inevitable inference that the overthrow of State sove- 
 reignty must lead to its total destruction. He insisted 
 that it could not be the interest or desire of the National 
 Legislature to destroy the State governments ; but this 
 has been done ; and it is more than probable that the 
 Government will lose thereby " an indispensable support, 
 a necessary aid in executing the laws, and conveying the 
 influence of Government to the doors of the people." 
 
 He tells us that "the destruction of the States must be 
 at once a political suicide." We believe that the Govern- 
 ment has committed this "suicide," that, in fact, it has no 
 longer political life, but only the semblance of vitality. 
 The "National Government" has beerf "guilty of this 
 madness," and the " inducements" and " temptations" are 
 the consolidation of the States and the centralization of 
 power at Washington under the control of a military des- 
 ])0tism. This is the motive by which our "r«^e?*5" have 
 been actuated. This is the political frenzy by which they 
 have been seized. They have made the attempt to rob 
 the States of their " constitutional privileges ;" but we 
 have the authority of Hamilton for saying that their mad 
 scheme is " forever impracticable." The Administration 
 may seem to triumph for a while, but that they will fail, 
 miserably, ignominiously fail, there can be no doubt ; for 
 as the great statesman to whom we referred says, " this 
 has been sufficiently demonstrated by reason and expe- 
 rience." 
 
 It is true that Hamilton never supposed the possibility 
 of a State being employed as an instrument of coercion, 
 as is evident from the following extract contained in his 
 speech delivered on the occasion alluded to above : 
 
V\) ARTICLES FKOM THE 
 
 '* BUT CAN WE BELIEVE THAT ONE STATE WILL EVER 
 SUFFER ITSELF TO BE USED AS AN INSTRUMENT OF COER- 
 CION ? THE THINO IS A DREAM— IT IS IMPOSSIBLE." 
 
 Such a thing as the employment of one sovereign State 
 for the coercion of another sovereign State was regarded 
 by him as a dream — as an impossibiUty. He shrank from 
 the very contemplation of it; but then he could never 
 conceive the probability of the elevation to power of a 
 party which had« its existence in the very spirit of dis- 
 union. Let us see, however, what he thinks of the suc- 
 cess of an effort on the part of the General Government 
 to carry out its plan of consolidation and centralization. 
 We quote from one of his speeches delivered at the same 
 convention : 
 
 "THE STATE ESTABLISHMENTS OF CIVIL AND MILITARY 
 OFFICERS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION, INFINITELY SURPASSING 
 IN NUMBERS ANY POSSIBLE CORRESPONDENT ESTABLISH- 
 MENTS IN THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT, WILL CREATE SUCH 
 AN EXTENT AND COMPLICATION OF ATTACHMENTS AS WILL 
 EVER SECURE THE PREDILECTION AND SUPPORT OF THE 
 PEOPLE-. WHENEVER, THEREFORE, CONGRESS SHALL MEDI- 
 TATE ANY INFRINGEMENT OF THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS, 
 THE GREAT BODY OF THE PEOPLE NATURALLY TAKE PART 
 WITH THEIR DOMESTIC REPRESENTATIVES. .CAN THE GEN- 
 ERAL GOVERNMENT WITHSTAND SUCH A UNITED OPPOSI- 
 TION ? WILL THE PEOPLE SUFFER THEMSELVES TO BE 
 STRIPPED OF THEIR PRIVILEGES? WILL THEY SUFFER 
 THEIR LEGISLATURES TO BE REDUCED TO A SHADOW AND A 
 NAME ? THE IDEA IS SHOCKING TO COMMON SENSE." 
 
 We have no doubt whatever that the Administration in 
 its frenzy will yet provoke a conflict tcith one or more of 
 the JSForthem States^ in v^hich it icill inevitably he over- 
 thrown. The people in such an emergency, as Hamilton 
 predicts, will take part with their domestic representa- 
 tives, for they will not " sufter themselves to be stripped 
 of their privileges ;" they will not " suffer their legis- 
 latures to be reduced to a shadow and a name. The idea 
 is shocking to common sense." 
 
 In a conflict between them and the General Govern- 
 ment, the States of New York and New Jersey alone 
 would be more than a match for all the force which it 
 could bring against them. It is well at this time, in view 
 of recent occurrences, to consider such a thing among the 
 
METROPOLITAN KECOED. 91 
 
 probabilities of the future, for the threatening position of 
 the Administration toward the sovereignty of the States 
 forebodes no good to our hberty. If the Union is ever 
 restored, it will be through the great cardinal princi})le 
 of State sovereignty. We can not set aside this prin- 
 ciple without annihilating the Union. Let ns even suc- 
 ceed in conquering the South by overturning State sove- 
 reignty in both sections, and we may bid a long farewell 
 to democratic freedom. Can we afford to purchase union 
 on such terms ? 
 
 We have before referred to the writings of Alexander 
 Hamilton on the subject of State sovereignty and the coer- 
 cion of States, and we shall conclude this article with an 
 extract from one of his letters which we find in No. 1 6 of 
 the Federalist : 
 
 WHOEVER CONSIDERS THE POPULOUSNESS AND STRENGTH 
 OF SEVERAL OF THESE STATES SINGLY AT THE PRESENT 
 JUNCTURE, AND LOOKS FORWARD TO WHAT THEY WILL BE- 
 COME EVEN AT THE DISTANCE OF HALF A CENTURY, WILL 
 AT ONCE DISMISS AS IDLE AND VISIONARY ANY SCHEME 
 WHICH AIMS AT REGULATING THEM OR COERCING THEM IN 
 THEIR COLLECTIVE CAPACITIES BY THE GENERAL GOVERN- 
 MENT. A PROJECT OF THIS KIND IS LITTLE LESS ROMANTIC 
 THAN THE MONSTER-TAMING SPIRIT AT^PRIBUTED TO THE 
 FABULOUS HEROES AND DEMIGODS OF ANTIQUITY. EVEN IN 
 THOSE CONFEDERACIES WHICH HAVE BEEN COMPOSED OF 
 MEMBERS SMALLER THAN MANY OF OUR COUNTIES, THE 
 PRINCIPLE OF LEGISLATION FOR SOVEREIGN STATES, SUP- 
 PORTED BY MILITARY COERCION, HAS NEVER BEEN FOUND 
 EFFECTUAL. IT HAS RARELY BEEN ATTEMPTED TO BE EM- 
 PLOYED AGAINST THE WEAKER MEMBERS ; AND IN MOST 
 INSTANCES ATTEMPTS THUS TO COERCE THE REFRACTORY 
 AND DISOBEDIENT HAVE BEEN THE SIGNALS OF BLOODY 
 WARS, IN WHICH ONE HALF THE CONFEDERACY HAS DIS- 
 PLAYED ITS BANNERS AGAINST THE OTHER. WE WAl^T NO 
 SUCH GOVERNMENT AS THIS. 
 
92 
 
 ARTICLES FEOM THE 
 
 THE NORTHERISr PLAGUE. 
 
 {From the Metropoltajv Eecoed, 3Iay 23, 1863.) 
 
 Some years ago there burst forth in the N"orth a mental 
 and moral epidemic of a most alarming character. From 
 the East it came, and onward it swept, sparing neither 
 youth nor age, neither man nor woman, in its progress. 
 5Firm faith and fixed princij^les alone withstood it, every- 
 thing else went down before it like corn before the reaper. 
 It attacked the speaker on the stand, the writer at his desk, 
 the preacher in the pulpit. It infected the public press, it 
 polluted public offices, it contaminated the National Coun- 
 cil Chamber. It was propagated by pen and tongue, by 
 diseased imitation and morbid sympathy. Weak minds 
 and disordered imaginations fell an easy prey to it, while 
 those whose healthy moral condition enabled them to defy 
 its venom stood aside, and with gloomy forebodings marked 
 its desolating career ; saw, with feehngs unutterable, char- 
 ity, faith, feeling, kindhness, courtesy vanish before it ; 
 saw patriotism wilted by its breadth and truth obscured by 
 its influence. Fear fell upon them — the fear that Christians 
 feel when souls are in peril, tlie fear. that patriots feel Avhen 
 their country is in danger — when they saw nature outraged 
 for a sentiment and rehgion displaced to make room for 
 philanthropy. Philanthropy, the idol of the nineteenth 
 century, the god of men who acknowledge no other. 
 
 Never was there such a scourge seen among men as this 
 earth-born, or ratlier hell-born plague. It brought hatred 
 and lying in its train, it brought pharisaica] assumption 
 and spiritual pride, it brought malice and uncharitableness. 
 Whatever it touched was blighted, wdiatever it breathed 
 on was smirched. Under its influence men became blas- 
 phemers, and boldly, undertook to rectify the work of the 
 Omnipotent, and to abrogate the laws of nature as if they 
 were those of the United States. The sense of right and 
 wrong became obscured, the capacity to judge correctly 
 was lost, and the plague-smitten monomaniacs of the North 
 drifted through time clinging to their one idea as the 
 drowning wretch clings to a straw. 
 
 As physical plagues possess the power of absorbing or 
 
METEOPOLITAN RECORD. 93 
 
 destroying other diseases, so the great Northern Plague 
 of Abolitionism c^radaally swallowed up every other ism. 
 Who now hears or Fourierism, Freeloveism, Communism, 
 et hoc genus omne ? They are lost in Abolitionism, as 
 affluents are in the stream they feed. Yes, the plague has 
 reached its height; it has cai'ried off its thousands and 
 hundreds of thousands ; it has stricken down the youth 
 in his joyousness, and the strong man in his strength ; 
 it has made the land desolate, and it has crushed th(i 
 great heart of the people. It has devastated North and 
 ^outh ; it has decimated East and West, and its ravages 
 have been cruelly impartial. No sooner is the wail of 
 agony for the loved and lost stilled in the lonely home- 
 steads of Vermont than it rises w^ild^nd impassioned 
 from the orange groves of Carolina. No sooner does 
 the tide of sorrow ebb on the Atlantic shore than it flows 
 in overwhelming force upon the golden coasts of the 
 Pacific. Throughout that immense tract of God's earth 
 men call the United States, it has not left one spot un- 
 visited — scarcely one home unscathed. Enter any home 
 unbidden and at random — mark the stooping forms and 
 careworn faces — mark the empty seats and vacant places 
 by the fireside ; and, though no yellow flag flutters from 
 the roof, be sure the plague has passed there, culling as it 
 passed the brightest blossom of the hearth, and nipping 
 the fairest bud that grew in that home garden. 
 
 If you are not one that will not learn from the eye, but 
 only from the ear, then ask and be convinced — " Killed at 
 Fredericksburg," w^here this Northern Plague gathered up 
 its victims by hecatombs — " Rotting at Chancellorsville," 
 the newly-opened Abolition Golgotha. 
 
 The plagues that afilicted the ancients and medisevals 
 pale before our imported pestilence. We shudder as we 
 read of them, but they lack that one element of horror 
 that makes ours a hissing and a reproach. They were not, 
 as ours, self-imposed and self-inflicted ; they were the min- 
 isters of God's wrath, not of man's vengeance ; they Avere 
 angels of death, not demons of suicide ; and if a determi- 
 nation to be rid of their plagues could have saved these 
 people, would they have suffered ? It sounds like folly to 
 ask the question. Could our plague exist a day if we de- 
 
94: ARTICLES FROM '(TIE 
 
 creed its death ? ]N'ot an hour, not a inoineiit. Theu, was 
 there ever wickedness or folly like to onj.*s ? Future ages 
 will shudder as they read of the fearful ravages committed 
 by this N'orthern Plague ; but will they sympathize ? Will 
 one sigh of regret escape thena for the extinction of a 
 l^eople so unequal to their destiny ? 
 
 If, like ordinary plagues, it carried off only those in 
 whose veins the venom of its own poison lurked, then the 
 bane would have an antidote. But unhappily for us, and 
 unhappily for the future, whose interests we had in keep- 
 ing, a mighty charge, committed to us by Time and Des- 
 tiny, its course in this particular is unlike any of its physical 
 congeners. Cunmng as well as fierce, Abolitionism, by aid 
 of an auxiliary plague, sweeps off thousands and tens of 
 thousands who would never have succumbed to its deadly 
 influence. Minds too healthy, souls too strong to be in- 
 fected by it, are carried ofl* by the war fever that follows 
 in its train, and the country is cheated out of compensation. 
 If every one tainted with Abolitionism were swept away 
 by it, and the moral and political atmosphere purified by 
 the carrying ofi' of all infected bodies, then indeed the out- 
 bursts of this plague might have worked for the nation's 
 weal. Then indeed it would have been but a blessing in 
 disguise. But unfortunately, let this war end when it will, 
 or how it will, it will leave the Abolitionists as strong nu- 
 merically as it found them ; for, though they love the scent 
 of blood, they love to scent it afar off. They stay at home 
 in their easy-chairs, discharging virus through their pens, 
 and doing all that in them lies to j^ropagate the plague 
 that is threatening the life of the country. Oh, that our 
 soldiers only knew what tools they were made ; that the 
 glamour were removed from their sight, so t^at they could 
 see, back of the Stars and Stripes, the yellow flag of pes- 
 tilence — the present battle-flag of the United States ; the 
 flag that waved at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville ; 
 the flag that will lead them yet to heavier losses and to 
 deeper disgrace. When that day of great awakening 
 comes, the army of the United States will muster itself out 
 of service. 
 
METROPOLITAN KECOED. 95 
 
 THE LETTER OF GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. 
 
 , {From the Metropolitan Record, 3Iay 30, 1863.) 
 
 In last week's Record we published the manly, the 
 spirit-stirring letter of the Governor of the State of New 
 York, Horatio Seymour. It had in it the ring of the true 
 metal, and its tones awakened in the heart of the people a 
 sympathy with the feelings which dictated it, that the 
 authorities at Washington must not, and can not, ignore 
 without injury to their own personal and political interests. 
 
 Scorning the language of diplomacy and political in- 
 trigue, it gave expression to the sentiments of its author in 
 the bold and manly utterances of an American freeman. 
 There is not a man whose heart beats with the impulses of 
 freedom that did not feel it bound with joy as he read the 
 letter in which our State Executive denounces the arrest 
 of Yallandigham as " an act which has brought dishonor 
 upon our country, which is full of danger to our persons 
 and our homes, and which bears upon its front a conscious 
 violation of law and justice."' 
 
 This is the true language in which to characterize the 
 atrocious, the infamous proceedings of the Administration 
 and its tools in the arrest of Hon. Clement L. Yallan- 
 digham. There is no temporizing in this, no resort to 
 those mean subterfuges known among politicians as po- 
 litical expediency. That lettergives unrestrained expres- 
 sion to the true feelings of his heart, and they show that he 
 has been chafing under the restraints which a long-abused 
 patience, prudence, and forbearance imposed upon him. 
 His letter is not only the severest rebuke which the Ad- 
 ministration has yet received, but it is a scathing, withering 
 denunciation of the vile nature of the proceedings by which 
 the citizen of a free State is dragged from his home at the 
 dead hour of night by armed men, subjected to a trial by 
 court-martial, and secretly conveyed beyond the bound- 
 aries of a sovereign State to be incarcerated in a Govern- 
 ment bastile. 
 
 Well might our noble and true-hearted Governor stigma- 
 tize the transaction as involving a series of offenses against 
 
9B ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 our most sacred rights, as an interference with the freedom 
 of speech, as a violation of the security of our homes, and 
 as a mockery of jhstice. He does not mince his language, 
 and the Avhole spirit of his letter is a simple expression of 
 the indignation which he feels as an American citizen at 
 the outrages that have been perpetrated on the sacred cause 
 of liberty. Nay, he goes still further, and asserts that if 
 this action of the authorities at Washington is sanctioned 
 by the people, it is an act of revolution — it is the estab- 
 lishment of a military despotism. Whatever apprehen- 
 sions might have been entertained with regard to the 
 position of Governor Seymour, there certainly can be no 
 doubt now, after this declaration of his principles, as to the 
 views he entertains in reference to the policy of the Ad- 
 ministration. It is clear that since the crowning act of its 
 career — the arrest, military trial, and imprisonment of Mr. 
 Vallandigham — he looks upon it as a military despotism. 
 He naturally feels apprehensive of the liberties of the peo- 
 ple of the great State of New York. He knows that he 
 is the custodian of those liberties, and that he is bound by 
 his oath of office to maintain them with all the powers and 
 resources of the Empire State. And why is it, let us ask, 
 that we citizens of New York are not subject to the same 
 arbitrary despotism of which Mr. Vallandigham has been 
 made the victim ? The answer is to be found in the fact 
 that Ohio is under a Governor who is but a creature of the 
 Administration, while we have elected as our State Execu- 
 tive a man who loves liberty, and who is determined to 
 stand by the rights of the people of the great State with 
 the defense of whose freedom and interests he has been 
 intrusted. ^ 
 
 We must confess that previous to Governor Seymour's 
 letter we had entertained some doubt as to the course he 
 intended to pursue. But that letter, manly, bold, and out- 
 spoken as it is, has set at rest whatever misgivings we 
 might have felt in regard to his policy. But it is not alone 
 in his letter that we find the guarantees of his future action, 
 for we have received assurances from those who have en- 
 joyed the opportunity of personal intercourse with him, 
 that he will at all hazards oppose the usurpation of the 
 Federal Administration within the limits of the Empire 
 
METROPOLITAN EECOED. 97 
 
 State, and meet their unconstitutional and despotic course 
 with its whole military power and resources, if necessary. 
 We have, therefore, every confidence not only in the 
 sincerity but in the resolution and hackhone of our Gov- 
 ernor, and we entertain no doubt whatever of the people 
 standing by him in maintaining the sovereignty of the 
 State. We are aware that there are a few timid and 
 wavering people who shrink from the very contemplation 
 of an armed collision between the State and Federal Gov 
 ernments ; but they ought to know that it is only by th 
 resolution and firmness of our State Executive that such a 
 collision can be avoided. They dread, forsooth, the bom- 
 bardment of the city of New York by the forts in our 
 harbor ; but the resort to so desperate an extremity would 
 be the death-knell of the Administration, and would seal 
 the fate of the miserable creatures of whom it is .com- 
 posed. We can hardly conceive the possibility of suck an 
 occurrence, of such a mad, such an insane, such a suicidal 
 act. The bombardment of New York would be the signal 
 of an uprising compared with which that evoked by the 
 assault on Fort Sumter would be mere child's play. No, 
 no ; there need be no apprehension of such an act of des- 
 peration on the part of the Federal authorities. The first 
 duty of every citizen of New York is to stand by the 
 authority that gives protection to life and property ; the 
 authority that punishes the burglar and the murderer, that 
 guards the people alike against the terrors of moh violence 
 and the usurpations of despotic power. It is the State 
 government from which Ave obtain charters for our institu- 
 tions, charitable, religious, and educational. It is to the 
 State government that we look for the redress of our 
 grievances ; it is to the State government that we must 
 apply for the rectification of any legislative wrong ; it is 
 the State government that not only grants charters but 
 that makes appropriations for enterprises of benevolence 
 and charity ; and it is the State government that is now 
 establishing in this city and elsewhere houses of rest for 
 our wounded and disabled volunteers, who have been flung 
 aside by the Federal Administration. It is the State gov- 
 ernment that is nearest to us ; it is with that we have most 
 to do. Its courts are the most numerous ; its officers are 
 
98 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 more familiar to us ; it is for its support that we are taxed, 
 while the Federal Government is comparatively unknown 
 to our fellow-citizens. Said Alexander ^Hamilton, when 
 speaking on this subject : 
 
 " THE STAl'E ESTABLISHMENTS OP CIVIL AND MILITART 
 OFFICERS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION INFINITELY SURPASSING 
 IN NUMBER ANY CORRESPONDING ESTABLISHMENT OF OF- 
 FICERS IN THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT WILL CREATE SUCH 
 AN EXTENT AND COMPLICATION OF ATTACHMENTS AS WILL 
 SECURE THE SUPPORT AND PREDILECTION OF THE PEOPLE. 
 WHENEVER, THEREFORE, CONGRESS SHALL MEDITATE ANY 
 INFRINGEMENTS OF THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS, THE GREAT 
 BODY OF THE PEOPLE AVILL NATURALLY TAKE PART WITH 
 THEIR DOMESTIC REPRESENTATIVES. CAN THE GENERAL 
 GOVERNMENT WITHSTAND SUCH A UNITED OPPOSITION ? 
 WILL THE PEOPLE SUFFER THEMSELVES TO BE STRIPPED 
 OF THEIR PRIVILEGES ? WILL THEY SUFFER THEIR LEGISLA- 
 TURES TO BE REDUCED TO A SHADOW AND A NAIME ? THE 
 IDEA IS SHOCKING TO COMMON SENSE." 
 
 Yet this very idea has been realized in the State of 
 Ohio, and would be in the State of New York were it 
 under a Republican Governor. We are, however, par- 
 ticularly fortunate in having a State Executive who fully 
 understands the vital importance of his position at the 
 present juncture, and who possesses both the courage and 
 the firmness to meet the impending crisis. 
 
 Governor Seymour knows full well that the Administra- 
 tion is determined, not to abandon the almost absolute 
 power of which it is now in possession without a despe- 
 rate struggle. Its assaults upon the well-defined constitu- 
 tional rights of the people and upon State sovereignty 
 afibrd sutficient evidence of its designs in that direction. 
 The shallow pretext that the suspension of our rights as 
 citizens is necessary for the overthrow of the Southern 
 Confederacy could never deceive any man except him who 
 has abandoned his reason and common sense to ofticial 
 keeping. The people of New York can not be misled by 
 those specious devices, and they are, Ave feel convinced, 
 determined to stand by our Governor at every hazard. 
 
 We are no alarmists, but we regard the infamous out- 
 rage perpetrated by the authorities at Washington upon 
 the State sovereignty of Ohio as the most fatai blow that 
 has yet been aimed at popular freedom. We b(?heve it is 
 
METROPOLITAN RECOED. 
 
 99 
 
 high time to take immediate measures to put our State in 
 a position in which she will be able to defend herself 
 aj^ainst similar encroachments by the Federal authorities. 
 We earnestly trust that there will be no delay in this mat- 
 ter, and that the Governor will place at least one hundred 
 thousand of our militia \ipon a war footing. If there are 
 not arms enough within the limits of the State, then let 
 them be purchased at once, and suiEcient stores of ammu- 
 nition accumulated. We entreat the Governor, in the 
 name of law and order, to see to it that there be no un- 
 necessary delay in this matter, to see to it that the people 
 are not forced to band themselves together in independent 
 and illegal organizations ; that our lives and our properties 
 may not be feft at the mercy of armed mobs, that what- 
 ever opposition shall be made by the people against a 
 Federal usurpation of their rights may be made under the 
 sanction and with the authority of the State Government. 
 
 The Administration has done all in its power to foster 
 and encourage the organization within the limits of the 
 Empire State of societies which are pledged to the sup- 
 port of its unconstitutional measures, yet the men who 
 compose these societies, these so-called " Loyal Leagues," 
 look to the State authorities for protection to life and pro- 
 perty, thereby acknowledging the f;ict that they owe the 
 highest allegiance to the State. 
 
 If their policy prevailed, State boundaries would be 
 broken down, and the principle of State sovereignty would 
 be lost in a centralized despotism. We contend that such 
 bodies are inimical to our State Government, bound as 
 they are to the support of the policy of the Administra- 
 tion, whether just or unjust, constitutional or unconstitu- 
 tional. 
 
 We repeat that there should be no delay, and if we 
 may seem to be too urgent, it is from a sincere desire that 
 the honor of the great State of which we are a citizen may 
 not be injured and its interests may not be placed in dan- 
 ger by the ill-judged or irregular proceedings of men 
 whether opposing the tyrannical acts of the Federal Ad 
 ministration or sustaining them under the title of Loya* 
 Leaguers. 
 
100 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 A POLAND IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 {From the Metropolitan Record, May 30, 1863.) 
 
 This week we have fearful intelligence from the West. 
 A star has fallen from onr Northern sky. Ohio, the Sicily 
 of America, has been blotted out of the list of Sovereign 
 States ; her territory violated, her citizens outraged, her 
 supremacy defied by an individual bearing the military 
 commission of the United States. But yesterday she sat 
 a queen, holding as high a rank in our system of confed- 
 erated sovereignties as the Empire State ; to-day she is a 
 dependency of Washington, unable to assert her own sove- 
 reignty or the liberty of her citizens, unable to preserve 
 her soil from desecration or to avenge it. Discrowned 
 Ohio, our noble sister State, how bitterly we feel the hu- 
 miliation that has fallen upon thee ! And to make it the 
 more galling, inflicted by a fugitive from Fredericksburg ; 
 a man who had neither prudence enough to keep his army 
 out of danger nor daring enough to carry them through it. 
 Yet this man, once out of sight of a Southern foe, becomes 
 foolhardy, and boldly strikes at the authority of a sove- 
 reign State. He can not beat Southern soldiers, but he can 
 browbeat Northern citizens ; he can not cope with rebels, 
 but then he is an overmatch for any loyal man in his de- 
 partment. Smarting from the drubbing he had received 
 in Virginia, Burnside hastened to the West, determined to 
 retrieve himself, and, by reducing Ohio to a state of vas- 
 salage, make amends for his misadventures in the Old 
 Dominion. And to our sorrow, and to her shame, he has 
 done it. 
 
 In the dead of the night his armed myrmidons swept 
 the State, and, without the shadow of law, forced their 
 way into a private dwelling, dragged a distinguished citizen 
 of Ohio from his home and family, carried him beyond the 
 boundaries of the State, beyond the protection of the legal 
 tribunals, and delivered him over to the tender mercies of 
 a court-martial. For what crime ? For differing with the 
 men in power on the best means of restoring the Union ; 
 for refusing to receive his political creed from Washington, 
 
METROPOLITAN EECORD. 101 
 
 and for preaching the faith that was in him " in season and 
 out of season ;" for endeavoring to instill into the people 
 his own apprehensions, and to animate them with his own 
 resolve ; for bearing himself, in tact, as a freeman in a free 
 State, and not as a sus2Mt in a IVIilitary Department. Can 
 American citizens of any party or politics read that episode 
 of wrong and violence without a blush — picture to them- 
 selves the terror of the trembhng household awakened in 
 the " dead waste and middle of the night" by armed ma- 
 rauders — the agony of the heart-stricken, frantic wife as 
 she saw her husband borne away, and remembered that 
 but a few weeks previous the editor of an anti-Govern- 
 ment paper was seized upon in the same manner and 77iur- 
 dered — without shuddering sympathy ? 
 
 Is it a page of English history we are reading ? Is it an 
 incident of a Cossack raid in Poland that sets our blood 
 a-bounding ? No ; our sympathies are wanted nearer home. 
 We have none to spare now for Poland or Ireland, for 
 Posen or Himgary. We have found our Poland in the 
 West, so sorely oppressed, so terribly beset, that it claims 
 all our thoughts and needs all our assistance. What is 
 Ohio, stripped of sovereignty, independence, and liberty, 
 lorded over by a military viceroy, who holds the life, lib- 
 erty, and property of its citizens in his hands, but the Po- 
 land of America ? The Governor of Ohio is a thing for 
 men to laugh at. He has seen his State degraded, his 
 office ignored, his constituents outraged, the laws of the 
 State contemptuously nullified by a Government that has 
 taken up arms to put down nullification in the South ; and 
 yet he has made no sign, uttered no protest, taken no 
 measures to obtain satisfaction for the gross insult. Would 
 that it had happened in New York. If it had, we venture 
 to predict that the men at Washington would have been 
 taught a lesson that even they, obtuse as they are, would 
 have understood. If Ohio had understood the animus of 
 the men in Washington as well as New York does, if she 
 rested on her arms, as every State should do at the present 
 crisis, she would not now be mourning her lost sovereignty, 
 and her exiled son, the gallant champion and confessor of 
 liberty. Did she think that the liberticide, like the haughty 
 Florentines of old, would scorn to pounce upon a foe with- 
 
102 ABTICLES FEOM THE 
 
 out warning ? Did she expect that such a remnant of 
 chivalry existed in the breasts of the Lincolnites, the party 
 that has produced Butler and Schenck, and Hooker and 
 Hascall ? Ah ! there was her mistake. She forgot that 
 "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," and she has 
 fallen. 
 
 Yes, we are catching up to Europe fast, and in the 
 science of government nearing day by day her imperial 
 models. The plant that in Europe took centuries to ripen, 
 here, thank»s to our warmer climate, is perfected in a day. 
 Tyranny which there has been fostered by time and de- 
 veloped by circumstances, has here sprung up like a weed. 
 But European tyranny is a century plant — American tyr- 
 anny a mere mushroom — not a growth, but an excrescence, 
 without a root in the soil or a branch in the air, owing its 
 existence to accident, and deprived by nature of the means 
 of perpetuating itself. And herein are our grounds for 
 hope, this is our guarantee — that, though American tyranny 
 may equal Russian in excess, it never can in duration. No ! 
 struggle as it may, it can never fasten itself upon the coun- 
 try ; the generation that saw it rise will see it wither, and 
 the men who, in their mad folly, allowed themselves to be 
 used as instruments in sow;ing the seeds, before two years 
 are about will regret it in bitterness of heart. 
 
 THE FUTURE. 
 
 (From the Metropolitan Kecord, June 6, 1863.) 
 
 Ii' requires no prophetic vision to foresee the result of 
 the present war. That it will terminate in the complete 
 independence of the Southern Confederacy there can, we 
 think, be no doubt in the mind of any rational man. We 
 have nothing but contempt for the opinions of a party or 
 leader who insists that the Union can be restored by the 
 prolongation of hostilities. It is the worst kind of hy- 
 pocrisy to deceive the people by holding out hopes that 
 can never be reahzed, and of this hypocrisy the North has 
 been made the deluded victim. Some of these leaders 
 
METROPOLITAN RECOKD. 103 
 
 may have really believed that the South could be forced 
 into the Union, but the majority never labored under such 
 a delusion. A few were afraid to take any other course ; 
 a few were bribed to join the Loyal Leaguers ; but the 
 great mass imagined that there was no other way to pop- 
 ularity except by favoring " a vigorous prosecution of the 
 war." In fact, the war fever swept over the North, in- 
 fecting the great body of the people, leaders and all, with 
 the exception of a few, who, like the still, small voice of 
 conscience, were heard amid the universal din and clangor 
 of arms. Among these the Record was proud to rank 
 itself, satisfied that the time would come when its course 
 would be justified, and the policy which it consistently 
 advocated would prevail. Its Editor was opposed to the 
 war from the ■ start ; he was accused of being a secession- 
 ist ; he was charged with treason, and threatened with 
 the fate which has already befallen so many of the advo- 
 cates of peace. It is almost needless to state that we 
 stand now where we have always stood ; that Ave have 
 nothing to retract ; and that we would prefer at any time 
 to see the Union divided into tAvo Confederacies rather 
 than live in a Union one portion of which would be held in 
 military subjection to the other. Some of our friends 
 have difiered with us on this point ; but the time will 
 come — and it is fast hastening — when they will be obliged 
 to stand upon our platform. We insisted that Avar could 
 never restore the Union — that it was a Union of free-Avill, 
 and not of force — that there was nothing in the Constitu- 
 tion or the writings of the fathers of the Revolution to 
 justify or authorize coercion. 
 
 This, hoAvever, is of the past, and we trust its stern and 
 terrible lessons have had their due eftect upon the people 
 of the ISTorth. They certainly should be satisfied by this 
 time of the imbecility and the incompetency of those who 
 compose the Administration. They have seen enough to 
 satisfy them that the men in Washington are utterly un- 
 able to cope with the crisis, and that they will, by their 
 policy, eventually drive the Northern States to resolve 
 themselves into their original sovereignties. It is useless 
 -—nay, it is worse than useless — it is criminal, at this crit- 
 ical juncture, to deceive the people by holding out hopes 
 
104 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 that can never be realized. They have already had enough 
 of broken pivomises and violated pledges, and it is now the 
 duty of every man whose opinions are supposed to have* 
 any weight or influence in the community, to express those 
 opinions frankly and fearlessly. 
 
 The Administration having utterly failed to subjugate 
 the South, and the South having maintained itself gal- 
 lantly and successfully against an overwhelming invasion 
 from the North, repeated again and again, it now depends 
 upon the States whether they shall continue to sustain the 
 war policy, and, by so doing, establish a permanent des- 
 potism that shall sweep away the last vestiges of popular, 
 liberty from the ISTorthern States. We do not believe 
 that they are prepared for such a disastrous, such a fatal 
 result, and we. have therefore a few serious reflections to 
 present in regard to the future prospects of the northern 
 portion of the old Union, and these reflections we shall 
 present under separate heads. 
 
 I. A Convention of the Northern States must be held 
 to take into consideration the new condition in which they 
 are now placed, and to devise means for their reorganiza- 
 tion or re-confederation under a new Constitution. This 
 Convention, if held, will be composed of delegates from 
 each State, whose basis of representation will be fixed, not 
 by States, but by the proportion of population. Each 
 State, however, being sovereign, will have the power to 
 ratify or reject the Constitution proposed and adopted in 
 the Convention. In this respect their action will not \ 
 difier from that of the States that adopted the old Consti- 
 tution and formed the Union, which has been overthrown 
 by an Abolition Administration. In that Convention, we 
 have no doubt, the sovereignty of the States will be 
 guarded Avith the same jealous care that marked their 
 action in the Convention to which the present Constitu- 
 tion owes its origin. 
 
 II. The vast debt which has been accumulated by the 
 present mad, fanatical, and suicidal war, will, as a matter 
 of imperative necessity, be repudiated. In stating this 
 fact, we do not seek to justify the principle of rej)udi.Htion, 
 which is alike dishonorable in a nation or an individual. 
 We speak of such a policy now as among the iuevitabh' 
 
METKOPOLITAN RECOKD. 105 
 
 consequences of the lamentable condition in which the 
 North finds itself after an Abohtion crusade of over two 
 years. The debt of the North may now be estimated at 
 about two thousand five hundred millions of dollars, and 
 the interest on this, at seven per cent., would be about 
 one hundred and eighty millions, which is larger than the 
 interest on the national debt of England. When it is re- 
 membered that the English national debt was the growth 
 of centuries, while ours has been created by a two-years' 
 war, the restiveness and impatience of the American people 
 under such a load will be fully understood and appre- 
 ciated. We do 7iot believe they loill stand it^ and we en- 
 tertain no doubt whatever that they will seek relief ifi repu- 
 diation. 
 
 ni. The people having had, through the policy of the 
 present Administration, a pretty fair experience of a mili- 
 tary despotism, will instruct their delegates to the afore- 
 said Convention to insist upon the inviolability of State 
 rights, the sovereignty of the States, the liberty of the 
 press, the freedom of speech, habeas corpus, and all the 
 rights, guaranteed by the present Constitution. Upon 
 these important points they will be so explicit and so di- 
 rect as to leave no possible grounds for apprehension in 
 the future, 
 
 IV. Adndtting the existence of two Confederacies with- 
 in the limits of the old Union, the Government estab- 
 lished under the new Constitution will have to deal with 
 the important question of boundaries, customs, river navi- 
 gation, and the general relations that may spring up be- 
 tween the two Confederacies. It is essential that these 
 relations should not be complicated ; that they should, in 
 fact, be so simple and so easily understood as to avoid the 
 possibiUty of future collisions. We trust ■ that there will " 
 be entire free trade between the two Republics, so as to 
 render border custom-houses entirely unnecessary. The 
 navigation of the Mississippi will, and must be, free to the 
 Gulf of Mexico ; any other arrangement will be inevitably 
 productive of future wars. 
 
 Y. As friendly relations between the two Confederacies 
 are essential to the welfare and the future prosperity of 
 both, it should be the pohcy of the Northern, as we trust it 
 
106 ' AETIOLES . FEOM THE 
 
 will be of the Southern, to discourage and frown down every 
 attempt to create hostile or bitter feelings between their re- 
 spective governments and peoples. As for the l^orth, its 
 commercial and profit-seeking people will be among the 
 first in the effort to obliterate the past, and to sink its un- 
 pleasant memories in the gulf of oblivion. It must be ac- 
 knowledged that the Northern people are, to a great 
 extent, like the English, " a nation of shopkeepers," and 
 that the presetii war has hee7i waged as much to retain the 
 custoyn of the South as to maintain the Union. Now, we 
 venture to say that none will be more anxious or more 
 earnest to exhibit their friendly feelings toward the people 
 of the South than the very men who have been, and are 
 still, so rampant for a vigorous prosecution of the war; 
 nay, we not only believe, this, but we believe also that they 
 will be the greatest toadies of the South; that they will 
 be profuse in their professions of good-will and friendly 
 feeling ; that they will fete and toast " our Southern 
 brethren" at the future banquets that will be given to 
 them in Northern cities ; that they mil never tire in 
 speaking or writing of a common origin, a common an- 
 cestry, a common language, and all those other things 
 which we have been accustomed to hear at convivial as- 
 sembhes of Americans and Englishmen. All this we shall, 
 most probably, see within a very few years in this our own 
 day and generation. 
 
 VI. We have referred to the Convention of the North- 
 ern States as among the inevitable consequences of this 
 war and the condition to which the North has been re- 
 duced. It is possible, but we do not regard it as prob- 
 able, that the North shall witness another Presidential 
 election before that Convention shall have taken place. 
 •This is a melancholy reflection, but we are considering our 
 present position, and dealing with the hard substantial 
 facts that have been forced upon our consideration. If we 
 could blot out the memories, the sad, bitter recollections 
 of the past two years and a half, oh ! how willingly would 
 we do so. It is not we, or such as we, who have destroyed 
 this Union. The murderers of this nation, the assassins 
 of the Republic, are to be found in Washington in the 
 members of the present Administration, who, with their 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 107 
 
 co-conspirators, the Abolitionists, have overthrown the 
 Union, and are now seeking to bury in the same grave 
 with it the vestiges of American freedom. Taking it for 
 granted that the Administration has not only destroyed 
 the Republic, but that by its manner of prosecuting the 
 war, its confiscation and emancipation measures, its van- 
 dalism in the destruction of Southern cities and Southern 
 homes, its war upon the freemen of the North, upon State 
 sovereignty, as well as its nullification of all the guaran- 
 tees of the Constitution — taking it for granted that the 
 Administration has by such instrumentalities not only de- 
 stroyed the Republic, but is now seeking to permanently 
 fasten a military despotism upon the North, the free States 
 will be compelled, in their own defense, and for the j)res- 
 ervation of their independence, to begin anew the process 
 of re-construction and re-formation. The men who have 
 not been committed to the Abolition policy of the Gov- 
 ernment must be selected for the performance of this 
 work. Aholitionis^n must he abolished if we would pre- 
 serve friendly relations with the South with the view to 
 an offensive and defensive aUiance of the two great Re- 
 publics of America against the intrigues and machinations 
 of foreign powers. 
 
 VII. 'It is possible that the memories of wrongs and 
 outrages committed during a ruthless invasion of the 
 South may render such an alliance a work of difficulty for 
 many years ; but the statesmen of the South will, we be- 
 lieve, be the first to perceive the necessity for, and the 
 benefits derivable from, such relationship between the two 
 Republics. It would be as much their interest as ours to 
 establish and preserve these relations between the North 
 and the South. Such an arrangement would do away 
 with the necessity of large standing armies and expensive 
 navies. If we mistake not there is a treaty between the 
 United States and Great Britain in regard to the great 
 lakes, by which the maintenance of a large naval force in 
 those waters is rendered unnecessary. As for the settle- 
 ment of Abolitionism, there will, we think, be less trouble 
 than when the South was in the Union. We may not 
 have a Fugitive Slave Law, and we may ; but whether we 
 shall have or shall not have one, we think the great ma- 
 
108 AKTIOLES FEOM THE 
 
 jority of the people of the North have sufficiently, shown 
 that they are not desirous of a further increase in the 
 negro population of these States. They are excluded 
 from Illinois by legislative enactment, and in other States 
 such demonstrations have been made against the intro- 
 duction of contrabands as ought to satisfy any rational 
 mind that they are not considered desirable additions to 
 the population. In fact, Mr. Lincoln himself may be 
 quoted in proof of the reliability and truth of these state- 
 ments. His interview with the coloi-ed delegation that 
 visited him about a year ago, in which he told them that 
 they could not live as freemen in the same community 
 with the whites without injury to the latter, is pretty sat- 
 isfactory on this point, as is also his effort to colonize them 
 in Central America, whether that effort shall prove a fail- 
 ure or a success. 
 
 VIII. One of the most difficult questions to settle will 
 be that of the Territories, which, if not settled definitely 
 and conclusively by a convention between the two Confed- 
 eracies, may lead to endless disputes, and perhaps hostih- 
 ties. It may be that the old Missouri Compromise line 
 will be adopted; but, whatever line may be adopted as 
 the limit of the Northern and Southern territories, that 
 line must be clearly and distinctly drawn. Whatever dis- 
 putes may arise about these Territories, they certainly can 
 not originate in any fear that either Confederacy will not 
 have sufficient land to meet the demands of their popula- 
 tion for two or thi'ee centuries to come. In fact, the • 
 growth of population on this continent, although unprece- i 
 dentedly rapid, will not be adequate for generations to the a 
 settlement and the cultivation of the almost illimitable do- v 
 main that stretches west of the Mississij^pi away to the si- 
 Kocky Mountains. ii 
 
 IX. At the close of the war, a new q*uestion will come h^ 
 up for the consideration of that portion that still remains ifl- 
 of the old Union. This is no less a question than the fu- 
 ture position of the border slave States. If the principle 
 of universal suffrage is to prevail with regard to the elec- 
 tion of their choice between the North and the South, 
 then that question must be left to their own decision by 
 a general election in each State, and with regard to 
 
METROPOLITAN KECOED. 109 
 
 the selection, we believe that if left entirely nntram- 
 meled by governmental or bayonet interference, they 
 will decide by large majoj'ities of their populations to 
 go with the ISouthern Confederacy. There is one sub- 
 stantial reason for arriving at this conclusion. These 
 States are bound together by common sympathies, by 
 common interests, and by the institution of slavery, Avhich 
 is common to all. These are like so many hnks of steel ; 
 but, independent of these considerations, the fact that all 
 of them, with one exception, have been made the theater 
 of war, and have been subjected to the full force of the 
 Washington tyranny and its miHtary satraps, affords of 
 itself sufficient grounds for the belief that they will go 
 with the South. It is absurd to urge in refutation of this 
 23osition that, if they conclude to remain with the IsTorth- 
 ern States, their slaves will not be interfered with. What 
 po^ver on earth can guarantee this in view of the rampant, 
 despotic Abohtionism that has taken possession o-ven of 
 the Government itself? What guarantee have they, 
 even, that in the event of interference with the peculiar 
 institution, they will be compensated by Government for 
 the emancipation of their slaves ? In this connection, let 
 us ask, what has become of the offer to purchase the free- 
 dom of the slaves in Kentucky and Missouri ? Do we not 
 all know that the proposed manumission, so far as Mis- 
 souri and Kentucky are concerned, has turned out to be a 
 miserable failure ? Of the whole two thousand live hun- 
 dred millions of dollars expended during the war, we doubt 
 ■f one million was appropriated to purchase the freedom 
 fj'f slaves. Such is the result of a sentiment that has con- 
 -. ulsed the country throughout its entire extent ; that has 
 -.■.>d to the sacrifice of some six or seven hundred thousand 
 n ves ; that has made the land to resound with the wails 
 ir the widows and the orphans ; and that has overthrown 
 I e mightiest Republic the world has ever seen. Who 
 oclieves that, with the full knowledge of all these facts, 
 the border slave States would be wilhng to remain with 
 the North if they are afibrded an opportunity of linking 
 their destiny with that of the South ? 
 
 We have endeavored, calmly and dispassionately, to dis- 
 cuss the condition to which the country is fast hastening, 
 
110 ARTICLES FKOM THE 
 
 and in doing so we have been governed solely by a frank 
 and candid desire to consider the various issues which 
 must inevitably grow out of that condition. We feel, we 
 believe, that not a few of our readers will difler with us in 
 the conclusions at which we have arrived, that they still 
 cling to the hope of a restored Union, and that the time 
 will come when the States shall resume their old relations 
 toward each other. We respect their feelings, and we 
 know they will believe us when we say that no sacrifice 
 would be too great for us to make to restore the Republic 
 to its former unity, prosperity, and position among the 
 nations of the earth. But the policy of the Administra- 
 tion has rendered this impossible, and loe have now to 
 deal with accomplished facts. We shall ask our readers, 
 one and all, even those who differ with us, to take a brief 
 review of the past, and from the light which it affords to 
 draw their own conclusions with regard to the future. 
 If they should coincide in our views, we shall be satisfied 
 that the arguments we have presented are not without 
 some weight and influence, while we do not wish to dissi- 
 pate any well-founded hopes that may exist with regard 
 to the attainment of an end so much desired by us all. 
 Let us, then, without further preface, take a glance at the 
 events of the past two years, and the present condition of 
 the country. 
 
 When Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated he took a most sol- 
 emn oath to fulfill his constitutional obligations, and he 
 subsequently i^ledged himself not to interfere with the pe- 
 culiar institution in the slave States. 
 
 Let us see how far his actions have accorded with his 
 promises. With the most indecent haste slavery was abol- 
 ished in the District of Columbia, the signature of the Pres- 
 ident giving his sanction to the law. A measure was set on 
 foot for emaiicip.iiiou in the border States to which Mr. Lin- 
 coln gave his inliuence ; but the Abolition policy of his Ad- 
 ministration was developed most prominently and most in- 
 sidiously in the Confiscation and Emancipation acts, which 
 were almost exclusively aimed at the peculiar institution. 
 In these various instances the most conclusive proof was af- 
 forded to tiie ?outh that the whole strength and power of 
 the Grovernment was enlisted in a grand Abolition crusade. 
 
METEOPOLITAN EECOED. Ill 
 
 The Union men of that section of the Republic were now 
 satisfied thut they had nothing to hope for, and Avere forced, 
 however unwilUngly, into the ranks of the secessionists. 
 The South, by this policy, was consolidated into one com- 
 pact mass, to destroy which all the power of the North has 
 been launched against it again and again without success. 
 But there was another feature which became, as time wore 
 on, more and more apparent. This was the imbecility, the 
 utter incompetency of the Administration to cope with 
 the crisis ; and this feature is now acknowledged by its 
 ersCwhile warmest supporters. It has had over two thou- 
 sand millions of dollars and nearly a million and a half of 
 men with which to subjugate the South ; for, after all, it 
 must be admitted that this is a war of subj agation. Well, 
 this war of subjugation is a total- failure, as Douglas, and 
 Clay, and Webster, and Hamilton, and Madison, and other 
 great statesmen of the country predicted. What have we 
 accomplished by it ? The complete alienation of the 
 Southern States, with their seven or eight millions of 
 Ameiican freemen. We have had, it is true, some refu- 
 gees from the Southern States, who have endeavored to 
 create such a sympathy as should manifest itself in the 
 substantial character of pecuniary support. These men 
 have told us wonderful stories of a Union feeling south of 
 Mason and Dixon's line. But what has that Union feeling 
 accomplished ? Absolutely nothing. 
 
 Battle after battle has been fought, the Union army 
 being oftener vanquished than victorious ; and it is now 
 confessed that the Southern Confederacy was never so de- 
 fiant, so powerful, or so able in every way to maintain its 
 independence as it is at the present time. It is doubtful 
 if the efibcdve force of the Union army exceeds five hun- 
 dred thousand men — indeed, we are of the opinion that it 
 is not mucn over four hundred thousand. 
 
 Is any one mad enough to imagine that such a force is 
 equal to tho overthrow of the armies commanded by Lee, 
 and Johnston, and Bragg, and Beauregard, and the other 
 great generais of the South? Is any man so insane as to 
 believe that McClellan, even had he the genius of Napo- 
 leon himself, would be equal to such a task? What a de- 
 lusion, then, to flatter om'selves with the hope that a 
 people who Jcno^o their strength^ and who have tested it 
 
112 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 through the ordeal of a two-years' laar^ the most sanguiro- 
 ary^ the most disastrous^ the m,ost expensive on record^ 
 will be inclined to give up that independence for which 
 they have fought so long, struggled so valiantly, and sacri- 
 ficed so much ? 
 
 But then again we are told that the resources of the 
 North in men and money are equal to a continuance of 
 the war for two years more, and longer if need be^ while 
 some, in the height of their folly, in the excess of their 
 absurdity, tell us that they will fight until the last man 
 and the last dollar in the treasury is expended. Such talk 
 is unworthy of a moment's consideration. Let us tell 
 those who indulge in this bombastic nonsense that the 
 conscription is already a failure ; that a hundred thousand 
 men can not be raised by it ; that there are hardly enough 
 hands left to perform the manual labor of the country; 
 that Massachusetts, with all her efforts to recruit, even 
 among the black population, is twenty thousand behind 
 her quota ; that the military arrests of Burnside and Has- 
 call in the West have roused a feeling of indignation 
 which may at any time burst forth in all the horrors of 
 civil strife ; that the confidence of the people in the Ad- 
 ministration, its generals, and the final success of this war, 
 is gone, utterly gone ; and that the great mass of our 
 people are sick and tired of this fruitless waste of blood 
 and treasure. 
 
 Is not this the true state of the case ? What hypocrisy, 
 then, to talk of a further prolongation of hostilities ! Let 
 us not be deceived any longer by temporizmg, by insin- 
 cere and tricky politicians. Let us rise up manfully and 
 meet the issues that have been forced upon us by those 
 assassins of the Rei:\ublic who have so long played the 
 part which history tells us was played by l!^ero while 
 gazing on the burning ruins of the Eternal City. Let us 
 accept the "logic of accomplished facts," and manfully 
 and courageously resolve that although the Union has 
 been destroyed, our liberties shall still be preserved, and 
 democratic freedom saved from the wreck of our once 
 proud, free, and happy Republic. Let us perform the 
 task that remains to us, and leave to time the work of re- 
 uniting in the bonds of a powerful alliance the now severed 
 sections of a once grand confederacy. 
 
METROPOLITAN EECOED. 113 
 
 WHICH IS THE MOST HUMILIATING -PEACE OR 
 WAR'T 
 
 {Fr(ym the Metropolitan Kecord, June 13, 1863.) 
 
 After more than two years of a fratricidal war there 
 are some in the North who are still not only in favor of 
 its vigorous prosecution, but who denounce as traitors and 
 se(;essionists all those who are bold enough to advocat-e 
 peace as the only means left of preserving the Northern 
 States from the horrors of a fixed military despotism. 
 These men insist that the war shall still go on, that tens, 
 and, if need be, hundreds of thousands shall be added to 
 the holocaust already oflered up at the shrine of Abolition- 
 ism ; that the press must be silenced ; that liberty of 
 speech must be suppressed; that all our constitutional 
 guarantees must be held in abeyance until the South is 
 thoroughly subdued. They are the last-dollar-in-the-treas- 
 ury men, the firm supporters of the Administration, the 
 advocates of a strong government, who allow no one to 
 ba right but themselves, and who insist that peace upon 
 any other terms than the complete submission of the 
 iSouth would be humiliating and degrading to the North. 
 They presume to have the honor of the country in their 
 keeping, and from their judgment there must be no appeal. 
 
 Now, does any one imagine that these men are willing 
 of themselves to make any sacrifices in support of their 
 own })olicy ? Who are they that talk to us in this dicta- 
 torial, domineering style ? They are the officials of the 
 Government, the shoddy contractors, the men who are 
 making their profits out of all this lavish expenditure of 
 blood and money. They are m favor of the war policy, 
 because it adds to their ill-gotten gains. It is they who 
 threaten the advocates of peace with all the terrors of the 
 Washington tyranny. It is they, and such as they, who 
 talk of the disgrace and humiliation of entering into ne- 
 gotiations with "rebels in arms." But what greater hu- 
 miliation and disgrace could befall a country than to be 
 •governed by such a set of imbeciles, such traitors to the 
 Constitution, as the men in Washington ? What could be 
 
114 . ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 more humiliating to a free people than the deprivation of 
 their rights, than the occurrence of such acts as have been 
 committed in the West by the military satraps, Burnside 
 and Hascall ? What could be more degrading than the 
 position in which we have been placed before the world 
 by the wretched minions and tools of a would-be irre- 
 sponsible despotism ? Are we so desirous of still greater 
 humiliations than those which have befallen us ? If we 
 are, then let the war go on, let the conscription be carried 
 into operation without opposition. Let our brave and un- 
 justly treated volunteers be slaughtered by tens of thou- 
 sands, and their families starve at home for want of the 
 pay to which they are fliirly entitled, but which is with- 
 held that contractors may not be kept waiting; let the 
 citizens' last weapon against tyranny — the vote by ballot — 
 be overthrown by the bayonet. Let all this be done if 
 we are in favor of a prolongation of hostilities, but let us 
 not be told that any peace could be more humiUating than 
 a waa* carried on at such a fearful sacrifice to human liberty 
 and the rights of American citizenship. 
 
 Humiliating ! Look at the national capital ; look at the 
 intrigues that are going on there against the sovereignty 
 of the States, and against the perpetuity of free institu- 
 tions ! Read of the doings of the wretched cabal, and do 
 not wonder that such men as Hooker and Burnside, and 
 Hunter and Halleck are allowed to play their pranks be- 
 fore high Heaven. Look and estimate if you can the 
 character of the man who can tell his ribald jests while 
 the country is bleeding at every -pore. Look there and 
 wonder not that the humiliation of the country should be 
 the subject of a boast with his Secretary of State, who, 
 claiming to be a freeman among freemen, coolly informed 
 a foreign minister that by merely touching the bell at his 
 right hand he could order the arrest of any citizen of the 
 North. Could lie do that with a citizen of the South f . 
 No! for the dominions of the military despotis'tn at 
 Washington do not extend within the lines of the Con- 
 federate forces. 
 
 This war must cease if we do not desire a still greater 
 humiliation ; this war must cease if we would preserve our 
 free institutions ; this war must cease if we would not be 
 
METEOPOLITAN RECORD. 115 
 
 ground down to the earth by the burdens of an excessive 
 taxation ; and, finally, this war must cease if Ave would 
 avoid civil strife and anarchy in our Northern States. 
 
 AND IT WILL CEAJSE FROM SHEER NECES- 
 SITY. 
 
 The people have at last be-come aroused to a true sense 
 of their danger. They now fully understand the character 
 of the men who have driven the ship of state among the 
 breakers. Their patience is exhausted, their forbearance 
 gone, their confidence undermined, and their suspicions at 
 last fuUy and actively aroused. Ui^on whom, then, is the 
 Government to rely for the means wherewith to continue 
 this war ? Is it on the men who exclaim against peace as 
 humiliating ? Is it on the Abolitionists, under the lead of 
 such men as Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips, and 
 Beecher and Cheever ? Is it, in a word, on the contract- 
 ors and tax collectors, and Government oflicials generally, 
 who are so sensitive with regard to the honor of the coun- 
 try ? No, no ; these are not the men who are ready to 
 put themselves in jeopardy, so long as they can purchase 
 exemption from the draft by the payment of three hun- 
 dred dollars worth of greenbacks. We appeal to you, 
 mechanics and laborers, whose families are dependent upon 
 your honest toil for support, if you are wilhng to sacrifice 
 yourselves for the further enslavement of the white man, 
 and the emancipation of a race whom President Lincoln 
 has .told you could not exist in the same community with- 
 out injury to yourselves. Those anti-peace men talk to 
 you of humiliation, while tens, ay hundreds, of thousands 
 have been reduced by the loss of their protectors, to the 
 bitter humiliation of destitution and poverty. What 
 sacrifices have they made that they should oppose the re- 
 establishment of peace ? Ah ! rather ask how much would 
 they lose hy the discontinuance of this loar f 
 
 Yes, this war must cease for want of the means, to carry 
 it on. The Conscription is already a failure, and any at- 
 tempt to enforce it in the North may precipitate a revolu- 
 tion, in which the Administration will inevitably go down. 
 There are at the present time hardly four hundred thou- 
 sand efi:*ective men in the field ; the South is stiil invincible, 
 still defiant ; Hooker still leads the Army of the Potomac ; 
 
116 ARTICLES FEOM THE 
 
 Burnside commands in the West, and Halleck and Stanton 
 still rule the War Department; while over all presides the 
 jocular and mirth-provoking Executive, with a new joke 
 for every defeat, and a flow of animal spirits that no re- 
 verses or calamity can subdue. Who, then, talks of a fur- 
 ther prolongation of the war ? Are men to be stamped 
 out of the earth? Will the citizens of the North submit 
 to be driven like sheep to the shambles ? Although the 
 people have thus far submitted to great humiliation, we 
 do not beheve that they are j^repared to yield their birth- 
 rights without a desperate struggle. 
 
 If the Conscription is attempted to be enforced, the 
 flames of a civil war will be enkindled within the Northern 
 States. The Administration may think that it will be easy 
 to suppress a popular uprising by the aid of the army ; 
 but we tell them if they rely upon the army for the en- 
 slavement of their fellow-citizens, they will find that they 
 are leaning upon a broken reed. The army are of the 
 people and with the people, and the brave fellows who 
 compose it can not be converted into the tools of the des- 
 pots at Washington. The ties of Idudred, the home affec- 
 tions that twine around their hearts, the associations of 
 their youth and of their manhood, all these bind them to 
 the respective States of which they are citizens, and any 
 attempt of the Administration to divorce them from these 
 sacred and powerful influences will fail — utterly, wholly, 
 ignominiously fail. The Washington authorities have in- 
 deed been reduced to desperate straits, and we believe 
 that a general feeling of trepidation and alarm prevails in 
 the White House and its surroundings. They may, how- 
 ever, attempt to intimidate the people by a still further 
 display of military force hke that which took place at In- 
 dianapoHs, at Newark, and at other places; but by so 
 doing they will onlf^ expose their weakness the more, for 
 in a contest between the States and the General Govern- 
 ment we have the assurance of Madison and Hamilton 
 that the States will inevitably be victorious. 
 
 Let the peace men, then, have no fears for the future. 
 This war is near its termination. It is a fix:ed fact that 
 the force in the field is entirely inadequate to its further 
 prosecution. 
 
I^IETBOPOLITAN RECORD. 117 
 
 Rosecrans is in want of reinforcements ; Banks is in 
 want of reinforcements ; Hooker is in want of reinforce- 
 ments ; Grant is in want of reinforcements. The two 
 years' and nine months' men are returning to their homes. 
 The Administration dare not enforce the Conscription Act ; 
 huge peace meetings are being held all over the North ; 
 Massachus^itts is twenty thousand behind her quota ; the 
 enormous bounties fail in inducing men to recruit ; the 
 people are becoming exceedingly uneasy under the de- 
 velopment of the tax law ; the im'becility and incompe- 
 tency of the Executive and his Cabinet Council have 
 become fixed facts in the popular mind; the action of 
 some of the State courts, deciding that Treasury notes are 
 not legal tenders, have shaken the confidence of the people 
 in the value of greenbacks ; and, finally, we believe that 
 this same people are far ahead of their leaders in their de- 
 sire and demand for peace. 
 
 But it is asked, how is peace to be brought about ? In 
 the first place we must have an armistice, then a conven- 
 tion between the Commissioners appointed to negotiate 
 the terms of peace between the two Repubhcs. \Ve en- 
 deavored in last week's paper to suggest the terms upon 
 which a permanent peace might be estabUshed ; and we 
 frankly beheve that these terms form the most practical 
 basis of settlement. To some such arrangement as this 
 we must eventually come, even should the war be pro- 
 tracted for two years more. 
 
 If we are ever to have a Union again, it will, as we 
 have already stated, and as we firmly believe, take the 
 form of an aUiance between the two Republics against the 
 intrigues, and, it may be, the attempted domination of 
 foreign powers in the affairs of this Continent, and such 
 an alliance may eventually lead to a reunion on a different, 
 but, let -us trust, a stronger and more enduring basis. 
 
118 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 THE CONSCRIPTION. 
 
 {From the Metropolitajj Record, June 13, 1863.) 
 
 Is any man so foolish as to imagine that the miconstitu- 
 tional act for the conscription of our fellow-citizens can 
 really be carried into operation ? Do they suppose that 
 the people will submit to such 'an exaction on the very 
 life-blood of the country ? K there are such men they 
 must be blind to the events that are daily transpiring. 
 No, there will be no conscription, and any effort to carry 
 such a measure into execution will prove a total failure. 
 The Administration has lost its power, and its motion, 
 like the diminished speed of a railroad train after it has 
 been detached from the locomotive, is but the impetns 
 given it by the power which it once possessed, but which 
 is gone forever.. 
 
 The people are now thoroughly wide awake ; they see 
 that they have been deceived ; they know that the Ad- 
 ministration has falsified its pledges — has attempted to 
 steal away their Hberties, and that it is fast becoming 
 utterly powerless to wreak its wicked will by overthrowing 
 the sovereignty of the States. 
 
 But it is barely possible that an attempt to carry out the 
 Conscription Act may yet be made, and it is well to con- 
 sider such a thing among the probabilities of the future. 
 
 In this State we believe it will be opposed by the people, 
 and its constitutionahty tested before our courts. Now, 
 it so happens that the opinion, the indignant protest of one 
 of the noblest Americans that ever lived, has been placed 
 on record against the tyranny of such an imposition. We 
 feel proud in announcing the fact that this man was a 
 Catholic — yes, a Catholic in the truest sense of the term. 
 His name is William Gaston, and it should be written in 
 letters of hving light wherever freedom has its worshipers. 
 He was one of the ablest of American jurists, and his 
 name is a synonym for judicial integrity, manly courage, 
 heroic devotion to the truth and the right wherever that 
 name is known. His father was murdered during the 
 Revolution by a band of Tories, who were then engaged 
 
METEOPOLITAN RECORD. 119 
 
 in an attempt somewhat similar to that of the Abolition 
 traitors at Washington to steal away the liberties of the 
 people. Well might Judge Gaston say, when referring to 
 this event — ^ v 
 
 " I was baptized an American in the blood of a mur- 
 dered father." 
 
 Judge Gaston was born in Newbern, North Carolina, 
 and was elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court of 
 that State, maintaining the highest reputation ever enjoyed 
 by a member of the American bench. He died on the 23d 
 of January, 1843, and the manner of his death is so re- 
 markable that we can not forego the opportunity of refer- 
 ring to it here. Relating some anecdotes of his experience 
 in Washington, he spoke of a freethinker whom he once 
 met there. " From that day," said he, " I always looked 
 on that man with distrust. I do not say that a freethinker 
 may not be an honorable man, or that he may not, from 
 high motives, scorn to do a mean act ; but I dare not trust 
 him. A belief in an all-ruUng Divinity, who shapes our 
 ends, whose eye is upon us, and who will reward us accord- 
 ing to our deeds, is necessary. We must believe and feel 
 that there is a God, all- wise and almighty." 
 
 These were the last words he ever uttered, for, rising to 
 give greater emphasis to the expression, he fell back and 
 expired. 
 
 This great man has, as we have stated, left his opinion 
 in regard to conscription on record. The speech which he 
 delivered in the House of Representatives in February, 
 1814, when referring to the great efforts made by the Ad- 
 ministration of that day to till up the army by conscri|> 
 tion, one would imagine was a prophetic description of 
 the present time : 
 
 "THE MOST ENOKMOUS PRICE IS BID FOR SOLDIERS THAT 
 WAS EVER OFFERED IN ANY AGE OR COUNTRY. SHOULD 
 THIS FAIL, WHAT IS THE NEXT SCHEME? THERE IS NO 
 RESERVE OR CONCEALMENT. IT HAS BEEN AVOWED THAT 
 THE NEXT SCHEME IS A CONSCRIPTION. IT .IS KNOWN 
 THAT THIS SCHEME WAS RECOMMENDED EVEN AT THIS 
 SESSION BY THE WAR DEPART.MENT, AND THAT IT WAS 
 POSTPONED ONLY TO TRY FIRST THE EFFECT OF ENORMOUS 
 BOUNTY. THE FREEMEN OF THIS COUNTRY ARE TO BE 
 DRAFTED FROM THE RANKS OF THE MILITIA, AND FORCED 
 ABROAD AS MILITARY MACHINES, TO AVAGE A WAR OF 
 
120 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 CONQUEST! SIR, I HAVE BEEN ACCUSTOMED TO CONSIDER 
 THE LITTLE SHARE WHICH I HAVE IN THE CONSTITUTION 
 OF THESE UNITED STATES AS THE MOST VALUABLE PATRI- 
 MONY I HAVE TO LEAVE TO THOSE BEINGS IN WHOM I 
 HOPE MY NAI^IE AND REME^IBRANCE TO BE PERPETUATED, 
 BUT I DO SOLEMNLY DECLARE, THAT IF SUCH A DOCTRINE 
 BE ENGRAFTED INTO THIS CONSTITUTION, I SHALL REGARD 
 IT AS WITHOUT VALUE, AND CARE NOT FOR ITS PRESER- 
 VATION." 
 
 The language of this great and good judge is peculiarly- 
 applicable now, and contains a lesson which can not be ig- 
 nored without entailing the most fearful consequences. 
 
 This is a war of invasion as that against which Judge 
 Gaston protested, for the conscription of that day was 
 with the view of invading Canada. It is even worse ; for 
 it is a war against the Constitution and against the writ- 
 ings of the fathers of the Revolution, in which there is no 
 authority for the coercion of a sovereign State. If com- 
 promise had not been discarded, and the law of brute force 
 had not been appealed to in the attempt to bring back the 
 South, the restoration of the old Union would not be 
 among the impossibilities of the future. 
 
/ METKOPOLIl'AN lEtECOED. 121 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION TELEGRAPH ; OR, HOW IT 
 IS DONE. 
 
 A PLAY IN THREE ACTS. 
 
 'WBITTBjr BXPREBSLT FOB THK " MBTEOPOLITAN REOOBD," AND NOT TO BB PKRFOaMB* 
 IN ANT THEATEBt, TO AYOID THE ABEEST OF THH A0T0B8.) 
 
 {Fr(m the Metropolitan Kecord, Jum 20, 1863.) 
 
 DBAMATIS PERSONJS. 
 
 Abe Lition Linkem. 
 
 W. H. HlRELAW. . 
 
 Solomon" Greenback. 
 
 Secretary Bluster. 
 
 Secretary Springs. 
 
 Confidential Clerk op Secretary Hirelaw. 
 
 General Mallet. 
 
 The Intelligent Contraband. 
 
 The Reliable Southern Gentleman. 
 
 Porter. 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 Scene 1. 
 
 Sebr€t offite in the War Department — Sec. Hirelaw presiding over a meeting 
 of the War ll'legraph Bureau. 
 
 Sec. Hirelaw — "Well, gentlemen, did I not tell you that 
 my plan would be the most successful? An experience 
 of forty years in public life has satisfied me that the people 
 are easily gulled. Did you not see how I cajoled them 
 when at the Astor House in the great metropohs I said, 
 and pledged my word thereto, that three short months 
 would see the termination of this war. 'Tis true the 
 pledge was not redeemed ; but, sirs, the popular heart 's a 
 generous one, and its trust once given is not soon with- 
 drawn. K proof of this were needed, see how my polit- 
 ical promissory note has been renewed, until noAV the time 
 is extended to nine times three months ! Am I not right, 
 then, in my conclusions ? Yes, sirs. What follows as the 
 inevitable inference ? Lie on, and they will stiU believe, 
 for a lie well told must make its way. But what news 
 
 6 
 
12S ARTICLES FEOM THE 
 
 to-day from Yickshurg? Has that Sebastapol not fallc-a 
 yet, or is Pemberton determined to hold out ? What !s 
 Grant doing, and what is he about ? The agent of tlio 
 Memphis telegraph should have captured it before this. 
 Send him word at once to say the fate of Yicksburg is 
 sealed, that our starry flag now floats upon its ramparts. 
 
 All — Good. 
 
 Sec. H. — If 'tis not taken, it ought, and that's the same. 
 If not yet in Grant's possession, it should be ; so we'll take 
 it for grant-ed. 
 
 Abe Linkem — Stay ! hold, Mr. Secretary ; not so fast, I 
 pray you. Your joke on Grant" reminds me of a capital 
 anecdote of an old chum of mine who floated rafts down 
 the crooked Mississippi — darn the thing ! I wish it was 
 straightened out — anyhow^ Ws full of snags. Well, this 
 friend of mine said he'd bet drinks that his family was as 
 old as creation — (his name was Grant, too) — so I bet him ; 
 but, by thunder ! he beat me, for he showed me in the 
 Bible where it said, " there were Grants in those days.'* 
 And there, sure enough, it was, for the printer who set it 
 up spelt it grants instead of giants, so, by thunder! he 
 got me. • [All indulge in laughter. 
 
 Gen. Maliet — Ha ! ha ! really that's very good, Mr. 
 President. Giants and Grants ! Capital ! Ha ! ha ! 
 
 Abe li. .[aside to Ge7i. Mallet] — Capital joke! "My 
 wife says so, too." By the way. General, who did you 
 say you wanted appointed to that brigadier-generalship ? 
 
 [The General whispers. 
 He shall have it, and my word's better than a three-months' 
 note of Secretary Hirelaw. 
 
 Sec. H. — I asked what news from Yicksburg. Why 
 this hesitation ? 
 
 Intelligent Contraband — It's not yet taken, and 
 "dat's what's de matter." Massa, General Pemberton 
 says he won't allow it noways nohow. He's got plenty 
 grub, and says he'll fight Gen. Grant, " or any other man," 
 as long as he has a horse or a dog left. 
 
 Gen. M. — Who said that this was an intelligent contra- 
 band ? He is not the man we want. Away with him. So. 
 Is he gone ? 
 
 YoiCES — He's gone. 
 
METROPOLITAN RECOED. 123 
 
 [ Chorus in the distance^ 
 
 " He is gone where the good darldes go." 
 
 So lay down the shovel and the hoe, 
 
 Dere are no more work for 
 
 De poor contraband, 
 
 For a sojering he must go. 
 
 Gen. M. — Where is the reliable Southern gentleman ? 
 
 R. S. Gentleman [aside to Jfallet] — What about that 
 office you promised ? You know my story is dependent 
 on that. 
 
 Gen. M. [aside] — You shall have it ; but is the story a 
 good one ? 
 
 R. S. G. [aside — You shall see.] Gentlemen, I have 
 just arrived from Richmond, and the cabinet of that arch 
 traitor Davis is now stricken with fear at the wretched 
 prospect before them. There is not three weeks' provi- 
 sions in the whole South, the soldiers are on the verge of 
 mutiny, the blockade is impassable, and in less than three 
 weeks the Southern Confederacy must collapse. 
 
 Sec. H. — By Jove ! Mallet, that won't do ; he goes ahead 
 of me. He says three weeks, while I have promised three 
 months. 
 
 Gen. M. — Never mind, Bill, you're both equally re-lie- 
 able. 
 
 R. S. G. [aside to Mallet'] — What think you of my 
 gtory ? 
 
 Gen. M. — ^Truly, you have a most inventive genius, and 
 if you have not overwhelmed them at the South, you have 
 enabled us to do the North. You shall have the office 
 promised. [Exit M. S. Gentleman et omnes. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 A Private Chamber in the Navy Department — Sec. Springs, surnamed " Tht 
 Old Man of the Sea," discovered sitting at a table surrounded by charts, 
 plans of Monitors, etc. 
 
 Sec. Springs [soliloquizing] — Nine more vessels gone 
 through that confounded Alabama. This is more than 
 human patience can endure. The fates are all against me ; 
 and e'en the daily press can find no better subject for its 
 comments. Zhave made no three months' promises. / 
 have issued no political promissory notes. Why, then, 
 
124 . ARTICLES FEOM THE 
 
 should I be so baited ? There's a vicious fellow must 
 make a pun upon my name by asking if " all is well that 
 ends Welles ?" Springs he should have said, but it's near 
 enough for a joke. 'Twas but last night I had a dream, 
 and in that dream methought a whole army of these edit- 
 ors rughed upon me with pens upraised as if to strike me 
 to the earth. Their banner bore these words in golden 
 characters ; 
 
 "The Pen is Mightier than the Swoed." 
 
 " 'Tis false," I cried, " the pen's not mightier than the 
 sword." The little bell of Sec. Hirelaw* has twice the 
 power, and has it not been proved ere this that the dollar 
 is all-mighty ? I know a change is working in the public 
 mind, and that in the President's own State the suppres- 
 sion policy has met with a repulse that may be but the be- 
 ginning of disaster. Ha ! who knocks ? I trust no fur- 
 ther news about the Alabama. Enter. 
 
 [2^Ae door opetis, and Sec. Hirelaw enters. 
 
 Sec. H. — Glad to see you, old fellow. What's the news 
 from the dominions of the saline god, that tough old salt, 
 called Neptune ? 
 
 Sec. S. — A truce to joking, Bill. You know I am thin- 
 skinned, and can not even hear the name of Semmes with- 
 out a shudder. 
 
 Sec. H.— Well, well, no joke, I assure you. Why not 
 do as I do ? Laugh at their assaults, and whene'er you 
 get a chance, revenge yourself by sending your assailant 
 to Fort McHenry or Lafayette. Spjings, my boy, you're 
 not up to trap. If you only knew this people as well as I 
 do, no fears of the future would perplex your thoughts by 
 day or dreams by night. Do you not see how easily they 
 are cowed, and how passively they submit themselves to 
 the yoke ? 
 
 Sec. S. — That may or may not be so ; but still I dread 
 the future. The people, I grant you, have been patient, 
 
 " Mr. Seward to Lord Lyons — My lord, I can touch a bell on my 
 right hand and order the arrest of a citizen in Ohio. I can touch the 
 hell again and order the imprisonment of a citizen of New York ; and 
 no power on earth but that of the President can release them. Can 
 the Queen of England in her dominions do as much ? 
 
METEOPOLITAN RECORD. 125 
 
 not passive, and the time may come — but let's not think 
 of that. The subject's an unpleasant one. What news 
 from the Mississippi ? is Yicksburg taken ? 
 
 Sec. H.— Yes. 
 
 Sec. S.— How ? by assaiilt ? 
 
 Sec. H. — No, by telegraph, and — a reliable Southern gen- 
 tleman, who is to be rewarded for the feat by the sale to 
 your department of one of his old mud-scows, and an office 
 m mine. 
 
 Sec. S. — ISTow, I prithee, Bill, no more such tricks. 
 Have I not enough of mu-d-scows ? Must I again be tor- 
 tured by the press ? My mind is on the rack already. 
 
 Sec. H. — Pshaw ! In diplomacy you are but a child. 
 
 Sec. S. — Well, well, have it so. I must confess I can 
 not "look so calmly on these things as my able colleague 
 of the State Department. There is that affair at Charles- 
 ton — 
 
 Sec. H. — I should thiuk you had enough of Charleston 
 already. Come, you must dine with me to-day, and as we 
 have no time to lose, put by the cares of office for the 
 present, and we'll have a right good joUy hour. 
 
 Sec. S. — Agreed. I am at your service. [Miceu9it. 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 Scene 1. 
 
 An Attic in the Negro quarter of the Capital — Intelligent Contraband em- 
 ployed in demolishing a plate of fried eeh. 
 
 Int. Contraband — By golly! dis chile was not wide 
 awake dat time ; but he has larned a lesson dis time, any- 
 how. Dey don't want de trufe. So I guess I'll have to 
 do a little Ijin. I'll just take Vicksburg right straight off, 
 and put the banner, or the banger, on the bafflement. 
 Guess dat'n fetch him. Ya ! ya ! Sure I be an intelligent 
 contraband, and if I aint smart enuff for um dis time dis 
 nigger knows nuffin, dat's all. I jis go right straigiit off 
 and tell him Vicksburg is took. 
 
126 ARTICLES mOM THE 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 Residence of Sec. Hibelaw — The Sec. and his confidentud Clerk engaged in 
 
 Ernest conversation. 
 
 Sec. Hieelaw — Your plan's a good one. I admire it. 
 It will not do t' oppose these peace men too strong at first. 
 We must feel the public pulse and see how it beats. That 
 mistake of Burnside's has thrown us back somewhat. It 
 came too soon after Vallandigham's banishment. We 
 must revoke tTie order. Your advice is a good one. And 
 then — I think I understand you — then we must observe a 
 little moderation, and seem to yield while we are but 
 strengthening the chain. The conscription ! Ha ! Yes, 
 the conscription must succeed, and to secure that success, 
 concessions, apparent concessions, to the popular demands 
 are wise and statesmanlike. But let the conscription* suc- 
 ceed, and we are masters of the situation. Do I not un- 
 derstand you ? 
 
 Coi«". Clerk — Fully ; that is my idea, for if the people 
 will submit to that, then the triumph of our scheme is cer- 
 tam. You, by securing the prolongation of the war, are 
 enabled to wield the military power of the country. Six 
 hundred thousand conscrij^ts are sufficient far the conquest 
 of the North, and the Emperor of France has set a lesson 
 that may well be copied — a cou}^ Witat would soon dispose 
 of all who talk such treason as that defunct and musty 
 document, the Constitution, contains. 
 
 Sec. H. — These are words of wisdom such as Kichelieu 
 himself could not surpass ; but we must end this consulta- 
 tion. There are other matters of import to look after, 
 and they can not be put ^side. 
 
 Con. C. — Ah ! there is one thing I had well-nigh forgot. 
 
 Sec. H. — Delay not, then, for you see I am hurried, 
 and to-morrow must be given to telegraph inventions and 
 inventors. 
 
 Con. C. — To be brief, there is a paper published in 
 New York which is noted for its devoted advocacy of 
 Free Speech, Free Press, and treason such as that must 
 not be allowed. 
 
 Sec. H. — Name the paper, and it shall be attended to. 
 
 Con. C. — The Meteopolitan Recori>. Nay, start not 
 at the name. 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 127 
 
 Sec. H. — ^Ha ! sayst thou so — the Record ? Why, me- 
 thought it was the loyalest among the loyal. It must be 
 stopped. Wher^s my hell f 
 
 Con. C. — I know not. It has been astray betimes since 
 that man Seymour was elected Governor of the Empire 
 Stf.te. 
 
 Sec. H. — Well, as we can do nothing in New York 
 without that bell, and as Seymour may interfere, we must 
 bide our time. So farewell, my trusty friend, till we two 
 meet again. \Ex^wit, 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 Scene 1. 
 The secret office in the War Department, as represented in Act L, Scene 1. 
 
 Abe Lition Linkem — Are we all together ? 
 
 Sec. Hirelaw — I believe the meeting is full, and so now 
 to business. What's on the table ? 
 
 Abe L. — Paper, pens, and ink, and — my two legs. Ha ! 
 ha ! that's a good one. Aint it, Mallet ? 
 
 Gen. Mallet — Capital. Ha ! ha ! 
 
 Abe L. [^aside to 3Iallet] — I'll appoint your friend brig- 
 adier-general sure. I have a capital joke to tell you when 
 we're alone, and Hirelaw aint around. 
 
 Solomon Greenback — This, I believe, is a meeting of 
 telegraph inventors, and I would therefore suggest that as 
 government stock is running down in the market, it might 
 be as well to get out a good startHng dispatch from Vicks- 
 burg. 
 
 Gen. M. — ^The very thing which brought us together. 
 Matters, it must be confessed, look very hazy in that quar- 
 ter at the present time. What say you. Springs ? ' 
 
 Sec. Springs — There I agree with you. 'Tis true my 
 gun-boats and mortars have been hammering at them for 
 weeks with poor success, but a telegraphic dispatch is the 
 thing to use them up and put a quietus on the discon- 
 tented North. 
 
 All — ^Theu let us have the dispatch. 
 
128 
 
 ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 Porter [entering and addressing Secretary Mirelaw] — 
 The Intelligent Contraband is without, and asks to be ad- 
 mitted. 
 
 Sec, H. — Admit him. 
 lTjitellige?it Contraband makes his appearance^ and says : 
 
 Massa Hirelaw, I've been tinkin' 'bout dat matter since, 
 and, by golly ! I find dat 'twas all a mistake of dis nigger. 
 Massa Pemberton's done gone. Whew ! he can't stand 
 no time. He got only five horses for his men, and dey so 
 tin for want ob fodder, dat dere notin' but skin and bone. 
 Dey'U be starved right out in two or free days. 
 
 Sec. H. — How long since you were there ? 
 
 Int. Con. — Ise just come from dar right straight. 
 
 Sec. H. — That's capital ; that'll do. [To his confiden- 
 tial clerk'] — See that he's well paid for that information. 
 
 [Exit Int. Contraband. 
 
 Sec. Bluster — Where is the reliable Southern gentle- 
 man? 
 
 Porter — He is here, sir; but a member of the New 
 York press insists upon seeing you first. 
 
 Sec. B. — Insists ! did you say ? 
 
 P. — Yes, sir. 
 
 Sec. B. — Ha ! There's too much freedom in the word 
 " insists." It smacks of treason, and must be punished. 
 [ Writes an order.'] There ! Have him sent forthwith to 
 Lafayette, and now for the rehable gentleman. 
 
 [Porter ushei's in the M. S. G. 
 
 R. S. Gentleman — Since my last report I have been 
 placed in possession of further information of a most im- 
 portant character. The Southern Confederacy is rapidly 
 breaking up. Jefi" Davis and his cabinet have had a se- 
 rious quarrel. The women of Richmond have armed 
 themselves to the teeth, and even the children are in 
 arms. Boots are selling for a hundred dollars a pair ; a 
 single apple can not be had for less than five dollars. 
 Colee is made of roast sawdust, and very inferior whisky 
 sells at two hundred dollars a gallon. The President's 
 proclamation has set all the negroes rampant, and they are 
 rising and killing their former owners and families. A 
 few days ago Mrs. Davis was heard to say to Jeff, " It's 
 aU up with us ;" and General Lee, I have heard on reli- 
 
METROPOLITAN RECORD. 129 
 
 able authority, is secretly working to make his escape to 
 France. 
 
 Gen. M. — Your information, sir, is most valuable, and 
 shall be given to the loyal people of the North without 
 delay. \Aside] — As for that office, call on me to-morrow 
 morning, and you shall be duly installed. 
 
 Sec. H. — A most intelligent and reliable gentleman that. 
 
 Abe L. — Now, gentlemen, you must hurry up, as the 
 old woman Avill play the deuce if I'm not on hand to meet 
 some friends at dinner. So now to work at that dispatch, 
 and let it be a crusher. Use up the South, or, by thun- 
 der ! it may use ics I'p. 
 
 Sec. B. — Gentleman, here is the dispatch ready for the 
 wires. 
 
 Abe L. — Ah ! Bluster, at the wire-pulling again, old 
 fellow ! What do you think of that one. Mallet ? Good, 
 wasn't it ? 
 
 Gen. M. — Capital ! excellent ! Ha I ha ! 
 
 Abe L. — That brigadier-generalship is a sure thing. 
 You may bet on it. Now, Bluster, go ahead with your 
 dispatch, and let it be dispatched as quick as possible. 
 There's another, Mallet, just got off; another one, old fel- 
 low ; have you got any more friends you want appointed ? 
 
 Gen. M. — A few more. 
 
 Abe L. — Send in their names ; it is as good as done. 
 But read the dispatch. 
 
 Sec. B. — [o^eads.) 
 
 DISPATCH. 
 
 The news from the South is of a most encouraging 
 character, and there are strong indications of a speedy 
 breaking up of the rebellion. A reliable gentleman, just 
 from the heart of Secessia, and who escaped from the al- 
 most instant death with which he was threatened, says 
 that very poor whisky is over two hundred dollars a gal- 
 lon ; that, in fact, the South is rapidly losing its spirits^ 
 and even the women are all in favor of Union — to a 7nan. 
 There is a large party in South Carohna who are in favor 
 of bringing back that State, and it was reported that a con- 
 spiracy was concocted to give up all the forts in the har- 
 bor to Admiral Dupont. The Southern soldiers were gen- 
 erally dissatisfied, and threatened a system of universal 
 
 6* 
 
130 AETICLES FEOM THE METROPOLITAN KECORD. 
 
 <lesertion. In fact, the rebellion is reduced to a shell, and 
 might be crushed at any time by a vigorous prosecution 
 of the war. It is said that Louis Napoleon advised Jefl* 
 Davis to give up, and it is believed that he will have to do 
 so by the end of the next three months, if not sooner. 
 
 Sec. H. — That's just the thing. I've no doubt that 
 three months will do for them. Is that all ? 
 
 Sec. B.— That's all. 
 
 Abe L.— Whew ! I'm glad of it. WeU, BiU, have it 
 sent over the wires, and if our people swallow that dose, 
 anything will stay upon their stomachs. 
 
 So now we must away, 
 And leave the next dispatch for anotlier day. 
 
 } Curtain falls on a grand tableau, representing Solomon 
 Greenback enthusiastically waving a Treasury note, 
 and Mr. Linkem reposing in graceful dignity on both 
 chair and table, with his feet and head on a common 
 level, while Gen. Mallet and the Reliable Southern 
 Gentleman are engaged in a silent conversation.^ 
 

 t 
 
 THi-: 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 gesptismiissateli 
 
 IN ARTICLES FROM THE 
 
 METROPOLITAN RECORD. 
 
 i I 
 
 FIFTH KDITION 
 
 
 I^to |0rlt: 
 
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