“PEACE! PEACE!!” 
 
 “BUT THERE IS NO PEACE.” 
 
 ‘Now the Lord of Peace himself give?, you peace always, by all means.”—II. Thess., III.; ^ 
 

 
 PEACE. 
 
 V\ W^\e 
 
 “ How beautiful upon the mountains, are the feet of him that bringeth glad tidings 
 that publisheth Peace.”— Isaiah, LII., v. 7. 
 
 An article entitled, “ Some of the Reasons why I am 
 Opposed to the Present War/' appeared in the Journal of 
 Commerce of 1st July, 1861—before a change had taken 
 place in the proprietorship of that paper. The article is 
 republished now, because it will make a suitable appendix 
 to the present paper, and also, because the time has come 
 “to take an observation 
 
 Christmas suggests our subject—“ Peace on earth, and 
 good will to men/' 
 
 Yes ! we write for Peace—that, for this distracted and 
 well nigh ruined land 
 
 “No more the thirsty Erynnis of the soil, 
 
 “ Shall daub her lips with her own children’s blood ; 
 “No more shall trenched war channel her fields, 
 “Nor bruise her flowers with the armed hoof 
 “ Of hostile paces.” 
 
 With Peace, we desire the restoration of the Union, if 
 that great blessing can yet be obtained, but we are, at all 
 ' events, for Peace—an early, honorable Peace. Whatever 
 
 p30765 
 
2 
 
 i\ 
 
 war may accomplish for dissolution and despotism, in 
 Peace alone is there any hope for the United States of 
 America. 
 
 In this unnatural strife enough blood has been shed, 
 enough loss and suffering inflicted, to glut the fiercest dis¬ 
 position. The power that has been exercised ; the money 
 that has been squandered ; the preferments that have been 
 bestowed, ought to appease the] most voracious appetite. 
 But, u there are three things/' saith Solomon, u which 
 are never satisfied." Had he lived till our day he might 
 have added to the number. What will abate the rapacity 
 of an army of contractors ; the importunity of an army of 
 place hunters ? What will satisfy the intolerance of a 
 cruel faction ; the cravings of unscrupulous ambition ? 
 Nothing ! We do not propose to address any such 
 people. The association would be disagreeable, and the 
 labor certainly wasted. We do, with confidence, address 
 those who refuse to bow down to Baal, or to worship the 
 image that Nebuchadnezzar has set up ; those who “ love 
 the things that make for Peacewho are at heart sick of 
 this war ; of the wickedness and incompetency it has dis¬ 
 closed ; of the profligacy and crime it has engendered ; of 
 the horrors that everywhere follow in its train ; those who 
 are unwilling longer to see the country abandoned to the 
 ruinous experiments of a wild and reckless party ; those 
 who value the rights of an American citizen, who view the 
 rapid strides of military despotism with jealousy and ap¬ 
 prehension ; who are unwilling that personal liberty should 
 any longer be held subject to the impertinent tyranny of 
 every Jack in office, or that the Bastile should supersede 
 the Jury box, and the novel pretensions of martial law an¬ 
 nul the law of the land. 
 
3 
 
 Against the voice of Peace a great outcry will of course be 
 raised by those who have a direct pecuniary, political or pi¬ 
 ous interest in prolonging the war; by those who, for years, 
 have labored to bring about the present condition of things; 
 by those who are at all times ready to % sell our birthright, 
 fellow citizens, for their miserable mess of African pottage. 
 We will not be disturbed by their clamor, nor denuncia¬ 
 tions, nor threats, nor even by their violence. Calmly and 
 freely we will consider the matter, for ourselves, and for 
 those who are to come after us. They will bellow out 
 u Treason/' u Traitor," with all the variations. Those 
 terms have been quite honored lately, and an honest man 
 may now accept them ^without reproach, if not without ap¬ 
 prehension. A good while ago, one Doctor Samuel John¬ 
 son sarcastically defined patriotism as “ the last refuge of 
 a scoundrel." The world changes, but men and morals 
 remain substantially the same. Our accusers, having 
 monopolized all the patriotism of the land, share it with 
 none, except their confederates and tools, 
 
 “ But," say they, “ treat with rebels! Peace with rebels! 
 No terms for rebels, but unconditional submission?" Yes, 
 Treat! and Peace, and Terms ; ye lifelong rebels against 
 God's righteous government, daily dependents on His 
 goodness and mercy, by all your hopes of salvation, yes ! 
 And ye say the Lord's Prayer doubtless, u Forgive us our 
 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us," 
 and sing, with lifted eyes, 
 
 “ That mercy I to others show, 
 
 That mercy show to me.” 
 
 and have no fear of judgment, but thank God that ye are 
 not as other men. “ Upon what meat hath this, our Cresar 
 fed, that he hath grown so great ?" Have ye forgotten 
 
4 
 
 cc that your father was an Amorite, and your mother a 
 Iiittitethat ye are the children of rebels against u the 
 best Government that ever existed ?" 
 
 But u Rebels have no rights/' The saying is somewhat 
 stale. Vattel's comment on it is : “ the language of flat¬ 
 terers and wicked rulers !" We will say no more lest the 
 spirits of our noble ancestors should be scandalised by the 
 discussion. 
 
 “ Unconditional submission !" They would not be their 
 father's children should they render it ; you would despise 
 them if they did ; you well know that such terms are im¬ 
 possible, and therefore you insist upon them. 
 
 % 
 
 The separation of the Colonies from the mother coun¬ 
 try was a forced separation. The treaty of Peace which 
 terminated the contest, acknowledged the United States, 
 each State by itself, severally named, “ to be free, sovereign 
 and independent States/'. The subsequent Union ofithose 
 States, under the "present Constitution, was voluntary, 
 each State, in the final act of ratification, acting by itself 
 and for itself. A compulsory Union would not have been 
 tolerated, could not have been formed. 
 
 The purposes for which that Union was established are 
 fully disclosed in the preamble to the Constitution. “ We, 
 the people of the United States, in order to form a more 
 perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility , 
 provide for the common defence, promote the general wel¬ 
 fare , and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
 posterity , do ordain and establish this Constitution for the 
 United States of America." 
 
 The preamble, is as much a part of the Constitu¬ 
 tion as any article in it—the Sacramental clause— 
 
5 
 
 the key to the whole instrument. It declares the ob¬ 
 jects of the Union. Those objects were the induce¬ 
 ments to the contract, without which it would 
 never have been entered into. When those inducements 
 fail, the contract ceases. 
 
 Let us suppose that, after a full and fair trial, the Union 
 is found not “ to establish justice/' nor u to insure domes¬ 
 tic tranquility," nor “ to provide for the common defence," 
 nor “ to promote the general welfare," nor u to secure the 
 blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity," nor “ to 
 form a more perfect union/' must it, nevertheless, continue 
 to bind the parties—the living to the dead ? Assuredly 
 not. Now, all, or nearly all, of this is affirmed by the 
 South against the Union. After years of agitation and 
 vain attempts to be made secure against the alleged wrongs 
 and injuries, believing that her difficulties and dangers in¬ 
 crease continually, and that her relative means of resistance 
 continually diminish, she has resorted to extreme measures, 
 which all, save a wicked faction, equally deplore, but which 
 all are not equally disposed to condemn. 
 
 If the complaints of the South are just and reasonable ; 
 if she sincerly believes that redress and protection can be 
 obtained in no other way, she has done right—otherwise 
 she has done wrong. Good faith, as parties to the contract; 
 the great vested interests of the whole country ; the cause 
 of freedom, and the necessities of social order forbid that 
 any Government, and especially this Republican Govern¬ 
 ment of ours, should hold its lease of life by the frail 
 tenure of caprices; or unreasonable complaints; or petty 
 interests; or speculative and fanciful dangers. Is it at all 
 probable that such insubstantial motives have governed the 
 
6 
 
 South, and directed the course she has taken ? We think 
 not. 
 
 There always have been and always will be, in every 
 country, a class of people whose element is turmoil and 
 distraction ; vain, noisy, selfish demagogues, of one idea, 
 restless, ambitious and unscrupulous persons, who seek to 
 promote discord, strife and revolution, that they may live 
 and fatten thereby ; but all such, however important in 
 their circle, club or district, are powerless against the basis 
 of society, unless the popular will and interest direct the 
 blow. Society is no fool. It knows when it is well treated 
 and where its advantage lies. There is not an instance 
 of a people rising up against a good Government ‘ and 
 throwing it off, but there are many instances of their 
 patience and long suffering, under every species of bad 
 Government. “ All experience hath shown, that mankind 
 “ are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than 
 cc to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which 
 “ they are accustomed/' (See Declaration of Independence.) 
 Says Alex. Hamilton, in a speech before the New York 
 Convention for the ratification of the Constitution : a We 
 “ have beeif told that the old Confederation has proved 
 u inefficacious, only because intriguing and powerful men 
 a have been forever instigating the people, and rendering 
 
 them dissatisfied with it. This, sir, is a false insinuation. 
 “ The thing is impossible. I will venture to assert that no 
 “ combination of designing men under Heaven, will be 
 “ capable of making a good Government unpopular." 
 (Elliot's Deb. v. ii. p 253.) 
 
 To the great mass of the Southern people Secession 
 was a disagreeable step, taken reluctantly, with a heavy 
 heart, and a continual hoping that something might occur 
 
7 
 
 which would enable them to retrace their course. Had a 
 wise and conciliatory policy been promptly adopted, with 
 a proper show of strength and resolution to protect the 
 right, every one of w the Southern States might have been 
 brought peaceably back, and the Union restored to more 
 than its former greatness and stability. We chose a dif¬ 
 ferent method, and invoked the spirit of coercion. The 
 first peal of an hostile bugle, as it echoed along the hills 
 and valleys of Virginia, awoke the United ,South with a 
 shock as inevitable^as that which flashed upon the colonies 
 when the news ran that British troops had marched on 
 Lexington and Concord. The first invasion of Southern 
 soil was sealed with blood —blood and destruction have 
 followed it ever since. Fellow citizens, this is not the land, 
 nor is liberty the tree to bear coercion, other than the co¬ 
 ercion of law. 
 
 Against all this we hear no logical answer. The 
 grand argument is : “ The best Government that ever ex¬ 
 isted/' So it is, for us of the North, and always has been. 
 We have had Peace in all our borders ; domestic tranquil¬ 
 ity has been insured ; nobody has meddled with our affairs, 
 or attempted to dictate to us what we should do or not do; 
 we have not been disturbed in our persons and in our pro¬ 
 perty, and the highest blessings of liberty have been ours, 
 fully to enjoy, without molestation. With the people of 
 the South it has not been so. They have not had Peace 
 in all their borders, nor has domestic tranquility been in¬ 
 sured to them. Nor have they enjoyed the highest bles¬ 
 sings of liberty without molestation. These many years 
 we have been intermeddliug with them—attending to their 
 affairs quite as much as we have attended to our own, if 
 not a little more. We have given them no rest,clay nor night, 
 
8 
 
 in their possessions; or their comfort ; or their reputation ; 
 or their personal safety. In the proper exercise of undoubt¬ 
 ed right, we have denied, or thwarted and crossed them in 
 every possible way. We have vexed them continually 
 with harsh, insulting, and abusive language, using the 
 vilest epithets, the bitterest denunciations. Had they been 
 a race of pirates, robbers, and outlaws—the refuse of the 
 earth, we could not have said more against them than we 
 have said. By teachings of the pulpit, the lecture room, 
 the school, and the fireside, a generation has been taught 
 to hate them. It has learned the lesson well, and, in its 
 ignorance, verily believes that Southern Chivalry is but 
 another term for lust and cruelty, pride, arrogance and ir- 
 religion. Could such a state of things continue forever ? 
 It was impossible ! “A house divided against itself can¬ 
 not stand/' The South finally concluded that, notwith¬ 
 standing the great advantages of the Union, it was not-the 
 best Government for them. 
 
 We are told that “ the Government did not do these 
 things." A Government of negative virtues only, is but 
 half a Government, if so much as that. It will not answer 
 to say merely, that Government does no wrong. If it is 
 powerless to prevent wrong it is radically defective. A 
 Government which fails to secure, to any portion of its peo¬ 
 ple, the enjoyment of their material rights and interests, is 
 not a good Government to them, whatever it may be to 
 others. 
 
 “ What care I, how fair she he, 
 
 If she be not fair tome.” 
 
 At this point of the discussion we shall be told that “ Sla¬ 
 very is the cause of all the trouble—only do away with that, 
 and everything will go well." With greater propriety might a 
 
9 
 
 highwayman make the like complaint against my purse ; 
 because, he breaks no faith with me, never gave a pledge, 
 nor received a compensation; he never enjoyed my hospital¬ 
 ity, nor profited by my labor, nor swore eternal friendship ; 
 and finally, because, you impiously, rob, for “ Christ's 
 sake;" he, very devoutly, for his own. 
 
 Had the people of this country always acknowledged the 
 right of a State to secede for cause, as a revolutionary right; 
 had they realized the possibility of such an occurrence and 
 the consequences of it ; all, North and South, would have 
 been under bonds to keep the peace, which would not have 
 been broken. There would have been no Secession, no dis¬ 
 solution, no war. 
 
 The idea of sustaining the Union by force, is of modern 
 date. We propose briefly to examine it by the old lights ; 
 by the authority of the Federal Convention, and the opin¬ 
 ions of the leading men of that day, who were prominent 
 members of that Convention, and very influential in estab¬ 
 lishing the Government. 
 
 In the Convention, the plan of the Constitution under 
 discussion contained a clause authorising the Government 
 “to call forth the forces of the Union against any member of 
 the Union failing to fulfill its duties under the articles there¬ 
 of/' When this clause came up for debate, Mr. Madison ob¬ 
 served, that “ the more he reflected on the use of force, the 
 “more he doubted the practicability, the justice and the 
 “efficacy of it, when applied to the people collectively and 
 “ not individually; a Union of the States containing such an 
 
 ingredient seemed to provide for its own destruction. 
 “ The use of force against a State would look more like a 
 “ declaration of war than an infliction of punishment, and 
 “ would probably be considered by the party attacked as a 
 
10 
 
 “ dissolution of all compacts by which it might be bound. 
 “ He had hoped such a system might be framed as might 
 “ render that recourse unnecessary, and moved that the 
 “ clause be postponed/' The motion w^s agreed to nem 
 con . (See Madison Papers, p 761, [v. ii.]) 
 
 By the same: “Any Government for the United States, 
 “ founded on the supposed probability of using force 
 “ against the unconstitutional proceedings of the States, 
 Cl would jDrove visionary and fallacious as the government 
 “ of Congress." (Ib, p 822, [v. ii.]) 
 
 Again : “ The clause to subdue rebellion in any State, on 
 “ the application of its Legislature," was next considered. 
 
 “ Mr. Pinckney moved to strike out ‘ on the application 
 “ of its Legislature.' Mr. Governeur Morris seconded. 
 
 “ Mr. Luther Martin opposed 4 as giving a dangerous and 
 “unnecessary power. The consent of the States ought to 
 “ precede the introduction of any extraneous force 
 “ whatever.' 
 
 “ Mr. Mercer supported the proposition of Mr. Martin. 
 
 “ Mr. Oliver Ellsworth proposed to add after ‘Legisla- 
 “ ture,' ‘or Executive.' 
 
 “ Mr. Morris: ‘The Executive may possibly be at the head 
 “ of the Rebellion.' 
 
 “Mr. Ellsworth: ‘In many cases the General Govern- 
 “ ment ought not to be able to interpose, unless called 
 “ upon. He was willing to vary his motion, so as to 
 “ read ‘ or without it when the Legislature cannot meet." 
 
 “ Mr. Eldridge Gerry was ‘ against letting loose the myr- 
 “midons of the United States on a State, without its own 
 “consent. The States will be the best judges in such 
 “ cases.' 
 
 “ Mr. Langdon was ‘for striking out, as moved by Mr. 
 
11 • 
 
 “Tinckney. The apprehension of the National force will 
 “ have a salutary effect in preventing insurrection/ 
 
 “ Mr. Edmund Randolph: ‘ If the National Legislature 
 “ is to be the judge whether the State Legislature can or 
 “ cannot meet, that amendment will make the clause as 
 “ objectionable as the motion of Mr. Pinckney/ 
 
 “ Mr. Morris: ‘We are acting a” very strange part. We first 
 “ form a strong man to protect us, and at the same time 
 “ wish to tie his hands behind him. The Legislature may 
 “ surely be trusted with such a power to preserve the pub- 
 “ lie tranquility/ 
 
 “ On the motion to add to, ‘on the application of its 
 “ Legislature/ ‘ or without it when the Legislature cannot 
 “ meet/ it was agreed to, 5 to 3. 
 
 “ Mr. Madison and Mr. Dickenson moved to insert, as 
 “explanatory after, ‘State' ‘ against the Government there- 
 “ of / ‘ there might be rebellion against the United States.' 
 “ Agreed to, nem con. 
 
 “ On the clause as amended, the vote stood, 4 to 4—so it 
 “was lost. The delegates from Mass, and Pa. were ab- 
 “ sent. On the printed Journal, Mass, is stated as having 
 “voted in the negative. (Madison papers pp. 1349, 50, 51, 
 [v. iii.]) 
 
 “ Mr. Dickenson moved to strike out ‘ on the application 
 “of the Legislature, against.' He thought it of essen¬ 
 tial importance to the tranquility of the United States, 
 “ that they should, in all cases, suppress domestic violence 
 “ which may proceed from the Legislature itself, or from 
 “ disputes between the two branches, when such exist.' On 
 “ the question, ayes 3, nays 8. 
 
 “ Mr. Dickenson moved to insert the words ‘or Executive' 
 
• 12 
 
 “ after the words, ‘ application of its Legislature.' Ayes 8, 
 “nays 2, (lb. pp. 1466, 67, 68.) 
 
 “On the question on the clause as amended—ayes 9, 
 
 “ nays 2." 
 
 The clause as adopted is as follows : “The United 
 “ States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Ee- 
 “ publican form of Government, and shall protect each of 
 “ them against invasion, and, on application of the Legis- 
 “ lature , or of the Executive, (when the Legislature cannot 
 “be convened) against domestic violence” (See Con. U.S. 
 Art. iv. Sec. 4.) 
 
 The Constitution, as adopted, was sent to the several 
 States for ratification. The States called their several Con¬ 
 ventions. In those Conventions the instrument was tho¬ 
 roughly discussed and criticised, previous to its adoption. 
 
 In the Convention of New York, Mr. Lansing, a mem¬ 
 ber: “I know not if History furnishes an example of a Con- 
 “ federated Eepublic coercing the States composing it, by 
 “ the mild influence of Law, operating on the individuals 
 “of those States. It, is, therefore, I suppose, to be 
 “ a new experiment in politics." (Elliot's Deb. v. ii., p. 221.) 
 
 Mr. Alexander Hamilton, a member, and a delegate to 
 the Federal Convention : “ It has been observed, to coerce • 
 “ the States, is one of the maddest projects that was ever 
 “ devised. A failure of compliance will never be confined 
 “ to a single State. This being the case, can we suppose 
 “ it wise to hazard a civil war ? What a picture does this 
 “ present to our view. A complying State at war with a 
 “ non-complying State. Congress marching the troops of 
 “ one State into the bosom of another. This State collect- 
 “ ing auxiliaries, and forming, perhaps, a majority against 
 “the Federal head. Here is a nation at war with itself. 
 
13 • 
 
 “ Can any man be well disposed towards a Government 
 “ which 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 be sufficient 
 “ to dispose every peaceable citizen against such a Govern- 
 “ ment. But can we believe that one State will suffer it- 
 “ self to be used as an instrument of coercion ? The thing 
 “ is a dream . It is impossible !” (Ib. v. ii., p. 232.) 
 
 In the Convention of Connecticut, Mr. Oliver Ellsworth, 
 a member and a delegate to the Federal Convention: “ Thus 
 “ we see, how necessary for the Union is a coercive force. 
 “ The only question is : Shall it be a coercion of Law, or 
 “ a coercion of arms ? There is no other possible alterna- 
 “ tive. Where will those who oppose a coercion of Law 
 “ come out ? Where will they end ? A necessary conse¬ 
 quence of this is, a war of the States, one against the 
 “ other. I am for coercion by Law ; that coercion which 
 “ acts only upon the delinquent individuals. This Consti- 
 “ tution does not attempt to coerce sovereign bodies, States, 
 “ in their political capacity. No coercion is applicable to 
 “such bodies but that of an armed force. If we should 
 “attempt to execute the Laws of the United States by 
 “ sending an armed force against a delinquent State, it 
 “ would involve the good and the bad, the innocent and the 
 “guilty, in one common calamity/' (Ib. v. ii. p. 199.) 
 
 In the Convention of North Carolina, Mr. Davies, a mem¬ 
 ber, and a delegate to the Federal Convention, “ For my 
 “ own part, I know of but two ways in which the Laws can 
 “ be executed by any Government. If there be any other, 
 “it is unknown to me. The first mode is, coercion by 
 “ military force ; and the second is, coercion through the 
 
14 
 
 “ Judiciary. With respect to a coercion by force, I shall 
 “ suppose that it is so repugnant to the principles of justice 
 “ and the feelings of a free people, that no man will sup- 
 “*port it. It must, in the end, terminate in the destruc- 
 “ tion of the liberty of the people. I take it, therefore, 
 “ that there is no rational way of enforcing the Laws but 
 “by the instrumentality of the Judiciary. 
 
 “ If the Laws are not to be carried into execution by the 
 “interposition of the Judiciary, how is it to be done ? I 
 “ have already observed, that the mind of every honest 
 “ man, who has any feeling for the happiness of his coun- 
 “try, must have the highest repugnance to the idea of mil¬ 
 itary coercion/’ (lb. v. iv, pp 164-5.) 
 
 The great defect of the Federal Constitution was, that 
 it provided no means for enforcing obedience to the Gen¬ 
 eral Government. The only remedy was military force, em¬ 
 ployed against a State, which was civil war and dissolution. 
 The difficulty was obviated in the present Constitution, 
 by making the Judiciary the coercive force, bearing on in¬ 
 dividuals. This remedy ignores the use of military force, 
 except in certain cases, and under certain limitations, and 
 only then, as an auxilliary power, in the nature of a posse 
 comitatus , to aid the Judicial officer in the performance 
 of his duty. (For this, see the Federalist, beginning 
 with No. XV.) 
 
 Whatever may be said of these authorities, they certain¬ 
 ly dispose of the assertion, that those who established our 
 Government failed to provide against the present crisis, 
 because they could not have forseen it. 
 
 The Union, unbroken, lasted for ifcenty years and 
 upwards.* Under it we prospered greatly. With no other 
 nation has it ever been as with this nation. For the ra- 
 
15 
 
 pidity of its growth, in territorial extent and popular num¬ 
 bers; in riches and power; in the diffusion of knowledge; the 
 developement of intelligence ; the cultivation of the 
 sciences and the polite arts ; it has excited the admiration 
 or the jealousy of the civilized world. 
 
 Fearless of foreign invasion, confident of our resources, 
 we have thought ourselves secure. Now and then dark 
 clouds have lifted above our own horizon, but they 
 seemed to vanish away. Harsh mutterings of domestic 
 discord would be heard, but the sound was too remote 
 and too faint to portend a storm, or our slumbers 
 too deep to heed the admonition. We indulged bright 
 visions of perpetual union, of prosperity without a serious 
 check, and defied consequences. Consequences, are avenged; 
 our visions have been rudely dispelled ; the storm has 
 come upon us ; the temple of our worship totters to its 
 base, and the whole land is under the deepest excitement 
 of anger, apprehension and distress 
 
 H To re-establish the Union, and retrieve our fortunes, we 
 have resorted to war—civil war; the direst calamity which 
 can befall any nation. 
 
 Recently, at a public meeting, one who profanely styles 
 himself a Divine , invoked this war as u a war to the knife , 
 and the knife to the hilt ” It was a sentiment fit for the 
 shambles. “ And David said unto Gad . Let us fall now 
 into the hands of the Lord, for His mercies are great; and 
 let me n'ot fall into the hand of man/' 
 
 This war has now raged, with great fierceness, for more 
 than eighteen months, m The nation has engaged in it with 
 characteristic energy and resolution. There has seemed 
 no limit to the range of violence and destruction. The 
 armed and the unarmed, the strong and the weak, the in- 
 
16 
 
 nocent and the guilty, have been alike involved ; and 
 much have we done, and are now doing, which is not war, 
 but vandalism—as if to destroy, and not to restore, was 
 the national purpose. To a very considerable degree we 
 appear to have abandoned the established usages of civil¬ 
 ized warfare, and to have adopted the maxims and practi¬ 
 ces of Barbarians, who “ considered a state of war as a 
 “dissolution of all moral ties, and a license for every kind 
 “of disorder, and intemperate fierceness. An enemy was 
 “regarded as a criminal and an outlaw, who had forfeited 
 “his rights, and whose life, liberty and property lay at the 
 “mercy of the conquerors. Everything done against an 
 “enemy was held to be lawful. He might be destroyed, 
 “though unarmed and defenceless. Fraud might be em¬ 
 ployed, as well as force, and force without any regard to 
 “the means. 
 
 “But these barbarous rights of war have been ques¬ 
 tioned and checked in the progress of civilization Pub- 
 tic opinion, as it becomes enlightened and refined, con¬ 
 demns all cruelty, and all wanton destruction of life and 
 “property as equally useless and injurious ; and it controls 
 “the violence and severity of war, by the energy and se¬ 
 verity of its reproaches." (1 Kent's Com., sec. v., p. 90, 
 et supr.) 
 
 In this war every material advantage has been for us, 
 and against our adversaries. 
 
 Their land is wasted by our armies ; hordes of lawless 
 and ill-disciplined volunteers have been let loose upon 
 them ; permitted to lay waste, with fire and sword, and 
 to perpetrate every species of brutality on the unprotected 
 and helpless. Desperate battles have been fought, almost 
 daily, some of which were to have been decisive of the war. 
 
17 
 
 Blood runs like water. New-made graves are thickly scat¬ 
 tered, in clusters like villages, and the land is full of sick, 
 wounded and mutilated men. 
 
 We have blockaded their ports, and greatly straitened 
 them, not only in the arms and munitions of war, but in 
 the necessaries of life and health. We have laid waste their 
 coast; ravaged and depopulated their plantations ; bom¬ 
 barded and destroyed their exposed towns and villages; 
 occupied and despoiled the most defenceless and inviting 
 portions of their country. We have captured their chief 
 city and ruled it with worse than Oriental despotism. W e 
 have armed the negroes, and set them like blood-hounds, 
 on the track of their masters. Failing to drive their armies 
 from the field, we boldly assault their unguarded homes, 
 and in the performance of a two-fold duty, benevolence and 
 revenge, seek to bring upon their woman and children, the 
 infant and the man of gray hairs, all the realities of a San 
 Domingo massacre. We have pronounced sentences of out¬ 
 lawry and confiscation against them, which, threaten utter 
 ruin to the whole people, without regard to age, sex, or 
 condition, degrees of innocence or guilt ; or the claims of 
 survivorship and inheritance. For severity and in¬ 
 justice, for the magnitude of the interests against which 
 they are intended to operate, these measures are without 
 a paralell in the history of any civilized nation—aye, they 
 are without a paralell in the history of the world. When¬ 
 ever and wherever it was convenient, these sentences 
 have been enforced ; in manypases, prospectively—in all, 
 without legal process, in the name of military authority. 
 
 All of these things are contrary to the usages of war; to 
 the sentiments of the Christian world; to sound justice and 
 humanity, and to the Constitution of the United States, 
 
18 
 
 which declares that “ No man shall be held to answer for 
 “ a capital or other infamous crime, unless on a present- 
 “ ment or indictment of a Grand Jury, nor shall be deprived 
 “ of life, liberty, or property, without due process of Law 
 and that “ no attainter of treason shall work forfeiture ex- 
 “ cept during the life of the person attainted/' 
 
 These things we have done, and more, much more, which 
 will never be disclosed till the graves give up their dead, 
 and men are called to answer the deeds done in the body. 
 
 And for what ? To restore the Union ? Well, have we 
 restored it ? Are we any nearer that consumation now 
 than when the war began ? Are we as near ? No ! no ! 
 no ! Such questions mock us ; laugh' at our folly, and 
 deride our expectations. 
 
 “ I could weep for my country when I say that I fear 
 “ the Union has lost forever its cohesive power. That 
 “ power lay not so much in its arts or arms ; not in what 
 “ the Union could produce or defend, but in a kind of mu- 
 “ tual recognition of the equality and brotherhood of the 
 “ great American family, ‘ one and indivisible/ All that 
 “is gone. For twenty years Northern pulpits and 
 “ Northern schools have been teaching hatred to the South. 
 “ That hatred is deep, and, I think, irradicable ; most as¬ 
 suredly, war is not likely to remove the evil. We have 
 “ had wars which have helped to knit us together ; but a 
 “civil war, such as we have on hand now, necessarily 
 “ uproots everything. I should be glad to believe other- 
 “ wise, but I cannot/' (Extract from a letter of Hon. 
 Thos. H. Seymour, of Conn, to Hon. Nahum Capen of 
 Mass., July 26, 1862.) 
 
 How stand the people of the South affected by our re¬ 
 medial process of coercion ? Do they love the Union any 
 
19 
 
 better ? Are they any the less united among themselves ? 
 Do they exhibit any signs of yielding, or discouragement, 
 or irresolution ? Is there any abatement of their zeal, 
 energy and courage ? Far from it. They but the more 
 intensely abhor and loathe the Union, in whose name im¬ 
 measurable violence and sufferings have been inflicted on 
 them. Never were they more united, more determined, or 
 more sanguine. They never manifested greater zeal, ener¬ 
 gy and devotion. Never were they inspired by loftier 
 courage. And besides, they are aided by a spirit which 
 cannot, in the nature of things, animate us ; they fight for 
 ** their lives and for their homes, and for all that makes life 
 and home precious. 
 
 Are these our hopes of a restoration ? a Do men gath- 
 “ er grapes of thorns, and figs of thistles ?” 
 
 In the letter of Hon. Robert Dale Owen, to the Hon. Sal¬ 
 mon P. Chase, published in a recent number of the Eve¬ 
 ning Post, occurs the following passage : 
 
 “ Never since the world began, did nine millions of peo- 
 “ pie band together, resolutely inspired by the one idea of 
 “ achieving their independence, yet fail to obtain it. It is 
 “ not a century since one-third of the number successfully 
 “ defied Great Britain/' * 
 
 Says Mr. Everett in his letter to the Chairman of the 
 * Committee of Arrangements for the Peace Meeting to be 
 
 * We would not misrepresent so amiable a person as Mr. Owen, and therefore feel 
 bound to state that the extract quoted, does not form part of an argument in favor of 
 peace, but part of an argument in favor of a “ more vigorous prosecution of the war,” by 
 means of servile insurrection. 
 
 Thus, after more than eighteen months of terrible fighting and when it is supposed 
 that the nation is inextricably committed to the war, the plot is fully disclosed by one of 
 the apostles of the party, and we are told that this little affair of “ ninety days” 
 must fail unless we can manage to inaugurate a Dahomey Carnival, with b'ut a slight 
 fference in the complexion of the victims. 
 
20 
 
 held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, Feb. 1861. (Dated Wash¬ 
 ington, 2d Feb., 1861.) 
 
 “ To expect to hold fifteen States in the Union by force, 
 “is preposterous. The idea of a Civil War, accompanied, 
 “ as it would be, by a servile insurrection, is too monstrous 
 “to be entertained for a moment. If our sister States 
 “ must leave us, in the name of Heaven let them go in 
 “ Peace/' * 
 
 There is a fable, of a certain contest between Sol and 
 Boreas, for the possession of the traveler's cloak. As we 
 remember the story :—the harder and fiercer the north 
 wind blew, the tighter the traveler clasped his cloak ; but 
 when the wind ceased, and the Sun came out, his warm rays 
 caused the old man to relax his hold, and, by degrees, 
 put aside a garment which was becoming burthensome and 
 oppresive. The fable has a moral for the times, if we 
 would learn it. 
 
 There is a large class to whom such sentiments are far 
 from palatable. Those busy patriots of last year's growth, 
 whose immaculate traditions, intolerant zeal and sanguin¬ 
 ary projects leave no question as to the quality of their 
 conversion, see nothing but Treason in mild counsels. 
 Their bark is Union, but their scent is blood, and they fol¬ 
 low it with the swiftness and tenacity of instinct. Their cry 
 is “ Submission or extermination ; havoc and death ; burn 
 their cities and strew the ruins with salt ; lay waste by fam¬ 
 ine, fire and sword ; let loose every horrible shape which 
 violence can assume ; if necessary, sweep every living thing 
 into the Gulf of Mexico ; till not a vestige of the people or 
 
 * We make no comment on the remarkable inconsistency between the passages quoted 
 and later efforts of the same writer, but leave the gentleman to his own conscience, and 
 the charitable opinions of the reader. 
 
21 
 
 their posessions remain.” Well might Madam Roland ex¬ 
 claim : “ 0 liberty ! what horrors are committed in thy 
 name ! ” Charity obliges us to believe that those who rave 
 in this manner, do it ignorantly. The ideas are mon¬ 
 strous ! Thank God, the crime is impossible ! What ? 
 Exterminate more than eight millions of free people, of the 
 Anglo-Saxon and Gallic races—possessing a territory of 
 more than a million and a half square miles in extent; a 
 vast region, every way defencible by nature and art ? No! 
 We can neither exterminate, nor, by force, coerce them ! 
 But, suppose extermination possible ; that we attempt it; 
 foreign powers remain passive spectators of the tragedy : 
 after years of bitter and exhausting strife the feat is accom¬ 
 plished ; the last armed rebel has sealed his devotion with 
 his life ; the weak and defenceless, hunted, scattered like 
 sheep before wolves, perish by the way or are driven into 
 perpetual exile ; the garden of America has become a 
 waste of mingled blood and ashes, and resistance has 
 ceased ; the Union has triumphed ; the victors have re¬ 
 turned laden with spoil ? What then ? Will not the 
 spoil be as the spoil of Achan—an accursed thing ? Will 
 the triumph bring renown, esteem, and a return of peace¬ 
 ful, prosperous, happy days P Will it restore the Union 
 with its precious gifts ? Never ! never \ 'Twere a mis¬ 
 chievous delusion to believe it. The desolation we have in¬ 
 flicted, as an avenging spirit, will follow us ; the voice of our 
 brother's blood will cry out against us from the ground ; a 
 guilty conscience will reproach us ; the keen anguish of 
 remorse will smite us ; a hissing, and a reproach, and a by¬ 
 word shall we become to the nations. When these evils 
 come upon us, then shall we begin to realize the fortune 
 
22 
 
 we have blasted ; the ruin we have madly invoked ; the 
 warnings we have contemptuously slighted. Then will 
 
 “the sense of lost happiness 
 And lasting pain torment and overwhelm us 
 
 reproach and recrimination, wrath and jealousy, suspicion 
 and dislike will arise, instead of Peace. 
 
 Strange elements these, of Union between Sovereign 
 States, whose changed relations to the whole and to each 
 other, cause their conflicting interests to grow daily more 
 importunate. 
 
 The old Union, with its superior benefits, half destroyed 
 and blotted out, where is the cohesive force, to bind in 
 one, the jarring fragments ? Shall we find it in an immense 
 public debt ? and which of the States will pay it ? Those 
 who allege a failure of the conditions on which it was in¬ 
 curred ? Those wflio have realized the benefits, or those 
 who have suffered the loss ? Shall we find it in national 
 pride?—that is humbled to the dust—or strength and 
 greatness ? They have passed away ; little remains of 
 them, but the violence of the whirlwind, more dangerous to 
 ourselves than to others. In our Liberties ? Already they 
 have fled the Capital. In superior national benefits ? 
 what are they P name them. In a wronged, deluded, 
 over-taxed and distressed people ? The allusion may well 
 excite our apprehensions, rather than our hopes. In for¬ 
 eign dangers ? They are remote and speculative. Who will 
 heed them in the turmoil of conflicting passions ? Shall 
 we find it in the desolated South ? Unless human nature has 
 greatly changed, history and experience greatly mistaken, 
 those coveted possessions will prove the source of discord, 
 jealousy and contention. In any or all of these things do 
 
23 
 
 we find the foil assurance of Hope for our Country ? Alas ! 
 no ! rather the deepest despair. 
 
 In contemplating such a future, how dismal is the view,— 
 confusion and chaos—society at war with itself—the sword 
 of the smiter turned against his own breast. At such a 
 spectacle, the Genius of Liberty hides her face, and, in 
 grief, departs. The great Republic of America falls for 
 ever, destroyed by the insane fury of her own children, 
 who know not how to deserve or enjoy the blessings she 
 lavished upon them. 
 
 The thunder of that fall will shake the Nations. The 
 windows of the prison-house will be darkened ; oppression 
 will rejoice ; Liberty and human progress will mourn for 
 generations. 
 
 Not for all the honors, or the wealth this land can be¬ 
 stow, would we have on our hearts the guilt of such great 
 ruin. 
 
 We have presented a sad, humiliating picture. When 
 all the colors are dark and gloomy, we know not how 
 to paint otherwise. It may be called the painting of a 
 wild imagination ; is it a whit more extravagant than what 
 has already occurred ?—than the events now passing before 
 us ? 
 
 Our hope for the Country ; for the Union ; for Repub- 
 lican Government ; for Liberty ; is, in Peace, an early 
 Peace. Each day the war is prolonged, makes wider and 
 t deeper the gap between the sections, addg to our demoral¬ 
 
 ization, increases the burthen which threatens to bear us 
 down. 
 
 Those there are, who in pompous and well rounded 
 p eriods, protest to you that “ the composition of such a 
 
controversy is impossible/' Cold-blooded suggestion, and 
 attrocious ; it sounds as an utterance from the dark regions 
 • 
 
 — “Where peace 
 
 And rest can never dwell, hope never comes, 
 
 “ That comes to all,’’ 
 
 and has no fellowship with any thing that is good. It is 
 not true that the “ Composition” of such a controversy is 
 impossible. It is possible, with honor and advantage— 
 without sacrifice of right or justice. The civilized world 
 implores it, humanity and religion demand it, and say, 
 “ Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the 
 Children of Heaven." 
 
 LINDLEY SPRING. 
 
SOME REASONS WHY I AM OPPOSED TO THE 
 PRESENT WAR. 
 
 First , Because war is, at best, a terrible necessity, not to be 
 resorted to until all amicable means of settling national difficulties 
 have been exhausted. 
 
 It is well known that ever since the election of Mr. Lincoln, 
 the Republican party has resisted every practical suggestion in 
 favor of peace that has been offered. 
 
 Toward the close of the last session of Congress, when a final 
 effort was made in the Senate on behalf of the Crittenden resolu¬ 
 tions, the motion was defeated, one of the Senators, I think his 
 name is Hale, saying, “ We have more important business on hand 
 — we have a Tariff to pass.” 
 
 Second , Because it is a civil war, of all wars the most cruel 
 and exhausting, and the most repugnant to the sentiments of the 
 present age. 
 
 Third , Because, if successful, it must be over the ruins of the 
 Republic. We shall have a government, but it will not be the 
 government of the United States. 
 
 It is an abuse of terms to speak of a Union on compulsion, w a 
 union of equals,” consisting of conquerors and conquered ; be¬ 
 sides, a government asserted by force must be maintained by force ; 
 and the power necessary to hold in subjection one-half of the 
 country, is a standing menace to the liberties of the remainder. 
 
 Fourth ) Because it cannot succeed. Eight millions of free 
 people, inhabiting such a country as they possess, accustomed to 
 t he use of arms, fighting, as they verily believe, for their lives, 
 and for all that makes life precious, cannot be conquered. 
 
 Fifth , Because we enter upon it without the moral support of 
 
26 
 
 the great Christian nations of the earth; and in prosecuting it 
 are very likely to embroil ourselves with them. 
 
 Sixth, Because war will not settle our difficulties; it will’only 
 aggravate them. We shall have to negotiate sooner or later, and 
 had better do so at the threshold of a bitter war than at its close. 
 
 Seventh , Because of the spirit of lawlessness and ferocity it is 
 creating. The hand on the dial seems to have gone three centu¬ 
 ries backward since this war commenced. 
 
 Eighth , Because of the conditions on which it is waged; sub¬ 
 mission or extermination. 
 
 Ninth , Because it will promote the unfriendly designs of our 
 great foreign rival in trade and power. 
 
 Tenth , Because it will prove ruinous to the city of New-York, 
 and highly injurious to the country at large. It will load the 
 country with a heavy national debt; withdraw the strength of 
 our population from the pursuits of peaceful industry to a life of 
 high excitements and irregularities; drive our commerce from the 
 seas, or send it skulking under convoy; the healthful channels of 
 enterprise and profit will be choked up”; the capital of the coun¬ 
 try will be hoarded or absorbed by the government for warlike 
 uses; consumers and idlers will be multiplied ; producers will be 
 diminished ; property will depreciate in value ; the hard-earned 
 credit and wealth of years will vanish away; there will be a gene¬ 
 ral bankruptcy; all classes will suffer; and the poor and vicious 
 will be greatly increased. Such are some of the followers in the 
 train of this war. How greatly will these evils be multiplied 
 and aggravated, in case the war should fail of its object. 
 
 Eleventh , Because of its tendency to demoralize the govern¬ 
 ment, and make it one stupendous jobbing concern for the benefit 
 of contractors and their confederates. 
 
 Twelfth , Because the Declaration of Independence asserts the 
 right of a people u to dissolve the political bonds which have 
 connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of 
 
27 
 
 the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of 
 nature and of nature’s God entitled them.” u That Governments 
 are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the^eon- 
 sent of the governed, that whenever any form of government be¬ 
 comes destructive of the ends for which it was instituted, it is the 
 right of the people to alter and abolish it, and to institute a new 
 government, laying its foundation in such principles, and organiz¬ 
 ing its powers in such form as shall seem most likely to effect their 
 safety and happiness.” 
 
 When New-York ratified the Constitution, she expressly reaf¬ 
 firmed those principles, and further said, “ That the powers of the 
 Government may be re-assumed by the people whenever it shall 
 become necessary for their happiness;” the ratifications of Rhode 
 Island and of Virginia are to the same effect. These express con¬ 
 ditions apply to all of the States, for all are equal. 
 
 Thirteenth , Because this government was founded on voluntary 
 consent; to assume that it must be maintained b } 7 force, is to 
 admit that it is a failure. 
 
 Fourteenth , Because, in waging it, we, as a people, stultify our¬ 
 selves in all our pretensions to the right and capacity of self- 
 government. We vindicate the pretensions of Great Britain in 
 her attempts to coerce the Colonies, and maintain her government. 
 We make our forefathers traitors, and the Declaration of Inde¬ 
 pendence the round robin of a nest of conspirators against law, 
 order and government. 
 
 It makes a world of difference whether we run with the hare, 
 or hunt with the hounds. 
 
 Fifteenth , Because it is not, as some suppose, a war to sustain 
 our government, but a war to compel other States, our equals, to 
 continue members of a government they do not choose to have. 
 
 Sixteenth , Because it is a war for supremacy, and not for the 
 Constitution; a war of desperation, and not of hope. 
 
 Thousands in the land believed that when Mr. Lincoln was 
 
28 
 
 elected, the Union was lost. Subsequent events confirmed those 
 apprehensions; but only of late has the heavy truth struck home. 
 We begin to realize the loss. Our commercial position, if not our 
 very existence, threatened by protection at the North, and free 
 trade at the South, our national pretensions humbled, our visions 
 of unbounded greatness rudely dispelled, our prosperity turned 
 to adversity; on all sides baffled and perplexed, we yield to our 
 passions, fly to arms, and seek those desperate courses, u which, 
 if not victory, are yet revenge,” 
 
 Seventeenth , Because it is inexpedient; and, excuse me for say¬ 
 ing it, unnatural. Instead of making the best of our misfortunes, 
 we are making the worst of them. Wisdom, true patriotism, 
 high conduct, the respectable opinion of mankind, religion, all 
 tell us: “ Let these people go.” Protest, if you please, (saying 
 nothing of your own share in the business), in terms of rhetoric 
 the most dignified and touching, against the course they have 
 taken, and the ruin they have accomplished; but let them go; 
 your fathers fought the battles of the Revolution shoulder to 
 shoulder with their fathers; the ashes of your dead mingle in 
 the soil of every State, from Maine to California; your sons have 
 taken of their daughters to wife; ye are brethren; ye have been 
 baptized with the same baptism—have wept at the same graves. 
 
 “ And Abram said to Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, 
 between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herds¬ 
 men, for we be brethren : Is not the whole land before thee ? 
 Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the 
 left hand, then I will go to the right; or, if thou depart to the 
 right hand, then I will go to the left.” 
 
 Are not these imperative considerations? Lst us submit to 
 them gracefully, and put aside the arms of fratricidal strife. It 
 was Moloch, that bloody deity, who 
 
 “ rather than be less, 
 
 Cared not to be at all.” 
 
 The sentiment was worthy of the soil. True courage speaks a 
 
29 
 
 different language. Let us take counsel of sound policy and de¬ 
 liberate judgment, and turn from the rash conclusion of fanaticism 
 and resentment; let us be friends, serviceable neighbors, if we 
 cannot be fellow-citizens. If the Union is to be saved, it is not 
 to be saved by force. If the Union be lost, it is nevertheless in 
 our power to become close allies, and to stand before the world as 
 one people, a mighty nation. 
 
 Let the most sanguinary mind, the liveliest imagination, en¬ 
 deavor to pierce the future of a contrary course, and it will vainly 
 strive to fathom an abyss unfathomable, of woe and desolation 
 which no pen can describe. 
 
 Eighteenth. I oppose this war because it is a war of sections; 
 the North against the South, the stronger against the weaker, 
 the majority in arms to compel, the minority in arms to resist. 
 In this connection it ceases to be a question of slavery, pro or con.; 
 or any other question save this; the right of States satisfied with 
 the Union to compel dissatisfied States to abide by the Union, 
 nolens volens. As I am convinced that a solution of this question 
 by a resort to force was not in the bargain, and know that a sug¬ 
 gestion to that effect was promptly rejected by the framers of the 
 Constitution, I am obliged to oppose this war. 
 
 Nineteenth , I oppose this war, because there is no law author¬ 
 izing it. These armies operating in the field ; this great increase 
 to the* standing force of our national defence ; this extensive sea 
 coast and river blockade; the invasion of States, the suspension 
 of the writ of Habeas Corpus ; the seizure and confiscation of pri- 
 % vate property by military force ; citizens taken by soldiery and 
 
 put under martial arrest for trial, for speaking treason ; the pro¬ 
 vost marshal superseding the sheriff; and the drum head taking 
 * the place of the jury box ; these and many other acts of like char¬ 
 
 acter, done by the President, or under his authority, are wholly 
 without warrant in law. George Washington was for some time 
 Dictator, because Congress made him such. This case is without 
 a precedent, but it makes one. When arbitrary power can be 
 
30 
 
 so readily assumed, all the liberties of the people are in danger. 
 The plea of necessity draws the sword on our adversary to-day; 
 the like plea may turn it on ourselves to-morrow. 
 
 Twentieth , I oppose this war because it is a war of the Aboli¬ 
 tionists and of the Republican party. 
 
 By the strongest appeals to our patriotism the national senti¬ 
 ment has been thoroughly roused ; the whole North is in arms, 
 and eager for battle to sustain the government. Who does not 
 know that all this excitement and preparation is for the especial 
 benefit of a certain portion of the community; in short, of those 
 very people who after years of toil and preparation have succeeded 
 in bringing their pleasant tragedy before the public, and who, 
 safe behind the scenes, now chuckle over the felicitous develop¬ 
 ment of the plot, and the wonderful success of the piece ? Yes ! 
 the impending crisis,—the irrepressible conflict,—the long-expect¬ 
 ed day, has at length come, “ Blow ye the trumpet, blow, and 
 proclaim liberty throughout the land.” 
 
 Those quandom champions of free speech and a free press, sud¬ 
 denly converted into blazing patriots, glow with pious heat against 
 all freedom save their own. Those who differ with them are trai¬ 
 tors ; to oppose them is treason In the name of the Union they 
 have betrayed, of the Constitution they have disregarded, and of 
 the laws they have insolently defied, those model citizens now 
 demand of us, and of all men, to march for them to their tune of 
 the Union, and wage their war of extermination. 
 
 I will yield to no man in my love for the Union. Heretofore, 
 with my humble pen,^ii^the best of my ability, I have endeavored 
 to serve it. I am not now to be driven from well considered 
 opinions, by the clamors or the threats of those very people who 
 have done so much to overthrow our government and dishonor our 
 flag. If ten thousand lives could give peace to this distracted 
 land, and restore our glorious old Union, cheap indeed would be 
 the purchase, and happy, thrice happy, those patriots on whom the 
 
31 
 
 lot should fall. However much or little I may presume to share 
 in these sentiments, I make bold to say, that I will not, under any 
 pretence, aid or countenance the abominable projects of those, who 
 having hunted the Union to death, now hound us on to her bloody 
 obsequies, and, our general ruin. 
 
 New York, May 11, 1861.