Snowden, K. Bayard
CMef Features of the Present Struggle
Norwich, 1861

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1940

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AN

ADDRESS

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CITIZENS OF MONTVILLE, CONN./|^

i:)ELIVERED IN THE CONGREGATIOXAL CHURCH,

JITLY -ith, 1H«1,

BY BEY. R. -BAYARD SNOWDEN.

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PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.

NORWICH: ' ,'*'
MANNING, PLATT & CO., PRINTERS.
1861.

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AN

ADDRESS

CITIZENS OF MONTVILLE, CONN.

DELIVERED IN THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH,

JULY 4tli, 1861,

BY REV. R. BAYARD SNOWDEN.

PXJBLISHBD BY REQUEST.

NORWICH:
MANNING, PLATT & CO., PRINTERS.
1861.

ADDRESS-.

The events which have crowded upon us so thickly in the
last few montlis, have wrought great changes in popular
feeling. Not the least of these is found in tlie contrasted
estimates set upon the expression of patriotism formerly and
now. It is not long since "Union-saving" was spoken of in
contempt ; now we are all proud to be engaged in such a
work. Fourth of July oratory used to be a thing to be
laughed at. Our people have grown sick of listening to
florid declamation on the spirit of '76, allusions to the battle
fields of the Revolution, extravagant apostrophes to the
American Eagle, and exstatic raptures over the Stars and
Stripes. "Hail Columbia" and "Yankee Doodle" it was
thought had been pretty well " played out ;" foreign tunes
and opera music were usurping the place of the national
airs. So long as the peaceful aspect of affairs coniined the
patriotism of the nation to mere words, it was esteemed of
little worth. It got to be a suspicious commodity for a man to
deal in. Any one who invested largely in it was held to be,
as a matter of course, an unprincipled politician. A Fourth
of July Oration was understood to mean a rhetorical com
pound, made up of national boasting in regard to the past
and future, and personal vanity and conceit, in about equal
proportions, administered to the audience in a shower of
words, which sefemed quite brilliant, but really meant nothing.
All this is now changed. The perplexities of the hour
have set a premium upon the mere expression of patriotism.
While good men slept, the enemy was sowing tares. Sud
denly, as fromthe sown teeth of the dragon, ranks of armed
men sprang up to subvert tbe liberties of the land. Treason
was found in the high places of power. The fair temple of

Freedom was cracking and crumbling, and those who kept
it, ijistead of repairing the damage, were breaking down its
pillars. A long-preparing, organized conspiracy, showed its
hideous head, and assassins were rising up, not in one sec
tion only, but on all sides, eager, with greedy weapons, to
take the nation's life. The moment was critical. No such
thoroughly arranged rebellion had ever before threatened the
overthrow of a government, in the whole history of the civil
ized world. We had no Cicero, to frustrate by anticipation,
and indignant eloquence, the secret plots of the American
Catalines. And yet, though much of their conduct was con
cealed from public view ; though many of their plans had
been long maturing in profound secresy, there was, withal, a
boldness and effrontery in their movements such as are sel
dom seen in the actions of conspirators. With an unparal
leled impudence, which nothing but the contemptible imbe
cility of the last administration could have furnished ground
for, the traitors carried on their uiiquitous schemes in the
very home of the government, in the Senate Chamber and
Hall of Representatives, in the private cabinet of the suc
cessor of Washington. Their open threats evinced a strange
disregard of publicity. Their deeds of infamy, theft, lying,
perjury, every meanness which disgraces the abandoned
criminal, perpetrated for long months without a blush by
those who had boasted of their chivalry, were the fitting pre
lude to that daring outrage upon society, which they have
since stained their hands with. Just as the betrayer of the
world's Savior was a sneaking thief, so, very appropriately,
have the traitors to human liberty upon this continent begun
their course by a like despicable villany. Fellow citizens, I
must be severe upon these enemies of our beloved country.
I cannot deal in smooth phrases, nor mincing terms, but
must hold them up to that opprobrium of which I feel
from my very soul they are worthy. For I cannot forget the
history of our nation. My thoughts run back to the early
settlement of these States, when our hills and valleys, then a
wilderness, were an asylum for the oppressed, when those
choice spirits— Puritans and Huguenots— lo'sdng home well,
but liberty and religion more, crossed stormy seas, and cheer-
tullj taceci privations and danger that they might give to
their children « freedom to worship God." And the birth-
throes of the Republic are fresh in my mind— that stern con-
ttict between principle and 'despotic British rule. On this
4th of July morning, the Sabbath of the nation, I stand in

imagination in old Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and
see those fifty-six determined patriots write in bold charac
ters their immortal names upon the first instrument of our
liberties. I track the footsteps of that devoted army in all
its varied circumstances of success and discouragement,
through those long seven years of warfare. Those hard-
fought battle-fields, painful marches, and gloomy winter en
campments, perpetually remind me that our freedom was
bought with blood and tears. These are memories that can
not be wiped out. And then with peace came the onward
inarch of empire, a rapid growth, sure prosperity, develop
ment in manifold resources. We were proud of that lineage
by' which we could call ourselves Anglo-Saxons; we were
proud of those liberal institutions, that enlightened and free
Cliristianity which gleamed over the Atlantic's waves like
a star of Hope leading the down-trodden, but brave hearted
poor of Europe to seek a home among our growing States ;
we were proud of our rich and widely-extended territory — a
country washed by two oceans, enjoying unbounded wealth
of soil and every variety of climate, nursed iu the lap of
peace, while savage wars tore all Europe in pieces — a young
country, yet oh ! how we gloried to think, old in deeds, its
commerce whitening every sea, its enterprise rousing from
the dream of ages old nationalities and stimulating them to
action, its Christian heralds holding the Cross aloft amongst
the heathen myriads of the Orient, and winning from barbar
ism to civilization and religion the islands of the great Pa
cific. These things I cannot forget. Europeans have
charged us with immoderate national vanity, bAt it was ask
ing too much of us that we should not feel the glow of thank
ful pride when we thought how distinguished a place God
had given us in all that has set the Nineteenth Century
ahead of the ages of the past.
And looking at what has been done as only the promise
of what, under the blessing of God, we might do, I have de
lighted to picture the future of our country ; studying first
its physical aspects, looking at the gradual rise of its land
from the low Atlantfc coast to the Rocky Mountains, whose
peaks are covered with everlasting snows, with the great val
ley of the Mississippi between — the garden spot of the world ;
tracing the line of possession again from the pine forests of
Maine through the long range of Gulf States to the far
shores of California. I have thought of the resources of
this vast territory — nearly equal in area to the whole ot Eu-

rope — its wealth in minerals, its richness of soil, its natural
means of intercommunication, its varied and picturesque
scenery and exhilarating climate, in a word, its capacity to
support an immense population — hundreds of millions — and
to throw around them all abundant materials of happiness.
And then in imagination I have filled up these boundless
States with this teeming population, overleaping mountain
barriers and thronging the wildest recesses, and have con
ceived of the result — great marts of trade built up, such as
the world has never yet seen, their streets and squares
adorned with marble palaces and halls of science and of art,
out-vying in splendor even the gorgeous dreams of orie(ital
fancy.; a commerce which shall crowd even the Golden Gate
of San Francisco, on the distant Pacific, with a merchant
fleet greater than all those united which fill a dozen of the
largest ports in the world to-day ; the far separated sections
of this vast empire bound into near intercourse by the instru
mentalities of scientific invention ; and throughout its every
border the abounding signs of industrious life.
And taking into account the great mixture of races, the
mingling in the veins of the nation's life of the blood of all
peoples — the strength of the world — I have hoped to see as
the out-growth of this, the formation of a superior national
character, a character in which strength, firmness, indomita
ble energy, intelligence, devotion to liberty, reverence for the
right, love of eternal truth, should be the prevailing and
deep-rooted elements. I have believed that this people, when
it should have thus grown into giant power, and seated itself
firmly in the center of this American continent, would take
the lofty principles relating to free government, and all hu
man rights, civil and religious, and so hold them up before
the world, that our beloved American Republic would herself
rise up in the might of a moral majesty, and shine out over
the Atlantic on one side towards Europe, on the Pacific on
the other towards the Orient, a Light unto the nations, a gui
ding Star of Progress for the world. In this grand national
autumn, I felt hopeful there would be harvested the abun
dant fruit of a pure Christianity.
Such, I think I may say, were the hopes of us all. Shall
we then, speak in gentle tones, and not with the deep-
mouthed execration of indignant patriotism, of the ruthless
deeds of those traitors to their country and humanity who
would forever shut out the prospect of this glorious and
world-wide triumph? And for what? I blush for their

manhood. I tremble for their souls when I say it — for slave
ry ! Shades of Washington and Franklin, of Jefferson and
the Adamses ! own them not for countrymen ! Though
British manufacturers and French tyrants may patronise
them, whicli they will not, yet the time shall certainly come
when the moral sense of the human race will consign them
to an ocean 'of infamy, as deep as hell ! And in what re
spect for slavery ? Not because we have refused them the
continuance within their own States of the dear, divine,
blessed institution ; not because we have presumed authorita
tively to dictate how their slaves shall be treated ; not be
cause we have attempted to interfere in any way but by earn
est expostulation with their delightful privilege of selling hu
man flesh upon the auction block ; of* tearing asunder the
ties of family ; of breaking down, as far as the colored race
is concerned, the marriage relation, and forcing four millions
of people into a hateful adultery ; not because we have de
manded, through Congressional legislation, redress lor mul
tiplied cases of outrage, committed by them upon free white
American citizens, for we have let them go on hanging, and
tarring and feathering, until it has come to be a business in
which they are most expert, unless perhaps, we except their
art of running away, even before an enemy has made his
appearance ; in a word, not because we have in the slighest
degree by popular action sought to meddle with this patriar
chal and most benignant institution, in the States wliere it
exists, or asserted any right constitutionally to do so. But,
on the other hand, because we have presumed to think for
ourselves, because, having our opinion, we have dared to
utter it ; because, believing slavery to be an evil, a wrong,
both a great crime against humanity, and a great blunder in
political economy, — believing thus, we have been bold to
say so, and because, holding the conscientious conviction
that in such a country as this, above all others, consecrated
to liberty by the blood of the patriot fathers of the Revolu
tion, Freedom and not Slavery should be national, Slavery
and not Freedom should be sectional, we have demanded it
as due to the sacred memories of the past, to our present po
sition as a people, and to the coming generations who shall
fill up this continent, that Slavery shall have no further extent.
Not content with muzzling the press and the mouth of the
people among themselves, and with establishing a reign of
terror which should create an apparent unanimity in favor of
their system of oppression, these model gentlemen have been

unwilling to allow the free millions of the North to give
utterance to anti-slavery sentiment ; have tried to hold the
lash over them, and dragoon them into silence, seeming to
tremble under the decisions of the Northern conscience. And
from the mere lust of power, they have tried hard to fasten
upon the virgin States of the West this adcu^sed system,
against whicli Southern men themselves have rolled up a
mountain of testimony.
They have in all this, assumed the attitude of bold'defiance
to the moral sentiment of civilized society. There have been
insurrections for freedom, there have been rebellions against
tyranny, but it is a new thing in the history of man upon
this earth, to have several millions of people break away
from the protection of a liberal government, and rush into
the uncertain arena of war in behalf of slavery, laying as
the corner stone of their new political structure, the claim
to hold fellow-men in life-long and hereditary servitude.
And this in the Nineteenth Century ! It is impossible to con
ceal the fact that the hidden spring of this strange and un
happy contest is the slavery question. It is at the bottom
of the mischief, and has been working towards the present
issue for many long years past. Other causes have co-opera
ted with it, as, for instance, disappointed ambition on the
part of the secession leaders ; but the great overshadowing
difficulty is the question of African Slavery. It is useless to
try to conceal this fact; we cannot blink it, and the sooner
we come as a people to acknowledge it the better. The
only lasting remedy will be a removal of the cause. I am
no abolitionist in the radical sense. I should be loth to see
the matter of emancipation treated with thoughtless haste,
and not in the exercise of a wise, calm, deliberate prudence.
But I am bold to say, that I do not believe we shall be able
to effect a permanent peace, or maintain a happy Union, im-
til measures for the final extmctioif of Slavery shall have
been devised and set in operation. In the same year that the
May Flower touched Plymouth Rock, a cargo of wild negroes
from Africa was landed from a Dutch vessel at Jamestown,
and sold to the planters. And during the two hundred and
forty-one years which have elapsed since then, two civiliza
tions, the one centralizing the idea of freedom in thought
and action, the other hugging the old worn-out notion of
caste, have been growing up side by side in our young Em
pire, until at last they have met in the fierce shock of con
flict for life or death. This is the struggle which is upon us.

9
It is, most truly, a second war for* Freedom. All that our
fathers fought to gain, we must fight to hold. It is here that
the matter of allegiance to government comes in. It is not
a mere question of obedience to established law in the ab
stract, that is now before the world. Suppose our positions
reversed. Imagine the preponderance in population, wealth,
commerce, manufactures, all external circumstances, were as
, much in favor of the Slave States, as it is actually on the
side of the Free States. And conceive of the latter, after
long years of earnest effort in behalf of liberal principles,
willing no longer to be forced into complicity with Slavery,
breaking away at last from union with Slave States, as the
only hope of securing and extending the institutions of free
dom. In such a secession, the sympathies of the whole
world would go with them ; for it makes a universe of differ
ence whether the object be to forge chains, or advance free-
thought. Long enough has the race been groping in dark-
. ness and barbarism, now it is trying to get into tlTe light, and
every decided step towards Christian liberty must be hailed
with joy. Our fathers, throwing off the yoke of English
government, at first called rebels, stand forth before the
world as honored patriots, because they fought for freedom ;
while the hot spirits who in this present have cut loose from
American government, now called rebels, will, must, forever
stand forth as execrated traitors, (would I might say executed
traitors) because they fight against freedom. This essential
principle makes their treason against government a treason
also against humanity and against God !
One of the most remarkable things connected with this
rebellion, is the absence of any plain and forcible reason for
its existence. We of the North were very slow to believe
that there would be any actual collision witli the government,
because there seemed to be no suflBcient cause why there
should be. In contrast with the leaders in other great in
surrections, these American rebels have set forth not a single
grievance which can give principle or dignity to their strug
gle. Our revolutionary sires refused to submit to taxation
while they were not allowed representation in parliament.
The people of the seceding States are able to urge no such
complaint. They had an equal voice with us in the legisla
ture of the country. The presidential election, it is true,
went against that party to which the most of their voters ad
hered, but they could not deny the election to be constitu
tional, and the part of common sense would have been to
2

10
hope for a different restilt the next time. They were led
into the steps they took by no overt act of the present ad
ministration, for they waited not for it to come into power.
The rights of the States had not been infringed by any act
of Congress, nor by any ¦ arbitrary stretch of power on the
part of the executive. There was no more reason why they
should desire to secede when they, did, than there was thirty,
forty, fifty years ago. The true ground for it is found first, i
as wo have seen, in the incompatibility of free and slave in
stitutions, and then, under this, in the ambition of Southern
demagogues. It began to be pretty evident that the South
was sinking into hopeless inferiority, compared with the
North. Tbey had held the reins of government from an
early period, but now nineteen millions were found to have
more power at the ballot-box than eight millions, though the
latter cast votes for four millions of slaves. Well, this was
not the crime nor fault of the North, only the misfortune
of the South — the inevitable result] of that system of bond- .
age which deterred the immigration of free labor, -and re
tarded progress in a thousand ways. Stifl, these disaffected
States had their constitutional rights, and ample representa
tion at the seat of government. It would have been time
enough for them to have thought of armed insurrection,
with all its uncertainties and horrors, when the North should
have used its power to subvert the constitution, and attempt
manifest tyranny, and when there should have been no bet
ter way open of obtaining redress. But this they would not
submit to. They had sucked so long at the maternal breast
of the nation, that they were not willing to be weaned, and
like a bouncing boy, have set to beating their mother. The
great source of trouble with them, as their own Vice Presi
dent Stephens has confessed, arose from the ovcrw-eening
aspirations of their prominent men. They all ^^•anted to be
President, but their country did not seem to be very anx
ious to obtain their valuable services in this capacity. Next
to enjoying the titles and honors of Chief Magistrate, they
coveted the substantial power which is exercised by the con
fidants and public counsellors of weak rulers ; and so they
were content to have northern doughfaces, without any
souls or backbone, sleep in the White House, while they did
their will in the administration of the government. But
no^\', even this privilege was taken a^vay. " The country had
told them that for four years at least, they could stay down
on their plantations and look after the " colored population."

11
What ! cut them off from the milk of their dear mother for
four long years, with no means of nourishing their political
souls during all that time, but the cold pap of state power !
They would not stand it! They would rebel against such
cruelty, and set up a government for themselves, in which,
though the nutriment might be short, they would at least en
joy it without interference.
And so they went into secession. Well, this is not the
first case of secession the world has seen. The ten tribes,
with Jereboam at their head, seceded from Judah and Ben
jamin, and set up two golden calves as the objects of their
idolatry. They maintained their national existence for some
time, until the king of Babylon came and took them away,
and now there is not a person living, philosopher or fool,
that can,tell what has become of them. The points of re
semblance between those old rebels and the new ones are al
ready pretty strong. The Southern seceders have set up
their idol too, but as gold is quite a scarce article with them,
they made theirs of cotton. But it is a huge calf neverthe
less. And how did they enter upon this secession ? When
a man sets up in business, he is generally very anxious to
establish at the outset a character for honesty, capacity, and
integrity. Character is rightly regarded as not the least val
uable part of a man's capital. But these- secessionists ap
pear to have regarded this sentiment as too old fashioned for
them. They start in an entirely novel manner. They be
gin with treason, acknowledged by all nations as the blackest
crime. Still holding office under the government and draw
ing pay, they secretly plot its overthrow. This is in violation
of sacred oaths. Thus perjury, accounted even by the an
cient heathen an infamous offense, is made the second article
in their moral capital. Next comes underhand theft, just
that kind of vileness which the burglar commits who breaks
into your stable at night, and carries off your horse. Along
with this, is open robbery on a large scale. But then they
anticipated war, and had no money, nor arms, nor cannon
and military stores, and was it not right for them to take
them ? Oh ! of course right with American secessionists, be
cause with them wrong is right and right is wrong. Cer
tainly to plunder this vast amount of property, and occupy
all the forts they could get hold of, was very proper for
them, because they could not do what they designed without
them ; but then for the government to attempt to regain its
possessions is a flagrant outrage— coercion ! If a vagabond

12
comes at night and steals your horse, don't think of forcing
him to give it up, for that will be coercing one of the sover
eign people. This is the new philosophy. Next is to be
added the repudiation of private debts. This young hopeful,
just setting up for himself in a new business, and having no
cash to spare, but liable to old creditors to a large amount,
hits upon the delightful expedient of violating all such obli
gations. Of course this establishes his character with the
mercantile community for shrewdness, if not for honesty.
It certainly gives this secession business a very peculiar
stamp, that private individuals came North last summer in
unusual numbers, and bought goods on credit to a very heavy
amount, expecting firmly the very outbreak which has since
happened, and now use it as a pretext for repudiating their
indebtedness. And then, as the proper climax to all this, is
that daring project of preying upon our commerce, by which,
according to a custom long ago discarded by Christian na
tions, they hoped to let loose upon the high seas a horde of
piratical plunderers, who should carry out upon the waters
the principles of robbery and spoliation begun upon the
land. Well, after stealing millions of money, robbing arsenals,
taking possession of United States forts, commissioning pi
rates, repudiating debts, driving off unoffending citizens,
levying war upon the government, which had borne with all
their misdeeds till forbearance looked like imbecility, and
finally, after daring to open the fire of their batteries upon
that dear old flag, under which in the dark days of the Rev
olution the son of the Puritan and the son of the Cavalier,
the Northerner and the Southerner had fought side by side,
which was flung out gaily to the breeze when Yorktown
surrendered, and freedom was won, which wrapped the body
of the dying Lawrence while he cried, " Don't give up the
ship ! " which floated over the city of the Montezumas, and
which, during the whole history of the Republic has been
carried to the remotest quarters of the earth, and every where
and at all times has commanded the respect of the nations,
after filling up the black catalogue of crime by dishonoring
this emblem of our country's power and worth, what is the
voice coming oftenest from this crew of public plunderers ?
" All we ask is to he let alone.'" Indeed ! very natural ! just
what the thief always desires ; and doubtless these are not
the first miscreants who have become so hardened in guilt as
to think it very cruel to call them to strict account for their .

13
evil deeds. This is exactly what the sinner wants — to be let
alone, to go on in his iniquity untroubled and unpunished ;
the old devil himself — the first secessionist — ^when he failed to
conquer and was driven out of heaven, no doubt longed to
be let alone ; but the Almighty put him in a very hot place,
with company to suit. The picture of these guilty rebels,
perpetrators of so much violence and now with their arms
full of ill-gotten treasures, crying out, " we are very peace
able, quiet people ; all we ask is. Let us alone !" is a picture
calculated to excite both our contempt and indignation.
And is there any ground upon which secession can be
peacefully allowed to take place ? In the first place, the ge
ographical aspect of the country would indicate an impossi
bility. There is no natural boundary between the North
and South. The mountain ranges, and the great Mississippi
serve to bind the two sections together instead of separating.
The physical features of our land are such as to fit it for
one great Empire. Then too, there are questions of proper
ty which could never be satisfactorily adjusted. Florida,
Louisiana and Texas were purchased by'us at a great cost of
blood and money. We should not be true to ourselves nor
our posterity, were we to allow the key to the Gulf of Mexi
co and the mouth of the Mississippi to pass into the hands of
a foreign power. Keeping in sight merely the question of
the rights of property, I hesitate not to say that we should
prove ourselves cowards indeed, did we not make up our
minds to retain possession of these gateways to power, which
belong to us, though it should cost millions of gold, and
thousands of men. This is just, and what is just is right.
But the matter assumes a graver character still. Once allow
the principle of secession, and there is an end not only to our
present Union, but to any Union ; there is an end to free gov
ernment in North America ; 4;here is a beginning of anarchy ;
there is a fair opening for military despotism ; there is a
fine field offered for some bloody conqueror to enter and
rush on to a throne of tyranny, through seas of blood.
Grant the right of a State to secede at will, and you virtually
annihilate our government, and shatter into at least thirty-
four, more likely a hundred fragments, that one country
which now calls Washington, father. Our glorious Union,
perfected at such a heavy price, is not a mere voluntary
concubinage of States, to be dissolved at pleasure, but a
holy wedlock, an everlasting, deathless bond. On no other
principle could there be any permanency in our institutions.

14
nor stability and dignity in ou.r government. The nature of
man necessitates society, society involves government, and
government is nothing without obedience. And if govern
ment, to maintain an existence must be obeyed, then it plain
ly must exercise the power to enforce obedience. This
reasoning, in which not a flaw can be detected, makes plain
the justice of this war as far as the loyal States are concerned.
For " the right of violent revolution can exist only in a case
in which a government, through neglect to fulfil its proper
functions, or otherwise, becomes intolerably oppressive, and
in which no possibility remains of reform by regular and
peaceful methods."* Our government was not only not op
pressive, but the freest in the world, and the disaffected
enjoyed the most ample facilities for the peaceful redress
of any grievance^ But these traitors, as if to prove them
selves the most unreasonable of beings, avowedly directing
their rebellion against the government as vested in the per
son of Mr. Lincoln, consummate all their plans, commit
their gigantic robberies, while Mr. Lincoln is yet but a
private citizen. They can therefore ground their revolt on
no oppression, and they do not sincerely allege any intol
erable grievance. They have talked a great deal, it is true,
but just like their representatives used to talk in Congress,
with a great deal of bluster, and very little common sense.
A more unprovoked, causeless, wicked assault upon a State
has never occurred in the history of man. Therefore, I
say. Behold a just and holy war! Therefore I say, the
spectacle witnessed last spring of the spontaneous uprising
of the free masses of the North to crush this infernal con
spiracy, born of hell, was a truly sublime spectacle. War
is upon us, forced upon us, and we accept the issue. We
all know it might have been prevented, that the whole
thing might have been crushed ^in the egg. Months ago, a
small police force, and a few yards of hemp would have
put an end to the whole business. But now it has come
to war, and we shrink not from the contest. It is not a
war of the North upon the South, but a war of the nation
against internal foes — just exactly such a war as the Ro
man Senate waged against Cataline and his conspirators,
who were annihilated by one stubborn, but decisive battle.
It is a time for .genuine patriotism, both of words and
deeds ; it is a time for wives to resign their husbands ; it
is a time for mothers to give up their sons, and for the
* Resolutions at Gen'l Association of Conn., lield at Bridgeport, 1861.

15
sons to be willing to be given up ; it is a time for lovers
to break away from their sweethearts, and for sweethearts
to tell all recreant lovers that the only path to their affec
tions is through devotion to country.
I say we decline not tlie issue, and yet we have not
rushed into it blindly, with reckless foolhardiness, but with
a settled judgment on the character of war. The history
of its horrors have been in the minds of our people. Not
to go back to the gloom of ancient times, the present cen
tury has seen too many battle fields to allow us to appeal
to the arbitrament of the sword without due deliberation.
The men are still living who were grown up when Napo
leon led on his marshalled hosts to victory after victory,
reaching a dazzling pinnacle of power and glory, but with
a might}^ sacrifice of life ! Fresh yet on the historian's
page, are those terrible battles at Marengo, and Jena, By-
leau and Friedland. The student of those times shudders
even in the midst of his awakened enthusiasm, as he calls
up. the scene at Austerlitz, — on that bright and beautiful
winter morning, three of the grandest armies Europe ever
saw, each commanded by an emperor, meeting in the shock
of battle — two against one — with Napoleon the victor. I
say he shudders, for he reads that after the battle, when
the Austrians and Russians were retreating over a frozen
lake, the emperor came riding up at full speed, shouting to
the artillery, " You are losing time ; fire upon those mas
ses ; they must be engulfed: fire upon the iceP'' The ice
was broken up, and 20,000 of the enemy sank beneath
the waters of the lake. And it is not yet fifty years since
the same remorseless conquer'or gathered that half million
of men, unequalled in all time for numbers, discipline, and
equipment, and marched them into the heart of Russia.
" We are setting out for Moscow, but we shall soon re
turn," cried the gay and chivalrous youth, as they parted
from their friends ; but all that vast army, save a miserable
remnant, slept under Russian snows that winter. Waterloo
is not forgotten, and that last charge of the National Guard,
Napoleon's reserve. On they went with the energy of des-
•peration, but the raking fire of the British battery sweeps
tliem down like the mown grass ; on they rush, pressing
ever forward with eagerness, but regiment after regiment
is cut down to a man ; not an inch of ground is gained,
though they keep coming on, and soon before them rises a
mountain of their own dead ! Such is war. But it is

16
more even than this ; it is the devastation of fertile lands ;
it is the plundering and burning of wealthy and beautiful
cities ; it is the destruction of a vast amount of property ;
it is the squandering of many national resources ; it is the
breaking up of business ; it is the demoralization of socie
ty; and more than all, it is the blight and ruin of fami
lies. The sacrifice of life is great, but the sacrifice of
affection is greater. The wreath of the conqueror drops
blood — the blood of innocent hearts ; under the wheels of
his triumphal car are crushed the widow and the orphan, the
broken-hearted mother, and the despairing friend. Homes
once happy, are forever wrapped in gloom. The " death-shots
falling thick and fast " strike down many a brave fellow, but
reach hearts far away as well, and cause wounds which time
never heals, lo die is at all times solemn, but oh ! what a
place to die — on the battle-field, amidst the roar of artillery,
the charge of infantry and cavalry, the bitter curses, horrid
oaths, imprecations, blasphemies that arise from hearts in
flamed with hellish hate, the poor, dying soldier, trampled
down often by the on-rushing ranks. Here is none of the
hushed stillness, that is wont to settle about the death-bed of
the peaceful citizen, here are no kind attentions of weeping
friends, and last words of counsel, and the thrilling pressure
of the hand, and the last look of love. Few even of the
world's ambitious conquerors, when declining day has brought
them victory, have been able that night to go over the field
of their triumph, and pass among the dead and wounded,
hear the groans and see the sufferings they have caused,
without some pity touching their hearts, rough men of battle,
as they are. With what an eye must the good God look
down upon such a scene !
Well, all this we have carefully weighed ; and with all
its horrors in view, we are yet ready for war. For in the
present condition of the world, as human nature is yet con
stituted, it must be used as a last resort for the preserva
tion of States. The tendency of Christianity, while still tol
erating it, is to mitigate its evils. And in the fact that, al
though war is of so dreadful a nature, we are yet willing to
encounter it, is found that which was sublime in the unani--
mous voice of the people in support of the government in
April last. Por then patriotism rose above party, the welfare
of the nation above individual advantage, the enduring good
of the future, above the self-interest of the moment. No
man living can definitely foretell that which is coming upon

17
us. We know the past, we can trace the causes of the pres
ent, but the future is hid from our eyes. We have had fifty
years of peace, and are now in the midst of war ; exactly
how it will end, we know not, but we have seen enough to
feel certain that the Republic will live. War is bad enough,
but many things would have been worse. It would have
been worse to have tamely surrendered the national capital
into the hands of the traitors ; it would have been worse to
have permitted an armed body of conspirators to overthrow
a rightful and benignant government ; it would have been in
finitely worse for the free masses of the American Republic to
have let go to shipwreck every principle for which our fath
ers contended so long, every right dear to the heart of the race.
This continent of ours has long been pointed to by discern
ing minds as the theater of some great contest. Some have
thought it would be of a religious complexion — a grand
struggle possibly between Catholicism and Protestantism. I
am inclined to think the world has seen the last religious
war. But that the United States were to furnish a battle
field of some kind, there have been many reasons for believ
ing. Perhaps it has come upon us, perhaps this is the last,
the decisive struggle, the death-grapple between freedom and
despotism. Fellow citizens, upon us rests a weighty respon
sibility. What shall be the condition and prospects of the
untold millions who are to fill up the vast area of our coun
try, rests with us to say. It is now to be decided whether
we shall bequeath to them the civilization of Freedom, or
the barbarism of Slavery ; Christian liberty, or despotic bigo
try. How then, can any man, in the present hour, talk of
compromises ? The day for such things has gone. The
last moment when the already indignant people of the Un
ion could have listened to any thing of the kind — passed
when the rebel batteries opened fire on the flag of Sumpter.
There is now no retreat for them or us ; and we must
fight, unless we are arrant cowards, to the bitter end.
Having refused all offers of conciliation, being convicted of
open assault upon the hfe of the nation, the adversaries
of the government must be now brought to those terms
which an outraged people shall impose. You cannot patch
up the crack in the Union by any compromise; the only
thing which can fill up the gap and be a lasting cement, is
the dead bodies of the traitors. You might as well put on
so much " Spalding's glue," as to apply another compro
mise. " Oh ! but we want peace," cry some ; " this war

18
is bad business ; trade is broken up, let us have peace again,
and it will be revived." But what will it avail to stop
short at this time, if we are to have another war in five or
ten years, as we certainly shall, unless we fight it through
now. We are in for it, things have been coming to this
point for a long time back, and let us now make clean
work of it and finish up the job in a workmanlike manner.
Do not fear that it will reach on to a war of extermination.
In the first place, while we have a united NortlT, there is a
divided South; and though the traitors be annihilated,
every man of them, there will be enough friends of the
Union left for seed. But it will never come even to this
sad issue. The nation is yet unborn that suffered itself to
be utterly exterminated, rather than yield to a stronger pow
er. Our Southern chivalry very likely are brave, though
we should be disposed to give them more credit in regard
to this, if they did not boast so much, and were not so par
tial to skulking among woods and behind masked bateries ;
but the gallant Poles were also brave — a nation of soldiers —
and yet submitted to a foreign dominion long before any thing
like extermination ; the Hungarians were brave, and yet we
ourselves have seen how quickly a few reverses tamed their
spirit. And yet these people formed distinct nationalities,
and were fighting for liberty — their homds and fire-sides —
against foreign aggression. Are we then to expect that these
Southern States, contending for no great idea, not the shadow
of a principle, and led on by mere political, aspiring dema
gogues, against their oion government, not an alien power,
are to stand out in their resistance to the point of annihila
tion ? Human nature is the same the world over, and,
guided by the light of history, when the conduct of large
masses is under consideration, we can tell with great exact
ness what they will do in given circumstances.
We must then look at this whole matter from no low point
of view. Business may suffer, manufacturing may stop, trade
may be dull, great expenses may be incurred, families may
be bereaved ; but we are living in heroic times, already liber
ty has claimed her martyrs, and sacrifices, even the greatest,
should be cheerfully borne. We must carry on the contest
with no vindictive spirit, but with a firm determination to
secure the triumph of right. Let us oppose the savage war
fare of our enemies with courage, mingled with Christian
moderation. Though they may persist in employing all the
treachery and cruelty of the sons of the tomahawk, it is for us

19
to use towards them the forbearance of Christians. And we
are to rise above the little things of the hour ; remembering
our own indebtedness to the heroism of past ages, calling to
mind the glorious instances of self-sacrifice, which keep green
the memory of by-gone centuries, we are to do and dare
whatever the perpetuity of the Republic and the sacred cause
of Liberty throughout the world demand. There is that in
the struggle which should fill us with righteous indignation,
and there are hopes awakened which should inspire us with
resistless enthusiasm. The destiny of unborn millions, the '
prosperity of a newly started empire, the whole future of
Freedom, hang on the issue before us. Submit to secession,
and the Republic is in ruins, the experiment of popular gov
ernment a failure. Slavery has her foot on the neck of Liber
ty, the slave trade is re-opened without a blush, a free press
is no more, free speech no longer, no government is to be
obeyed when the ring-leaders of insurrection find themselves
strong enough to cast it down ; the expanding powers of a
liberal Christianity are to be dried up to the old rotten husk
of bigotry and intolerance. But bring treason to its merited
punishment, break up rebellion, crush out secession, and we
open before us a gate-way to progress, through which coming
millions shall press gladly and gratefully. The hardships of
the first severs, the names and holy deeds of our revolution
ary sires, the labors of those statesmen who are now no more,
the government which has been our boast and protection, the
well-being of the present generation, the hopes of generations
yet to come, the lovers of liberty all over the earth, the
interests of Christ's church in all the future, and the voice of
a God reigning in righteousness, — these all unitedly plead
with us to maintain the position we have taken, and, speak
ing in the might of invincible truth, promise unto us an
enduring triumph.

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