State. and may God grant that we may always be able to maintain the
sovereignty of the State in the spirit of integrity to the Union. Thus
shall still be shed imperishable honors upon the American name thus
perpetuated, through all coming time, the heritage which has been
bequeathed to us by our fathers. Whatever shall be the fate of other
governments, ours thus sustained, shall stand forever. As has been
elsewhere said, nation after nation may rise and fall, kingdoms and empires
crumble into ruin, but our own native land, gathering energy and strength
from the lapse of time, shall go on and still go on its destined way to
greatness and renown. And when thrones shall crumble into dust, when
sceptres and diadems shall have been forgotten, till Heaven's last thunder
shall shake the world below, the flag of the republic shall still wave on,
and its Stars, its Stripes, and its Eagle, shall still float in pride, and
strength, and glory,
"Whilst the earth bears, a plant,
Or the sea rolls a wave."
A. H. Rice.
CCCX.
SOUTHERN USURPATIONS AND NORTHERN CONCESSIONS.
Why did these Southerners make war upon the country, converting their own
domain into a receptacle of stolen goods, and the hiding-place of
mercenaries, murderers, and madmen, and ours into one vast recruiting tent?
Tell me, you cowardly and traitorous Northmen, who talk about peace before
the last armed foe has expired on the soil his attainted blood defiles, or
of compromise, while yet the walls of our hospitals resound with the groans
of the mangled, and are damp with the death-dew of the expiring? Tell me,
you traitors, Davis, Pickens, Stephens, and Floyd? what do you say provoked
you to the point where forbearance ceased to be a virtue? What had we of
the North usurped that belonged to you? I inquire not now of what some
among us may have said. I challenge any act of usurpation by the
non-slaveholding States against your rights as members of the confederacy.
Facts are incontrovertible. What had we done? What provision of the Federal
Constitution had we violated? For once lay aside your declamation and
abuse, and soberly and truthfully state your grievances.
You know, and we know, and the world knows, that we made no encroachment
upon your reserved rights as a party to the compact between your fathers
and ours. You know, also, that we have been so terrified at your reiterated
threats against the family peace and general welfare, that, in our anxiety
to preserve national concord, we have sacrificed personal honor and State
pride. You called us "mudsills" and "greasy mechanics," until labor almost
began to be ashamed of its God-given dignity. You beat our representatives
in the national council chambers, because they expressed the views of those
whom they served. You denied us freedom of speech in all your borders. This
and much else, before the last burden, which broke our uncomplaining
patience into active, and, as you are destined to learn, terrible
resistance and deserved retribution. But what had we done? How sinned
against you? In 1820 you wanted a geographical limit assigned to your
peculiar institution and we passed the law known as the Missouri
Compromise. You got sick of this when it appeared that slavery would not be
a gainer thereby, as it was supposed, and begged a repeal of the act. It
was repealed. In 1850, you clamored for further legislation in favor of
your property in human beings, and the fugitive slave law was placed on the
nation's statute book. You continually cried, "Give, give!" and we gave.
But nothing would satisfy your rapacity; you had resolved to quarrel with
us. Do you remind me that we did not return your escaped slaves? This is
only half the truth. Whenever you came after your chattel, with legal
proofs of ownership, we caught and caged him, and sent him back to you,
often at our own expense. If you did not think it worth your while to hunt
up your runaway, it was none of our concern. Sometimes a man among us, more
of a humanitarian than a jurisconsult, and better versed in the law of
nature than the law of the land, illegally, but conscientiously, aided your
bondman to escape. John Brown did so, and you hanged him for it! But no
State, as such, and no authority within a State, ever hesitated or refused
to fulfil its constitutional obligations to you on this head. But you did
not mean to be satisfied. You meant to rebel. You have rebelled, and you
must abide the consequences.
R. Busteed.
CCCXI.
MONUMENTAL HONORS TO PUBLIC BENEFACTORS.
What parent, as he conducts his son to Mount Auburn or to Bunker Hill, will
not, as he pauses before their monumental statues, seek to heighten his
reverence for virtue, for patriotism, for science, for learning, for
devotion to the public good, as he bids him contemplate the form of that
grave and venerable Winthrop, who left his pleasant home in England to
come and found a new republic in this untrodden wilderness; of that ardent
and intrepid Otis, who first struck out the spark of American independence;
of that noble Adams, its most eloquent champion on the floor of Congress;
of that martyr Warren, who laid down his life in its defense; of that
self-taught Bowditch, who, without a guide, threaded the starry mazes of
the heavens; of that Story, honored at home and abroad as one of the
brightest luminaries of the law, and, by a felicity of which I believe
there is no other example, admirably portrayed in marble by his son? What
citizen of Boston, as he accompanies the stranger around our streets,
guiding him through our busy thoroughfares, to our wharves, crowded with
vessels which range every sea and gather the produce of every climate, up
to the dome of this capitol, which commands as lovely a landscape as can
delight the eye or gladden the heart, will not, as he calls his attention
at last to the statues of Franklin and Webster, exclaim:--"Boston takes
pride in her natural position, she rejoices in her beautiful environs, she
is grateful for her material prosperity; but richer than the merchandise
stored in palatial warehouses, greener than the slopes of sea-girt islets,
lovelier than this encircling panorama of land and sea, of field and
hamlet, of lake and stream, of garden and grove, is the memory of her sons,
native and adopted; the character, services and fame of those who have
benefited and adorned their day and generation. Our children, and the
schools at which they are trained, our citizens, and the services they have
rendered:--these are our monuments, these are our jewels, these our abiding
treasures."
E. Everett.
CCCXII.
THE CRIME OF THE REBELLION.
I call the war which the Confederates are waging against the Union a
"Rebellion," because it is one, and in grave matters it is best to call
things by their right names. I speak of it as a crime, because the
Constitution of the United States so regards it, and puts "rebellion" on a
par with "invasion." The Constitution and law not only of England, but of
every civilized country regard them in the same light; or rather they
consider the rebel in arms as far worse than the alien enemy. To levy war
against the United States is the constitutional definition of treason, and
that crime is, by every civilized government: regarded as the highest which
citizen or subject can commit. Not content with the sanctions of human
justice, of all the crimes against the law of the land it is singled out
for the denunciations of religion. The litanies of every church in
Christendom, as far as I am aware, from the metropolitan cathedrals of
Europe to the humblest missionary chapel in the islands of the sea, concur
with the Church of England in imploring the Sovereign of the universe, by
the most awful adjurations which the heart of man can conceive or his
tongue utter, to deliver us from "sedition, privy conspiracy and
rebellion." And reason good,--for while a rebellion against tyranny; a
rebellion designed, after prostrating arbitrary power, to establish free
government on the basis of justice and truth, is an enterprise on which
good men and angels may look with complacency; an unprovoked rebellion of
ambitious men against a beneficent government, for the purpose--the avowed
purpose-of establishing, extending, and perpetuating any form of injustice
and wrong, is an imitation on earth of that first foul revolt of "the
Infernal serpent," against which the Supreme Majesty of Heaven sent forth
the armed myriads of his angels, and clothed the right arm of his Son with
the three-bolted thunders of Omnipotence.
Lord Bacon, "in the true marshalling of the sovereign degrees of honor,"
assigns the first place to "the Conditores Imperiorum, founders of States
and Commonwealths "; and truly to build up from the discordant elements of
our nature; the passions, the interests, and the opinions of the individual
man; the rivalries of family, clan, and tribe; the influences of climate
and geographical position; the accidents of peace and war accumulated for
ages, to build up, from these oftentimes warring elements, a
well-compacted, prosperous and powerful State, if it were to be
accomplished by one effort, or in one generation, would require a more than
mortal skill. To contribute in some notable degree to this the greatest
work of man, by wise and patriotic counsel in peace, and loyal heroism in
war, is as high as human merit can well rise, and far more than to any of
those to whom Bacon assigns this highest place of honor, whose names can
hardly be repeated without a wondering smile,--Romulus; Cyrus, Cæsar,
Ottoman, Israel,--is it due to our Washington, as the founder of the
American Union. But if to achieve or help to achieve this greatest work of
man's wisdom and virtue gives title to a place among the chief benefactors,
rightful heirs of the benedictions, of mankind, by equal reason shall the
bold bad men who seek to undo the noble work,--Eversores Imperiorum,
destroyers of States,--who for base and selfish ends rebel against
beneficent governments, seek to overturn wise constitutions, to lay
powerful republican unions at the foot of foreign thrones, bring on civil
and foreign war, anarchy at home, dictation abroad, desolation, ruin,--by
equal reason, I say, yes a thousand fold stronger, shall they inherit the
execrations of ages.
E. Everett.
CCCXIII.
A TRIBUTE TO OUR HONORED DEAD.
How bright are the honors which await those who with sacred fortitude and
patriotic patience have endured all things that they might save their
native land from division and from the power of corruption. The honored
dead! They that die for a good cause are redeemed from death. Their names
are gathered and garnered. Their memory is precious. Each place grows proud
for them who were born there. There is to be, ere long, in every village,
and in every neighborhood, a glowing pride in its martyred heroes. Tablets
shall preserve their names. Pious love shall renew their inscriptions as
time and the unfeeling elements efface them. And the national festivals
shall give multitudes of precious names to the orator's lips. Children
shall grow up under more sacred inspirations, whose elder brothers dying
nobly for their country, left a name that honored and inspired all who bore
it. Orphan children shall find thousands of fathers and mothers to love and
help those whom dying heroes left as a legacy to the gratitude of the
public.
Oh, tell me not that they are dead--that generous hosts that airy army of
invisible heroes. They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this nation. Are
they dead that yet speak louder than we can speak, and a more universal
language? Are they dead that yet act? Are they dead that yet move upon
society, and inspire the people with nobler motives and more heroic
patriotism?
Ye that mourn, let gladness mingle with your tears. It was your son: but
now he is the nation's. He made your household bright: now his example
inspires a thousand households. Dear to his brothers and sister's, he is
now brother to every generous youth in the land. Before, he was narrowed,
appropriated, shut up to you. Now he is augmented, set free, and given to
all. Before he was yours: he is ours. He has died from the family that he
might live to the nation. Not one name shall be forgot ten or neglected:
and it shall by-and-by be confessed of our modern heroes, as it is of an
ancient hero, that he did more for his country by his death than by his
whole life.
Neither are they less honored who shall bear through life the marks of
wounds and sufferings. Neither epaulette nor badge is so honorable as
wounds received in a good cause. Many a man shall envy him who henceforth
limps. So strange is the transforming power of patriotic ardor, that men
shall almost covet disfigurement. Crowds will give way to hobbling
cripples, and uncover in the presence of feebleness and helplessness. And
buoyant children shall pause in their noisy games, and with loving
rererence honor them whose hands can work no more, and whose feet are no
longer able to march except upon that journey which brings good men to
honor and immortality. Oh, mother of lost children! set not in darkness nor
sorrow whom a nation honors. Oh, mourners of the early dead, they shall
live again, and live forever. Your sorrows are our gladness. The nation
lives because you gave it men that love it better than their own lives. And
when a few more days shall have cleared the perils from around the nation's
brow, and she shall sit in unsullied garments of liberty, with justice upon
her forehead, love in her eyes, and truth upon her lips, she shall not
forget those whose blood gave vital currents to her heart, and whose life,
given to her, shall live with her life till time shall be no more.
Every mountain and hill shall have its treasured name, every river shall
keep some solemn title, every valley and every lake shall cherish its
honored register; and till the mountains are worn out, and the rivers
forget to flow, till the clouds are weary of replenishing springs, and the
springs forget to gush, and the rills to sing, shall their names be kept
fresh with reverent honors which are inscribed upon the book of National
Remembrance.
H. W. Beecher.
CCCXIV.
ON THE CONFISCATION BILL.
Few of those engaged in this rebellion will ever be made to suffer in their
persons; and if they are to be left in the full possession and enjoyment of
their cotton, their lands, and their negroes, the innocent will have been
made to suffer while the guilty will go unpunished. Shall the fathers of
the gallant sons whose mangled bodies have been borne back to Illinois by
hundreds, from the bloody fields of Belmont, of Donelson, and Pea Ridge, be
ground down by onerous taxes, which shall descend upon their children to
the third and fourth generations, to defray the expenses of defending the
Government against traitors, and we forbear to touch even the property of
the authors of these calamities, whose persons are beyond our reach?
Suppose ye that the loyal people of this country will submit to such
injustice?
I believe I represent as loyal, as patriotic and as brave a constituency as
any other Senator. I claim nothing more. While I am proud of the part which
the soldiers of my own State took in defeating the enemy in the West, I do
not claim for them any superiority over the other soldiers of the Republic.
The brave men who besieged Donelson, and who, after fighting through the
day for three consecutive days, lay each night on the ground without
shelter, exposed to the rain and sleet, were chiefly Illinoisans. It was
there that rebellion received the heavy blow which has staggered it ever
since. Forty dead bodies were borne from that bloody field to one small
town in my State, and buried in a common grave. The Union forces at Pea
Ridge were also largely made up of soldiers from Illinois. Suppose ye that
I can go back to Illinois, among the relatives of those who have been
cruelly destroyed, and propose to levy taxes upon them in order to
conciliate and compensate the murderers, for that is really what exempting
rebel property from confiscation amounts to? Sir, I know not if they would
submit to such injustice; and yet there are those who not only talk of an
amnesty to the men who have brought these troubles upon the country, but
oppose providing the mild punishment of confiscation of property for those
who shall continue hereafter to war upon the Government, and whose persons
are beyond our reach. Do gentlemen regard it as conciliatory to oblige us
to lay taxes upon those whose habitations have been consumed, to reward
those who have burned them? upon those whose whole property has been
stolen, to reward the thieves? upon those whose relatives have been slain,
to compensate the murderers? In my judgment, justice, humanity, and mercy
herself all demand that we at once provide that the supporters of this
cruel and wicked rebellion should henceforth be made to feel its burdens.
When the rebels, whose hands are dripping with the blood of loyal citizens,
shall have grounded their arms, it will be time enough to talk of clemency;
but to have our sympathies excited in their behalf now, when fighting to
overthrow the Government, is cruelty to the loyal men who have rallied to
its support.
L. Trumbull.
CCCXV.
THE CRITTENDEN COMPROMISE.
Sir, what are the remedies that are proposed for the present condition of
things, and what have they been from the beginning? They have been
propositions of compromise; and Senators have spoken of peace, and of the
horrors of civil war; and gentlemen who have contended for the right of
the people of the Territories to regulate their own affairs, and who have
been horrified at the idea of a geographical line dividing free States from
slave States, free territory from slave territory,--and we have proclaimed
that the great principle upon which the Revolution was fought was that of
the right of the people to govern themselves, and that it was a monstrous
doctrine for Congress to interfere in any way with its own
Territories--these gentlemen come forward here with propositions to divide
the country on a geographical line; and not only that, but to establish
slavery south of the line; and they call this the Missouri Compromise! The
proposition known as the Crittenden Compromise is no more like the Missouri
Compromise than is the government of Turkey like that of the United States.
The Missouri Compromise was a law declaring that in all the territory which
we had acquired from Louisiana, north of a certain line of latitude,
slavery or involuntary servitude should never exist. But it said nothing
about the establishment of slavery south of that line. It was a compromise
made in order to admit Missouri into the Union as a slave State, in 1820.
That was the consideration for the exclusion of slavery from all the
country north of 36° 30'. Now, sir, I have no objection to the restoration
of the Missouri Compromise as it stood in 1854, when the Kansas-Nebraska
Bill repealed it.
The proposition known as the Crittenden Compromise declares not only that
"in the territory south of the said line of latitude, slavery of the
African race is thereby recognized as existing, and shall not be interfered
with by Congress;" but it provides further, that, in the territory we
shall hereafter acquire south of that line, slavery shall be recognized,
and not interfered with by Congress; but "shall be protected as property by
all the departments of the territorial government during its continuance;"
so that, if we make acquisitions on the south of territories now free, and
where by the laws of the land the footsteps of slavery have never been, the
moment we acquire jurisdiction over them, the moment the stars and stripes
of the Republic float over those free territories, they carry with them
African slavery, established beyond the power of Congress and beyond the
power of any territorial legislature or of the people, to keep it out: and
we are told that this is the Missouri Compromise!
Now, sir, why cannot we have peace, I ask, upon the compromise measures of
1850? Why disturb them? They were enacted by great men. They gave peace to
the country. Why is it necessary now to overturn them? Restore the old
Missouri Compromise as it stood; let us go back to the settlement made in
1850, and there let us stand. What more would Senators have? The South were
satisfied with that settlement. Have we disturbed it? Are we proposing to
disturb it? Not at all. You yourselves disturbed it, and brought these
difficulties upon the country.
I have always insisted that the people of the Northern States were in no
manner responsible for slavery in the Southern states; and why? Because
they had no power in regard to it. Each State has a right to manage its own
domestic affairs. I will not interfere with it where I have no authority by
the Constitution to interfere; but I will never consent, the people of my
State will never consent, the people of the great Northwest, numbering more
in white population than all your Southern States together, never will
consent by their act to establish African slavery anywhere. No, sir; I will
never agree to put into the Constitution of the country a clause
establishing or making perpetual slavery anywhere. No, sir; no human being
shall ever be made a slave by my vote. Not one single foot of God's soil
shall ever be dedicated to African slavery by my act--never! Never!
L. Trumbull.
CCCXVI.
REPLY TO SENATOR BRECKINRIDGE.
The Senator from Kentucky stands up here in opposition to what he sees is
the overwhelming sentiment of the Senate, and utters reproof, malediction
and prediction combined. I would ask him, sir, what would you havre us to
do now--a rebel army within twenty mites of us, advancing or threatening to
advance to destroy your Government? Will the Senator yield to rebellion?
Will he shrink from armed insurrection? Will his State justify it? Will its
better public opinion allow it? Shall we send a flag of truce? What would
he have? Or would he conduct this war so feebly that the whole world would
smile at us in derision? What would he have? These speeches of his, sown
broadcast over the land--what clear, distinct meaning have they? Are they
not intended for disorganization in our very midst? Are they not intended
to dull our weapons? Are they not intended to destroy our zeal? Are they
not intended to animate our enemies? Sir, are they not words of brilliant,
polished treason, even in the very Capitol of the Confederacy?
Be with the enemy or with us.
I come, then, to emancipation. And, first, I ask my countrymen to
proclaim emancipation to the slaves as a matter of necessity to
ourselves; for unless it be by accident, we are not to come out of this
contest as one nation, except by emancipation. Confiscation of the
property of the rebels may be necessary and just; but it is not enough.
It will not save us in "this rugged and awful crisis." It is inadequate
to meet the exigency in which the country is placed. We must have
emancipation. The political salvation of the country demands it; and it
is inevitable. The time is approaching when emancipation must take
place, and we have now, I think, only a choice of ways. Emancipation may
be achieved by the slaves themselves; it may be effected by the
Government of the United States; it may come through the desperation of
the slaveholding rebels themselves. But come it must. I say, then, let
us, at the head of our armies, on the soil of South Carolina, proclaim
Freedom--freedom to all her slaves, and then enforce the proclamation as
far and as fast as we have opportunity. Let the blow fall first on that
State which first rebelled, as a warning and a penalty for her perfidy
in this business, which began at the moment that her delegates penned
their names to the Constitution.
Next, Florida, impotent in her treachery, with less than a hundred and
fifty thousand inhabitants, and with property not equal to that of a
single ward in this city, and that purchased with the money of the
people,--emancipate her slaves, and invite the refugees from slavery in
the South, for the moment to assemble there, if they desire, and take
possession of the soil.
And next in this work of emancipation I name Texas, a State purchased by a
costly war with Mexico and which went out of the Union because she could
not extend slavery in the Union. Let us teach her people that in the Union
or out of the union, slavery is not to be extended. Emancipate the slaves
in Texas, and invite men from the army, invite men from the North, invite
men from Ireland, invite men from Germany,--the friends of freedom, of
every name and every nation?--bid them welcome to the millions of acres of
fertile lands we shall there confiscate, and they will form a barrier of
freemen, a wall of liberty, over which, or through which, or beneath which
it will be impossible for slavery to extend itself.