The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1861-02-26

EH- Mr.. LINCOLN left Springfield, I'LL.
nois, on the llth, for Washington, taking
very crcuitous route, in order to fulfill
engagements made to visit certain cities.
His progress has been perfect ovation,
immense crowds turning out at every
stopping point, and greeting him with
unbounded enthusiasm. His speech on
leaving home was full of genuine feeling,
and Mr.. LINCOLN and numbers of his
auditors were affected to tears. His frs,
stopping point of Importance was at In
dianapolis, and as his speech at that
place. quite AS fully as anything he has
said subsequently, seems to reflect his
views and feelings, we give it entire
He said:
FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE STATE OF INDIANA
Il am here to thank you much for this magnifi-
cent welcome, and still more for the very gen
crous support given by your State to that po-
ltical cause which think is the true and Just
cause of the whole country and the whole
world. Solomon says" There is a time to keep
silence" and when men wrangle by the mouth
with no certainty that they mean the same
thing while using the same word, it perhaps
were as well that they should keep silence. The
words coercion" and Invasion" are much
used in these days, and often with some tenn
per and hot blood. Let us get the exact def
nitions of these words, not from dictionaries,
but from the men themselves, who certainly
deprecate the things they would represent by
the use of words What, then, is coercion ?"
What is invasion 2" Would the marching If
an army into South Carolina, without the con-
sent of her people, and with hostile intent to-
ward them, be invasion? / certainly think
it would be coercion - also il the South
United States should merely hold and retake its
o'cn forts and property, and collect the duties on
foreign import0tions, or euen withhold the mails
from places ,ohere they ,oere habituauy riolated,
toould any or all these things BE- " inUasion" or
coercion ?" Do our protested lovers of the Union
but who spitefully resolve that they will resist
coercion and invasion, understand that such
things as these on the part of the United States
would be coercion or invasion of State If
SO, their idea of means to preserve the object Of
their great affection, would seem to be exceed
ingly thin and airy. If sick, the little pills of
the homeopathist would be much too large for
it to swallow. In their view, the Union, as a
family relation, would be no regular marriage,
but rather free-love arrangement, to be main
tanned on passional attraction. BY the way,
in what consists the special sacredness of a
State? speak not Of the position assigned to
a State in the Union by the Constitution, for
that by the bond we all recognize. That po-
sition, however, State cannot carry out of the
Union with it. l speak of that assumed pri-
mary right of a State to rule all which is less
than itself, aud 10 ruin all which is larger than
itself If State and county, in given
case, should be equal in extent of territory and
equal in number of inhabitants, in what, as
matter Of principle, is the State better than
the county Would an exchange Of names be
an exchange of rights? Upon principle, on
what rightful principle, may State being no
more than one-fiftieth part of the Nation in
soil and population, break up the nation and
then coeree a proportionably larger subdivision
Of itself in the most arbitrary way What
mysterious right to play tyrant is conferred on
district of country with its people by merely
calling it q State Fellow citizens, / am not
asserting anything. l am merely asking
questions for. you to consider. And now al
low me to bid you farewell