Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-02-06
FEDERAL RELATIONS.
Speech of John HI. Stotsenberg, OF
Floyd County, i'm the House, Thurs
day. January 81. 1861.

duelQInelt prONlQlQR IOf the call Oh u NaIOnal
Convention,
Mr.. SToTsENBERG said:
Mr.. SPEAKER: | speak to-day, not as Demo
crat, partisan, but as an American citi- /
zen and as Representative of the people. / will |
not descend to party elimination or reflections /
upon party men or party measures, when the is
sues of the hour rise so infinitely above such paltry
The time has gone by when mere eulogies upon /
the Union or glttering generllties, such as are
in the Senate resolutions, can prevent
discOrd or stop the progress Of secession. Ii is
too late, by means Of such plaster as Union /
saving resolutions, to cover the sore which is now
fostering upon the body polite. The disease re-
quires, and the people must administer, remedy
more specific, more potent, more healing in its
effects. This proposition does not require argu-
ment. Every man on this floor is, OF, at least,
ought to be convinced of the truth Of what | ut
ter. The people know it; aye the people, suffer
ing as they are in every department of society,
feel it deeply and appreciate its truth They are
yelrning for relief; and, sir, they will call to
fearful and unenviable accountability that agent
that Representative-who fails to hearken to
their voice, or respond to their desire
i speak to-day for constituents, who desire a
peaceful solution of our difficulties, and rene
dial measure of relief-who, as reasonable men,
and patriots, desire of this General Assembly
something more than mere vague or uncertain
distractions speak to-day for the people of the
State of Indiana, who are fondly hoping and fer
vently praying for the things that make for peace
| speak to-day for the Union-our hope, our pride,
our all in all; for the Republic, one and indivis-
blc our shield, our buckler, and the helmet of
our salvation. That Union is in peril; that Re-
public is in the throes and agonies of dissolution
The danger is imminent, pressing, urgent, threat
ening, There is no time, there is no necessity
for asking now, who, or what has caused it?
The ventilation of party records, or filings at party
leaders can do no good. The danger is too near.
1t is at our very door, and like Banquos ghost, it
will not down at party bidding. 1t stares us in
the face Sir, the Republic is dying One by
one, its members are dropping off. Day by day
the disease is gaining ground. Will you shut
your eyes and close your ears to the factsY South
Carolina has gone, Alabama and Florida have
gone; Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi have
gone. Whether you recognize their Constitutional
right TO go or not, you can not compel them to
give you their brotherly love and kindness, and
those feelings of affection and regard which are
stronger and better than mere parchment or COM
mercial ties Nay, you can not even expect them
to give them to you, unless you do even so to
them. | said that they have gone. Who will
follow where they have led? tell you that which
you already know, that unless remedial, action
is soon had-the process of dsintegration will not
stop. Tennessee will go; North Carolina will
go; Missouri will go; Maryland will go; Arkansas
will go; Texas will go; Virginia will go; and,
though dislike to say it, though / wish not to
utter the unpalatabe truth, gallant and chival-
rous Kentucky the State which contains those
who are near and dear to me by many ties: the
State which is endeared to lndianians by the sac
rifce of the blood of her best and bravest sons
upon the sacred soil of Tippecanoe, she, too, will
bid a sad farewell to her old companions What
can be donel What ought to be done to stop the
march of the disease, and to make the body
whole and sound again, and where lies the rem
edy?
Two only are proposed; two only find support
ers. The one is the coercive, the other the con-
ciliatory remedy. Coercion or compromise? war
or peaceg Do not deceive yourselves! There is
no middle ground. You, Representatives, must
choose between them; l must choose between
them; the government must choose between them;
the people must choose between them.
Now, who are TO be coerced? What are the
means to be employed? What are to be the ben
efts and results to Indiana and the Union arising
therefrom? Those who are to be coerced arc our
own brethren. They may have sinned; they may
have erred; they may have acted wickedly and
done despite to the spirit of our institutions; they
NAV even refuse to be called such, yet they are
our brethren still. The most bitter coercionist
must, by virtue of his own theory of the consti
tutional impossbilty of secession, recognize them
as such. Are they not so, in very truth and fact?
They are the children of the same revolutionary
stock, and Americans all, endeared to us by the
most holy bonds Their sons and their daughters
have intermarried with our sons and our daugh-
ters Our fathers, our mothers, our sisters, our
brothers are scattered over the fair domains of
the sunny South, and linked with her destiny.
The Church of the living Cod in its various de-
partments holds within its sacred folds their citi
zens, young and old, as well as ours, and calls
them by the same sweet name OF brethren. They
are neither aliens foreigners. We can not
call them such; we dare not, unless we would blot
out the bright and glorious past, and swear to
hate instead of love. What would the gray haired
Northern sires of 1872 say, who We'd in generous
rivalry with Southern comrades in arms, at n ew
Orleans, and the various battlefelds of that war;
who witnessed the sacrifice of Southern blood at
the River Raisin, in defense of Northern homes
and Northern firesidesy What would the more
youthful yet not less gallant soldiers of le47 say,
who stood hand to hand and shoulder to shoulder
with the men of the South at Buena Vista, at
Molino del Rev. and on the plains of Mexico?
hear their answer coming from the soldiers hen
est heart, "They are yet our brethren, friends
and our old companions" And, sir, if no such
answer comes from them, nor from any other man
in the North, will call and love them as such,
and work for peace and the restoration OF frater-
nal feeling Our brethren they are, and such, if
we meet the South in the spirit of compromise,
they must remain forever.
But perhaps you will say that it matters not
what they have been, nor what they are, as they
have seeded, they must be coerced. Coercion is
an expressive, positive word. 1t is not word
for men to use who love the piping times of peace
1t comprehends means and appliances of no or
binary character. Leaden bullets, propelled from
muskets rifles and Colts revolvers, the winged
messengers of death, are some of these; cannon
balls and shells, moving down their fifties and
their hundreds, at every opening of their huge
threats are also coercive instruments. The sword,
the sabre the bayonet and the knife play no mean
part. You are no longer then, on the peace es-
adjustment. You must have standing armies to
be fed, clothed and quartered among you; navies
to be built, manned and equipped at your ex-
pense; forced loans, forced levies grinding taxa
| ton eating up the substance of our people. Sir,
the means and appliances of coercion are war
like they are bloody, they are brutal, they are
hellish. May God, in his infinite mercy, save us,
our wives and our children from the application
of coercve' meansl
What do the coercionists and the mastery mac
tvty men answer when these realities are brought
home to them? "Even if these things are so, vet
the North must triumph in the end. She has the
greater wealth, the greater population. the pre-
ponderance of bone ond sinew." Ii may be so;
it may be so, yet the battle is not always to the
strong, it Is to the vigilant, the active and the
brave. The men of the South have mettle in
them; they not imbecile, they are not Mexi-
cans, they are not towards, they will fight with n
courage and desperation worthy better cause,
until the bitter end. The North may con-
quer them perhaps she will, but the task will
not be easy nor the end speedy one. The
education, the habits, the pursuits in life the
very institutions OF the South, peculiarly fit
them for a military life. | am stating nothing
new 1t is n truth uttered eighty six years ago,
in the presence of cOercionists and mastery
inactivity men in the British Parliament Par
don me if | trespass upon your time by reld-
ing from the magnificent sentences of Edward
Burke:
There is circumstance attending the South
ern colonies which makes the spirit of liberty still
more high and naughty than in those to the north
ward. 1t is that in Virginia and the Clrolinas
they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where