The Shasta courier., 1861-03-30
Civil War-A Scene in the New York
Democratic Convention.

During the session of the late Democratic
State Convention of New York, series
of resolutions was adopted urging oompro-
mise of the national troubles, and opposing
coercion. As they were being read Cham
cellor Walworth appeared on the platform,
and his venerable looks claimed instant at
tentiou from the convention, and he was re-
ceiyed with an outburst of enthusiastic ap-
plause.-He said
g Gentlemen ofhc Contention: I am far
advanced in years and not in the habit of at
tending conventions of this character, but
could not resist coming here to enter my pro-
test against civil war. have seen the hor.
ror of such conflict. In the war of 1917
my house in Plattsburg was sacked by the
British. A battle was fought opposite my
very door, and the bullets that were fired tel
like hailstones around my dwelling. In the
easement of my door remains to this dag en-
bedded one of these bullets memento to
the fight. In that struggle saw my fellow
citizens shot down by my side. l knew, then
the horrors of foreign war, and they arc
nothing as compared to the horrors OF q olvl
war A civil war is war among brethren.
We are all brethren in this confederacy Of
States-the people of the South are oul
bretheren-not only nominally, but actually
our brethren.
In Georgia alone have the names of one
thousand citizens whose ancestors were the
near relatives of my own. In the same State
alsne are over one hundred relatives of the
family of Hillhouse, whose name is known
as that of one of the patriots of the revolu
i L., >,<,s
seat in our State Senate And so, scatter
ed over the Southern States are the near rel
atives of the men of the North, and perhaps
there is scarcely a member of this conven
tion who has not some such ties in the States
of the South, It would be as brutal, in my
opinion, to send men to butcher our owr
brothers of the Southern States as it would
be to massacre them in the Northern States
We are told, however, that it is our duty to-
and we must enforce the law. But why
and what laws are to be enforced? There
were laws that were to be enforced in the
time ofthe American revolution, and the Brit
ish Parliament and Lord North sent armies
here to enforce them. But what did Wash
ington say in regard to the enforcement OF
those laws? That man-honored at home
and abroad more than any other man ON
earth was ever honored-did he go for en-
forcing the laws No, he went to resist the
laws that were oppressive against free peo-
pie and against the injustice of which they
rebelled.-Did Lord Chatham go for enforc-
ing the laws? No, he gloried in the defen-
ces of the liberties of America. He made
the memorable declaration in the British
Parliament. If were an American citizen
instead of as am, an Englishman, never
would submit to such laws-never, never,
never ~
Such is the spirit that animates our South
ern brethren, and shall we war upon them
for it? No, we must avert civil war if poss-
ible, and close by exhorting my brethren
to do all in their power to avert civil war.
Concession, conciliation- thing but that
and no man among us in his dying hour
will regret that his conscience is clear, and
that he can lay his hand upon his heart and
say, " 4 did all in my power to turn from the
bosom of my coutry the horrible blows of a
civil war;