The southern aegis. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1857-1862, 1861-12-14
VOL. VINO. 40.

entirety; they hoped, they believed, they trusted
they perfected the work and committed it to you
to your justice your forbearance, your generosity
one toward another. This was all that had bound
them. it was all they desired should bind you,
and it was also the only bond that could possibly
keep you in union For what is union? Union
is the coming AMI holding together of things of
their own free will and accord, consents its most
accessory basis, its essential element, without
which it can have no existence. for compusion
and union are utterly incompatible and cannot
exist together. When one thing compes anoth-
er, that instant union ceases; it is subjecion the
essence is changed And knowing this, your
fathers hoped but they also feared. Why else the
emphatic words of him whom you delight in es
pecial to call Father, warning you against sec
tional disputes, sectional differences, sectional
quarrels? Did he d, EN- it so just and honorable
and holy thing, that States should compel
States and sections? No clearly this thought
had no place in the great mind of your Washing
ton. He knew well that in the hour when one
State should he compelled and driven in by the
sword union for her wonld have ceased that she
must sit, the badge of servtude upon her, slave
among her dishonored sisters; dshonored, since
they had dared to subjugnt, her. Bgt II may be
said, granting that these things so, the South
is utterly in fault; we have kept faithfully, in
deed and in word, our part of the compact. Adj
hitting that this were so in the fullest verify,
that the South, without shadow of extenuatiOn
| and excuse, had broken the compact, dishonoring
herself, it would give us no right to hold her by
force. One great wrong never yet sanctifed
greater. If mans friend insults and wrongs
him, does he mend the matter by stabbing him to
the heart? Does he not rather lay up for himself
lifetime of regret and sorrow? But let US think
Il little. Are we sure we are completely free from
blame that VIC have never in word nor in deed
offended against the solemn contract of our faith
ers? Have we freely accorded to the South ter
| ritorial rights and chances equal to our own,
which she claims, because, as she says, it was so
agreed in the compact, and moreover her blood
and treasure were expended with ours in acquir-
ing this common territory! And we know that
fortyiive thousand soldiers of this poor and weak
South fought beside twenty-five thousand of ours
in the Mexican war. Have we obeyed the warn
ing of the Father of his Country and avoided
sectional quarrels? Have we not on the other
hand, made sectional issue with her, and de-
teated her on it? And even if we did not, in
aught, violate the compact by letter. I'VE violated
it in spirit, from the moment the cause of the ne
gro, for good or for evil became dearer to US than
peace and fraternal love toward our brothers Of
the South. What son desires to abide in the
house of his father when he is the object of con-
slant reproaches, and his presence matter Of
federation? Does he not wish to 60 forth and
Steh us lOI Sloc"uCiCj anu uo'S OH tbO Wv
theirs and all the sisters any right to hold him,
when he has determined to go? 1t is attempted
to be proved that your fathers sanctioned what is
called putting down rebellion; but what in their
view constituted rebellion? Resistance to known
law by members ofprivate individuals, or an at
tempt to subvert the whole government by the
people of States while in the Union, not the de-
cree of a State declaring her departure from the
Union, announced in svlemn convention of her
people. No such case ever occurred, and no pro-
vision of force was ever made to fit it, if it should
However, | want no man to take my definition
of that wonderful and most just scheme of-gov-
nment-unapproached since the world began
which your fathers conceived; but surely at this
time it behooves every man to think we'll and de-
termine for himself; to search and scan closely
what manner of temple it was his fathers planned
and built, and whether they dedicated it to Or
der, to Law, to Justice, and to Liberty, or de-
signed it to be the abode of tyranny, of subjugav
ton, and of fratricidal strife. 1t is the duty Of
each to ponder it I'd the calmness Of his Utmost
soul-anger and passion being put far away and
60 ha h.; fofh io intal