The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1864-03-25
the people at large after their passions had
become excited by actual war. salqu' az

UtCOih6 tAcltcu ny acIuht war. 'tI"'t-
told you then that I did not consider
secession constitutional OF reserved Tigh
of the States, but an act of revolution
but a'revolntion by organized commune
ties--not rebellion in the modern sense
the revolt Of people. I told you, also
that, in my Judgment, Cancellation, and
the removal of real or apprehended grie
vauces or dangers, and not coercion by
arms, was in such crisis, the true policy
of the statesman and that the trainers oil
the Constitution had wisely left such state
Of affairs without any provision as one. Of
those ''hortal feuds" which, in the Ian.
guage of Hamilton, "wben they happen
commonly amount to revolutions and dis.
emberments of empire" | admitted
that secession was breach of the COM
pact by which the Federal Government
was established, and that it rested with
the United States to determine whether
they would or could, by war, compel the
seeding States to repair the breach, or
whether the act by which they severed
their political relations with us should be
assented to, and peaceful separation
permitted, in the hope that the past mem
cries and the ties of blood and marriage,
with continued commercial intercourse,
might in few years restore those seven
States to the Union; similar influences
having at the origin of the Government
induced North Carolina and Rhode Island,
after a years delay, to become members
of the Union, though the former had,
in the first instance, rejected the Consti.
tuition, and the latter had refused to be
represented in the Convention. may be
pardoned here for quoting short extract
from speech l made on the Condition
of the country" in March, 1861, as illus
trative of my opinions before the sword
had been drawn: .....
-f"You may attempt by war to keep the
States united--to restore the Union but
the attempt will be futile. Cancellation
and concession may reunite us; war, ney-
err hepower may be exercised for the
purpose of punishment and vengeance
1t may be exercised if you propose to con-
quer the seeding States, and reduce the
nation into consolidated nation; but il
your intention be to maintain the Govern
ment which your ancestors founded-that
is, common Government over separate,
independent communities--war can never
effect such an intention" / preferred then
peaceful separation to civil war as the lesser
evil, but the Administration and the domi-
nant party have decided to resort to
an enforcement of the laws by the coercion
of arms, as against an insurrection. Civil
war has since ragged, and its events and
consequences have strengthened my con-
vietions that the prosperity ofmy country
and the happiness and morals of the peo-
pie cannot be promoted by its continuance.
TO those views an overwhelming majority
of Congress is opposed; and, SO far as the
elections of the past year can be accepted
as evidence of public sentiment, that ma
jority is sustained by tho people 1t is
true that new questions have arisen in the
progress of war as to its mode of conduct
and object, and have produced conflict of
opinion among the people. Bat on the
question Of peace-even by temporary
separation if essential--the Democratic
party with which / have been connected is
divided, and many of,its leading and most
influential adherents indulge in the Wis
ionary idea that common Government,
based on "the consent of the governed, -
over seperate political communities, with
diversified habits, manners, customs, aud
institutions, can be restored and maintain
ed by the sword, without the abandonment
OF a Federal and its conversion into an i'm
partial and centralized Government. So
thought not the President of the United
States or the Secretary of State on the
10th of April, 1861, before the war had
begun, and to my mind such an idea is a
delusion and mere chimera. have also
fixed the opinion and believe that the life
OF nation depends upon the preserva-
ton of its Liberties, and not upon the
extent of its dominion. ts...l e.s
Standing, therefore, almost alone in
this body, have lost the hope that can
longer be of service to my country or State.
Never an ambitious man, the passion of
ambition has with the advance of life so
diminished that l prefer the repose of pri-
vate life to the imbittered contests of the
political arena in these tempestuuus times.
have lived to see the elective fran
chise trodder. under foot in my native
State by the iron heel of the soldier, and
Order No. 55,' not the people of Della
ware, represented in one Hall of Congress.
I have lived to see her citizens torn from
their homes and separated from their fam
lilies on the warrant of seif.styled detec-
tive, without any charge expressed on its
face, and without any known accuser; and
then, without hearing or trial, these citi-
zens ,banished from their State, beyond
the protection of the laws, into State in
which the laws of the Unised States are
now neither enforced, nor enforceable. -
Yet in the State of Delaware the Courts
have been always open, and at no period
has there existed the semblance of con-
spiracy or combination to resist the au-
tbority Of the United States. Such an
alieoa ton is n gross calumnv and utterlvs