The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-03-11
FOR UNION AND PEACE.
The Address Delivered by EIr. Thomas F.
Bayard ut the Dover Peace Convention
I'm 1861.

Delaware Peace Convention held al
Dover on June 81, 1861, and concerning
the tenor of which some recent contro.
versy has arisen:
My FelloU Countrymen: By no narrow
party name, in no narrow partisan spirit
do 1 address you, but as an assemblage Of
American freemen do / congratulate you
upon your meeting this day.
Important as are the issues we are here
met to consider, one result is accomplished
most gratifying to all fair minded men
which we cannot pass by without notice.
1 mean the right of meeting unre-
strained and of free unrestricted discus
sion by free men of their government
aud the policy and measures of those in
to whose hands it has temporarily been
entrusted. 1t is we'll known to us all
that reign of terror was sought to be
inaugurated in this State, as it has been
throughout the entire North, and for this
purpose troops, not of our state, were en-
camped upon our peaceful soil at the in
stance of those politicians among us
whose insolence and expressions are linn
tied only by their fear and ability to do
mischief. To-day we stand here in the
spirit of freedom, to vindicate our priyi-
lege and perform our duty as citizens
despite the reiterated threats of profit
gate and lawless press of neigboring states
upon the North echoed by papers in
this State equally shameless and corrupt.
It is known to us all that personal intim-
idation has been applied to each man
present to deter him from coming here
to-day-that many worthy but timid men
have been affected by such miserable
means is not to be denied-the best an
swer to these hounds of the mob who
sought to prevent lawful meeting call
ed in the sacred name of our country's
peace is the assemblage now before me.
Never in this State has it been exceed
ed in number and respectability. We
have, it is true, no high judicial officer
10 leave the bench and take part in the
exciting scenes of politics-we have no
delegation of persons from the city of
Philadelphia-but we have the substan-
tial citizens of Delaware with as great
stake in her fair name and prosperi-
ty as any others within her borders.
In times of danger and distress like the
present, the country needs most the intel
Iigent aid of her best citizens; and now,
if ever, should they give her the best ef-
forts as their heads and hearts, unde-
tered by the wild passions and frenzied
violence which has swept over the North
ern States like q whirlwind. The ques-
ton for every good man now to ask is,
"My country, what can l do to restore
your peace and happiness?" The past
and its lessons should not be lost upon
us, but to inquire now into the origin
of the cause or causes of our troubles
would not be within the scope of these
remarks nor useful at the present time.
The practical question before US forbids
mere speculations-but stares US in the
face, q hard, stern fact.
Eleven states have withdrawn from
the Federal Union with solemn and de-
liberate action and have reunited in
new government. They have made decla-
ration of independence of the govern.
ment under which we live, and expressed
their determination to maintain it at
every cost. With this secession, or rev.
olution, or rebellion, or by whatever
name it may be called, the State of Della
ware has had nothing to do. To our
constitutional duties toward each and
every member of the Union we have
been faithful in all times. Never, never,
has thought, word, an act of our fathers
in letter and in spirit it has been faith
fully kept by us.
But the stern fact is still before us and
but two alternatives present themselves.
Shall We make war upon, and subjugate
this new con iederacy, or shall we peace
fully treat with them and consent to their
self government-t trusting to time, which
is the great healer of all wrongs and pas
sions, to bring them again, voluntarily
into a common government with us?
Take the proposition of war-ofhorrid
civil war, my countrymen! Grant to the
Northern arms complete success-sup-
pose that every Southern city is reduced
to ghastly ruin, every peaceful Southern
home desolated, and every Southern
man slain or made captive. This is the ev-
ident, complete realization of that dream
of conquest so horribly satisfactory to
those men who control the Northern press.
But what then? Will union of slaves
and the possession of desert satisfy you2
You do not and cannot expect love and
aid in time of your necessities from those
States you have so cruelty subdued. 1t
is too plain therefore that your success in
such war would be the most fatal injury
to yourselves. And issuch a war neces-
sary for the peace and happiness of the
United States? For half century we
have lived at peace with Great Britain,
with her Canadian possessions upon our
northern border. Upon the south, Mexi-
co holds her government, with no threats
of trouble to Us or our citizens. Why
then may not two American confederacies
exist side by side without conhict-each
emulating the otherin the progress of civ
ilization?
The co-terminous kingdoms of Europe
offer many examples of similar peace and
prosperity.
With such n sickening alternative as
civil war, why should not the experiment,
at least, be made? 1t is this question we
are to pass upon to-day.
believe with the late Senator Douglass
who has already been quoted to-day, that
"war is disunion, certain, final, inecita6le, !"
and, so believing, | oppose it.
believe solemnly, that the war in
augurated by Abraham Lincoln and his
Cabinet is worse than fruitlcss-that it
will prove more disastrous to the North
than to the South and will never accom-
plish its professed objects. Already it
has driven out of our Union four states,
while others stand in doubt. When l
take up the public papers and see the
markets of the world disordered and de-
pressd by the mere apprehension of this
war-when / turn to our own business
circles and see men of wealth reduced to
povity, our merchants bankruPted, our
mechanics and laboring men theatened
with absolute starvation, l would fpin
hide my face in grief. But confronting
this wide scene of human distress, | sadly
seek to find relief from it. If war, or the
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