Year: 1862

On the State of the Union,


In the House Of Representatives, Nay 16, 1862


Mr.. Chairman. 1 have hitherto avoid


ed troubling this House. Content to b


listener, without any other participa


tion in its proceedings than to oppose my


solemn individual negative against measure


which my conscience and my principle


would not approve, have said nothing
Indeed. sir. have not had the heart to rise
here and speak. A glance a this Hall. oil
itself has been enough to prevent. When
/ look around and see one third of the
Union unrepresented here, and find myself
in body, purporting to be one branch of
the Congress of the United States, really in
fact but fragmentary part of it. my heart
sinks within me. 1t appears to be a sec
tional body-a gathering of the representa-
t;ves of sectional party. With these feel
inss. and with this spirit, have until now
avoided participating in debate.


Besides, sir, during the earlier period of
this session, disaster had accompanied the
efforts of the Federal arms; l felt that the
hour of defeat was not a fit one in which 10
strive to awaken the great soul of the North
to thoughts of peace; felt that something
was due to the sense of modification. some
thing tn the natural desire to retrieve the
shame of discontinue. ! hoped, too, that
when victory should perch upon our ban
Ders, others than myself would seize the
occasion TO urge plea in behalf OF peace
able measures; and that this Government
Itself, feeling secure and strong enough to
be magnanimous, would take the lead and
he the pioneer in orening path for the set
Element of our difficulties without further
recourse to blooished. I even hoped that
the leaders of the now domirant party,
IL.
ted our country, would releut from the stern
rigor af their doctrines of subingation and,
in the flush Of triumph, would lean little
towards a gentler policy than that which
they have heretofore champoned with
much zeal and with 50 little forbearance.


hoped in vain. The triumph came; a
long train Of successes has relieved the
North from its humiliation. The Govern
ment claims row 10 stand as rock against
which the tempest OF opposition must waste
itself in futile efforts The partiSans Of
the ultra war party laugh to scorn the idea
that any effectual resistance can be offered
10 the onward march of our triHGl phant ar
mics. and yet no single effort has been made
in these congressional Halls to stay the ef-
fusion of blood. 1t has been left for me,
powerless l am, to speak the first concil-
iatore word in behalf of my countrymen.



more capable, will not be too much engross
ed with th e lust of conquest and the pride
Of victory, to follow mp my example.


Sir, it is an in ineffAceable reproach to
those either deluded or wick ed men who,
in the North, by unwearied agitation Of alb
oltion schemes, have stirred the embers Of
this strife; it is an eternal reproach to them
that. through defeat and victory, through
out every phase of this unhappy struggle.
with the nroans Of their distressed and tor
tured country smitng upon their ears. they
have clung, and still cling. with Implying
pertinacity, and even with ferocity, to the
doctrine which has been the germ of all the |
mischief With the first exultng shouts o.
Federal victories they set up the ecboing
crv of EN- Emancipation. With all the energy (
of fanaticism with all the subtitle arts and
intrigues of scheming dem agogues. with all
the appliances of cunning. intellect, and .
patronage at their command, even nt this
eventful crisis, when every American brain
should be at work to bring about a fair and
honorable peace, they have no thought. no .
hope, no duty but to propagate their creed, !
extending its influence into every mock and
corner of the land, and poisoning the at
mosphere of these sacred Halls with its IL
terminable discussion. Openly and in Sc
cret. by the agency of the press, the pulpit,
and tb e political rostrum, in the camp In the
city, and in the open field, they are spread
ing the contagion; they are innoculating
the country with this moral pestlence which
has already brought Us where we are, to the
very brink of the grave of our nationality.


Sir to these apostles of abolitionism will be
traced hereafter whatevero Of evil has befallen
or may befall our country. They are bull
ding its sepulchre with the bones of their
slaughere countrymen. l do believe there
are gentlemen within my vision now, whose
sworn purpose, whose first desire, paramount
even to the preservation of Republicanism,
is emancipation. They and their disciples
first threw the apple of discord. They first
applied the torch, and are now more busy
than ever with throwing fresh fuel to the
fame. Should history ever trace-which |
God forbid-the record of this country's
ruin, that page will seem the strangest to
those that read which shall tell of the
madness and wick ednes5 of the arch -fanat-
les of abolitionsm. In the dark recesses OF
the temple of infamv, the gloom;est inches
will bear the inscription of their names


Sir, counsel mono but moral inter- |