Year: 1861

into that marble building and from its porticC


TO survey the country at the north, and that
! lying south of the Potomac | believe | may


with confidence appeal to the people of every


section Of the country to bear testimony thai


| have been as thoroughly national as any


man that has lived in my day. Applause.


And | believe if should make an appeal tc


the people of Illinois, or of the Northern


States, to their impartial verdict they would
| say that whatever errors | bad committed


had been in leaning too far to the Southern


section of the Union against my own. APP


plause think / can appeal to friend and


foe-I use it in a political sense, and trust


use the word foe in a past sense, Much


applause can appeal to them with con
| 6dence, that | have never pandered to the


prejudice or passion of my section against


the minority section of this Union, and | will
say to you now, with all frankness and in all
! sincerity, that | will never sanction nor ac-


quiesce in any warefare whatever upon the
| constitutional rights or domestic institutions
of the people of the Southern States. APP
plause. On the contrary, if there was an
attempt to invade those rights-to stir up
servile instruction among their people, |


would rush to their rescue, and interpose
with whatever Of strength might possess 10
DEF nj them ON such nifty. Applause
While | viii never invade them, while will
never fail TO defend and protect their rights
to the full extent that fair and liberal con-
struction of the Constitution can give them,
they must distinctly understand will never
acquiesce in their invasion of our consttu-
tional rights.


/ 1t is crime against the inalenable and in =
defeasiJle right of every American citizen to
attempt to destroy the Government under
which we were born. 1t is crime against
constitutional freedom and the hopes Of the
friends of freedom throughout the wide world
to attempt to blot out the United States from
the map Of Christrnlom. Yet this attempt
is now being made. The Government of our
fathers is to be overthrown and destroyed.
The Capital that bears the name of the Fa-
ther of his Country is to be bombarded and
ieveled to the earth among the rubbish and
the dust OF things that are past. The records
of your Government are to be scattered to
the four winds of heaven. The constituted
authorities placed there 10y the same high
authority that placed Washington, and Jcf
ferson, and Madison, and Jackson in the
chair, are to be captured and carried off, to
become byword and a scorn to the nations
Of the world. Never! never!


You may think that | am drawing a pic
uuic lIdL 10 w Cl MlbuGiilJ uHu IOJ utScl NY
fact No man who spent the last week in
the city of Washington will believe that |
have done Justice to it, You have all the
elements OF the French Revolution surround
ing the Capital now, and threatening it with
its tcrrors Not only is its constitutional
Government TO be stricken down; not only
Is ouI flag to be blotted out but the very
foundations of social order are to be undcr>
mined and destroyed; the demon of dcstruc-
tion is TO be let loose over the face of the
land, a reign of terror and mob law is to pre-
vail in each section of the Union, and the
man who dares TO plead for the cause Of JUS
tice and moderation, in either section, is TO
be marked down as a traitor to his section.
If this state Of things is allowed TO 90 on,
how long before you will have the guiIlotine
IN active operation?


appeal to you, my countrymen-men of
all parties-not to allow your passions to get
the better Of Your judgments. DO not allow
your vengeance upon the authors of this
greet iniquity to lead you into rash and cruel
and desperate acts upon those who may diff
fer with You in opinion. Let the spirit Of
moderation and of justice prevail. You can
not expect within SO few weeks after an eX-
cited political canvass that every man can
rise to the level of forgetting his partisan
Ilt utllCC anu Stttl IlItt tNt lllllS ulOH lllc
altar of his country, but allow me to say 10
you whom have opposed with an energy
you will respect allow me to say TO you, you
will not be true to your country if you ever
attempt to manufacture partisan capital out
of the miserics of your country. Much Op-
plause. When calling upon Democrats to
rally to the tented field, leaving wife, child,
fether and mother behind them to rush TO the
rescue of the President that you elected, do
not make war upon them and try to nan
ufacture partisan capital ont OF q struggle in
which they are engaged from the holiest and
purest motives Renewed applause,


Then | appeal to you, my own Democratic
friends--those men that have never failed to
rally under the glorious banner of the coun-
try, whenever au enemy at home or abroad
has dared to assail ito you whom believe
to be the purest patriots that ever lived-do
not allow the modification growing out of
defeat in partisan struggle, and the eleva-
tion of a party TO power that we firmly be-
lieyed to be dangerous to the ecountry-do not
let that convert you from patriots into trail
toJs to your native land. Long continued
applause. Whenever our Government is as
sailel-When hostile armies are marching
under new and odious banners against the
Government of our country, the shortest way
to peace is the most stupendOus and unani-
nous preparations for war; Tremendous
applacse The greater the unanimity the
less blood will be shed. Much applause.
The more prompt and energetic the move
ment, and the more important it is in num-
bers, the shorter will be the struggle.


Every friend of freedom; every champion
and advocate of constitutional liberty thro'
out the land must feel that this cause is his
own, and that there is and should be nothing
that ought to be disagreeable or humiliating
to men who have differed in times of peace on
every question that could divide fellow men,
to rally in union in defense of the country
and against all assailants. While all the
States of this Union and every citizen of
every State has priceless legacy dependent
upon the success of our efforts to maintain
this Government, we, in the great valley of
the Mississippi, have peculiar interests and
inducements in the struggle. What is the
attempt now being made? Seven States of
this Union choose to declare that they will
no longer obey the behest of the United
States, that they will withdraw from the
Government established by our fathers; that
they will dissolve, without our consent, the
bonds that have united us together Butnot
content with that, they proceed to invade
and obstruct our dearestand most inalienable
rights, secured by the Constitution. One OF
their first acts is to establish battery of can
non upon the banks of the Mississippi on the
dividing line between the States of Missis-
sippi and Tennessee, and require every
steamer that passes down the river to come,to
under gun, to receive Custom House Off
Ger on board, to prescribe where the boat
may land and upon what terms it may put
out barrel of flour, or a cask of bacon-up-
on the river and upon the borders of these