Year: 1861

avocation, six months in the year, for eigh.
teen years, to walk into that marble build.
ing and from it's portico to survey a country
at the north and that lying south of the
Potamac. 1 believe may with confidence
appeal to the people of every section of the
country to bear testimony that 1 have been
as thoroughly national as any man that has
lived in my day. Applause. And !
believe if should make an appeal to the
people of Illinois, or of the Northern States.
to their impartial verdict, they would say
that whatever errors have committed have
beep in leaning too far to the Southern secI
tion of the Union against my own. APT
plause.1 think l can appeal to friend and
foe-I use it in political sense, and | trust
I use the word foe in past sense. Much
applause. can appeal to them with
confidence 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 acquiesce in any warfare whatever, upon
the constitutional rights or domestic insti-
tutions Of the people OF the Southern States.
[Applause.1 On the contrary, if there il
an attempt to invade those rights TO stif
up servile insurrection among their people,
1 would rush to their rescue, and interpose
with whatever of strength l might posses
to defend them from such calamity. APP
plause.1 While 1 will never invade them ;
while will never fail to defend and protect
their rights to the full extent that fair and
liberal construction of the Constitution can
give them, they must distinctly understand
I will never acquiesce in this invasion OF
our constitutional rights.


1t is crime against the inalianable and
indefeasible right of every American citi-
zen to attempt to destroy the government
under which we were born. 1t is a crime
against constitutional freedom throughout
the wide world to attempt to blot out the
United States fran the mapof Christendom.
Yet this attempt is now being made. The
government of our fathers is to be over
thrown and destroyed. The capital that
bears the name of the Father of his C0un-
try is to be bombarded and leveled 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 authori-
ties, placed there by the same high authori-
ty that placed Washington, and Jefferson,
and Madison, and Jackson in the chair, are
to be captured and carried of, to become q
byword and scorn to the nations of the
world. Never! NeverI


You may think that l am drawing a
picture that is overwrought, and not de-
scribing 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 revolu.
tion surrounding the capital now, and
threatening it with its tremors. Not only
is this constitutional government to be
stricken down; not only is our flag to be
blotted out, but the very foundations of So
cial order are to be undermined and de-
stroyed the demon of destruction is to be
let loose over the face of the land, reign
of terror and mob law is to prevail in each
section of the Union, and the man who
dares to plead for the cause of justice and
moderation in either section, is to be marked
down as traitor to his section. If this
state of things is allowed to 60 Oh, how
long before you will have the guillotine in
active operation?


Iappeal l 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 great iniquity to lead you into rash, and
cruel, and desperate acts upon those who
may differ with you in opinion. Let the
spirit of moderation and Of justice prevail.
You cannot expect within so few weeks
after an excited political canvass that every
man can rise to the level of forgetting his
partisan prejudices and sacrifice everything
upon the altar of his country; but allow me
to say to you whom l have opposed and
warred against with an energy you will re-
spect, 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
miseries of your country. Much applause
When calling upon Democrats to rally to
the tented field, leaving wife, child, father
and mother behind them, to ,rash to the
rescue of the President you have elected, do
not make war upon them and try to manu.
tacture partisan capital out Of a struggle in
which they are engaged from the holiest and
purest of motives. Renewed applause.


Then Iappeal to you, my own Democratic
friends-those men that have never failed to
rally under the glorious banner of the coun-
try, whenever an enemy at home or abroad
has dared to assail ito you who believe
to be the purest patriots that ever lived-do
not allow the modification, growing out of
a defeat in partisan struggle, and the ele-
walton Of party to power that we firmly
believed to be dangerous to the country
do not let that convert you from patriots
into traitors to your native land. Long
continued applause. Whenever our gov
ernment is assailed- when hostile armies are
marching under rude and odious banners
against the government of our country, the
shortest way to peace is the most stupendous