Year: 1861

.onr peculiar system of domestic servitude. no
will they, but they admonish you in a spirit O
kindness that during this brief struggle, il
friends and advocates have been its worst enc
mics, and have furnished arguments against i
which will weaken the foundations when tb
denunciation of its most persistent antislavery
foes are forgotten forever. You arraign The
people of the free States for rallying arounc
the Government Of the Union of which few
months since you were members, and sustained
it yourselves, and which, at the time OF your
alleged secession, had experienced no change
beyond one of political Administration. on
rebuke those who stood with you, through good
and evil report, in defense OF the Constitution
and all its guarantees, in its dark days OF trial
when menaced only by opinion, Tor sustaining
it, now, when it is assalled by armed forces,
and insist that after having defended that sa-
cred instrument so long and so faithfully, they
are bonnd now TO assist in its overthrow "a
system of law. logic and morality peculiar to
disnnion ethics alone You repudiate the Con-
etitation with no sufficient cause of revolution,
for all the alleged causes of grievance as stated
were insufficient to Justify il. and proclaimed a
dissolution of the Union, deied and dshonored
its flag. and menaced the Government by de
nouncing actual war You seized by violence
its fortresses, armories, ships, mlnts, custom
houses navy yards, and other property, to which
you had not even a pretense Of right and
threatened to take possession of the National
Capital You bombarded Fort Sumter, fort
ress of the United States. garrisOned as a peace
establishment onv aud in Il state Of starvation
from batteries which the Government of the
United States 10 its extreme desire for peace
permitted you to erect tor that purpose, under
the guns of the same ratification, proceeding
unheard of bef re, and never 10 be repeated
hereafter-bombarde it, too, because the flag
of the Union which your fathers and yourselves
had fought under with us the battles of the
Constitution-a flag which a few days previ-
ously you mad hailed with pride-because the
stars and stripes, the joy Of every American
heart, f Il of glowing histories and lofty recol-
lectons, was floating over it according to the
custom of every nation and people under hea-
ven, was hateful in your sight The Athenans
were tired Of hearing their great leader call
ed the Just, and consigned him to bansh-
ment You were annoyed at the sight of the
noblest national emblem which floats under the
sun, when nnfurled, where by our consent and
for consideration too. the Government of the
United States held exclusive Jurisdiction, and





commenced war promising to be more fero-
cious aud eXterminaling throughout the Re
public than was the atrocous decree CT Herod
in single village Sumter was not erected
for the exclusive defense Of the harbor of Char
lesion, but for the purpose Of preventing a
foreign enemy from making a Judgement there.
and from that point levying successful maritime
war upon New York, Boston, Philadelphia.
R,ltirnOra Nau Orlanpc or1 NJ hor fourus 1
cities. Aud the unfriendly relations which
sprung up between the Southern States and
the Government of the Union made its reten-
ton and occupation more necessary than be
fore.


You will not consent that the General Gov
ernment the Government of the whole people
should march forces over the sacred soil of a
State of the Confederacy, to maintain its own
dignity and authority to check rebellion and
save the capital from conhagration and Its
archives from destruction but You should
stand admonlshed that there is no soil snlfi-
cently sacred under the broad ;egis OF the Con
sttuton, TO shelter armed rebellion or secret
treason and that the Government of the United
States has not only full right and lawful au-
thority to march its forces over every inch of
territory between the st. Lawrence and the
Pacific to stop the progress of enemies, foreign
or domestic; to put down rebellion, or to arrest
those who deSpoi lis property or resist the eX-
ecutiou Of lis laws but that it Is its first and
most solemn duty to do so. Should the Cen
eral Government enter a State for the purpose
of Interference with its domestic policy. it would
he usurpatiOn and an unwarrantable invasion
a neglect TO employ its power TO enforce It's
constitutional prcrogative. would be a culpabe
disregard of official obligation. You purpose
to defend your home hearlhs, your iresides,
your porches, y0ur affairs, your wives and your
children. your household gods. and these re-
solves sound well indeed, even IN the abstract,
but practically the defense will be III time
when they are aSSailed, or at least threatened.
Aud YOU may rest with the assurance that
when either of these sacred and cherished ln-
teress shall be desecrated or placed in danger
or in jeopardy from any vaudal spitit upon the
globe you shall not defend them alone for an
army from the free States, mightier than that
which rose up to crush your rebellion, aye,
great multitude which no man can number,
will defend them for you. But the issue must
not be changed nor lrittered away. Sumter
was not your homehearth Pckens your fire
side, Harpers Ferry your porch, the Navy
IardS your atarS, the Custom Houses and
Post Offices and Rrvenue Cutters your wives
and children, nor the MINIS your household
gods The Government has no right to desc
crate your homes nor have you a right to seize
upon and appropriate to yourselves under any
name, however Specous, what is not your own,
but the property of the whole people of the
United States; not of those in array against
it as enemies, defying its laws, but those who
acknowledge aud defer TO its authority


You desire peace Then lay down your
arms and you will have it. 1t was peace
when you took them up it will be peace when
you lay them down. 1t will be peace when
you abandon war and return to your accus-
toned pursuits Honorable, enduring pacific
relations will be found in complete obedience
TO the provisions Of the Constitution, and not
IN its violation or destruction. The Govern
ment is sustained by the people not for the
purpose of coercing States in their domestic
policy nor for the purpose of crushing mem
bers of the Conederacy, because they fail to
conform 10 a Federal standard not for the
purpose of despolliug their people, and least of
all not for the purpose OF disturbing or in any
degree interfering with the system OF Southern
servitude but for the sole an only purpose of
putting down an unholv armed rebellion.
which has dehed the authority of Government
and seeks its destruction and in this their de-