Year: 1861

thereof; and those States which choose,
may peaceably fio of to whatever new af-
finities may attract them" But look at our
plains, our mountains, our rivers our seas,
and say how long would such peace last.
And lastly we can have peace by standing
on the Constitution land the laws of our
faIhers) as il was, is, and shall be, and max
lug others do the same-a peace which will
secure us safety at home, and respect abroad
"a peace which will continue the grandest
development Of civilization which the world
has ever seen; and which, trust the Prov
idence Of God designs shall be heightened
out into far centuries, when the sword shall
be turned into the pruning hook, and the
lion and the lamb shall lie down together
forever!


But suppose the time has come when the
justice of God shall be no longer withheld,
and the madness of Slavery shall seek out
IFS own destruction by dissolution of the
Union--peaceable or forcible-what then
Shall We give up all as lost? Not at all.
God rules still. If the cotton States 90,
they go to ruin sooner or later The grain
growing States may stand by us, give up
their slaves, double at once their whole prop
erty by the advance Of real estate, by i'm
migration and capital from the free States
and foreign nations; Or if they prefer, keep
their slaves with the same, suhjecting their
system 10 our economical laws, and advan-
cling civilization, till such time as we shall
become homogeneous nation, and all will
still be we'll But if double madness and
folly shall send them off with the cotton
States, still would the Federal Union stand,
with twenty millions of free hearts and free
hands to defend it at home and abroad safe
y against n world in arms.


ln such case we would seek by friendly
negotiation with England, the union of the
Canadas, which W. uld more than compen-
safe us for the loss of the South, and in turn
we would stand the ally of England in her
contests with foreign despotisms; and the
two carry on the progress and civilization
of the nations in that union of sympathy,
and race and freedom, which Slavery only
now forbds. l have thus hurriedly, my
friend, given you my thoughts as they arise,
without fear or concealment Some have
said that | ought to be silent.


Having just recovered, partly, from along
period pecuniary embarrassment, brought
on by my devotion to politics-with a fam
lily which now especially demands all my
care-with prospects of place, perhaps,
which, for quarter of century my princi-
pies have made impossihlc--I am invoked
in the language of prudence to be silent.
Standing in the vanguard of great and
dangerous movement, am told that lead
ers of revolutions rarely survive them. /
may fall by the hand of violence-may be
driven into exile, and suffer p )verty and die
in obscurity. What shall l say? What
shall l do? l listen-I hear the voice Of
conscience-the voice of God--of the great
dead: "The man dies, but his memory
lives" "Give me liberty or give me
DEATH"


Well, then, I think old Ben. Wade's
speech in the Senate is the true ground
Let us stand with and by him to the end
"The Constitution, tho Union and the laws
they must be preserved" With old
John Adams, "living or dying, 1 stand by
the declaration"


Your friend, G. M. CLAY.