Year: 1863

est man in the community, that after all b,


might save his property. and have some en-
| joyment of it hereafter, or be released from


the trials and hardships of war, and allowed
| to devote himself to the welfare of mis- family


making their daily bread, and sending then
| forth with prospects of respectable though
| humble life, by compromise with the North,
and return to the Union-we pray him tc
| dismiss 1t at once. When the Arch Fiend as
sumed the shape of toad in the Garden Of
Eden, and sat whispering in the ear of Eve
during her feverish slumber, he never suggest
ed more devilish temptation. tits the coun.
sci of moral and political death.


If we thought that even n ow the interests O.
our people would be promoted by submission
or compromise and reunion we would not ad
wise against it. We would dread to stand
perhaps very soon, in the presence of the
Judge of all the Earth, with the fearful crime
upon our head of having falsifed our convic-
tons of right and humanity, and advised oui
countrymen to a course fraught with carnage
and death, when the way IF peace lay open
before US. In view of this heavy responsible
ty, and praying to be judged at the last day as
we are now sincere, We again say to our coun.
trymen: dismiss every thought of peace by
submission or reconstruction of the Union
There is nothing before you in that way, bu,
ruin and humiliation.


Are you rich? Then do you not know tha,
L.. 4 - Al.


paid, and even should the enemy spare your
property at present, the grace would be delu-
sive? She can never pay the debt out of her
natural resources. She would look upon the
rebellion" as she might then Justly term it,
as the occasion of the debt. The rebels would
be hateful and odious, as unfuccessful disturb
ers of all governments are. The North would
have large majority and be the dominant
power in the government. The planters, slave
holders, and freeholder. of the South would
finally be compelled to pay the debt.


That itself would be ruin; inevitable aud ir-
retrievable. For they could expect no sympa-
thising legislation to enable them to recover
from their depression. They W., ud become
ahject dependents upon people and govern
ment who have the malignity to late the
meanness to insult, and none of the magnanim-
ity to forgive.


Are you poor? What then? Are you will
ing to remain so, and shut yourselves out from
all honorable paths of ambition: You are a
freemanl You have been used to hold your
head proudly erect as peer with the highest.
you have been accustomed to see your fellows
around you rising by industry in tho social
scale step by step to the highest rounds of the
ladder. You have congratulated yourself that
you lived in country where this was possible
to all. You have looked upon your children
around your humble hearth, and if you hav"
the true fathers heart. have thought it posi-
BILE to them, and your wife n t her loom or her
needle has INDUCED such visions even more
than you. She has read it i" the possibilities
of fate, and rightly too, that those little boys
around her may come in time to be the owners
of thousands-may 81 I in the halls of legisla-
tion-may be ornaments of The forum, and the
pulpit, or the bench, and be mighty men in
the land. And, in this dreamy view of tn.
possible future, her humble tolls have assumed
a glory in her eyes, and she has felt already
the lofty pride of the mother of the Grschi.-
Would you live in a country where these things
were not possible. Know, then, that they will
be never possible in q Union forced upon us by
the calamities of war. These things make
Freedom. They are incompatible with = CON-
pulsory Union. We may expect nothing here
after but hate and oppression. The whole
legislation Of such a reconstructed government
would be directed to our robbery. They
would have the power, and il one of our Rep
resentative., humbly sitting in their midst
should dare to remonstfatc, he would be mel
with the withering taunt, that the South would
be compelled to submit, or be whipped into il
again. No government patronage would eveI
be extended TO us. The foreign wars which
the present complications make necessary
hereafter to the North. would draw it's force by
drafts from the South Again families mus
he abandoned, and homes neglected again -
THERE'S nothing in the prospect that way but
ruin, and n domination which would crush ou
of our heart. and the hearts of our children
all lofty aspirations. Do you think they would
not. dare that treatment! They dared it be
fore. Their truculent insolence dares any
thing. Do you think you could rebel! II you
could rise with their feet upon your necks
rise now in all your force, whilst you stand OF
equal ground with arms in your hands. Bu
you mistake. This effort At freedom, il un
successful, is the last for generations.


Rich and poor, men Of ail conditions in thu
South, bond and free, Reconstruction or sub
jugation is your destruction. There is bu
one path to honorable peace. 1t is indepen
dence. If that fails, there are alternatives
far preferable to reconstruction. May th'
time never come to discuss them. 1t will not
if We remain true and bear ourselves as men


70 We have carefully read and di
gested the Northern papers which have
been furnished US by our friends. 1t i.
very difficult to elicit truth out of such Z
melange of lies. We have done the bes