Year: 1863




[From the Newburport (Rep.) Herald, Sept l6, 1853.
slavery as the "Cause OF the wars


what - massachusetts Republicans


Paper says.


Mr.. Lincoln in his inaugural address used this
language in regard to slavery: fss-,e.ii 81.


81 do but quote from one of my speeches when
declare that have no purpose, directly or in
directly, to interfere with the institution of
slavery in the States where it exists. I believe
have no lawful right to do so, and have no in
clination to do so. Those who nominated and
elected me did so with full knowledge that had
made this and many similar declarations, and
have never recanted them.


81 now reterate these sentiments; and in doing
so / ohly press upon the public attention the
most conclusive evidence of which the case is
susceptible, that the property, peace and security
of no section are to be in anywise endangered by
the new incoming Administration I add, too,
that all the protection which, consistently With
the Constitution and laws. can be given, will be
cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully
demanded. for whatever cause-as cheerfully TO
one section as to another" nss.as 1850


Admitting slavery TO be the cause. then it
would still be question how far we could act on
it. Mr.. Lincoln said he had no right, or inclina-
ton. to interfere with it, This is the ground
that all statesmen have taken, from Washington
to Lincoln. There has been no difference OF
opinion here Each State has the right to regu
late its own domestic concerns, and no other
State has a right to dictate. Having abolished
African slavery ourselves, If the system be sin,
IL was not sin; for in one sense, these States
each other as foreign countries. We of
Massachusetts, have no right to question South
Carolina in relation to her domestic affairs, more
than we have France, or England; Russia, or
China SO it was arranged by our fathers; so it
was decided by the Constitution; so il writ
ten in the bend. We have not reached point
where any considerable number of people will
declare that the Constitution is not binding upon
US in lime of war; for how curious then would
be the spectacle of twenty four States fighting to
force the Constitution on eleven States, when
they did not regard or execute it themselves
We have a written Consttution--the law of all
the States alike, and the law of all the people
from the President to the humblust citizen alike:
1t is binding in well as in peace; if not,
republican liberty would be no more secure in
America than in France.


Mr. Lincoln may have been right OF wrong in
his inaugural address; but whatever are the linn
its of the Constitution, there We must stop, and
to those limits-to the uttermost verge against
slavery which is a cursed system, we would go.
1t is true there is power provided for in the
Constitution, by which in times of great danger
local civil law must give way to military suprem
acy: and by the laws of war, the Commander
in Chief may impress the services OF men, or
seize lestroy property, as the public safety
shall require But even then he can only con6s
cate property of persons within his military lines.
1t is an absurdity to say that because war exists
in section. the President may take q. at occa
sion to produce revolution in the industrial affairs
of the whole nation. Within the lines of his
army he may abolish slavery, seize ships, destroy
towns, or otherwise change property; and slave
ry has been broken up and will be exterminated
wherever the army hold possession. Beyond
their lines we have not and cannot affect one
slave A proclamation is. Mr.. Lincoln told the
Chicago clergymen. like the Popes bull against
the comet. five say there can be no peace while
slavery remains, is to utter what is false. Over
seventy years of trial under the Constitution
gives that assertion the lie. Never was coun-
try more peaceful, more happy, more prosperous
than were the United States; and they might
have remained so till now, and forever, If we had
all agreed that slavery should be what our fathers
made it-a State institution, created by and sub
ject to local laws Then the North would not
have troubled the South about what was none of
business; and the South would not have
attempted to claim for it.national prerogative.


1t was not the fact that slavery existed that
made war, more than that the Ohio river exist
ed; but the further fact that neither section was
willing TO leave it to its own fate and the laws.
We are not willing to abide by the Constitution
as.it was. Slavery is the pretext, the subject of
war, not the cause. Wecould have fought about
something else as we'll, if that had not existed,
and thirty wears before rebellion was attempted
upon the tariff. To hear some argue, might
suppose that war never occurred till American
slavery commenced it; and that removed,
other could not be in the future Slavery is but
one development of evil-its removal might not
make men better or worse: for if it did not erad
cate original sin from the heart and life and in
troduce the millennium, the cause of war-the
influx of the hells upon earth-would still remain.
Men NAV so FIX their thoughts upon one topic as
to delude themselves with the idea that the re-
moval of some one evil would change the nature
of man, and return the earth to its Paradiscal
condition Tne cause lies deeper--abolish the
hells or prevent their infusion into the EARTH and
you abolish the cause of the war and nothing
else touches it: and that can be and will be only
when government is founded. and laws are exc
cuted, on this grand PLATFORM Thou shalt love
the Lord thv God with all thy heart, with all thy
soul. with all thy mind and with all thy strength:
and thou shalt love thy neghbor as thyself."
God has made no other provisions for permanent
peace or for removal of the causes of war.